Giving 111 Percent

sorry

2008-04-03T23:02:00.001-04:00

For the lack of posts....my computer is completely dead and there's not much I can do about it. Enjoy the Brett Favre rumors and I'll be back soon.

-Pat

Oooo....How Fitting

2008-03-25T22:07:00.002-04:00

Oh no, what? Wait. It happened again? Yes. It did. Call it a reoccurring nightmare, call it déjà vu, call it the collapse 5.0, call it brutal. Syracuse’s disaster third round NIT loss to UMass - in which the Orange led by 19 at half, 22 points with 15 mins left, 14 points with just under eight minutes left, 10 points with five minutes left, five points with a minute and a half left left, and then lost - well you might just call it this.

How fitting is the fact that he’s wearing an orange wig? Is he the Orange Santa from the Dome?

Yes, sorry for the graphic nature, but that’s what Syracuse basketball has given us. If it’s something you don’t want to hear about, don’t continue. And don’t become a Syracuse fan.

Instead of being a welcome relief from the relentlessly painful football program, the Syracuse basketball team has given us fans several kicks to the nether region. Torn ACLs, then last second losses to Georgetown, UConn, Pittsburgh. The home losses to URI and UMass. The no-show at South Florida. Relentless ball bashing. Sorry again, but I just can’t think of anything more fitting. As a man myself, the pain is just eerily parallel to the sting of this Syracuse basketball season. Just as the fellas start descending from one’s stomach, just as you get comfortable, bam! Right to the babymakers.

But you know what? As my fearsome twosome begin their descent from the Minutemen’s unforgiving booting, I really am not that upset. I’m not sure why, but I think it’s because of a tolerance that this season has helped to build up. If you think of this season as a complete failure, think of it this way. We got to see three more home games, one that was extremely entertaining (Maryland), experienced some great crowds and didn’t have to hear Dunk N’ Bright furniture commercials. I know, that’s not enough. But what might be the most valuable asset from such a horrific season is the ability to take a kick to the balls (for the fans that is, it’s not a good trait for the players to accept). Things just can’t get worse than this. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty desensitized. Or at least, the losses don’t leave me absolutely distraught. And after being so low I think that this team can only go up. Hopefully they got the, “holy shit we can’t close out a game” syndrome out of their systems this season. Because next year, the team will likely have enough talent to be a force. Paul Harris throwing the ball away again, a completely distraught half court offense and a zone in disarray - that’s really going to need to be fixed in the offseason.

So enjoy your time off from the ball bashing, it’s now baseball season! There are 100baseball games played before they even start to get nerve-racking. So sit back, relax, and let ‘em hang. I think they’ll be safe for a while. At least until Daryl Gross hexes the lacrosse team.

-Pat

March Sadness?

2008-03-24T21:48:00.007-04:00

I know there are a lot of sports fans out there who, like me, have the end of March blues. You're favorite College Hoops team just lost in the Tournament (National Invitation, that is), you're brackets have more red ink than MC Hammer's bank statement and you're favorite NBA team can't win a court case, let alone a basketball game. The week until MLB season begins feels like year.
For fans like me, I give you this list of things to look forward to:

Lottery Watch: For fans of the Pistons, Celtics, Lakers and anyone in Texas, this time of the year is about watching your favorite NBA team fight for the top seed in their conference or claw for a playoff spot. For fans like me, it’s about watching the Knicks fight just as hard for ping pong balls in the NBA Draft Lottery. Right now, the ‘Bockers have the fifth worst record in the league with 19 wins. However, they stand only one game ahead of Minnesota and Memphis in the win column, and are getting cold at the right time with a 1-9 record in their last ten games. With every Crawford miss, every key injury, and every poor Isiah coaching decision the Knicks are moving one step closer to having a shot at landing the next superstar.

Unfortunately, the NBA Draft is only for players. The Knicks cannot draft an owner, coach, or GM.

Barry Watch: If you’re dumb enough to think that Barry will quietly ride off into the sunset, then you’re probably also naïve enough to think the moon landing was real and Oswald acted alone. While it is certainly possible that an AL team will snag him in the next week, I think it is pretty likely that he will start the season without a contract and have to follow in the footsteps of Ricky Henderson and play in the Independent League. When by the end of April he already has thirty home runs, an underachieving AL team will finally say “ah, what the heck” and the Barry Bonds chronicles will be resumed.

Mitchell Report Fever: It’s a no win for a baseball announcer early in the season. Whenever a player comes to the plate or the mound who was mentioned in the MR, the announcer will be faced with the question of “do I talk about the report, or awkwardly avoid the 300 ton elephant?” For the fans, I say, have fun with it. You can even make a drinking game out of it. You drink whenever they say the word “Mitchell,” drink twice when they awkwardly hint at it (eg “On the mound for the Yankees is Andy Pettitte, who had a tumultuous off season”) and chug the rest of your beer when the announcer says, “PLAYER A made a mistake, but now he has straightened himself out and is eager to earn back the trust of the fans.”

Hank Wisdom: Hank Steinbrenner showed a lot of promise last season with some great trash talking, and it seems like he has elevated his game during the off season. He is primed for a breakout year, and may be the next budding superstar in the world of trash talk. What separates Hank from trash talkers like Ozzie Guillen or Curt Schilling is that he mixes some cleverness and even occasionally tact into his rants. Most people are either so angry and off the wall or try so hard to be clever and tactful that it’s hard to take them seriously. Hank has a good balance of both. He is like a less offensive version of John Rocker, who also was a great trash talker but for some reason inexcusably took out his wrath on New Yorkers, homosexuals, minorities and people with a terminal illness instead of opposing baseball players.

The next ‘George Mason’: In the Sweet 16, there are two 12 seeds and a 10 seed. At least one will probably make the Elite Eight, and I’d say there is a decent chance one of them (probably Davidson, who I almost took to beat Georgetown) makes the Final Four. My biggest curiosity is how George Mason feels about potentially having a double digit seed equal their feat. If UCLA tops Western Kentucky, will they pop champagne like the ’72 Dolphins? Will we hear Jai Lewis declare after a Davidson loss: “This just shows that no low seed can make the Final Four. Except in 2006”? I anxiously await.
-By Andrew Vitelli
Picture credits:
http://360oz.wordpress.com/2007/11/16/barry-bonds-indicted/
http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/baseball/yankees/blog/hanks

Forget March Madness, I've Got NIT Fever

2008-03-17T18:19:00.005-04:00

Well here we are. I figured I'd throw together a quick post before I go out to celebrate my namesake. Sorry if you've missed me, I know you have, but I just got back from Spring Break. Anyways, after a gut-wrenching, nail biting and downright professional NIT selection show, the news we all were expecting fell upon us. Syracuse, and its mirror program from BMore, the Maryland Terrapins, will be in the NIT. We’ve discussed how similar these teams are (well before deadspin did the same), and how alike the programs have been in the past few years since their respective championships. I’m not surprised to see both teams in the tournament. But as an added surprise, the NIT committee (does that really exist?) has sprinkled the Orange and Terrapins in the same bracket. Somehow, they stuck Maryland with a five seed. SU, sitting at seed No. 1, are aligned to meet the Terrapins in the second round if both teams win. There are two possibilities here.
One is that both teams lose both first round games - Syracuse to Robert Morris and Maryland to Minnesota (the second being no gimme for the Terps). Or they both win and play an epic 5 OT game before the Dome management dismantles the court for the lacrosse team to practice because, well, that squad still has a shot at a legit national tournament. In all seriousness though, it would be pretty fitting for Cuse and Maryland to meet in the second round, and it would be an interesting game considering all of the parallels.

As Andrew pointed out this morning, Seth Greenberg of Virginia Tech made some interesting comments. He really went out on a limb after his team’s loss on Saturday to UNC. It was a great game and the coach clearly was stating his case for the Hokies to receive an NCAA bid. Here’s the video (it seems to be bugging out a little bit, watch it at this link if the video below is giving you trouble)

The problem is, he pissed off some people...and was a bit irrational as Andrew stated. I have to agree with my fellow blogger. One close loss doesn’t make a season. A measly one win against a top-50 RPI team does. Losing to Penn State and Old Dominion does too. I mean, sure, they were on the bubble. But is leaving them out certifiably insane? I don’t think so. It’s just kind of tough to say after a loss, with a thin resume. But hey, come join the NIT party. It’s pretty awesome.

I’m not sure if any readers have seen this new Subway Jared commercial. I’m sure most of you are quite sick of the guy. And now, as if he wasn’t in your face enough, we are assaulted with an advertisement filled with athletes telling you all about Jared and his achievements. By no means am I slandering his weight loss. Good job Jared. It’s impressive. But I just love the commercial. This one seems a bit different from the TV version I’ve seen, where they relentlessly repeat that he ate subway, and throw in a quick reference to exercise also being helpful in losing nearly 250 pounds. But still, what a collection of athletes. Brady Quinn, wrestling’s John Cena? I mean Brady, you’re a backup, maybe you should try learning the playbook instead of doing ads for Jared and Myoplex. Clearly, you’re not half the actor Peyton Manning is.

- Pat

Selection Sunday

2008-03-17T10:49:00.002-04:00

The nice thing about Maryland losing in the first round of the ACC Tournament instead of winning a game before losing is that I was able to watch the NCAA Selection show without sitting in the fetal position and rocking, cringing every time a 12 seed was announced and it wasn’t Maryland. Having no vested interest, I think the committee did a pretty good job. I don’t think anyone was snubbed. My biggest issue is with George Mason being a 12 seed. Any other CAA team with a similar resume would be a 14, Mason is basically the Duke of mid-majors now in that its name wows voters.

My greatest joy came out of Virginia Tech being in the NIT instead of the dance. Coach Seth Greenberg’s ridiculous statement and letter to the selection committee asking them to put his team in thankfully fell on deaf ears. In case you missed it, here it is:
Anyone who watched that game that knows anything about basketball, if you don't think this team is one of the top 65 teams in the country, you're certifiably insane. Because I don't know who else could come into this environment, basically play a road game, and play those guys the way we just played them. The only thing we didn't do is win the game.
Let’s focus on the last sentence. “The only thing we didn’t do is win the game.”

Well Seth, isn’t that kind of a big thing? He throws it in their like he’s saying “the only thing we didn’t do is box out the shooter on free throws in the second quarter.” But winning? Isn’t that a focus of the gameplan? Should that not be something the selection committee looks at?

Greenberg is making the argument that a close loss is almost as good as a win. Well, I guess the committee should go back this season and look at every team within two points of a win. Instead of quality wins, it should be called “quality wins/2 points losses.” And if the National Championship game is close, then we’ll have two National Champions.

I know not every loss is the game. If VT (19-13, 9-7 ACC) was really on the edge of the Bubble, a strong showing agianst UNC might have put them in. But really, VT wasn’t close. They had a good conference record because they beat up on bad teams. They were 1-7 against the RPI’s top 50, with the one being a win against Miami, not a Duke or UNC or anything like that. Really, they arguably had less of a resume than Maryland, who got a five seed in the NIT. VT had one more win, but Maryland’s best win (at UNC rather than Miami) was much better.

Another issue I have is with him saying “if you don't think this team is one of the top 65 teams in the country, you're certifiably insane.” The best 65 teams in the country don’t get at-large bids. Throwing that number out there is misleading since it clearly doesn’t really have any meaning in this context. To get an at large bid, a team has to be one of the best 30 or 40 teams in the nation. Yes Seth, you guys were better than Coppin State. You want to be in the play in game?

I think Greenberg should write a letter to the NIT thanking them for giving his team a one seed.

Top headlines that may have gone under your radar

2008-03-13T15:40:00.002-04:00

Yanks, D-Rays bad blood boils over in pre-season brawl
Zimmer wisely stays in dugout this time

Tony Parker to Yanks’ Heath Phillips: I will fight you!
Later retracts statement after learning Phillips plunked EVAN Longoria

Rockets win seventh straight game without Yao
Isaiah immediately places Knicks’ center Eddy Curry on DL

Billy Crystal bats leadoff for Yankees, strikes out in only at-bat against Pirates
Yanks in talks with Stallone for next meeting with Rays

Patriots cut ties with veteran wide receiver Troy Brown
Ask Brown to return team-issued camcorder

Tony Stewart blames poor performance on Goodyear Tires
Isaiah then blames Nike for Knicks’ poor season

Boston’s Schilling placed on 60-day DL
Curt’s Warcraft ranking expected to skyrocket

Giants sign QB Carr to 1 year, $1M deal
GM Reese addresses need to find new oft-criticized QB drafted with top pick

Sterning the ship in the right direction

2008-03-06T16:20:00.006-05:00

Anyone who has been tuning into the NBA this season knows it. Everyone who has been ignoring the league for the past few years needs to reevaluate their stance. The NBA is back. And this is coming from a Knicks fan.

Last night I watched Lebron James single-handedly dismantle the Knickerbockers, and although it wasn't the outcome I was looking for as the Cavs pulled away late, it was pretty damn entertaining. Lebron lit up the Garden, dropping 50 points on an array of deep three pointers (including one at the halftime buzzer that he shot like a normal pull up from about 40 feet out), dunks and layups. At one point, David Lee took both hands and shoved James in the stomach as he rose for a dunk. LBJ didn't fall back, but simply lowered his hand from dunk position and as his feet were about to touch the floor, hoisted in a shot off the backboard. Also last night the Celtics and Pistons (the two top teams in the East) battled in Boston in a very entertaining contest that could be a playoff preview. The funny thing is, this is the Eastern Conference. It's by far the inferior conference depth wise, but holds some serious weapons at the top of the standings.

While watching Lebron has been truly marvelous, what has really drawn me back into the NBA has been the teams of the Western Conference. The past few years I sort of agreed with some of the NBA cynics who harped on the negative aspects of professional play such as the lack of defense, the isolation one-on-one plays, lack of teammwork, etc. I'd usually tune in for just Knicks games and the occassional primetime matchup. But this season, the league has returned to "must-see TV" status. The top 8 teams in the West are separated by 5 1/2 games (the 8th place team's record is 37-23). The pace of the games out West is frenetic. Teams, even those weighed down by Shaq, run up and down the court. There are tons of superstars, from the loud (Kobe Bryant) to the quiet (Brandon Roy). There are great, highly watchable point gaurds: from Derron Williams to Chris Paul to Steve Nash to Baron Davis. Thanks to the solid play from the court leaders, the squads in the West play a great brand of team ball...and score...a lot. And seemingly each team has at least two real stars, immediately making each game full of flair and storylines. The teams play hard night in and night out. While I'm not sure I can say that for my Knicks, I'll still say the NBA is definitely back. Now, just fire Isiah.

-Pat

Super Tuesday...is Hillary Next?

2008-03-04T13:02:00.004-05:00

Did Brett Favre actually retire?
Is it for real this time? Apparently, according to just about every media source out there, Brett Favre has notified the Packers that he won’t be returning to the Green Bay Packers for his 18th season. For seemingly the past few years, Brett Favre talking retirement was about as common as Al Davis trying to ruin the Raiders franchise. It happened every offseason.

But apparently, this time it’s for real. I can’t completely buy it, as he’s done this too many times. I’m still leaving a 20 percent chance for Favre to return. But if this time he’s a man of his word, it’ll be a new day for the Aaron Rodgers led Green Bay Packers. It’s just tough to completely believe Favre would retire after an MVP-caliber season.

Despite my nausea from relentless rumors year after year of Favre crying and pondering hanging it up, you have to give it up to the guy. Three MVPs, a Super Bowl win, the most TD passes in NFL history, 275 straight starts. Those are pretty impressive numbers. Favre was always fun to watch. And last season he flourished, setting records and tossing 28 touchdowns with only 15 interceptions. But in a fitting end for the gunslinger with the most career interceptions in the NFL, he ended his career throwing an interception in overtime against the Giants to set up New York’s winning field goal in the NFC Championship Game. Favre will be missed. But what certainly won’t be are the hours and hours spent debating his future. Hopefully that’s decided. Brace yourself for the ESPN love-fest. And more Wrangler commercials.

While Favre made the choice to end his career, another pro-athlete was given his career back. Although not on the same prestigious level of fame and success as Favre...

Chris Andersen is returning to the NBA from his drug banishment!
I know, you’re all excited. So am I. The Lakers added Pau Gasol, the Suns picked up Shaq, the Mavericks grabbed J Kidd, and every Western Conference team beefed up at the trade deadline. The New Orleans Hornets made a few minor moves, but now add the high flying “Birdman” Andersen. They apparently are ready to sign him if he passes a physical. Hopefully, whatever dope he was dabbling in (under the banishing rules it has to be amphetamine and its analogs, which include methamphetamine; cocaine; LSD; opiates, including heroin, codeine and morphine; and PCP according to ESPN.com) is well out of his system. Those are some serious drugs, maybe he was already using when he went through this hilarious debacle.

Flying off on another tangent, I have to say I’m impressed with the Jets so far this offseason.
They’ve made a ton of moves. New York has added offensive linemen Allen Faneca (a consistent Pro-Bowler) and Damien Woody (a solid fixture on the right side), LB/DE Calvin Pace as a pass rusher in the 3-4 scheme and DT Kris Jenkins.

The pickups address many of the Jets’ needs, especially on the offensive line which struggled last year. With two veteran signings added to the young and talented Nick Mangold and D’Brickashaw Ferguson, the line becomes a strength. And while some may debate if the Jets are overspending, the team has the money to shell out, and the players acquired should fit in to coach Eric Mangini’s 3-4 defensive scheme better than their predecessors.

It’s good to see the Jets finally addressing these needs to form a defense that does more than settling for the bend but not break strategy. And the offensive line should open holes for a talented backfield that may even add Arkansas’ Darren McFadden if New York catches a few breaks in the NFL Draft (the team has the 6th pick). If we base the pattern of the past seasons, the Jets are due for a 10-6 campaign. A little early I know, but in the past four years, the team has gone 10-6, 4-12, 10-6, 4-12. Looking ahead six months, I know, but I have to look for some bright spots right now. As Andrew told you, we haven’t had the best winter.

Things could be starting to turn, especially if the Knicks fire Isiah Thomas, which is slowly looking more possible. You really have to wonder what the team is waiting for. Deadspin sums it up eloquently.

-Pat

Tale of Two Bubbles

2008-03-03T22:32:00.003-05:00

First, sorry for the time off. Between midterms, hoops-related depression, and the Professional Bull Riders coming to Baltimore we have had very little free time. Besides, February is a slow sports month.

- Last week we talked about the similarities between Maryland and Syracuse, two teams that weeks ago looked like they would both be dancing in March. Both teams hit a rough patch that put them on the bubble.

Well, the similarities continue. The Orange had an 11 point lead over Pitt at the Carrier Dome with three minutes left, and a win would have put them right back into the thick of things. They coughed it up, and now the Not-In Tournament looks like a decent bet.

Meanwhile, the Terps had a 20 point lead in the second half against Clemson in a game that would have just about sent those Maryland NIT t-shirts to Nicaragua had they held on. But of course, they managed to blow it and lost on a three pointer with under three seconds left.

These two teams could end up facing each other in Manhattan.

- Players aren’t the sports figures that engage in trash talking. Hank Steinbrenner and John Henry proved. Hank started it, with the following rant:

“Red Sox Nation? What a bunch of [expletive] that is. That was a creation of the Red Sox and ESPN, which is filled with Red Sox fans. Go anywhere in America and you won't see Red Sox hats and jackets, you'll see Yankee hats and jackets. This is a Yankee country. We're going to put the Yankees back on top and restore the universe to order."

To which Henry responded:

“I’m a big Hank fan. Just to ensure he knows how cool Red Sox Nation is, [Saturday] we officially inducted him as a member.”

It’s good to see the old guys getting in on the fun. Hank has a few potential moves now. He could buy the naming rights to Fenway and rename it Bucky Dent Field, or he could simply remind Henry that members of “Red Sox Nation” are responsible for Gigli and Taxi. We eagerly await his next move.

Picture Credits: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0316732/
http://www.longhornrodeo.com/bullriding.htm

Bubblerrific

2008-02-25T17:10:00.007-05:00

If you haven’t noticed, there’s been a little bit of anxiety and paranoia seeping into the wondrous columns of Giving 111 Percent.

Well, we may be somewhat naturally aggressive people, but the restless tone is fueled from something other than our normal opinionated convictions. It’s the fact that the schools at which we both reside, Syracuse and Maryland, sport two college basketball squads floating around the NCAA tournament bubblesphere.

Maryland has dropped two straight games to ACC foes Virginia Tech and Miami. Syracuse has done the same, to better competition on the road at Louisville and Notre Dame. Each team finds themselves at 17-11, with Maryland boasting a 7-6 record in a down ACC conference, and the Orange with a 7-8 mark in the brutal Big East. Pretty similar records. Why did we start this blog? This seems like a terrible omen.

Syracuse sits at No. 48 in the RPI rankings, with the eighth best strength of schedule in the nation. The Terps are at No. 67 and 18 respectively. There’s no beating around the bush, both these teams have a ton of work left to do if either wants to find itself being considered for the NCAA tournament. Both teams should try to at least get to 20 wins. If that’s the case, I (Pat) would have to opt for Syracuse over the Terps – because the team has better numbers and overcame great odds stacked against them in a much better conference. But right now, it’s foolish to assume that either of these teams will be dancing. Unfortunately.

The parallels continue. Maryland has missed the NCAA tournament twice in the past three years. Syracuse missed it last year (albeit questionably), and has been on the bubble the two years before that. Maryland was coming off a championship title earlier this decade in 2002. Syracuse won in 2003. The titles obviously affected our school choices, and well, they haven’t exactly paid off. Year after year the fingernails disintegrate and selection Sunday is either doomsday or an unpleasant nerve racking two hours spent staring at Greg Gumbel.

Hopefully both teams can make runs, or this blog could become quite bitter until baseball season starts. Of course, we’ll keep up with the posting and observations as well as we can, but I’d like to avoid the disappointment. And Andrew can at least still bask in the Giants glory – so if it comes down to these two, I’m not going to feel bad for him if the Cuse makes it.

