The Noise Factor

I thought I would never talk about the WNBA in any blog I would ever write in my lifetime.  It shows that I should never say never, and that the reason I wouldn’t touch that topic is that I don’t get ESPN 2 in Canada.  Unless the WNBA is carried by an ABC or FOX or CBS, I’ll never get to watch the WNBA.  Needless to say, my knowledge of the game is weak.

However, I have watched WNBA games and it has been rough for the most part - and I only mean the execution rather than physical play.  But the LA Sparks and Detroit Shock (shocked that I knew?) had a brawl that has captured the attention of sports fans across the continent.  Lisa Leslie, a star WNBA player as well as a mom and a player who was involved in the brawl, handled herself so well that I had to write about this.  What she said was this incident will bring more attention to their league and it’s not the way they wanted to do it.  I agree that she didn’t want the attention to happen like this, but she’s got to be somewhat happy that the league that she has worked so hard to help build has become significant for at least a few seconds.  I bet that the other side story to this matchup that people care about is Michael Cooper v. Bill Laimbeer - two former rivals from a long time ago who happen to coach women for a living.  Aside from them, do you have any connection with the WNBA?  I know Candace Parker is related to Toronto Raptor Anthony Parker.  So this brawl hasn’t hurt the league thanks to all the exposure and attention it has gotten.  All you have to do is check Youtube for further evidence.

One guy who might get hurt is Rick Mahorn, who pushed the biggest star down to the ground (Leslie).  People can talk about how he was trying to break the fight up, but if you check out the different camera angles you will see he just pushed her down - accidentally or not.  For those of you who don’t know who Rick Mahorn is, he was a former Detroit Piston that everyone talks highly about because he was part of 2 championships when in reality he just happened to be at the right place at the right time (yes, that was me deflating Mahorn as a player). 

And Leslie handled herself well.  Would you hear an NBA player talk about how he is a father who wants to set a great example?  Say what you want about the league, about Leslie or otherwise, she proved that perhaps there is a sports league that has a few classy athletes.  Although that doesn’t help as it comes on the heels of a brawl that has put their league on the map for the time being.  I would watch the NBA over the WNBA 100% of the time but I now find myself respecting the league after this incident.  Strange…

OTHER STUFF:

- I got to attend the Rogers Tennis tournament in Toronto and stood about 10 feet away from Roger Federer during warm-up.  I have never seen a bigger crowd around a practice court than I did on Monday when Federer was preparing for his doubles match.  He was bounced from the tourney on Wednesday but I bet he could use the relaxation time to get re-vamped for another US Open run.

Side note: Apparently, Andy Roddick’s family kicked people out of their row that was not cheering for Andy.  They were in a seating area that was for general admission.  I guess we know where he gets his insecurities from.  I got this from some ladies who sat close to the family.

- Brett Favre might want to use a pay phone and call collect rather than use his team phone.  Although the Minnesota Vikings should know better and deserve to be punished for going against NFL rules, does Brett ever think about anyone but himself?  I guess he wants everyone to bow down or bend over backwards for him.  Sad.

- The AL Central is showing how overrated their division is.  The Chicago White Sox are well below .500 against the AL East, at .500 against the AL West while their record has been padded by their play within their division as well as their weak NL opponents.  Minnesota is worse as they can’t beat the East or West.  Detroit cannot win in the central, but that will change over the next couple of months as they continue to make their charge towards first place in that overblown division.  The AL East has and will continue to be baseball’s strongest division.

- Dear Lebron, don’t tell me, show me…

I can’t believe July is almost over!

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As we prepare for another Major Championship tomorrow, let’s look at what we have presently…

- Greg Norman leading a major tournament is almost unheard of at his age and at this time period.  He has managed to stay atop the leaderboard despite the playing conditions and the fact that he will not out-drive people in this tournament.  Not in this day in age.  But let’s remember who we are dealing with; a guy who’s had a knack for urinating a championship on a Sunday.  How many major titles SHOULD Norman have?  The answer is more than what he already has.  I don’t expect him to hold up tomorrow, but this does not mean he won’t win.  He could shoot 75 tomorrow and still win the title because there is no Tiger Woods to test his mettle.  Nonetheless, tomorrow’s tourney will be interesting.

