Is it time to * the Yankee$ or to praise them?

Now this is Moneyball!!

A match-up between the two largest payroll teams in each league. The Phillies and their $129 million dollar payroll do battle with the Yankees $207 million dollar payroll.

This follows a lead-in where every playoff series except one was decided by the team with the largest payroll winning over the team with the smaller payroll. And the one series where the smaller payroll did win, it was a virtual toss-up (Angels over the Sawks).

So you would have won five of the six playoff series simply by picking the team with the larger payroll. Following the trend, pick the Yankees to win easily over the Phillies.

Fun Moneyball Factoid:
The difference between the Yankees payroll and the Phillies payroll ($78.2 million) is greater than TOTAL payroll of 14 of the 30 franchises in major league baseball.

Is this good for baseball?
Is this a level playing field?
Isn't this rigging of the game in favor of the large media, large population franchises good for TV ratings in the short-term, but bad for the game long-term.

And then to hear my favorite little doorstop of a reporter from New York make the case that Yankee fans are the best fans in the world. For what? For continuing to come through the turnstiles in record numbers in the midst of the recession. Wow, they really have it tough.

Tell your problems to Saints fans who continued to support their team after their city nearly got blown off the map. And who continued to support the team even after losing a significant chunk of their population in the aftermath.

The New York metropolitan area, even after the current financial crisis, still has a population base of over 10 million fans to draw from and only one other team to share that base with.

It must be hard for New York fans when the system hands them the baseball version of the Globetrotters and invites the Washington Generals in on a nightly basis to "compete". And then puff out your chests and act like you accomplished something real or "earned" the title of "best fans in the world". Please!!!

Someone do a public service and please seat Mr. Lupica under the already crumbling structures around the "new" Yankee Stadium. I guess a billion dollars doesn't buy quality stadium construction these days.

Baseball's problem now and in the future is that a city like New Orleans--that supports the NFL and the NBA--would not be able to compete in the current economic and competitive environment of major league baseball. So where to expand? What community leader is willing to subject himself, his city and his wealth to this kind of a rigged game. Go to Vegas, at least you might get a free drink and a dancer.

In 1990, the Kansas City Royals had the top highest payroll in major league baseball. And the Yankees were somewhere in the middle of the pack. The Pirates were a viable, competitive franchise.

In 2000, the Yankees and Red Sox were nudging to the top along with the Braves and the Texas Rangers under owner Tom Hicks. Even then there were other teams within shouting distance of the leaders.

Today, we see a "haves" and "have-nots" division of the teams, with the top two or three teams having the odds of making and advancing deep into the playoffs heavily stacked in their favor. We have the top franchises treating their "business partners" with a "let them eat cake" attitude regarding revenue sharing.

It may be good for New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and maybe Chicago (eventually) but last time I checked, that accounts for eight of the thirty franchises in baseball. I'm not sure how long fans in the other cities will continue coming in record numbers to see AAAA baseball in their towns.

It is time to admit that the increasing disparity in payrolls--that has grown ever greater since the mid 1990s--is an indication that the so-called "luxury tax" has been largely ineffective. It functions as little more than temporary "hush money" to the smaller markets so that the larger market teams can continue to treat them like doormats under the facade of competitive balance.

Even MLB knows this. This is another George Mitchell Report that is gathering dust or being used as a doorstop at the league offices. This report is from 2000!!! And nothing substantive has been done to address the problems identified.

http://www.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20000701&content_id=388144&vkey=pr_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

"Baseball's current economic system has created a caste system in which only high revenue and high payroll clubs have a realistic opportunity to reach the post-season," Mitchell said. "That is not in the best interests of baseball fans, clubs or players."

The economic analysis set out in the report further indicates that the limited revenue sharing and payroll taxes approved as part of the 1996 Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Major League Baseball Players Association have "produced neither the intended moderating of payroll disparities nor improved competitive balance."

It is past time for these guys to take another more serious run at this issue. For the good of The Game.

GO PHILLIES!!!! I'm sorry but rooting for the Yankees to do well is like rooting for Goldman Sachs. It just doesn't seem right.

MIKE LUPICA IS AN INQUISITIVE LITTLE MOUSE

From today's New York Post Online Edition, Mike's confused again.
No, Doctor Freud, it's not about his identity, it's sports related, I'll take this one, you have a cigar.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/col/lupica/
Thursday, August 9th 2007, 4:00 AM

If this is only about Barry Bonds, as the flacks tell us, Mc-Gwire must wonder what happened to him on his way to being a first-ballot guy in Cooperstown.