Andrew gave you some Maryland insight yesterday.
Here are some thoughts on the Orange after a tough 94-87 loss at Notre Dame:

- With the loss sending the Orange to 17-11 (7-8 Big East), I believe SU must win out. Winning a game in the Big East tournament would likely shore up a bid. That would equal four more wins. That total is likely the magic number. If the Orange struggles in the upcoming games against Pitt, Seton Hall and Marquette, it will have to make serious noise in the Big East Tournament.

- If Syracuse is hoping to make the run I just mentioned, the team is going to need Donte Greene to show up. I cannot believe what I am seeing out of this guy. I don’t like to be too critical of college players, but he is really driving me insane. The 6’10 Greene came into SU as a great recruit, likely one-and-done. He showed off a nice jump shot early in the year and skyrocketed to the top of the Big East scoring leaders list. But once conference play started, Greene has disappeared. Going into Sunday’s game, the Orange was shooting 29 percent from three-point range in conference play. Greene is not helping that as the team’s main shooter. He’s been very cold, scoring in double figures in only two of the last five games. He looks lost in SU’s offensive sets, and actually has been removed from NBA Draft.net's 2008 mock draft– which previously had him as a top-10 pick. It looks as if the site administrators think Donte will stay another year.
Regardless, this kind of thing happens. Big East play has been tougher than Greene expected, he’s playing a ton of minutes with a thin frame, and he’s not getting a lot of open looks. That’s all fine. He needs more time in the Big East and needs to learn how to cut, drive and do something other than pop three pointers. But what I find unacceptable and infuriating is his effort and intensity. Greene showed zero emotion during the game and when he was picking up several fouls. He was torched by Notre Dame forwards on the perimeter when the team switched to man-to-man defense. He seems very, very out of it. Someone needs to light a fire under him. If SU isn’t going to get offensive numbers out of him, the team needs rebounding and defense. Right now, Greene is offering pretty much none of the above.

- Paul Harris is a man-child who hopefully won’t even think about moving to the NBA this season. Right now, he’s by far our best player, and is even sinking his jump shots consistently. Harris is starting to shine and become more dependable. Sure, he still has his lapses. But if he stays another year or two, he can be scary good, as can Syracuse as a team. Onuaku, too, was an absolute beast as well. He can outmuscle just about anyone in the Big East, and seems to actually know that after a mid-season slump.

- I think Scoop Jardine has to see even more time. He played well against Notre Dame, and appears to be fully recovered from his suspension. Yet again, he of course has his lapses, but he’s a healthy body and someone who can penetrate and finish on a team with six other healthy players.

- The team still scored 87 points with only five from their leading scorer (Greene). This was encouraging, especially because of all the layups that somehow rimmed out. The problem is there were so many opportunities that a win could have been possible. If SU can play well at both sides of the court like they have shown on separate occasions, the team might be able to make a late push.

Woa. A few thoughts turned into a thorough therapy session. Here’s to hoping the improbable seven man team can make a late run. And if that happens, well, good luck to Maryland as well.

Life on the bubble. You can’t beat it.

-Pat

Photo credits: roanoke.com, sportsnetwork.com

Terps need to turn it around

2008-02-24T13:40:00.005-05:00

If the Maryland Terrapins fail to make the NCAA Tournament for the third time in four years, it won’t be hard to point to the game that doomed their season. Wednesday’s 69-65 loss to Virginia Tech at Comcast Center was one of the ugliest games that I can remember. The Terps jumped out to a big lead early, then inexplicably stopped scoring. The game was so disgusting that guard Dorenzo Hudson actually vomited on the floor in the first half. On Saturday, they lost to Miami.

It seems like a lot of fans seem quick to blame the team’s struggles on guard Greivis Vazquez. Early in the game, when the Terps were jumping out to a double digit lead, Vazquez had 11 quick points. He then tried a risky pass and threw it out of bounds.

“Get him off the court, Gary!” yelled a fan, who continued to curse at Vazquez every time he missed a shot.

I know that the guy has more turnovers than a pastry shop, but if not for his play this season Gary would be calling MSG every night begging for NIT consideration. Not only does Greivis lead the team in scoring (17.5 ppg) and assists (6.7 apg), he is the only player that can create a shot. Imagine the offense with Adrian Bowie and Eric Hayes running around for 35 seconds? Vazquez has also had a knack for knocking down the big three pointer.

The biggest problem that the Terps have is their lack of production from the bench. Braxton Dupree, who was supposed to come in and play right away, looks like he is a long way from making any contributions. In fact, if Gus Gilchrist is not the next coming of Elton Brand, the team might have to beg Hassan Fofana to come back. Bowie had a couple big games in January and looked like he was becoming a dependable guard for the Terps. Now, he rarely sees the court.

The bench has been abysmal all year, but with Vazquez, Gist, and Osby dominating Maryland was still winning. The past couple games, Gist has struggled and Maryland was not able to replace his offense. One watching Wednesday’s loss had to wonder if Gist had somehow forgotten how to use his hands, as he not only turned the ball over five times but couldn’t hold onto countless rebounds that were in his grasp. He has seven and 10 points respectively in his last two games, his lowest and third lowest total since ACC play started. Gist has been one of the ACC's best players all season, and the Terps badly need him to step up in the last few games.

The Terps, at the very least, need to split their next two games. They have three games left before the ACC Tournament, and will probably need at least 20 wins to get in. If they win three more games this season, it puts them on the bubble with a decent chance of making it. Four more wins pretty much punches their ticket. Two wins, and Gary can all but book his flight to New York for the NIT.

Picture credit: http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2007/01/23/PH2007012301355.jpg

Funny Joke??

2008-02-21T12:42:00.003-05:00

I'm not exactly sure what's gotten into Alex Rodriguez, but he had quite an interesting quote in an article on ESPN.com yesterday. Here is the excerpt if you missed it:

Rodriguez also praised teammate Andy Pettitte, who was forced to give a deposition and affidavit to Congress in which he admitted using HGH in 2002 and 2004. Pettitte also said Roger Clemens discussed HGH use nearly a decade ago -- Clemens said Pettitte "misremembers."

"Andy is one of the greatest human beings I've ever met," Rodriguez said. "I have two daughters -- well, I have one and one on the way. If I had a daughter, I would want 'em to marry Andy Pettitte. The age difference might be a little awkward, but in today's day and age anything is possible."

Sure, it's good to see ARod back up one of his teammates, but what?! What did he just say? He would want his daughter to marry Andy Pettitte. Oh, well that's nice. Wait, how old is ARod's daughter Natasha Alexander? Three. Nice. And ARod, although it may not be your style, Andy appears loyal to his wife and four children already. So I guess we'll give ARod credit for toeing the line with a somewhat creepy but funny joke. But the last line is just weird. "In today's day and age anything is possible." Coming from ARod's mouth that just sounds too serious. Anyways I'll give credit to ARod for loosening up and trying to have some fun. Granted, it's spring training, so we'll see how long this mood lasts.

-Pat

Photo credit: lillypulitzer.com

Please ESPN, no more.

2008-02-20T01:30:00.008-05:00

So, the other night I (Pat) am up late as usual, and I had been surfing the web with ESPN on the TV in the background. It’s easy to tune it out, because the same news gets recycled every hour or so and they repeatedly hit you with it. Anyways, I’m minding my own business and I look up at the bright flashing lights of the television screen. I was horrified. I looked for the remote faster than I would have if I had seen the Poltergeist fuzzy screen or that mysterious video from The Ring. What had I seen? NASCAR Now - a new segment dedicated to solely stock car racing. The second I realized it wasn’t a Sportscenter segment the television was off. I sat in absolute silence in the pitch black for five seconds thinking about what I had just witnessed. Being that it was about 2:30 a.m. and I had seen the Fresh Prince episode airing (that’s about the best thing on at that hour), I went back to watching South Park on my computer. But I couldn’t laugh. I had been too mortified.

You readers may have had a similar experience, albeit maybe less traumatic. But I think you get the point. For fellow blogger Andrew Vitelli and I have had enough. It may have been because the Daytona 500 was this past weekend, or that we think there’s some bass fishing event coming up soon, but we can’t help but think that there has been a recent onslaught of crappy, uninteresting and well, frankly, redneck type sports programming thrown our way on the ESPN networks. We continue to see ads of men sitting in their hotel rooms at 4 a.m. desperately trying to pick out which fishing rod to use for the day, and then dramatically setting out on the lake for an action-packed thrill ride only the BassMasters and ESPN can bring you. There is non-stop NASCAR coverage. We, along with hopefully many of you, just don’t care ESPN. Sure, there are ratings to be had, NASCAR diehards to satisfy, and well, deluxe lures and sinkers to be discussed. But you know what? Take it elsewhere. And take Blue Collar Comedy Tour with you. Please. We have nothing against the states where this programming may be more popular or the people who enjoy it. You can have your gators and grits, but keep this stuff too.

We all know ESPN is pretty business savvy for the most part. Our solution to this whole ordeal? Simply start a new channel. ESPN South. ESPN Rural. EXPN. Anything. And sure, we know writing this that some people in our home state of New York like this programming. It will still be offered to you, for free or a small charge. But it won’t be on everyone’s sets, because well, we can’t have anyone mistakenly tuning into the ESPN original film “3.”

In fact, while we’re at it, maybe ESPN should take a lot of its dumb programming and dump it onto another channel. There is a lot of useless stuff on ESPN. Some of you may be saying, but then there is going to be more NFL Live reruns in March or more over-discussed stories. We have a solution for that too. It’s called, “ESPN spend some of the billions of dollars you have and buy up Friday Night Lights reruns, some movies, and bring back Playmakers.”

Anyways, Southerners or NASCAR lovers don’t be offended. We don’t just want to single out your dumb programming, there is other crap we want to see gone too. So ESPN it’s up to you. We’ve set the table, and we’ve even laid out the listings for your new channel of crap, EXPN. The only time we want to hear about these sports is if someone passes out during a spelling bee, or if Tony Stewart punches someone. Enjoy, and may we never see another 2 a.m. drag racing competition ever again.

EXPN

Friday
6 pm - World Series of B-List Celebrity Poker
7 pm - NCAA Division 3 Blindfolded Bass Fishing Finals
8 pm – Outside the Lines: The Stump McCrackin Log Chopping Tragedy
9 pm – Cockfight Tonight: Hosted by Pedro Martinez and Juan Marichal
10 pm – EXPN Movie of the Week: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

Saturday
6 pm – Canine Chess NIT Semi-finals
7 pm – Alabama Spelling Bee (four letter limit)
8 pm – The Y-Games: Drunk Snowmobile Capture the Flag Finals
9 pm – Outside the Lines: Steroids in Bowling
10 pm – Virginia Dog-fighting Championships (postponed)

Sunday
6 pm – Tobacco Chewing Tour
7 pm – Outside the Lines: The Integration of NASCAR
7:01 pm – World Series of Hunting Finals: Randy DeDecker vs. Dick Cheney
8 pm – Daytona 500

Photo credits: www.760kfmb.com/rick_blog, pokerallstar.com, autoracingsport.com, espn.com

Weekend wrap

2008-02-17T15:56:00.003-05:00

Huge win for Syracuse yesterday. After a miserable defeat to South Florida earlier in the week, the Orange rebounded by dominating Georgetown on Saturday en route to a 77-70 victory. The win was key for the Orange as it tries to get back into NCAA tournament consideration. The Orange is 17-9 (7-6 Big East). With all the parity in college basketball this year, I’d say reaching the 20 win mark would be good for a tournament berth. So the Orange would have to win 3 of its next 5 games, and possibly a win in NYC in the Big East Tournament to shore up a bid.

Here are SU’s next five games:

Monday at Louisville
Saturday at Notre Dame
March 1 vs. Pitt
March 5 at Seton Hall
March 8 vs. Marquette

That’s a tough stretch, but it also presents quite a few “resume-building” wins. The next two (Louisville and ND) are extremely tough contests. If Syracuse can steal one from either the deep Cardinals (one of the hotter teams in the nation) or the strong inside-out Irish (who have won 35 straight home games) it would be a huge boost. The Orange should be able to then win at least the next two of three. Seton Hall is a game the Orange should win, but it won’t be easy on the road. Pitt and Marquette are both solid squads above SU in the Big East standings, but they have been struggling somewhat, and considering both games are in the Dome, SU should be able to at least split those. So three wins will be tough, but doable. As I said, if the Orange can do that and win a game in New York, I’d find it difficult for the selection committee to once again leave Syracuse out.

As for Saturday, it was an unreal game. It was just about perfect. Attendance had seemingly been falling off a little since Gerry McNamara left, but yesterday there were 31,000 plus howling fans. The atmosphere was great, it was probably one of the loudest crowds I’ve heard in the Dome in the past few years. And an unranked team bursting out to a 26-4 scoring run against a top-10 Hoya squad? As I said, unreal. This team will find it challenging to keep up such intensity with only a seven man rotation, but what the team lacks in a bench, it makes up for with resiliency. This team really never quits, even at South Florida when down 20. Center Arinze Onuaku could have quit after hearing just about everyone harp on his disappearance, but instead he came out and beasted on Roy Hibbert. I will have to take some credit for Hibbert’s poor play – during the shoot-around I was screaming at him about his chicken legs. His teammates must kid him about it and were all laughing, but Roy, alas, was not. Seeing a sensitive side of the big man, I moved on to tell him what a bad idea it was for him to return to college and seeing his numbers fall instead of going to the NBA last year. Sure, it was probably a fine decision, and Georgetown is in the top-10, he’ll still be a high pick, and as long as he doesn’t get hurt another year of college is probably a lot of fun. But of course I had to tell him it was the worst decision ever. I mean, Arinze throwing nearly 300 pounds into Hibbert probably affected the big man’s play, but I’d like to think I may have had a very minimal impact. Probably not though. But I definitely bothered the Hoya fans:

This was the moment I believe when the cop felt bad for them, to which I asked the cop, "When you were twenty did you paint your face? I think not."

Anyways it was great to see the team and the crowd fired up. But there’s still a lot of work left to be done. If the atmosphere against Pitt and Marquette rivals the environment on Saturday, SU could be in business for two big wins as they seem to really feed off the support. So yet again there is life to the season and expectations are again beginning to rise. Although I’ve broken down the next five games, the team has to take it game by game (we saw at USF what happens if it looks ahead). It’s still an uphill battle, but Saturday the Orange made a push towards the summit.

Dunk you very much
Saturday was a great day of basketball, with SU winning, buzzer beaters galore and just excitement everywhere. And the icing on the cake was a fantastic dunk contest. There are a lot of articles out there proclaiming that the dunk contest is back, and I will cautiously say, yes, it is. Eventhough it’s still missing a lot of big names, last nights affair was extremely entertaining. The creativity was off the charts – from blowing out a candle sitting in a cupcake on the back of the rim, to literally flying through the air in a Superman outfit. Dwight Howard put on an absolute show. Despite the fact he didn’t really dunk on his Superman attempt, he had two other unbelievable dunks.

If I were to have one suggestion, other than the common thought to get in bigger names, I’d say have a wild card spot. Open up some sort of competition for an open entry to challenge NBA players. And-1 mix tape players, anyone, can go through a few competitions and qualify for the event. Would it be time consuming and probably logistically impossible? Most likely. But would it be awesome to just up that challenge to NBA players one more notch? Absolutely. Plus, there’s a guy out there who can do a 720. It’s impressive.

Here's a nice compliation

And here could be one of those challengers

-Pat

Nuts and Bolts, Nuts and Bolts, We Got.....

2008-02-13T00:35:00.009-05:00

Here are some sports tidbits to hold you over before you’re barraged with 72 straight hours of ESPN coverage of the Roger Clemens congressional testimony.

What game were they watching?
Somehow, inexplicably, the Big East coordinator of officials Art Hyland stood behind the last second call that handed Georgetown a win over Villanova. For those who didn’t see the game, ‘Nova was whistled for a foul as Georgetown recovered a loose ball and started moving upcourt. Sounds OK right? Well, factor in that Georgetown’s Jonathan Wallace was 80 feet from the basket, and there was .1 seconds on the clock, and it becomes a bit murky. Murky enough for the somewhat reserved ESPN commentator Sean McDonough to call it “absolutely awful.”
Here is the play:

This is what Hyland said of the call thanks to an ESPN article:

“There is no force-out rule and if [Wallace] was forced out, he either was bumped for a foul or he stepped out of bounds," Hyland said. "When a kid is bumped and goes out of bounds, you have to make a call. It's a judgment call."

Hyland said the timing of the foul does not matter.

"A foul is a foul," Hyland said. "It's a judgment situation."

I’m sorry, but that is just horrible reasoning. A player got a slight hip check, 80 feet from his basket. Even if he was falling out of bounds, you let the clock run out. There was no way Georgetown was going to score or even get off a shot. No way. At this time, officials always just take the whistle out of their mouths. Unless there’s a clear punch to someone’s face, no fouls are going to be called in such a situation so far from the hoop. Even near the hoop, once the clock gets inside five seconds or so, foul calls are rare. So shame on you Big East officials, that’s one time when a fan actually can definitively point to a referee and say, ‘he cost us the game.’

You stay classy Mr. Stewart
Right off the bat, I don’t know anything about NASCAR and I want to keep it that way. But ESPN, looking for every last viewer on the planet, decides to pound racing coverage into everyone’s head. Thankfully this time it was pretty funny. Tony Stewart, who is almost like the Ron Artest or Stephen Jackson of NASCAR, is always getting in trouble. I don’t follow racing at all, but I feel like every few weeks I hear about Tony Stewart punching someone else. This time it was Kurt Busch who he socked after an on-track incident. First of all, someone needs to man up and just knock him out. Why does he get a free pass to just walk around and punch whoever he pleases? Maybe it’s because he seems to keep piling on pounds like he was trying to qualify for the Heavyweight class. He seems to be getting fatter and fatter each time I see him after punching someone. But as big of a jerk as he seems, he’s just about the only one producing interesting news relevant to NASCAR.

And you too Sports Illustrated, stay classy
I find it hilarious that every year Sports Illustrated, the media company dedicated to hard hitting sports news, analysis and great columns and writing, basically sells a soft core porn issue. The swimsuit edition is just amazingly creepy. I understand, most guys like sports, and those guys also usually like scantily clad women. But SI comes off as a classy sports outlet, with sports all the time and interesting human interest pieces. The formula of guys liking both sports and women is usually saved for the Maxims of the world. But each year, SI seems to throw everything out the window and produce the swimsuit issue. Maybe there is some sort of Title IX thing at SI, where they have to have an equal amount of men and women pictured in their magazines per year, and this is their way of making that even out. Maybe. Or maybe it just sells. Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate it. And I might still have a few issues. But I just can’t help laughing at the breasts peering down at an angry Roger Clemens.

Lastly
I’ll leave you with this clip. We’re just about rounding out the time when Giants fans can acceptably bask in the glory of their Super Bowl victory. So as one last entry, I’ll throw this video in. Now I don’t like the Giants, but the lyrics are pretty accurate in hating on the Patriots, which I thoroughly enjoy. Despite the horrific Michael Jackson imitation and the wretched voices of Giants fans, it’s worth watching (thanks to Craig for the tip).

-Pat

Photo credit: si.com, community.foxsports.com/blogs/nascarfan_fanzone

Pedro - no, not the cockfighter

2008-02-11T22:25:00.000-05:00

There are some great perks of the college life. We know about the partying, co-eds and such. But one undeniable advantage of attending college is the frequent opportunity to see speakers and figures from all sorts of backgrounds and professions. On Monday night, that guest at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications was ESPN’s own Pedro Gomez.

I figured since there’s not much else consuming my free time these days that I'd wander over and see him speak. I’d seen him before on Sportscenter and believed he had some minor interest in Barry Bonds (link - on the middle of the page to the right).

Turns out, there’s more to Pedro than just the San Francisco slugger. One of the first things the ESPN reporter did Monday was slam Curt Schilling, which meant Gomez was already a good man in my book.

He talked with a moderator for about 30 minutes about various issues ranging from steroids to clubhouse relations to journalism. Then Gomez took part in a 30 minute Q+A session with the audience of about 100 (filled with journalists, sports buffs, and nutcases wearing ESPN hats – yes, I’m serious).

Pedro had some very interesting things to say. Frankly, rather than bore you with a summary and interruptions from me, I’ll list some of his comments (taken with my best shorthand):

On the federal hearings and indictments –
“When you lie to the federal government they don’t take kindly to it, whether you’re Richard Nixon, Marion Jones, Martha Stewart or Roger Clemens.

The government doesn’t tend to indict someone that they can’t get. They have a very high batting average.”

On steroids and its impact on Hall of Fame voting (Gomez has a vote as a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America):
“I personally have a big problem with anyone who used performance enhancing drugs.”

He continued to say that most voters draw the line there, and that he did not vote for McGwire – who received less than 30 percent of the votes (a player needs 75 % to be inducted). Gomez added that he doesn’t ever really see McGwire reaching 75 percent.

"It would be interesting if the all-time hit leader (Pete Rose), HR leader (Bonds), and one of the all-time wins leaders (Clemens) would all be left out of the Hall of Fame.”

On Curt Schilling and his antics during the 2001 World Series when he “held his team hostage” and told his manager he could not pitch game 7:
“Schilling is basically a con-man”

On what is worse: insider gambling on baseball or steroids:
“They both rank high but I’d say gambling.”

On the upcoming 2008 season:
“The NL is just weak. The AL Central should be a great division, I think the White Sox will recover. The East is always the same two teams.”

He didn’t respond when someone shouted out, ‘so who’s going to face the Mets in the World Series?’

Interestingly, Gomez crossed himself a little bit with these next two quotes, which were separated by a few questions:
“I’ve been asked before, ‘straight up did Barry Bonds do steroids?’ I said I wouldn’t answer. If Wolf Blitzer had been asked if Bill Clinton slept with Monica Lewinski, he wouldn’t answer either.”

“I will not vote for anyone I believe took performance enhancing drugs, and I think Bonds did…I don’t know that a lot of these guys will get in.”

Overall it was an interesting talk and fun to see what appears on TV to be a brainwashed ESPN employee in a different setting than on the San Fran infield or outside a stadium filing a report. Gomez cracked a few jokes and was patient and interested in each person’s question. No one pestered him too much about covering Bonds non stop for about two years, but he did voluntarily offer this gem:

“Covering Barry Bonds will be in my obituary, I’ve come to terms with that.”