Speaking of Woods, he must think he can win this Major without arms or legs.

- Are the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers going to change their names to Golden State Clippers and Los Angeles Warriors?  Seems like these two teams are swapping players left, right and center.  What’s the deal with that?  And how strong does Utah look with Denver getting weaker?

- Maybe Michelle Wie should have paid more attention in math class if she is making errors on her scorecard.  That is just brutal.

- The Tampa Bay Rays have gotten back on track thanks to the scheduling of the Toronto Blue Jays.  I should have bet on this series.  Stupid me…

- The Los Angeles Angels are handling the Boston Red Sox and now I’ve heard a couple people talk about whether or not they are the team to beat in the American League.

Look, I like the Angels.  I will always remember them for being the FIRST team to bully the New York Yankees over the last 15 years.  Arizona may have beaten them in 2001, but the Angels bullied them in 2002.  The Yankees would beat down teams the way the Angels beat them down in the ALDS that year.  The Angels have had a knack for beating the Yankees consistently over the year.  The problem is, Boston has owned them in the playoffs.

So looking at a couple of victories in July is nice, but that does not say that much.  Let’s factor David Ortiz since he has punished Los Angeles over the years.  The Angels may own New York, but the Red Sox own Los Angeles until we are proven otherwise.  I will say, however, that the Angels may be the best team to beat Boston in a best of 7 series.  Let’s hope they avoid eachother in round 1.

- As of right now, I bet Green Bay is wondering if they should have let Brett Favre walk a couple years ago just so that Aaron Rodgers would be absolutely ready to take the 2008 Packers team to the promise land.  Maybe, maybe not.  But right now this team has received so much publicity over this that I would not be surprised if Green Bay lays an egg this year.  Favre has always craved attention and he’s gotten that much.  But not all of this is his fault.  Although if he had stayed retired there would be no gun to the head of the Packers organization.

- Whenever I watch Ken Rosenthal on Saturday Fox baseball games, I think of how much better he is over Keith Olbertool.  WAY better.  Sideline reporting can be pretty lame at times but Rosenthal’s good.  The only memorable thing the previous douche bag ever had was when Chuck Knoblauch hit his mother with a throw.

I know I know, you guys are going to come in and talk about how great “The Big Show” was.  We’ll see how bad it is when NBC tries to revive it for Sunday Night Football.  They will be nothing more than just half-wits and you can book that.

…Are you guys sure you don’t want any hockey news?  Never mind.  Have a super Sunday.

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When you are a franchise that finds out your starting quarterback is retiring - after nearly reaching the Super Bowl - you tend to be disappointed with the decision, but because you have a job to do you can’t be stuck in the past and you have to look toward the future.

The Green Bay Packers were forced to do so when Brett Favre announced his retirement earlier this year. So when I see a headline like this:

Favre: I don’t feel welcome in Green Bay

I don’t feel bad for Brett. The organization believed the face of their franchise was through with football. Regardless of how selfish or classless Favre has been, Green Bay knew that losing Brett at that time was a liability. Why? Because they wanted to win a Super Bowl and they were so close this past season. Now they have to do it with basically a rookie quarterback. So be it. That is football. That is the way it goes. And now Favre says he wants to come back? The franchise was forced to move forward because YOU moved forward. Now you expect them to take a step back for you? What kind of self-service, me-first athlete are you?

You have put this organization in one hell of a rough spot simply because you’ve never truly cared for anyone except yourself. Go play for Minnesota or whomever, choke in the playoffs as you normally do on cue and keep padding the career stats so that you make Peyton Manning work harder to blow your records away. And maybe this year you can sincerely congratulate a running back who scores a touchdown that you felt should have been a pass.

