Doing Our Part for Racial Harmony

It came to our attention, especially in light of yesterday’s thoughts on race, that in the entire time we have been doing the Friday T&A post, we have never posted a picture of a black woman.  This is absolutely inexcusable.  We would be derelict in our duties if we didn’t remedy this PDQ.

 

The woman pictured is named Meagan Good, and she is a model/actress, and is reported to be dating ex-Bears and new Jets RB Thomas Jones.  We think that this is the year that Jones makes the leap and has a break out year.

 

Looks like he is already off to a Good start.  Ugh… sorry about that, we couldn’t help ourselves!

Is Boston a Racist City?

There have been at least two NBA potential tradees (by our count, Garnett and Marion) that have said, inequivically, that they will not accept trades to the Boston Celtics.  Here we thought it was because it was the Celtics are a complete train-wreck of an organization.  But on PTI Wednesday, Mike Wilbon seemed to think it was because of a different reason: Boston is a racist city.

Personally, we think that painting with a broad brush like that is similar to racism itself.  In other words, saying “all Bostonians are racist” is exactly the same as saying “all [insert racial group] are [insert negative trait].”  Not only that, but we have known numerous native Bostonians, and have never felt that any one of them was the least bit racist.  Also, the Celtics, at least under Red Auerbach, were champions of racial equality, having one of the first black bonafide superstars (Bill Russell), hiring the sport’s first black coach (Russell), and consistently putting integrated teams on the court before many other teams did.  At the same time, the Red Sox were the very last team in the Majors to integrate, and refused to even work out Jackie Robinson or Willie Mays.

We have heard about Boston’s racial reputation too many times from too many different people for it to be completely untrue, but we have never had any experiences that would back it up.  Where did this reputation come from?  We honestly don’t know.

Wow, we are really sorry that we got serious there all of a sudden.  We have to stop doing that.

To return this blog to its normal silliness, here is a picture of a chimp playing poker

 

Aaaah, thats better.

There is Officially a New Sports Storyline That We are Sick Of Hearing About

We now have a new one to add to The List

1. Roger Clemens’ inability to commit to retirement

2. Brett Favre’s inability to commit to retirement

3. Anything related to Barry Bonds

4. Anything related to Terrell Owens

5. Anything related to Alex Rodriguez

6. Anything related to Dog fighting

and now

7. NBA divas demanding trades.

Honestly, we could not be more tired of hearing about trade demands (KG, Kobe, and now Paul Pierce??), and convoluted trade scenarios involving as many as four teams.  Enough already.  Wake us up when something acutally happens.

Okay, Last Indians Post For a While, We Promise*

 

Give this man however much money he wants when he becomes a free agent.  You hear us Mark Shapiro? Whatever he wants.

(*maybe)

Last Week in Baseball! – Our NL All-Star Roster

If you are like us, then you grew up loving Mel Allen and “This Week in Baseball.”  Here at WCT, we have “Last Week in Baseball!”  Please don’t sue us FOX!  

The season is just flying by, and it is time to start thinking about the All-Star Game.  To that end, we have come up with what we think the National League All-Star roster should look like.  We will do the AL next week. 

C – Russell Martin, LAD

1B – Prince Fielder, MIL

2B – Chase Utley, PHI

3B – Miguel Cabrera, FLA

SS – Jose Reyes, NYM

LF – Barry Bonds, SF

CF – Aaron Rowand, PHI

RF – Ken Griffey, Jr., CIN 

SP – Jake Peavy, SD

SP – Brad Penny, LAD

SP – Cole Hamels, PHI

SP – Derek Lowe, LAD

SP – Roy Oswalt, HOU

RP – Francisco Cordero, MIL

RP – Takashi Saito, LAD

RP – Billy Wagner, NYM

RP – Jose Valverde, ARI

RP – Trevor Hoffman, SD 

Reserve – Albert Pujols, STL

Reserve – Jason Bay, PIT

Reserve – Bengie Molina, SF

Reserve – Orlando Hudson, ARI

Reserve – Ryan Zimmerman, WAS

Reserve – Edgar Renteria, ATL

Reserve – Matt Holliday, COL

Reserve – Brad Hawpe, COL

Reserve – Aramis Ramirez, CHC

Reserve – J.J. Hardy, MIL

Reserve – Adam Dunn, CIN

A couple notes on the All-Star roster:- We think that you have to put Bonds on the roster.  Not as a symbolic move (although he warrants that gesture since the game is being played in the only park in baseball where he will be cheered) but because he is having a great year at the plate.  He is leading the NL in OPS, and has an on-base percentage near .500. 

