The Evil Amongst Us

Well Baseball is done for another year and the Champions have been crowned, and it is in fact the Evil Empire. The New York Yankees have dismissed the Philadelphia Phillies in 6 games. This was a big win for the already history heavy Yanks. To manage to win the title in the first year in moving into the brand new New Yankee Stadium will be brought up until it is closed and a third version is built. Will it ever live up to the original stadium with all the ghosts? Probably not in the beginning but perhaps over time, knowing how crazy and the blind loyalty fans have for this team that they will make it the shrine that they already believe that it is and should be.
It is now the question who built this stadium ARod, Rivera, Jeter? I just hope that it is not Matsui...granted he had a great game but that is what it was 1 game. I was pretty shocked when they named Matsui as the MVP that was I guess was a convenient cop out in a series that didn’t have a defining player or moments that you could say there was no other choice. Rivera would have been a better choice in my mind but what can you do?

I pose the question is there anyone who is less deserving of any praise in this championship then the duo of Joba "The" Chamberlin and manager Joe Girardi? Maybe it isn’t his fault but if there is one thing that I havn’t been able to understand or tolerate is the "Joba Rules". It is things like that that is ruining pitchers and not allowing them to progress to the level that they could get too. Young pitchers with strong arms are not china dolls. If they are treated like babies that is what they will develop to be. That ties in with Girardi who help enforce that strategy in addition to over managing in game situations with that novel of a stat book that he has on his bench. You ever see a manager pull out a bible like that and make decision after decision based on that? The absence of a "gut" feeling takes away some of his credibility.

I guess that you have to give credit where credit is due. When you pay for starting pitchers like AJ Burnett and CC Sabathia and mix it in with Mark Texteria then add that to the rest of a star studded high priced lineup it is hard not to win it all.

MAN-SHAM!

When they say that it is Just Manny Being Manny I don’t think this is what they had in mind.

In shocking news LA Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez has been suspended immediately for 50 games after testing positive for a banned performance-enhancing substance. Up until this point there was never a finger pointed toward Manny and his name was never in the forefront. Who would have thought that Manny would get suspended while ARod has not, despite much publicised reports of past use. Of all the players that could suffer the wrath of the performance-enhancing crackdown one would think that Manny and Albert Pujols would be the 2 biggest and most unlikely to become linked. There has not been much attention given to either of these two but at least in Manny’s case there is.

In the Steroid era I guess nothing should be surprising but I find this, for lack of a better term a little shocking just because Manny is such a pure hitter. I stress hitter, not power hitter. He has one of the best eyes in all of baseball, the most patients at the plate and probably the smoothest right handed swing of all time. Of all the superstars who may or may not be using one would have thought that Manny wouldn’t need it. I mean if he doesn’t have the same power numbers he is still going to be a dominant hitter. Why take the risk of killing your reputation. You are not going to make more money then you are already making. How big must your ego be to jeopardize your career and place as one of the games all time bests? Is it due to injury or rehab, perhaps but how could we ever know for sure.

You can be sure that Theo Epstein and the Boston Red Sox are glad to have Jason Bay in left and not Man-Ram. I don’t think he will be getting too much support in this matter from Beantown that’s for sure.

This only goes to prove that no one can be above suspicion and that the drug cloud is still looming over baseball.

I feel bad for those who actually do it right and do it clean...but I guess how do we know if there are any in the game that are, how can we not paint everyone with the same brush?

Around The Horn

New Yankee Stadium looks like a launching pad where good baseballs go to die...over the fence. After the Yankees gave up 14 runs in the second inning Saturday and lost the game 22-4 they were probably looking for answers. The dimensions are the same as the original Yankee Stadium, so either the pitching was really bad, the aerodynamics of the new stadium are way different or after some $1.5 Billion put into construction they used some of that money to pipe in the thin air from Denver. Even a clean ARod may hit 80 home runs after he returns. Also who would have thought that entering the season that Right Fielder Nick Swisher would be the most effective relief pitcher on the Yanks?

Kevin Garnett of the Celtics is said to be out of the NBA Playoffs with a knee injury. Maybe this is true and if so the Celtics may be in big trouble. Just let us not forget that last year Paul Pierce went down and needed to be wheeled off the court in an apparent series threatening injury versus the Lakers and withing 5 minutes he was back running and jumping down the hallway to get back into the game. Guess you can’t always believe what you see. Lets see how this plays out.