- What did anyone expect from Alex Rodriguez? Did you expect him to be a faithful, loving husband? Did you expect him to show class on the ballfield? Did you expect him to come through in the clutch? Did you even expect him to participate in the home run derby? If you said yes to any of these then you should probably take a break from sports and take some time off for personal reasons. It would be out of A-Rod’s nature to do the right thing. I bet a long time ago he was a nice kid, did right by everyone and was a tough kid. Then somewhere down the line things changed; he stopped showing guts, he continue to plow through women despite being married and his insecurities caught up to him ON the field as well as off it. The more homers he hits the less impressed we are with him. He just cruised past Yankee legend Mickey Mantle and I could care less about it. Seriously, whatever is making you play without a Richard isn’t worth all of this Stray-Rod, so move forward.

- Within 3 years the Washington Wizards will live to regret the Gilbert Arenas signing. First, will he stay healthy. Second, will he ever touch the production he had 2 or 3 years ago before he had the injury? Last, who the hell thought he was worth 111 million for 6 at his very best? Is he even a top 5 guard in the NBA? No way. He isn’t a Deron Williams or Chris Paul-type of player, but he’s more like an Allen Iverson - and he isn’t even Allen Iverson. He may not even be Baron Davis. What a horrible move by Washington. This is a move backward.

- Sticking with basketball, Phil Jackson must think he can coach the cancerous Ron Artest, otherwise there would be little interest. Considering that Phil did win a ring with Dennis Rodman (3 rings) and Isiah Rider, he may be the guy to keep him in line. However, Artest will be asked to do more than what Rodman and Rider were asked to do on the court. And if Kobe doesn’t get in Artest’s face because Ron is "his boy", then Kobe is softer than you all realize. MJ would never allow a teammate to skate on stupidity. Who knows where the Lakers would move?

- I haven’t watched a single minute of Golf since the U.S. Open. In fact I’ve watched more LPGA than PGA since Tiger announced he was going to the 60-day DL. I have moved forward to next year.

- Over to the NHL…naw, I won’t do that to you. Not today.

-

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When a person does something once, you can almost forgive that person and move past the issue.  Of course there are exceptions to the rule, such as infidelity  (or in A-Rod’s case banging and overrated, over the hill singer with worse teeth than Michael Strahan), murder or theft just to name a few.

In the world of sports we have witnessed several athletes come back from retirement to play.  Michael Jordan, Mario Lemieux, Sugar Ray Leonard and Ryne Sandberg off the top of my head.  At this time, Brett Favre may be regretting his decision to retire and having seen other athletes unretire you can only understand that Favre is just like some of those other great stars of sports.

The only difference is this is not the first time Favre has yanked the chains of the Green Bay organization or the fans of that team.  Is he coming back or not?  Well, the issue should have been left to rest because he announced his retirement.

The other problem that comes to mind is, once again, the obvious selfishness Favre has always had that is overshadowing every other story in the NFL.  He does not care about what this is doing to the organization, especially Aaron Rodgers, and the fans.  Now, you may think that he should not worry about anyone else except himself because of this situation being so tough.  Problem is, he made the decision in the first place.  Didn’t he learn from 2006 to sit and wait?  He left the Packers organization hanging out to dry until the last possible second - which prompted the franchise to draft Rodgers in the first place.  Also, Football is the prototypical “team sports” which every player knows very well.  As such, an NFL quarterback always has to put into account his team and the players he works with everyday.  For him to put that team in this position is not only selfish but insulting to anyone affiliated with the organization.

With Favre’s illustrious career, Green Bay can’t exactly cut him.  First, because this has been his team.  Second, he helped that team get to the NFC Championship game - only to cost his team a Super Bowl.  Lastly, Green Bay loves him.  With the unknown ahead of them with Rodgers as the starter, Green Bay isn’t sure what to do.

