The Wheelhouse

Divisional Playoffs

2010-01-16T16:15:00.001-05:00

I started off 1-0 last week, and then it went down hill fast as I finished 1-3. I'll try to rebound this week.

Cardinals @ Saints
It's anybody's guess on how the Saints will come out and play today. Them and the Colts haven't had to play a meaningful game in about a month. But it's the Superdome, the place is going to be electric, and it's the number one offense in the NFL. I think the Saints defense will do a better job of stopping the Cards a bit more than the Packers did (how could they not?), and the Cardinals defense got lit last week and they're facing the number one offense? Forget about it. This game might be a shootout, but I see the Saints either jumping out to a big lead or having a bit more at the end to get the victory.

Ravens @ Colts
The Colts are another team you have no idea what to expect after laying down in games at the end of the regular season. Here's what I know in this game. The Ravens defense has stopped Peyton Manning before and they aren't intimidated. The Ravens don't give a flip where the game is played. The Ravens run the football, and the Colts have always had difficulty in stopping the run. I can't believe the line in this game is a full touchdown. I hate to go this way, but I like the Ravens to pull the upset and make the Colts think about taking games off in Week 15 next year.

Cowboys @ Vikings
I had to hear all week about how this game is so hard to predict because the Cowboys are the hottest team in the league or something. Well, the Chargers have won 11 games in a row, so forget the Cowboys being the hottest team ever. The Cowboys have almost been playing too good recently though, and I think that's about to run out for them this week. Brett Favre came back to football specifically for this game, these playoffs. They have a great defense, probably the most talented running back in the game and a tough offensive line. Plus, you have the Metrodome factor for the Cowboys to deal with all day. I think the purple people eater come out, stop Dallas running game and pick on Romo all day. The Cowboys magic runs out on Sunday.

Jets @ Chargers
The Jets have been a nice story with their strong defense and tough running game. Somehow the Bungals allowed a rookie running back to run all over them. The Chargers aren't going to allow Shonn Greene or Thomas Jones to run wild. I think San Diego will come out and stack the box and make Mark Sanchez beat them. He won't be able to do it. Meanwhile, the Chargers offense has too many weapons. Darrelle Revis can't cover Vincent Jackson, Antonio Gates and Darren Sproles out of the backfield. Add in the Chargers advantage in special teams and a big play there could put this game out of control.

Worst Performances of the Wildcard Round

2010-01-15T21:19:00.000-05:00

Everyone likes to talk about the top performances from the weekend and hand out game balls all the time. But that won't be happening here. For the second straight year, The Wheelhouse will hand out the worst performances from the latest NFL week. We want to know who failed and really stunk it up each week. So instead of game balls being awarded for good play, this will be like eggs being thrown out for terrible play. We'll hand out a couple here each week, but there's no limit as we'll let the bad play deem how many to give out.

Tom Brady: 23/42, 154 yards, 2 TDs, 3 INTs, 1 fumble
That felt really good to write Brady's line above from last weekend. The Patriots were never in this game from the start when Ray Rice went the distance of the first play from scrimmage. Brady took the football and responded by turning the ball over all day. Before you knew it, the Pats were in a major 24-0 hole and Brady was forced to pass all day and the Ravens were ready for it. What made it all the more enjoyable to watch was that this was Brady's first playoff game since their loss to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII and he had been waiting for this game for the past two season. What a shame. Tom Brady gets the only individual egg this week right at his head.

Eagles defense and Packers defense
One of the best coaching moves of last weekend was Packers coach Mike McCarthy kicking a surprise onside kick in the second half. But after watching his defense not come close to stopping Kurt Warner for three quarters, did he really have a choice there? The Packers defense, who are actually ranked 7th in total defense in the regular season, was getting gashed last Sunday in the desert. Warner was pretty much unstoppable, going 29/33 for 379 yards and FIVE touchdowns. The Packers held the Cards to just one punt in the entire game. Now, the Cards defense didn't play much better, but at least they came away with the game-winning score so they can't get an egg here.

Another defense that stunk last week was Philadelphia. Every time you look at the TV, Felix Jones or Tashard Choice were eating up the Eagles D. The Eagles gave up 27 points in the second quarter to pretty much not give their offense a chance to be in the game. It's amazing how bad some of the defenses were last week. Will we see much of the same this week in the divisional playoffs?

Wildcard Weekend or Rematch Weekend?

2010-01-09T14:23:00.001-05:00

The first round of the NFL playoffs will get underway in just a couple of hours as we get ready to watch four rematches from the regular season—three from last week and the Patriots-Ravens from earlier in the season. Let's take a brief look at each game in the order they play this weekend.

