Thursday, June 12th, 2008 - Go Cro!

Has Portugal's Simao been living under a rock? Stand aside little man, let Cristiano Ronaldo take the free kicks in and around the box. Portugal looked good for the second straight game in punching their ticket to the quarter finals, Ronaldo was particularly impressive in setting up two and scoring one...Turkey downed the Swiss in the other game, played in a serious downpour…so if the Jays make the playoffs, what three pitchers are you sending out first round? My money says Roy Halladay, Shawn Marcum and Dustin McGowan...Barry Bonds can't even get a sniff despite offering to play for a minimum salary. Take that, Barroid!...I'm not a huge Mike Mussina guy, but have to love these quotes from him on Carl Pavano coming from John Feinstein's latest book...the Euro account - based on a $100 wager per game on the money line at Pinnacle - sits at +$511 on a 7-3 record after a 2-0 day yesterday. While my heart says Croatia to win (+551!) or tie (+238), afraid that Germany is the pick at -137. Praying I lose that one! I'm also tabbing Poland (+130) to knock off Austria in the late game...the toughest part of winning a championship is keeping guys in the mindset that they should and want to sacrifice personal goals for the team. The New York Giants are finding that out first hand with Plaxico Burress now holding out, and repeated rumblings of Jeremy Shockey being sour...Portuguese coach Phil Scolari is the new main man at Chelsea...8 NHL owners have contacted Jim Balsillie about purchasing some or all of their teams. Gary Bettman, do you have a clue? Drive This! Gabe Morency said "Bettman's as a bad a President of the NHL as Bush is of the U.S." Hey, at least he's historic then...looking like Peter DeBoer is in line for the Ottawa Senators job. Now, if he coached in my hometown that last few years and I had lunch with him earlier this year, is that enough to get me out of the hell that is Leafs fandom? DeBoer had an astounding .721 win percentage in the OHL over 13 years...that loose cannon Milton Bradley went after a KC Royals TV guy for comments made about him. Relax, Milty, if it is a Royals broadcast, odds are it was as widely seen as the NHL in the U.S....that "glue guy" Jorge Garbajosa looks like he's off to the glue factory (kudos to B.K. for that line!). The Raps are looking to buy him out. And what says "team first" more than firing your North American agent because you realize you're almost certainly going back to the Raps, so why pay the 6%? The more I hear of Jose Calderon, the more I laugh how much he has snowed people...I love that Terrell Owens is talking about how he knows what he puts into his body. Explains the overdose on painkillers a couple years back...have a great Wednesday.