With that, I'll sign off....Pat DiSalvo, Giving 111 Percent (In that annoying ESPN rhythm)

Photo credits: si.com, the700level.com

Loose Change II, Super Bowl Edition

2008-02-10T20:05:00.000-05:00

This ridiculous video was brought to our attention, and I felt it was our role to ridicule the makers and everyone else who is involved or persuaded by it. It is similar to Loose Change, but is about how the NFL had a conspiracy to give the Giants the Super Bowl by mismanaging the clock and giving them more time. It’s long and poor quality, but if you want to watch it here is the link.

Where the Patriots Robbed of a Super Bowl Win? This conspiracy theorist`s video proves that the referees gave the Giants extra time on the clock.

In case you skipped it, it basically says that when Jacobs converted on fourth and one the clock stopped when it shouldn’t have and when Manning was tackled and lost the ball it shouldn’t have stopped. In both cases, he’s at least somewhat wrong. Even though the officials did not bring out the chains after Jacobs’ run, they met on the field, which calls for a clock stoppage. After Manning lost the ball, there was a pile up as players thought the ball might be live. An unnecessary pile up also calls for a time stoppage (I didn’t look this up, someone else said it, but it sounds right). The refs might have left a few more seconds on the clock than they should have, but it’s nowhere near the amount of time that this guy claims. Also, the Giants scored with 35 seconds left so it’s not like a few ticks would have necessarily mattered.

What is even more ridiculous is the reaction that some Patriots fans have had to it. There is a petition for Commissioner Roger Goodell to review the last two minutes with over 12,000 signatures. There is a Facebook group dedicated to it with over 8,000 members. There is even a clothing line with articles of clothing bearing the phrase “New York is where wins are handed down. Foxboro is where wins are won.”

This is not representative of Pats fans in general, as I’m sure that the vast majority of them probably find this video, clothing line and petition dumber than a Dick Cheney workout video. It was just too ridiculous for me to not comment on. Also, the maker of the website doesn't know the difference between were and where.

- Andrew Vitelli

Step aside George Muresan

2008-02-09T13:04:00.000-05:00

If you somehow haven’t heard of Kenny George, well, it’s about time you did. No, he’s not special because he has two first names. He stands out because the UNC-Asheville center measures 7 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 365 pounds. He has a 93 inch wingspan and wears a size 28 shoe (26 according to some). For reference, Shaq only wears a size 22 or 23, is 7’1 and tips the scales at 325. Yao Ming, standing at 7’6, is only 310. So you get the idea. Kenny George is a large man. In fact, he’s the biggest player in college basketball.

Watching him play is unbelievable. He averages a solid 13 points, eight rebounds and 4.5 blocks per game. But it’s more the way he plays. George doesn’t need to leave his feet to dunk. The Bulldog’s most effective play is an inbounds pass where they simply lob it to George standing with his hands above his head and let him lay it in the hoop. George is also solid on defense, as he averages five blocks per game. It’s really unfair for most of Asheville’s opponents, who are mostly lower tier collegiate programs with undersized centers matching up against him. He did square off against Tyler Hansbrough and played well, with 14 points, 11 rebounds and 4 blocks. But Hansbrough dunked on George, one of the rare times that’s ever happened.

But it’s not all easy for George. According to NBA Draft net, “It appears likely that George has giantism (whether he has had or can have the surgery to remove the abnormality in his pituitary gland is unknown - a procedure that can have negative effects on a player's abilities).” George has had several knee surgeries and doesn’t even start at UNC-Asheville because of conditioning problems. In a well written story on George featured in the NY Times, it’s revealed that he doesn’t have a driver’s license because he’s too big to fit into the drivers seat. Life’s not very convenient for the big guy.

“When the semester ends, his father drives 650 miles from Chicago, his hometown, to Asheville so George does not have to squeeze into an airplane seat.

By his senior year, his feet had grown beyond size 23, the largest athletic shoe made. In search of a size 25, VanderMeulen appealed to college and N.B.A. teams. Weeks later, Shaquille O’Neal sent several pairs of his size 22’s to Chicago. VanderMeulen shipped them to a New York City shoemaker who cut off the soles and toes and reshaped them into 25’s.
Asheville has a contract with Nike, which makes 12 pairs of size-26 shoes for George. They are the only shoes he wears.”

While George does face some problems because of his stature, it’s that same size that causes the opposition to fret. He’s nearly impossible to guard and his presence in the lane is, well, gigantic. Last season he shot 77 percent from the field. And apparently he’s into creative writing and production, a route which he may follow because of uncertain NBA prospects. So this Bud Light goes to you Big Fella.

Here are some great clips of Kenny George, including a piece done by ESPN’s college gameday. Set aside a few minutes and watch these:

-Pat

Photo credit: scout.com

19-0? Not as bad as some of these titles

2008-02-07T23:06:00.000-05:00

Much has been made about the 19-0 book that was available on Amazon.com for preorder. However, there have been many lesser known books that have been pulled from the bookshelf:

Mo than a Feeling: How the Mo Vaughn trade led the Mets to the World Series

No KG, No Problem: Story of the Timberwolves’ rise to greatness after trading overrated stiff Kevin Garnett (sequel to We Don’t Need Ew!: How the Knicks finally got their title after trading Patrick Ewing)

Yes We Ken!: How the Jets gamble to take Ken O’Brien over Dan Marino paid huge dividends

The American President: The Rudy Giuliani Story

Simply the Best: Knicks guard Stephan Marbury proclaimed himself the best point guard in the NBA. This is the story of how he proved it on the hardwood.

Joe Lamath: How Broadway Joe embarrassed himself with ridiculous guarantee (only on list to make Pat happy)

Finally!!: The tale of how Barry Bonds got that elusive ring.

Urbina’s Gardening Guide: How to keep your yard and garden in great shape without having to do too much work yourself

The Right Choice: The tale of Drew Henson's path to baseball immortality

Loyalty 101: co-authored by Bobby Petrino and Rich Rodriguez - telling the story of how loyalty lasts forever

Picture Credit: Amazon.com

Shaq vs. Kobe

2008-02-07T13:35:00.000-05:00

I guess it’s been coming since the beginning of the new millennium. But it was 2003 or so that it really seemed like it had to happen. Recently, it seemed like it never would. But after yesterday’s trade, the possibility is greater than ever.

I’m talking, of course, about Shaq vs. Kobe in the playoffs.

The Suns and Lakers, right now, are two of the best teams in the Western Conference. The Lakers trade for Pau Gasol should only make them stronger. As Steve Nash admitted, the jury is still out on the Shaq for Marion trade, but if O’Neal comes out to prove that he has something left in the tank the Suns should be able to hold onto the top spot in the conference. Shaq may not be a great fit, but we’ll leave that debate to the real NBA analysts. Then, all we need is for both teams to win in the first two rounds and we’ve got a Shaq vs. Kobe Western Conference Finals.

We never got to see Batman fight Robin. Starsky and Hutch never went toe-to-toe. The Babe and Lou Gehrig were teammates as long as they were in the league (Ruth’s stint with the Boston Braves not withstanding). Bill and Ted never really went to fisticuffs. Therefore, Shaq vs. Kobe would be as good a clash between former colleagues as we’ve ever seen.

It seems like this has been a long time coming. In the later years of the Lakers dynasty, you could tell how much the two disliked each other. For a while, they wouldn’t admit it. Shaq called their relationship similar to a marriage. However, after the Kobe rape scandal, it exploded. Kobe made comments about Shaq, and when the two played for the first time in the regular season Shaq wouldn’t even make eye contact.

A Suns-Lakers conference finals has to be any sports fans dream. These are two athletes that I don’t think could deal with losing the series. Could you imagine the post game interview with Shaq after he had just lost to Kobe in the Western Conference Finals, or vice versa? Steve Nash, Amare, Pau Gasol etc. would be pretty much irrelevant.

Of course, there is little that the two could do to stop each other from scoring. If Kobe gets to the basket, he may have to watch out for an elbow from the Kazaam star. However, the battle would more be each player just trying to outscore the other. The Suns already aren’t Kobe’s favorite team, especially after the Raja Bell clothesline and the Lakers-Suns series two years ago.

Kobe vs. Shaq. Kobe trying to prove he can win without Shaq, and Shaq trying to break his tie with Duncan and get his fifth ring.

Obviously, a lot has to happen to get there. Shaq has to stay healthy. Both teams have to get to the conference finals. However, the prospect of this clash of superstars has to have even Knicks fans excited about the NBA again.

Super Bowl Recap

2008-02-04T22:20:00.000-05:00

I know, you’ve seen that play a million times now, and will probably see it about a billion more in your lifetime. If Eli had broken those tackles, then jogged five yards for the first down before stepping out of bounds it would still be played on every highlight show of the game. But the fact that he threw a perfect pass into triple coverage, which David Tyree (a Syracuse alumn - thanks Pat) somehow trapped against his helmet and held onto it as he was hit by star safety Rodney Harrison makes it one of the best plays in sports history (despite the monotone call by Joe Buck).

As Pat pointed out, despite the throw and catch being an amazing play, it has two things going against it. First of all, the play did not end in a touchdown. While it helped the Giants advance the ball, they still had to make a few more plays to get into the end zone. Second, the play came on third down and not fourth down. Had Tyree not held on, or even if Eli had been sacked, the Giants would have had one more chance to get five (or more) yards. These facts probably put it a notch below the Immaculate Reception, Christian Laettner’s shot or Bobby Thompson’s home run.

I still would put it above The Catch, just because in a vacuum it is a much better play. In the past ten years, the only plays in professional sports that come close are Jordan’s last shot with the Bulls and Jeter’s flip (sorry but somehow this is the only video I could find on youtube), and Tyree’s catch trumps both of those plays because of the context. If the Mets win the World Series in 2006, Endy Chavez’s catch in Game 7 of the NLCS enters the discussion.

Much has been written about how it came to be that the New York Giants, a team who’s best win in the regular season came against the Redskins, beat a team that was on the verge of being considered the best ever. One can certainly point to the play of the defensive line, the growth of Eli Manning, etc., but to me there was one play that may have been the difference in the game.

It was the first New England possession of the third quarter, and the Patriots were driving until Tom Brady was sacked on third down the make it fourth and 13 from the Giants 31. It would have been a very make-able 48 yard field goal attempt, one that would have given the Pats a touchdown lead. For some reason, Bill Belichick decided to go for it. Brady threw an incomplete pass and the Giants took over on downs with good field position and momentum.

I know that if the Pats (Patriots, not fellow poster Pat DiSalvo and his namesakes) had converted and scored a touchdown, FOX could have started House early because the game would have been over. But in a game where points were so hard to come by and field position was so important, how could you turn down a chance at points or a chance to pin the Giants deep with a punt? Converting on 4th and 13 is a long shot. The play gave the Giants momentum, and more importantly, didn’t give the Patriots points.

- Another reason the Giants won: Karma. First of all, the Patriots started out the season with bad Karma after the whole Spygate incident and Rodney Harrison’s suspension for using HGH. There was the Patriot’s cockiness all season, Belichick’s running up the score, and Gisele’s pre-game confidence (trust me, more on that later). Also, many Giants said the Patriots were inviting them to their post-game celebratory parties (backup quarterback Jared Lorenzen, however, was not invited because Brady was worried about being short on finger foods). But what sealed the deal for the Pats was the publication of a book called "19-0: The Historic Championship Season of New England's Unbeatable Patriots." This book, written by the Boston Globe, was available for pre-order before the Super Bowl. Clearly, the football Gods took note (although there was also a book about the 2008 Super Bowl Champion Giants available on Amazon before the game).

- Now, back to Gisele. Before the game, she promised that if the Pats lost, she would run through Manhattan naked. It’s one thing when an athlete, like Plax, says something that comes off as extremely cocky. They are on the field and can control the outcome of the game, and can make their prediction come to fruition. But when supermodels are guaranteeing games that they have no effect on, it’s a little frustrating. I mean, if the Pats do end up winning, does she look like Joe Namath? Of course, I wouldn’t be upset about this had she not backed out of her promise after the game.

- How does this game affect Tom Brady’s legacy? Well, had Eli not engineered that game winning drive, then Brady would have yet another fourth quarter comeback. Plus, his prayer to Moss at the end of the game wasn’t that far from being caught. One could argue that the Giants won the game because Brady just didn’t have enough time when he got the ball back.- Finally, I’ll leave you with another gem from Giving 111’s favorite quote machine, Brandon Jacobs. Apparently, the Pat’s Richard Seymour was telling the Giants to get ready to go home late in the game.
Jacobs’ post game response?
"I'll give you a quote on Seymour," Jacobs said. "You can write that he's a soft [rhymes with ‘duck’]. He said we should get ready to go home. Well, now he's on the team that went 18-1."

Super Bowl Betting Guide

2008-02-01T16:34:00.000-05:00

Everybody knows that the Patriots are 11.5 point favorites and the Over/Under is 54.0, but there are plenty other bets that you can make for the big game. If you like any of these odds, you still have two days to get in touch with your bookie.

Odds

-Tiki tries to take credit for Giants success: 1-2 (I think he’ll play the “mentor” card)
-Peyton gets more screen time than Eli: Even
-Pam Oliver, on Giants sideline, points out “it’s warmer than Packers game!”: Even
-After a Maroney 5-yard run, Buck/Aikman claim that “he is really the key to the Patriots success”: 2-1
-Terrell Owens demands to be traded minutes before kickoff, overshadowing game: 3-1
-Aikman claims to have played at stadium in college against the University of Phoenix: 3-1
-There are more ads for erectile dysfunction medication than there are for beer: 7-2
-Joe Buck mistakenly refers to Eli as “Peyton”: 5-1
-Brady takes Jessica Simpson to Cabo before game just to make a point: 7-1
-Moss held to 1 catch, then claims he “didn’t really want to play”: 8-1
-Buck mistakenly refers to Eli as “Archie”: 10-1
-Buck makes comment about Gisele that borders on creepy, followed by awkward silence: 15-1
-Aikman makes comment about Brady that borders on creepy, followed by awkward silence: 8-1
-Someone on the FOX pre-game show actually picks the Giants: 22-1
-Tom Petty exposes nipple in "wardrobe malfuction": 25-1
-Plax reveals his prediction was based on his numbers in a Super Bowl box: 35:1
-Ruben Droughns gains 10 or more yards: 50-1
-Buck mistakenly refers to Eli as “Cooper”: 80-1
-Super Bowl airs without a single appearance from Frank Caliendo: 100-1

Over/Under

-Play clocks destroyed by Brandon Jacobs: 1.5
-Commercials featuring MC Hammer: 4.5
-Times Buck/Aikman say after Brady completion “His ankle looked fine there!”: 7.5
-Times Buck/Aikman point out that RB Brandon Jacobs “Could be a linebacker!”: 8
-References to 2004 ALCS: 22.5
-Monday ESPN.com articles discussing how “cool” Brady is: 31.5
-Ads for the Sarah Connor Chronicles: 138
-Times Chris Berman takes the lords name in vain during the countless hours of NFL live filming (WARNING: VIDEO BELOW CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE): 435

Video Credit: Jon Fish

No, I will not title this "Here's the Scoop." Well, I guess I just did. SCOOP UPDATE

2008-01-31T12:36:00.000-05:00

So while wandering around some of the Syracuse message boards, I found this link to the official arrest report from Public Safety in the Scoop Jardine food scandal that I posted on yesterday.
[Props to Llandz on realcusefans.com, I don't know who you are, but props regardless for the report link]

Apparently, two girls, Maureen and Shannon, who are somehow not being charged and just hang up their cell phones on police officers, found a student ID card at Denny's. They then suggested to use the card, so they went out to breakfast with Jardine's 40 year old cousin in early January.

According to Robert Washington (Jardine's cousin), he got coffee, a donut, and the girls got pancakes eggs and juice. They then ordered food later that night, or the next day, from Goldstein Dining Hall on south campus. As an answer to my questions in the last post on Scoop, this was their order: gatorade, juice, philly cheese steaks and hamburgers. Washington had a philly cheesesteak and juice, and the girls ate philly cheese steaks, burgers and juice.

Take it as you will from Scoop's troublemaking cousin, but that's quite a bit of food for two girls. Also, how does a small breakfast and a dinner equal $115.65? I totaled how much food would have to be purchased to reach that total. These girls must be Kobayashi like in their consumption - there had to be numerous sandwiches and burgers (which go for about $5).

Two ridiculous things here. Washington ironically comes from Philadelphia, home of the cheesesteak. He has to come all the way over to Syracuse, order some horrible college knock off of the great sandwich from his hometown, and get everyone in trouble. Second, what the hell is the deal with these girls? This is Washington's statement from the report, "I called Shannon and she told me she was in class, I handed the phone to Lt. Thompson but Shannon hung up as soon as Lt. Thompson spoke to her." So you're just allowed to do that to a police officer in an investigation with no reprecussions? Good to know.

This whole thing is getting a bit absurd. Get a statement from the girls, either charge them or don't, and figure out what involvement Scoop had. Even if he took a bite of the food, I'm pretty sure stealing laptops, getting invloved in huge brawls, assaulting girlfriends or driving drunk like these Missouri players or most other incidents leading to suspension are worse than Scoop's actions. Sure, his actions warrant a suspension...but a season long punishment or even the boot from school? As the great Bob Barker would encourage his contestants to say, "That's too much!"

-Pat

Photo credits: whatsckooingamerica.net, cbit.syr.edu

OK sir, your total will be $115.65

2008-01-30T15:15:00.000-05:00

I remember during the 2004-05 school year, I was grabbing some food at Schine’s cafeteria between classes. I had about $6 or $7 worth of food and stepped in line before a mammoth white guy. It was former Syracuse Basketball center Craig Forth. Now while a Craig spotting isn’t as exciting as say, seeing Hakim Warrick, it was kind of cool. Craig was treating his girlfriend (I believe) to a nice romantic Schine dinner, and in an act of great kindness, turned towards me and said to the cashier, “swipe for him too.” After I thanked him, Craig said “you’re welcome” and walked away as if it were no big deal. When I got to class I told a friend about it, and he said that athletes get around $2,000 on their SUpercard (used for campus eateries outside of dining halls) per semester. Regardless, I still thought it was a nice gesture.

So why am I telling this irrelevant Craig Forth story? He’s been long forgotten on the Hill hasn’t he? Well, with the recent development of why SU’s latest scholarship guard is not playing, it’s quite relevant. Scoop Jardine, a freshman that had stepped in for the injured Eric Devendorf and Andy Rautins, was suspended because he had knowledge of a purchase of $115.65 on a stolen student SUpercard. Apparently, according to the Syracuse Post Standard, Jardine had his 40 year old cousin Robert Washington visiting. Washington and two girls ordered a lot of food and had it delivered to Scoop’s apartment. Scoop had knowledge of the whole thing and apparently helped carry the food inside (nearly $120 of food is gonna take some extra hands).

OK, so it’s not as bad as we probably thought. But it’s pretty boneheaded. With $2,000 on your SUpercard for the semester, there is no way Scoop maxed it out a few days into the spring semester (that is if they reset it before January 13 – it may have counted for the end of the fall semester, but I doubt it). And then ordering it to your apartment, brilliant. Scoop had to know this was going to come back to him, all for some crappy Campus Delivery pizza and wings. Honestly, what did they get for nearly $120? That’s more than 4 people could eat for dinner. Were they stocking up on Campus Delivery sandwiches? Let’s be honest, their food isn’t that great. I would have at least sent someone out to Kimmel to nab a couple hundred tacos from The Bell. I believe athletes also have card access to dining halls (and if they didn’t I’m sure they’d be let in anyway), I used to see basketball players at Sadler all the time. So you really have to question why Scoop and his cousin had to splurge on Campus Delivery, when they could have easily gotten food elsewhere. Or we could just blame it on the student who’s ID card it was. You gotta cancel the lost card, and then swiping it would not work…and Scoop would still be playing.

So what do you think the order was that now has given Syracuse a rotation of 4 good players, and 3 guys who probably wouldn’t be playing normally?

First, it was a Sunday. It could have been slightly after midnight Saturday night, and they could have been intoxicated like many college students are at that hour, so I’ll consider that in my estimation here:

Judging from the Campus Delivery Menu (below), I’d say the threesome (we won’t include Scoop I guess because according to his cousin he didn’t eat anything) ordered a combination similar to this:

- 100 wings: $65.29
- 4 extra blue cheese sauces: 4 @ $0.79 each = $3.16
- 2 supreme Sbarro pizzas: 2 @ $14.99 each = $29.98
- 3 Pints of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream: 3 @ $3.59 each = $10.77
- 3 Gatorades: 3 @ $1.69 each = $5.07
- 1 bottled water (for the next morning): $1.49

Total: $115.76

So give or take a couple dimes that could be a possible order. I don’t even think ordering that much Campus Delivery is worth the risk of an indefinite suspension. Let’s hope Scoop did nothing more. It could have been a lot worse, and hopefully the SU Judicial Board will realize that and just force Scoop to take the student out to dinner. Sounds fair to me.

-Pat

Photo credits: foodservices.syr.edu, rivals.com

Toby Maguire Unstoppable?

2008-01-30T13:31:00.000-05:00

I love media day and the coverage of it. My favorite story came from ESPN’s Hashmark blog.
Michael Strahan was asked what actor would play him in a movie. "Someone funny," he replied. When one reporter suggested Forrest Whittaker, Strahan responded incredulously. "Forrest Whittaker!?!? C'mon man." Strahan finally settled on Will Smith: "We could bulk him up and put a gap in his tooth." As for the QBs, Strahan's choices: Eli Manning would be Toby Maguire. Tom Brady would be Brad Pitt.

First of all, sorry Mike, but Forrest Whittaker is right on.

Second, can there be a less confidence inspiring comparison? Toby Maguire vs. Brad Pitt? If for some reason Pitt was cast as the villain in Spiderman 4, I’m pretty confident that it would mean death for Spidey, as there is no way a character played by Pitt is being defeated by a character played by Toby. In the rare case that Pitt does die in a movie, it’s always a cowardly sneak attack by a much lesser character (Troy, Jesse James).