Regardless of the decision, this is typical Favre; spotlight on him, he can’t do no wrong and people generally feel bad for him despite the fact that he put himself in this position.  Perhaps he comes back, perhaps he plays for another team.  As of now, not every football fan sees Favre for what he truly is and that is sad.  At the very least, Green Bay’s new quarterback may actually show genuine enthusiasm when a running back scores a touchdown.  Maybe he won’t bother throwing snowballs at teammates or high-5 an NFL official after a touchdown.  Maybe he’ll actually win a Super Bowl is stick it up #4’s self-serving behind because that would be to a great ending to a pretty ridiculous situation Green Bay is in.

Someone should tell every network that covers the NFL that it doesn’t take guts to rip on Favre when it’s obvious that he deserves it.

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This use to be my signature post as I’d jump from one sport to the other.  Today is your lucky day (as I say that with a sarcastic grin)….

- I can’t seem to understand Alex Rodriguez, and its not like I ever could before.  You’d think he’s a guy who has it all: talent, money, fame, family, morals.  Come to find out he’s not all that happy.  Is it the October meltdowns?  The crunch-time choke-jobs?  Or are you THAT fake?  I can’t understand it, personally.  We gave him a pass for the purse-slapping incident and for wearing lipstick.  Heck, we even let him off the hook with the little leaguer play in Toronto followed by the stripper bare-ass tag.

Now we find out Stray-Rod has a bad case of Beer Goggles.  Madonna?  Seriously, I’m all about Nostalgia but this is just fucking insane.  Madonna has never been hot, and the only reason why dudes ever found her mildly attractive is because she was provocative.  Lots of guys would hit on the slut at parties or clubs, and Madonna happened to be THAT chick.  Great, so why would A-Rod stoop so low with his standards?  How worthless does he think he is?

And what’s up with his wife hanging with Lenny Kravitz?  Sure, I hear he’s well hung but she isn’t get any better as she continues to remain attracted to scumbags.

The more I see, the more I think Jose Canseco is telling us the truth about that douche bag.

- Moving onto another douche bag, a round of applause to Gilbert Arenas for landing that big contract.  I would say he’s stealing money from Washington but the Wizards were all too happy to give him that contract.  Are we kidding?  Giving an injury-prone Arenas who’s not a top 5 point guard THAT kind of cash?  Seriously, don’t you think you could have used it for a big man, say, Elton Brand?  And then push Jamison to the 3 and Butler to the 2?  Hey, I’m just looking out for your best interests.  But if you want to flush money down the Gilbert Arenas river than go right ahead.  This was not a genius move Washington.

- Do you remember when I told you to be patient and wait for Roger Clemens to get his due criticism the way Barry Bonds did?  Well this whole DNA test with make or break that claim.  Again, timing is everything; we weren’t jumping all over Bonds as quickly as people remembered.  Some did, most didn’t.  The timing will be about the same if the DNA tests prove that Clemens was using steroids.  If the tests are positive, expect a huge roar from the fans.  If the roar is tame, that’s when we start asking questions.

- Huge contrast at Wimbledon; while I am happy Roger Federer reached the final and as we wait for the outcome of Rafael Nadal’s semi-final match, why am I not that pumped about the Williams sister final in the womens side?  They were part of the reason why I loved women’s tennis a bunch of years ago.  This should be a good thing, right?  Well, right now I’m not all that jacked about it.  Could it be because the two of them have been frequently injured?  Maybe.  Could it be that they may not be the most likable athletes around?  Maybe.  Or could it be that my dream final was Sharapova v. Ivanovic.  Perhaps.  I will say that I should be respecting the women’s final for what it’s worth and I haven’t come around.  I have a day to work on it.

- The more I hear about Tiger Woods, the more I think that he really IS that much better than the rest of the field.  I just thought it was a matter of focus and drive, and in a way I was right.  Problem is, Tiger’s had to do it through a pretty substantial injury.  You do need knees to play golf (in case you were wondering).