If you don't like Bonds, it's race. So what was the problem with McGwire, who is real white?


A: Hey watch who your calling a flack there Sparky. The problem with McGwire is he retired before Bonds. I know you and other BBWAA members think the people you write down to our really stupid, not privy to your outer-worldy form of intelligence. So I'll lay it out so even you can understand it Mikey.

The guys who vote say "Damn I can't very well vote McGwire in on the first ballot and then 6-7 or however many years down the road when Bonds comes up for election, do the one thing I've been dying to do since he flipped me off that one time and that is not vote for Barry Bonds when his turn comes up for Hall of Fame election".

So see Mikey it's really not that hard, most children have figured it out already. They (you media honks) are not going to vote for Barry for the Hall of Fame as a parting F-you shot for his career. But you can't very well do that and leave standing the charade of fairness and impartiality at the same time. You follow? Good boy. Next Question.

Now that Bonds has passed Aaron, we hear, louder than ever, that steroids don't help you swing a bat or stand in there against the curve, that Bonds got here because of talent and determination and longevity and sheer stubbornness. But if all that is true, here is one more question on the Barry Bonds All-Time Home Run King Quiz:

If steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs don't matter, then why do athletes in all sports take them in the first place?

A: Oh dear Lord Michael, you are a slow child. Did your Momma say that to you a lot? Or was it "Michael, stay out of my underwear drawer?" Probably both. Anyway, you remember a fellow named Turk Wendell, pitched for the Mets, Cubs, Rockies among others. Crazy guy used to jump over the foul lines on his way to the mound and back to the dugout, eat licorice and brush his teeth between innings. SOB if he didn't think it helped him pitch better. Now I'll be damned, I've been around baseball a lot of years, near as I can figure it out, IT'S PSYCHOLOGICAL.

If you believe it helps, it helps.

Another little cliche we use around the dugout is "It helps if you can hit". Another thing you will never understand because you spent too many of your youthful days playing with dolls. Next Question, Tinker-Bell.

If Bonds needed no help to hit 73 home runs in a season and hit nearly 350 home runs after the age of 35, if his body grew this way because of all the real hard work he did in the gym with Anderson - why would Anderson even bother to give him steroids in the first place?

A: Read "Faust's Gold", the book about how the East German trainers would give their athletes "vitamins" with their breakfast, so they would swim faster and win gold medals. Maybe he just wanted to enhance his reputation as a trainer with his marquee client. Do you know how hard it would be to get improvement out of a person who drops into your lap as a HOF'er, who had trained with some other trainers in the past who may or may not have given him the results he was looking for, and IMPROVE THAT PERSON ABILITY TO PERFORM IN HIS SPORT BETTER THAN HE EVER HAD IN THE PAST WITHOUT SCREWING THINGS UP???!!! It is difficult, near impossible to improve an elite athlete in the prime of his career or thereafter, without screwing things up, let alone getting continued improvement. But if a lottery ticket fell in your lap and you were a small potatoes trainer, training average Joe's, and an elite athlete knocked on your door, what might you do?

Now I'm not saying that's what Mr. Anderson did. Because he's a big guy and he might hurt me if I make things up and say bad things about him like those Game of Shadows writers did. You know a lot about big guys hurting you, don't you Mike? There, there. I didn't mean to bring up childhood trauma's.

Always remember what a baseball executive told me not long ago:
"They take it because it works."

A: Real scientific.

The idea that steroids don't work is another lie of all this. Keep telling it, though.

A: Actually, I don't say that. Prove to me that it does, without screwing up your career like it has for a lot of players at the major league level and countless others who never get there and are never heard from again. Seems to have worked out well for the kids whose parents testified in front of Congress. I guess we'll see Barry exhibit some sort of late stage 'roid rage or commit murder-suicide.

Keep saying that this is about race, which is the worst lie of all, huckstered by people who ought to be ashamed of themselves.

A: No it isn't. Go back into your FBI files, stupid, around 1992, Operation Equine, Mark McGwire. In fact, do a Google search, which is likely how you found out most of what you know about performance enhancements. Then show me the scathing articles you wrote from 1992 to about the time before McGwire retired. And you show me if you wrote anything with the hatred and vitriol you write about Bonds. Don't make me do the research for you, Skippy. Because you and your kind know I'll find glowing, poetic articles about Paul Bunyan-esque figures and Norman Rockwell moments, and making kissy-kissy with the Maris family under your byline, now won't I?

