New Beginnings

I'm back. Yes, I have returned to the blogosphere triumphantly riding in on a white horse. Ok maybe not really on a white horse, and maybe not so triumphantly, but I am back and no, I did not forget about you. The past few months have just been a period of upheaval for me, all in good ways fortunately.

As of my last post in October I was engaged to the love of my life planning a wedding to take place this October in 2011. Now, I am happily married to that same woman living in a quiet little town southwest of Boston.

Speaking of employment, as of my last post in October I was working for a small newspaper in Greenwich, Connecticut. Now I am working for a major medical information technology company just five miles away from my new home.

It's funny the directions life takes you.

Understandably, at least to me anyway, all that change meant some things had to fall to the back burner and unfortunately this blog fell into that category. Every time I felt like coming back to writing here something would come up and draw my attention. Again, every one of those somethings have been good and I am easily the happiest I've ever been for the reasons stated above. Now things have settled down and my new bride and I have contentedly settled into our routine leaving me with the opportunity to return to something I enjoy, writing about sports.

It's fitting in a way, and no small coincidence, that I've decided to begin posting on Opening Day of the 2011 Major League Baseball season. You might almost say I planned it this way. But it is Opening Day, a day for new beginnings, and probably my favorite day of the sporting year followed closely by the start of the Masters (which conveniently is next week).

There's something uniquely special about today, even as winter refuses to roll over and die in the northeast. It's more of a feeling, a sense of the electricity in the air as 30 ball clubs will take to the field for the first time over the next two days all with dreams of October glory. Maybe it's cliche of me to say that one of the things that makes today so great is everyone is starting 0-0 and nothing can dampen any of their dreams but like a true baseball fans out there I can feel it.

Does every team really have a chance? No. To believe otherwise would require an incomprehensible level of naivete. But the truth is none of that really matters. What matters most is the fact that baseball season is back and regardless of whether you cheer for the Red Sox, the Yankees, the Phillies, the Giants, or even the Royals, today is a day to celebrate new beginnings.

So to conclude I encourage you all to forget about wins and losses, trophies and awards; and simply sit back, relax, and enjoy. It's going to be a helluva fun ride.

Perfection gained through imperfect means

The 2010 Major League Baseball playoffs are only a day old and already the magic has been ignited.

Yesterday, Roy Halliday of the Philadelphia Phillies fired a no-hitter, only the second of its kind to ever happen during the postseason. The first being Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series.

This was also Halliday's second no-no of the year, he had previously thrown a perfect game against the Marlins in May.

But in a strange way, Doc Halliday's no-hitter felt even more special than his perfect game and not simply because it was a postseason game as opposed to an early-season contest against a weaker opponent.

Certainly a perfect game is the ultimate pitching masterpiece. To be so focused and so on your game that you face 27 batters and retire all of them without surrendering a hit, a walk or an error is the greatest accomplishment a pitcher can ever achieve or strive for.

But Halliday's no-no was different, better even, because of the situation and the meaning that can be derived from it.

Yes obviously it's special because it's only the second time in postseason history that its happened but it's also special because it shows us that while we often fall short in our own quests for perfection in everything we do that doesn't make the ultimate result any less remarkable. Perfection is something to strive for yes but almost impossible to reach and it's important to take a step back and admire the fact that while we aren't always perfect, the things we do achieve are special.

Edwards arrested but will play...blame the CBA

By now most football fans know that Jets wideout Braylon Edwards was arrested and arraigned on drunken-driving charges stemming from an incident on Tuesday where he was stopped on Manhattan's West Side around 5 a.m. Edwards, who was in the car with two other players and a fourth passenger, was given a breathalizer and blew more than twice the legal limit.

At a glance it seems like this would be yet another situation where NFL Commissioner, aka Judge, Roger Goodell would come down on Edwards with a hefty fine and suspension. At the very least the expectation would be that the Jets themselves take some form of disciplinary action. Unfortunately neither is going to happen, at least until the legal process runs it's course.

The reason is the current Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NFL and the NFL Players Association. According to the CBA, Edwards actions and subsequent arrest fall under the league's substance abuse policy. As such the only penalty that Edwards is currently eligible for is a forfeiture of half a game's pay. The Jets cannot suspend Edwards, nor can they deactivate him for Sunday's game against the Dolphins. In fact, they cannot even keep him active but refuse to play him. In short, Edwards will not only be in uniform on Sunday, but he will be on the field catching passes from Mark Sanchez.

Whatever happened to accountability? Forget the fact that Edwards is an idiot. Forget that the NFL has a contract with a company, that Edwards refused to use, that will provide transport to any player, anywhere, anytime, to any place. Why is this allowed to happen? The NFL and the NFLPA already have severe disciplinary actions in place for other offences. Why was drunk driving allowed to slip on through?

