Jorge Posada is the Wimpiest Player in Baseball

That was quite the embarrassing display put on by Jorge Posada on Tuesday night as he came off looking like a punk, wuss, and coward in starting the bench clearing brawl with the Toronto Blue Jays. It all began when Toronto's Aaron Hill was drilled in the back by a pitch in the top of the 8th inning. While that hit by pitch was probably unintentional, Toronto pitcher Jesse Carlson perhaps felt that he wanted to defend his teammate and he proceeded to throw a pitch several feet behind Jorge Posada in the bottom of the 8th. I think the pitcher in these situations should just go ahead and hit the batter instead of throwing behind him, but either way this is pretty standard protocol in baseball. Yet Jorge Posada whines about it and he starts to act in a "fake tough guy" way. Posada yells at Carlson and walks toward the mound but he was more of less just walking down the 3rd base line with the bat in his hand as he was too much of a wimp to go directly towards Carlson or charge the mound. The pitch didn't even hit Posada; he had no right to be upset. Even if he is plunked, he should just realize it's part of the game and take his base. If I was Carlson I would've gone ahead and nailed Posada in the back with the next pitch, but nothing happened the rest of the at bat and Posada ended up drawing a walk

However, Posada is not satisfied and after scoring later in that inning he brushes against Carlson near home plate giving him the little chicken wing elbow. That was such a bush league and cowardly move as he knows Carlson would kick his rear end in a straight up fight. Carlson yelled back at him before Posada ran towards Carlson inciting a bench clearing brawl. Posada was not exactly intimidating when he went after Carlson as he was essentially curled up like a fetus when he reached Carlson.

If Posada felt he was so egregiously wronged by having a pitch thrown behind him, he should've manned up and went after the pitcher right then and there. But wimpy Jorge just ran his mouth and threw a wussy chicken wing elbow later in the inning. His antics just showed everyone that he is the wimpiest player in the league.

2009 Tennis Grand Slam Cumulative Resutls

Juan Martin Del Potro's surpising 3-6, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-2 victory over Roger Federer in the US Open final was a great achievement and a great moment for tennis. Del Potro showed so much resilience in the match as there were numerous instances where things looked bleak for him and he could have gone down quietly. Yet he hung in there, pulled out the 2nd and 4th sets in tiebreakers and then got ahead early in the 5th set on his way to capturing the title by winning the 5th set 6-2. It was refreshing to see a fresh face win a grand slam, as either Federer or Nadal had won 17 of the previous 18 grand slam titles. Del Potro is only 20 years old so he should have plenty of chances in the coming years to contend for more grand slam titles. The US Open final was an exciting finish to a great season of grand slam tennis. We will now have to wait a little over 4 months for the next grand slam to begin, the 2010 Australian Open. Looking back on this past year's grand slams, here is a look at the top 25 players this season in terms of their grand slam results:

1. Federer - 2 championships, 2 runner-ups
2. Del Potro - 1 championship, 1 semifinal, 1 quarterfinal, 1 2nd round
3. Nadal - 1 championship, 1 semifinal, 1 4th round, (1 DNP)
4. Roddick - 1 runner-up, 1 semifinal, 1 4th round, 1 3rd round
5. Djokovic - 1 semifinal, 2 quarterfinals, 1 3rd round
6. Murray - 1 semifinal, 1 quarterfinal, 2 4th rounds
6. Verdasco - 1 semifinal, 1 quarterfinal, 2 4th rounds
8. Soderling - 1 runner-up, 1 quarterfinal, 1 4th round, 1 2nd round
9. Gonzalez - 1 semifinal, 1 quarterfinal, 1 4th round, 1 3rd round
10. Haas - 1 semifinal, 1 4th round, 2 3rd rounds
11. Robredo - 1 quarterfinal, 2 4th rounds, 1 3rd round
11. Cilic - 1 quarterfinal, 2 4th rounds, 1 3rd round
11. Tsonga - 1 quarterfinal, 2 4th rounds, 1 3rd round
14. Simon - 1 quarterfinal, 1 4th round, 2 3rd rounds
15. Monfils - 1 quarterfinal, 2 4th rounds, (1 DNP)
16. Davydenko - 1 quarterfinal, 1 4th round, 1 3rd round (1 DNP)
17. Ferrero - 1 quarterfinal, 1 4th round, 1 2nd round, 1 1st round
18. Hewitt - 1 quarterfinal, 2 3rd rounds, 1 1st round
19. Stepanek - 2 4th rounds, 2 3rd rounds
20. Berdych - 2 4th rounds, 1 3rd round, 1 1st round
21. Kohlschreiber - 1 4th round, 2 3rd rounds, 1 2nd round
22. Almagro - 4 3rd rounds
23. Wawrinka - 1 4th round, 2 3rd rounds, 1 1st round
24. Andreev - 1 4th round, 2 3rd rounds, 1 1st round
25. Karlovic - 1 quarterfinal, 1 2nd round, 2 1st rounds