- We know we are snubbing a lot of guys, but it happens.  Our biggest snub is probably Alfonso Soriano, but there is just nowhere on the roster to put him.

  - The NL has so many great shortstops that someone is going to get snubbed.  We think that Hanley Ramirez will be the one left off.  He’ll make plenty of All-Star rosters in his career, so he can sit this one out. 

* * * * *

Its our blog dammit, so we are going to talk about our favorite team every week – The bad, bad baseball continues.  There is no reason that a team with playoff aspirations like the Indians should be losing a series to the Washington F’ing Nationals.  Oh, and Travis Hafner is no longer in a slump, he is officially having a crappy year. 

* * * * * 

How ‘bout tha…er I’ll be goddammed! – We here at WCT send our congratulations to Bobby Cox, for being ejected for the 132^nd time in his illustrious managerial career, tying a major league record.  That’s quite a milestone Bobby!

The Anatomy of an Obsession

Veterans of the previous incarnation of this blog (all three of you.  Zing!) know that the “Friday T&A” post is normally an excuse for us to find a picture of a chick or chicks that we find attractive, and find some way, however far fetched, to relate that hot chick to the sports news of the day.  This week we are breaking from that. 

Fear not, we are still going to post pictures of a quasi-nude woman, but in this case, we do not find her even remotely attractive.  But maybe you will find her hot.  And if you are like many red-blooded American men, you do find her hot.  In fact, if you are a member of a growing number of men in this country, you are practically obsessed with her.  She is none other than Victoria Caroline Adams Beckham, otherwise known as Posh Spice.

   

This is the picture of her that inspired this rant

 

What…The…Hell.  This is not a costume for her, this is what she wears to work in the yard. 

Anyway, in addition to promoting her upcoming reality show chronicling her wacky misadventures in the States (TiVo, don’t fail me now!), Mrs. Beckham has had quite an eventful couple of weeks.  First she took in a soccer match were her new favorite celebrity couple TomKat. 

 

Once again dressed like a time-traveling dominatrix. Later, she was invited to attend a Dodger game. 

Where she got some hitting tips from Nomar 

 

threw out the first pitch. 

 

And generally pranced around like a complete space cadet.

So if you are one of the many that enjoy this weirdo, we hope we have made you happy.  We are already sick of her, and her almost-as-overrated husband (apparently he plays soccer! Who knew?) hasn’t even arrived here yet. Ugh, its going to be a long MLS season. 

Cheerio, readers!

(Photo Credits: The Hater Nation, Awful Announcing, Hollywood Tuna,)

Maybe Our Trot-Bashing is Working Already…

…as Trotter went 3-4 with a run and 2 RBI in the game immediately following our rant. 

Or, maybe the Red Sox are just adept at letting an outfielder walk just before his production completely drops off. 

To wit

_

 

OK, We Promise, This is Not Going to Turn Into A Cleveland Indians Blog, But…

…this point cannot be left unsaid.  We have no idea what exactly Boston fans love so much about Trot Nixon.  Granted, 191 AB is not much of a sample size to make an assessment of a player, but he hasn’t really shown any signs of being anything more than an average to below-average major league outfielder. 

Admittedly, when we heard that the Indians acquired Nixon, we were pretty happy.  We remembered seeing him play with the Red Sox, and felt like his veteran presence, along with the fact that the Indians needed a left-handed bat, would make him an asset to the team.  What has he done so far this year? .654 OPS (including an almost unheard of .390 OPS in June!) and two home runs while playing what is traditionally a power position.  So what could be the reason for his lack of production? 

He is getting old – This was the first thing we thought of, until we looked it up and learned that he just turned 33 this past April.  33, while not a spring chicken, is not over the hill.  Production should not be dropping precipitously for an outfielder in the season he turns 33. 

He is playing hurt – Eh, maybe.  But he wasn’t exactly setting the world on fire in April and May (.700ish OPS).  And his fielding, throwing and running have shown no signs of injury. 

The Red Sox got rid of him just in time – this is the most likely conclusion.  Lets look at his OPSs starting with his career high in 2003 – .974, .887, .803, .767, .654.  Are we the only ones that see a trend there?  Then again, turnabout is fair play, and we shipped them Coco Crisp who couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat. 

