Ramble On...

I’m back with another installment of Ramble On…(That is, for whoever, if anyone, actually reads this….)

I lost the $315 million lottery Tuesday night. I wish I would have won. If I did, I would have found a way to buy the Washington Nationals with an investment group consisting of me and my friends who I also would have made work at the sausage stands around the stadium.

Nets actually played well on Tuesday night. My main man, Nenad Krstic, scored 25 points (36 fantasy points), but he and RJ are only playing 2 games this week. I need a miracle to pull out a win in my fantasy league.

But back to the Nets. They started off the game shooting 36%. From the 2nd quarter on, they shot 53%, and they finally decided to play defense. Granted, they played the Seattle SuperSonics, but heck, I’ll take it. Let’s just hope this can carry over to Saturday when they take on the Washington Wizards.

Hideki Matsui re-signed with the New York Yankees for a contract work $52 million over 4 years. That’s some nice loot. They say Matsui is a classy guy, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him head over to China Town for some extra “Happy Endings”.

Speaking of Happy Endings….(Not what you’re thinking), I would like to thank everyone who came out for the Scorpios birthday on Saturday night at the bar, Happy Ending. It was great seeing and drinking with my college buddies from both Montclair State University (Shouldn’t that be Ivy League by now?) and WestConn, as well as my boys from home. It started out going out to dinner to a fine restaurant where I had filet mignon and shrimp stuffed with lobster and crab meat, fried calamari and fried zucchini. Yes, I’m fat. We went back to my buddy J and CK’s apt (it was there birthday as well) and then finally went to the bar around 10:30. Stayed til after 3:30, and was completely beligerent. But I must say, it was a great time.

I would also like to say thanks to Bergs, Bords and Navarro for taking me out on my birthday. It was an interesting night, for we ran into someone known as Bobby S, his dad is also known as Hacksaw. He was drinking by himself and we were afraid he was going to try to do damage to our skulls.

I was listening to the Duesch Bag Show, also known as The Michael Kay Show, on ESPN Radio on Monday. That day, he had Alex Rodriguez as his guest. That day, A-Rod won the MVP (if you remember, I wrote that Mariano deserved MVP, but the BBWAA don’t know what they are doing and figured it would be better to have an Ortiz/A-Rod running). So A-Rod was crying about how he will never be appreciated in New York. Well, I guess that’s right, to an extent. If he does something magnificent, like carry the team on your shoulders, then you’ll be regarded as one of the greatest players of all-time, you know, something like what Jordan did with his Bull’s teams, Gretzky with his Kings team in ’93, Ewing with the Knicks..oh wait, scratch that one. Stop bitching about not being appreciated. You make $25 million. Yes, you are one of the best players in the game, but you are NOT THE BEST. That honor goes to the likes of Miggy (Miguel Tejada), Vlad Guerrerro, Roger Clemens, Johan Santana and of course, who I believe is #1, Albert Pujols (just look what he does in pressure situations alone).

Albert Pujols rightfully won the MVP this year. I was watching Around the Horn (ATH) on Tuesday when the NL MVP was announced, and 3 out of the 4 writers were against Pujols winning the award. Their excuses were all the same…”Andruw Jones carried his team without a bonafide superstar”. Granted, I agree with that, but if you rememeber what I wrote when I wrote about who I believe should be the MVP’s in each league, I wrote…
"I DO NOT want to hear someone say 'Pujols was fortunate to hit in a great lineup.' What great lineup are we talking about here? Rolen? Nope, injured all year. Larry W? Nope, injured for most of the season. Reggie Sanders? Injured for 7 weeks from August thru September. Even Yadier Molina was injured, and Edmonds wasn’t healthy all year. Ok, so then you are going to talk about how Andruw Jones carried his team when Larry “Chipper” Jones was injured. I will grant you that, no problem. But Andruw posted a .208 average in September, a .244 average with RISP with 2 outs and a .243 average in LIP situations with runners on base. How is that being valuable? Pujols on the other hand hit better over .300 in every month, except for one (August .287, but still posted 7 HR and 16 RBI). And in June and July, where he was carrying the team through injuries, his line was .370/8/20 and .358/8/22 respectively. He hit .308 with a 1.114 OPS with RISP with 2 outs. Now are you going to argue me? I don’t think so.”