This isn't even the first time in recent memory that a player got into trouble for drinking and driving. A few years ago Donte Stallworth had a few too many to drink, got behind the wheel and killed someone. He was suspended for one season and one season only. At the very least he was very up front with his regret and refused to fight any charges against him and accept his punishment. Ok, but why did he feel like it was ok to get behind the wheel in the first place, better yet, why wasn't the NFL harsher on him?

Edwards should have known better, the two other players in the vehicle with him should have known better. But until the Goodell and the NFLPA pull their head's out of their backsides and really make an effort to change the culture that seemingly fosters this sort of behavior more and more incidents like this are going to happen. Hopefully change comes before another innocent life is lost.

Where does it end?

I made a big mistake today. I started looking around the various ticket exchange websites to see how much Patriots tickets might cost for later in the season. Not surprisingly they were expensive, over $90 on StubHub and around $70 on the NFL.com ticket exchange website.

But I wasn't all that surprised, NFL tickets are expensive because they are in high demand since there is only 8 home games every season.

My mistake came however when on a whim I decided to check out how much Giants tickets are. The answer, over $150 per ticket. Enter rage.

Of all the good things about the NFL the unreasonably high ticket prices are the biggest thing to hate about the NFL. No care or concern is given to the fans when team's set their prices, especially when a new stadium is being opened.

The NFL is a multi-billion dollar business and yet we, the fans, have to suffer. As ticket prices go up the true, blue-collar fans. The ones for whom the game should be played, are pushed out of stadiums and forced to watch games at homes. Even long-time season-ticket holders are shown not a shred of loyalty as they are forced into forking over tens of thousands of dollars just for the right to possibly purchase tickets (yes I'm talking about PSL's).

Owners will sit there and say that tickets need to be priced as high because demand is high. Or that they need the ticket prices to be high to fund the team's operations. But even an untrained monkey would be smart enough to see through the BS and realize that these utter morons are simply used to living a certain way and need money to fund their mansions, helicopters and expensive parties. Why else would they cater almost solely to the wealthy. Meanwhile we, the real fans, are left out in the cold.

We're also told that if we don't pay to go to games, spending upwards of $400 alone on tickets (for a family of four), and the stadium does not sell out we won't even be able to watch our hometown boys on TV because of the NFL's antiquated and unfair blackout policy. Yes — you read right — if a stadium is not sold out within 72 hours of a game the game gets blacked out in the local TV market. That happened seven times last year and early projections see it happening around 28 times this year...a 400 percent increase.

And now the owners are considering locking out the players next season if no new collective bargaining agreement is reached proving once again just how out of touch those arrogant jack asses really are. I suppose there is one good thing to come out of a lock out or strike though — at least fans won't completely break their bank trying to go to take their family to a game.

The little guy ain't so little anymore

All Hail Division I-AA!
All Hail the FCS!
The tyranny of Division I-A is over!

Ok, so maybe its not. But after the "little guys," from James Madison University, a small school in mid-Virginia, upset supposed national title contender Virginia Tech this past weekend it's clear that it doesn't always matter how big your football program is or how much money you have; at the end of the day football is football, there are winners and losers and sometimes the loser is going to be the "better team."

I've always felt that Division I-AA teams were always looked on with a sort of casual indifference by the experts, too good for Division II but not good enough to be classed with the so-called elite. But more and more it's proven that the I-AA teams can be just as good as the I-A teams if not better.

Maybe it's a question of the lower level teams want it more, they have nothing to lose while the bigger teams treat the contest as a cupcake game. It's a tried and true method of the I-A teams, schedule lower level games to bolster you're own records while granting the "little guy," with some prime-national exposure, or embarrassment. Bottom line, they don't take the game seriously.

But they should and some are taking notice. Last week the Big East extended an offer to my alma mater, the defending FCS Champion Villanova Wildcats, to move up to the next level and join the football side of the conference (most other Nova sports including basketball are already part of the Big East). Villanova probably won't join as it'll require too much change to the athletic landscape on campus but at least the big boys are starting to realize that there's a lot of talent and excitement to be had at I-AA.

Odds are though most I-A teams will continue to schedule games against the lower level assuming it'll be an easy win and while most times that's true, I'll still advise those teams to not be so quick to assume an easy victory.

What I will do is guarantee that team's like Michigan (after an epic loss to Appalachian State) and now Virginia Tech will never make that mistake again.

Questionable motives

As a Red Sox fan I've tried not to question the decisions of the team's front office, namely general manager Theo Epstein, all that often. Sure he's made some bad calls (trading Bronson Arroyo for Willy Mo Pena, signing Daisuke Matsuzaka etc.) but he's also made some great decisions, World Series winning decisions (acquiring Curt Schilling, trading Nomar etc.).