We’re hoping that our attacking Nixon will cause a Josh Barfield-like response (batting .328 in June after we ripped him early in the season) and he will be red hot in the second half of the season.

A Few Quick Links

NFL players continue to ride motorcycles, and unfortunately, they continue to crash them.  Kellen Winslow, Ben Roethlisberger, and now LaVar Arrington. Speaking of which, where did Arrington’s career go wrong?  At Penn State, he was the best LB we had ever seen.  Now, just a few years later he can’t make an NFL roster (The FanHouse) 

Brett Hull, whom we actually thought was pretty good, was given the axe by NBC (Awful Announcing)

 Unfortunately, we may have to turn the “days since someone in Pacman Jones’ entourage shot at someone at a strip club” counter back down to zero (The Big Lead) 

We love golf as much as anyone, but what does it say about a sport when the guy who looks like he could be a decathlete gets beaten by the fat guy burning heaters all day? (The Star-Telegram) 

And speaking of golf, there is a sentiment floating around that Tiger Woods has “lost his magic.”  First of all, I don’t think that Aaron Baddeley would agree.  Baddeley, Woods’ playing partner Sunday, entered the final round alone in first place.  While playing alongside Tiger, Baddely proceeded to triple-bogey himself out of the lead on the first hole, and went on to shoot an 80.  Secondly, if any other golfer on earth had finished second in the first two majors of the season, and was working on a stretch when his finishes in major championships dating back to mid 2005 were 1^st, 4^th, 3^rd, missed cut, 1^st, 1^st, 2^nd, 2^nd, we don’t think anyone would be questioning his “magic.” (Baltimore Sun) 

We hate all things related to this society’s obsession with American Idol.  So you can imagine our response when we heard that somebody named Jordin Sparks may sing the national anthem at the Super Bowl (The FanHouse) 

From the “not a minute too soon” department, the Orioles have fired Sam Perlozzo.  If Joe Girardi is smart he will steer clear (ESPN.com)

Last Week in Baseball! – Do You Know Who This Is? He Will Be an All Star.

If you are like us, you grew up on Mel Allen and “This Week in Baseball.” Here at WCT, we have “Last Week in Baseball!” Please don’t sue us Fox!

This week we go straight to the LWIB notes! 

 - The Red Sox brought in Julio Lugo in the off season thinking that they would sacrifice defense for some production at the plate.  The result? They are getting the average-at-best shortstop play that they anticipated, but the only offensive production they are getting is a .270 OBP and a laughable .580 OPS.  

- If Torii Hunter didn’t have bad luck, he would have no luck at all.  He is in the middle of one of his best seasons (in a contract year no less) and he gets drilled in the hand with a pitch.  Hopefully for him, he won’t miss too much time, but he just can’t seem to stay healthy. 

 - Its not all bad for the Twins though.  Justin Morneu is apparently not satisfied with just one MVP award.  Morneau hit is third walk-off home run of the season on Sunday 

 - A “Mark Buehrle to the Mets” trade, which has been rumored since the White Sox began crapping the bed a few weeks ago, makes so much sense that it can’t possibly happen.

 - Speaking of the White Sox, what the hell happened to Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye? Konerko’s OPS is down nearly 200 points from last year (.752) and Dye’s is down nearly 300!(.720)  JD was the World Series MVP two years ago, fifth in the MVP balloting  last year, and now is one of the least productive everyday outfielders in the American League. 

 - If James Shields were pitching on any other team, people would be talking about him as a possible All Star Game starter.  But because he plays in baseball purgatory (Tampa Bay) few people have noticed his 6-1, 3.30 ERA, 0.97 WHIP start to the season. 

*****

Its our blog dammit, so we are going to talk about our team every week -The Indians have been playing bad baseball lately.  Plain and simple.  There is no reason a team with playoff aspirations should be dropping series to the Reds.  The best remedy for a struggling team in a tight division race? Three games against the Phillies and three against the Nationals.  Also, Fausto Carmona continues to amaze. 

*****

How ‘bout tha… er, I mean, I’ll be goddamned! – Another stud pitcher who you’ve probably never heard of is Padre Justin Germano.  And if you have heard of him, well good for you.  We’re all really impressed.  Anyway, in seven starts Germano is 5-0 with a 2.36 ERA, a 0.93 WHIP, and has as many wins as he has walks allowed.