Pujols was absolutly the most terrifying hitter in all of baseball this year. He could have easily won the award the previous 2 years, if it weren’t for Barry Bonds (I still believe Pujols should have won it a year ago). You can’t argue that.

Danny Bonaduccio should have his kids taken away from him. He said he is a good father because “I teach my kids not to be like me”. Ok, well, the best way to do that is to stay away from them. What a nut.

Did you know that the platypus has been around for 125,000,000 years?

Did you know that kangaroos can give birth at any time when they are pregnant with a Joey? For instance, if they are pregnant and there isn’t enough food and water, due to a drought, it can hold the baby until there is rain, which would produce food and water. I don’t know where I’m going with that, I just thought it was really interesting.

Donovan McNabb should have season ending surgery. Eagles season is over, just have the surgery and come back healthy next year.

T.O. deserves to be kicked in the shins.
His agent Drew Rosenhaus deserves to be kicked in the face.

Vince Young for Heisman. Wait a second, I don’t want to wish that on anyone.

Question of the week….Is it better to be Derek Jeter or Matt Leinart?

I need Penn State to win by at least 8 points this weekend, or else I won’t be a happy puppy.

I’m looking to join a new gym, so my buddy Porky took me to the gym he goes to, the Westfield Y (you know, the YMCA). So while we were talking over emails during the day, he expressed how he was looking forward to playing me in racquetball. So we get there, and I have no problem playing racquetball, but I haven’t played since gym class in highschool. So we ask the lady (good lady) for some racquets and a ball. So she gives them to us, along with goggles. She forced us to wear the goggles, new policy. I wish I had a picture of how rediculous we looked in the goggles. But we were rebels after the 1st game and decided to take them off.

Baseball finally has a new steroid policy, which I like for a few reasons:
1) They test for amphetamines…this is the most important aspect of the new rules (granted, we don’t really know which amphetamines they test for), but at least it’s a start. Remember, it was reported that over 80% of NHL players were taking some sort of amphetamines before every game during the 2003-04 NHL season.
2) 50 game suspension 1st time your caught. No, not 50 days, 50 games. That’s 1/3 of the season. I love the rule.
3) 100 game suspension for the 2nd time you are caught.
4) Life time suspension for the 3rd time you are caught. You can then go through an arbitrator after 2 years and try to get re-instated. But good luck.
5) The amphetamines carry a different set of rules i.e. suspensions, since they are not exactly steroids. They carry a less threatening penalty (25 game suspension 1st time with a mandatory 2nd testing).
6) This is the best steroid rule in any of the major sports, with the exception of the Olympics (1st time offense, 2 yr suspension, 2nd time offense, life-time suspension). The max the NFL gives is 1 year. And that is if you are caught 10 times. NBA’s penalty for first time offenders is 2 games, 2nd time, 4 games, anything after that, 10 games. Weak.
It’s about time MLB has done something positive about this all important steroid issue.

Until next time...

Ramble On...

It has been a little over a month since I have posted anything. I apologize for anyone who actually reads these. But I do have a lot to talk about, the re-hiring of Ken “I Can’t Manage in Big Game Situations” Macha, the Nets, my fantasy football, basketball and hockey teams, Atlantic City, NCAA Tourney (yes, I know it is over 4 months away), Knicks, White Sox and baseball stuff and other things I have on my mind. Off we go…

First, let me get this off my chest. I hate Ken Macha. I loathe him. But I don’t know who I loathe more, him or Art Howe, who are essentially, the same person, the same manager. The A’s rehiring Macha is like how Ben Afflecks character, O’Bannion, gets another chance to play high school football again. The entire incoming freshmen class hates him, the same exact feelings I have towards the man. I know its printed the players love Macha for his easy going persona, which is fine. I’m sure he’s a fine human being, but when he screws with my team’s performance due to his managerial decisions, I get angry. I think I should figure out a way to dump paint on Macha and make him squeal like a pig.

