Ken Griffey Jr gets traded to the Chicago White Sox to end Major League Baseball's annual trade deadline.

Griffey's post-Seattle career has closely followed another athlete, but not in MLB. The NBA's Grant Hill has similar issues, except worse. Hill has been injured his entire career, despite all his talent. Griffey in recent years has a similar problem.

This however does put Griffey with a good team that has a shot at the World Series. I think many people are rooting for Ken here.

Posted by Big Money Tony at 06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Those of you the DC area may or may not have heard about "Redskins Nation", a show that started a couple of weeks ago on Comcast Sportsnet Mid-Atlantic. I'm a Redskins fan that owns lousy premium seats. I'm at the top of the waitlist for real season tickets. So it comes with sadness that I report "Redskins Nation", the show, sucks.

Larry Michael, who replaced Frank Herzog on Redskins radio broadcasts, hosts this show as well. He is not as bad as some people might think. I know some of you out there don't appreciate his work. What is bad is the audio. I can't attest to the video, as I have never watched the show. However, in downloading the podcasts, the audio is jerky, has bad volume, and just plain boring. I'm referring to the interviews and "live" audio of course. For instance, on the Monday podcast, they had the Chris Samuels "Cake in the Face" press conference. I said press conference. However, I could only hear Samuels talking and none of the reporters asking questions.

Monday was not the only bad day. And even Larry Michael acknowledged the bad audio. They had wired a player for audio. I forget who, but it does not matter. It was five minutes of heavy breathing. I'm not into that. Michael said that in the future, they would edit the audio instead of running it raw. I'd like to know how I can get the job of editing for the show. Give me a manual on how to run the board. Actually, who needs that? All I need is to know the on/off switch, since it seems that's all they have done.

You're a freaking sports network, using mostly Redskins employees on this show. Show it like you're a real contender to ESPN, not just some teenager with a digital recorder.

Posted by Big Money Tony at 04:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Who knew that in all these years of Manny saying he wanted out of Boston that he actually meant it this time? Boston sent him to the LA Dodgers and got Jason Bay from the Pittsburgh Pirates in a three way deal.

So this was an interesting move. How will Bay mesh with the Red Sox lineup? Is Big Papi David Ortiz protecting him, or is he protecting Ortiz¿

Posted by Big Money Tony at 04:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, it's time for the rankings to come out. What, why would anyone put out an NFL pre-season rank before some teams have opened training camp?

Come on, I'm not talking about the NFL. It's the men's college basketball rankings! But only since 84/85. Extra-special Terrapin enemy edition with Duke and Georgetown bookending the rankings at 1 & 10 respectively.

Goes to show how the dog days of summer are. ESPN is now analyzing some teams who's players have played, won championships, moved on to the NBA and retired. Overall, I can't fault them on their picks. Duke and NC are obvious contenders. Yeah ACC! Boo Blue Devils and Tarheels!

What is almost more interesting is how they rank conferences. Duke and NC are number 1 & 2 respectively, yet the ACC is third, losing out to the Big East and the Big Ten. Part of that problem is that they include all ACC teams as of today in the ranking, vs using only traditional teams. Let's face it, BC, VA Tech, and Miami weren't tearing up the court in their pre-ACC days.

The Big East gets a boast from both Louisville and Cincinnati, both of whom only joined in 2005. But yet again, the are counted for their full load since 84/85. The Big Ten, I can less complain about, except for the fact that they have 11 teams. But I guess the Big Eleven doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

Posted by Big Money Tony at 01:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Will Steve Bartman ever be left alone? Through a friend, he has rejected a paid appearance at a sports memorabilia convention.

With the leaders of Major League Baseball standing as they are now, I'm rooting for the Cubs. That way we can all finally leave Bartman alone.

Posted by Big Money Tony at 02:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Busy day with the Washington Nationals.

Ryan Zimmerman returns after a stint on the DL. While nobody is expecting a Nats run at the playoffs, this should help the team get on track and put together a decent run in preparation for next season.