US Open 2009

This year's US Open has had some good moments so far, but the drama and excitement will really come to a head if both Federer and Nadal can get to the final on Sunday afternoon in the one grand slam tournament that they have not met in. In the past 16 months, Federer and Nadal have played in the final in the 3 other grand slam events including their classic 5 set match at Wimbledon in 2008 that lasted nearly 5 hours with Nadal winning 9-7 in the 5th. It will really be great for the game to have these 2 legendary players meet on the biggest stage in tennis.

More thoughts on the US Open:

• Watching the US Open this week has only reinforced my feeling that this is the best grand slam tournament of the four. The spectacle that is night tennis at Arthur Ashe Stadium creates a great atmosphere that trumps any other atmosphere in tennis. The hard court surface at the Open also creates the most entertaining style of play, as the court is not as fast as the Wimbledon grass and not as slow as the clay at Roland Garros. The server oftentimes becomes too dominant at Wimbledon, while the rallies on clay at the French Open can sometimes become too long. The rankings of my favorite grand slams would be 1. US Open, 2. Wimbledon, 3. Australian Open, and 4. French Open.

• For the 2nd year in a row, the weather during the US Open has been absolutely spectacular with not a single rain delay thus far through the first 10 days. Last year the tournament was uninterrupted by rain until the final Saturday of the tournament. The weather has been the polar opposite of what it was for golf's US Open in June at nearby Bethpage Black, when rain disrupted every round of that tournament.

• John McEnroe is quite possibly the best television analyst in sports history. He has a vast knowledge of the game of tennis, he knows the in-depth scouting reports on seemingly the top 200 players on tour, and he's not afraid to offer his candid opinions. McEnroe is the go-to source for tennis opinions and his presence on telecasts makes that telecast much more enjoyable. Johnny Mac also is witty with a great sense of humor. McEnroe was part of a great moment on Monday night when during Novak Djokovic's post-match on-court interview, Djokovic invited McEnroe down from the broadcast booth to hit balls with him in front of the late night crowd at Ashe Stadium. McEnroe accepted Djokovic's offer, took his tie off and ran down to play Djokovic. McEnroe humorously imitated Djokovic's habit of bouncing the ball 20 times before serving and the two played a few points before embracing at the net. The moment just illustrated the greatness that is Johnny Mac. In honor of Johnny Mac here is a hilarious famous (or infamous) clip from his playing days:
  

• Robin Soderling showed a lot of guts in Wednesday night's quarterfinal match with Roger Federer as he fought back from losing the first 2 sets 6-0 and 6-3 to make it a compelling and dramatic match. Soderling won the 3rd set in a tiebreaker after falling behind in the tiebreaker 4-1 and he had his chances in the 4th set tiebreaker to force a 5th set but he ultimately lost that 4th set tiebreaker and the match because of the greatness of Roger Federer. Soderling has had a breakout season after upsetting Nadal and reaching the final at the French Open and he won himself a lot of fans with his valiant effort against Federer here at the US Open.

• #2 seed Andy Murray was upset by Marin Cilic in the Round of 16 in straight sets, 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 in an uninspiring effort by last year's runner up. Murray has had a very good year but he must be disappointed that he did not make it to a grand slam final and that he only made it to one grand slam semifinal(Wimbledon). Murray will now lose the #2 ranking to Nadal when the new rankings come out after the US Open.
  