The 2006 NBA season has begun. I went to the Nets opener, and I have to say, I was disappointed by their performance. They were unable to rebound or hit their foul shots, which cost them the game against the Milwaukee Bucks. And the Bucks are a quality team, I don’t care what people say, they have T.J. Ford back, Bobby Simmons coming off his best season in L.A., Michael Redd who can be lights out on any given night, Jamaal Magliore who is one of the better centers in the league, and the #1 overall draft pick, Andrew Bogut, who was very impressive on the opening night. But the Nets have played 3 games since then, and have a record of 2-2. Not too impressive, but I have been impressed with the way they have played. They took care of Toronto pretty easily, but I think the NY Liberty could do the same to the Raptors. But the Nets defeated the Bulls, at home, on a last second shot by RJ, which he was also fouled on and then hit the game winning free throw. (That’s not even mentioning the game winning block shot by VC.) Then the Nets played pretty well (with the exception of their defense, which will be their Achilles all year) and were able to come back from 11 down in the 4th quarter. They have been resilient; Kidd is having fun out there and loving it, and knows they can win. He is playing with emotion once again (as he showed when RJ hit that shot against the Bulls with 1.5…Kidd ran over to RJ, picked him off the floor and looked as if he was going to pull and Aaron Burr on him). The Nets can put points up on the board, but aren’t doing much in the rebounding and defensive department, which is important. If they can trade for a player who’s main responsibility is rebounding and playing def, they will be alright. And they also have to stop allowing Marc Jackson take shots. He’s atrocious.

I watched the Knicks for the first time on Sunday afternoon when they played the Warriors at The Garden. I’ll tell you what, their rookies impressed me. It was sort of like going to a movie, not expecting much, but then being surprised by how good the plot and storyline is, but then the ending being a major disappointment. Larry Brown had a great story line and plot by playing his rookies and his rookies (Nate Robinson, David Lee and Channing Frye) and Trevor Ariza log important minutes. It was nice and inspiring to watch them hustle, dive for balls, grab rebounds, throw their bodies around and play defense. They played unselfishly, they played well, they played like a team. Knicks were losing, and they put them on top. But with less than 5 minutes left a timeout was called by the Warriors and Brown decided to take out the group that gave them back the lead that had a flow going, and maybe even more importantly, had the crowd back in the game and happy about what they were seeing. But Brown, because he stays true to his vets, let me down with his ending. The director decided to switch the young guns of Lee, Robinson, Frye and Ariza, to the vets of Quentin Richardson, Matt Barnes and Jerome James. Brown eventually put Robinson back in the game and Robinson turned the ball over in the final seconds of the game, but don’t blame Robinson. I blame Brown. He disrupted the flow of the game and took the crowd of it out as the Knicks vets squandered the lead and the hard work that the rooks handed off to them.

I would like to say congrats to the Chicago White Sox. I did not think they would make it out of the Division Series, but they proved me wrong, very wrong. I thought their pitching was suspect heading into the playoffs, but they pitched wonderfully. Their starters pitched all of but 2/3 of an inning the ALCS. Granted, the White Sox had a lot of breaks, but what eventual championship team doesn’t get breaks? Even with the other team’s misfortunes, they had to play well enough and pitch well enough to win the games.

I would also like to give my respect to Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio, especially to Biggio. Those two have been with the Houston Astros organization for 16 and 18 years respectfully, and Biggio was a class act after the ‘Stros were swept. He thanked the fans and was so proud of his teammates. Yes, he wanted to win the World Series badly, more than I will ever imagine, or you could ever imagine, but he was happy to be there. Think about everything the team went through during the season. They were 15 under .500 at one point, and everyone threw them under the bridge. But they pulled threw. Yeah, they didn’t hit in the World Series and they were unable to score runs when they had runners in scoring position with less than 2 out, but give them a hand, especially to Craig Biggio. He exemplifies class act.

