The Daily Nooner

Where the hell have I been? I am just a slacker plain and simple. I seem to have lost my inspiration lately; I guess that is what it is. It reminds me of this great song by The Refreshments, Blue Collar Suicide, the lyric in the chorus goes like this “I can't write cause she's got all my inspiration, And she can't count all the pills I took.” That is what I feel like right now, something has stolen my inspiration. I guess it really is the dog days of summer, those hot hazy humid days just take so much out of you. And this week in the Palmetto State the heat index has been well over 100 degrees, so I am zapped.

Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come
Say what you want people, but baseball is still our past time. Yeah football gets the big TV numbers and you will point to the amount of retards that play fantasy football. But I write about all sports on this website, and nothing elicits the number of passionate responses as has baseball. We have people trying to ban each other from the site because of outlandish comments; that has never happened. We have people comparing a career .274 hitter with a 4 time world champion and sure fire Hall of Famer. Listen Jose Reyes Fan Club; I think he is a nice ball player, but lets take it easy with saying he will be better than Derek Jeter; wait at least until he hits .300 for a seasons or gets 200 hits, please.

Oh. You strenuously object. Then I'll take some time and reconsider
President Bush has made what many consider to be his most important decision as President and nominated John Roberts to replace Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court. Roberts is definitely a conservative nominee, but what else would you have expected from Bush. However, Roberts seems well respected across party lines and has a fairly impressive record and career at the age of 50. Most obviously the key issue that is being pointed to with Roberts is his stance on abortion. He has been part of the Regan/Bush white house since 1982 and formerly worked as a clerk for Judge William Rehnquist. Most people agree he will be a judge along the lines of Rehnquist, who also may soon be retiring. It is no surprise that Bush’s first nominee was going to be a conservative, but if Rehnquist retires it remains to be seen whether or not he will go with some a little more moderate. Go ahead Josh, blast away on the right wing!!!!

Why aren't we flying? Because getting there is half the fun
Is the Tour de France over yet? This thing is out of control. Seriously, could there be anything more boring than watching a bunch of skinny guys ride their bikes around all day. There is no drama in who is going to win this, ever. Not just in the Armstrong dominance era, but once this thing basically gets out of the mountains the last 4 days are anti climactic. All the leader does is ride along side his nearest competitor for the last 35 minutes of the race. The only thing worse than watching this thing is; A. seeing highlights of it & B. me complaining about it, so I am done!!

I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work
Looks like Larry Brown is not going to stay unemployed very long. And I thought he was having health problems and could not coach, oh that tricky Larry Brown. I mentioned to Dave Odom that Brown and the Knicks were talking about their head coaching position and that a $10-12 million offer was on the table, and he said to me “what’s to talk about?” I couldn’t agree more, how could Brown not take the job? Think about it, it is a no lose situation. He takes the job maybe they get better, he gets 110% of the credit. Say they still suck, who cares, they have sucked for years. He can quit at anytime because of “health concerns” and Isaiah Thomas will still get blamed for all of the organizations failures. I heard someone make a great comparison about Larry Brown: If you are hooking up with a girl who is cheating on her boyfriend with you, you should never actually date here. Once she gets sick of you she will cheat on you with some other guy. It is so true, that is all Larry Brown is, a cheating girlfriend. When the stories broke about the Cav’s GM job he repeatedly stated that he would only coach the Pistons next year, that this was his final stop; this guy has had more final stops than Bill Parcells.