The more I think about it, though, it’s actually a pretty good call by Strahan. Eli does look a lot like Maguire and they both have the same “I’m about to cry but I’m not really sure why” facial expression. Plus, Toby always plays an underdog character. Based on his Sportscenter commercial with Peyton and Archie, I’d say Eli is a little better of an actor than Spidey. Pitt always plays the hero with an air of invincibility, which Brady clearly has.

Somewhat of a tangent, but I cannot tell you how sick I am of all the articles written about how “cool” Brady is. There was the Rick Reilly article months ago about him, in which Reilly sounded like a 13-year-old girl writing about a guy she had a crush on. Jemele Hill of ESPN.com recently wrote about how Brady was so cool that it was ok for him to leave his pregnant girlfriend for a supermodel. I know he’s a good looking guy, and has been a clutch player throughout his career, but people seem to ignore the fact that his charisma level is somewhere between Tim Duncan and Janet Reno. Brady could never do any of the commercials that Peyton does. As a matter of fact, I am recasting Brady as Keanu Reeves.

Other thoughts
-Either Johan lost his pitching hand in a shark fishing accident and everyone knows about it except for Minaya, or the Mets made the steal of the century.
-Just to echo what Pat said yesterday: I hope Brady’s boot means that he has irreparable tendon damage and will not be able to play this Sunday, but realistically, it’s pretty much meaningless. Curtis Martin once said that he could never walk on Monday after a game, so the fact that Brady decided to wear a brace while walking around New York City two weeks before game day doesn’t make me want to house to bet on the Giants. And the only reason for Schilling’s bloody sock is that he didn’t put a Band-Aid on because he was afraid it would hurt ripping it off (does anyone really think Schilling is the first athlete in the history of sports to have a shot before a game?)

-Hey Pat, now you know how I felt in the Eagles-Patriots Super Bowl

Andrew Vitelli

Picture Credits: http://www.ncaa.org/awards/honors_program/top_eight/2004/ManningEliHead.jpg (Eli)
http://www.boxofficepsychics.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/tobey-mcguire.jpg (Toby)
http://www.thesportshernia.com/football/images/brady.jpg (Brady)

Should We Amputate?

2008-01-29T23:59:00.000-05:00

I am hating the upcoming Super Bowl. My co-blogger Andrew can’t wait. We’ve expressed our differences. But there’s something I think that Andrew will agree with me on. This boot incident with Tom Brady is just annoying.

Of course, a few weeks before the big game, some photographer snaps a picture of Tom Brady strolling around in a walking boot. Only hours later he’s spotted out, not limping at all, without the boot on. End of the world. He must have a broken foot! Quickly, let’s devote eight hours of ESPN and an entire NFL Live segment to it! You know what…I know that there’s a two week gap between games to kill time, but I just can’t take this story.

You may remember a few years back, in 2004, when the Boston Red Sox regrettably won a title. And, unless you were stranded on a desert island, you saw one sock dyed red with the “blood” of a Red Sox pitcher in the American League Championship Series. Curt Schilling apparently was having tendon trouble in his right ankle. Team trainers allegedly stitched up Schilling in an attempt to keep the tendon in place before Game 6 against the Yankees.

Now I know I’m a Yankee fan, but the authenticity of this sock has been questioned by more than just angry Yankee fans. I mean, if it weren’t for a sloppy job by this group of trainers that supposedly stitched it up, then it wouldn’t have been bleeding and there would be no famous sock. They probably just left a stitch open for attention. I wouldn’t put it past the Bush endorsing moron that is Curt Schilling (little side note: He’s obsessed with the video games that 12-year-olds outgrow. I don’t know how South Park missed him on their Warcraft episode but here’s a must read interview with Curt explaining his experience on a game called Everquest).

Back to this sock. Fox of course loved it and Joe Buck and Tim McCarver could not stop talking about it. It got tons of attention, just like how Tom Brady’s boot is getting 20 times more chatter than the flu that is plaguing a good deal of the Giants’ squad. So we have Schilling’s sock, and Brady’s boot. They seem like just stupid icons – icons that Boston media and fans relentlessly drool over, and then boast about if the athlete overcomes such improbable horrific odds. It’s just another annoying rally cry, and another slogan we have to hear in that infuriating accent, “but duuude, Tom Brady’s booooot!” It's lose-lose. The Patriots win, he's the next Kirk Gibson. They lose, it was because his foot was in shambles.

-Pat

Who's Calling Dan?

2008-01-29T12:02:00.000-05:00

Last week, we posted a video of Dan Marino’s cell phone ringing during a halftime show. The question remains, however, who was calling him? While there is no way to know for sure, here are a few of our best of who couldn't stop blowing up Dan's T Mobile phone on the Sprint Halftime show:

-Cleo Lemon, reminding Marino they both had the same amount of Super Bowl rings.

-Boomer, just looking for someone to yell at.

-O.J. asking for his ****ing Super Bowl ring back.

-The Los Angeles Express, asking him when he planned on reporting to camp.

-Billy Volek, telling him to stop interrupting Bill Cowher.

Or perhaps it was just Ray Finkle, saying “Laces out!!!”

If you think you’ve got an idea who was calling, let us know by posting it in the comments section.

Barack Obama, a.k.a, Barry O’Bomber

2008-01-27T17:43:00.000-05:00

I’m not going to flesh out much political thought on this blog, but I briefly wanted to speak about democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama. Personally, I think he’s the right guy for the job. With many of the candidates holding a similar stance on most of the issues, what separates Obama is his charismatic personality. He seems to be an orator and politician that can unite this country which has recently been struggling both domestically and internationally. On top of all that, and most importantly, the man can flat out ball. And yes, he’s left handed, hardy har har.

Obama, who is 46 years old and stands 6 feet 2 inches tall, is a bit removed from his organized playing days. In the late 1970s, he donned No. 23 for Punahou High School in Hawaii and was referred to as Barry O’Bomber. Apparently he didn’t see too many minutes, but Punahou is a school with over 3,000 students and impressive sports programs (in 2005, its sports program was ranked by Sports Illustrated as the fourth best in the country).
Here's a video of Obama in the state championship game, in which Punahou was blowing out its opponent (there have been some debates about its authenticity, but I believe its real). I'm impressed with his play, but he's really gotta hit his free throws.

Obama did not play in college but got back into pickup games at Harvard Law and has kept up with the sport. Although he can’t dunk anymore (he first did when he was 16), Obama still apparently has a pretty wily game.

I’ve read quite a few articles on Obama’s interest in basketball. It’s great to read these stories in outlets like The New York Times or ABC News that speak about pick-up basketball like its some sort of dark, foreign and dangerous activity. Nonetheless, they are pretty interesting.

Here are some of my favorite tidbits from the Times article, including a bit of a scouting report:

“He has been playing since adolescence, on cracked-asphalt playgrounds and at exclusive health clubs, developing a quick offensive style, a left-handed jump shot and relationships that have extended into the political arena.

Mr. Robinson, now the coach of Brown University’s men’s team, said the 6-foot-2 senator is too skinny to be an imposing presence, but he is fast, with good wind even when he was a smoker. Mr. Obama is left-handed, and his signature move is to fake right and veer left, surprising players used to guarding right-handed competitors.

He is gentleman enough to call fouls on himself: Steven Donziger, a law school classmate, has heard Mr. Obama mutter, “my bad,” tossing the other team the ball.”

It seems as if Obama is a glue guy, a shifty guard/forward that is fundamental sound. Kind of like another southpaw and one of my favorite players, Josh Pace from Syracuse. Speaking of the Orange, as the team lost its fourth scholarship guard this season due to a suspension, maybe Jim Boeheim can make a contribution to Barack’s campaign and get Obama to suit up for a game or two (unfortunately, AD Daryl Gross has already contributed to Hillary’s campaign)

Anyways, back to Barack. I’d like to think that Americans, who have a propensity to like a leader they can relate to, will see Obama’s play on the hardwood as something that makes him a “down to earth” guy. Such a hobby is certainly more impressive than what attracted voters to George W. Bush, which was his average – cough, debatable, cough -- intellect.

Obama just seems like the man. He’s a great speaker, is very intelligent, and plays pickup games not only in fancy health clubs, but on the streets of Chicago too. I’ll leave you with a quote from a piece in Sports Illustrated, where S.L. Price played Obama one-on-one before the Iowa caucus.

"All right," I say coyly, flipping him the ball. "This is for the presidency...."
He drills a 19-footer, heels barely leaving the ground. "Did you hear me?" I say.
"Why do you think I hit it?" he says.

I mean if the man called his shot, I say it’s only fair to give him the presidency. No way Hillary pulls that off.

-Pat

Photo credits: si.com, nytimes.com

Eli Manning Unstoppable!!

2008-01-24T13:23:00.000-05:00

First of all, I would like to apologize for letting Pat, a Giants hater, fill the blog up with anti-Big Blue propaganda since the Giants’ historic win Sunday. I have had little free time, but will now counter Pat with a pro-Giants post.
After two weeks of the season, I was convinced that the Giants could make a realistic run at the number one pick in the draft. They then turned it around and won their next six games. Late in the season, the Giants looked like a team that would once again stumble into the playoffs and get wiped out in the first round. Amazingly, they have won three playoff road games, including two against the NFC’s elite, and made it the Super Bowl. Eli Manning, who many were doubting (some chumps went as far as to question claims that he was unstoppable), is finally looking like the franchise quarterback the Giants thought that they were getting when they traded 12 first round draft picks and Jon Bon Jovi to move up three spots.
Have New Yorkers ever seen an underdog make a run like this? The answer is yes. In 1999, the New York Knicks (RIP) headed into the playoffs as the number eight seed. They then pulled off three consecutive upsets before falling to the Spurs in the NBA Finals. How does Big Blue’s run compare to the Knickerbockers ’99 shot at the title? Let’s take a look. (Picture Credit: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/giants/2007/10/13/2007-10-13_giants_coaches_want_eli_manning_to_compl.html)
Preseason Expectations:
’98-’99 Knicks: The Knicks were coming off a solid 1998 season, and had added Latrell Sprewell and Marcus Camby to the mix. They were expected to be a contender in the Eastern Conference, and had a full season been played (only 50 games were played because of a players’ strike) they probably would have been a little higher than the 8 seed.
’07-’08 Giants: The G-Men lost 7 of their last 9 games in ’06, including a second consecutive first round KO at the hands of the hated Eagles. They also lost their best offensive player, Tiki Barber. Michael Strahan, the face of their franchise, had missed all of training camp. 8-8 was a generous estimate at how the Giants would finish.
Expectations Heading into Postseason Play:
Knicks: While the Knicks were considered a dangerous 8-seed, most expected the Heat to take care of business. The ‘bockers were also without franchise center Patrick Ewing for much of the playoffs, and had played uninspired ball all season.
Giants: The Giants valiant effort in week 17 against the undefeated undisputed New England Patriots got many to pick the Giants to beat Tampa Bay in the first round. However, no one thought that they could do any more than that, and ESPN had even anointed the Seattle Seahawks, with the ghost of Shaun Alexander as their starting running back, as the NFC’s underrated sleeper team. (Just a side note, but how could any player get as bad as quickly as Alexander? Does anyone still think the Giants were mistaken in passing on him and drafting Ron Dayne instead? The guy must have worked out with Eddie George after his MVP season in 2005.)
Playoff Wins:
Knicks: The Knicks shocked their bitter rivals, The Miami Heat (led by Alonzo “I sign with a title contender to play 15 minutes a game and win a ring because I couldn’t win one when I was good” Mourning) in an epic 5 game series in round 1. Two years earlier the two teams had brawled in their playoff series and the Knicks lost the series because of the NBA’s idiotic “If you stand up to tie you’re shoes during a fight, you’re suspended and thrown into a pit of lava” rule. The Knicks then beat the Reggie Miller-led Pacers in six games. In the 1990s, Miller was to the Knicks what Will Smith was to Aliens, so knocking him out of the playoffs (the Pacers were the 2 seed) was especially sweet. Oh yea, they also swept the Hawks.
Giants: The Giants win over the Cowboys was comparable to the Knicks heat series, as the two teams legitimately hated each other and the Cowboys were the heavy favorites. While the two teams hadn’t gone to fisticuffs, there had been serious trash-talking all season. The Giants win over the Packers doesn’t quite measure up to the Knicks topping the Pacers in terms of being a revenge win, but we were all pretty sick of hearing about Favre and no one was giving the Giants a chance in that game. Oh yea, they also beat the Bucs.
Defining moment #1:
Knicks: With the Knicks down 1 in the closing seconds of Game 5, Allan Houston took a short jumper that bounced off the front rim before miraculously changing course and landing in the basket. That shot going in completely defied all laws of phyisics. I take it as proof that even God did not want to see Mourning win a title, and that the refs of the 2006 NBA Finals are all going to hell.
Giants: With two weeks off, Cowboys star quarterback Tony Romo decided to take a trip to Mexico with girlfriend Jessica Simpson. He lost the game and drew a ton of scrutiny, proving that going to Mexico is never a good idea.
Defining moment #2:
Knicks: Down three late in game three, Larry Johnson nails a trey and draws a foul. There is actually a song written about what has gone down in history as “The Four point play.”

Giants: After missing two chip shot field goals, including a potential game winner, in regulation, kicker Lawrence Tynes somehow nails a 47 yard walk off in overtime.
Player who did little all season but stepped up in the playoffs:
Knicks: Talented center Marcus Camby was acquired from the Toronto Raptors in the offseason, but for some reason got less playing time than an Orioles backup shortstop in the Cal Ripken era. With Ewing injured, Van Gundy was forced to put in Camby and as it turns out, the guy’s not bad.
Giants: Coming into the season, Ahmad Bradshaw was the 12th running back on the depth chart, behind Brandon Jacobs, Derrick Ward, Reuben Droughns, and Tom Coughlin. Ward got hurt, Droughns fell into a black hole (I think. I’m not really sure what happened to him) and now Bradshaw is flourishing in a platoon role with Jacobs.
How they fared in the Championship:
Knicks: The Knickerbockers were no match for Tim Duncan, David Robinson and the San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs took the series in five.
Giants: TBD

Curt Menafee, you are a patient man...

2008-01-23T00:37:00.000-05:00

Drew DiSalvo is back again to give some insight into the NFL on FOX broadcast. When he’s not working on his new photo blog , he occasionally finds time to guest post here on Giving 111 Percent:

I'm not going to say I didn't see this coming, but Sunday's NFL on FOX broadcast from chilly Lambeau Field really was amazing television.

No, not because Joe Buck and Troy Aikman were actually tolerable for four quarters, but instead because of the fantastic winter hat sported by our favorite buzzcut host - Howie Long! Now Terry Bradshaw's driver's cap looked a bit ridiculous, and Jimmy Johnson's headband was wrapped so tight it appeared to cut off blood flow to his brain, but did Howie really feel it was necessary to rob a Russian soldier of his headgear?

It's amazing that the production staff actually let him sit in front of a camera with that thing on his head. But this is nothing new for anyone that knows the history of these co-hosts. One way or another, they are all insane. If not for Curt Menefee and his calming influence, the show probably would fall apart in the first ten minutes.

Let's take a quick look at the pasts of each of these FOX legends...

Terry Bradshaw
Undoubtedly the craziest of the bunch. In shows past he's gotten into heated arguments with Frank Caliendo and once kissed Jillian Barberie on the lips. Maybe it's all the hits he took as a quarterback, but this man sure is an odd one. He even started recording country albums in the mid-1970s. That's right, I said country albums. Surely I jest? Sadly, I do not.

Howie Long
This man is a different breed of crazy from Bradshaw. He's 15 years removed from the NFL, yet he’s enormous and still has that killer look in his eye from his playing days. He's the Private Pyle of the show, complete with military-cropped hair. He could kick the ass of any of those football-playing super-robots on FOX promos. And as an actor his choice of films has been phenomenal, from the classic "Broken Arrow" to "Firestorm". When someone in a movie is riding a motorcycle and throws a chainsaw through a car's windshield, and you still believe it’s possible in real life, then that mofo is bonafide crazy.

Jimmy Johnson
This man is probably not as crazy as he appears. Yes, he does get worked up from time to time and forgets that he's actually in front of a camera. Yes, his platinum helmet hair is a sight to behold. But supposedly his IQ is 162 and his nickname in college was the ever-popular Tank! And he's does those Miller Lite Man Law commercials. That's gotta count for something.

Curt Menefee
This man is normal. 100% normal. I searched the internet for dirt on him and nothing surfaced. Nothing. I'm pretty sure Curt's never jaywalked or even drank a beer. It's no mistake that he is in charge of asking the questions and moving the show along. I guess sometimes FOX does employ some common sense. And props to Curt for being the only member of the show without any headgear on Sunday.

Lastly, I do give the FOX crew credit for doing the show outdoors, unlike the pampered CBS crew, ringing cell phones and all.

-Drew DiSalvo

God, what have I done to deserve this?

2008-01-21T21:16:00.001-05:00

Honestly, you may not want to hear me rant. But it's my blog and I will rant...I need to blow off some steam after these past few days.

If sports couldn't get any worse for me, Syracuse gets up on No. 9 Georgetown, only to go into overtime, and have a game winning three pointer rattle out. It would have been a nice bright spot in an otherwise dismal year (or three or four years) for Syracuse sports.

The overtime was just a tease, just a way to make it hurt even more. And the same thing happened yesterday. I despise the Giants and their fans - many of which are my friends. Of course, I would have liked to see nothing more than them be as miserable as me. But after it looked like they had their own Doug Brien incident, they snuck out a victory in overtime thanks to some vintage Favre headscratching throws. The missed Giants FG at the end of regulation? Just a tease.

So now we have Syracuse basketball plummeting toward the bottom of the Big East. And I have to sit down two weeks from now, if I can get myself to, to watch a Super Bowl played by the two teams I hate more than anything in this world. Forget representing New York, I absolutely hate the Giants. But I can't see Boston spoiled with another win. Can I root for the Giants? I tried to in week 17 when they played the Pats and I just couldn't do it - I just sat there with no emotion toward either team but hatred. Maybe I'll just root for some good commercials to appease my pain in between actual play.

Yet again, at least I have the Knicks. What a year.

P.S. - here's a funny/ridiculous video that made me laugh for a few minutes, because well, I guess I do hate Hitler more than the Giants.

-Pat

Maryland-UNC, Giants-Packers, etc.

2008-01-20T13:43:00.000-05:00

- It’s good to see some signs of life from Maryland, and the win against UNC puts us back into the tournament picture. Hopefully the upcoming game against Duke will be competitive; watching Duke dismantle us twice two years ago was too painful to experience again.

- As great as the UNC game yesterday was, the broadcast was abysmal. With the game going back and forth in the second half, ABC twice came back late from commercial after points had been scored. Also, every time Maryland took a lead, all Brent Musburger and Steve Lavin could talk about was how “North Carolina is capable of making a run.” Hey, guys, how about talking about what’s happening instead of what could happen?

- How much TV time did Tiki cost himself with his pre-season criticism of Manning and Coughlin? If not for those comments, he would have been on every NFL segment on ESPN the past two weeks. Now, he can’t try to praise the Giants and will seem stupid and petty if he rips them, so no one really wants to hear anything from him.

- For the record, I’d put my confidence in the Giants this game somewhere between “pessimistic” and “terrified.”

- The Knicks have won four of their last five without Starbury. Could he have really been the problem?

By Andrew Vitelli

Syracuse Basketball...a modern day dynasty...clearly.

2008-01-19T16:45:00.000-05:00

It's like that character in horror movies, like Jason, that looks as if he's dead, but keeps on coming back. No matter how dead it appears, it's still breathing.

What is the "it" I'm referencing? It's the Syracuse "dynasty" hand-flash and t-shirts. I thought it was dead. I thought Jimmy B said something and we hadn't seen a dynasty symbol hoisted above a head since the preseason NIT in MSG. But then, against the Big East colossus Rutgers, Donte Greene threw it up as the Orange decisively pulled away from the Scarlet Knights. Some clueless students of course returned the favor...and also still wear the t-shirt from Manny's (pictured below). And then, inexplicably, Scoop Jardine threw it up in the middle of the Villanova contest Saturday, before the Orange was dropped 81-71.

For the love of God...please stop. If the injuries, lack of depth, and overall youth are not frustrating enough with this Syracuse team, the players and some spectators feel the need to embarrass the rest of us Syracuse fans with this dynasty hoopla.

The Orange is 13-6, 3-3 in the Big East. The team has dropped three home games, including a loss to a Rhode Island team - which, despite being a solid squad, just lost to a St. Louis team that scored 20 points in an entire game. Six losses, many more on the way, nowhere close to a national ranking, countless dumb mistakes, no depth, porous defense and a struggling half-court offense. That's what I call a dynasty - or how it is defined on the t-shirt "a team that dominates their sport for a period of time."

Sure, Cuse won in 2003. And SU is still one of the most recognizable and successful programs in America. But the timing here is just off. Two years of first-round tournament losses, an NIT appearance last season, and who knows where the Orange is headed this year. Not exactly the 1990s Chicago Bulls here.

So please, for once and for all, stop this crap. Syracuse is not a dynasty. It is not something you can just invent at Midnight Madness before the season starts. That's basing it off nothing, and now, with a 13-6 record, everyone looks foolish (even people like me who have thankfully never flashed the sign). I know SU has had horrific luck, but you can't just proclaim yourself a dynasty. First you actually have to prove yourself, even if you have an incredibly talented freshman class. So while I hope to one day claim that Syracuse is a dynasty, now is not the time. End it...or at least prove me wrong and don't lose again this year.