Jets @ Bengals
Here's what we know—the Jets dominated the Bengals last week 37-0, but the Bengals may or may not have been real interested in last week's game. Their starters still played for at least a half and the Jets punched them right in the face. I don't like how Cincinnati didn't really go after this game with much fire, but it's not like they were playing that well before Week 17. They had lost their past two out of three with the only victory being a 17-10 win over Kansas City at home, not exactly the most impressive win ever. They just have the look of a team that would be one and done in the playoffs. The Jets dominated both lines in last week's game, and overall I think the Jets are just the better team. I like the Jets to win, not in a blowout this time though, and I think the Bengals realize they should have came to play last week instead of handing the Jets a world of confidence.

Eagles @ Cowboys
The Eagles went from a win and the No. 2 seed to a loss and the No. 6 seed. Ouch. The Cowboys played great last week, dominated the Eagles (who were actually trying) and swept the regular season series. But something in the back of my head says Eagles in this game. Such is the NFL where everyone becomes fixated on one team all week and sort of forget about the other team on the field and they end up coming out in winning (see Steelers over Colts in '06). Here's the other thing, the Cowboys have all the pressure in the world on them in this game...can they finally win their first playoff game since the mid '90s? Can Tony Romo finally step up and win a playoff game? With the pressure on, this is why I like the Eagles to make this a much closer game and pull it out in the end.

Ravens @ Patriots
Can both teams lose this game? The Ravens were everyone's big Super Bowl pick before the season and they didn't even win their division. Now as the six seed, they will have to go on the road three times to reach the Super Bowl. I don't see that happening. I just don't see anything special about Joe Flacco and the defense has been gashed at times this year. Ray Rice is indeed a beast, but unless he goes off tomorrow I don't know if they can win. This is a rematch as well as the Pats held on for a win over the Ravens on the same field in Week 4. I'm rooting for the Ravens (wow, that hurt me to type), but I have a feeling Tom Brady will pull this game out of his ass whether be by cheating or his calling for a flag every time someone breathes near him.

Packers @ Cardinals
There's been a lot of talk over this game and how the winner could easily make a run at the championship. I don't know if Kurt Warner could get up for a big run again, and with a few key players banged up (Boldin and Rodgers-Cromartie), I like the Packers in this one. Actually, like the Packers to possibly make a run in the playoffs. The main reason for that is because this team has been hot. The Pack have won seven out of their last eight games with the only loss being a last-second (literally) loss at Pittsburgh. Plus, the Packers have played great defense in the second half as they are ranked in the Top 10 of the league. The Cardinals defense is ranked middle of the road, so I'm going Green Bay. Plus, I don't think I could stand another Kurt Warner-video montage for three weeks if they were to make a run again.

BCS Exhibition Game

2010-01-08T23:15:00.004-05:00

Congratulations are order to the Alabama Crimson Tide for their big win in the BCS exhibition game. Yeah that's right, it's an exhibition game as far as I'm concerned. Here's a newsflash...I hate the BCS. There's no legitimacy or true champion in college football until the sport moves to a playoff.

Think about it. Every sport in every single level of competition determines its champion by way of a playoff system. High school, every other college sport and pros. Even Division I-AA, Division II and III have a playoff tournament. Everyone except Division I college football.

Just think if the NFL went that direction. Instead of an exciting three weeks of playoff action, let's just have the NFL put the Colts and Saints in the Super Bowl. When was the last time the two top seeds in the NFL faced off the big game? Exactly, it doesn't happen often because when push comes to shove and the pressure is on against good teams, that's when you find out who the real teams are. That's why I only watched about a total of about three bowl games. Give me the NFL playoffs anytime. College football will never be that as long as the BCS and the greedy college representatives have their way.

But then again, who am I kidding? I'm sure everyone thoroughly enjoyed the Little Caesars Bowl.

2009 Steelers—What Went Wrong

2010-01-06T20:58:00.007-05:00

I've never seen a season before quite like the 2009 Pittsburgh Steelers season. There's many different ways to look at their season. Any season in Steelers Country where they don't make the playoffs is a disappointment, but to miss the playoffs coming off a Super Bowl title again is severely disappointing. On the other hand, optimists will say the Steelers had a winning season at 9-7, and you can't argue that point, but in Pittsburgh that's just not good enough these days.

