Sick of Celebrating

I am officially sick of how pro athlete’s attitudes have trickled down into the amateur ranks. Last nights game in which and Oregon player punched a player from Boise State is  just the latest in a number of terrible moments influenced by the pros. My least favorite is the little League World Series, where the 12 and 13 years olds are watching there home runs like they are Barry Bonds. It makes me sick to see the bad side of sports, but it something that I am going to have to live with.

This video shows a genuine celebration of a kid, not some premeditated move to show up another team. Let me know what you think.

Tourney Thoughts

Louisville is good, but could be beaten by the right combination of ball handling, depth and physicality, but then again, so can anyone. Michigan State appears as though it could be that team, but I am writing of a team that lost at home to Northwestern, so what do I know.

Clemson is the same seed as Boston College, whom Clemson beat by 10 at BC in there only meeting. I’m just saying.

The committee got it right with the 1 seeds. Would it matter substantially if Memphis were the 1 seed out West and Uconn were 2? Not in this lifetime.

The SEC received and deserves no respect.

I think a good argument can be made for Wake Forest as a 3 seed and Kansas as a 4. You would be hard pressed to find a better group of wins than whom Wake beat: North Carolina, Duke, Florida State, Clemson, BYU, and Maryland.

Seems to me that a 10-6 record in the ACC versus a 12-4 record in the Atlantic 10 would lean towards 10-6 in the ACC, but the committee chose a Xavier team that could not win its conference tournament, as a 4 seed over Florida State or a Purdue team that is finally healthy and won the Big Ten Tournament.

West Virginia is a team peaking at the right time and is going to be a tough out for somebody in the field. The Mountaineers feature a young team coming together with star players, three point shooting, long athletic players, and typical Bob Higgins defense that can cause havoc. Coming out of the Big East this team is ready to do some damage to higher seeds. Consider the wins the WVU already has: Ohio State, Georgetown (before we found out about Georgetown), Villanova, and Pittsburgh. If you want a sleeper pick a team from a great conference, check, a team that has demonstrated it can beat good teams, check, a team that is playing well now, check, and a team that can play in the half court, where most of the tournament takes place, check.

Here is an email exchange from Berger about the 100-0 girls basketball game - 2-5-09

Since you know how I roll with sports info, I don’t have mountains of contribution material for your site, but I thought you would enjoy this back and forth I had with Gui (email cleaned up a bit) regarding the recent blowout at that girl’s HS basketball game:

Berger:

Gui, what did you think about that 100-0 girl’s HS basketball game? I thought it was horseshit they fired that coach, what was he supposed to do, tell the team to stop shooting the ball? What would Gui do (WWGD)?

Here’s the link to the story:

http://sports.espn.go.com/highschool/rise/basketball/girls/news/story?id=3859935

ESPN Coach says team played with honor -ESPN Rise GIRLSBASKETBALL

Source: sports.espn.go.com

DALLAS — The coach of a Texas high school basketball team that beat another team 100-0 was fired Sunday, the same day he sent an e-mail to a newspaper saying he will not apologize “for a wide-margin victory when my girls played with honor and integrity.”

Gui:

There is a lot to this story:

1) That team that lost only has 20 girls in their entire school, so they suck.

2) The coach couldn’t let it go, his school apologized and he opened his mouth and said he wasn’t sorry, so the idiot deserved to get fired. Let the school apologize, who cares what they do, you still kicked the shit out of a team 100-0.

3) Its like Bobby Bowden told Lou Holtz after kicking his ass: It’s not my job to slow my team, that’s why they pay you.

4) They did kick the crap out of a small school of girls with learning disabilities.

5) Yes they were running up the score and trying to hit 100…they hit it with 4 minutes left in the game than pulled it out and slowed it down.

All this said, I understand what its like to get your ass beat day in and day out when your team sucks. If my team was that good going against that weak of a team, I would do this (only b/c this is what happened to us this week):

- 1st quarter you’re going to face my starters. You’re going to get a full dose of what you have coming to you.

- 2nd quarter you will be getting my 2nd team players or bench varsity players. Now if we’re a pressing run and gun team you’re going to get that here.  “We’re coming to get you” kinda stuff.

- 3rd and 4th quarter you’re going to see my JV bench kids.

