Tampa Bay Sports Blog

The Answer is unequivocally yes. As I watch the NBA these days I cannot help but become disenchanted with the poor play and uneventful nature of most games. It boggles my mind that in an age where athletes are pretty much all  prima donna’s, that a player of Allen Iverson’s stature cannot find employment. Why should we even be talking about how a player is in the locker room or how good of a teammate he may or may not be? Are most people afforded the luxury of choosing their coworkers in the real world? The bottom line here is that most professional sports leagues are so diluted that it is almost impossible to field  competitive first teams, let alone reserves. Aside from A.I’s undeniable stats, he is also regarded as a player who always shows up and gives maximum effort, which is more than we can say for countless professional athletes.

Watching my beloved Orlando Magic, it is painful at times to watch the cavalier manner in which some of the Magic players approach playing the game. Dwight Howard’s constant grinning and Vince Carter’s half hearted drives to the basket and nonchalant passing down the stretch of games makes me wanna jump through the screen and yank him off the court myself. It is no wonder Jason Kidd couldn’t wait to get out of New Jersey. He hated playing along side a player who didn’t compete night in night out. Don’t get me wrong, I value sportsmanship, being a good teammate and citizen. However, those things alone aren’t going to win you any prizes at the end of the day. We are paid for production in all professions, so why should sports be any different? Especially, when the salaries are so astronomical.

Allen Iverson is still capable of giving a team 20 points and 7 assists every night. Look around the NBA at the starting guards for some of the so called elite teams and tell me how many players you find capable of coming close to that. Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics just signed a $55 Million Dollar contract and is shooting 20% from beyond the arc and a mere 25% from the free throw line. With the Big 3 aging rapidly, his deficiencies are glaring and can no longer be hidden. I’m going to love watching Danny Ainge try to trade that albatross of a contract in a few years for spare parts. Derek Fisher, a clutch playoff performer at times, is a low percentage shooter, inconsistent and vastly declining. Mo Williams in Cleveland is another example of an inconsistent player who pulled one of the greatest disappearing acts of all time in last years playoff series against Orlando. I could go on, but I’m sure you get my drift.

Unless there is something we are not privy to as fans, I cannot fathom how teams aren’t chomping at the bit to sign a sure fire first ballot Hall of Fame player, who still has some gas left in the tank, for a pro rated veterans minimum of $1.2 Million Dollars. If the experiment doesn’t work, you simply cut him and move on. Even the magic can afford to eat such a pultry sum of money. Not to mention he will probably increase there initial ticket sales to defer any loss in salary that could occur. I cannot help but think there are other things at work here that either the media, GM’s or coaches are somewhat responsible for. We saw it happen with Barry Bonds, a still capable star left for dead because of the stigma that went along with him.

Iverson is not without blame in this equation either, and he should stand up and take some responsibility for where he stands right now. Acknowledge that you are aging, stop worrying about stats, since we already know you can fill a box score like few others, and join a contender in whatever role they see fit. If he is willing to accept that, which ultimately I think he would, since he did come off the bench in Detroit before the deceitful coach Michael Curry manipulated  him and Rip Hamilton, then one of these mindless GM’s needs to step up to the plate and get this man a uniform. This is not Stephon Marbury part two, Allen Iverson actually has a ton of game and puts it on the line every night. So lets hope he gets back in the NBA soon, since I’m sure there are many like me who still miss watching him perform.