Next, Jon Rauch gets traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for second baseman Emilio Bonifacio. Bonifacio has been designated the Nats 2B of the future and will spend time at AAA Columbus until then. Obviously this puts pressure on Felipe Lopez to keep his job.

Finally, Cristian Guzman signs a new contract with the Nats. This event alone does not really mean much itself, except that the Nats are assured that shortstop will not be on their shopping list for next season. However, in combination with Zimmerman, and the Lopez/Bonifacio 2B, most of the infield is set. All we need is Nick Johnson to stay healthy for longer than a week or Dmitri Young to step up his defense, and the Nats have a pretty solid overall infield.

Posted by Big Money Tony at 09:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Updated July 21, 9:30 AM

Jason Taylor now plays for the Washington Redskins. Taylor was traded for the 2009 second round pick and the 2010 sixth round pick. This appears to be a great deal especially since he told the Redskins that he did not need to renegotiate his contract and would play it out with the two years remaining on it.

The bad news is that this was necessary to replace Phillip Daniels who was injured on the first day of training camp. Although I was there, yours truly did not see this happen.

Still the trade appears to help both teams. Bill Parcells and Taylor never saw eye to eye. Reports were that he ignored Taylor when the Dolphin tried to introduce himself to the Tuna back in the spring. Later Parcells said he didn't know Taylor was there. Kind of hard to miss a big defensive end, don't you think?

Update: Would have provided this sooner, but my lovely cable ISP decided to shut down for the past 12 hours. The Redskins also lost DE Alex Buzbee for the season. Makes more sense why they got Taylor. After all, last year Jon Jansen was lost for the season and no big trade/free agent signing came in to fill the void.

Posted by Big Money Tony at 07:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's here. The 2008 season and the Zorn-Era has begun. The Redskins opened training camp this morning in muggy Ashburn, Virginia, home of Redskins Park. It still seems odd tha the team called the Washington Redskins has offices and practices in Virginia and plays it's games at Fedex Field in Maryland. Anyways, this the first training camp I have attended in person. They started all those years in Pennsylvania and I didn't think about going in recent years. Why, I'm not so sure. Probably should have done it while Gibbs was still coach.

Although I arrived just after 8 AM, the team was already on the field practicing well before the 8:30 announced time. And hundreds of people beat me there. It was interesting, but less organized for fans as I imagined. Refreshments were not quite as expensive as I thought they were to be. There was the heckler in the front row who yelled at every player. BTW - The Sports Freak would be happy as he was wearing a Rock Cartwright jersey. It also appears that some Giants fans took a wrong turn. "Leave the Holland Tunnel, head south on I-95 until you see Burgundy & Gold?"

All this can be viewed in the pictures here. I did not edit them, so heads and caps can be seen in some pictures. Hey, when the Redskins set a separate bloggers section, I'll be able to get better shots.

Posted by Big Money Tony at 02:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Months ago, we were pleased to hear of the departure of Bryant Gumbel from NFL Network broadcasts. Now we find out about his replacement. Bob Papa will be the new play by play man in the booth next to Chris Collingsworth.

Being a life-long Washingtonian, I don't know Papa. Maybe our friend Bob can give us more insight on him. I do have to say it would be tough for Papa to be worse than Bryant Gumbel. Gumbel was just not tolerable. while Papa is a Giants broadcaster, at least he's not a Cowboy or Eagles puppet. Sorry, that's all I can say about the man. We'll see on November 6, which is his first NFL Network game.

Posted by Big Money Tony at 01:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

For more then a generation Billy Packer was the voice of College Baskeball analyzing the games including the Final Four and Championship Game. CBS officially severed ties with Packer Billy Packer. Whether it's a point in time where you love or hate Billy Packer everyone should respect the voice that helped define college basketball for so long.