Oh, Eddie... If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn't be more surprised than I am now
Baseball is providing us with such new fads this year in the second half of the season. Kerry Wood is on the DL with arm trouble, who would have thought that? This guy is a pitching machine, his arm is like rubber. Wood is a slightly better than .500 pitcher with a bad arm, that’s it folks. It is a shame because in that bad arm he has some nasty stuff, but the guy still has never really learned how to pitch and his arm will be completely shot by the time he ever does learn. The Oakland A’s are making a huge second half run. I mean nobody could have seen this one coming. This team is hot, and will remain hot till season’s end. Clearly they are a team to be reckoned with in the post season; the have a deep rotation Zito, Harden, Danny Haren and Joe Blanton, that powerful lineup with the like of Scott Hatteberg, Mark Ellis and the venerable Erubial Durazo. Oh wait, I have seen this game before. Remember when the A’s had the big 3 pitchers (not to be confused with the Mets Big 3, Jason Isringhausen, Bill Pulsipher and Paul Wilson, combined 87-106 .450 W% & 4.52 ERA, sorry Mets) and couldn’t get out of the first round of the playoffs? They also had 2 American League MVP’s on that squad, and could not get out of the first round, so please stop talking about the fucking A’s. Lastly, it just would not be late July if teams weren’t interested in acquiring and overpriced under achieving pitcher. Enter, AJ Burnett a career .500 pitcher. A guy who has never started more than 30 games in a season. A guy who has had 3 years worth of arm trouble just to get back to full time status this season. A guy who somehow threw 7 complete games one season but only threw 204 innings? A guy who is slated to make almost $4 million this season and over $5 million next season if he gets arbitration.

TWIB Notes 7/11

This week’s addition will be the Mid-Season awards addition. I will give the top 3 candidates in each category and then pick a winner. Also I will re-forecast the end of the season awards and playoff teams.

AL MVP:
Brian Roberts .350 BA 1.020 OPS 18 SB 22 2B
Manny Ramirez .274 BA 22 HR 80 RBI
Mark Teixeira .290 BA 24 HR 71 RBI 21 2B

For everything that Roberts has done for the Orioles, the fact that the Red Sox are now in first gives the edge to Manny. This guy just produce’s game in and game out. His numbers sky rocket with runners in scoring position, with an average of .344 and OPS of 1.237. He changes the entire complexion of his team’s line-up; he is the best run producer in the game for a first place team; that says MVP to me.

In the second half I look for Hideki Matsui to continue his scorching season. He got off to a slow start, but the rebirth of the Yankees can be directly related to this guys hitting. His averaged has climbed all season long and has found his power stroke, and next to Manny he is the best run producer in the league, batting .336 with RISP. The most amazing stat to describe Matsui is that he is batting 30 points higher against left handed pitching, that doesn’t even make sense.

AL Cy Young:
Roy Halladay 12-4 2.41 ERA 0.96 WHIP 108 SO
Mark Buehrle 10-3 2.54 ERA 1.11 WHIP
Jon Garland 13-4 3.38 ERA 1.08 WHIP .247 BAA

Hey Jon and Mark, thanks for playing but this is Roy Halladay in a runaway. Halladay has been virtually un-hittable all year; it is a shame for the Blue Jays that he broke a bone in his leg. He was on his way of topping is Cy young season of 2003 (22-7 3.25).

Now with Halladay out of the way the door is one for Mark Buerhle or Kenny Rogers. Rogers is going to be hurt by his suspension, missing up to 4 starts. I think Buerhle can continue his good season, he has shown flashes of this brilliance in his career and I look for him to finish with about 20-22 wins with a sub 3.00 ERA.

AL Manager:
Ozzie Guillen, Chicago White Sox
Eric Wedge, Cleveland Indians
Lee Mazzilli, Baltimore Orioles

Ozzie Guillen is hands down the AL Manager of the first half. He has taken a team that nobody thought would be any good and has kept them atop the AL all season long. He has a pitching staff of mostly washed up guys and has gotten them to perform. And then he has gone with the offensive theory of speed and defense, two things Guillen did well when he played.

I look for Guillen’s team to continue to play well and win the Division going away, which will keep Guillen as the odds on favorite. My second half dark horse is Eric Wedge of the Indians. His team has the best pitching staff top to bottom in the league and their offense is beginning to wake up. If things continue this way they may be able to snag the wild card spot away from the Eastern Division 2nd place team.


NL MVP:
Derrek Lee .374 BA 27 HR 72 RBI .733 SLG
Albert Pujols .338 BA 22 HR 69 RBI 44 BB
Bobby Abreu .307 BA 18 HR 58 RBI 21 SB

This is a pretty close contest. Albert Pujols is the best hitter in the game, though Lee is matching him stride for stride this season. Pujols is also doing for the best team in baseball, while they scorch the NL competition. However, Lee is having one of those career seasons and deserves to be the MVP so far. He is only 4 RBI short of being the Triple Crown winner at the mid way point of the season.