College Football Week 1 Analysis

1. Easily the best and most significant game of the week was BYU's 14-13 upset of Oklahoma. I, like most other prognosticators, did not believe that BYU had a chance to hang around with the Sooners. Oklahoma had blown away so many quality opponents last season and I did not think BYU could hold up physically to the Sooners combination of size and speed. But in hindsight I should have seen the upset coming. Oklahoma playing a neutral site game in a brand new state of the art stadium against a heavy underdog with an experienced quarterback - Oklahoma's Fiesta Bowl loss to Boise State in January 2007 fit that description as well. Oklahoma was breaking in a completely new offensive line and BYU had a veteran quarterback in Max Hall that had the poise and ability to bring his team up and down the field on the Oklahoma defense. Max Hall had to be the key player for BYU as Oklahoma's strong front line completely shut down BYU's running game. Hall did throw 2 interceptions but his play on BYU's game winning drive was outstanding as he led the Cougars 78 yards in nearly 9 minutes for the winning touchdown.

There may be some people who will not give BYU the credit they deserve for this win because Oklahoma's Heisman winning quarterback Sam Bradford was knocked out of the game with an injury on the final play of the first half. The idea that BYU won because of the Bradford injury is completely off base. Bradford played the entire first half and BYU had stayed right with the Sooners, probably even outplaying the Sooners in the half despite trailing 10-7. Oklahoma had four 3-and-out drives in the half and their only touchdown was set up by a muffed BYU punt return. BYU's huge win has now put themselves in position to have a magical season and they will vault themselves into the Top 10 of the polls.

2. Thursday night's much anticipated matchup between Oregon and Boise State on Boise's blue turf field turned into a dud as Oregon's offense was completely dominated by the Boise State defense. Oregon was held without a first down for the entire first half and never really seriously threatened Boise State in the 2nd half. Boise State should have won the game by 30 points but their own self-inflicted mistakes and sloppy play kept the score down. It is safe to say that the final score of 19-8 was not indicative of how much Boise State outplayed Oregon. This was the debut game of new Oregon coach Chip Kelly who is taking over for underrated longtime coach Mike Bellotti. Bellotti retired from coaching to move over to the position of athletic director at Oregon and early indications are that the program may take a step back without him at the controls.

Overshadowing Boise State's big victory was the postgame sucker punch from Oregon senior running back LeGarrette Blount to the face of a Boise State player. Blount had been chirping in the week leading up to the game, saying that Oregon owed Boise State an "ass whooping" for Boise State's win at Oregon last season. Thus, after Boise State's win on Thursday a Boise State player tapped Blount on the shoulder and said something to him. Blount responded by unleashing a cheap shot on the Boise State player as he was looking away. Blount then backed away, jumping up and down, and whooping and hollering. Blount nearly pulled a Ron Artest on the Boise State fans, as they were heckling him as he walked through the tunnel to the locker room. He had to be restrained by multiple people who escorted him safely to the locker room. As disgraceful and classless as the punch was, it was Blount's behavior after the punch that may have been even more embarrassing for the Oregon program. Athletic director Mike Bellotti is such a classy and no nonsense guy that it came as no surprise that Blount was subsequently suspended for the rest of the season for his actions. Blount has been projected as a 2nd or 3rd round NFL Draft pick in 2010 so his game will translate well to the NFL with all of the troublemakers that play in that league.

3. Ohio State's defense was gashed way too often Saturday by Navy's triple option offense in Ohio State's 31-27 win. With USC coming to Columbus next week there has to be serious concern for the Buckeyes although Terrelle Pryor did have a nice game to open his sophomore season. Speaking of Navy, they have time and again shown how good their program has become. Navy plays such a tough, gutty style of football and they are an easy team to root for. Navy has had some very nice wins the last few years and hanging with Ohio State on the road was just as impressive as some of their big wins have been. Since 2007, Navy has beaten Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Rutgers, and Wake Forest and they have held up well in their other games on the big stage. The rest of Navy's schedule is very manageable and I expect the Midshipmen to have a chance to have 10 wins this season.