Technorati Tags: Allen Iverson, Barry Bonds, Boston Celtics, Dallas Mavericks, danny ainge, Derek Fisher, Detroit Pistons, Jason Kidd, michael curry, Mo Williams, New Jersey Nets, Orlando Magic, stephon marbury, Vince Carter

There were a few crazy things that went on over the last couple weeks that I wanted to touch on and didn’t have time, but nothing got my attention more than the A-Rod deal. There has already been a tremendous amount of backlash on this situation and some of it is just funny. The dumbest thing I’ve seen written so far is what Bill Madden of the New York Daily News wrote about releasing A-Rod (hat tip to Mets Police for that one). Madden wants the Yankees to cut A-Rod, no matter the cost, in order to make a statement. The Yankees have more money than any team in baseball and they show it consistently with their ridiculous spending sprees, but not even the Yankees can justify writing off $270 million. This has to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen a legitimate reporter write. The Yanks already looked like idiots for paying Rodriguez the amount of money they did before A-Rod was a known steroid user. If they get nothing out of him AND spend that money they would look worse, not better Bill. There is no statement they could make that is worth a quarter billion dollars.

I want to take this A-Rod thing in a different direction though. I’m not going to defend him, but the fact that the test that he popped on was supposed to be anonymous and got leaked is an atrocity and will do nothing but worsen the already rocky relationship between the players union and MLB. We haven’t heard A-Rod come out and say anything yet, but it’s coming soon as he has a ceremony in his honor upcoming at the University of Miami. In the aftermath of all of this I think Rodriguez could use this scenario as an opportunity to better his relationship with other players and actually boost himself in the eyes of others.

Follow me here. In my opinion this is what I think he should do. First off, he needs to come out and admit to doing steroids in the past in order to keep up with what he thought other players were doing. I could be wrong, but I don’t believe his contract can be voided if the test he was positive for was supposed to be anonymous. If he does this he can take some of the stink off of him in the eyes of the public and immediately turn the Government away from him. If he lies, the Government will want him to come in and testify under oath and go after him similar to Bonds, Clemens, etc. This has to be his first step toward redemption.

The next thing I would like to see Alex do is demand that the rest of the tests be destroyed and insist that no one else’s name be leaked and tarnished. If he falls on the sword and leads the charge against those who leaked this info he could become a much more popular figure within the players fraternity. Nearly every player would applaud and respect him for doing such a thing. It would also show some backbone and fortitude, which is something he gets knocked for lacking.

I would also like to see him lead the charge against Bud Selig and lobby to have him removed as the commissioner of Major League Baseball. What has gone on under Selig’s watch is atrocious and he needs to be held accountable for it. Rodriguez is the latest casualty under the mismanagement of Bud Selig.

I don’t feel sorry for Alex, the Yankees or anyone else in this, but the fact that the test he has popped for was supposed to be anonymous and just used “to measure the amount of users there were” is unacceptable. This is the same thing as police versus criminals. There are supposed to be rules limiting the cops to what they can do in order to catch a criminal and that’s why we call it justice. The smart criminals stay ahead of the cops and the good cops figure out how to catch them, legally! That’s the game and that’s how it’s played. There are always some cops and some criminals playing outside the lines, but the rules are in place to help maintain order. This situation with A-Rod is exactly the same. Alex will have to come to grips with the fact that his legacy is tainted and that it can’t be fixed on the field now. He can raise himself up in other ways now by not only holding himself accountable, but forcing those that caught him to be accountable also. Bud Selig gets too much credit for his newfound tough drug policy these days. Did everyone forget that MLB and Bud Selig had to be dragged in kicking and screaming by Congress in order to finally do something about it to begin with? Selig has done some stupid things as commissioner, as most any commissioner will, but this needs to be his final blunder.

You shouldn’t be the highest paid commissioner in sports if you’re going to allow crap like this. This was flat out wrong and shady. There is no argument for Selig either because this is his baby. He can’t play ignorant because he should have been monitoring this as close as possible. Alex Rodriguez’s life as he knows it is over. If he thought people were negative toward him before, just wait and see how he gets treated now. There is no excuse for what he did and he has created the attention himself by being the most greedy athlete we’ve seen to date, but he can still come out of this ok if he owns up to it and grows a pair (hard to do on roids, I know).

I’m going to get sick of this story pretty quick, but I do want to see how it plays out.