Lee is beginning to feel the weight of carrying his team, literally, and is battling a shoulder injury. Pujols is as consistent as it comes, and by seasons end he will once again be in contention for the Triple Crown as his team walks away with the NL Central crown.

NL Cy Young:
Pedro Martinez 10-3 2.72 ERA 0.84 WHIP .185 BAA 138 SO
Dontrelle Willis 13-4 2.39 ERA 1.14 WHIP 5 CG 4 SHO
Roger Clemens 7-3 1.48 ERA 0.95 WHIP .188 BAA 22 R

On top of the three candidates named, Roy Oswalt, Chris Carpenter, and John Smoltz all have a shot at this award too. But at midseason this is all Roger Clemens, what he is doing is simply nasty. He has given up 22 runs, total, all season and we have played almost 90 games. On the road this season he has been virtual impossible to hit, with a .153 BAA and 0.20 ERA. He has started 18 games this year; he has given up 0 runs in 7 starts and only 1 run in 5 other starts.

This will be the most closely contested award down the stretch. Willis has a chance to put up 23 or more wins which will be unbelievable. Smoltz is getting better as the season goes along and Chris Carpenter will also get 20 plus wins because of the team he is on. I still look for Clemens to have 18 or so wins by seasons end and continue to have a sub 2.30 ERA, he is the toughest competitor out their and is in the best shape of anyone.

NL Manager:
Bobby Cox, Atlanta Braves
Frank Robinson, Washington Nationals
Tony LaRussa, St. Louis Cardinals

Tony LaRussa is the tough luck manager of the year, he has no chance of getting this award even though his team is 23 games over .500 and 11 game lead in their division. I really want to give this award to Bobby Cox; he has had 9 different starting pitchers (3 of his 5 starters are on the DL), his closer, who may be the best in the game, is their #1 starter, and he has had 4 rookies play 35 or more games in the field because of injuries to Chipper Jones, Johnny Estrada, Eddie Perez, Brian Jordan, and the Raul Mondesi experiment. But Frank Robinson is in first place with a team that does not have an owner, and have been vagabonds for the last 3 seasons. Even if you look at his teams stats there is no good reason why they win these games, except for the fact that they have one of the great baseball men of all time, Frank Robinson. He has managed his team perfectly, they ar 25-9 in 1 run games this year which speaks directly to the manager.

I do not think the Nationals can keep this up all season long, though Robinson will still get his share of votes come seasons end. But again if somehow Bobby Cox can lead the Braves to a 14th consecutive division title with all the problems that they have had this year, he should be the winner. Especially doing it in a division that is the most competitive in the Majors this year.

AL
East: Boston Red Sox
Central: Chicago White Sox
West: Los Angeles Angels
Wildcard: Cleveland Indians

NL
East: Atlanta Braves
Central: St. Louis Cardinals
West: San Diego Padres
Wildcard: Florida Marlins

TWIB Notes

Hi everybody, I’m Mel Allen and welcome to This Week in Baseball. For those of you who remember the greatest of all baseball shows and baseball announcers, I have decide to pay my respects by having my own weekly column about what is in the news, This Week in Baseball. Of course we have started many things here at The Wisdom that have disappeared faster than a pile of cocaine at Bobby & Whitney’s house…….. Hi-ooooo!!!!

You’ve gotta know when to hold em, know when to fold em
- Should Kenny Rogers pitch in the All-Star Game? Uhhhh, yeah sure, why not? Really to me this is a relative non issue. The fact is he acted like a moron by shoving the cameramen and he deserves the suspension he received from Bud Selig. The All-Star game is something that he has earned the right to play in.