-Pat

Photo credits: syracuse.com, mannysonline.com

Stephen Jackson, please leave your gun at home

2008-01-17T14:48:00.000-05:00

Pac Man Jones is back at it again. The suspended Tennessee Titan got in to trouble again at a strip club. No, not for making it rain, but for punching a woman (who is also a defense attorney) at the club in the face. If hitting a woman wasn’t bad enough, it was apparently a suckerpunch. Oh, and Randy Moss was slapped with a restraining order after he was accused of assaulting a woman. It gave us here at Giving 111 Percent the idea that we should turn the tables. Athletes go around abusing common folk. What if it were the other way around? So here we are, with our top ten sports figures we’d most love to punch in the face without any repercussions (feel free to give us your list or criticize ours in the comments section):

This list could encompass about half of the New England Patriot and Boston Red Sox lineups if we so chose. You could really just pick about anyone from those teams: Teddy Bruschi, Rodney Harrison, Jonathan Papelbon, Curt Schilling etc. etc. But to make it a bit harder, here is our top five without those two teams:

10. Tony Stewart – Yup that’s right. A NASCAR reference. He is a real idiot though.
9. Shannon Sharpe – Doesn’t he just seem to be a complete jerk on the NFL Pregame show? Granted, even if the punch was without repercussions, we’d still sprint out of there.
8. Reggie Miller – Sure, some of it’s for all the pain he’s caused. But honestly, maybe we could fix his teeth.
7. Joakim Noah – Anyone who watched college basketball during the two year stretch when Florida won back to back titles understands this.
6. Tim McCarver – His baseball “analysis” keeps getting worse and worse. We just found this site (http://www.shutuptimmccarver.com). This is his quote of the year on the site: “If you leadoff and you play every day, you’re guaranteed to bat with the bases empty at least 162 times.” Punching him would be fun for just listening to what statement he throws out after getting clocked.
5. Isiah Thomas – Does this need any explanation? The only negative is that after getting popped, he’d probably still have that annoying smirk on his face.
4. The 2004 Indiana Pacers – Sure the Detroit crowd provoked them. But this is for the fans who were wrongly hit…like the guy Artest goes after, while the guy who threw the drink stands by and watches. We still can’t believe this happened. You gotta watch it again. To think professional athletes lost it like this, and fans just got wrapped up in it as well, it’s lucky no one died that night. So here’s your chance kid crying at the end of the clip, or the first guy mauled by Artest that didn’t actually throw the drink, for revenge.

3. Jose Canseco – Someone just needs to knock him on his ass. He ratted out a lot of people juicing in the steroid era for his own personal gain.
2. Greg Paulus – Pat is thrilled that Syracuse didn’t get him in an Orange uniform (Paulus is from the Syracuse area). He is quite possibly the most annoying player in college basketball. It’s always easy to hate on the scrappy little white guard. But Paulus’ flopping, constant whining at every turn, and groping of his teammates at each stoppage of play is just too much. I had already decided on Paulus before last night. But now, after punching him, you’d have a shot at four other Dukies running over frantically. And maybe you can throw in a slap of Coach K for all his terrible commercials – does he really need the extra cash? And they aren’t funny…so why does he keep shooting them?
1. Bill Belichick – We said we wouldn’t include New England lineups. But their coach is a separate entity. No one bothers us more than this man. Pat is 99 percent certain that he is satan. His glare into the camera at press conferences is unbelievably cold. And he dresses like a homeless man. And he cheats. And he’s a huge ____ ...yea you can fill in the blank. Boy, that punch would be sweet.

We ain't talkin bout Mexico City, we talkin 'bout Cabo!

2008-01-14T16:15:00.000-05:00

If you haven't seen or heard about the Terrell Owens interview after the Cowboys lost to the Giants on Sunday, it has been all over ESPN and other media outlets. After the obligatory thank you sent to God, T.O. continues on to the most referenced part, as he breaks down and begs the media not to criticize Tony Romo for taking four days off to go to Mexico with girlfriend Jessica Simpson (starting at around 1:40). He hilariously starts sniffling and saying, "he's my teammate...my quarterback." Thankfully, he's wearing a pair of those sunglasses that cover half one's face, a favorite of Northface wearing collegiate females these days. While the quick 30-second crying outburst was surely amazing, what really stuck out for us was something that he said later in the longer clip of the interview (which can be seen below):

"I've always had good relationships with quarterbacks...I always know what type of person I am on the inside." (at 6:05)

While Andrew takes joy in seeing T.O. bounced from the playoffs, Pat has somewhat of a soft spot in his heart for the wide receiever. Pat can't help but enjoy his earnest remarks and the never-ending tragedy of errors that he provides all of us. But this quote isn't earnest, it's just hilariously ridiculous. Maybe T.O. is a reformed man after his near death overdose.

But honestly, what's next? M.C. Hammer declaring that he's always been good at managing his money? John Rocker claiming that subways have always been his perferred method of transportation? It's nice to see T.O. defending his quarterback instead of throwing him under a bus for once, but does he think that we're all going to forget him exploding at Donovan McNabb or suggesting that Jeff Garcia was gay? When he flips out on the sideline, has to be restrained by coaches and blows every gasket possible in the general direction of his quarterback, is “inside Terrell” just being kind?

Owens has never gotten along with a quarterback despite playing with some pretty good ones, and it feels like it's only a matter of time before Romo feels his wrath. Or, maybe, he's that changed man. Anyways, we just can't wait to see what's next. Getcha popcorn ready.

• Another great tidbit from the chippy Giants-Cowboys game:

Brandon Jacobs has broken out as a running back, rushing for over 1,000 yards this season despite missing five games and parts of two others. However, he has also become a pretty entertaining trash talker. He and Cowboys receiver Patrick Crayton have been exchanging barbs all season through the media, and after the Giants win, Jacobs made sure to pile it on: “The Cowboys are a great football team. They might have had a chance to win if Patrick Crayton didn't drop the two key passes.”

Earlier in the year, Crayton had commented on how Jacobs talked a lot of trash but didn’t truly back it up, and also how the Giants were either scared of the Cowboys or trying to talk themselves into believing they could beat Dallas.

Jacobs provided the gem of the sparring earlier this season after Crayton boasted that the Cowboys were on a different level than the Giants.
“It’s unfair for him to say that,” Jacobs responded. “He sucks, first of all.”

This is really great stuff…even if Jacobs hasn’t truly established himself as a star, there’s no reason for him to tolerate any trash Patrick Crayton throws his way. Jacobs is slowly developing into a must watch player. Not for his running, which is indeed entertaining, but more-so for quotes like these and absurd clumsy touchdowns celebrations like this (sorry for the awful quality and the d-bag Patriots fan at the beginning):

• Who’s messing around with the ESPN ticker?

The only thing more absurd than the Terrell Owens post-game press conference was the bottom line scrolling on the ESPN screen. In case you somehow missed it, a score briefly flashed by that stated: Detroit 58, NY 85. Was it the Shock and the Liberty? No?! It was the Isiah Thomas led New York Knicks walloping the Pistons as the game wrapped up with the Knicks routing Detroit 89-65! Granted, the Pistons had played four games in five nights, but at this point, we’re willing to take anything. What a shocker. One can only imagine how big the victory would have been with an appearance by team leader Stephon Marbury. Too bad the one time the Knicks actually do something positive, it’s completely overshadowed.

The Best Commercial that Never Was

2008-01-11T19:23:00.000-05:00

We’ve all seen the Coors Light commercials that use footage of interviews with NFL coaches mixed with questions posed by “reporters” asking questions about Coors Light. We’ve also all seen the video of Oklahoma State Coach Mike Gundy’s rant at the media after an article was published that criticized one of his players(in case you haven’t, it’s posted below). Unfortunately, Gundy is not an NFL coach so it won’t be turned into a Coors Light commercial. If it were, however, this is what I imagine it would be like.

Coors Light guy 1: Hey coach, what do you say to people who say all light beers taste the same?
Gundy: That ain’t true!
Coors Light Guy 2(pointing at Guy 1): His girlfriend criticizes him for watching too much football and drinking too much Coors Light.
Gundy: You don’t downgrade him cause he does everything right!
Coors Light Guy 1: Coach, you know the newspaper didn’t say anything about Coors Light’s great taste?
Gundy: That’s why I don’t read the newspaper!! Because it’s garbage.
Coors Light Guy 2: You know some tailgate parties have other beers, and not Coors Light?
Gundy: Are you kidding me? Where are we at in society today?
Coors Light Guy 1: Coach, how many ice cold Coors Lights do you drink at a tailgate?
Gundy: 40!
Coors Light Guy 1: 40? Wow.
Gundy: I’m a man!
Coors Light Guy 2: Well, what happens when you drink a beer that’s not a Coors Light?
Gundy: It makes me want to puke.

By Andrew Vitelli

What are those marijuana leaves doing on Ohio State's helmets?

2008-01-08T19:22:00.000-05:00

We here at Giving 111 Percent constantly debate with our friends and family about sports. One of those we love arguing with is Drew DiSalvo, who is Pat’s older brother, and a Red Sox fan. He’s a New York City Park Ranger and an avid sports fan. Once in while he’ll bring his rants to the blog…when he’s not busy ticketing rowdy dog owners or chasing squirrels and pigeons.

When Ohio State's kicker, Ryan Pretorius, lined up for his 1st quarter field goal attempt last night against LSU in the BCS title game, I couldn't help but notice the exorbitant number of helmet stickers he had. It wasn't so much that I didn't think he was good - he ended up converting the 25-yard attempt, and although he later had a 38-yard attempt blocked, he did hit 81% of his attempts for the season with a long of 50 - it was just a surprise that a kicker of all position players could amass such a sticker collection. Was the Ohio State coaching staff giving him a sticker for every extra point he hit or every time he got a touchback on a kickoff? Well, it turns out there is a very specific criteria to the awarding of these helmet stickers, or buckeye leaves as they are known to the Ohio State faithful.

The following website explains the whole awarding of the stickers...and it's quite a formula. Some of the main achievements that will give a Buckeye a leaf are: wins, meeting film grade standards, big plays, defensive scores, forcing and recovering fumbles, and my personal favorite - the FG/XP team displaying 100% Mechanics as a whole for any attempt.

So no need to fret bench players; everyone gets a leaf after an Ohio State victory! And not every buckeye leaf is specifically stat driven, as after each game Coach Tressel does get to award a “Big Play in Football Game” sticker to any player. I have a pretty good feeling that after the 1990 Hall of Fame bowl game against Auburn, Ohio State’s then-head coach John Cooper gave Zack Dumas a leaf for this big play, even if Auburn did end up winning the game, 31-14.

So, what’s a Buckeye and why does it have leaves? Well, you guessed it, the Ohio Buckeye, or Aesculus glabra, is the state tree of Ohio. Or maybe you didn’t guess that, as not everyone has a vast knowledge of flora like me. Anyway, Native Americans thought the trees’ nuts resembled buck’s eyes, and the rest is history. The tradition of helmet stickers, believe it or not, began with the Buckeyes. Former Ohio State head coach Woody Hayes, along with the help of trainer Ernie Biggs, devised the idea back in 1968. Since then, quite a few teams have jumped on the bandwagon, while many others (Penn State and Notre Dame) have vehemently disagreed with such actions that they feel stress individual-over-team performance as well as tamper with the tradition and history of the game. Here’s a look at some of the more recognizable, and a few obscure, helmet stickers, many of which popped up this past bowl season…

Florida State

If their team name and the arrowhead on the helmet weren’t offensive enough, the Seminoles chose tomahawks as their helmet stickers. Somewhere a Native American is shaking his head in disbelief. Florida State is also one of the few schools that actually can take away stickers, for such gaffes as missing assignments, first down penalties, and general laziness…or maybe participating in a massive cheating operation.

Hawaii

With over 4,000 yards passing and 38 TD passes, you've got to wonder how Colt Brennan didn't run out of helmet space half way through the 2007-2008 season. And in case you were wondering, the sticker is a warrior helmet with two interlocking spears beneath it.

Georgia

Georgia players are awarded bones for valiant play, just the type of thing that their bulldog mascot, Uga VI, loves to sink his teeth into...unlike the dogs at Auburn, who chew on their own players.

Purdue
The Boilermakers have recently changed their helmet stickers. When they first started awarding them, each sticker was of the train from their logo, but now they are the infamous hammer of mascot, Purdue Pete. I'm not a genius, but I'd have to guess getting hit by a train would probably be more damaging than a whack from a hammer.

Louisiana-Lafayette

Although they ended ’07 in the bottom half of the Sun Belt conference, the Ragin’ Cajuns do win the award for coolest helmet sticker, a Cajun pepper! What makes this helmet sticker even more special is that it’s taken straight from the apostrophe in the Ragin’ Cajun logo on the side of the helmet. UL-Lafayette’s jersey uniformity I love, their consistent out-of-conference results this year (0-5), eh not so much.

- Drew DiSalvo

Giving 111 Percent's own National Championship

2008-01-06T19:59:00.000-05:00

#3 LSU Tigers vs. #5 USC Trojans
On the eve of the BCS "National Championship" game between Ohio State and LSU, we here at Giving 111 Percent are announcing the winner of our own national championship game. Over the past few weeks, we've seeded teams and matched them up in an 8-team playoff tournament. In just a chaotic way as the BCS, we've decided which two teams will be represented in the title game. In our playoffs, LSU (the 3 seed) faced USC (the 5 seed).

LSU squeaked out a win against Oklahoma, and then walloped VT to reach the title game. USC beat Georgia by 10 and then slipped by Missouri.

As expected, this game was close and exciting to watch. The teams were evenly matched. Heading into the bowl season, LSU was 11-2 and USC was 10-2. LSU averaged 448 yards per game, while USC gained an average of 418. The Trojans gave up 259 yards per game, while the Tigers gave up 283.

Such a matchup between equally great teams came down to the last play. As USC went to the air in a quick passing attack against the LSU defense, LSU answered with its dual quarterback threat. Trojan QB John David Booty tallied numerous scores, but the Tigers' Matt Flynn led LSU through the air, while SEC Championship game MVP Ryan Perrilloux gave USC fits by running from the QB position.
The game was back and forth all night long until the USC offense finally wilted under the Tiger pressure. With the strong LSU defensive line breaking through a tired Trojan offensive line, Booty was forced into rushing a throw, which was intercepted by strong safety Craig Steltz, who entered the game tied for 12th in the nation with 6 regular season picks.

Steltz brought the ball down to the Trojan 20 yard line, where Perrilloux and RB Jacob Hester pounded the ball down into field goal range and ran the clock down for a time expiring FG

FINAL SCORE: LSU 38, USC 35

...Now if the BCS could only adopt such a playoff (a 4-team one is much more feasible), we could stop doing simulations like this and actually determine a true national champion.

Who'll Stop the Reign?

2008-01-05T18:13:00.000-05:00

The Patriots, on bye this week, are the favorites to win Super Bowl XXLI after completing the first 16-0 season in NFL history. Which teams have a chance to beat them? Here are the five teams who have the best shot.

5. Green Bay Packers
Tom Brady received 49 of 50 NFL MVP votes. The other one went to Brett Favre, who is the one reason not to count out the Packers as Super Bowl contenders. With the breakout season by running back Ryan Grant, they are no longer one dimensional. The Packers have to be on this list just for what kind of storylines a Favre-Brady Super Bowl would have.

4. Jacksonville Jaguars
It’s almost hard to believe that this team is as good as it is. David Garrard has thrown 18 touchdowns and only three interceptions. Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones Drew combine to give the Jaguars one of the best running attacks in the league. It’s hard to see Garrard beating Brady in a shootout, which any Patriots playoff game is likely to become. If the Jaguars can get an early lead, however, they have the type of offense that can hold it.

3. Dallas Cowboys
Want a team that can win a shootout? Tony Romo has as many weapons at his disposal as any quarterback in the league not named Tom Brady. Terrell Owens and Jason Witten are good enough to give any defense fits. And Tony Romo isn’t holding for field goals anymore. The biggest doubt, however, is whether the Cowboys defense can stop Brady and the Patriots offense. In their regular season meeting, Brady tore the Cowboys apart in the second half, turning the game into a blowout.

2. San Diego Chargers
Last January, the Patriots came into San Diego and upset the 14-2 Chargers. The Chargers would love to even the score this year. The Chargers have to be the least predictable team in the league, sometimes looking like legit contenders and sometimes looking like a team that doesn’t know how to win. I would not be surprised to see them lose tomorrow. At the same time, they have as much talent as almost anyone and are a team no one wants to catch when they are hot.

1. Indianapolis Colts
This is the game football fans have wanted all year. When the two teams played during the regular season, it was billed as Super Bowl XXL and a half. Peyton used a career-defining second half comeback to beat the Pats on the way to the Super Bowl last year. Since the Pats won the regular season meeting, the Colts will have to beat the unbeaten Patriots at Foxborough. With receiver Marvin Harrison hurt, Peyton doesn’t have nearly the plethora of options that Brady does. When these teams play, it’s always a good game and it’s hard to believe they won’t meet again this post-season.

By Andrew Vitelli

Getting back into it

2008-01-02T17:13:00.000-05:00

Hey all, sorry for the down-time on the blog - between the holidays, work and so forth, it's been a bit of a busy time. That being said, we're going to try to get the flow back. Therefore, here are some of my thoughts in the past week or so of sports:

The Bowl Season has not been too impressive, especially the two BCS bowls so far. Illinois showed that while it had a nice bounce-back season, they were not BCS bowl ready. It would have been nice to see another team match up with a strong USC team. And Hawaii did not challenge Georgia at all. Although they were a feel good story that by going undefeated deserved a BCS bowl bid, the only thing that Hawaii impressed me with was the number of fans the school brought to New Orleans. It's just hard to really get fired up about these games when they are occurring a month after the regular season ended. With such a long layoff, college football almost becomes an afterthought by now.

The Outdoor Hockey game in Buffalo was outstanding on a day of somewhat boring football (excluding the Michigan-Florida game and UVA-Texas Tech game). Granted, I only watched some of the game, but what a spectacle. Packing in 71,000 fans into Ralph Wilson was great to see. I went up there early in the NFL season to see the Jets play the Bills, and while I'm not sure I can say too much about the city as a whole, those Buffalonians sure can tailgate. And they were at it again in the snow for a hockey game.

The Patriots are just infuriating. It looked like they weren't going to be perfect this season several times. But they just always find a way to squeak out games. While the Giants lost a tough game, by going toe-to-toe with the Pats should give them confidence that they can get through a mediocre NFC playoff field. As for the Pats, it looks as if teams are finding ways to get to them. But it probably doesn't mean anything. They'll just tease teams into thinking they have a chance and then will beat those teams.

College Basketball is starting to get going for real, as conference play is starting. My squad, Syracuse, faces St. John's tonight. Although the NFL will steal most of the spotlight for the next few weeks, this should be a great basketball season. There are several great teams, including Memphis, UNC, Kansas, UCLA and so forth. Each seem as if they could be number one teams in years past. And with a fabulous freshmen class, I really think this is going to be one of the wilder and more intriguing college basketall seasons of recent years.

-Pat

Photos: si.com

16-0 meaningless, 19-0 is what counts

2007-12-28T12:31:00.000-05:00

Tom Coughlin would be crazy to play Plaxico and Jacobs this Saturday as the Giants try to stop the Pats from going 16-0. It would be great to be the team to end the Pats’ perfect season. But considering that they have a playoff game a week later, it really doesn’t make sense to be clawing tooth and nail for a hard fought victory when their playoff seed has already been set. The game means a lot more for the Patriots than it does for the Giants, plus if the Pats get banged up they have a bye week coming up.

The rest of the league (not to mention the ’72 Dolphins) may not be thrilled to see a team roll over and let the Pats complete the first 16-0 regular season in history. But the Pats still have to win three playoff games for the 16-0 to mean anything. Think the ’72 Dolphins won’t be popping champagne if the Pats lose to the Colts in the Conference Championship Game? Without a Super Bowl Championship, 16-0 will mean nothing.

Back to the Giants. Sunday’s game against the Bills was a perfect example of a team winning in spite of their quarterback. By the fourth quarter, all Eli had to do was hand the ball to either Jacobs or rookie running back Ahmad Bradshaw, and he couldn’t even do that. Eli fumbled five times, losing two, and threw two interceptions. At this point, whenever Eli drops back to pass, I pray for an incompletion.

College Football Playoffs Semi-Finals

2007-12-22T14:40:00.000-05:00

After a bye week last week, action resumed in the College Football Playoffs today. The match-up for next week’s College Football Championship is set, as today featured one blowout and one nail biter. In case you missed it, here is a recap of last round’s action. (Round One)

#5 USC Trojans 35, #8 Missouri Tigers 31

The Tigers could not stop USC’s high-powered offense, as Chauncey Washington and Joe McKnight combined for over 150 rushing yards and three TDs. USC Quarterback John David Booty made sure this wasn’t the last game of his college career, throwing for over 200 yards and two touchdowns while not turning the ball over. Tigers quarterback Chase Daniel had a big game, throwing for over 300 yards and 3 TDs. However, the Tigers couldn’t keep up with USC’s balanced offensive attack. USC heads to the title game.

#3 LSU Tigers 31, #7 Virginia Tech Hokies 14

VT looked for revenge of an early season blowout to LSU in September, which saw the Hokies fall to the Tigers by the score of 48-7. But despite the great motivation, VT was simply overmatched in all facets of the game. The LSU dual quarterback threat with Ryan Perrilloux and Matt Flynn provided enough offense against a stout Hokie defense. On offense, the Hokies, as they did in September, struggled mightily. The Tigers first shut down Branden Ore, and then dropped back into pass coverage and let Glenn Dorsey pressure VT's Sean Glennon. Facing an early deficit, Glennon was forced to pass - not the Hokies' strength as they averaged less than 200 pass yards per game this season. LSU sustained long drives by handing the ball to Jacob Hester nearly every down, and he wore down both the Tech defense and the clock. Thanks to the early lead, the Tigers controlled the game and were never truly threatened.

Be sure to check back next week to see who's crowned the National Champion.

Picture Credits:
Top: http://www.nfldraftdog.com/2008_nfl_draft/booty.jpg
Bottom: http://media.2theadvocate.com/images/matt+flynn_080307.jpg

-By Pat and Andrew

Keep on Hecklin'

2007-12-19T13:40:00.000-05:00

I just want to quickly talk about heckling, specifically pertaining to the so-called “basketball team” the New York Knicks and the head coach Isiah Thomas.

As we stated at the outset of this blog, Andrew and I are big hecklers. He’s on the road coming home for winter break, so I’ll give my reasoning as to why heckling is so appealing. First off, it’s wildly entertaining. To wittingly heckle is an art-form far removed from drunkenly screaming. It takes timing, poise, creativity and so forth. To heckle and receive a response from the player, the crowd, or both is quite satisfying. So you’re thinking - you just do it for attention?

