February 2008 Archives

My doctor happens to be located near my folks and as I recovered at my folks place from the flu and sinus bug that's been going around with a fever as high as 103.4 I came across a PBS advertisement for the show Nature. I typically don't scan through PBS at home because it's not in the path of my usual sequence of channels that I scan that does include HiDef PBS but not low def. Believe it or not my folks don't have cable. The show would be about Polar Bears, as well as, how the grizzly is infringing on the polar bear's territory. I couldn't help but think that this would be a good show to watch and really see who would win in that showdown.

This prompted a conversation at the end of the work day with my boss. He firmly believed that a polar bear would win. Another co-worker stopped by before leaving so we asked him and as he thought the question was out of the blue he replied I don't know I guess polar bear. Well after searching on the information super highway and sifting through rumors and blogs my boss said...well before I reveal the answer I'll let everyone ponder this question. Please imagine some fine elevator music playing in the background. Much like the Olympics, please don't click any further if you don't wish to know the results.

Maryland is working hard late in the ACC season to move up in the seeding to perhaps as high as the third seed in the ACC tournament. After back to back losses to Virginia Tech and Miami, the Terrapins won 74-70 tonight.

James Gist had a double-double with 31 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Terps to the win. This brings a showdown on Sunday with Clemson coming to the Comcast Center. A win in the home season finale will help inch the Terps up their position in the ACC.

If they continue the hard work, they can make it and hopefully get an at-large bid for the Big Dance.

In what might be the surprise move of the offseason, the Redskins released Brandon Lloyd. Note to those not familiar with the Redskins situation, that's a bit of scarcasm. Lloyd caught a total of 25 catches over his two season here. Well worth the 2nd and 3rd 3rd and 4th round draft picks we sent to San Francisco*. I think the 49er front office is still snickering about that.

* - Sorry for the error, I guess I had it in the back of my mind the trade was worse. However, 3rd and 4th didn't make it much better. It was still awful.

This move helps the Redskins moderately, since they are already over the cap for the upcoming season. But restructuring of contracts is making some room available.

Party like its 1999 may be a Prince song but for all intensive purposes it could be 1998. The Caps acquired Sergei Federov & Cristobal Huet along with Matt Cooke and re-acquired Alex Giroux Caps Trade Recap. How times have changed for Federov. What Caps fan wouldn't want to see Sergei in a Caps uniform, but too bad it's
ten years too late. It would have been great to have Sergei on the Caps roster ten years ago wearing the red white and blue in the Finals or even five years ago, but alas the Caps were able to acquire him for the mere price of a 19 year old defensive prospect (Ted Ruth.)

It's been reported that the Redskins will remain quiet during NFL Free Agency this year. Maybe in this first year without Gibbs the organization will have learned to concentrate on activities during the season to bring a Lombardi Trophy home to DC Redskins Free Agency. Finding quality players in the draft that can step into roles and eventually a starting position in the future should be the primary focus.

Hopefully the Skins can also find some role players to step into some of the secondary positions during the free agency period. All during the 80s the Redskins under Gibbs and Beathard were able to find smart and athletic players that could step into a starting role when injuries struck during critical points of the season. It will certainly be interesting to see how the Skins front office will perform in this first year without Gibbs influence.

What kind of an apology is it when someone doesn't even say what they're sorry for especially when they say "c'mon bro" when that very question is posed to them Lo Duca. What kind of comment is that?

Isn't anyone else tired of players paraded around and being forced to tell what they've done wrong? Is Pettite such the honest man when compelled to tell the truth. He may have confessed his soul, but after an inquiry. All of these players are now tainted, but the attitude Lo Duca has could spell disaster with such young players like Dukes on the roster. Whatever happened to being humble and trying to correct a mistake? Could the signing of Dukes who could be a changed man be the better signing than Lo Duca who already has an attitude over what he perceives to be something in the past?