That's why it's racial. And you and your ilk want a pass on this? Oh, sorry we made a mistake, we had our eyes closed too. They fooled us, too. But we know better this time and we'll take care of it right this time. Save it, bitch.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

You think anybody will ever look at the Tour de France the same way ever again, no matter how many people are on the side of the road? You really think that smart people still believe Lance Armstrong was the only pure one in the race?

A: I'll bet your a little late to the hate Lance Armstrong party, too. Or should I look at your record on that one as well?

Bonds hugs his son and points to the sky and weeps at the sight of Henry Aaron on the huge video screen in the outfield, and everything is supposed to be all right. Not only is the carnival supposed to move on, so are we. Only it doesn't work that way, even with a moment as big as this.

A: Sorry, I thought this was a question. If you don't enjoy it Mike, don't watch it or don't keep making writing articles on the the subject. Write about some other things that will deflect peoples attention away from this. You're a talented writer and gosh darn it people like you.

I guess the powers that be don't agree with you. The Commissioner could have suspended him, the players union be damned. The Feds could have indicted him.

Hey, I got a question for you Mr. Yappy Lap Dog. If this is so obvious to you, how come no suspension, no indictment?

I'll let you think on that one for a bit, Alice. Don't break a nail.

For a guy that acts like he's smarter than everyone who ever appears on that there Sports Reporters show, this boy sure asks a lot of questions.

From Kissing Suzy Kolber: I am an Insufferable Dipshit

From the hilarious blog "Kissing Suzy Kolber" (guys you know you want to, even though she always looks like she just came from a Bill Walton bong-testing party. For goodness sake, Hall of Fame lady-killer Joe Namath has some taste, even when he's drunk as a skunk).

When writing is this good, it can be inspiring. For example, I used to watch "The Sports Reporters" and get all twisted just hoping that one of the other reporters would, just once, sack up and punch this yappy, little panty-waisted, lap-dog.

Now that I realize these cretins are mere pawns, puppets if you will, in Lupica's grand scheme, I have now cleared my personal To Do List and amended it as follows:

1) Change major to journalism
2) Get job with major metropolitan newspaper in the sports department
3) Win Pulitzer Prize
4) Get gig on Sports Reporters
5) Punch Lupica square in the face, multiple times, while he screams his little whiny, girl screams of anguish and pain


I didn't realize there were others who felt the same way, I thought perhaps these anti-social thoughts were the result of some characters defect on my part. I now feel a warm humanitarian-type glow (like the tree-huggers) to be a part of a wonderful community of people who feel the same way I do about the scumbag.

God, I love the blogosphere.
And God Bless America, where you can dream of making it to the top and piss it all away in one act of savage vengeance.
Is this the greatest country in the world or what?

http://kissmesuzy.blogspot.com/2006/12/i-am-insufferable-dipshit_19.html

Tuesday, December 19, 2006
I Am An Insufferable Dipshit

Is the camera on me? Is it on? Did you check? I don't see the red light. Well, check it AGAIN. Why is the camera man so far away? Zoom in. No, I wanna be in more of the shot, you f**king zombies. Bring it in on me. Do you know where I got these glasses? Marc Jacobs. They cost more than your household's income for a year. So get a good f**cking shot, or I'll just make you do it again.

Is it my turn to talk yet? Albom's still fucking talking. He's been talking for 30 seconds now. I've been timing it. It's my fucking turn to talk. Are you looking at me? I'm sitting all the way at the front of my seat. That should indicate to you that I am READY TO CHIME IN. In fact, my ass isn't even touching the chair, that's how far forward I am. I am the goddamn crouching tiger. Look at Ryan. He's sitting all the way back in his chair. Does he have anything to say? No. Lazy shit. Read my fucking body cues, people.

Pffffffffftttttt!!!! Who gave me this tea? Who?! That girl? Come here, Guadalupe, or whatever your name is. Let me let you in on a little secret, my dear. You remember Mr. Schaap? The nice old man who used to be here? Remember how he died due to malpractice? Yeah, well that wasn't malpractice. That was Lupica. I am the star here now, and you better fucking get used to it. So when I tell you that I want Earl Grey, I don't expect you to bring me fucking sawdust in a Tetley bag. Okay, sweetheart? Tazo. T-A-Z-O. See if you can get that into that teeny tiny itsy bitsy wittle brain of yours. Stupid bitch.