But there’s more to it than that. It is, to an extent, about bringing attention to a cause (say, “Fire Isiah”). But as spectators, we pay a lot of money to cheer on our team and help the squad win. Heckling can at times be rude, boorish and disrespectful to fellow fans. But as long as it’s clean and creative, I see heckling as an integral part of my role as a fan. That role may be different for me as a loud, aggressive 21-year-old. But if I can distract players, make them feel uneasy, or simply get in their head, I may just be making a difference. It’s also a great challenge to see if you can throw a professional athlete off of his or her (although I haven’t really attended or therefore heckled at any professional women’s sporting events) game.

Most of these professionals make five times as much money in one year as fans will make their entire lives. Part of accepting such a lucrative deal, and part of playing a game for a living, is that you become susceptible to heckling. Players and coaches do their best to win on the court. Fans, while acting reasonably and not physically intruding, should do their best to help their team win. Not all fans need to heckle. But it shouldn’t be outlawed.

By now I’m in a full-fledged defense of harassing athletes. I guess it’s a reflex to opponents such as my Dad. But even he will tell you it can make a difference - as he saw at the Syracuse v. Washington basketball game played before a small crowd at MSG. My friends and I messed with the Huskies. We screamed that the shot clock was running out early, yelled for players to shoot it, and honestly, in a few instances, got them to jack up an ill advised shot. I realize that college might be a little different because they don’t get paid, but I figure a little good-natured ribbing never hurt anyone – especially someone attending college for free.

So where am I going with this? I’m not entirely sure. But what I’ve seen at Madison Square Garden recently is disgusting. Fans are being thrown out for raising “Fire Isiah” signs. Fans behind the bench have been punished or warned for speaking up at all against Isiah. Despite fans paying the players’ and coaches’ exorbitant contracts, and that money is going towards a woeful product, spectators are not allowed to speak up. It’s a terrible regime running the Garden these days, starting with owner James Dolan and running down to Isiah. Speech is censored, embarrassment is accepted and standing up and voicing displeasure warrants an ejection or punishment. The authoritarian regime of Mr. Dolan is doing a splendid job. Thankfully, some opposition is finally organizing, and hopefully by the All-Star break there will be a full fledged coup d’etat that will bring our Knicks back to respectability.

So I say, heckle away. Look at the attention it is getting in portraying Isiah and the management in a somewhat negative light. It’s keeping the Isiah debate at the forefront of New York sports. And if he can harass people and keep his job, well, we should be able to harass him too and keep our seats.

-Pat

Photo credit: http://supergigant.blox.pl/resource/sellknicks.jpg

Eli Manning Unstoppable?

2007-12-17T21:43:00.001-05:00

We’ve all seen the new Citizen-Ecodrive commercials with Eli Manning. We’ve all had the same reaction to the claim that Eli Manning was unstoppable (mostly: “Hey, whoever is in charge of advertising for this watch company got Eli and Peyton mixed up!” or “So I guess the watch runs well until noon and then stops working”). Some other companies have also selected the wrong spokesperson and motto, however.

O.J Simpson, spokesman for Windex
“Will leave your windows and countertops as squeaky-clean as O.J.”

Bobby Petrino, spokesman for Energizer “Like Bobby Petrino, Energizer batteries never quit.”

Bill Belichick, spokesman for Men’s Wearhouse
“You’re going to like the way you look, Bill Belichick guarantees it.”

Curt Schilling, spokesman for Midas Mufflers
“Keeps your car as quiet as Curt.”

Brandon Jacobs (who dropped about 40 passes Sunday), spokesman for All-State
“You’re in good hands, like Brandon’s.”

New York Knicks, spokesmen for Avis.
“We try harder. So do the Knicks.”

Scott Boras, spokesman for DeBeers.
“Like a Scott Boras contract, a diamond is forever.”

Carl Pavano, spokesman for Smith Barney.
“Like Carl, we make money the old-fashioned way – we earn it.”

Gary Williams, spokesman for Gillette.
“Be like Gary. Never let ‘em see you sweat.”

Brian McNamee, spokesman for Las Vegas.
“What happens here, stays here.”

And we didn’t even have to bring up Michael Vick.

Other thoughts:

- Pat yesterday praised Brian Westbrook for taking a dive at the goal line. I have Westbrook on my fantasy team, and going into Monday nights action I am down 5 points. Needless to say, Pat and I disagree about this one.

- After the injury to Shockey, someone on ESPN pointed out that the Giants always limp into the playoffs. Considering the Giants' last two games are at Buffalo and against New England, limping into the playoffs isn’t the worst they could do.
- The Ravens were one play away from being the team that ended the Patriot’s perfect season. Instead, they are the team that ended the Dolphins’ winless season.

Live sunday football thoughts

2007-12-16T17:50:00.000-05:00

Some random thoughts from Sunday's day of football, as I'm now joined by two friends from high school, the infamous Mundo and awful Giants/Bills fan Joe:

- Tony Romo is making a great push to ruin my fantasy week with a terrible first half. I have to blame this on Jessica Simpson's presence. All men know that it's tough to play well when a significantly interested woman is spectating. Simpson is even donning a Romo jersey a la high school cheerleader. He's thrown two interceptions, one of them in the end zone. We all saw what Simpson did to Nick Lachey's career, Tony better be careful.
Joe thinks that it's not a problem, and that he'll have a "huge second half." I don't know. I'm skeptical.

(update 7:23 p.m.) - Romo was shook all game long. He threw another pick, this one was a late game crucial interception. He also fumbled a few times. Ms. Chicken of the Sea casted a spell over Tony. This is really going to test their relationship. "I was wrong again" - Joe.

Also, how about that slide-down by Westbrook at the end of the game when he could have waltzed into the Dallas endzone? When do you see a player give up personal stats to seal the deal like that? Most NBA players won't hoist up 3/4 court shots at the ends of quarters to preserve their three-point percentage. It was nice to see a player sacrifice almighty stats.

- Mundo noted that he can't remember the last time that the Steelers have played in bright sunshine. It always seems to be raining, snowing or just grey when Pittsburgh plays. And especially at Heinz Field, where the field is always a mess. And the game is always ugly.

- Funny to see the unbridled joy after the Dolphin's first win of the season over the Baltimore Ravens. The crowd was ecstatic, the players were hugging each other like they just clinched a playoff spot. Their owner was even crying. But you've got to give it to them, to stick together through such a rough season without being at each other's throats.

- The Jets had a realistic shot at taking down the Patriots...or at least taking the game into overtime. But they couldn't get the big break in the game. As for the fans, as much as I hate Patriot fans, I would have been throwing snowballs all over the field too. That just looked like too much fun. Some of them flew out of the stands at twice the velocity of Chad Pennington's tosses.

- Fred Taylor had a huge game. I don't know if there's a more enigmatic player in the NFL. He's wildly talented and has put up big numbers, but they just rarely seem to be acheived for an extended period of time.

Capping off a great year in sports...

2007-12-16T17:27:00.000-05:00

Last night, Syracuse's Eric Devendorf tore his ACL in a blowout of East Tennessee State University. The junior shooting guard (and by far the most experienced player that actually sees minutes on the team) injured his left knee on a fast break early in the second half of Saturday’s win.

Well "who cares?" one may say. Injuries are injuries right? I can't accept that.

This is an unprecedented run of bad luck. This is the second guard to tear his ACL this year as junior Andy Rautins tore his in a game for the Canadian national team. Right there, two scholarship guards and arguably the two best shooters on the team are lost. Well, two gone, still eight contributors left or so, right? Nope.

With senior Josh Wright apparently leaving the team, the backcourt is completely crippled. Wright, despite not seeing much playing time, may have provided some valuable experience as a backup to the point guard position. So with these injuries and Wright leaving the team, Syracuse is left with seven, yes seven, scholarship players that actually play. This is what the roster looks like now, with scholarship players marked with an asterisk:

PG – Jonny Flynn* (Freshman), Justin Thomas (Junior)
SG – Scoop Jardine* (Fr.), Jake Presutti** (Sr.)
SF – Paul Harris* (So.), Mike Williams
PF – Donte Greene* (Fr.), Kristof Ongenaet* (Jr. – juco transfer)
C – Arinze Onuaku* (So. – redshirt), Rick Jackson* (Fr.), Devin Brennan-McBride* (So.), Sean Williams* (Fr.)

** - Presutti, a former walk-on, was awarded a scholarship this season.

Let’s dissect this roster, which left out a few walk-ons but included Thomas and Presutti, because well, there are only two scholarship guards. The center position appears deep, but Brennan-McBride has been hurt and has seen and will see no time this season. Sean Williams will likely redshirt this season as he hasn’t played at all. Ongenaet is a junior college transfer that has averaged seven minutes per game (most of which came against the early year poor competition).

So this is what Syracuse basketball is left with: Six scholarship players that actually contribute. Four of those six are freshman. Six deep and 2/3 of your players being greatly inexperienced is not the formula needed to succeed in the Big East. With two non-conference losses already, Syracuse needs to win the rest of its out-of-conference slate. Then, the team would likely have to win nine or ten games in Big East play to be considered for the NCAA tournament (last year Syracuse won ten conference games and missed out on the tourney). This is a tall task for six players. Foul trouble, illness, academic problems, another injury, or some other Daryl Gross curse occurrence, and this team has absolutely no bench, literally.

I'm briefly going to try to look at the bright side. Devendorf's injury opens up a great opportunity for both Jackson and Jardine. The two have seen limited playing time, but have shown some promise, and are now tossed right into the fray. The two played together in high school and hopefully will bring some good chemistry to the court. Also, this experience will be very valuable come next season. Devendorf, if healthy, will rejoin the team for his senior season. Greene might go pro. But bringing back all of the young talent with a full season's experience under their belt will be beneficial. And also, at least freak athlete Mike Williams, who is a talented WR on the football team, joined SU’s basketball squad Saturday.

But it's bad news regardless. As I’ve said before, in recent years, Syracuse basketball has provided therapy after the horrendous fall football seasons. But the hardwood squad has not seen great success despite winning the Big East Tournament in 2005 and 2006. Those seasons each ended with first round NCAA tournament losses. Last year the Orange remarkably was snubbed. This season will be trying again. All of this after a 2-10 football season for the ‘Cuse.

Thus wraps up a terrible year of sports. No one wants to hear my whining, but I’m going to go ahead anyway.

- SU Bball: Snubbed from NCAA tournament despite 10 Big East wins and 22 overall.
- Jets: 3-11, disastrous. Could have salvaged season by beating Patriots today, but blew many opportunities.
- SU Football: 2-10. Seven wins in the past 3 years. Administration still heads on to that head coach of those three years, two of which were the worst seasons in Syracuse football history (which stretches over a century). Two best recruits in the past two years suffer possible career threatening injuries. Running joke of college football.
- NY Yankees: Lost in ALDS. At least they made the playoffs. Can’t really complain about them, except for maybe the bugs that attacked the Yanks in Cleveland.
- All the teams I hate - - Celtics, Red Sox, Patriots, Boston College: Celtics one of the best teams in the NBA. Red Sox won some playoff challenge. Patriots charging towards 19-0. BC seeing unheralded success before finally falling apart (sorry Superfans).

I don’t ask you to feel bad for me, I just wanted to vent. But hey, there’s always next season (that doesn’t mean I’m giving up on SU basketball just yet).

-Pat

Photo credit: Syracuse.com

Thoughts on the Mitchell Report

2007-12-15T17:51:00.001-05:00

· One of the biggest surprises to me is that Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa are not on the list. I know that the list doesn’t include every major leaguer who has ever used steroids, and that absence of proof isn’t the same as proof of absence, but I would imagine that Mitchell tried pretty hard to find something on those two guys and came up empty. This report should somewhat vindicate them and put them both in the Hall.
· If even one player who is listed is able to prove his innocence, this list is going to lose a whole lot of credibility. The evidence on some of the players, such as Baltimore’s Brian Roberts and former Yankee David Justice, is simply one player or trainer’s recollection of a conversation that took place years before. However, very few players have come out immediately and said that the information on the report was false, although Justice’s claim of innocence actually sounds pretty sincere.
· Is it any surprise that a guy named McNamee named names? Come on major league players, you had to see that coming.
· My friend Jordan made a great point today: Jose Canseco is the Al Gore of baseball. Ever since he has been out of the game, he has done everything short holding a press conference about his sexuality to stay relevant, but still no one really takes him seriously. Canseco even tried to sneak his way into the Mitchell Report press conference, but was not allowed in because it was media only. He then re-stated that he had shocking information about Alex Rodriguez, but once again wouldn’t say what it was or why it didn’t make it into his book. I’m just waiting for a SportsCenter breaking news story on Canseco’s attempts to kill ManBearPig.

Photo Credits: http://www.foxnews.com/images/155017/0_21_450_hc_canseco.jpg

By Andrew Vitelli

Five year old southerner slaughters beast 12 times his size

2007-12-12T15:03:00.001-05:00

This story is just too much. In case you didn't see it yesterday here it is.

A five year old named Tre, who can barely speak, shot a 445 pound black bear in Arkansas. He then proceeded to sit on the dead body like it was a swing - which a child his age should probably be playing with instead of a gun. But hey, gotta give it up to the kid. He's got it in his blood, as his 10th great grandfather is Davy Crockett. Last year he killed three deer...as a four year old.

Tre's next goals are a turkey and an elk. Come on Tre. You're a prodigy. You just shot a bear, why move down to turkey? What about an elephant? Or maybe a Great White Shark?

This whole hunting thing is just too much. Maybe it's cause I'm a northern almost city-boy. But I just don't get the whole thing. I'm sure its fun to shoot things, but i mean aren't there other targets? And isn't it a bit much to pose with the dead carcass like its your prom date (pics below)? And isn't five a bit young? Maybe it's a hoax, as last years thousand pound Hog killing may have been.

Warning: Somewhat creepy pictures below

- Pat

All Hail the Dolphins?

2007-12-10T22:14:00.000-05:00

There are plenty of awards that recognize excellence in professional athletics. The Heisman, the Stanley Cup, The Lombardi Trophy, and each league’s MVP all go to exceptional teams or athletes. Teams and players that raise the standards for futility and ineptitude, however, are overlooked when it comes to awards time. At Giving 111%, we make an effort to give these chumps their due. With the Miami Dolphins looking to become the first team in history to go 0-19 (0-16 in the regular season, and 0-3 in the playoffs), I thought it would be appropriate to stack them against the worst professional sports teams since the turn of the century.

#5
2002 Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Record: 55-106
Star Player: Randy Winn (middle name: Rarely) batted .298 and stole 27 bases. Although the Mets must have seen something in Victor Zambrano and his 5.53 ERA.
Achievements: This is more if a lifetime achievement award for a team who has never seen third place since they came into the league. Their leading home run hitter was Ben Grieve, with 19. Their ace was the late Joe Kennedy, with an 8-11 record.
What’s happened since?: In 2004, the Devil Rays achieved their equivalent to a World Series victory as they finished in fourth place in the AL East, ahead of the Baltimore Orioles. They’ve been back to the basement the past 3 years, although they have some talent now with pitcher Scott Kazmir and hitters Carl Crawford and Carlos Pena.

#4
2005 Atlanta Hawks
Record: 13-69 (.159)
Star Player: Antoine Walker averaged over 20 ppg, but shot just .415 from the field before being traded to the Boston Celtics.
Achievements: 13 wins in a whole season? This team never won back to back games, and won a grand total of two games in February and March combined. Opponents averaged 102.5 points against this squad, which included an aging Walker, a young Boris Diaw and rookie Joshes Smith and Childress.
What’s happened since?: Childress, Smith and Tyronn Lue still remain from the last team to approach 70 losses. The Hawks are looking to finally get out of the cellar this year.

#3
2001 Carolina Panthers
Record: 1-15 (.063)
Star Player: Former Heisman Trophy winner Chris Weinke threw for 11 TDs and 19 interceptions in his rookie year. Was recently passed by Drew Henson as biggest football/baseball bust.
Achievements: Started the season with a victory over the Minnesota Vikings. Lost their next 15 games, ending the season with a 32 point loss to the Pats. Ranked 31st in the league in offense and defense. Their leading rusher was Richard Huntley, and their leading receiver was Donald Hayes.
What’s happened since: Were in the playoffs two years later, as Steve Smith, a rookie for the one-win team, emerged as one of the NFL’s best receivers.

#2
2003 Tigers
Record: 43-119 (.264)
Star Player: Dmitri Young actually had a very good year, hitting .297 with 29 home runs.
Achievements: Fell just one loss short of the Mets record of 120 losses. Mike Maroth became the first 20 game loser in 23 years, and Jeremy Bonderman was one loss away from joining him. Their offense wasn’t much better, as they hit .240 as a team.
What’s happened since: The Tigers won the AL pennant in 2006, as they revamped their offense and pitchers Verlander and Bonderman matured.

#1
2007 Miami Dolphins
Record: 0-13 (projected 0-16) (.000 for you mathematicians)
Star Player: Running back Ronnie Brown was averaging almost 100 yards a game and over 5 yards a carry until a week 7 injury ended his season.
Achievements: It looks as though they will likely become the first team since the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers to run the table in the wrong direction. This terrible team got even worse when it lost starting QB Trent Green and RB Brown for the season. Amazingly, they have thrown just 3 touchdowns since Green was injured early in week 5. They lost by 27 points to the 3-10 Jets. Their best chance at a victory is this Sunday against the Ravens at home, and I don’t see it happening.

The 2007 Non-Roberto Clemente Award goes to…

Michael Vick

Who else? Sorry O.J., but even you can’t compete with Vick’s level of stupidity. First, Vick cost himself millions of dollars, some of the prime years of his career and his freedom by getting involved with Bad Newz Kennels, the world’s most famous dog-fighting operation. He then managed to get months tacked onto his sentence when after agreeing to plead guilty he tested positive for marijuana. The proper additions are now being built into Nike’s Michael Vick Experience roller coaster.

Picture Credit: http://images.tsn.ca/images/stories/20060831/cleovert_83556.jpg

By Andrew Vitelli

Big Saturday in College Football

2007-12-08T15:53:00.001-05:00

On Monday, we put together an 8-team playoff for college football based on our non-expert opinions (The Matchups). The first week of action in our simulated NCAA Football playoffs was just as unpredictable and wild as the regular season, with three of the lower seeds prevailing. Keep an eye out for round two coming soon.

#8 Missouri Tigers 35, #1 Hawaii Warriors 28

Hawaii gave Missouri all they could handle, with Colt Brennan matching Chase Daniels touchdown for touchdown. Brennan threw for all four Hawaii scores, including a fourth quarter touchdown to tie the game. Daniels, however, responded by leading the Bulldogs down the field before running for the winning touchdown. He also threw for 3 touchdowns. Brennan was picked late in the game to seal a Missouri victory.

#7 Virginia Tech Hokies 27, #2 Ohio State Buckeyes 10

The top two teams have been losing all season. Why would we expect the trend to stop come playoff time? Ohio State came up short in its toughest test of the season. Tech, coming off two impressive road wins, was led by the play of quarterback Sean Glennon, who topped 300 yards for the first time all season. Buckeyes QB Todd Boeckman struggled as the Hokies jumped out to an early lead, and Ohio State was never able to close the gap. It was Ohio State’s second loss in their last three games.

#3 LSU Tigers 40, #6 Oklahoma Sooners 37

Oklahoma was coming off a decisive victory over then No. 1 Missouri in the Big 12 championship game, while LSU was also riding high after winning the SEC. In a great matchup, star freshman QB Sam Bradford faced a tough and physical LSU defense. Although the LSU defense allowed only 181 pass yards per game, it struggled against spread offenses like Kentucky. But Les Miles, with enough time to prep his squad, didn't let Oklahoma run wild. Bradford, despite showing great poise all year, got rattled by the LSU defensive pressure led by DT Glenn Dorsey. On offense, the Tigers struggled as well against a stout Oklahoma defense. But the combination of Matt Flynn and Ryan Perrilloux at quarterback, as well as Jacob Hester running for tough yards late in the game, pulled one out for LSU. In an extremely close battle, LSU finally won a triple overtime game.

#5 USC Trojans 37, #4 Georgia Bulldogs 27

Georgia hadn't played since Nov. 24, but the Bulldogs were still riding a hot streak after winning six straight to close out the season. USC also had great momentum, ending the year with four wins, including two against ranked foes. Georgia's defense shored up late in the year and the offense was clicking with a great balanced attack. Freshman Knowshon Moreno is one of the better running backs in the nation, and he is backed up by another dynamic runner in Thomas Brown, who averaged 5.5 yards per carry. Quarterback Matthew Stafford had been solid - taking care of the ball with only 9 interceptions. The Trojan defense had given up less than 80 yards rushing per game, and allowed less than 16 points on average. The Bulldogs attempted to establish the run early, but after falling behind quickly, had to lean a little heavier on the passing attack. Stafford valiantly tried to guide the Bulldogs down the field but struggled to match USC score for score. With a healthy John David Booty behind center, the Trojans put up 37 on Georgia. Faced with the tall task of coming back against a stout USC secondary, Georgia falls short.

Check back next week to find out who will be playing for the National Championship

Picture Credits:
Top: http://images.athlonsports.com/d/3675-2/DanielC170101406_112.jpg
Center: http://assets.espn.go.com/photo/2006/1005/ncf_u_dorsey_195.jpg

By Pat and Andrew

Weighing In on the Weigh-Ins

2007-12-08T15:53:00.000-05:00

Just a quick thought here with the Mayweather-Hatton fight coming up tonight after an interesting confrontation at the weigh-in. What’s the deal with boxing weigh-ins and press conferences? Boxers seem to have a flair for the dramatic. Combine that with the fact that they are mostly meatheads, and their brains have been walloped for years, and the events turn into strange masculine debacles.

Even after the Holyfield ear incident, Mike Tyson decided to bite Lennox Lewis’ leg at this fracas.

