Randomness While Making 40 Cents On The Dollar Trades

-In order to avoid trading Donovan McNabb to the Raiders, the Eagles panicked a traded him for two draft picks to the Redskins. Now Washington gets a properly motivated QB who allowed to play for a rival of the team he's only known. Sounds like Favre parallels to me. Also, wait five years Philly fans on how you feel about McNabb. Believe me, the Ewing/McNabb comparisons are true and you'll find out soon enough. At least when the Eagles trade their guy with one year left, they didn't ruin any chance at competing in free agency like the Knicks did.

-Baseball has started and I didn't give picks. Nothing in my eyes has changed in the past week, so my AL playoff teams are the Yanks, Red Sox, Tigers and Angels, with the Yanks winning the AL. The National League will have the Phillies, Braves, Cards and Giants in the playoffs with the Phillies winning again. This time, the Phils get revenge over the Yanks and win the World Series. As for awards, Miguel Cabrera and Albert Pujols win MVP's, Tim Lincecum and Felix Hernandez win the Cy Young, Bobby Cox and Jim Leyland win MOY and Jason Heyward and Austin Jackson will be your top rookies.

-Biggest game of the Rangers season is on Friday as they start a two game series with the Flyers at MSG. Honestly, I've wanted the Rangers to just lose out and improve draft position and add a cornerstone forward, like they have on the blueline with Marc Staal and Michael Del Zotto. Unfortunately, they decided to beat up the teams they should beat and now have a chance to get swept by the Caps make the playoffs. It wouldn't matter how they did because making the playoffs and charging Ranger fans for two or three playoff games is enough for Jim Dolan. He remains the only good reason for me to stay with DirecTV, though FIOS is something I might end up getting.

-My Tiger Woods boycott ended with the first round of the Masters, since he was playing golf instead of this over apologizing in this ridiculous scandal that gets too much attention than it should. Of course the latest story was the creepy commercial of Tiger's father voicing over a long take of Tiger staring into the camera. Do yourselves a favor, search through YouTube for all the parodies. This one's my favorite.

-I'm sure it's been said, but if Gordon Hayward makes the halfcourt three to win the National Title for Butler over Duke, it's the greatest shot in the history of basketball. I guess we have to settle for the greatest screen in basketball history that Matt Howard laid on Kyle Singler. Anything to avoid talking about Duke's victory.

-I don't know if league saying they screwed up calls are a good thing or a bad thing. If you haven't watched it, Kevin Durant was clearly fouled at the end of a 140-139 loss to the Jazz, marring the end of a brilliant duel between he and Deron Williams. If the NBA actually punishes the officials who they admitted missed the call, then it's a good thing they told us. If not, then you can take your apologizes and stuff them in a sack. I rather my intelligence insulted by denial, not allowance.

-I agree with Joe West, these Yanks/Sox games are way too long. However, if he can criticize the players like that with no kind of reprimand, then don't reprimand or fine managers and players who criticize umpires. What's fair is fair.

-Finally, on a night where Steven Stamkos scored his 48th and Sidney Crosby scored his 49th goal, the highlight of the night is Mike Smith challenging Chris Neil after Neil slew footed him in the 2nd period of Sens/Lightning. Anytime you see a goalie start fighting or showing anger, it's something that must be shared.

Time To Lay Off On Tiger

Mostly because the story broke on a workday, I didn't express any opinions on the Tiger Woods story. It was pretty smart because this story has played out in many different ways since his accident Thanksgiving. The facts we know are that Tiger had a one car accident hitting a fire hydrant and a tree. The Florida Highway Patrol gave him a citation in a press conference that doubled as an SNL-skit in trying to look serious. Now, Tiger has released a statement basically admitting to affairs that have been reported.


Everyone considers this a big story because of the rumored affairs and whatever Tiger's wife did after finding out, but once we knew that the accident didn't involve others and that Tiger wasn't leaving his home, this story ended. Now, anything else you hear is all the typical celebrity chatter that shouldn't be public. If Tiger Woods committed a crime, then yes, let's delve as much as possible into his life. Since he didn't, I think he should get the same courtesy that you and I get.