4. Texas opened their season with a cupcake in Louisiana-Monroe and won comfortably as expected, 59-20. Contrast that to rival Oklahoma who scheduled a tough BYU team and also have a road game to play at Miami in a few weeks. The rest of Texas's non-conference schedule is relatively easy as well with games against Wyoming, UTEP, and UCF. This brings me to my point regarding the Texas-Oklahoma debate last year as to who deserved to be in the BCS Championship Game. I heard several times during the past few weeks when reading the college football previews that Texas was "royally screwed" last year for getting beat out by Oklahoma for the BCS Championship game berth despite beating Oklahoma head to head. First of all, Texas Tech was also in that mix as part of the three-way tie for the Big XII South. Texas Tech beat Texas who beat Oklahoma who beat Texas Tech, so any way you slice it the head to head factor is rendered moot. Second of all, while the Texas-Oklahoma and Texas-Texas Tech games were both tight games, Oklahoma took Texas Tech behind the woodshed in a 65-21 beatdown. Lastly, I think the biggest factor in Oklahoma's favor in the Oklahoma-Texas-Texas Tech comparison was the difficulty of Oklahoma's non-conference schedule. Oklahoma played eventual Big East champion Cincinnati and a very strong TCU team that ended the year in the Top 10 and beat them both by 25+ points. Texas meanwhile did not play a high quality non-conference opponent and they do not again this season. I get very irritated when I hear the arguing and complaining from people saying Texas got screwed last year. They did not go undefeated and thus they forced the BCS to differentiate between several similar teams and Texas's lack of non-conference schedule strength cost them.

MLB's Biased Charity

I stumbled across the tidbit below from Phil Mushnick's column in the New York Post this week and I think he makes an outstanding point. Many people involved in MLB have lamented about the lack of blacks in MLB. Last year I am told that 8% of the players in the league were black. Now this only includes black Americans because black players from Dominican Republic and other foreign countries are not included in that figure. MLB has charity programs designed to attract more black Americans to baseball. CC Sabathia has even called the lack of blacks in MLB a "crisis". I don't see how it matters how many blacks are in the league and it is certainly not anything that should be called a crisis. I don't see the NBA or NFL implementing programs to stop the decline of white Americans in their leagues. Here is what Phil Mushnick wrote in his column:

"Let's see if we've got this right: MLB is financing initiatives to have more African-American kids play baseball. Meantime, the Mets have closed their Florida instructional league facility and will move it to the Dominican Republic. Soon, MLB can expand its "Play Baseball!" initiative to include all U.S. kids!"

College Football Preview Part 2

ACC
OVERRATED TEAM: NC State Wolfpack
NC State is getting a lot of pub as a potential sleeper this season thanks largely in part to their strong regular season finish last year when they won their final 4 games to even their conference record to 4-4 and earn themselves a bowl bid. Sophomore dual threat quarterback Russell Wilson was named to the All-ACC first team last year as a freshman and he does give the Pack a chance to compete in this league. But for a team that hasn't had a winning conference record since 2002 I don't see them seriously challenging for the ACC Atlantic title as many prognosticators do. NC State has struggled against the pass and their opponents last season scored at least 24 points in all but 3 games.

UNDERRATED TEAM: Boston College Eagles
Boston College has been such a consistently good program since moving to the ACC for the 2005 season that I think they are being grossly underrated by being picked last in the ACC Atlantic in the media's preseason poll. They are coming off back-to-back Atlantic Division titles under coach Jeff Jagodzinski who was let go during the offseason because he interviewed for the New York Jets' head coach opening against the wishes of BC. BC regrouped after losing longtime head coach Tom O'Brien after the 2006 season and I do not believe that the program will drop off with new coach Frank Spaziani taking over the program. BC has a lot of depth throughout their lineup and they showed that last year by exceeding expectations and winning the Atlantic Division the year after all-world quarterback Matt Ryan graduated. BC has had a winning conference record in all 4 of their seasons in the ACC and they shared the Big East title in their last season in the Big East in 2004. BC is not a flashy team but it is time that people show them
the respect that their program deserves.

