Why does UCONN play cupcake games?

OK I am actually writing this blog during the UCONN-Morehead State basketball game and it makes me wonder, why does UCONN schedule games likes this. We are actually paying Morehead State $90,000 to play this game. The Morehead State coach didn’t even want to play this game. He felt his team was not to the level of UCONN. Well he was right about that one. There are only a select number of teams in the country with the talent level of UCONN.

I do understand why a school like Morehead State will play the game. One, it’s a financial gain for the athletic program. Two, it’s good for recruiting. But what gain does UCONN actually get. Another W in the win-loss columns. What happens if one of the stars gets hurt in the game. Now I do know that injuries can happen at any time but why risk one of the nation’s top players in a meaningless game. It is good practice for the players before they depart on holiday break to run the plays and get prepared for the upcoming rigorous Big East schedule.

Next up on the Huskies schedule is another cupcake in Stony Brook. Although there is one difference in this game, Stony Brook is coached by former UCONN player Steve Pikell. After Stony Brook, the Huskies take on their “in-state” rival, the Quinnipiac Bobcats.

Way to go Sox………NOT!!!!!!!!

Well the Red Sox showed the Yankees something last night by signing John Flaherty to a contract. This will hurt the Yankees because Flaherty was Randy Johnson’s personal catcher. Oh by the way, I did forget to mention that Flaherty wasn’t in the Yankee’s plans for next year as they had signed Kelly Stinnet as a free agent who was Randy’s catcher with the Diamondbacks.

What is going on with the two headed monster we like to call the Red Sox GM’s. Instead of focusing on the much needed positions, CF, 1B, SS, they are out there signing a 38 year old back up catcher. Flaherty isn’t even assured of the back up position as the Sox have Kelly Shoppach and Ken Huckaby. For those of you who don’t remember Huckaby, he is the one who separated Jeter’s shoulder a few years back.

Rumors out in the baseball world have the Sox now going after Kevin Millwood. Kevin Millwood??????? The Sox don’t need another starting pitcher. We need hitters. I am sure Manny, who may have stayed had Damon re-signed, wants to get out of dodge as fast as he can. Maybe the Red Sox think that pitching and defense will win the championship next year. It won’t win them anything if no one will pitch to Big Papi next year.

Stay tuned as we await the next blunder from the two headed monster.

Johnny Damon to the Evil Empire

What a way to wake up this morning. I had an offline message from a Yankees fan telling me the bad news. Johnny Damon is going to sign a 4 year $52 million contract with the New York Yankees.

The freaking Yankees are you kidding me. The Yanks hadn’t done a thing on the free agent front all off season and then I have to wake up to this crap. Steinbrenner had been complaining the whole time about having to pay so much in luxury tax and now he adds another $13 million a year to his team. And what the frig are the Red Sox thinking. How can they just sit back and let this happen? The Sox had offered Damon a 4 yr $40 million dollar contract. That’s only $8 million more over the life of his last contract. Johnny definitely deserved a lot more money from the Sox than a 4 yr $40 million dollar contract. If Theo was still GM of the Red Sox would this have happened. Or maybe just maybe a new curse has started, the Curse of Theo.

So lets compare the Sox to the Yanks by position:

