Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Great Sports Quotes...

Opening Day. God, how I've missed baseball. 


"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come. " - Terrance Mann, Field of Dreams




Thursday, March 15, 2012

The 1st Annual SC:TSE MLB Prediction Show!

Welcome to the 1st Annual SC:TSE MLB Prediction... post. Here I will, using my knowledge of baseball, off-season moves, and past performance, make some predictions for the 2012 season of Major League Baseball.

Standings:
AL EAST
New York Yankees: 94-68
Tampa Bay Rays: 90-72
Toronto Blue Jays: 82-80
Boston Red Sox: 73-89
Baltimore Orioles: 66-96

AL CENTRAL
Detroit Tigers: 86-76
Chicago White Sox: 84-78
Cleveland Indians: 81-81
Kansas City Royals: 72-90
Minnesota Twins: 68-94

AL WEST
Texas Rangers: 101-61
Los Angeles Angels: 93-69
Oakland Athletics: 80-82
Seattle Mariners: 64-98

NL EAST
Philadelphia Phillies: 94-68
Altanta Braves: 88-74
Miami Marlins: 85-77
Washington Nationals: 83-79
New York Mets: 70-92

NL CENTRAL
Cincinnati Reds: 88-74
Milwaukee Brewers: 87-75
St. Louis Cardinals: 82-80
Pittsburgh Pirates: 79-83
Chicago Cubs: 68-94
Houston Astros: 62-100

NL WEST
San Francisco Giants: 95-67
Arizona Diamondbacks: 91-71
Colorado Rockies: 86-76
Los Angeles Dodgers: 75-87
San Diego Padres: 63-99

AL East Champions: New York Yankees
AL Central Champions: Detroit Tigers
AL West Champions: Texas Rangers
AL Wildcard Host: Los Angeles Angels
AL Wildcard Visitor: Tampa Bay Rays

NL East Champions: Philadelphia Phillies
NL Central Champions: Cincinnati Reds
NL West Champions: San Francisco Giants
NL Wildcard Host: Arizona Diamondbacks
NL Wildcard Visitor: Atlanta Braves

ALDS: Texas vs. Tampa
ALDS: Detroit vs. New York
NLDS: Phildelphia vs. Cincinnati
NLDS: Arizona vs. San Francisco

ALCS: Texas vs. Detroit
NLCS: Arizona vs. Philadelphia

AL Champion: Texas
NL Champion: Arizona

World Series: Arizona vs. Texas
World Series Champion: Texas

World Series MVP: Nelson Cruz (RF - Texas Rangers)

AL Most Valuable Player: Miguel Cabrera (3B - Detroit Tigers)

NL Most Valuable Player: Matt Kemp (CF - Los Angeles Dodgers)

AL Cy Young: Justin Verlander (SP - Detroit Tigers)

NL Cy Young: Cliff Lee (SP - Philadelphia Phillies)

AL Manager of the Year: Ron Washington (Texas Rangers)

NL Manager of the Year: Kirk Gibson (Arizona Diamondbacks)

AL Rookie of the Year: Yu Darvish (SP - Texas Rangers)

NL Rookie of the Year: Paul Goldschmidt (1B - Arizona Diamondbacks)

AL Comeback Player of the Year: Adam Dunn (DH - Chicago White Sox)

NL Comeback Player of the Year: Buster Posey (C - San Francisco Giants)

AL HR Leader: Albert Pujols (1B - Los Angeles Angels) (41)

NL HR Leader: Giancarlo Stanton (RF - Miami Marlins) (44)

---------------------------------------

My heart says The White Sox will do it this year (but my brain knows better.)
Braun may have better numbers than Kemp, but the writers will hold his alleged steroid use against him.
Trade Deadline News: David Wright to the Arizona Diamondbacks; Brandon McCarthy to the Atlanta Braves, Bobby Abreu to somewhere other than the Los Angeles Angels.

There you go. You heard it here first.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Ryan Braun: Vindicated, or Just Another Cheater With Better Lawyers?



Waste of Talent    +    Liquid Waste    +    Waste of Flesh    =     Waste of Time
In case you've been living under a rock, Milwaukee Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun, in the midst of his NL MVP campaign, tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone and traces of synthetic testosterone in two separate samples that he provided to MLB for their mandatory drug testing. This is punishable by a 50 game suspension for first time offenders. In the face of losing a third of his season, Braun did what everyone else would do; he appealed the decision and pouted like a little bitch.

While everyone in Milwaukee prepared for a 50 game suck fest without their two best players from last year (after fat bastard Prince Fielder went to the Detroit Tigers as a free agent), Ryan Braun and his lawyers went to work trying to find a weakness in MLB's case against him. They found one: Fed Ex isn't open on Saturdays, and the courier, following the protocol used by every other anti-doping and drug testing organization involved in sports in any way, put the whiz in the fridge and waited until he could deliver it safe and sound. (Which he did, as the container reached the lab intact, with no evidence of tampering, was tested, and was found containing nearly eight times the allowed ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone (4:1 is a positive result; Braun's was 30:1).)

"There!" Braun's lawyer must have shouted, likely standing on his chair and pointing like Ahab seeing Moby Dick's hump, "that's where we have them!"

See, what Braun and his lawyers want us to believe is that the courier left the wee out of his sight, at which point someone must have broken in, diddled with the piss in it's tamper-proof sample container, and then returned the tamperproof seal to it's pre-tampered state. OF COURSE.

"Yeah... Okay, sure," Shyam Das, the arbitrator in charge of the case/mentally retarded douchebag, said. He then reportedly ate a stickful of paste from a jar on his desk and began masturbating furiously by rubbing his adult diaper into his crotch while licking the windows of his hotel room.

Ryan Braun, spitting all over me, you and the game he claims to love
Braun dares to call this justice. He cheated, got caught, and got off on a technicality. This is a miscarriage of justice. It sends the absolute worst message; get a good enough lawyer, find the right loophole, and you too can get away with cheating in the face of iron-clad evidence. He acts like he has done nothing wrong, dares to act like he is the victim. The samples tested positive, and the samples were in tamper-evident containers, which show no evidence of tampering.

I have lost whatever respect I had for Ryan Braun, which was considerable before he cheated the game, the fans, and his organization. Were I in a position of power in MLB, I would insist on Braun being tested weekly. I guarantee you that his numbers will drop off this season, assuming he stops cheating, but the sad truth is he would then simply chalk it up publicly to the stress of being under a microscope and paint himself a victim of yet another insane conspiracy, like he got away with doing here.

"Man, are you guys DUMB!"
Disgrace to the game. Ryan Braun 1, Integrity 0.