PROJECTED STANDINGS (projected conference record):
Atlantic Division
1. Clemson (6-2)
2. Florida State (5-3)
3. Boston College (4-4)
4. Wake Forest (4-4)
5. NC State (3-5)
6. Maryland (3-5)

Coastal Division
1. North Carolina (6-2)
2. Virginia Tech (5-3)
3. Georgia Tech (5-3)
4. Duke (3-5)
5. Miami (2-6)
6. Virginia (2-6)


SEC
OVERRATED TEAM: The entire SEC
The entire SEC as a whole has been regarded as far and away the best conference in America over the past few years. There is a sentiment that players in the SEC are collectively faster and more explosive than the rest of the players in college football. And whoever survives the SEC gauntlet is given the benefit of the doubt in terms of the BCS, as the SEC champion will be said to be deserving of the chance to play in the BCS Championship with all things being equal. While the BCS champion has come from the SEC the past 3 years, I do not believe the whole conference has been clearly superior to the rest of the conferences. Last year particularly, the SEC was down, yet the public perception was that the conference was head and shoulders above the rest of the country. While the SEC might have been great at the very top, I quantify conference strength by how tough the middle and bottom of the conference is. Several SEC teams last year had their worst season in years. Auburn, Tennessee, Arkansas, and LSU were significantly down from their previous few seasons. The SEC went 6-6 head to head versus the ACC last season with Florida accounting for 2 of the SEC's 6 wins. While conference vs. conference records do not necessarily mean a whole lot, this illustrates that the SEC may not be as dominant as it appears to be. I am not trying to say that the SEC is a bad league, but I believe the rest of the top conferences are just as good.

UNDERRATED TEAM: Auburn Tigers
Last season Auburn failed to make a bowl game for the first time since 1999 and somehow it cost head coach Tommy Tuberville his job. Auburn has been such a consistent power in the SEC West this decade that I found it mystifying that a good coach like Tuberville could be fired after one bad year. Auburn struggled last year mainly because of a punchless offense with poor quarterback play, but the defensive talent is still there to make this team a factor in the SEC West. Auburn has been flying under the radar in the lead up to the season, but they will get back to a bowl game and have some big wins this season.

PROJECTED STANDINGS (projected conference record):
East Division
1. Florida (7-1)
2. Georgia (5-3)
3. Tennessee (4-4)
4. South Carolina (3-5)
5. Vanderbilt (2-6)
6. Kentucky (2-6)

West Division
1. Ole Miss (6-2)
2. LSU (5-3)
3. Alabama (5-3)
4. Auburn (4-4)
5. Arkansas (3-5)
6. Mississippi State (2-6)


Big XII
OVERRATED TEAM: Oklahoma State Cowboys
I am not buying into the hype for Oklahoma State as a darkhorse title contender. Sports Illustrated has the Cowboys at #7 in their preseason rankings and the Cowboys are 9th in the AP Preseason poll. Oklahoma State has a very explosive offense with wide receiver Dez Bryant being one of the top wide receivers in the nation with strong senior quarterback Zac Robinson at the helm. But the Cowboys defense was so porous at times last season that it is hard to take this team seriously as a contender. When we last saw Oklahoma State's defense they were letting Oklahoma score on nearly every possession in the regular season finale and getting run over by Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli in the Holiday Bowl. Throw in Texas Tech's 56 point outburst on November 8th and it is easy to have cause for concern for Oklahoma State's potential as a Top 10 team this year. The Cowboys will be tested right out of the gates with Georgia coming to Stillwater in Week 1 and I think the Bulldogs will expose the Cowboys as an overrated team.

UNDERRATED TEAM: Missouri Tigers
Missouri this season is left with the unenviable task of replacing their 3 best players from last season, quarterback Chase Daniel, receiver Jeremy Maclin, and tight end Chase Coffman. Not only did those 3 players carry the bulk of the offensive load for the Tigers for the past few years, but they were among the best at their respective positions in all of college football. Missouri lost a lot of defensive talent from last year as well, but the program has progressed to the point where they should be able to reload and surprise some people who are expecting the Tigers to fall back after back to back North Division titles. I think Missouri will go into the regular season finale Border War against Kansas with a chance to win the Big XII North yet again.

PROJECTED STANDINGS (projected conference record):
North Division
1. Kansas (5-3)
2. Nebraska (5-3)
3. Missouri (4-4)
4. Colorado (3-5)
5. Kansas State (2-6)
6. Iowa State (1-7)

South Division
1. Oklahoma (7-1)
2. Texas (7-1)
3. Oklahoma State (5-3)
4. Texas Tech (4-4)
5. Baylor (3-5)
6. Texas A & M (2-6)