I know what you're thinking "he's a celebrity, a public figure and we need to know this". My friend Dan of Dan's Take Sports wrote how we can't think of Tiger Woods like we did before. What did we think of Tiger Woods? Unlike what his father thought, Tiger has never been more than a great golfer. That's what I think of when I think of Tiger Woods. This won't change that, unless he let's these issues affect his play.


We all want our greatest athletes to live up to our expectations on how they should live, but 95% of the time, they don't. The athletes of yesterday lived the same lives as the athletes of today, but no one reported it and there wasn't a TMZ or Deadspin who were more than willing to air dirty laundry for all to see. So forgive me if I'm not coming up with a moral argument for Tiger or caring about his mistresses and his wife, but it's not important.

Randomness as Tiger Becomes Human and Favre Remains in Our Lives Forever

Honestly, I'm still in shock over the loss by Tiger Woods in a major after a 54-hole lead to a man named Y.E. Yang. It started when I was checking to leaderboard Saturday and his four-stroke lead was reduced to a tie at one point. Still, I didn't think Tiger would lose. To his credit, Yang hit the shots when he needed to like at 14 when he chipped the eagle and at 18 when his approach was within 8 feet. The thing about Tiger in the majors this year, he has not putt well at all. However, I don't think this will effect Tiger's chase for Jack's record of 18 majors like my good friend Dan of Dan's Take hints at rightly comparing Tiger's loss to Tyson against Buster Douglas (at least as a singular event of itself).

After Tiger's loss, everyone is ready to make Usain Bolt the most dominant athlete in the world and after his 9.58 performance in the 100m yesterday, shattering his record from the Olympics a year ago, who could blame them. The biggest problem Bolt has is he competes in a sport that you can't trust whenever runners put up records because of PED's. When people like Ben Johnson, Tim Montgomery and Marion Jones end up in shame after it comes out they used and were stripped records and medals, you get suspicious. However, if Bolt turns out to be clean, it could save track and field, giving the world its best pure runner since Michael Johnson.

It's stories like this that make the Oakland Raiders not taken seriously. Apparently, head coach Tom Cable punched out his assistant Randy Hanson during the Raiders training camp. Sounds to me that Hanson switched to DirecTV and the Cable Guy taught him a lesson. Just remember the last time a coach punched a coach (Buddy Ryan punching Kevin Gilbride), the Houston Oilers moved to Tennessee four years later.

I'm writing this article after the N.Y. Giants play their first preseason game, so I'm finally getting a look at these players. Big Blue View wrote a post about who should make the team and Matt Mosley at ESPN wrote about the team in camp. Ahmad Bradshaw looks ready to replace and exceed Derrick Ward as Brandon Jacobs new complement at RB, Clint Sintim will be huge as the Giants attempt to win with a 5-man defensive line and more experimental defensive strategy under new defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan. Also, for the first time that I can remember, I'm excited about the Giants secondary, after Football Prospectus thinks Corey Webster will become a top-10 CB and Kenny Phillips could be a Pro Bowler this season.

It's great to have Mad Men back on in our lives again. If Curb Your Enthusiasm wasn't returning next month, Entourage would be in trouble of going on my shelf, but I'll hang around for the rest of the season and watch Mad Men an hour later.

A couple of moves for the N.Y. Rangers, they sign Vinny Prospal to a one-year deal, reuniting him with John Tortorella and they hired The Captain Mark Messier as Glen Sather's assistant. I think the fact Prospal was willing to play for Torts again is a positive, so anything I read or watch about past Torts-Prospal issues shouldn't be a big deal. On the ice, Prospal adds a scoring touch that the Rangers still need and at a little over a million is a safe investment and Scotty Hockey is right, the first three lines for next season actually looks good. As for Messier, he now takes a job like Steve Yzerman did in Detroit and Cam Neely in Boston as he gets to gain experience before being ready for a GM job in the future. I'm curious though if he gets to be the Rangers GM after Sather retires (or if we're lucky, fired) or do they promote assistant GM Jim Schoenfeld and Messier ends up having to go somewhere else like Don Maloney did. Not to mention that Doug Risebrough, former Minnesota GM, I believe is a Rangers consultant who could get a look (though I wonder why).