Muhammad Ali was a huge talker back in the day, jawing at his opponents in the pre-match festivities. But now the events have both the jawing, and the fighting, as seemingly each one explodes into a brawl. Or at least there are some strange hyper-masculine occurrences that indeed do not look very masculine at all. In this case, Mayweather and Hatton didn't break into a brawl, but the two of course exchanged some verbal tirades and then the awkward face to face stare. I don't know, this whole thing just cracks me up.

Getting to know each other.........then going in for round 2?

- Pat

Photos: espn.com

Wait?! Sean Singletary wasn't 100 percent?

2007-12-06T18:02:00.000-05:00

Great victory for Syracuse hoops last night with a 70-68 triumph at the University of Virginia.

Apparently the ACC can’t keep up with the Big East play. ESPN’s Mike Patrick said the game was like an episode of ER. It was more of an episode of the ACC team not being able to handle the physical and fast play of a Big East squad like Syracuse. Leg cramps, pulled hamstrings, and strep throat? Come on...

But at least that wasn’t all the ESPN team talked about. The studio guys, some scrub and Hubert Davis, couldn’t stop explaining how this was the first time Syracuse has been out of the state of NY before Big East play in this Millenium. Enough already. Florida doesn’t play on the road till the 22nd of December. Leave the ‘Cuse alone.

All this, combined with the announcing, took away from what should have been the main story: a great road non-conference win for Syracuse, led by two stud freshman in Jonny Flynn and Donte Greene. UVA was previously 20-1 at John Paul Jones Arena.
But, the first thing Patrick said after the victory was, “UVA star Sean Singletary (who apparently may have had strep throat) gave it his all, but just couldn’t pull it out.” They wouldn’t stop talking about his illness during the game. Sure, it was influential for the game. You should talk about it, but to a certain extent. Syracuse deserved some attention for going into a very tough building and coming out with a win despite the Orange's tremendous youth. But ESPN just couldn’t stop focusing its cameras on Singletary or chirping about him, despite a close finish. At one point, color analyst Len Elmore even left the broadcast table for a few minutes to go check on Singletary. When has any announcer ever done this? Isn’t that Craig Sager’s job? Give me a break.

Analyst Len Elmore....yea....

So now, despite a good win in a hostile non conference environment, we’re likely going to have to hear “experts” like Doug Gottlieb hate on Syracuse and harp about how the team beat UVA because Singletary was sick. Although it’s absurdly early, I’m hoping that come selection time, if SU has done enough to be considered, that the committee will see UVA as the good non-conference road win Syracuse was lacking last season. They asked Syracuse to play a marquee road game in December. The Orange did. And it won. Hopefully that’s the storyline that’s remembered.

But most of this will be for naught if SU doesn't bring it on Saturday at the Carrier Dome against a very good 9-1 Rhode Island team. Let's just hope Singletary didn't infect any Syracuse players.

-Pat

Photos: dailyorange.com, viewimages.com

Where are the 2003 Florida Marlins now?

2007-12-05T18:03:00.000-05:00

In just a matter of years, the Marlins went from the 2003 World Series Champions with a lofty payroll of $54 million (good for 21st in the league), to a team with a possible payroll of less than $10 million for next season. That’s about 1/10th of the higher end payrolls, and 1/20th of the New York Yankees payroll.

How is such a feat accomplished? Well, the Marlins have mastered the move. It’s called dumping everyone, most recently Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera. Turnover is expected in baseball, just ask Kenny Lofton. But in an unprecedented maneuver, the Florida Marlins have successfully ridded themselves of every player on the 2003 roster that tasted success. Sure, they are building for the future. But in a mere four years, the entire World Series championship team is now scattered amongst the majors, and elsewhere.

Here’s a peek at where the 2003 Marlins are now, based off of their 40-man 2003 roster:

Pitchers:
Armando Almanza – Last pitched for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2005.
Juan Alvarez – His career ended in mid 2003.
Josh Beckett – Pitches for some team up in New England.
Toby Borland – Retired in 2004 with the Marlins.
Nate Bump – Hasn’t pitched since 2005, location unknown. But he’s not on the Marlins roster, probably a bit too pricey.
A.J. Burnett – Hopping on and off the DL over the border in Canada with the Blue Jays.
Chad Fox – Underwent two Tommy John surgeries, and retired after the second with the Chicago Cubs. Funny, he was on the 2003 Marlins who squashed the dreams of the Cubs in the NLCS. Wonder if he ever thanked Steve Bartman.
Rick Helling – A miraculous holdover from the 1997 World Series champion Marlins. Oh wait, no, he went back to the Texas Rangers in the six year span before ‘03. And also pitched for the Orioles.
Allen Levrault – Last pitched for the Marlins in 2003, before their playoff push. That’s all I know, he doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page.
Braden Looper – Pitched for the Mets and now St. Louis. Actually became a starter and won 12 games for the Cardinals. He saved 28 games for the Marlins in 2003, obviously making him too valuable to keep.
Blaine Neal – He’s now in Syracuse?! He’s right in my backyard pitching for the Syracuse Sky Chiefs, the Toronto Blue Jays Triple-A affiliate.
Vladimir Nunez – Playing for the White Sox Triple-A team, the Charlotte Knights.
Kevin Olsen – Last pitched for the Marlins in 2003.
Carl Pavano – Making more than the entire current Marlins organization with the New York Yankees by taking the mound once every couple months.
Brad Penny – Had a Cy-Young type year with the Dodgers. But his salary alone is $8 million.
Tommy Phelps – Another transfer to the Yankees, currently takes the mound for the AAA Scraton/Wilkes-Barre Yanks.
Mark Redman – An All-Star in 2006, who knew he’s now in the minor leagues? After undergoing surgery for an ingrown toenail, Mark was shipped around to four different minor league teams, finally settling with Colorado’s Triple-A Colorado Springs Sky Sox. Made an emergency start for the Rockies in September, after a long road to recovery, but is back in the minors.
Tim Spooneybarger – Last pitched in mid 2003, decided he could go elsewhere with such a unique last name.
Michael Tejera – Is that Miguel Tejada? Oh no, Michael Tejera. Yea, he pitched a grand total of 11 1/3 innings after 2003 in three years and is currently retired.
Ugueth Urbina – Hmm. This one went a bit south after his release from the Marlins, literally. Hopped on board with the Tigers and then the Phillies, but then decided to make a trip down to Venezuela. He was charged with attempted murder for dousing five workers on his property with gasoline, and swinging a machete at them. I must say this is one of the Marlins better releases. He’s currently serving 14 years in Venezuelan prison, which, despite common thought, is worse than playing in Pro-Player stadium (or whatever its called now).
Justin Wayne – Last pitched for the minor league Newark Bears and is now searching for a team.
Dontrelle Willis – Shipped off to Detroit with Cabrera. Should fit right in with the nickname "D-Train"

Catchers:
Ramon Castro – Has hopped around as a backup catcher, now with the New York Mets.
Mike Redmond – Backup to Joe Mauer in Minnesota.
Ivan Rodriguez – Now reunited with Cabrera and Dontrelle in Detroit. Thankful that his nickname Pudge will finally be passed on to one of his new teammates.

Infielders:
Brian Banks – Retired from MLB after tasting sweet victory in 2003
Luis Castillo – Recently inked a four year contract with the New York Mets. Somehow the only player lucky enough to avoid the pink slip from the championship year in 1997 all the way through 2003.
Alex Gonzalez – One of the longer holdovers as he made it all the way till 2005 with the Marlins, but then the inevitable happened, and he was snatched up. Now plays for the Cincinnati Reds.
Derek Lee – Accepted by Cubs fans in 2004, despite the 2003 nightmare. Yet another good player making the puzzling move of leaving the Marlins to ink a contract elsewhere (now makes $13 million plus).
Mike Lowell – Signed for three more years by a team with red-colored socks. Has prospered with a short left field instead of trying to hit the ball out of the endzone in left with the Marlins.

Outfielders:
Chad Allen – Tossed around by a few teams and currently a free agent after leaving the Kansas City minor league system.
Miguel Cabrera – Searching for the best cuisine in Detroit. Gotta love only dishing out enough money to use your best prospect until he's 24.
Jeff Conine – Won the WS with the Marlins in ’97. Then played for a few years with the Orioles. Came back to win again in 2003. Left again for the Orioles. Interesting team choices. Finally retired in September after choking along with the New York Mets.
Juan Encarnacion – Played for the Dodgers in 2004. Won the lottery and got a second chance with the Marlins. But after two years, signed with St. Louis. Currently lacing up the spikes for the St. Louis Cardinals with fellow former Marlin Braden Looper.
Andy Fox – Once a Yankee prospect, Fox found his way to Florida, where he got a ring in 2003. Despite leaving for the Expos in 2004, Andy has once again retreated to Florida, where he is the first base coach for the Marlins.
Lenny Harris – This one is the biggest headscratcher. How do you get rid of “pinch hitter extraordinaire” Lenny Harris? He played his final game for the Marlins in 2005. The biggest reason for the Marlins lack of success after that season? The missing puzzle piece that is Lenny Harris. Harris, the holder of the most pinch hits in baseball history, is now a coach with the Cincinnati Reds.
Todd Hollandsworth – Testing the free agent market. Last played for the Indians and Reds in 2006.
Mike Mordecai – Hard to list him as an outfielder as he’s played just about every position but pitcher. After the 2004 season, Mordecai left the major leagues.
Juan Pierre – Enjoyed arguably his best years in Florida. He and Castillo actually made the team quite entertaining. Since, he’s bounced from Chicago to LA. What’s with the Cubs grabbing all of the Marlins that hurt them in 2003? That won't help break a curse.
Gerald Williams – Most fondly held in my heart for putting Pedro Martinez on the turf(see video below), Williams was a bit on the downside of his career at this point. His career ended as a backup outfielder with the Mets in 2005.

SO, there you have it. The 2003 Florida Marlins: now spread around the MLB, coaches’ boxes, golf courses and Venezuelan prisons.
The team salary in 2003 - $54 million
In 2007 – http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/teams/roster?team=fla
With the salaries that can be counted, $10,982,000.

If you can, wait till number 5 - that's Gerald Williams

-Pat

Thanks to baseball-almanac.com and Wikipedia

Finally, a College Football Playoffs

2007-12-03T22:50:00.000-05:00

Think that the champion of college football should be determined on the field, not by a computer? In an ideal world we’d just have a playoff for college football. While we can’t have a 65 team bracket like college basketball, there’s still room for a postseason tournament. The best possibility is a final four type tournament with semifinal and championship games. But just for the sake of it, here’s our eight team tournament that would dictate college football’s, not some computer’s, national champion. Keep checking back to see our results of these games, which will be posted in the upcoming days/weeks (unfortunately no one can watch the games, as they are only carried by the NFL Network):

No. 1 seed: Hawaii Warriors (12-0) - - WAC conference

While not playing the toughest schedule, QB Colt Brennan (above) and the Hawaii Warriors were the only team in Division 1 to finish the season undefeated. Sure they just eeked out a win against Washington at home. But think beating the teams you're supposed to beat is easy? Tell that to Ohio State hosting Illinois, Michigan hosting Appalachian State, WVU hosting Pittsburgh, Boston College hosting Florida State, USC hosting Stanford. And those are only home games, and only a handful of the boatload of massive upsets this year. So while the Warriors only beat one ranked team (Boise State), and while they play in the non-BCS Western Athletic Conference, they did everything they could to win. Hawaii was the only team to not lose a game. There are only two teams that lost one. Therefore, Hawaii gets the nod as we hope for another Boise State type game. If the Warriors blow it, the little guys don’t get as much respect next year.

No. 2: Ohio State Buckeyes (11-1) - - Big Ten

This wasn’t an easy decision. But since we have a playoff, the choice to put Ohio State at number two doesn’t mean everything. They played in a down Big Ten this year. They lost to then unranked Illinois at home. But in the same 25 day period, they also won tough games against Wisconsin and at Penn State and Michigan. While not playing as tough a schedule as some of the other contenders, they were one of two major conference teams to come out of the season with just one loss. And the Buckeyes are much better than that Kansas squad.

No. 3: LSU Tigers (11-2) - - SEC

LSU has the most impressive resume of any team in the top 8. Although the team has two losses, they were both in triple overtime. One game was at then No. 17 Kentucky. The other loss was to a team with Heisman contender Darren McFadden. LSU plays in the nation’s toughest conference, and has six wins against ranked teams (including two against top 10 squads). They beat Virginia Tech by 41. They go for it on virtually every fourth down. Les Miles called for a pass from the 22 yard line when the team was down one point to Auburn. This team is exciting, and impressive.

No. 4: Georgia Bulldogs (10-2) - - SEC

So the Bulldogs didn’t play in their conference championship game. That’s unfortunate as it would have helped their case. But Georgia won its last six games, including four SEC contests and three against ranked squads. The Bulldogs are hot, led by one of the most electrifying players in the nation with one of the best names, RB Knowshon Moreno. Georgia gets the nod at 4 because of their recent success through the difficult SEC. It wasn’t an easy choice, but No. 4 plays No. 5 anyways, so yet again, thanks to the playoff system, the seeding isn’t all or nothing.

No. 5: USC Trojans (10-2) - - Pac 10

Another tough choice. USC could have made it to four, but we just couldn’t justify a loss to Stanford at home. More forgivable is the seven-point loss to Oregon on the road. The team has enough quality wins to sneak in at 5, including wins over three ranked squads. Oklahoma has also beat three ranked schools. But the quality of the Pac 10 is superior to the Big 12, and we know USC always brings it during bowl season.

No. 6: Oklahoma Sooners (11-2) - - Big 12

Oklahoma settles into the number six spot after winning the Big 12 championship. It’s somewhat low for a BCS conference champion, but we’re not buying the Big 12 this year. Texas was down, Texas A&M struggled mightily, and Baylor and Iowa State were horrific. The Sooners, however, did beat a tough Missouri team twice. In one of their losses (to Texas Tech) they were without starting quarterback Sam Bradford. Oklahoma is definitely a solid team, and if they don’t like this ranking, then they can prove us wrong by plowing through the field.

No. 7: Virginia Tech Hokies (11-2) - - ACC

Virginia Tech’s only two losses were to then No. 2 teams Boston College and LSU. But the loss to LSU (their prime out of conference game) was by a wide margin of 41 points. The Hokies also did not have any other prime out of conference games, playing the likes of Ohio and William & Mary. They did win the ACC championship, but the league was inconsistent this season. VT did not have to face ACC juggernaut Maryland either. The Hokies offense has also struggled at times this season. That being said, the defense and special teams are outstanding as usual. VT also beat three ranked teams, and if it weren’t for that last second loss to BC, would be much higher.

No. 8: Missouri Tigers (11-2) - - Big 12

Mizzou slides in the last spot, after just missing out on playing the national championship game. Missouri, unlike other teams vying for number eight (WVU, Illinois), has no bad losses. The Tigers only lost to Oklahoma, albeit twice. But the team won most of its games decisively, including a 36-28 win over Kansas and a blowout of Texas Tech 41-10. They don’t boast an extremely impressive list of eye popping wins, but Missouri took care of business. Also, quarterback Chase Daniel and a dynamic spread offense give the Tigers a chance to compete with anyone.

Hey, what about us?!?!?

West Virginia (10-2) - - Big East – As much as we (Pat) would love to have a Big East representative their best wins, Cincinnati and UConn, don’t exactly blow us away. And they had a shot at the BCS Championship Game if they beat Pitt and couldn’t pull out a victory? Sorry, teams that choke in their biggest moments don’t belong.

Kansas (11-1) - - Big 12 – Kansas is one of just two one-loss teams in the nation, and that loss was to Missouri. But Kansas just didn’t beat anyone good. Is this hypocritical, since we put Hawaii as the top seed? Maybe. Mark Mangino, (pictured below) please don’t eat us.

Illinois (9-3) - - Big Ten – Illinois has some big wins, including a game at Ohio State and against Wisconsin. However, they’ve lost to two teams that are not currently in the Top 25, and we just couldn’t bring ourselves to put in a three-loss team.

Picture Credit (above): http://msnbcmedia2.msn.com/j/apmegasports/200612250004002723105-pf.widec.jpg
Picture Credit (below): http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m158/Jeofrie/kansas/mangino.jpg

Johan talk heating up

2007-12-02T16:13:00.000-05:00

Even in December, baseball is always a hot topic for New York natives. Recently, it was announced that the Yankees would perhaps be willing to part with future ace Phil Hughes if that was what it took to make a deal for Johan Santana. Is this deal worth it for the Yankees? Pat (playing, to some degree, the devil’s advocate) says yes, while Andrew says no.

Andrew: This trade reminds me of something that the 2002-2006 Yankees would do. They have a good, young team with a lot of potential and a pitching staff filled with talented young starters. There is certainly not a hole in the rotation. Also, their outfield defense should be stellar as Melky and Abreu have above average arms in center and right. By trading for Santana, they would be going after the big name available at whatever cost instead of making the moves necessary to build a complete and winning ball team.

Pat: See, that's where I think you're overreacting. The flaw, at least last year and in the years past, has been a lack of an established, dominant ace (to go along with a poor bullpen). This team can keep a lot of that youth that you are right in saying is very promising, while trading away just two of them for the best pitcher of this decade. When you have the chance to grab Santana, you're going to have to give up something. Melky has probably somewhat reached his ceiling as a .290 hitter with a little pop and a good outfielder. Hughes has a lot of potential. But, in getting Santana, you're getting a lefty that's established himself as one of the most dominant arms in the league. And unlike Carl Pavano, he's pitched in the AL. There's might not be a hole in the rotation, but there are some serious question marks. Three of the five starters, Kennedy, Joba and Hughes, have started a combined 16 games at the big league level. Shoring this up with an established ace that will not only be valuable in the regular season but indispensable in the postseason, is more important than outfield defense

Andrew: Another thing to keep in mind, though, is that if the Yankees trade for Santana they will also be signing him to a contract extension for an amount of money seen only by A-Rod. He will probably make over $20 million a year for at least seven years. That is a lot of money to tie up in any pitcher, and it is a huge risk. You bring up Carl Pavano, and while Pavano is not anywhere near the pitcher Santana is, what happened to him and many other talented pitchers should serve as a warning. Pitchers are the most injury prone players in baseball, and no matter how dominant or mediocre a pitcher is there is always the risk that his career will be derailed by injuries. I am not saying that investing all that money in Santana isn't worth it. It is a gamble, but one that will probably pay off, as Santana is the best pitcher in baseball and should be for the next five years. I think it will be worth it for the Yankees to make that gamble next off-season if Santana is a free agent. I just don't think it is worth giving up Hughes and Melky in order to make that gamble.

Pat: Yea...but then using that logic, you'd never sign pitchers (at least to long contracts). Pitchers are a risk. So is any player that you sign to a long deal. There is an inherent risk. But, I do agree, this is your good point, is it worth it for the Yankees to make the trade now instead of waiting till the off-season? This is where it gets more cloudy. This is why getting Santana now is the right move: You get him for another year, and with the Yankee team having some key pieces getting older and older, this next year could be the year to make a move in the postseason. Johan would help that push significantly. Also, you get him now, without other factors coming into play. Leave him alone for free agency, and many other teams can make lucrative offers to him. A huge bidding war could ensue or he could simply get a better offer from another team. Instead, the Yanks could grab him now and avoid all of that chaos.

Andrew: You said earlier that the reason that the Yankees have been going home early in recent years is their starting pitching, and that couldn't be more true. They simply haven't had guys coming out of the minors and contributing, and the guys that they were trading for and signing weren't getting it done. I think for Yankee fans, however, this is the year we have been waiting for. The Yankees finally have a good, young rotation that should not be overmatched come playoff time. Hughes, Kennedy and Joba have all succeeded in every level, including the majors (ok, so they didn't pitch enough games in the Bronx to know how good they'll be, but it does look promising). And out of the three, Hughes is probably the closest to a sure thing. I mean, we've been hearing about him for what seems like years. I think it would be worth it to at least give these three pitchers a year together to see what they can do. Also, you bring up that if the Yankees wait until the off-season, they will be involved in a bidding war. That is the Yankees strength and I think that it is a situation that they are very comfortable in. I don't expect them to lose a bidding war to anyone.

Pat: But like I said, Hughes has 13 starts, Kennedy has 3, and Joba has none. This is a big question mark. So you can understand why the front office is searching for some starting pitching. And you’re right, it does look promising, but many see Joba as just as big a prospect as Hughes, so you're giving up just one piece. You're giving up Hughes, who has the chance to be very good, for Johan Santana, who has proved he is outstanding. And he's still in his prime, unlike the Yankee’s signings of Roger Clemens (this past year) and Randy Johnson. Also, I wouldn't say that I expect them to win bidding wars, but yes, they are good at them. The problem is, it could open the door for many more teams which may be more attractive to Santana, or be able to offer him a better deal (more years, etc.). I personally think that this is tough. It would be nice to keep Hughes and Melky and just shell out a few more million for Santana. The negatives though, are missing him for this season, and also the risk of losing him to another team.

Andrew: But the negatives to trading him are losing a 22 year old potential ace who looked like he really hit his stride in September and October. This is a guy who almost pitched a no hitter in his second major league game! Another negative is losing Melky. I know it doesn't seem like a huge deal, as Melky is never going to be an All-Star, but the defense would suffer greatly with Matsui, with his bad knee and weak arm in left and Damon, also with a weak arm, in center. I think one of the biggest improvements this past year over recent years was that the Yankees actually threw guys out on the base paths. I'd hate to see them revert back to their previous form. Overall, while Santana is a great player and I would love the Yanks to get him, the cost of doing so and the risks are just too great.