Much like so many voices that fans grow tired of Packer's peak may have passed. CBS had Brent Musburger covering all the top games in every sport before everyone grew tired of hearing from him. After a few years off Brent is back and calling games. Musburger drinking game. The pendelum had swung more towards Packer's critics over the past years. Packer always informed viewers and told the audience what he thought and not what others wanted to hear or have him say.

Some may have thought Packer became more partial to certain teams in recent years, but few noticed that no one would criticize great players more if they had weren't playing to the level that Billy or fans would expect. His analysis and voice on air will be missed.

It appears the new generation's choice is Gus Johnson as he called more games in this past year's tournament and so with the changing of the guard Clark Kellog will be replacing Packer. Jim Nance will continue to call games with his new partner Kellog. Kellog has done a great job in studio, so it will be interesting to see Kellog providing the kind of analysis Packer did at a game. The real question that needs to be answered: Is there really a more exciting team to listen to that Gus Johnson and Dan Bonner?

Posted by The Sports Freak at 10:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

As Big Money Tony wrote earlier this week, we took our first of a two part journey to NYC to close down Shea and Yankee Stadium. This past weekend's trip was both fun and memorable. We started our trip via the metro to Union Station before taking Amtrak to Penn Station in New York.

Big Money Tony asked me if Amtrak was still the Wild Wild West of security. Having taken the train more recently than Tony I replied yes. Walk yourself and your bags onto the train throw them up top and walk to the dining cart for some food and drink and just hope for the best. It's the honor system. BMT brought up a great point about Amtrak. Where else can someone just hop on a train and while it's moving then go around checking tickets.

The train was so packed even single seats were sparse. BMT first found a dining cart seat before a seat opened up near me. Eventually we caught up and found two seats together. Sometimes it's the simple things in life that bring a smile or a laugh. It could have been the worst of times, but appeared to be one of the best Amtrak times of all times. BMT turned to me and mentioned that for as long as he was sitting on the aisle, which was twenty minutes that the orange light designating that someone was in the toilet was turned on. This immediately drew the eyes of The Sports Freak and a hearty belly laugh. It pre-occupied much of the remainder of the ride up. Afterall, it was now like an experiment with beakers and test tubes. Who was in there and for how long?

After 45 minutes we already knew that there most likely wasn't anyone in there, but it was nice to think there was. Imagine how bad a train ride that would be. It was close to two hours later when I pondered and proposed a hypothetical situation to BMT. What would have you laughing harder: someone exiting the bathroom with a deep exhale and their hands on their waste before suddenly turning back into the restroom or someone that comes out taking a deep breath with their hands on their hips as they walk to the restroom directly across the aisle?

We arrived in NYC, checked into the hotel, and were on our way to Shea taking the #7 train. The Stadium was a nice and more modern version of RFK. To arrive in our seats we waited in a line for our gate unlike Nationals Park where most fans enter from CF, but are able to access the park from any area. Apparently Shea is similar to Nationals Park in that a child asking to keep the top to her recently purchased bottle of water was rejected. This boggles the mind when anyone can buy a minature bat or even bring an unopened bottle of water or soda into the park, but purchasing a bottle inside the park doesn't entitle a customer to keep the cap. Just a ridiculous rule.

As for the game it was a low scoring affair that had it's fair share of great pitching and timely hitting. The "Meet the Mets" song finally made sense from Seinfeld as we witnessed the song first hand. With a swing of a bat a home run was hit and the apple as seen in BMT's previous article popped up. Wright closed the game shut and a fabulous experience at Shea with a jumping and stabbing motion at a screaming line drive to end the game 3-0.

We headed back into the city to 37th St near MSG for some White Castle burgers and sampled the recession special at Gray's Pappaya before getting ready to head back on the train the next morning. We can't wait until August and our Keeper League Fantasy Football Draft in NYC when we have the opportunity to catch a game at Yankee Stadium.