  • Catcher: Varitek, Posada; I give the edge to Varitek due to his ability to call a great game. Offensively I feel as though Varitek brings a little more to the table.
  • First Base: Youkilis, Giambi; Big Edge goes to the Giambino here. He had a comeback season last year after his misfortunes with steroids. Defensively they are even.
  • Second Base: Loretta, Cano; Cano had a breakthrough season in his first big league year. Loretta comes to Sox from the Padres after an injury plagued 2005 season. Even
  • Shortstop: Unknown, Jeter; No matter who the Sox shortstop is in 2005 the edge goes to Jeter.
  • Third Base: Lowell, AROD; Again, no comparison AROD’s numbers speak for themselves. Edge to AROD.
  • DH: Ortiz, Bernie?; Really no comparison here either as Big Papi had his second career year in a row and continues to get stronger. Bernie has aged over the years and is not the player he once was. Edge to Big Papi.
  • LF: Manny, Matsui; Offensively, the edge goes to Manny. Defensively the edge goes to Matsui. There are questions to as where Manny will play next year. But if he stays with the Sox, I’ll give a slight edge to Manny.
  • CF: Unknown, Damon; We all know what the leader of the IDIOTS brought to the table. Decent speed, good range and terrible arm. Should be able to cover a lot of ground in Yankee Stadium. I don’t think there’s a center fielder out there that the Sox can get who will compare to Damon so the edge goes to Damon.
  • RF: Trot, Sheffield; Trot has suffered thru a few injuries the past year and was a victim of not being able to hit lefties so was platooned. Sheffield is one of the most feared hitters in baseball and has one of the top 5 arms in baseball. Edge goes to Sheffield.
  • SP: Schilling, Clement, Beckett, Wells, Arroyo, Wakefield, Johnson, Mussina, Pavano, Chacon, Wang, Wright; Starting pitching to me is pretty even. Schilling when healthy can be as deadly as Randy Johnson. Clement started out strong in 2005 but faded fast. Mussina struggled at times but was still productive. Beckett is coming off an injury plagued 2005 season but is still only 25. Pavano was also injured for most of 2005. Wells doesn’t even want to be in Boston anymore but when he pitches you know your getting everything he has. Chacon came over from the Rockies and helped stabilized a depleted starting pitching staff for the Yanks. Wakefield is Wakefield. He gives everything he’s got and is the longest tenured Sox player. Wang was a good rookie for the Yanks who also helped stabilize the starting rotation before going down with shoulder problems. Arroyo is a good pitcher who can be dominating but more than likely could be moved to help the Sox fill the CF void. Jaret Wright had a little success but was shelled a lot of times. Edge: Even
  • RP: Foulke, Timlin, Papelbon, Mariano, Farnsworth, Sturtze; I will give the edge to the Yankees here because of Mariano. Mariano is the most dominating closer of all time. His numbers speaks for themselves. Foulke spent most of 2005 injured and was never really himself on the mound. Timlin stepped in and did a fine job but he’s not a closer. Farnsworth struggled with the Braves in the setup role and was shelled in the playoffs. Papelbon as a rookie stepped in and provided the Sox with some much need relief during the stretch run while Sturtze also stepped in and provided the Yanks with part of the bridge to get to Mariano in the 9th inning. Edge to the Yanks.
  • Managers: Francona, Torre; I like Francona. His personality seems to fit with the people the Sox once had in the clubhouse. You can’t say enough about Joe Torre. To have to deal with all the crap that he endures from the Boss and to take a team of basically All-Stars and getting them to play as a team, there’s nothing to say. He is a great manager. Edge goes to Torre.

Well now, I have to sit back and watch the rest of the offseason because the Sox really need to do something dramatic again. Otherwises, it’s going to be a long season in Red Sox Nation. And oh yes get used to it Damon fans. The caveman is no more. He will have to shave his beard and cut his hair and go back to looking like something in this picture.

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

Boston Red Sox West

Ummm did I sleep thru something? Did they take the city of Boston and move it out west? Reports are the Los Angeles Dodgers have signed Nomar Garciaparra to a 1 yr contract to play first base.This now makes 4 former members of the Boston Red Sox who are now members of the LA Dodgers (Bill Mueller, Derek Lowe, Grady Little and Nomar Garciaparra.) Three of the four have World Series rings from 2004 with the Sox. We all know why Grady Little doesn’t have a ring with the Sox.

So with Nomar signing with the Dodgers, it got me to thinking. Why wouldn’t the Dodgers go after Johnny “Hollywood” Damon? Why not make it 4 players from the 2004 Champs to try and build a winner? His new found stardom would fit in perfectly out in Los Angeles. He enjoys being in the spotlight. He has already done one movie so moving to LA would allow him to partake in more stuff on the big screen. And just last Sunday, Johnny was involved in a PPV Wrestling Event in Orlando (click to see). Even his stripper wife (rumor is Johnny has never seen his wife without makeup) might like it in LA.

Realistically, we know Johnny won’t sign with the Dodgers because Sox Nation is desparately trying to resign him. Plus if he signed with the Yankees, he would have to clean up his image. That could be bad for business because do we really want to see Puma ads with Johnny Damon or do we want to see Johnny “Caveman” Damon. With the “Evil Empire” in the picture, this could be a tough thing. More than likely, Steinbrenner is just trying to drive up the price of Caveman’s services. After paying an arm and leg in luxury tax this year, the mighty Yanks have been awfully quiet on the free agent front.

I know everyone is upset that Nomar signed with the Dodgers because now I won’t be burning my Nomar jersey. To answer the question of whether or not I would have burned the jersey had he signed with the Yankees, the answer is YES.

Sign Up to receive updates

I have created a yahoo groups page that will send you a notification as to when the site has been updated. If you are not a member of yahoo, it is ok..

To sign up, send an email to this address: sox-and-dawgs-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

when you receive the confirmation email, click on the link to the sign up page and it will give you an option to sign in as a yahoo member or for the mailing list. click on the mailing list link and you are all set. you will now begin to receive email updates to each new post that I make.

Parking tickets


Have you ever gotten a parking ticket for parking where your not supposed to? And do you think to yourself, this fine is a little ridiculous? If you do, don’t be like this idiot.