Right now I just... I just wanna find some *rockets*!
- Who should be the starting pitcher for the NL next week? Well I would have to go with Roger Clemens. Yes Dontrell Willis has more wins, but Clemens is having the better season. Don’t give me that excuse that Clemens has started before and should give someone else a chance, that is bullshit. In fact because he is older, more toward the end of his career, and one of the All-Time greats I would rather see him start. Clemens starting would be a tribute to the marvelous things he has been able to accomplish throughout his career

Yeah, and ya don’t stop, cause it’s 187 on a mutha fuckin cop
- What is wrong with the Baltimore Orioles? They finally remembered that they sucked. Well injuries have been a fairly big part of it, Javy Lopez and Eric Bedard missing extended time. Plus the total lack of production put forth by the $17 million waste of space known as Sammy Sosa. Since returning from the DL on May 24th he is hitting .187 with 30 strikeouts and only 24 hits, that is plain awful.


Tarzan couldn't take this kind of hot
- Who is the hottest hitter out there?

In his last 31 games Hideki Matsui is batting .415 slugging .734 and has 9 HR’s and 29 RBI.

First time All-Star Jason Bay over the last 9 games is hitting .437 with 3 HR’s 8 RBI & 8 runs scored.

Brewers rookie Ricki Weeks has only 3 hits in July but they are all homeruns and he has driven in 7 in 4 games.

But the hottest is the Indians Travis Haffner. Over his last 21 games he is batting .395 with 10 HR’s 33 RBI 25 runs and slugging a ridiculous .848.

On the Mound:

The Indians Jake Westbrook has finally started pitching well, going 4-1 over his last 5 starts. Pitching 34 innings striking out 25 and walking only 7 while lowering his ERA a half run down to 4.51

Since June 1st, the Nationals closer Chad Cordero has been on fire. Over 18 games he has saved 16 of them giving up 2 runs, 2 walks and only 13 hits.

John Smoltz is finally rounding his arm into starters shape. Over his last 5 starts he is 5-0 with 3 complete games, over that time he has struck out 33 in 41 IP while having a WHIP of 0.73 and he now has his ERA down to 2.68


Hey now, you’re an All-Star get your game on, go play
- Congratulations to Scott Podsednik and Roy Oswalt for being elected to the All-Star team. But let’s get to the real problem here folks, and yes some of this is Yankee fan biased so all you Met and Oriole fans who read this can write comments about how the Yankees suck and all that. But Derek Jeter inexplicably is not on the All-Star team. Listen, Michael Young is a nice ballplayer and I do not doubt he should be an All-Star, but Derek Jeter is the face of the game. Everyone who is a casual sports fan knows Derek Jeter for all his accomplishments and the way he plays the game. He is not just an All-Star statistically (leading the league in Runs Scored and 6th in OBP while batting .308) but with all of his action on the field and in the clubhouse. For 3 months while promoting the All-Star Game on Fox MLB has had 2 guys in the commercial, Vlad Guerrero and Derek Jeter, what does that tell you right there. Seriously people let’s wise up put Jeter on the team, screw everybody else!!!

Tennis Anyone?

This past weekend the tennis world wrapped up its single most popular fortnight. The 119th Championships at Wimbledon were won by past champions but that does not mean that there wasn’t a rebirth of tennis this weekend. Now in America, we mostly care about what American’s are doing in individual sports like tennis, golf, track, swimming, and other individual sports. However, tennis is the one sport where we can appreciate players from other countries and their outstanding accomplishments.

In the past 4-5 years the popularity of tennis has slipped in America, and part of that can be due to the increased popularity of golf as an individual sport. That plus the lack of American stars especially on the Men’s side have forced tennis to slip into relative obscurity. I was one who fell victim to this indifference even though I grew up playing tennis weekly and enjoying watching the sports especially the Grand Slam events. The memories of Pat Cash winning the 1987 Wimbledon Championship or Jimmy Connors miracle run at the 1990 US Open or the overwhelming power of 2 teenagers from Germany Boris Becker & Steffi Graf.

This most recent championship on the lawns of London seems to have lit a little spark under the tennis world. The first thing that helped was Maria Sharapova winning last year, and though she was born and raised in Russia she has great crossover appeal because she has spent so much time in America and speak English fluently. Her yearlong celebration carried into this year’s tournament, where in the Semi-Finals she ran into the comeback story of Venus Williams. Williams looked like her old dominant self disposing of the defending champ. In the Finals she matched up with an old foe that was also making her own comeback of sorts, another former Wimbledon Champion Lindsay Davenport.