The undoubtedly frustrating part this season is how the Steelers were in every single game and easily could have been 14-2 if not better. In what truly was a bizarre season, they never were out of any game nor did they blow any team away. The biggest victory of the season was a 28-10 win at Denver that was a tight game until the fourth quarter when the Steelers finally put them away. Meanwhile, five of their seven losses were by only three points including two of those games in overtime. The other two losses were by six points and seven points. That's it. They did not lose a game by more than seven points all year.

So what went wrong? The phrase "Super Bowl hangover" gets tossed around a lot when the Steelers dropped five straight in the middle of the season. I don't understand how that can be true. The Steelers won their opener against Tennessee and rolled to a 6-2 start. Not exactly the signs of a team thinking about their championship last year, so forget that. Toss that theory out the window.

The black and gold held a lead at some point in the fourth quarter in five out of their seven losses. Let's take a look at those five losses.

Week 2 @ Chicago Led 14-7 in 4th (lost 14-17)
Week 3 @ Cincinnati Led 20-9 in 4th (lost 20-23)
Week 11 @ Kansas City Led 24-17 in 4th (lost 24-27 in OT)
Week 12 @ Baltimore Led 17-14 in 4th (lost 17-20 in OT)
Week 13 vs. Oakland Led 17-13 AND 24-20 in 4th (lost 24-27)

The sixth loss was a tie game in the 4th quarter against the Bungals
Week 10 vs. Cincinnati Tied 12-12 in 4th (lost 12-18)

And their last loss was an awful 6-13 defeat at Cleveland where they never held a lead. I have nothing else to add at that performance.

Looking at the games above, you can obviously point out the glaring problem—the fourth-quarter collapse that let six games get away. The defense was a shell of its self this year especially in the 4th quarter when they suddenly couldn't stop Ryan Leaf if he was out there. And these collapses didn't just happen in the losses, they also exploded to a 28-0 lead over San Diego before almost blowing it before making it a game and holding on for a 38-28 win.

Injuries were an obvious part of the problem with Aaron Smith and Troy Polamalu missing for most of the season, but injuries are a part of the game and the reserves were not prepared to handle that. The defense deserves a lot of the blame, we know this, but I'll be damned to not hand the offense some blame for falling apart late as well.

For some reason the Pittsburgh media seems to think it's sacrilegious to say the offense was part of the problem because they had a 4,000-yard passer. Wow, what an accomplishment! Last I checked, a 4,000-yard passer was not the equivalent of a Vince Lombardi Trophy.

Look above at all those fourth quarter scores...only in the Oakland loss did the Steelers offense score points late in the game. The rest of the losses, they were completely shut out. The reason the offense deserves part of the blame in this year's collapse is due to their lack of a game plan with a lead. All season with the lead, OC Bruce Arians continuously went to the passing game instead of running the football and eating the clock. I couldn't tell you the number of times the Steelers had a late drive that took no more than two minutes off the clock. That's horrendous. Look no further than last week's game against the Dolphins when the Steelers took a 27-10 in the last quarter only to see Miami, just like magic, move the ball straight down field with a third string quarterback for a touchdown. With the score 27-17 and 11 minutes left, how were the Steelers not thinking about another late game collapse? What did Arians draw up? A first-down pass that led to a sack. Second down, well now we're buried on 2nd and long so two passing plays and punt. That series took a nice 1:32 off the clock. No wonder the defense was awful in the fourth quarter when they were on the field 90 percent of the time.

It happened all season as the Steelers lacked the ability to put their foot down and close out games. The defense was at largely at fault, but the offense isn't clean in this mess. Oh, and how could I forget the special teams play? The kickoff and punt coverage was shitty too, allowing four returns for touchdowns in five games. Overall, everything went wrong for this team at times.

Also, where was Coach Tomlin in the midst of this mess? He just promised to unleash hell in December only to see his team fall flat. I'm still looking for his mark on this team, it's Dick LeBeau's defense while Arians is allowed to run the offense however he sees fit. It was encouraging to see the team rebound and win its first three games, but the damage done midseason was too much to overcome. Tomlin talks a great game, but in the end he was just as clueless as anyone else on how to fix this team.

Changes will be made (and already have) with part of the coaching staff and players. I don't understand how Tyrone Carter could be brought back next season. Overall, it was one maddening year in Steelers football. Oh well, I can't write, talk or think about it much more. There's always next year, right?

Randy Johnson and The Bird

2010-01-06T00:05:00.003-05:00

It's not everyday you witness a Hall of Fame pitcher calling it quits, but after 22 fantastic seasons Randy Johnson retired Tuesday.