The coach we ran into this week was gracious enough to do just this, with his JV kids sitting in a flat 2-3 zone against us. Now they still pushed the ball and shot the 3 against us, but whatever, that’s fine, this is our varsity against your JV we should be better. Another guy played his JV girls and wouldn’t allow them to guard outside the 3pt line or shoot anything other than layups.

You just don’t beat down people like that. That’s bull shit….that’s the nonsense this new generation of young dumbass coaches have. I mean who the hell is up 59-0 at half and still pressing and bombing 3’s in the 4th. Unnecessary!

Sports, sports, sports,

Berger

Week 16 NFL Quickies Sunday Dec 22nd, 2008

Tavaris Jackson has earned a week 17 start with the chance to clinch the division, 2 weeks of no turnovers will do that. Who would have thunk it?

It is a shame that either western division champ will get in the player-offs over more deserving teams. How about a new rule, division winners must be over .500 to make the play-offs.

The Titans sure answered many questions by beating the Stealers definitively. Keep in mind they did so without the services of 2 of their best defensive linemen, Vanden Bosch and Haynesworth. The AFC will go through Tennessee and deservingly so.

San Francisco beat St Louis and lost draft position.

Miami beat a bad Chiefs team, in an entertaining game. The Dolphins continue to win close games and are making a great turn around from the 1-15 record they posted last year. The key to the turnaround has been attitude brought in by a new coach and management and Chad Pennington, who, if the football were coal would have many diamonds, by the way he has held on to it this season. 17 td’s to only 7 int’s, as the Dolphins have a chance to break the record for fewest turnovers in a season.

The Dolphins have fewer turnovers, as a team, than Brett Farve has thrown interceptions. I think the Fins are happy about their OB play. I question if the Jets are happy about theirs.

Go Lions Go! The first team in NFL history to go 0-15. I am not sure what there is to look forward to in Detroit.

Romeo Crennel is done. I know the Browns are on their 3rd string QB, but this team has played with no passion or desire all season and quit a long time ago. There are building blocks in Cleveland, but new leadership is in order. I would be stunned if Romeo made it through next Monday, the day after the season is over for the Browns.

The Broncos defense is really bad. 30 points by the 30th ranked Buffalo offense has a bad ring to it in the Mile High City. Now comes the rematch with the Chargers for the division title.

The Raiders are the first team in NFL history to lose 11 games for 6 straight years. This team will no go anywhere until Al Davis is gone and the coaching carousel stops. Some consistency at the top would help a young roster with some talent.

Maddux to Retire 12-6-08

Growing up near Chicago in the 80’s and 90’s I watched Greg Maddux and he was all that was right and wrong with the Cubs. Maddux did everything he was asked to do on the baseball field and he did it well and often times he was extraordinary. Maddux won 4 straight Cy Young Awards and 3 in a row after being signed by the Braves. He was the best young player the Cubs had and left the organization after his first Cy Young season to take less money in an era when players were just hitting their stride of taking the most money they could. He took less money to play for a winner in a time when the Cubs were among the worst that baseball had to offer. During the time the 18 time Gold Glover winner spent in Atlanta the Braves were among the few “national” teams due to their TBS contract and we all watched him become a truly great pitcher. I will remember during the mid 90s when virtually any player that had not yet faced Maddux would strike out in their first at bat against him, it was as if, professional baseball players had never seen an 89 MPH fastball before. And the truth was they hadn’t seen one that started a foot outside and ended up right on the outside corner and made, it seemed, everyone look silly. A pitcher that pitched to contact and hardly, if ever, walked a batter became a pitching savant over these years and continually broke the hearts of Cub fans by rubbing it our faces that money mattered, but not enough to play for the lovable losers.

It does not come down to the Cubs, it really should be a time to celebrate the career of Greg Maddux. One of his greatest legacies might be the constant conferences that Maddux had in every dugout he was in with other pitchers. Maybe it was his glasses of the field, but the perception has always been that Maddux is a student of the game and perhaps, more importantly, one of its greatest teachers. Maddux can probably best summed up by his collection of skills that that has made him one of baseballs best all time pitchers and players. There may not be one more telling part of Maddux’s career then the fact that his first major league action was as a pinch runner. All of the little things made up the one big one 355 career wins, eighth all time, with not even one whisper of performance enhancers, like so many players of this era. A first ballot Hall of Famer, pinch runner, pinch hitter, control pitcher, student and teacher, Greg Maddux.