Williams and Davenport did not disappoint, putting on a classic match, showing us all what championship tennis was. Davenport looked in control of the match, in fact getting a match point in the second set, but Williams came roaring back scoring 9 straight points at one time. As in all great sporting events there was a seminal moment, in this match it was the 25 volley rally that resulted in a Williams point. It was an outstanding rally that ended with Davenport hitting a ball into the net and then bending over in disappointment while Williams let out a child like exalted scream. It was one of the great sporting moments that I was watching alone and wishing I had someone to cheer with (much like the 1999 Ryder Cup).

Sunday morning provided us with a much different match in the men’s final, but the excitement was still there. Roger Federer (2 Time defending Champ) faced off against American phenom Andy Roddick. Roddick and Federer have been rivals since their days coming up on the junior circuit. While in juniors their rivalry was much more even, but most recently in the professional ranks it has been dominated by Federer. On grass Federer is a master. He cannot be beaten right now; everything he does is perfect on grass. Tennis is absolutely beautiful to watch when it is being played perfectly and Federer right now is at the very top of the tennis world.

Roddick was playing some of the best tennis of his career, he was playing at a level that was mostly unbeatable, by Federer has taken his game to the highest level. He dominated Roddick at every turn during the final match. It was fun to watch, one guy playing at an exceptional level (Roddick is 32-0 on grass over the past 3 years against everyone not named Roger Federer) and another playing at the highest level. The numbers Federer is putting up are staggering; 9-1 against Roddick, 36 consecutive grass court matches, and he has won his 21 straight times in the finals of a tournament. While Federer is putting together this unbelievable run there are other players looking to knock him off, Andy Roddick, Thomas Johansen, Raphael Nadal, and Lleyton Hewitt. This is much like what Tiger Woods was doing in the early part of this decade and the other golfers raised their games to his level, I think the same will happen with these tennis players.

I am not sure why, but these new players and exciting matches have tennis back on my radar screen. I am waiting with anticipation for those hot summer nights in Queens at the Arthur Ashe tennis center, where special things always seem to happen. Roddick will be back on his favorite surface where he won his only major title, Federer is the defending champ and Lleyton Hewitt won the US Open back in 2001. Tennis may be making it’s way back, and I am on the small band wagon.

The Weekend Wrap 6/1-6/4

Things we learned:

- Even Tom Cruise’s most recent ridiculous behavior can not stop the movie money making tandem of Cruise and Steven Spielberg. You can argue over the merits of this movie and whether or not it is any good (review coming later this week) and if Cruise & Spielberg still excite some movie goers, but when these two put something in the theatre it sure seems to make a lot of money. War of the Worlds is no different; it took in $77.6 million. That out does the other movies in the top 10 this weekend; combined those movies made $71.4 million.

- Takeru Kobayashi is absolutely inhuman. Who is he you ask? Well he is the 5 time champion of the July 4th Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. He packed down a measly 49 hot dogs in 12 minutes, and that is 4 ½ dogs off of his world record. He weighs 144 lbs. and can pack down food like nobody else alive. Really this guy should have his own reality show. Now calling him an athlete is using the term loosely, but as far as competitive hobbies & games there is nobody that dominates like this guy. The next closest competitor at 37 hot dogs and was never even in the competition. The name should be changed to how many hot dogs can this freak Kobayashi down in 12 minutes. To equate it to something, it would be like watching the Red Sox take on the Idaho Class 2-A High School Champions.

- Space nerds everywhere……UNITE!!! This weekend NASA scientists successfully blasted a whole in a comet just out of the Earth’s orbit. This was project “Deep Impact” after the 1998 movie. I read about 4 articles on this event this weekend, and I am very unsure on why it was done. Who knows, maybe people at NASA were just bored and wanted to blow stuff up, that is what I would do.