Speaking of class act, the New York Giants owner, Wellington Mara, passed away 2 weeks ago. I did not know much about the man, but I was able to read many articles and I heard many stories run on television through the local stations and the national stations such as ESPN after he passed away. And just from what I have heard I have to say he must have been the epitome of a true gentleman and a man of integrity. I heard all week long how he believed the NFL was more important than his beloved Giants. He believed in a salary cap and revenue sharing and wanted every team in the NFL to have the same opportunity and chance to win the Super Bowl. He could have easily been the George Steinbrenner of football and made the Giants into the Yankees. Think about it, the Giants are huge, they play in the best market, most profitable market. But he had integrity. How many people can you say that about? I also heard about Tiki Barber and Jeremy Shockey were the only players on this current roster to be invited to visit Mara before he passed away. Tiki has represented the Giants organization with class and dignity throughout his years, and Mara apparently appreciated that. Shockey on the other hand had some troublesome times, but Mara never gave up on him, and gave him second chances. And Shockey has turned things around. I guess it was due to Mara who they say was a father figure, or grandfather figure to him. I heard stories of how Mara would go to the Giants locker room after every game. If they won, he would congratulate them. If they lost he would pat them on the back, tell them to keep their head up, and would thank them for their effort they displayed. He wouldn’t chastise them. I really wish I had learned more about Wellington Mara. I think we all could have learned something from what seems to me, like a fine human being.
I am not too happy about the way my 3 fantasy football leagues are panning out. 1 league I am on a 7 game losing streak, the other league I split with a buddy of mine and I can’t even begin to tell you how lucky we have been thus far, at 5-4. We won yesterday 100-99. We should be more like 3-6 or 2-8, but get lucky each week. I love it. We were up 9 points heading into last nights Monday night football game. We had Reggie Wayne going and the opposing team had Brady, and we pulled out the 1 point victory. Hopefully that can at least continue. In my other league, I am improved to 5-4 after this weeks win. I hate it because in this league I keep getting extremely unlucky. I have the most points in the league, but am a sub-par .500 team. I get so frustrated with that. I lost two weeks ago because I decided to start Eli over Plummer, who had 4 TDs. I still scored the 3rd most points in the league that week, but was defeated by the team that has scored the 2nd least amount of points in the league, but somehow scored the 2nd most that week. Granted, it was a bad decision by me to start Eli over Plummer, but how unlucky can I get.

I put together a Fantasy Hockey league. That’s not fairing to well with me. I’m in 8th place (out of 12 teams) and I drafted Kevin Weekes, which my buddy Burger wouldn’t let up about even today, 2 weeks after I cut him from my team. I’ll tell you though, Gionta of the Devils is having a good season. I just need to find a Left Winger. Anyone have any suggestions?

I am in 2 Fantasy Basketball leagues. The main b-ball league I had the last pick of the draft (10th overall). My game plan heading into the draft was to Kidd and Shawn Marion. But Kidd went 8th overall, which I was expecting him to drop to me, then I was hoping Dwayne Wade would fall to me, but my buddy Brian drafted him with the 9th pick, which inevitably left me with drafting Shawn Marion and Elton Brand. I hate my guards and I have Chris Kaman starting as my 2nd Center. In this league you start 2 Centers, 4 Forwards and 4 Guards. And this is what my team looks like:

C: Nenad Krstic (NJ)
C: Chris Kaman (LAC)
F: Shawn Marion (PHO)
F: Elton Brand (LAC)
F: Richard Jefferson (NJ)
F: Troy Murphy (GS)
G: Kirk Hinrich (CHI)
G: Stephen Jackson (IND)
G: T.J. Ford (MIL)
G: Deron Williams (UTAH)

Bench:

C: Samuel Dalembert (PHI)
F: Mike Sweetney (CHI)
F: Josh Childress (ATL)
G: Shaun Livingston (LAC)
G: Sebastian Telfair (POR)
G: Derek Fisher (GS)

Note: I drafted Ray Felton and traded his rights for Deron Williams and also drafted Ike Diogu but dropped him due to being injured and picked up Derek Fisher, because I was in need of another guard.

My other fantasy b-ball league is thru Salary Cap Manager on nba.com. I like this league. You started out with $35million, and had to sign 6 players. They price rises and falls depending on the demand of that player. You can make up to 2 transactions a week (but if you make only 1, then you can carry the other over to the following week, and then you can make 3). It is a different format, and I like it, and plus I’m on top right now, but we’ll see how long that lasts for.

Quick note on Atlantic City. I was down there for work 3 weeks ago, and what a blast. Check out the new addition to the Tropicana. They have a great Karaoke Bar, in which I engaged in performing “Road House Blues” and yes, I think I did a good job incorporating the crowd.