- After listening to the guy retire, why am I still hearing Brett Favre rumors about him returning?  The answer is Favre can’t seem to walk away, stay private and live the rest of his legendary life.  Now me and about 3 of your have established that he’s very selfish, but I didn’t expect it to be at THIS extent.  First, his name being in the news distracts the Green Bay Packers.  Second, Aaron Rodgers should not have to answer stupid questions about #4 and his possible return (by the way, Rodgers should not have had to apologize for his remarks to Sports Illustrated - I like this kid already).  Third, and final, why is he jerking around with the Packer Organization like this?  Where is the loyalty Brett?  You made the decision, stick with it!  Now go home, close yourself from anyone and everyone for a while, make love to your wife, hang with your kids and stop wearing shirts that say “I love Brett Favre”.

- The rise and fall of Jeff Francouer: gets demoted to AA after what looked to be a “can’t-miss” career ahead of him.  Hey, he still might be that guy but AA is a killer.  Then again, Roy Halladay was sent to A-ball in 2001.

- The Toronto Blue Jays are shopping A.J. Burnett for a shortstop.  Let’s see, you overpay for John McDonald, then sign David Eckstien and Marco Scutaro.  3 shortstops not enough?  Would you like a 3rd marginal catcher to go along with it?  Seriously, after 7 years of being a GM J.P. Retarddi still doesn’t get it.

- If the report on Jaromir Jagr is true, the NHL has lost one of the greatest hockey players of the last 15 years.

- Speaking of hockey, the Toronto Maple Leafs managed to stay stupid by signing Jeff Finger to a 14 million dollar contract for 4 years.  Considering he was the 4th or 5th defenseman on a very ordinary Colorado Avalanche defensive squad tells you something.  His defensive partner Kurt Sauer, who some said was a better defenseman, signed for half that money.  Then Toronto signed never-will-be Nicklaus Hagman, a speedy skater who’s done nothing, for basically Darcy Tucker’s contract.  If that was the move you were going to make you might as well have kept Tucker.  To make matters worse, Andrew Brunette who I think is one of the most underrated hockey players in the NHL, signs for 3 years, 7 million with Minnesota.  He’s had 2 decent and 1 very good year the last 3 seasons.  The Wild bought him at a bargain compared to the stiffs who make more than him.

- Why do I agree to watching UFC events when I really could care less about the outcome?  I guess I really like having friends…

Have a great weekend folks and enjoy your 4th of July!  Happy Birthday U.S.A.

In 1867, a new country was founded north of the American border.  That country is known as Canada.

In 2000, a new perspective was founded by one teenager towards the Toronto Maple Leafs.  That kid was The Dan.

Although tonight’s festivities will be celebrating the former, my head can’t stop thinking about the former and how it came about.

Less than a week before I had attended a Toronto Blue Jays game against Pedro Martinez and the Boston Red Sox.  When the series started, Toronto had never been as close to first place this far into a season since 1993, when they won the World Series.  Pedro was virtually unhittable that year as his ERA was in the low-1’s - very dominant considering that season was one of the greatest offensive seasons in baseball history.  Needless to say, Toronto had their work cut out for them as they started the series a half-game up on the New York Yankees, who were in the midst of their dynasty.

Toronto won the first two games and set up the showdown against Pedro on the Sunday.  Boston jumped out to a 4-1 lead and if they scored 4 runs for Pedro the game would usually be over.  But the Jays tightened the ball game to 5-3, thanks to some horrendous fielding by the BoSox and to Jimy Williams’ careless handling of Pedro’s pitch count.  To the 7th inning, Carlos Delgado steps up to the plate.  Carlos was having an MVP season and challenging for the triple crown.  He had been owned by Pedro all game until he hit an opposite-field, 2-run homerun just above my face to tie the game up.  It was Pedro’s 134th pitch of the ballgame and we weren’t finished the 7th inning.  Talk about careless.