Rafael Nadal won again at the Monte Carlo Masters, his 5th straight. He is now officially the face of men’s tennis. Roger Federer got married and is expecting his first child...could that be the beginning of the end for Roger? Is it time to start worrying that he may not get to Pete Samparas’ record? Hard to cover the court with a ball and chain on your ankle.

Isiah Thomas was hired as coach of Florida International University. Where is that? don’t worry you an’t the only one wondering. He was a great player but not a great executive a bad coach and questionable conduct when it comes to sexual harrasment. This small name school clearly picked Isiah only to get on ESPN with his name...and the best thing about that is when he was formally announced he was called ISIAH THOMPSON! Even Bobby Clark who forgot the name of his #1 draft pick Claude Giroux thinks this is really bad.

Around The Horn

Brett Favre has finally moved and maybe now we can all move on to talking about football...the actual game!
You can call him Broadway Brett! I guess green really is his favorite colour for more reasons then one.

In a related note, Chad Pennington the Jets starting QB the last few seasons has gone Dan Crowley (Ottawa Renegades former starting QB) and was released by the team. Not even demoted...released

First it was Paul now it is Morgan. The two USA Gymnast brothers have been forced to sit out the Olympics with injury
I will take the Won Ton Soup and the #29 Special....Hold the Hamm

The European’s record at the PGA Championship is not great, none of the US players are playing particularly well.
Should make for an interesting final Major, Tiger must just be itching to be in this field for an almost guaranteed victory, probably still would be the favorite right now even on one pin.

Are any of the athletes this year actually going to be clean?
Vegas will have its work cut out for themselves setting the over/under for athletes getting pinched by drug tests

The Manny Ramirez trade is being investigated by MLB
After the way the ARod (or the Lightning Rod, as i know him) contract was handled by Scott Boras last year during the World Series there would be an outside chance that ther may have been something greasy going on there

J.P. Riccardi the Jays GM stated that Cito Gaston will be back in 2009
Does that open the door for Beaston and Gillick to come in too?Apparently what was old is new again in TO....Was that just an Allan Bester sighting??

After this regime some more "new/old" faces may be a good thing

As stated on The Colbert Report last night Michael Phelps will be one to watch this year in the pool as he goes for a record amount of Gold. It is a wonder that he has the kind of time required to train while playing Jim on the Office and QB’ing the NY Giants to the Super Bowl

-Around The Horn-
A quick view of the week in sports

ARod is again involved in controversy, not for on field antics but in his personal life. The triangle has now been extended into a square. ARod’s wife Cynthia has been linked to rocker Lenny Kravitz in London and now Arod himself has seemed to have left his stripper in Toronto and has been linked to the Material girl herself Madonna. This is why Yankee fan doesn’t get with ARod...Jeeter is seen with untouchable models, DJ is the golden boy and knows how to do things right, ARod is allegedly hitting a 50 yr old mother. That is just bad for business. Alex needs to follow the lead from his captain. He is sure to be able to afford it...until the settlement.

The NBA is so embarrassed by referee Tim Donaghy that it wants him to reimburse the league for the cost of his basketball shoes. The NBA said in a court filing it spent $750 over three seasons to buy sneakers. This is not about money just to further humiliate him. Most of the time Leagues take the high road it is nice to see for once a little pettiness.

This may be a bit removed, but a classically insensitive remark by golf commentator Johnny Miller about recent US Open runner up Rocco Mediate caught my ear figured that it would fit well with the Around the Horn feature. Miller said Mediate “looks like the guy who cleans Tiger’s swimming pool.” He also said, “Guys with the name ‘Rocco’ don’t get on the trophy, do they?”. He later apologised but it was classically funny none the less.

I won’t even comment on Jason Giambi’s new ‘Stache except to say that i think even John Holmes is jealous of this one. For a great ‘Stache list visit Page 2 by clicking the hyperlink.





Mats Sundin is doing one heck of an impression of Brett Farve, and Farve is doing a great impression of an early episode of Friends with the will they or won’t they Ross and Rachel storyline. Just make a decision in a decent amount of time and stick with it. Stop being selfish and hold up half of a league worth of teams and make a decision one way or the other. Like burying a beloved pet cat in the back yard we just want closure.

In honor of our friends to the south today i say Happy 4th of July and a day that is going to be like the Super Bowl... you betcha the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. Joey Chestnut will defend his title in this the Kentucky Derby of binge eating. Nothing says Independence like inhaling some wieners. If we can keep these down we’ll be sitting pretty!