Buy and Sell, 7/21/08

Buy:

Padraig Harrington: Two in a row in the British Open.

Greg Norman: Who cares if he didn’t win? It was a great story nonetheless.

A.L.: Winners of eleven of the last twelve all-star games, now that it really matters, it’s nice to have a run like that.

Sell:

Professional Sports: Tiger-less golf, boring baseball is really all there is to watch right now. I’m football deprived!

Washington Redskins: Losers of two players for the season on the first day of camp! That just sucks.

Boston Red Sox: Go into break up .5, and then blow three at Anaheim. Not a good way to start the second half.

Buy and Sell, 7/14/08

Buy:

Boston Red Sox: In about one week they went from 5 down to the Rays to .5 up.

Philadelphia Soul: The Soul cruised to become Arena Football champions with a whoppin’ 70-35 win over Cleveland.

Tiffany “Hot Chips” Michelle: The last woman standing in the World Series of Poker in on a roll into the later rounds.

Rick Rhoden: Winner for the 7th time of the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship. I guess some people are good at whatever they do.

Sell:

Tampa Bay Rays: Last week’s big buy dove quickly. Losers of seven straight going into the all star break, can they come back and keep this up for the second half of the year?

Green Bay Packers: Should they let Favre back? Should they release him? Should they keep him as backup? No matter how you look at it, this can only bring bad PR to a well-run, well-respected fanchise.

Tony Romo: Placing third in the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship, can this guy do any better than almost winning something important?

The Home Run Derby: The derby is supposed to bring people to baseball. It should consist of household names. Big Stars. Great Players. Hello people! A-Rod is not competing in NY! Does that make any sense? Shame on the MLB for caring too much! We want to see stars, not guys who are having a career year!

Favre, Let It Go

Dear Brett Favre,

You are one of the all-time greats at quarterback in the NFL. You hold records by the bundle, you’ve won the big game, you define a city (and a hat, go cheeseheads!), you are a national icon–but it’s time to let go. You don’t want to end up like Jerry Rice do you? The Packers have moved on, heck, they’re still expecting to retire your number the first game of the season next year. I hate seeing all time greats struggling in any sport. Jordan with the Wizards, Rice with the Raiders, Montana with the Chiefs.

You see the commin pattern here? All these players played their last seasons with another team, and were much less than great. The Packers have moved on. Aaron Rodgers is the guy, and he deserves to be so. You think he doesn’t have enough pressure on him right now taking over a team that was one possesion from the Super Bowl?  If you come back, it won’t be with the Packers, and history shows you won’t be the great player you once were. Even last year you were spectacular, but go out on a high, not on a 7-9 year with a team no one will remember you from. I know you think you have one more year in the tank, but don’t you think the tank is a bit battle scarred.

Now there’s a report that you texted the Packers GM, Ted Thompson. Come on man, that’s below you. You need to sit down and decide what you want to do, not play this silly game–oh, that’s right, you already have. Your gut told you that you were done, believe in it. I watched you press confrence nearly in tears myself, do you really want to put me through that again.

Brett, you gave us one heck of a run, but it’s time for the sun to finally set on a great career. We loved you, we love you, and we will always love you, and remember you for that last great performance you gave up, your sprint to the finish line, your grand finale.

Time to hand up the cleats once and for all.

GYA

The Pistons Again

The Detroit Pistons beat the Orlando Magic last night to advance to the eastern confrence finals for the sixth year straight. There is no doubt this is an incredable feat, but considering they’ve only won the championship once, let me compare this feat to a couple previous ones in sports:

In the early 90’s the Buffalo Bills went to the Super Bowl 4 straight times–they won none of them.

The Atlanta Braves won their division for more than a decade straight–they won one title.

The point I’m trying to make is that it does not matter how many times you get close, to be remembered as great you need to win it all. What’s the common saying, “winner write history”? No one remembers losers, it’s human nature. What the Pistons have done is great, but if they want to be remembered with the Jordan’s and Magic’s and Bird’s, they need to win the title, not almost get there.

-GYA

Spygate

ESPN reported today that the “spygate” scandal people just won’t let go may have included the taping of offensive signals as well as defensive ones. Here’s my view, as a die-hard NEW YORK GIANTS fan on spygate:

EVERYONE DOES IT!!!!

Ron Jaworsky admitted that he did it as a player. In fact, the Pats accused the Dolphins of taping them in a game in 2005, but since the Patriots won the league ignored it.

Hello people! The Patriots are an amazing football team. FYI you can be good without cheating. People have taken this spygate crud way too far because they hate the Pats, Belichick, or both. Let me counter some of your criticisms.

1) Belichick wears a hoodie, he’s not formal enough. The reason Belichick wears a hoodie is because he asked the league if he could wear a suit, and they said no since at the time there were no suits made by Reebok, who pay millions a year so that everything worn in-game is made by them.

2) Belichick is inhumane to the media. Let me tell you something: The Patriots went 16-0 in the regular season, and who got the most attention from the media?–The coach! By acting how he does to the media, he takes the spotlight off his players and puts it on himself, helping the players focus on football, and the upcoming game they gonna win.

3) The Patriots just get lucky. They landed Moss who no one knew would be good. They took Brady in the 6th round for God sakes! Let me tell you about a man named Scott Pioli, the GM of the Pats. Did you know that the Patriots have more players that they drafted on their team than anyone else in the league? Also, the Pats have the highest average score of all their players on the Wonderlic test, the test all rookies take when entering the NFL that is supposed to test their learning ability. They also have the smartest offensive line in the game, arguably the best in the league this year.

4) The Patriots run up the score. This is pure BS. First of all, the NFL is a professional league! This is not college where some teams have the ability to recruit better than others, the NFL is arguably the most equal league in the world. Wait, here’s an idea: if you don’t want the Pats to run up the score on you stop them! Don’t whine and complain. Players: you are paid to stop offences, do your job! Running up the score is a term that should never be used in professional sports period. Also, a quick note: When the Colts “ran up the score” in ‘05 when Manning set the touchdown record, everyone rooted for him to break it. When he played in the fourth quarter when the game was over and threw two touchdowns, people cheered, not criticized.

All in all, I know you hate the Pats, I’m not so fond of them either, but to go on and on about how they’re cheaters just makes you look like an uneducated whiner.