This guy in Portsmouth, New Hampshire received a parking ticket for parking in a handicapped spot, which carries a $100 fine. There’s a few arguments here that I will present later about that issue in itself but for now I will stick to the story at hand. So when he went to court to protest the ticket, the dude had altered the ticket to make it look like a $20 parking violation. What a dumbass. Anyone who has received tickets (mom and dad if your reading this I really only have 1 or 2 tickets in my life. Actually I lost track of the total) knows that when you get a ticket, you are receiving your copy of the ticket. One copy goes to you, another to the police dept, and the last copy goes to the courthouse usually. So when this dude goes to court and tells the judge its a parking violation, she abruptly corrects him and says no sir it is not. Ummmmmm hello, WTF were you thinking. Was this your first ticket ever? Did you not know there is more than one copy? Were you broke and couldn’t afford the $100 fine? So now because your an idiot, you are being charged with forgery and now could face 3 1/2 to 7 years in prison..Probably because you were too lazy to find parking and saw the handicapped spot open at the front of wherever you were.

I myself have a handicapped sticker. And nothing pisses me off more than seeing someone parked in a handicapped spot when they don’t have the pass. Most of times you see this at the grocery stores that contain banks in them. If you ask the person why they parked there usually the response you will get is “oh the spot was open and I was just running in to use the ATM”. Well there’s a reason those spots are open. I will say that I don’t always use the handicapped spots because I do feel there are some people more handicapped than I am. But be real, those spots are meant for the handicapped. Not some idiot who has to run into the bank real quick or the store because they are going thru a nicotine fit and need their precious smokes.

I hope you get sentenced to do time in prison. You will get laughed at when your in there because you were an idiot to change your ticket. And remember handicapped spots are for handicapped people.

Updates

Well still no word on the Nomar front as to where he is going to sign. Rumors were that he was going to have a decision by Thursday. Stay tuned because if he does sign with the Yanks, everyone will be invited to my Nomar jersey burning ceremony.

In other news, the Doug Mientkiewicz-Red Sox ball saga is now heading to arbitration. The Red Sox dropped the lawsuit that they had in court and instead the commish’s office filed a grievance on behalf of the Sox for ownership of the ball.

A full schedule of college basketball returns on Saturday. Wooooooohooooooooo. About time our student athletes were done with their exams. I shouldn’t really be knockin the student athletes at all as we know it’s not their fault they can’t play during exams.

Feel free to check out the comments on the Apprentice post and as always leave your thoughts. Also, if there is anything that you would like to see or hear my opinion about in the world of sports or news of the weird, feel free to email me with any ideas or leads. Also coming shortly will be a sign up to receive an email stating when a new blog post has been posted.

What a crock of crap!

I am going to stray from the sports and news of the weird posts tonight as I give my two cents on The Apprentice Finale tonight.

What a crock of shit Randall is? He had the chance to give Rebecca another chance and yet decided to steal the show tonight and say to a national tv audience that the show was about hiring one apprentice and not two.

To me this was the best Apprentice yet. The final two were both deserving and worthy candidates. Randall’s background was exceptional as was Rebecca’s. This season was entirely different then the others because Mr. Trump on more than one occasion fired more than one person at a time.

Anyways back to the ranting. I do believe that Randall was the better candidate for the job. But Rebecca proved herself strong overcoming a severely broken ankle at the beginning of the interview process. Randall also overcame adversity as his grandmother passed away during the first few weeks of the show. Randall’s academic acheivements are incredible. The freakin dude has 5 degrees and was a Rhodes Scholar. He also runs 5 successful companies. Rebecca on the other hand is a financial journalist. Her academic achievements are no where as strong as Randall’s. She has also founded a nonprofit to help disenfranchised children. At 23 yrs old, she has done more than most people will do in their lifetime’s.

What Randall did was selfish. This was not The Apprentice the “game” but rather The Apprentice the “job interview”. I know in most job interviews there is only one position available. But a man with Donald Trump’s extensive wealth, he has the ability to hire more than one apprentice. After he chose Randall, he brought him back to the table and asked him if he thought Rebecca was deserving as well. That is when Randall went into his rants and ravings. Instead of stepping up to the plate, Mr Trump sat back and said i agree but I could have been swayed. I dont fault Mr. Trump but rather Randall for being a selfish prick.

Mr. Trump, do the right thing and reward Rebecca for her hard work and efforts.

Say It Aint So Nomar?

Well for those who don’t read the sports page, one of the teams interested in Nomar’s services next year are the NY Yankees or as I commonly refer to them, the Spankees.

Why Nomar, why would you even consider this? It’s not like you need the money. Are you bitter still about the trade from the Red Sox last year? You would be the third best shortstop on the team and yet not playing shortstop.

I can say only one more thing. If Nomar signs with the Yankees, then everyone is invited to watch me burn my Nomar Garciaparra #5 Boston Red Sox jersey which sits next to my Dan Orlosvky UCONN football jersey on my wall.

Just an update to this post………Nomar’s decision on where he will play next season is coming…It’s down to the Yankees, Astros, Indians, and the Dodgers.