Yep - it's that slow a day here at TSE. JTBI is job-hunting and Seaward, well, God alone knows what he's doing. Me? I'm just trying to get to 5pm so I can go home. So in order to kill some time, I present your AFL Conference Championship Preview. 
American Conference
Not surprisingly, since my last post on the AFL, popularity for the league has skyrocketed.* People from all corners of the world are clamoring to see what will happen during this week's conference finals and I am chief among them. The American Conference seems to have the better match up on paper, but as the wise man once said: "games aren't played on paper, they're played inside televisions".
*(probably not, I can't back that up)
The Chicago Rush have been one of the league's best teams throughout this unpredictable AFL season, finishing with three wins to catapult them into 2nd overall in the conference. The quick and able WR 
Bobby Sippio has been the lynch pin in the Chicago offense and we shouldn't look for that to stop this week. In last week's 52-20 drubbing of the Los Angeles Avengers (how do you score only 20 in an AFL game?) he was all over the offensive side of the field, taking snaps at Quarterback from time-to-time but usually sitting pretty in his role as WR #1 for QB Matt D'Orazio. He's the big play guy for Rush and if he has a strong game, so should Chicago.
Standing in their way, of course, are the San Jose Sabrecats, the conference's #1 seed, who haven't lost a game since the middle of April. The win streak rests firmly on the back of the Sabercat D, which gave up a whopping 400+ yards to the Colorado Crush last week. This wasn't the norm for the 'cats, who gave up 67 points last week, which was the most they've given up at home, where they are undefeated, or on the road all year. If the defense shores up, and and QB Matt Grieb can continue to lead the offense at the 72% season passing clip, then this should be a very close, if not low-scoring game.
Prediction:
San Jose has more weapons, but Defense wins championships. Chicago 51-47.
National Conference
Coming into this game, the [my] Columbus Destroyers are the talk of the Arena Football world, stunning, in consecutive weeks, the Tampa Bay Storm in Tampa and the #1 seed Dallas Desperado's IN big-D. Pundits are calling 
Columbus one of the more unexpected, nigh stunning teams in AFL playoff history. They will look to QB Matt Nagy to continue the run to ArenaBowl XXI in New Orleans.
They run, headlong this time, into the Georgia Force, who are easily the National Conference's most talented team. Defensively, no one hits harder, as has been the case all season and if Georgia can plant Nagy into the turf early and often, the budding star might lose enough of his shine to make mistakes. Combine that with Georgia's quick-strike offense and it could be a-lot-to-a-little very early into the game.
How can Columbus hope to stack up to the now 15-2 Georgia Force? They'll need some of the same luck that got them there in the first place: luck. They've had it on their side in the first two games and everyone in Columbus is banking on it again. Nagy has been stellar this year and his 75-15 TD-INt ratio must be on display. If WR Damien Groce can elude the Force secondary and get in a few scores early, Columbus is as good as anyone in the second half, outscoring Dallas 24-0 to open the third quarter last week.
Prediction
Like I said, I'm riding this Columbus bandwagon all the way to ArenaBowl XXI. They beat the Force once before this year and I don't think lady luck has stopped singing for the Destroyers yet. Columbus will humble Georgia 62-48.
Your thoughts and predictions in the comments.
more...
Happy Friday the 13th, yo.
 | |
| Problem Child. |
It's all downhill from here. In a good way. It's July 12th, the MLB All-Star Game is over and we past the slowest day in the sports world. From this day forward, every sport starts to pick up steam. Presented now is a schedule of what to expect in the coming weeks from different sports, different media outlets and the rest of the sports world.
Golf: The British Open 
OK, we're still pretty far from football, but at least we can almost see the football season in the distance. Several blogs and websites are beginning their football previews (most notably, the Gay Mafia at KSK, who's season preview is always funny). Here at TSE, JTBI has begun looking at his contenders and pretenders in the BCS conferences and college football is even in the news now, as Oklahoma went from 8-4 in 2005 to 0-4. We're getting so close to the beginning of the season that I can almost hear Big$Rich tuning up the band for the beginning of College Gameday*
Basketball: I guess the summer league kind of counts.It is officially one of the two slowest sports days of the summer (and tomorrow will be no picnic), so let's take the time allotted by the sports gods to compare 2007 MLB teams by division to movies released this summer.
A.L. West
1st place -- Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Backed by an owner with infinity billion dollars and carried by an incredibly underrated cast. Their name doesn't make a lot of sense to most Americans, either.
The Angels are...
Ratatouille
2nd place -- Seattle Mariners
Everyone has said really good things about this team and they've been able to hang in the standings with the big boys for the past month or so, but this team leaves you with a ton of questions, like... do I really trust the guy steering the ship right now? Just like any Stephen King novel in the past 10 years, the Mariners are a total mixed bag.