Technorati Tags: Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Bud Selig, New York Yankees, Roger Clemens, Tampa Bay Rays, University of Miami

As I try to catch up with everything there will be some rambling and I’ll start with this, the Hall of Fame vote is stupid. Not just baseball, which brought this on, but any Hall of Fame vote. I think this because the voters, aside from most of them being guys who never played the game professionally, only look at the entire body of work instead of putting the work into the era they played in. While not showing his picks, Marc Topkin brought this on with his post regarding his ballot (why the hell are there “Rays” on the ballot anyway?. I have a ton of respect for Marc as a sports writer, but I have problems with his ballot as much as anyone else. Here’s what I took from it.

I know that Topkin has more knowledge of the game than I do and knowing he is building this story toward the big reveal, I have a hard time understanding who his picks are and why. The why is my problem. As he discusses Harold Baines’ hit count, Mar McGuire’s steroid use and Andre Dawson “playing the game right”, I get confused. How can you compare Dawson’s play to Baines’ hits? It doesn’t make any sense to me. Either go by stats or go by era and gameplay, don’t try to combine the two. This is all nuts to me.

With these votes a lot of things must be considered and I’m not arguing that, but I have a huge problem with comparing stats from the 80’s or 90’s to the 40’s and what not. You can’t compare those because the game was different in so many ways that you can’t even discuss it. In my opinion, you have to compare stats within the game as it was at the time. To say that McGuire’s HR’s don’t count as much as Mickey Mantle’s is stupid because of the evolution of sports.

Mantle played in bigger parks, against higher mounds and a bigger strike zone. That would lead most to believe that his HR’s, hits and other offensive stats were harder to come by than players today, but were they really? He didn’t  face specialized pitching, multi-cultural players or roided up pitchers, so was it really harder? Babe Ruth is praised as a the greatest player ever because hit he hit so much and was a pitcher first, but what were the athletes like then? I can guarantee you he couldn’t do today what he did then, but I can’t say he couldn’t do either, you follow? If McGuire or Sammy Sosa hit so many HR’s and people discount it because of steroid allegations, they are narrow minded idiots. If you think they were the only ones doing it you’re dumb, if you think pitchers weren’t doing it against them you’re even more stupid.

If you want to argue with that already, that’s the point. You have to judge a guy based on what he does within the era that he’s in against the stats from other guys in the era that he’s in. You can’t compare A-Rod to Hank Aaron, you have to compare him to Barry Bonds and Manny Ramirez. Steroids or not, anyone will agree that Bonds and Ramirez were the greatest hitters of their generation, the problem with these guys is that you compare them to the past guys and things get distorted then. People think less of Ty Cobb now than they did in his day because we know he was a racist, but that has no effect on how he played the game. Cobb was one of the greatest hitters of his time, and in MLB history for that fact, and his personal opinions should have no effect on that.

It’s the greatest and worst argument of all time. Let me tell you a story. My father was a gambler and used to make a living at the dog track in St. Pete (doing fairly well by the way) and there’s a story and opinion that always stuck with me. As he gambled at the dog track he met guys like Pete Rose and Don Zimmer. He hates Pete Rose because he was such a rude guy that he cussed and spoke ill in front of his less than 10 year old son (me) and ended up having to deck Rose because of his behavior. With this personal agenda and acknowledging Rose as a piece of crap person, he still states that he belongs in the Hall of Fame due to his hitting ability alone. This taught me a lot. You can hate someone and still acknowledge their accomplishments.

I’m not trying to start the argument that Rose belongs in the Hall, which I feel he does, I’m just using it as an example of a person throwing personal interests aside for the sake of the accomplishment. Rose bet on games, that’s a fact now, but whether he bet or not doesn’t effect how many hits he got while playing. These are facts and that’s that. The bottom line in all this is this, to include your personal opinions into the argument is ridiculous.

There will always be an argument as to who belongs in the Hall, but it should never include personal opinions on the person. Athletes, Actors and any of us at WORK should only be judged on the performance at work relative to the job now. Don’t judge someone on what someone did 20 years ago, it was a different time, and don’t judge work performance on who the person is outside of the job. It only matters on the performance at work.