And while we're at it, honey, who told you I drink Deer Park? Deer Park is for the poor saps in payroll. Everyone at Valerio Productions knows Lupica drinks Voss, chilled to exactly 38 degrees Fahrenheit. So why don't you do your homework before giving me this prison sludge? Frankly, I'm amazed you managed to get out of Nicaragua, or Costa Rica, or wherever the fuck it is you're from. Oh, you're crying? You thought I was a nice man, didn't you? Sorry, sweetie. My heart only bleeds for the camera.

Is Albom done? Yes, he's done. About fucking time. That was a nice parting shot, Albom. But you're the undercard, pussy. The people aren't here to see you. Always remember that. I'm about to blow you out of the fucking water. When I'm done, no one will remember whatever hockey bullshit it was you were talking about. Go write another book about people dying, douchebag. I'm about to school you. Take notes and maybe you'll be able to earn enough money to fix whatever the fuck is going on with the tops of your ears.

I'm ready now. My voice is feeling supple. What I'm gonna do is start off with a killer joke. Okay? Here it is:

You know, maybe it's me, but I think Roger Goodell must be taking commissioning lessons from Bud Selig.

Okay, I'm going to half-snicker at my own killer joke now, which is the cue for you three bozos to start guffawing like the idiots that you are. Then, when you're done laughing at my comedic majesty, I'm gonna turn deadly serious. It's gonna show off my range. Watch.

But seriously. If Goodell thinks he can just sweep steroids under the rug, then he is doomed to repeat baseball's history. Because there's a story about steroids and the NFL that has yet to be written. And rest assured, someone will write it. And, when they do, the same bloodhounds that picked at baseball's decade-old scabs will pick up a fresh scent... the scent of pigskin.

BOOM! F**king nailed it. You see how literary that was? It's almost like I'm outside of my own body when I'm doing it. That's how special it feels. That's the kind of sportswriting that wins you awards, gentlemen. The kind that gets you on Letterman. How many of you assholes have been on Letterman? That's right. Zero. Check and mate. Live with the pain.

Okay, what I'm gonna do now is wrap it all up with one killer fucking line. Something for the kids to think about the rest of the day.

So Goodell better hurry, or else he'll find out the hard way, as baseball did, that ignorance is a miss.

See how I took the phrase "ignorance is bliss" and just gave it that little twist? God, what a dagger. It makes you laugh. It makes you ponder. It makes you wistfully nostalgic. It makes me cream my Brooks Brothers suit pants. You know what? I think I want to shoot it again.

Did you hear me? I said I want to shoot it again. Matter of fact, I don't see my book on the coffee table here. WHERE THE F**K IS MY BOOK?! You think I come here as a gift?! I want to do it again, and I want my book in the shot. And, if we have to do it 36 times over, we will. What I say, goes. I f**king own you people.

Just ask Whitlock.

proclaimed this day by Big Daddy Drew at 7:44 AM

Who's cheating now???? Who's cheating now???

{to the tune of "Who's sorry now" with apologies to Connie Francis, who popularized the song}

Well, well, well Mr. Clemens and Mr. Pettite, what does the media say now?

My guess is to shoot the messenger and deny, deny, deny. Even though the circumstances and the so-called "evidence" is so delightfully similar to that stacked against Mr. Bonds.

I'm sure we'll hear words to the effect of "Now remember, these are just reckless accusations of a ballplayer who may have an agenda", they'll actually make Clemens defense for him rather than attack him. I don't recall Mr. Bonds getting similar consideration. Hmmm interesting.

The scumbag, know-it-all media elements like Frank Deford, Rick Telander, Jay Marriotti, Mike Lupica, Rick Reilly et.al. who wanted to string up Bonds, and I use that term for a reason, must be spinning in their sheets. I truly hope they get whiplash from the 180 spin they'll get from having to retrofit their arguments against Mr. Bonds to fit vis-a-vis their oncoming defense of Mr. Clemens.

And now all these bubble-headed cretins can use the Clemens worship articles they wrote, usuually right after crucifying Bonds, the fruit of their work product, for it's best current purpose. TO WIPE THEIR SMUG LITTLE SANCTIMONIOUS ASSES WITH.

LET SPORTS ILLUSTRATED PUT AN ASTERISK ON A COVER SHOT OF CLEMENS.

I've always said, if a popular guy like Derek Jeter ever tested positive, we'd see these same guys trash the very testing program they worked so hard to shove down everyones throat. Although, from the Marion Jones case, we now see what a quagmire the WADA-USADA utopian world of drug testing and storm trooper tactics bring us. Hell, let's have it in baseball and high school sports for that matter.