The Mariners are...
1408
3rd place -- Oakland Athletics
This team has nearly infinite potential, based on a franchise with decades of high-level success. Unfortunately, noone will know if they're able to fulfill this potential until the end of July.
The A's are...
The Simpsons Movie
4th place -- Texas Rangers
Hey, what's wrong with re-treading players that were relevant 10 years ago and presenting them as fresh and new?
The Rangers are...
Wild Hogs
(NB: Wild Hogs was on the Top 10 grossers list on Memorial Day weekend, so it counts.)
more...
We live in a day where nothing is ever good enough anymore. 
Spurs win four championships since 1999, still many question their viability as a dynasty. A-Rod goes for 30 and 86 in the first half, and the city of New York still doesn't care if he leaves at the end of the month. Kelly Slater wins 8 surfing trophies and is bounced in the first round of Who's Now. As of July 10,2007, you can now add: hitting a game winning home run in the All-Star game no longer means you are the MVP. It happened last night, Victor Martinez came up and knocked a pinch hit homer to left, giving the American League (what turned out to be) the winning run to keep the AL winning streak alive. Then, because Ichiro hit an in the park homer, he won the award, even though without Victor's home run, he isn't the MVP. Ichiro Suzuki is driving Victor Martinez's Chevy Tahoe hybrid, plain and simple. In case you think I'm out of my mind, let's take a look at the last few AS MVP award winners in games decided by two runs or less, and how they won their award.
Update: Aaron Rowand made the last out of the ballgame, and I forgot to analyze that. All told, I still think you give credit to the All-Stars who made the lineup and give them the chance, even if Pujols is available. Rowand is currently hitting at a higher clip than Hudson is and with more HRs, though Pujols could probably play CF more effectively (though there may be some issues covering the real estate at AT&T Park) than 2B.
Another "if and but", however, for if Rowand hits a single then we wouldn't be talking about this at all. But I realize the point and I thank commenter JPatterson89 for pointing this out, though his comment has since been deleted (not by me).
Welcome, friends, to what is widely regarded as the worst day in sports. With no baseball, football (arena or otherwise), basketball (of note) or hockey today, it's bound to be awfully slow around this and every other sports-related sector of the blogospheres. But the morning shouldn't be too bad because there was a pretty good All-Star Game (ASG, because I'm tired of writing out the full phrase) last night and it is worth writing about. So here we go.
What in the name of God was Tony La Russa thinking?
Here he is, manager of the National League All-Stars, there because his Cardinals won the previous year's World Series, with Albert Pujols, the guy who got him there, ready to bat with two gone and the bases juiced in the bottom of the ninth inning, down by a run. So what does La Russa do? In many estimations, he must have done what he did in spring training again, as Albert sat and Orlando Hudson popped to Alex Rios to end the game. Because of that, Albert isn't talking to Tony and Tony will be inundated with "why not" questions from here until the season's conclusion.
But I am willing to stand up in defense of the Cardinal skipper. Here are (with no apologies to ESPN Classic) the top 4 reasons you can't blame Tony La Russa for not bringing in Albert Pujols.
1. J.J was a Putz and K-Rod was more like BB-Rod.
The AL's choice for closers weren't exactly skilled marksmen in that final half-inning. Putz gave up the HR to Soriano on a badly hanging breaking ball and Rodriguez was doing triple salchows after each pitch. Anything hit in the immediate direction of the pitcher's mound would have either knocked off a turned-around K-Rod or simply zipped through the infield. But that would, of course, mean that K-Rod would have had to throw a hittable pitch, which was done very rarely.
2. Pujols was too valuable to use (almost).
Albert Pujols is a very powerful card to have in one's hand. He's like the left Bauer in a game of Euchre: if he's not played right, it can cost you the hand and maybe the game. Sure, Pujols could have come in and walked or hit a single to tie the game, which may have happened, but in such a case, that would mean Albert Pujols would have to come in on defense, as La Russa was out of reserves. And he probably would have had to play second base for Orlando Hudson. Unless Pujols were to win it with one swing, then putting him in might have been too costly in the next half-inning. And why should Tony La Russa care about the ASG? The Cards probably won't be taking advantage of that home field advantage that was up for grabs last night. In La Russa's mind, it was probably better to keep his star rested for the benefit of his team.
3. Give Orlando Hudson some love, folks (Aaron Rowand, too).
It's not like Orlando Hudson had to beg to make this squad or was given a spot based on ballot-stuffing fans (cough, Ivan Rodriguez, cough). He's batting a shade under .300 for his season and 20 of his 96 hits (21%) are doubles. He's knocked in 47 RBIs and has walked 47 times. In the field, he has 9 boots, but that's probably better on the average than Pujols at the same position. Bottom line: he's having a very good year for a good D'Backs team and saying that Pujols should have almost automatically been substituted for him doesn't give Hudson anywhere near the credit he deserves. If the substitution had to be made, Aaron Rowand is the more logical substitute.