Posted by The Sports Freak at 09:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I enjoy watching the annual Major League Baseball Home Run Derby the night before the All-Star Game, but there are two things that usually come up regarding the players who compete in it that I am tired of hearing about. First is that competing in the derby ruins a player’s swing. Professional golfers need to be able to hit a driver and a 9 iron and that’s much more of a dramatic difference in a golfer’s swing than one night of a baseball player aiming for the fences. The second thing I am tired of hearing about is that the winner of the derby is jinxed and will not have good power numbers for the remainder of the season. Players get hot, players get cold. It has absolutely nothing to do with winning the home run derby.

Posted by Bob at 01:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The Sports Freak and I are on the road in New York City to catch the New York Mets in the last season of Shea Stadium. And boy did we pick a great game. Mets won, 3-0 by beating the Colorado Rockies. This should have been a great game, given one of the contenders for the NL East Division hosting the 2007 NL Champions. Instead we get a bottom barrel team visiting a still contender, but only after firing their manager.

Some bad news as the starting pitcher, Pedro Martinez, left the game early in the 4th due to shoulder stiffness. It appears this is not a major problem for the Mets, who thought he needed the res.

As for Shea itself, I've been to 3 "old school" stadiums prior to this afternoon. Fenway Park of Boston, RFK where I've seen an exhibition game where Mark McGwire played and where the Nationals called home for awhile, and Qualcomm Stadium, aka Jack Murphy Stadium, where the San Diego Padres played until 2003. Shea was best described by the Sports Freak as "a nicer RFK".

My rankings are as follows.

Old School - 1: Fenway, 2: Shea, 3 & 4: (tie) RFK and Qualcomm
Modern: AT&T Park (SF Giants), 2: Camden Yards, 3: Nationals Park. Don't get me wrong, I love Nationals Park, but it seems to still be finding it's ground.

Posted by Big Money Tony at 09:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Every NFL fan, except maybe Minnesota Vikings fans, has rooted for Brett Favre. Until maybe now. Except for my unconditional support for the Redskins, despite coaching debacles, or should I say coach recruiting debacles, Favre is one of the players I root for. He's been on fantasy teams of mine. When the Skins play at 1 and Green Bay plays at 4, I'm probably watching Green Bay on DirecTV.

This ongoing saga of his "unretirement" is bugging me to say the least. Now there is word he is asking to be released by the Packers.

I don't blame the man for wanting to come back. The Packers are in a tough position. They handed the keys to Aaron Rodgers months ago and now Favre wants them back. Like a teenager told he can drive the Corvette, but now has to sit in the back seat.

I'll never understand how strong the urge for Favre to return is, but I think he should really hang his helmet. Let Rodgers prove his draft position.

Posted by Big Money Tony at 03:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The above headline comes from an article in Monday’s Baltimore Sun which highlights the Baltimore Orioles current promotion for today’s game against the Texas Rangers. "If the Orioles defeat the Rangers Sunday, the ‘We Win, You Win’ promotion will reward fans with a complimentary ticket in the same seating category to any future non-prime game." The reason for this promotion is because the O’s have a record of 1 win and 12 losses this season on Sundays. But I wonder if the promotion would draw more fans if instead of rewarding the fans for a win if it served as sort of a money back guarantee, meaning if the O’s lose then each fan in attendance would get to go to another game as sort of a refund for having to suffer yet another loss.

Posted by Bob at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Uh, I'm not sure how this came around. I'll admit, I'm not a big Capitals guy, but I'm at least aware of the names in play. This one seems to have surprised many as Jose Theodore signed with Washington today.

Apparently the Caps and Cristobal Huet were close, but not quite there. George McPhee decided he couldn't wait and got Theodore.

I'd put in comments, but I don't have a great opinion. From what I know, he's been a great goalie, but seems to be past his peak. The Caps signed him for 2 years. Looking at that, he's probably a stop gap unless he plays spectacularly in the next couple of seasons.

Posted by Big Money Tony at 03:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)