Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 - How Swede It Is!

The NHLPA should be filing a grievance over the Atlanta Thrashers third jersey. Clearly, the Thrashers are not trying to grow revenues with that abomination. Yes, I used "Thrashers" and "revenues" in the same sentence. A first!...over 150 Major League Baseball players remain free agents. Expect the action to get hot and heavy soon as we're barely a month ahead of pitchers and catchers reporting, and the logjam started to break yesterday with Pat Burrell landing in Tampa Bay and Milton Bradley joining the Chicago Cubs. Expect a lot of bargains out there as teams are paring back on giving average players huge deals. Translation: you'll be lucky to get half the four years and $40 million you're after, Jason Varitek...with each Ottawa Senators loss, and Pat Quinn looking cozy with Sens owner Eugene Melnyk, you have to start thinking Quinn might want to start house hunting in Ottawa as he could be a great fit to coach and or manage that team. Frankly, it is a shock Quinn has been out of the league this long with his resume...I don't know who should be the highest paid left back in the soccer world, but I know it shouldn't be Wayne Bridge, who just moved to Manchester City. He's not even the best left back in Manchester. That title belongs to Patrice Evra...here are the records of the NBA teams since replacing their coaches during this season: Minnesota is 2-10 under Kevin McHale. Sacramento is 2-7 under Kenny Natt, Washington is 5-14 under Ed Tapscott; Oklahoma City is 3-17 under Scott Brooks and Toronto is 5-12 under Jay Triano. Only Philadelphia has gone at least .500 since changing coaches, with Tony DiLeo at 4-4 since taking over...LaDanian Tomlinson looks like he'll be out for the Bolts game at Pittsburgh this weekend. The way Darren Sproles went off on Saturday, this is likely a good thing for the Chargers...Canada played fantastic against Sweden in the gold medal game at the World Junior Hockey Championships and were well worth the 5-1 score. Canuck goalie Dustin Tokarski was far more stable than the past couple games and made a big difference, though Sweden preferring to shoot with their asses against the wall tended to help. Two things. One, don't tell me that fighting is part of the game. There were no fights at this tourney despite it being "part of the game" and the hockey blew away anything the NHL produced of late. Two, hate to break it to the puckheads reading here, but diving is very much a "part of the game" right now. The Swedish goalie led the parade, but he was by no means alone...as an added bonus, Canada covered the -1 and that's now 4-1 on the year for Prime Time Picks. This pace keeps up and I may be asking that you chip off 10%. Tonight, we're playing our first NBA pick of the year and taking the New York Knicks - no, that isn't a typo - to cover the 2 (-105) at Oklahoma City...had I seen HBO's "Hard Knocks" on the Dallas Cowboys training camp earlier this year instead of yesterday, I might've been spared a lot of heartache. Said coach Wade Phillips: "if last year was a cupcake camp, this year is a marshmallow" on how he focuses on keeping players healthy but not allowing too much contact in camp. You reap what you sow, Wade. That's why your team was so mentally soft and shunned tackling as often as not...have a great Tuesday.

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

New York Jet running back Thomas Jones could be my new favorite player for blowing up Brett Favre as a self-centred, ineffective, team-killing sideshow who should have been benched for his terrible play the way anybody else would've. Good for Jones for giving Favre the treatment he has so richly earned...a nice and easy open to the year for Prime Time Picks as USC smoked Penn State 38-24 in the Rose Bowl. Up today, we're playing Russia at -2 (-103) at the World Junior Hockey Championships as they face the Czech Republic in quarter-final action. Get down with Pinnacle...Barroid Bonds had some work done on a hip to keep the flame of his professional career flickering for 2009. An alleged steroid user with joing issues? Weird...8,000 tickets remain unsold for the Minnesota Vikings home playoff game against Philadelphia this weekend. Clearly, the state of the economy is a big factor. When an NFL team is struggling to move playoff ducats, have to wonder what baseball teams are seeing in terms of season ticket sales for the 2009 year...just testing a little something today, please click here...San Diego Chargers LaDanian Tomlinson and Antonio Gates missed practice ahead of their playoff game this week. Just to confirm, it is 2009 and not 2008, though the stories remains the same. How does it make sense that the Bolts get home field at 8-8 instead of the Indianapolis Colts who were 12-5?...going back to Canada's thrilling 7-4 win over the U.S. in the World Junior Hockey Championships on New Year's Eve for a second, I'm amazed at how many are up in arms over the stick popping out of the American bench as the Canadians skated by celebrating a goal in the first period. Think about it: if the roles were reversed, what would your reaction be? Celebrating in front of the other teams bench like that is bush, and pretending it won't get some kind of reaction is naive...Eli Manning took a not-at-all veiled swipe at Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo. When asked what his plans were with the time off this week before they host their playoff game next week, Eli replied: "my plans to Cabo fell through, so I'm going to stay here. That's a joke, by the way". Have to say, clever, and strong...my fav bars: HiFi in New York City, and Refaeli...Charles Barkley ran the stop sign the night he got a DUI because he was racing to get around the corner to get some action from the girl who had given him the "best [blowjob] he had ever had in his life." Check out the police report here. Nice stuff, Chuck, other than the idiotic move of driving after drinking enough to fail a field sobriety test...a fantastic piece on the great day for the NHL at Wrigley Field, though the idea that Canada isn't an option seems odd. You'd think it'd be a natural. That said, a game in the new Yankee Stadium, or better - in Central Park - would be as good as it gets...have a great Friday.

Thursday, December 25th, 2008 - Merry Christmas!

It has been a fantastic year in sports, and AskMen presents a look at the Top 10 moments of the year and you could easily argue for others...thankfully, the NBA will break the sporting darkness that started with the conclusion of the Notre Dame-Hawaii game last night, including three games getting TV coverage. The big one goes at 5pm as the LA Lakers host the Boston Celtics in a rematch of last year's championship series...I know leagues value divisional setups for the rivalries they create, and how teams stay in playoff races longer. But something seems wrong with the idea that the San Diego Chargers could be in at 8-8 while the 11-5 New England Patriots could be out in the cold come playoff time...ESPN's Rob Neyer says that after the three big moves, the New York Yankees are indeed the team to beat in 2009. Me, I cannot wait to see if it pans out that way...so there are no college bowl games today, only a handful of hoops games, and the NHL has no games scheduled? Makes no sense to me, either. But at least the Toronto Maple Leafs Brian Burke's moratorium on not trading players withing the 10 days leading up to Christmas is up. Ought to be some interesting moves in the offing now for Tomas Kaberle and others...have a great Christmas. Back tomorrow.