You can pick from a long list of career achievements to find a favorite Randy Johnson moment. There's his five Cy Young awards, 10-time All-Star honors, 303 wins, World Series co-MVP, two no-hitters and oh yeah just one of 16 pitchers ever in baseball history to throw a perfect game. Despite all those accolades though, my most memorable moment of Randy Johnson will always be known as "The Bird."

Seriously, what are the chances of an 100 MPH fastball connecting with a bird at the precise second it flew in front of the plate? That bird never knew what hit him. Neither did 4,875 Major League hitters who Johnson fanned throughout his career. Thanks to the Big Unit for one hell of a career and a great moment caught on video!

Playoff Notes

2010-01-05T20:13:00.003-05:00

With the NFL regular season coming to a close and the playoffs looming this weekend, I thought I would review some of my thoughts and interesting stats/notes from the season. UH, PLAYOFFS?

Remember when the Broncos were 6-0? I remember. I remember hearing every writer, TV analyst, radio personality telling me how new coach Josh McDaniels showed everybody what a great decision trading Jay Cutler was and how he was the greatest first-year coach of all time. Well, where are those people now? The Broncos benefited from some early luck (see week one against the Bungals) and started off great, but at the end of the season they were exactly in the spot I expected them to be—out of the playoffs. I'm not saying Cutler is a great quarterback because he's proven this year he has some issues he needs to work on, but at the end of the day Cutler is a better QB than Kyle Orton. The Broncos 2-8 finish was fun to watch.

Here's an interesting note I saw the other day. Quickly think of the four teams that earned first-round byes last year in the playoffs. You'll start figuring out that those teams are missing this year. That's right, the top four seeds from last year did not qualify for the postseason this year: Giants, Panthers, Titans and even the defending champs Steelers. That's hard to believe, but true. No way I would have believed that at the beginning of the season and thinking about this year's playoffs, does anybody think the Colts, Chargers, Saints and Vikings will miss the postseason next year?

Another thing you couldn't of predicted prior to the season was 9-7 did not get you into the playoffs in the NFC. Usually 9-7 is a lock in that conference. Hell, 10-6 wouldn't even get the job done for a wildcard. Meanwhile in the AFC, four teams tied at 9-7 and only two made it.

Also, if the NFL learned one thing this year about scheduling is that the Redskins should not be allowed on primetime until they prove they are a legitimate football team and make the playoffs. Somehow they pulled in three primetime games this year. What was the NFL thinking!? That swinging gate play against the Giants three weeks ago was absolutely horrid.

I'll end with a brief mention on the Steelers season. People around the 'Burgh are already calling it one of the most bizarre seasons in 77 years of Steelers football. Well, I've been watching the team for just over 20 years and it sure was a ridiculous season. I don't remember a season by any team where it was in every single game, but also kept its opponent in every single game. A 9-7 season easily could have been 14-2 or better. I could go on and on, but I won't today. I'll have more on what went wrong for the Steelers in a separate post.

The Wheelhouse Returns! Ringing in the New Year...

2010-01-02T23:43:00.006-05:00

To say it's been a while would be a severe understatement. It's been approximately six months since my last post (whoa!), but maybe this can be the start of a new rule at The Wheelhouse...when a MLB pitcher throws a perfect game, we shut down the site for the rest of the year in honor of it. OK, maybe not.

Let me start by wishing everyone a happy New Year and decade! I have an internal debate going on with some friends over the nickname of this decade, whether it's the "Tens" or the "Teens." I think it's the "Tens," but that's just my opinion and maybe this will lead to a longer discussion in a separate post further down the road.

I usually don't make new year resolutions, but I'm making an exception this year for this blog. My resolution is to take the time to write and update The Wheelhouse significantly more than was done in 2009. I have already made the effort to jot down a couple topics to discuss throughout the year on top of the usual posts, so rest easy.

Moving on from the housekeeping and new year talk, tomorrow is the final week of the regular season in the NFL. As usual we have plenty of meaningless games as teams that have already clinched divisions and playoff berths and will promptly lay down while resting their starters for the postseason. Post-Gazette Steelers beat writer Ed Bouchette brings up a great point in his Sunday column when he asked what's the difference between laying down and throwing games?

I don't see any difference between the two. Just because one team clinches doesn't mean another team fighting for a playoff berth should get an easy game and not have to fully earn their way into the playoffs. There has to be some degree of integrity that remains in these games even if the Colts are 14-0 and decided they don't want to try for history and just lay down to the Jets instead. And what happened to the old theory of competition where players just wanted to beat the other team on the field to prove they were the better team?