Toronto went on to win the game, sweep Boston, and push their AL East lead to 2 games.  Yet, there was little coverage of the team’s climb to the top.  All I read in the newspaper, watched on TV or heard on the radio was how the Toronto Maple Leafs were going to get Eric Lindros from Philadelphia and how they would spend their money to contend for a Stanley Cup.  The Leafs, afterall, is Toronto’s team and with the extra revenue made from their first full-season in a new facility, the Air Canada Centre, they would be looking to spend more than usual, right?  We’d wait and see…

Meanwhile, the Blue Jays pushed their lead in the AL East to 3 games on the morning of July 1st.  I turned the radio dial that morning to the sports station and they were talking hockey and the Maple Leafs (yes, in 90 degrees farenhiet weather we still talk hockey up here).  I flip the television on and what do I see?  Maple Leaf executives telling the media how things are going with the off-season.  July 1st is the day NHL teams can go after free agents.  Problem was, Lindros was under contract with Philly and he wanted out because of the feud he was having with overrated-GM and ex-player Bobby Clarke.

My brother walks through the door asking me if I wanted to read the newspaper.  I looked at the front page and all I see is a digitally-manipulated picture of Lindros in a Maple Leafs uniform.

That was all I needed to see.  I was angry, pissed, insulted, and I felt stupid to think the media or the fans in the city of Toronto would do the right thing.  We should have been supporting a first-place team.  We complained for years that Toronto sports teams weren’t winning, and here we had a team battling with everything they had to stay in first place ahead of a strong Boston team and one of the greatest Yankee teams they ever had.  Yet all we could muster was just over 21 000 people per game.  That covered about 41% of the ballpark seating.  That is embarrassing.  When the team earned the support of the people in Toronto, the people weren’t there to back up their talk.  They didn’t care about baseball (most that went to games in the late-80’s and early 90’s never did), and all they cared about was their precious, mediocre Maple Leafs.  And everyone was offended when David Wells insulted the fans of Toronto after the 2000 season.  Wells said Toronto fans “stink” for not supporting the team enough.  As big of a jerk Wells can be, he was right.  He was right about the fans who asked for a winner, got one, and went AWOL.

But everyone was excited about the mediocre Maple Leafs who did nothing spectacular during the off-season yet optimism bloomed around Toronto about their chances of winning everything.  It was funny since there was no salary cap in hockey and that Toronto was one of the richest hockey teams in the league yet they’d spend as much money as a bird eats.  And when it was time for the team to raise ticket prices, season ticket holders were happy to loosen their pants and bend over before the team could finish speaking.

This is why Toronto doesn’t deserve a Stanley Cup nor do they deserve a winner in any sport.  They do not know how to use the word “loyalty” in a proper manner and their word is worthless.  Baseball goes on strike and they lost all interest in baseball due to that strike, yet hockey loses an entire season due to a lockout and Toronto does not lose a single ticket holder.  Not one.  It wasn’t the strike, it was the sport.  Liars and traders - that is why the Blue Jays lost 30 000 fans in a span of 5 years.

Although I can’t really say all that much.  My family had season tickets until 1994.  That year I started umpiring and played on 2 baseball teams while my brother and father coached one of my teams on top of my brother playing for his high school and rep team.  Needless to say it was our love for baseball that took us away from ball games.  If I wasn’t playing I was umpiring.  Had I played for 1 team like my brother and I did years previous and had my dad not coached, we could have continued going to games.  So instead of 81 games, we’d go to 10.  I’m sorry Toronto Blue Jays, I turned my back on you because I loved baseball.

I also love my country, and I wish Canada a happy 141st birthday.  Speaking of which, could you imagine not hosting a home game on the 4th of July or Memorial Day?  Well, in the late-90’s Toronto would actually get a sellout or close to it on Canada Day.  Yet, I can’t remember the last time we’ve had a home game on our national holiday or even Victoria Day.  Either Major League Baseball needs to get their heads out of their asses (because why would they want to snub themselves of a better overall attendance?) or the Blue Jays organization better demand a home game on those particular days.  Its nonsense, people are off that day and will come out for a great day and a ball game.  It was in the high-70’s today and sunny - great weather.  It makes no sense to me at all.

Then again, I can’t understand why people like the Toronto Maple Leafs but they do.  That said, I’ll put that to rest and enjoy the holiday.  USA, you guys are up in 3 days.