Things I disliked:

- This is kind of general comment, but after watching entertainers and athletes yap on TV all weekend I hate these dumbass’s and the clichés they constantly use. The newest entertainer (and sometimes athlete) cliché is “We’re just trying to take things to the next level,” or some variation of that quote. Cliché’s indicate a few things about the person using them; first they are unintelligent, two they obviously have nothing else to say, and lastly they most likely did not understand the question. I want all of these people dead.

- Okay this may come out wrong, but here goes. I hate this stupid Live 8 concerts that happened all over the world this weekend. I am not against charity or anything like that, but as Bob Geldof (The Organizer) has said this is not about charity, it is about your voice. Well pal, voice’s don’t do much, money does. Especially the fact that most of the people who went to go see these free concerts don’t give a rats ass about what cause you were trying to champion. They went to go see their favorite band, most especially because it was free. I guarantee if your interviewed people at the concert more than half of them would have no idea what you were actually trying to accomplish. In fact, I have very little clue and I watched about 15 different news reports on these concerts. I know you were trying to bring awareness to the leaders of the G-8 summit later this week. How many people actually know what the G-8 summit even is? I just think most of the good these people where trying to accomplish fell mostly on deaf ears.



Things I liked:

- While I am not one much for the super celebration of over patriotic days like the 4th of July, I do find myself amazed by the love of fireworks by the southern rednecks. I found myself at a BBQ (southern people that is a northern word for cookout) Saturday evening. It actually turns into a contest of which redneck has more fireworks in a given neighborhood. To me it is more of a race to see who can blow off a finger sooner. The party I was at had what was known as “The Peacemaker.” This was a $400 set of fireworks, that is a piss load of explosions. Once the fireworks started there was a solid 2 hours worth of explosion’s in the neighborhood. It is like the Bat signal, one redneck hears someone five blocks away light off a bottle rocket and they going flying down a fireman’s pole into their garage where they too have a “Peacemaker” set of fireworks.

- Now we all know how much I hate MTV, however being a masochist I watch this crap everyday. One of the truly repulsive shows on this network is of course its flagship program “The Real World.” I could go on for hours on why I hate “The Real World” and why I think it has ruined both television & society, but someone else has summed it up better than me, and that is Chuck Klosterman in his book Sex, Drugs, & Cocoa Puffs. The new season has recently premiered and pits 7 usual fucking people in Austin Texas for 6 months of stupidity, drunken escapades, and lots of making out & sex. I won’t go into the whole situation, but there was an incident at a bar involving 2 cast mates. One of those cast mates decided to actually act like an adult and simply remove himself from the situation, let cooler heads prevail and go home and hope everything calms down. Well the rest of the cast mates were kind of unaware of what was happening, so these two meathead fake tough guys go outside and basically begin trolling for trouble around the streets of Austin, and trouble they got. They got into a fight with other drunk meat heads and the one dude from “The Real World” got fucking jacked up. So bad he had to have some surgery to help repair the bone in his face, and man I could not be happier. Some may say the guy got hit with a cheap shot; well life is full of cheap shots pal. You know, if you do not go around acting like a tough guy and getting in fights the chance’s of getting your face smashed in by a cheap shot are greatly reduced.


OLD SCHOOL RAP LYRIC OF THE WEEK:

We reign all year round from June to June
While niggaz bite immediately if not soon
Set the lynchin, and form the execution date
As this two thousand beyond slang suffocate
Amplify sample through vacumn tubes compressions
cause RZA, to charge niggaz twenty G's a session

I Love Al Gore

This is a super random and super short post. But I love Al Gore, because without him inventing the internet I would have nothing to do all day. What a genius!! How could we not elect this guy president, he invented the internet, what a great thing.

The internet enables me to go back and look at great things throughout human history, as well as provide me with the latest news & gossip.
Today I did both, relived some great times:

http://politicalhumor.about.com/b/a/059035.htm (Howard Dean Screaming)

and I also was checking out some of the best celeb gossip around:

http://feedlindsey.com (A site dedicated to the ever shrinking hollywood starlet)

What a great country we live in. People in Iran cannot possibly have a former leader with the intellgence and foresight of someone like the great Al Gore!!

We love you Al and we shall never forget you!!