Another point that needs to be addressed since it appears the NFL is on the path to add two additional regular season games, how many meaningless games will fans have to watch at the end of the season with teams clinching divisions and first-round byes with four and five games left instead of one or two? If the NFL is serious about going to an 18-game schedule, this resting starters and meaningless games business has to be addressed. The entire playoff picture in the final weeks of the season could be thrown out of whack if the top teams are basically throwing in the towel.

UPDATE (January 3): During today's Steelers-Dolphins game, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell addressed the issue in my post yesterday regarding teams laying down and producing meaningless games. Here's the link to the article. Goodell said it's something that will be looked at in the offseason while mentioning that incentives (possibly extra draft picks) could be added for teams to play out their entire season. Time will tell if it's just talk or the NFL will make a move to eliminate these uncompetitive games.

Perfection

2009-07-24T23:08:00.002-04:00

About two years ago, somewhere in the middle of reading most of my baseball collection, I stumbled upon a beautiful book titled "27 Men Out." Each chapter was designated to a perfect game in MLB history as they broke down those special games in great detail. There were only 15 chapters—the book does not count the two thrown in the 1800s. Fifteen chapters for 15 perfect games in more than 100 years of baseball.

Ever since reading that book, no-hitters never really excited me that much. Of course it's still an unbelievable feat and rare accomplishment to fire a no-hitter, but I've been waiting for that next perfect game since Randy Johnson's in 2004. It's probably the rarest single-game occurrence that can happen in baseball.

Yesterday afternoon on the South Side of Chicago, Mark Buehrle wrote his own chapter of perfection with the 16th perfect game in baseball history. He mowed down the Tampa Bay Rays by retiring all 27 batters. No hits, no walks, no errors, nothing except history and the record book.

Buehrle didn't come out of nowhere either. He's already thrown a no-hitter prior to his perfect game, he owns a World Series ring and he's been one of the most consistent, steady pitchers in the past decade. This just adds to his resume of a great Major League career.

I don't think the average fan understands how greater a perfect game is from a no-hitter. In a perfect game, no one from the opposition reaches a base as everyone is retired in order. Consider this—there's been 263 no-hitters in MLB history, which is more than two a season. Compare that to 16 perfect games, which comes out to about 15 percent chance to see a perfect game a season. It just doesn't happen. That's why Buehrle's game Thursday was so special and easily goes down as the highlight of 2009.

The Mets Stink

2009-07-19T22:32:00.003-04:00

One thing that became very obvious over the recent weeks was showcased tonight on Sunday Night Baseball—the Mets are a mess. Their 7-1 loss to Atlanta was only one game, but if you've seen them in the past month then you know they stink. Despite the second-highest payroll in baseball (just under $150 million), the Mets are 43-48, just lost three-out-of-four to the Braves and are 15-29 since June 1.

Of course fans and baseball people will point to the amount of injuries that continue to pile up for the Mets. Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado, J.J. Putz and John Maine have all missed a significant amount of time already this season. Injuries are a part of the game and sometimes they dictate the fortunes of a season. But doesn't it seem like it's always something for the Mets in recent years? Last year, it was their bullpen falling apart, blowing games. So they go out and spend a ridiculous sum of money on the pen, only to see injuries derail the team in 2009. And there's always the late-season collapse the past two years, which is difficult to explain other than they simply buckled until the pressure.

If you looked at the Mets lineup lately, you wouldn't recognize half of them. And then there's the Mets pitching. They've had to rely on some of these names: Elmer Dessens, Tim Redding, Casey Fossum and Jon Niese. Ouch. Then there's Livan Hernandez who sucks, Oliver Perez who still sucks and Mike Pelfrey who's been awful this year.

Overall, it's added up to a bunch of nothing for the Mets. It's actually a surprise they have hung around as long as they have. But that's changing fast thanks to the Phillies kicking it up a notch along with the Mets continued struggles. I'm writing this team off once again. At least we won't have to watch or hear about their epic collapse in the last month of the season because come September, the Mets won't be anywhere near the playoff chase.

The Wheelhouse is Now Tweeting

2009-07-09T17:27:00.006-04:00

This post is probably two weeks overdue, but it's official—The Wheelhouse is now tweeting on Twitter. You can find the home link here at http://twitter.com/IntheWheelhouse to follow all of the tweets.

I'm not entirely sure how this new online phenomenon will be used in relation to The Wheelhouse, but know that we'll be tweeting away on various topics, comments about sports and life in general. Oh what world we live in where thousands of people now tweet on their twitter and people actually knows what that means. Couldn't they have thought of a better name for this online communication?