Jason Grimsley is to the Clemens-Pettite charges what Victor Contee is to the BALCO-Bonds case. So when mouthpieces say "Well, Grimsley made these charges and then backed off them"
well guess what, so did Conte and the same beneift of the doubt wasn't given in that case. EVER.

Now let's hear from guys like David Wells and Curt Schilling, who couldn't wait to find a microphone when it was on Bonds. Talk now hyprocrites.

Just watch and listen and remember. And ask questions in your own mind and don't accept everything these media morons and quasi-racists want to shove down your throat for no reason. Or whatever their personal reasons are. Most of these guys are nothing more than modern day Klansmen in pin-striped suits.

And it's time some of the focus is put on these trainers, who are making their reputations as gurus on the basis of what appears to be fraudulent means, if not outright criminal means. I mean we barely know Barry Bonds personal trainers name, because that's what he was always referred to as, but in all these other cases, it seems as if the willing co-conspirators never suffer any consequences. They shouldn't be allowed to work in the industry again.

Feds tighten the Screws on......the Press?

What a concept, the press is not above the law. They quite possibly cannot hide behind the shield of the First Amendment to do anything, say anything, write anything without regard to the source. Go Feds. And it normally pains me to side with Uncle Sammy, but in this case, it may be warranted. Or at least good entertainment.

I'd pay some solid money to see sanctimonious pricks like Mike Lupica, Rick Reilly, Jay Moriarty (Ozzie's buddy) , Rick Telander, et al. spend some serious time in jail. Lupica as someone's bitch, that would probably be like art imitating life or something.

Ozzie Guillen rules.


from the Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Bush administration urged a federal judge Wednesday to force two San Francisco Chronicle reporters to divulge who leaked them secret grand jury testimony of Barry Bonds and other athletes who took part in the government's probe of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative.

Noting that it is a crime to leak grand jury materials to the media, "there is no reporter's privilege in criminal cases, under the First Amendment or under common law," federal prosecutors Brian Hershman and Michael Raphael wrote in a 51-page brief.

The attorneys said California's shield law protecting California reporters from divulging their sources does not apply to the federal probe of who violated a court order and leaked the documents.

Reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada reported a series of stories beginning in 2004 detailing the secret testimony of Bonds, Jason Giambi and others who were called to testify before a grand jury probing BALCO. The government's investigation unveiled BALCO as a steroid ring posing as a nutritional supplement company that doled out performance-enhancing drugs to elite athletes from its office just south of San Francisco.

The government, in its brief targeting the two reporters, repeatedly cited a 1972 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. In that case, Branzburg v. Hayes, Justice Byron White ruled that reporters, like everyone else, must "respond to relevant questions put to them in the course of a valid grand jury investigation or criminal trial."

Despite that decision, the government noted that "the free press, relying on confidential sources, has thrived."

Over the years Branzburg was largely ignored. Judges more often sided with Justice Lewis Powell, who wrote separately in the same case. He urged the judiciary, before ordering reporters to testify, to balance the First Amendment rights of journalists against the public's right to know.

That changed in 2003, when the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune lost a bid to protect their reporters from divulging recordings of interviews of a witness in a terrorism case. A federal appeals court, citing Branzburg, ordered disclosure.

The Chronicle reporters, who are subpoenaed to testify here before a federal grand jury about how they got the leaked testimony, said through their attorneys in court briefs last month that they should be let off the hook. The First Amendment right of speech, they said, was more important than the government learning who unlawfully leaked secret grand jury testimony.

Both Fainaru-Wada and Williams say they aren't going to comply with the subpoena, which means they could be fined and jailed until they reveal their sources if they lose their legal challenge. The reporters also could be jailed for a fixed term for contempt if U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White forces them to appear before the grand jury.

They face more jail time than any of the five BALCO defendants, as the largest prison term was four months.

A hearing before U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White is scheduled for Aug. 4.

The government also suspected the leak came from Victor Conte, BALCO's founder who pleaded guilty to steroid distribution charges and was sentenced to four months.

Agents last year searched his San Mateo house to bolster that view. Conte and others pointed to the government as the source.

According to the two reporters, Bonds testified that he used substances provided by his trainer, Greg Anderson, but said he thought it was flaxseed oil. Anderson was among the five defendants convicted in the BALCO probe.