Looks like the Nationals avoid letting Stephen Strasburg go to waste as they signed him at midnight. He shattered the record rookie contract by signing for $15.67 million, satisfying Scott Boras I'm sure. To be honest, he ruined my tirade that I was ready to go into. I was planning on a scathing paragraph on how Boras went too far with the demands, how Strasburg is too gullible and just follows Boras and how incompetent the Nats organization is to not sign this guy. I guess I'll save my tirade for Brett Favre since he can't leave the spotlight now that Michael Vick is signed.

I just heard the news that Brett Favre will in fact return to the NFL and play for the Vikings. Already, if you turn on ESPN, they're acting as if the Vikings just picked up '07 Tom Brady or '89 Joe Montana. They think he can just walk in and the Vikings will not only win a Super Bowl, but also help fight hunger, find a way to get the economy working and send people to heaven. Nothing in sports upsets me more than the gushing over Brett Favre, so here are facts to consider: He turns 40 on October 10, how many 40 year old QB's succeed? Also, not only did Favre finish last season with five bad performances, he also had a four-game stretch against the Bengals, Raiders, Chiefs and Bills where he wasn't good either, except the Jets won three of those four so everyone forgets this.

Ask any Jet fan what they think of Brett Favre and for that matter, ask any Jet player from last year. I never advocate injury for a player, but I'm making an exception for Brett, I want someone to knock out Favre with some sort of injury so he would be forced to retire. I'm so tired of hearing about Brett Favre that if I was a Hall of Fame voter, I would never put him in; I don't care if he has all the passing records. The last player who played this game of will I/won't I in sports was Roger Clemens and thankfully for all of us, karma intervened and he became disgraced forever. Let's hope this happens to Favre.

The Month of the Star

With the first round of the U.S. Open suspended due to rain, and no golfers getting through the round, this is the perfect opportunity to talk about how Tiger Woods could make this a perfect month for the preeminent stars winning championships. It's been a particularly successful month for the faces of basketball, hockey and tennis. Kobe Bryant finally won a championship as the top player after years of answering questions about his inability to win without Shaq. Sidney Crosby avoids a second consecutive loss in the Stanley Cup Finals, as the Penguins won Game 7 on the road in Detroit; now he's the youngest captain to lead his team to a Cup at age 21. Meanwhile, Tiger's buddy Roger Federer finally one the French Open a couple weeks ago to complete the career Grand Slam and tie Pete Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slam titles.


As for Tiger, he has a chance to join the three of them by winning consecutive U.S. Open's and his 15th major, closing in on Jack Nicklaus' 18 majors. Here at Bethpage Black in Long Island, it seems like his biggest competition, aside from the weather, is once again Phil Mickelson. Mickelson is always the people's choice, especially in New York, but with his wife's breast cancer fight, he's also the sentimental favorite to win as well. If he plays as well as he did ten years ago, when he finished second losing on a birdie from Payne Stewart as Amy Mickelson was due to deliver his child. However, Tiger just won the Memorial after hitting 49 of 56 fairways and completed a great comeback in the final round. The fact is, either man winning would be the story NBC wants in terms of ratings. Tiger winning, however, would have him in the company of the best in the world of sports, which he is an annual member.

Randomness while growing my playoff beard

- April is the best sports month of the year because it seems like every sport has a major event going on. Baseball begins, the NBA and NHL start playoffs, the Final Four takes place in the month, the NFL Draft is this month and this is the month when golf matters as the Masters takes place

- I love the Masters because there is a drama that you don't see in any other golf tournament. If you look at the other majors, the US Open is always too tough that it's about making pars, the British Open is too effected by weather and the PGA Championship is the clear No. 4. The Masters is the best major because of the setting at Augusta and the fact that the players have more control of how they play than most events. You can score low at Augusta or play awful, whereas most US and British Opens you can be +3 and still be alive on Sunday. You try to survive those Opens; you can't survive Augusta, you win the green jacket.