Anyway, continuing with the housekeeping, look for a gadget on the right column that shows the live Twitter feed as I'm currently trying to work on the kinks in it. I will also be adding a couple of new links to the blog and website list on the right as well as possibly overhauling the layout and design of The Wheelhouse. Nothing official as of yet, just playing around with it to see all the options.

That's it for now. I promise to get some new baseball posts in the next couple of days with the All-Star game rapidly approaching next Tuesday.

It's Time

2009-05-30T11:11:00.000-04:00

Let's do it. Let's Go Pens!

May Baseball Musings

2009-05-28T23:15:00.001-04:00

This is drastically overdue, but better late than never, right? Anyway, with two months of the baseball season pretty much in the books, I wanted to catch up on some interesting things in this early season.

Predictions—The Wheelhouse might have been a bit off with some of our preseason forecasts as not only are the Indians in dead last (picked to the the AL Central), but I also thought the Diamondbacks were on their way to a great season to compete with the Dodgers down the stretch all season. As it turns out, the Dodgers, with or without Manny, might have the NL West wrapped up by the Fourth of July. They are currently up 8.5 games over the Padres—yes, the Padres and they just won 10 straight this week! Meanwhile, the D-Backs are 20-27 and have really been hurt by the loss of Brandon Webb since April. The Dodgers look to be a force in the National League. With Chad Billingsley living up to the expectations, the Dodgers might be my favorite to come out of the NL.

Zach Greinke—Can you say legit? Greinke is finally putting together that breakout season that people have been talking about for a couple years, and it's not a breakout season for a young player, but possibly on way to a historic season. He's already fired five complete games while sporting an ERA under 1.00 through his first 10 starts, which hasn't happened since 1966 when Juan Marichal did it. Not bad company at all. It'll be a great thing to watch all summer to see how long he can keep this incredible pitching going. And he almost makes the Royals watchable...every fifth day at least.

Early Surprises—If you scour the standings, you see two teams near the top of their respective division that is a bit of a shock. Before their recent nine-game streak into the tank, the Blue Jays were the hottest team in baseball. They have come back to earth, but once they figure out how to win again, I think they can hang around for a while and compete. I've always been a fan of the Blue Jays. I love the city of Toronto, a great baseball town. Love the SkyDome (forget the Rogers Centre crap) and I think they have a decent team. The other surprise is the Texas Rangers, who are leading the AL West by three games. Sure, they can hit the ball, they have always been able to do that, but the pitching has been there for them through 40 games. Will it last? No, it will not. I mean they are getting pitching from guys you never heard of like Matt Harrison. Texas will not last and the Angels will pass them once they get healthy and their shit together.

Guys I Would Love to Have on my Fantasy Team—This is a long list, but nobody is higher on the list than Raul Ibanez. I had him on my radar in both of my drafts this year because he's always been a consistent hitter and I liked the move to Philly. Of course, I thought he would drop a round or two more and passed him only to see him get taken and absolutely rake in this early season. Have you seen this guy? He's having an incredible start to the season, hitting .339 with 17 long balls, 44 RBI. He had just 23 homers in 162 games last season! Of course, I wish I had Greinke. How about Orioles outfielder Adam Jones—what a pickup if you grabbed him late. I do have Justin Morneau in two leagues, so I can't complain there as he's been a beast so far this season as well. The list goes on...Ian Kinsler, Dan Haren, Billingsley.

Pride. Passion. Pittsburgh Pirates—Of course, the Pirates would put their fans through a series of crazy emotions through just two months. The Pirates ran out to an 11-7 start, dropped eight straight after that and have been about 4-5 games under .500. It would be nice to see them sniff .500 all year and actually make something to watch down the stretch to see if they can avoid the infamous record. Honestly, I don't see that happening. They just don't have the talent (surprise) yet. The winning in April was a nice reminder of how great it can be if they would have a winning team one of these years. For now in Pittsburgh, we're on the Andrew McCutchen watch till he gets called up.

Stupid NHL.com Articles

2009-05-27T21:47:00.006-04:00

With the Penguins fresh off their sweep of Carolina to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals for the second consecutive year, the Philadelphia Flyers are still crying.

Honestly, we are three rounds past that series and the NHL is still publishing these kinds of stories? The Flyers still feel like they outplayed the Pens! Even though they got bounced at home after six games. Flyers captain Mike Richards is the latest to speak up about how much it hurts...

"Last year, give them full credit, they beat us and dominated us in a lot of parts of the game," Richards said. "I would never make excuses and this year they beat us and they're having a lot of success, but we thought we had a lot of success against them, outplayed them and outshot them, but we just couldn't beat Fleury. They had great goaltending and they're an opportunistic team. They capitalized on their chances.