A misjudgment and error in thinking that irreparably harmed himself and the game would have been a more appropriate ending to the discussion for Lo Duca, but instead readers of the "fireside" chat with Lo Duca had to settle for indifference. This is strike one for Lo Duca in my book. Bob could be right in his assessment of Lo Duca.

It was the end of August as Stu, BMT, Q, & I were driving down to Charlotte, NC where our 2007 Keeper Fantasy Football Draft was held. Every year twelve of us get together for a weekend at one FFL Owner's house for draft weekend festivities that have included in the past such items as a grill out, pool, Phillies Game, Pat's & Gino's Cheesesteak, Tony Luc's, all night poker, a bachelor party, minor league baseball, Chinese food cooked by a fabulous chef, and Sonny's sweet bbq.

Somehow along the long drive out of Virginia traffic on a Friday night we stopped for gas and stopped in to use the restrooms. This was not the cleanest of stations, so when Stu went in first and I heard some extremely loud leaf blowing machine or something emanating loudly from the restroom for nearly a minute I wanted to yell - Stu are you ok?!

It looks like Jim Zorn gets to choose some of his staff, as Sherman Smith, currently of the Tennessee Titans is expected to join as Offensive Coordinator. Yesterday Zorn chose Stump Mitchell as the Running Backs coach. So he got to choose two of them.

While I would like to bash on Snyder for hiring all these coaches before hiring the head coach, it's good that the staff is finally "complete". They can get on the task of planning and coaching.

While some are still uncertain about Zorn, I point to Joe Bugel. Last week, he noted the criticism of Zorn by stating that there was once an unknown coach in San Diego named Joe Gibbs who was given a chance to be head coach of the Redskins. That fellow didn't do too bad.

I didn’t watch all of the congressional hearing yesterday involving Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee, but I saw the nearly half-hour of highlights on SportsCenter. The biggest thing that now strikes me is the fact that it might be possible that both men are telling the truth as they believe it. I don’t necessarily believe that, but I have to admit it is a possibility. Clemens admits that McNamee injected him on multiple occasions. The disagreement is about what the substances in those injections were. McNamee says it was HGH and winstrol, Clemens says it was B12 and lidocaine.

Redskins could be after Chad Johnson as rumors and articles are a flutter as seen in a Washington Post article. Giving up a 1st and 3rd or two 2nds in a time when the team has more needs than just one position to solve all problems to win a Super Bowl. Is Ocho Cinco one of the best receivers in the NFL? Yes, without questions he's one of the top receivers but as he approaches 30 how effective can he be two and three years from now? Jerry Rice, Marvin Harrison (who's on the decline), and TO are the only great receivers still producing huge numbers in their career well into their early and mid 30s so taking on a most likely long term contract for a player that could have his decline in DC rather risky. The three receivers listed appear to be the execption and not the rule of thumb for great receivers in their 30s.

I am not a doctor, nor do a play one on TV. Wharton professors refute the Clemens' team analysis of his later career years. I was a business major and had to take business statistics in my college years, but this is all Greek to me. Besides, as the Sports Freak can attest to, our stat professor was the cure for insomnia.

In an odd twist to the Redskins Head Coaching story, Jim Zorn will be announced as Head Coach on Sunday.

I don't know much about Zorn other than him being the first ever Seattle Seahawk quarterback, but I know one thing on his resume that stands out. He's not Jim Fassel. I'm sure we'll find out more about Zorn in the coming days.

Erik Bedard has finally been traded to the Seattle Mariners, in exchange for 5 prospects. At least one of them will be starting on Opening Day. But that's not saying much for a team who traded away their only two "names" this off season. Of course, Miguel Tejada may have drawn unwanted attention to Baltimore. Still, some argue an everyday player vs. a starting pitcher is better...to some degree.

What's amazing about this is maybe Peter Angelos is trying to "out-Angelos" and "out-Snyder" Dan Snyder. As Q mentioned in his post a couple of weeks ago, Snyder is morphing into Angelos. Apparently the Empire Strikes Back as Angelos has now resorted to 2 weeks of talk before the trade occurs. His timing rivals Snyders amount of time spent jerking around Head Coach candidates.