-Now that its said, last Sunday's final round was the best day of golf I've watched in my life. It was 5 and half hours of drama that left you feeling satisfied. Tiger and Phil were playing who can top whom and for once in his career, Phil outplayed Tiger. We have waited all these years to see if Phil can play with Tiger and do well when it counts, and he did. The second shot from the 7th rough that Mickelson stuck close to the pin was one of the best ever. The galleries at Augusta entirely followed Tiger and Phil while the leaders had almost no one around. Unfortunately, we were robbed out of perhaps the best final round in Masters history when both men ran out of gas and Phil made some dumb decisions, such as going with the 9 iron at 12 and hitting the water and overthinking his 5 foot eagle after Tiger missed his. As for Tiger, he didn't putt Tiger-like as putts he always makes he missed on Sunday.

- It almost was ruined until Kenny Perry bogeyed his last 2 holes setting up a three-man playoff with Angel Cabrera and Chad Campbell. I was surprised Cabrera made it as it seemed he had nothing going up until the 13th hole. Meanwhile, Perry seemed to wrap it up on 16 when he birdied, but he came back and we had the playoff. It almost seemed like all three men put themselves in big trouble and nearly all made a great shot to save par. Cabrera hit a tree from the brush and ended up on the fairway, then hit it within 6 feet. Perry chipped it 2 inches from the cup to save par, while Campbell got out of the sand to about 4 feet, but missed his putt and was out. Then on 10, Perry's second shot was back and left and Cabrera hit the green and won. Great drama and saved the tournament as the best in the 00s.

- Unfortunately, The Cycle was not able to gain access to either CitiField or the new Yankee Stadium for the openers. But to my faithful readers, who I hope are still faithful after my week off, I will try to get to both ballparks and give my review.

- It seems like this season of 24 has found a way to go from solved threats to new villians more often than I can remember. Of course, it's been two years since the show has been on. All I know is it's good to have Elisha Cuthbert back in my life without the phrase "sloppy seconds" attached.

- NFL schedules were released today and apparently this is big news seeing as ESPN must devote 3 hours on it. I understand the NFL network trying to make this a big deal, they have to fill programming, but I refused to watch ESPN's coverage out of principle.

- Of course, I had to take a look at the schedule. The Giants have a 3 game road trip after opening with Washington at home which isn't tough aside from the first game at Jerry Jones new palace. After that, the schedule gets easier as they get Dallas and Philly at home late and end with Carolina and at Minnesota just like last year. The Jets have the easiest schedule in the AFC East as they get to avoid Buffalo and play the Bills in Toronto and they close out Giants Stadium playing the Bengals. By the way, shame on you NFL for having the Jets close out Giants Stadium, this is named for the Giants and it's their stadium. They better have the Giants open the new stadium next year. Week 11 looks good as the Giants host Matty Ice and the Falcons, Dallas hosts Washington and the Jets go to New England.

- It's great that the Padres, Mariners and Orioles have had good starts; let's not get carried away. It's not football.

- Sad week in baseball, RIP Nick Adenhart, Harry Kalas and Mark Fidrych

- As we close another NBA season, I just want one thing: for once, I want the Knicks in the bottom 3. Please, just once let me get to the commercial of the NBA Draft Lottery with the Knicks not off the board.

Before the puck drops in Washington and Pittsburgh, I will have my Stanley Cup preview.

UPDATED 11:23 AM: I forgot to make mention of Oscar De La Hoya's retirement and as a boxing fan, I know that Oscar was overrated based only on the amount of attention he got. He was the face of his sport since Mike Tyson tattooed that face. From 1992-1999, he was in the conversation as best pound-for-pound fighter in the world along with Roy Jones Jr. Then he fought Tito Trinidad, led for much of the fight and decided to keep away for the last few rounds, which cost him the fight. He never was the same as the next year he lost the first of two to Sugar Shane Mosley. He still had good fights, particularly his win over Fernando Vargas, but by the end, he was fighting off his name when he stepped in against Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. So where is his place in history? He will be remembered as the most memorable and polarizing figure in boxing for his era, in an A-Rod sort of way. Very good fighter, but never beat the best of his weight during his or their primes.