And lastly, I am trying to plan my first ever NCAA March Madness Vegas trip. To fly and stay there isn’t that expensive, approximately $620 for airfare and 5 nights. Think about it, wake up around 7:30, go get breakfast, get on the internet to do the last minute research, head off to the Sports Book, place your bets, get your free drinks and sit and watch the games. At night, go party it up, as long as I still have money left. Going to Vegas for the greatest sports weekend is something I want and need to do while I am still young. And I would like to watch UT be crowned champions once and for all. And to watch potentially 7-8 teams from the Big East in the tourney would be phenomenal. UT, Big East, NCAA Tourney, Upsets, Gambling, Vegas...what could be better?

Until next time….

Where's The Foul?

The Nets once again, for the 2nd straight game, had the opportunity to give themselves another last second victory. But it didn’t end in a positive way this time for the Nets. Just 2 days after RJ hit that incredible shot driving to the hole with 1.5 seconds left against the Bulls on Saturday night, and then hitting the foul shot to seal it, VC had the same opportunity, but if he hit the shot, instead of it being tied, would have sealed the game. So I will just describe the last minute and a half of the game for you. Nets are down 89-84, RJ attempted a jump shot, missed, but recovered his own rebound, kicked it out and VC-3 hit the trey to make it a 2 point game, 89-87, with 1:24 left. Miami has possession, but Dwayne Wade is called on an offensive foul against Jason Collins (I think it was nice flop, Vlade-esque, but that might have been the only call that went the Nets way all game). Nets gain possession and then RJ assists VC on an 18ft fade away jump shot, nothing but net, tie game. This is where I went nuts. So now there are 45 seconds left. At this point I’m thinking to myself “even if Miami does score, Nets will plenty of time to plan for a shot in RJ or VC hands.” The heat take the ball down the court, then with about 5 seconds left on the shot clock Gary Payton throws up a 3 point shot, missed, long rebound, but ‘Zo recovers the rebound and calls a timeout. There is a .3 second differential between the game clock and shot clock, which means that Miami will be holding for the last shot. They come out of the timeout and obviously, the ball is in Wades hands. He starts driving earlier than expected. He goes into the lane and RJ is called for a reaching in, where it clearly shows that he barely touched him, no foul should have been called. The refs have been seriously favoring the Heat all game. The most obvious time was at the end of the 1st half when Collins was hit above the eye and needed 7 stitches, but still, no foul was called against the Heat, and they went on to score a bucket. But anyway, back to the end of the game. So because of a bogus foul call, Wade gets put to the line. Good news: There is 5 seconds on the game clock and the Nets have 2 time outs. At this point, the Nets are figuring Wade will hit both free throws and they will call a time out and go for a tie, unless Lawrence Frank feels Vermeil-ish and goes for the 3 and the win instead. But Wade missed his 1st free throw, and hit his 2nd. Nets: timeout. After the timeout the inbound the ball at mid court, gets into Carters hands so that he can drive to the basket, get a shot off and hopefully draw a foul. He drives to the hole, beats Wade to the left, ‘Zo helps by stepping up to contest VC’s drive and shot. VC pulls up and ‘Zo blatantly makes contact with VC. It was so obvious that even ‘Zo acknowledged at the end of the game that a foul could have been called, but it wasn’t. The refs gave the game away. VC should have been put to the line, with the game on the line. Horrible call. Absolutely absurd. This would have given the Nets first victory over the Heat in 10 games. Now they have lost 10 consecutive games to the Heat. And this would have given the Nets a 3-1 record to start the season, and an exuberant amount of confidence, especially if they had won last night, it would have been two emotional victories for them.

But even though they did not win, there were some highlights that I was pleased with which all included a certain player on the Heat, Alonzo “Cryin’ Baby” Mourning. (Is there a bigger baby in the league than Mourning?---Ok, let me guess, I’ll take heat for making calling him a baby because of his kidney transplant. Don’t get me wrong, I feel for him for that and I give him all the credit for playing, but c’mon, he’s always been a crier and complainer, and I have never liked him.) But when VC dunked over him for the 1st time, it was sweet. But when RJ made the ferocious dunk over ‘Zo with RJ screaming made it glorious. If RJ had only flexed his arm to ‘Zo, that would have been vindication. But when VC had the emphatic dunk over ‘Zo in the 3rd quarter last night, which made my night. It was one of the best dunks that I have seen and will see all season.