The Hall of Fame vote is similar to the MVP vote in this aspect. Example here, why the hell was Tim Tebow voted the MVP of the National Championship game over Percy Harvin? I’ve gotta believe that anyone who watched that game thought Harvin was more valuable than Tebow on that day, maybe not the whole year, but that game. Nothing will ever change in all of this, but I felt the need to put my opinion out here anyway. I’ll get to the rest of the Tampa Bay goings on later.

Technorati Tags: Alex Rodriguez, Andre Dawson, Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Don Zimmer, Florida Gators, Hall of Fame, Hank Aaron, Harold Baines, Manny Ramirez, Mark McGuire, Mickey Mantle, National Championship, New York Yankees, Percy Harvin, Pete Rose, Sammy Sosa, Tampa Bay Rays, Tim Tebow, Ty Cobb

   F*#K BJ Upton! I don’t care if BJ would have made that play, we all know he would have. HE took himself out of that ball game and Garza should whoop his ass for it. I’m extremely proud of Papa Joe right now as he is taking a stance against the super ass known as BJ Upton. I know I’ve been sick of watching him for a while and I dogged Maddon and company for not doing something about it sooner. I’m proud of Joe for doing something about it now. With all the talk around the deadline about “team chemistry” and the main reason behind no one wanting Barry Bonds here being the solid clubhouse atmosphere I would personally love to see a backdoor clubhouse ass-whoopin’ given to Upton’s punk ass! He struts around as if he’s the greatest player in the game and isn’t putting up the numbers or the effort to do so. I agree with all the BJ defenders in saying that he would’ve made that play in CF that Ruggiano botched, but I’m still happy to see his ass riding the pine. I fully expect Joe Maddon to sit his ass tomorrow also and I wouldn’t be surprised to hear the “why are they singling me out?” rhetoric out of the punk asses mouth now too. It’s you and your attitude BJ, nothing else, so shut up before you start!

Technorati Tags: Barry Bonds, BJ Upton, Joe Maddon, Justin Ruggiano, Matt Garza, Tampa Bay Rays

   The series in Boston is pretty much going the way I thought it would. I’m not silly enough to think the Rays can go to Boston and sneak out with another series win. I figured they would drop the first two and grab the third behind James Shields. This isn’t being brought up because of the two losses, I’ve been meaning to bring this up for a while now. The Rays bats are not very good right now. Aki has picked it up over the last month, TFC and Bartlett are doing better. The problem is the middle of the order. Upton is still taking too many strikes and isn’t hitting for any power. Watching him at this point he looks to be a better leadoff hitter than number three hitter. Pena has struggled and is now hurt. Longoria hasn’t burst on the scene like we all anticipated. Looking at the lineup from top to bottom there is absolutely no one that would scare any pitcher out there. The Rays need to make a move to get a legit middle of the order hitter. To take it a step further in my little fantasy here, I want an elite type hitter. I saw a ridiculous rumor a week or two ago that had the Rays trading David Price among others to the Cards for Albert Pujols. I would do that in a heartbeat. I’m all about developing from within, maintaining a strong farm system and all that but why chase potential when a front line hitter like that may be available. I’m sure that rumor was bogus so don’t take it as me saying the Rays should get Pujols, I’m just saying it’s time to start looking at things a little different. If guys like Matt Holliday, Albert Pujols or Magglio Ordonez become available at a steep price I personally would rather see the Rays go for a more “win now” approach. Now understand, I’m not saying they should try to be the Yankees, they should try to be the Red Sox. Look at it like this, the Sox are a great team because the have Ramirez/Ortiz in the middle. They won without Beckett, Lowell, etc… (although Varitek aint hurtin’ them either). I think Longoria will eventually develop into a great middle order guy, Upton should hopefully find his power stroke again but what else is coming in the way of hitters, Ryan Royster? The Rays lack power throughout the organization and should move some of this pitching depth to get a feared hitter. The Rays originally had a plan to win more toward the ‘09 or ‘10 seasons but things have changed fellas. There should be more of a rush now because pitching is so volatile. Will Shields and Kaz be healthy next year? This seems to be the year that you want to start planning on. With Kazmir and Shields pitching well, Garza improving, a solid bullpen and David Price storming towards the bigs it’s time to start hunting. Here’s my logic. If you trade some guys like Wade Davis, Jake McGee, Jeff Niemann and Fernando Perez it would definitely hurt your minor league system, but you would get a big time bat or two back and that makes you Major League club better right now and for the next year or two after. During that time you can replenish your farm system through the draft and what not. You also still have guys like Mitch Talbot, Jeremy Hellickson, Desmond Jennings, Heath Rollins and Chris Mason down there. You have depth and it’s time to use it! We can’t continue to put this much pressure on the pitching staff and defense. This is why I was for Bonds over Floyd. Say what you want about Bonds, he is feared as a hitter every day he walks and that makes everyone better. Floyd is no Bonds and will probably not stay healthy for half of the teams games this year. Make a move for the sake of winning now please!