Now however I'm left seriously questioning his decision to claim Johnny Damon off waivers. Remember this is the Johnny Damon who left Boston, and his godliness, behind for $12 million of slightly greener pastures in New York when the Sox were prepared to offer him a more than reasonable contract. More importantly this is the Johnny Damon who has struggled all year for Detroit.

Epstein's rationale — to prevent him from going to the Rays or back to the Yankees.

First, to educate those who may not know, after the July 31st non-waiver trading deadline, in order for players to be traded they must go on waivers for a period of 10 days. During that time any team may lay claim to them and it is then up to that players team to decide whether or not they want to trade them. Once that 10-day period elapses the team is free to trade that player to whomever they like. Often times, teams will claim players to prevent them from going to a rival as is the case with Damon.

But there in lies the danger, the Red Sox want nothing to do with Damon as a player, or at least they shouldn't. His skills are diminished and there is little he could likely contribute but because of the claim they could very well wind up saddled with him and his salary. Granted, Damon has a no-trade clause and he could block any trade himself, but what if he doesn't and he allows something to go through? Then the Sox are stuck with a washed up outfielder.

What really makes this move questionable and less than desirable is the fact that the Sox, though not mathematically eliminated are likely going to be on the outside looking in come playoff time. With so many injuries and a shaky pitching staff why would they want to risk trading younger talent for a guy who won't matter in the end? Better question, instead of trying to block a guy from going to a rival, why didn't the Red Sox try to acquire some talent before the deadline, another bat, more pitching, anything that could have made a difference?

Theo should have just kept his mouth shut and let this one go. It's not worth the risk.

"Stupid old men and their stupid old rules"

I don't know what it is but this has not been a good week for sports officials. Blown calls, bad calls, poor decisions this week has, unfortunately, had it all.

It started Sunday with the final round of the PGA Championship. On the 18th hole Dustin Johnson shanks his drive into the crowd on the right and finds his way into a seemingly innocuous patch of sand that had been trampled by the weekend crowds. He plays out the hole as one normally would making bogey and seemingly forcing a three-way playoff for the championship.

Oh but wait! As it turns out that seemingly innocuous patch of sand wasn't so innocuous, it was in fact a bunker, one of many so-called "waste bunkers" throughout the course. And, clearly not realizing that, Johnson grounded his club as he was taking his practice swings (essentially he put his club into the sand before swinging) which resulted, after about 15 minutes of review, in a two-stroke penalty taking him out of competition.

The PGA's official response was that postings had been made all throughout the week in the locker room that anything that was a bunker or a hazard prior to the start of the tournament was to remain so during the actual play regardless of any cosmetic changes caused by people and/or vehicles. Basically they attempted to cover their own backsides.

There are those that would argue that the officials should have waived that rule given the situation and the circumstances, end of the final major, final group, didn't really gain any advantage etc. There are others who say Dustin should have just known better or there are others, like my girlfriend, who accurately pointed out that he actually grounded his club twice and should have been penalized four strokes, while mumbling about stupid old men and their stupid old rules.

My problem with this situation boils down to two things, the first is that the PGA should have known this was a potential problem and simply deemed that all hazards outside the ropes, or outside the "field of play," were not to be seen as hazards and played normally. The other issue is the only reason why Dustin got penalized was because he was on television as the final group, had this happened to someone earlier in the day who finished in the middle of the pack nothing would have happened, why, because he wouldn't have been on TV.

That was one issue.

The other happened in last night's Yankee/Tigers game. In the bottom of the first Detroit's pitcher plunked Brett Gardner in retaliation for an excessively hard slide into second the day before. Fine, the players police themselves and that's the end of it. But no not really, the home plate umpire Eric Cooper comes out and issues a warning to both benches meaning that the next pitcher to hit a batter in the game is going to be thrown out, as is that pitcher's manager.

Before I go any further let me just say that there is no need to warn anybody. As I said, the players need to police themselves and that will be the end of it.

Things got worse later in the game though. After hitting two home runs Miguel Cabrera is up against the Yankees' Chad Gaudin. Gaudin, after a few pitches, plunks Cabrera on the back, fairly obviously on purpose. Cooper does nothing, Tigers manager Jim Leyland argues the entire rest of the inning, and rightfully so, and gets thrown out for his troubles. Next inning Enrique Gonzalez for the Tigers throws behind Derek Jeter, also clearly on purpose, and again Cooper does nothing.

Ok, you shouldn't have warned the benches in the first place but once you did you had to uphold your own ruling. By not doing so you've not only made a mockery out of the rulebook your supposed to enforce, but you've also made a mockery of yourself and shown that you have no credibility and are an embarrassment.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, there needs to be accountability for officials who screw up. They need to be fined, suspended, put on probation, anything to make them actually do their jobs the right way and not be lazy.