Ahh, just what we need, another DC-Baltimore fight.

This story has been so interesting. Interesting enough that I didn't really care who Daniel Synder interviewed for 62 and 3/16 of an hour. The question is why did Kevin Hart go so far with the lie?

It's about time that someone recognized Boudreau's great work with the Capitals ESPN - Boudreau. Caps fans have longed for someone to step in and make the necessary changes needed to right this ship. It's amazing the luck the Caps Organization has had. The Caps are like Inspector Clouseau. They can bungle all types of decisions and still come out smelling like roses. Much like Abbott & Costello movies, if the Caps were going to make a movie this season it would be Boudreau meets the Pink Panther.

Good news and bad news. The good, Steve Spagnuolo turns down the Redskins, pulls himself out of the running. It appears he was not offered the job, but still, he decided to go back to the Giants.

The bad...Jim Fassel is back as leading candidate. Geez, I hope Marriucci had a great interview with Snyder. I really don't want to see Fassel in burgandy and gold.

With lots of sports recent sports topics to cover, here are some quick thoughts from the New York perspective.

Eli trumps the critics with an unforgettable Super Bowl ending as the Giants upset the Patriots 17-14 in Arizona. Much like Balboa in Rocky II, the Patriots and Giants traded TD's late in the game, but it was Brady and the Pats that couldn't get up before the ten count as the clock counted down to a stunning victory for NY.

The Patriots narrowly escaped the regular season matchup vs. the Giants in their 1st meeting, so it shouldn't have been a surprise that the game was so close. Yet with so many people feeling that they knew who the best team was and then they proceeded to discount the team that took the Pats the distance in Round One before the Giants fell to the Pats in the final regular season game.

Well, the "Perfect Season" didn't end so perfect.

For the past two weeks, all I could think of was that this game was going to be boring. That I didn't care about either team. Well the latter was true. But it certainly was not a boring game.

Spygate has risen again during the pinnacle point of the season in the NFL as Super Bowl week concludes with today's game and ultimately crowns a champion. Rumors are fluttering about the news. Sen. Arlen Specter has requested Commissioner Goodell's presence after the Super Bowl. During a Mike & Mike interview Sen. Specter's eluded that his interest first was drawn regarding the Eagles Super Bowl appearance (after Spygate news was first alerted to the public.)

Art Monk has finally been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. After years of not being selected, it may appear that he got a boost as the voters also voted in teammate Darrell Green. I hope that was not the case. I may not be objective, but Monk deserves to be in the Hall on his own merits and should have been. As The Sports Freak mentioned in the post when the nominees for the 2008 were first inducted, Monk held many records in his day.

Eli Manning has led his Giants to the Super Bowl and done so quicker than his older brother Peyton. At this point in time Peyton has a Super Bowl ring while brother Eli has just arrived to the Super Bowl, but let’s start to compare the two quarterbacks.

Understanding the Game:

There's no question that Peyton Manning can dissect and carve up any defense with patience and skill. The Colts allow Peyton to call his own plays. Eli can still be very erratic and throw passes into the teeth of the defensive coverage.

Advantage - Peyton

Leadership:

Without question both sides of the ball look to Peyton to lead them to victory. Eli is still finding his way. It's the Giants defense that carries the load.

Advantage Peyton

The Lakers traded Kwame Brown along with Aaron McKie, their first round picks in 2008 and 2010, plus the rights to Paul Gasol's brother, Mark. In return, the Lakers receive center Paul Gasol and the Grizzlies second round pick in 2010. Lakers Trade Kwame Brown

This is a phenomenal trade for everyone involved. The Lakers unload Kwame and pick up a play making center to add to Kobe, Bynum, and Odoms. They give up some first round picks that would most likely be late first round picks with anticipation that the trade will make them contenders for the next several years.