4. Finally, Dad is (almost) always right.
The Old Man used to tell me, "if 'ifs' and 'buts' were candy and nuts, everyday would be Christmas". We'll never know what would have happened if La Russa had put in his star in the bottom of the ninth. He may have gone yard or he may have flied out to right. Fact of the matter is, La Russa did what he thought was right at the time. Whether or not the two will ever speak to one another again, that remains to be seen.
more...
of this game as I can, perhaps taking some breaks. I'll be updating after each half inning so keep your fingers on that F5 button. Some other TSEers may be joining in later.
Top of the Fifth
So the Home Run Derby was last night in San Francisco, which means two things: first, the 2-hour time slot was, at best, wishful thinking (three freaking hours long!!!). And second, 
that Chris Berman, the smartest person in sports, gets to take center stage with his cliches, knowledge of local geography, nicknames and, of course, his now patented "BACK BACK BACK..." call for each and every home run. This annoys the shit out of me and the rest of the world, I'm sure, but it is comforting in a way that words can't describe. So, like everyone else I watched the derby last night and expected, considering the lineup, to hear the word "back" upwards of 250 times (literally). And, just like Seaward's last two girlfriends, I went to bed unfulfilled. My list of concerns with last night's event are as follows:
Seaward is right: this is an unbearable week for sports. No real baseball (even though the All Star Game "counts" now) until Thursday and no football for another 6 or 7 weeks. Yes, there is the WNBA but I'll cut off my balls with a rusty spoon before watching that. Yet in the midst of all of this boredom comes the lone beacon of home to get us to real football season.
The AFL, of course.
Columbus has their work cut out for them in the persons of the Georgia Force, who rumbled through the regular season at 14-2 and crushed the Philadelphia Soul by 26 yesterday. But Columbus put the hurt to Dallas, scoring 24 points to begin the second half. And if there's one thing that these playoffs have taught us so far, it's that the smaller field levels the scales. And if Matt Nagy, the wily AFL veteran who has methodically guided the Destroyers past better teams for two consecutive weeks can find a rhythm, then me and the rest of the Destroyer DieHards will be booking tickets to New Orleans for the big game in the very near future.It is officially one of the two slowest sports days of the summer (Wednesday will be worse, promise), so let's take the time allotted by the sports gods to compare 2007 MLB teams by division to movies released this summer.
A.L. East
1st place -- Boston Red Sox
I haven't seen a better team so far this summer; they're solid top to bottom. They have a strong Japanese influence and sit atop the standings on July 9th.
The Red Sox are...
Transformers
2nd place -- Toronto Blue Jays
You probably haven't seen them, but they speak well of Canada.
The Blue Jays are...
Sicko
3rd place -- New York Yankees
Sure, they have an All-Star lineup, but this act is starting to get a bit tired. Thanks to past success they still make tons of money, but so far they have been a massive disappointment on the field.
The Yankees are...
Spiderman 3
4th place -- Baltimore Orioles
One big name and some up and coming talent... but in the end this team is still pretty bad. I don't really have any interest in ever watching them play.
The Orioles are...
Mr. Brooks
5th place -- Tampa Bay Devil Rays
This team flat-out sucks. Noone goes to see them and not without good reason. Their biggest star has had numerous legal run-ins and the rest of the cast is not much to look at.
The Devil Rays are...
Georgia Rule
more...
We're almost two weeks clear of the 2007 NBA Draft and the NBA's summer league has begun with some interesting results. Well, interesting is probably too strong of a word. The NBA is boring enough (just ask any Nielsen family about the 2007 Finals) but now we're talking about exhibition basketball with minor league rosters and it's getting covered like the Superbowl. And I get this: the draft was big business for television's sake and the players in the draft currently are very newsworthy (though ESPN doesn't think any of them are Now) and so it makes sense that the coverage has been pretty in depth so far. It just bores me to tears, is all.
Apropos of nothing else, let's look in at some of the feature players from the 2007 draft class and see how these younglings are adjusting to life in the NBA (summer league).
Kevin Durant (#2)
18 points is not bad. 5-17 shooting, 1 board and no assists is bad. The former Texas standout was praised during the season and throughout the draft for his ability not only to elevate his game above the field, but also to get others involved in the action. The single rebound and poor shooting barely elevate squat. And the fact that I have more dimes in my pocket than he had in the game (ZING!) means he that he wasn't helping out too much, either.