Scott Brannelly

Technorati Tags: Akinori Iwamura, Barry Bonds, BJ Upton, Carlos Pena, Chris Mason, Cliff Floyd, David Price, Desmond Jennings, Evan Longoria, Fernando Perez, Heath Rollins, Jake McGee, James Shields, Jason Bartlett, Jeff Niemann, Jeremy Hellickson, Matt Garza, Mitch Talbot, Ryan Royster, Scott Kazmir, Tampa Bay Rays, TFC, Wade Davis

   I’m starting the call for Barry, join me please! Even though the Rays won today with Jeff Neimann looking good and Upton showing some pop again, we need help. I’m personally a fan of Barry Bonds and I’m not ashamed to admit it. His reputation as a jerk stems from his lack of tolerance for the media and his so called ‘me first’ attitude. I’ve got some questions for you Barry bashers out there. First, do you really care if your star players get along with the media? It’s not necessary for players to get along with the media, see Delmon Young or even better Warren Sapp, so who care’s if he’s an “a-hole”. Second, do you even know how he is as a teammate? I hear people talking about his compound that he had in the San Francisco clubhouse and that he fought with Jeff Kent and so on but that means nothing on the field. No one that plays with Jeff Kent gets along with him so leave that alone. His compound is irrelevant because it’s not hurting anyone. I’ve watched Bonds play since I was a kid and over the last ten years have paid close attention to how he is in the dugout with his teammates. You know what I’ve seen? Bonds working with pitchers, hitters, veterans and rookies. The bottom line to this guy is he loves baseball, he can hit and will help you on the field and in the seats. People come to boo him, people come to cheer him and some people just come to watch one of the greatest hitters to ever play the game. If you’ve got a problem with the steroid allegations then you better check your own ethic’s and I bet you fall short of the expectations you’re putting on him. Bonds did it. I don’t care. The fact is most of these guys are on it and he’s being singled out because his friend won’t, that’s right won’t, roll on him. That at least shows me that Bonds take care of the people that matter to him. He’s got a guy in Greg Anderson that has gone to jail for him twice and will continue to do so. How many friends do you have that would do that for you? Let go your high and mighty judgements of a guy who you probably don’t want to have over for dinner and bring him in to hit. Do those of you watching the Rays think Gomes or Cliff Floyd haven’t juiced up? If you do and you cheer them and boo Bonds you should beat yourself with a stick. The bottom line here is that Bonds can help not just on the field right now, not just in the stands right now but in the future also. He can help Carl Crawford, B.J. Upton, Evan Longoria and the rest of this team hit better now and in the future. Go get Bonds Rays!!!!!

Technorati Tags: Barry Bonds, BJ Upton, Carl Crawford, Cliff Floyd, Evan Longoria, Jonny Gomes, Tampa Bay Rays