"In playoffs, all the teams are so close and you need a couple of bounces to have success. Even though they have a great team, they got a couple of bounces and we didn't. It's not an excuse, though."

Let me summarize his comments, "WAAAAAAAAAHHHHH." Anytime you say this isn't an excuse and then use the word excuses twice, it's an excuse. Sure, there are a couple of bounces that go either way in every series and every game, I agree with that. But it's not like the Flyers lost on a last-second shot in Game 7 in overtime. They got beat on home ice in only six games for the second straight season. Get over it, Mike. Get over it, Philly. Move on—break out the irons and set up the tee times cause nothing's going to change. And NHL, please stop publishing these "oh whoa is me" loser stories.

Lackey's Ejection Ridiculous

2009-05-18T21:17:00.006-04:00

I have plenty of other things in the baseball world to catch up on and write about, but I couldn't wait to discuss this. On Saturday, Angels pitcher John Lackey returned from the DL, threw two pitches in his game and was ejected. Here's what happened...Lackey's first pitch went behind the Rangers Ian Kinsler, his second pitch hit Kinsler in the ribs and he was ejected.

Now I don't know what kind of person John Lackey is, but he was coming off a forearm strain and this was his first start of the season. He had not thrown a competitive pitch all season, so do you think that he was a bit rusty and might have problem with his control early on?

The ejection was absolutely ridiculous. I'm sure the whole time Lackey was rehabbing, he was just sitting there going, "Man, I can't wait to get out there and bean somebody...especially Ian Kinsler." Come on, I'm sure that's what was on his mind. There's no apparent bad blood between the two, so there was no background story that anyone was aware of.

What happened to warning the pitchers and benches? I've seen a ton of games where hitters were getting nailed all game and nobody gets even a warning. The umpires did warn both benches, but only after Lackey was tossed out. The guy already missed more than a month of action, don't punish him by tossing him after two pitches. If he hits three guys in the first two innings then you have a problem, but after two pitches, that's ridiculous. The ejection was completely unnecessary.

AL CENTRAL

2009-04-05T12:07:00.003-04:00

It's time for the final MLB division preview at the eleventh hour. With all the talk of the competitive AL East this offseason, the AL Central might end up being just as competitive with the number of teams vying for a division title late in the season. I said just as competitive as the AL East, not necessarily better. I think three or four teams could all be within striking distance of each other come September, which will make for a great pennant race and who knows, maybe a second straight AL Central playoff.

Despite numerous injuries that lingered with them all season, the Indians managed to finish 81-81 in 2008, just 7.5 games out of first place. So you'd have to expect a better record with all that's coming back for them, including their additions in the offseason. Sluggers Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez will be return for the Tribe to go with the suddenly potent lineup of Grady Sizemore, Jhonny Peralta, Ryan Garko and the up-and-coming Shin-Soo Choo. Also, the Indians went out and signed super-utility man in Mark DeRosa that I don't think should be overlooked. DeRosa is a great talent that can move around the infield, he's coming off his best season in which he hit 21 homers with an on-base percentage of .376. Plus, he'll pretty much play everyday for your team...I think the Cubs will miss DeRosa's versatility on their team. Also, Matt LaPorta (can't miss prospect that was traded for Sabathia) should be up with the team by July. With all that said, the Indians should mash the ball this summer at the Jake (yes, I'm still calling it that). The Indians welcome back the Cy Young winner Cliff Lee, who in no way can duplicate his unbelievable season, but he'll hold his own as ace of this staff. Look for Fausto Carmona to rebound after a terrible 2008 and he'll need to for this team to win consistently. The Indians also have former massive prospect Anthony Reyes, who actually pitched well in the final month of the season for Cleveland last year. Kerry Wood should be a good signing for a team in need of a closer. I think the Indians will rebound after an off 2008 and get the AL Central crown back.
Prediction: AL Central Title

The "dink and dunk Twins." That's what I call the Twins because that's just what they do...a dink hit there, a dunk down the baseline and next thing you know the Twins are 12 games above .500, playing their kind of baseball and competing for the playoffs. If your not a fan of say any other team in the AL Central or the A's, how can you not love how the Twins play baseball? This team brings up homegrown talent, pitches well, plays defense and slaps the ball all around the field to beat you. And they just keep coming after you every inning. They have guys who will never be superstars, but get the job done effectively...Denard Span, Michael Cuddyer, Nick Punto, Alexi Casilla, Kevin Slowey, Nick Blackburn, etc. If the Pirates were ever to take a model of a team on how to build, it should be the Twins. They continue to be the national media's claim that small market teams can compete! The Twins also have their share of superstars to round out this team...Justin Morneau will hit his 40 home runs this year, Joe Mauer will hit .320 plus, speedster Carlos Gomez should continue to improve his game and Francisco Liriano is key to returning to his dominant form. The Twins seem to hang around every year and this year will be no different. Minnesota is loaded and the race with Cleveland should go down to the wire once again.
Prediction: 2nd