Pat: I see you're thinking about the negatives, but I think you're just looking too hard for drawbacks. A downgrade in outfield defense is not as important as obtaining the best pitcher of this decade, who also, may I mention, is a lefty (which the Yankees lack if Andy Pettitte retires, which looks probable). Lefties are important at Yankee Stadium because they pitch hitters towards the larger part of the park (left center). Also, they of course match up better with lefty hitters. Matsui also is better than you're giving him credit for, he tracks down a lot of balls and has a very quick release. That being said, the defense will suffer as Melky has a cannon in center. But there are going to be drawbacks with any trade. And outfield defense, to me, is greatly outweighed by adding an established lefty ace to an inexperienced starting rotation. We've seen how important pitching is in past few postseasons. I hate to use Boston as an example, but look how they parted with two of their big prospects, Hanley Ramirez and Anibal Sanchez, in a trade for Josh Beckett. Those were two huge prospects, but Beckett has become the top of the rotation guy the Red Sox had been looking for since Pedro left. He's been dominant and was the key piece in their last World Series run. The risks are there, but they always are accepted as part of trades and free agency. In a perfect world, the Yankees would win this year without Johan, grab him in the off-season and keep Melky and Hughes. But the Yankees are paranoid about the Red Sox and Mets grabbing Santana. The last thing they want to see is Johan in Boston. Because of this, the risk of not obtaining him in free agency, and getting him a year sooner, I understand what the Yankees are thinking. I'm not sure they should pull the trigger right now. But if you look at it, if the Yankees were to make a deal, it is not a bad deal at all.

-Pat and Andrew

Anyone out there have an opinion? Leave a comment telling us what you’re thinking.

Image Credits: http://www.1800beisbol.com/archives/JohanSantana.bmp

Top Ten Reasons for Knicks Fans to Get off the Ledge

2007-11-30T16:20:00.000-05:00

Out of market Knicks fans, and NBA fans as well, finally got the chance to watch the Knickerbockers on national television last night. It was quite the nailbiter as the Knicks kept within 50 points of the first-place Celtics for most of the game, but couldn’t make that final surge, losing 104-59. After a tough loss when a win looked imminent, it might seem like the Knicks have hit a low point, but here are some reasons for optimism that Isiah could pitch to Knickerbocker faithful:

TOP TEN, delivered by yours truly, Isiah Thomas:

10. We ended the Celtics game on a 16-9 run. We didn’t lose, we just ran out of time.

9. Reggie Miller is still retired.*

8. If QRich's back heals and he gets a bit younger, if Jamal stops shooting so much, if Steph gets his head together and proves he can win, if Nate can mature, if Eddy can hustle and if Malik can grow six inches (wait he’s still on the team?!) then we'll be OK.

7. Frederic Weis should be ready soon to give this team the spark it needs and put us in position for our championship run.

6. If Stephon can find some dirt on David Stern, the commissioner will have to put us in the playoffs.

5. We’ve just pitched a $15 million dollar contract to Chris Dudley to create a needed logjam in the frontcourt.

4. At least now, when the team gets in brawls, Jeff Van Gundy isn’t involved (see video).

3. We don’t settle out of court, or on it.

2. We still have Jerome James.

1. I, Isiah, will make another sacrifice, and become the first ever GM/Head Coach/Shooting guard.

* Reggie, if you actually join the Celtics and sit on their bench to win a ring, then we’re personally sending Anthony Mason after you.

Photo credit: foodcourtlunch.com

Joe Pa vs. Greg Robinson

2007-11-29T16:39:00.000-05:00

Sorry for all those who aren't Orange fans...but these past few days have been quite newsworthy in Central New York.

Syracuse decided to hold on to a coach who had won seven games in three years, and therefore set reaching mediocracy as the ultimate goal of SU football. All this for a big 'ol $1 million per year. That's a little less than a half million for each victory.

Compare that to Joe Paterno at Penn State. It was revealed today, after a long court battle, that he will earn $512,664 in salary this year. That's laughably half that of a unsuccessful first time college coach at Syracuse. Seven career wins = $1 million per year. 371 wins = $512,664.

Boy, I hope the Syracuse Athletic Department and the football program have simply been hustling other teams, setting them up by fielding an awful Syracuse team, only to surprise them all in the near future with a well oiled steam roller of an SU squad. They must know something we don't.

Cause half the price is well worth it for an old man who can make it through this (spoiler - a broken leg):

And who also provides the campus with some legendary stories, and unforgettable lines like:
"He [the driver] says, 'That's my wife.' Paterno said he responded to the driver's husband, "Boy, that's your problem." [STORY BELOW]
http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071012/SPT02/710120311/1016

-Pat

Here's the Paterno salary link: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3133700

Say No to Johan

2007-11-29T01:52:00.000-05:00

In 2003, Brandon Claussen was the stud of the Yankees farm system. Yankee fans had been hearing his name for years, but it wasn’t until 03 that he finally made it to the majors, pitching a gem against the Mets in his first game called up. Cashman pegged him as untouchable. The Yankees had their ace of the future. Still, I was nervous. The Yankees had gone two straight years without a ring, and after every two game losing streak I feared that that the Boss would act irrationally and do the unthinkable, sacrificing the team’s future for a quick fix. Finally, it happened. Claussen was traded for Aaron Boone, a guy who had topped 75 RBIs just once in his career. Boone hit .254 the rest of the season, and although he had a pretty big hit against the Sox in the ALCS he did nothing in the World Series before tearing his ACL grabbing a rebound in an off-season pick-up hoops game. Even though Claussen has been a bust for the Reds, this trade still bothers me.

That is why I have a similar queasy feeling every time I hear that the Yankees are in talks with the Twins about Johan Santana. It’s not that I wouldn’t like Santana. He’s the best pitcher in the game and could really help us. But for the first time since I can remember, the Yankees have four young pitchers that could all be very good. Hughes, who in September was finally healthy and pitched lights out, has the potential to be an ace. At least that what we’ve been hearing for years. Even if Joba doesn’t pan out as a starter, he could be our closer of the future. And Kennedy has also pitched well at every level. Playoffs aside, Wang is young and has been great since he came into the league. Plus, all four of those pitchers are cheap and other than Wang they will stay cheap for quite some time.

Obviously, it would be great to add a pitcher like Santana. But the Yankees don’t need him. Even without him, their rotation will be fine and could be very good. The potential downside for trading him and then signing him to a long term extension is just too great. If he gets hurt, they’ve got about a hundred million dollars tied up in him plus they’ll have given up their best prospects.

Even if the Yankees don’t trade for him this off-season, I’m sure that if he stays with the Twins the Yankees will still be players to trade for him during the season. It’s going to be a long, tense eight months until the trade deadline for the Yankees young pitchers and fans like me who are eager to see them stay.
Andrew Vitelli

A Dark, Dark Day

2007-11-28T21:59:00.000-05:00

Cuse just lost to UMass. UMass put up one hundred and seven points. Let's put that in numerical form: 107. In fact, according to forward Donte Greene, coach Jim Boeheim told the team after the game that they were "the worst defensive team in Syracuse history." The basketball team at Syracuse, at least the past few years, is supposed to rescue SU faithful from the edge of the cliff that football has been pushing the fans towards. Well, today was not the therapy needed.

Between this and GRob coming back I'm just about ready to throw up. SU's athletics have been declining every since AD Daryl Gross and Chancellor Ms. Nancy have come to town. It's a dark, dark day for Syracuse sports. In football, SU has accepted the goal of mediocrity, and in basketball it looks as if 'Cuse will be on the bubble once again, after making the NIT last year.

When I looked at Syracuse as a potential college to attend sports was a huge draw. But now Nancy has taken away the Orangemen from us, and the teams have progressively gotten worse and worse.

Let's just hope the"defense" can improve before Big East play. If not, we're in for a lonnnnng next year.

It Was Supposed to Be Christmas Morning...but now its Doomsday

2007-11-28T17:53:00.000-05:00

Are you serious Daryl Gross? Really? I'm not throwing a Dr. in front of your name because simply, you don't deserve it with this evalutaion.

How does a Syracuse, a school that ranks 14th in most collegiate football victories of all time hold on to a coach that has put the school through its first TWO 10 loss seasons? Seven wins in three years. Three against BCS teams. Twenty-eight painful losses. Blowouts galore. Attendance plummeting towards the level of preseason basketball contests. The program has become the laughing stock of Division I.

Gross, SU’s glorious AD, said he was going to needed to see progress this year. Great strides were made - 2 less wins, and more painstaking blowout losses. I'm at a loss for words. I'm simply furious.

- Programming note: I have to run out to see a respectable SU program, the basketball team, compete against UMass. Following is a quick and aggressive rundown of why this situation and decision is horrific. If you’re not a Syracuse fan or don’t follow the team, you might have some trouble following my relentless ranting. Sorry, it’s just the heat of the moment and explaining everything would fill up a sorrowful 500 page novel.

I understand Greg Robinson needs to get "his guys" in there to be able to really run his system (although he was left with upperclassmen that went to a bowl game - which not one of Greg's recruits can say). I understand he's dealt with some injuries (but then again who hasn't?). I understand his buyout on the next 2 years of his contract, along with that of his staff, would have been around $3 million.

That being said, the man simply does not appear to be set out to be a head coach. He's even admitted his mid-game adjustments have been poor. His teams can barely function, ranking among the worst teams in Division I in rushing, sacks allowed, sacks, total defense (his specialty coming in as a ‘defensive guru’), and so forth. He is relentlessly optimistic despite all this. He is infuriating. Sure he might be a nice guy, but you have to question his coaching ability. The man has never been a head coach before, and in his first three seasons he has gone 7-28.

OK, so, more arguments to come below, where we’ll tear through how Gross has attempted to spin this to a mostly angry, and dwindling, Syracuse fanbase:

Courtesy of suathletics.com (I’m going to select a few pieces because I’m running out the door):

“As the Director of Athletics for Syracuse University, it is my responsibility to evaluate, assess, and make informed decisions regarding the University's intercollegiate athletic programs”

Thank you Dr. Gross. It’s comforting to hear that you know what you are supposed to do, regardless of whether or not you’re proficient at it.

“Nevertheless, I have set a bar of significant expectations for all of our programs, and like our players, fans, and supporters, I was very disappointed with the outcome of this season, along with our overall record the past three years.”

Join the club. At least you’re getting paid to watch it, not the other way around like us.

"Despite our collective disappointment with this season, those I talked with agreed with me that stability is tremendously important to our program, specifically as it relates to recruiting, and stabilizing and building solid classes of student-athletes”

Are you serious? Truly? There is no reason for any recruit to come to Syracuse at this point, unless they’d want to play right away (which they could do at other schools with decent head coaches, a large fan base, and more exposure). WVU, Cinci, UConn, South Florida and Rutgers are all winning or have shown recent success. Rutgers is expanding its stadium, WVU might play for a national championship, UConn is bolstering its facilities…along with just about every other school. South Florida and Pittsburgh have the bargaining chip of playing in professional stadiums. I could go on forever.
Here at Syracuse we have terrible weather, a concrete block that used to be loud for a stadium (but we’ll pack in maybe 15-20,000 next year) no hope of winning a lot of games, a head coach with no proven collegiate success as the leader of a program, etc. etc. Come on up to the Cuse!

Here are some snippets from Donnie Webb’s interview with Gross on Syracuse.com:

“I've seen teams with a lot of wins that weren't very good and I've seen teams that I say, this team is close to exploding. I don't like to get into a number of wins. I look for progress”

OK, I mean you are the maestro of sensing things Daryl. Like, for instance, when you hired Robinson and said we’d be competing for a national championship in a few years. Are we still on schedule for next season?

“We [Robinson and I] talked about, where's the continuity? Where's the consistency? Where's the weekly progression of getting better? Were you sound and disciplined? Where are those things? How do you fix them? It was thorough in that regard”

Wow. If you were thorough, you must have seen great consistency in having little to no shot of winning each and every week. Getting better?
Well we regressed from last year, and barely snuck out a win against perennial power Buffalo. Check.
The weekly progression? Well the best win came in week 4, then we lost three straight by a combined margin of 110-42, then we eeked out an 8 point win against Buffalo, then we lost four straight by a combined score of 143-65. Weekly progess? Check.

Were you sound and disciplined? Yes, obviously, ranking in the bottom five in the nation in sacks allowed shows the soundness of our offensive line. Missed tackles galore? Soundness again.
Discipline? Yes, without a doubt. Sticking to our gameplan no matter how poorly it worked. Leaving our place kicker, who hadn’t kicked a ball since 2005, on the field against WVU to run a fake after the whole WVU sideline notified their defense – that’s discipline. Oh, and running nine players out on an extra point try later that game? That’s discipline.
Soundness and discipline. Check.
My evaluation is complete.

“The easy thing is to say, this guy is doing bad and look at the wins and losses and you make a move. In this situation, you have to consider much more. You have to consider, how many gaps are you going to have in your recruiting? Have you given enough talent to show what someone can do? I think it's the right thing to have another class. I like how he recruits”

OK Gross. We’ll consider more. We’ll consider that this recruiting class is full of 2 star recruits. Sure, those services can be deceiving. Robinson has brought in a little talent. But he also hasn’t brought in an offensive line that can block at a high school level. Even if you believe in his recruiting, that’s only part of being a head coach. How about running the team, showing some competency in making adjustments or altering gameplans, or just COMPETING IN GENERAL?

And those other factors. Money, money, money. We get it. SU is a private institution. We can’t use taxpayer dollars to erect new facilities and fund buyouts. But, that being said, enjoy seeing all numbers next year avalanche into the red. I’ve been reading the forums, and just about everyone is ready to hand in their tickets. There were maybe 18,000 people at the Dome against Cincinnati. Things are only going to get worse. Between apparel, parking, concessions, and of course, ticket sales, this program is going to lose millions next year.

Overall, there are many reasons why Robinson shouldn’t have come back. Maybe next year he’ll surprise us with a 5 or 6 win season. But this move alone has alienated a good majority of the fan base. Many of which may never return. The program, which looked so bright from the late 80s up to the early 2000s, has crumbled before our eyes. The program needed a change, a shot in the arm, a coach who could pull recruits with no reason to attend SU by using his name alone. Instead, no change was made, and it looks like the worst stretch in Syracuse football history will continue. Thanks Daryl. I’m just happy that next year, I won’t be on the Hill to see it.

- Pat

Wild Zebras

2007-11-27T23:34:00.000-05:00

For those who haven’t seen it, here is the hilarious “Giving him the business” call from the Maryland vs. NC State game.

Little beknownst to many, the call by ACC referee Ron Cherry was not the first time that phrase had been used by a football official. Here is a clip from a Jets vs. Bills game from the 80s in which Jim Kelly takes exception to Jets defensive lineman Marty Lyons lying on him, to which Marty can only respond by “giving him the business.”

Someone’s got to do this to Tom Brady.

It’s been a pretty solid year for referee explanations. First, it took about twenty minutes, five different explanations, and the Baltimore Ravens to be brought back out of the locker room when Cleveland Browns field goal kicker Phil Dawson hit the support for the crossbar on a kick at the end of the game (the kick was first ruled no good, but was subsequently overruled). Then comes this Ron Cherry gem.

We’re just waiting for a ref to belt out some 38 Special lyrics: “He just held on loosely, and never let go” or maybe some Bon Jovi for an illegal man downfield "Ooo, he's a little runaway."

In fact, maybe Ron Cherry should come out with a CD of cover songs for the holiday season, spicing up some bland referee calls:

Track 1 - Bachman-Turner Overdrive: Taking care of business (personal foul)
Track 2 - 38 Special: Hold on Loosely (holding)
Track 3 - Bon Jovi: Runaway (illegal man downfield)
Track 4 - The Beatles: With a Little Help From My Friends (too many men on the field)
Track 5 - Hootie and the Blowfish : Time (delay of game)
Track 6 - The Offspring: Keep 'em Separated (illegal contact)
Track 7 - Lynyrd Skynyrd: Gimme Three Steps (fair catch interference)
Track 8 - Notorious B.I.G.: Nasty Boy (taunting)
Track 9 - The Eagles: Lyin' Eyes (Bill Belichick cheating)
Track 10- Tupac: Keep ya' Head Up (leading with the helmet)
Track 11- Third Eye Blind: Never Let You Go (holding II)
Track 12- MC Hammer: Can't Touch This (illegal touching of the ball)

Thanks to Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician for the word on the initial video

Tormented Bowl Series

2007-11-27T01:57:00.001-05:00

So, the BCS is a mess. We all know that. We knew that before this amazing season of upsets and the booby-trapped No. 2 seat in the nation’s polls started crushing teams’ hopes.

But we’ll wait another week to chime in on that debacle. For now, I’ll discuss teams that have no bowl game to look forward to, including my wildly successful Syracuse Orange.

For those of you who don’t know, the past three years have been the worst stretch in Syracuse Football history. A 7-28 record (with two wins against Buffalo), a 2-19 record in the Big East, and the first and second 10 loss seasons in the history of ‘Cuse football. Thankfully, these three years have fallen squarely on my sophomore, junior and senior years in Central New York. I’m not going to get into why the coach should be fired, I’ve gone over the reasoning too many times in my head and seen too many reasonable opinions posted online (see the Axeman on Syracuse.com or Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician). Instead, I’ll give a scenario that will give such horrifically struggling teams something to look forward this bowl season.

College football enthusiasts always look towards the Sundays when polls are released ranking the Division I teams. For fans at programs like Syracuse, Minnesota, Duke and Notre Dame, these polls have become obsolete, and attention turns to ESPN’s bottom 10 list. Those fortunate enough to struggle through their team’s merciless losing streaks read the list as it rattles off the ten worst teams in college football. Syracuse, and its uniforms, has made the list this year. With nothing to look forward to but acknowledged failure, maybe this list should be made an official poll.

Journalists, coaches, disgruntled fans and the lot will vote on these ten disappointments. Each week new rankings will be released just like the top 25 polls. By the end of the season, with winless and fledgling programs jostling for position, the poll will dictate the TBS (Tormented Bowl Series). No. 1 will play No. 2, No. 3 will play No. 4 and so forth.

Unlike the BCS, a playoff between the losers of the 1 vs. 2 and 3 vs. 4 games will dictate
the champion. That champion will be the loser of that playoff game. Not with me? Lose all your games and you’re in. Lose your bowl game, and then the championship game, and you’re ranked No. 1 in the TBS.

The intrigue of these games, which will be played in the fifteen months leading up to bowl season, will be how each coach will find a way for his team to lose. Granted, coaches will still be trying to win to maybe salvage just one more year at helm. But their buffoonery will provide that no win is guaranteed. Can Greg Robinson push his Orange out of the cellar? Or will he pack it in and try to win some sort of hardware, despite its connotation, by losing out? A loss is likely inevitable no matter which strategy he attempts. But hey, Duke can't be taken lightly either.

-Pat

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?page=bottom100711

(Although it hasn’t been updated 2 weeks and 2 Syracuse losses later)

Movie Line of the Week, and How it Applies to Sports

2007-11-27T01:53:00.000-05:00

“Don’t tell me how blackmail works! I blackmail people all the time!” – Jeremy Piven in Old School

This might have also been said by Knicks guard Stephon Marbury last week before he told reporters that coach Isiah Thomas couldn’t bench him because Starbury had too much dirt on Isiah. It might have come after a concerned comment from a friend or family member, such as the following.

“But Stephon, that’s not how you blackmail someone. You tell them privately that you are blackmailing them, you don’t announce it in a press conference. If you do, it makes you look bad, plus blackmail is illegal so you want to be discrete about it.”

Is there a tougher job in America than the Knicks PR man? But hey, maybe this two game winning streak will change things.

But it’s not like Starbury hasn’t done anything good this year. He showed that President Bush wasn’t the only person adding to the dictionary when he created the word “youthier.”

-By Andrew Vitelli

Mission Statement

2007-11-26T23:57:00.002-05:00

Dear Fellow Sports Fans,

We realize there are hundreds of thousands of sites for you to find sports news. In fact, we waste most of our own days visiting them. But while we love reading other viewpoints, we have some strong opinions ourselves. Our site’s name reflects our philosophy in giving you, the reader, the very best opinions, feedback and nagging. For quite some time now, giving 100 percent has been unacceptable, as the bar had been set at 110. Now, we are raising it that extra notch.

The purpose of our blog - Giving 111 Percent - is to do just what our title does. Take sports news or - in this case a phrase - and put a comical or unique twist on it. We are committed to praising those who need to be praised (Chad Johnson’s choreographer), criticizing those who need to be criticized (Scott Boras and the BCS) and putting in their place those who need to be put in their place (Bill Simmons). You want opinions you can't get anywhere else with a unique and entertaining spin? You’ve come to the right place. At least, until some show off decides to give 112%.

Enough with our mission statement that likely has you clicking back as fast as one can say “What’s OJ thinking?” Now, for the starting lineup:

Patrick DiSalvo – 21, Syracuse University.
Allegiances: Syracuse Orange, New York Yankees, New York Jets, New York Knicks

I’ve ranted about sports before in newspapers, relentlessly in my friend’s ears and even to women. I’m a nut. Like many college students - and fans - sports is a big part of my life. I grew up wishing each Christmas to see a massive Starter jacket under the tree, wore out my thumbs on NBA Jam, and now have graduated to the never ending cycle of ESPN and the Internet.

I’ve been around long enough to see the Jets on NBC, Jordan’s glory years, the great Charles Smith, the Tyson chomp and Olympic Stadium in Montreal. I may have missed out on leather helmets, but I’d like to think I’m a pretty seasoned fan.

I’m also a maniac in the stands. on the right). I love screaming boorishly all game long, and having a hoarse voice for days after contests. There are some other stories maybe not fit to print. I’m a nut. But I’d like to think I’m a pretty informed one. Let’s get going. I hope you enjoy the blog.

Andrew Vitelli – 21, University of Maryland
Allegiances: Maryland Terrapins, New York Yankees, New York Giants, New York Rangers, New York Knicks

I am a senior journalism major at Maryland. I am also from Hastings, NY, and pull for the Yankees, Giants, Rangers, and (hiding face) the Knicks, as well as the Terrapins.

My favorite sports movie is Any Given Sunday. I think that all major sports stadiums and arenas should sell Churros. I was once in a verbal confrontation with the mother of renowned madman Rasheed Wallace ('posing' on the right). I sometimes have nightmares involving John Starks and the Houston Rockets.

The worst moments of my sports life were Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, Game 7 of the 1994 NBA Finals, and the Divisional Playoff game between the Giants and 49ers in 2003. The best were the 1998 World Series, the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals, and Maryland beating Duke in 2005.

I’ll be writing about pretty much anything that I notice. If you like what you read, or you just want to hear my voice, I co-host a radio show at 11 pm on Wednesdays. Just go to www.wmucsports.com to listen. Anyways, I’ll try to keep it interesting.

Image Credits: wvu.edu, hoopsvibe.com