I hate the White Sox. So just know that there's probably some of that bias going on while I write this. The bar was set high in Chicago after the Palehosers won the division title last season, which now sets them up for a big disappointment. This team lot some key pieces this season in Orlando Cabrera, Nick Swisher, Joe Crede, Ken Griffey Jr. and Juan Uribe. While that's not devastating, the problem is the White Sox didn't really add anyone with potential in free agency. They seem to be rolling the dice and going with a younger lineup this year giving guys like Chris Getz, Josh Fields and Dewayne Wise a chance to show what they can do. I don't know if this was the right decision to go this route, but this is a team that's going to have to reinvent itself in a couple years because the bulk of this lineup Paul Konerko, Jim Thome and Jermaine Dye are a year older and I don't know how long they can keep it up. The rotation got productive seasons from Gavin Floyd and Jose Contreras...I don't really see that happening again. Carlos Quentin remains a young, bright spot on this team, but if he struggles at some point this season, the White Sox could be in trouble. This team will hang around like usual, but I think fall away from the pack down the stretch and have a disappointing finish.
Prediction: 3rd

Everyone loves an underdog right? Well, the Kansas City Royals are just it. This team did finish ahead of the Tigers last year and I see them doing the same once again and maybe even ahead of the White Sox. The Royals made two nice trades this offseason, acquiring Coco Crisp and Mike Jacobs for their lineup to go along with star in the rising Alex Gordon. Gordon should take off in his third full season in the Majors with Jacobs and Jose Guillen added some protection in the lineup. They also have young shortstop Mike Aviles who hit for a high average last year. It's easy to see that this lineup is coming around and it might just in time to go well with their rotation. If the Royals are to build on last season and become a legitimate team in the American League, it'll be because of Zack Greinke, Gil Meche, Kyle Davies, Sidney Ponson and Horacio Ramirez. Ponson's a bit of a wild card here, but if he falters, there's plenty of talent to pick this team up. Greinke put together a solid season and should continue to improve while Davies and Meche could have big years for this club. The bullpen is solid with closer Joakim Soria, Juan Cruz, Kyle Farnsworth, Ron Mahay and others. I like what this team is doing and right now they seem to be the sexy pick for a surprise team in the American League. I don't know if they're there yet to contend for anything, but it wouldn't surprise me to see them near the top of this division late in the season. Prediction: 4th

And then we have the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers were destined for the World Series in 2008, right? Wrong. Their last-place finish could be one of the biggest disappointments in MLB history. Turns out, you can't underestimate the value of having a decent pitching staff no matter how many runs you score. The Tigers have bats, I'm not going to argue against that. What they still lack is pitching. The rotation is a mess and their bullpen might even be worse. For this reason, I have Detroit bringing up the rear in the AL Central again in 2009. I do expect Justin Verlander to bounce back after a trying 2008 season for him. But after him, there's not much. The Tigers traded a young hitter in Matt Joyce for Edwin Jackson, which should do his job and eat some innings, but the problem is he's slated as their number 2-3 pitcher. Jeremy Bonderman's injured still and I have serious reservations about what kind of pitcher he'll be when he returns. Zach Miner is a joke and shouldn't be starting for any MLB team out there. Armando Galarraga had a nice season last year...can you say sophomore slump. And then there's the young gun Rick Porcello, who made the team despite never pitching about High-A level. Here's why this is a bad decision for the Tigers to rush Porcello to the Bigs. Their decision was not because they thought he was 100 percent ready to pitch in the Majors and they wanted to do the best for him. They put him in the rotation already because the team is absolutely desperate for pitching and add the fact in that the Tigers are still clinging to hopes that they win now. It seems as great as the 2006 World Series run was for the Tigers, it's almost setting them back years now because the front office is scrambling to make it happen so fast again that they are either trading away young talent for veterans or they are rushing the young players up when they might not be ready. In essence, they went from being a small market win with the young guys team, to a big market try to buy everyone team in a matter of two years. Until ownership figures out a direction that want to move in, the current team will continue to suffer.
Prediction: Last place...again.

AL EAST PREVIEW

2009-04-04T11:17:00.006-04:00

What can I say about the AL East that the rest of America hasn't already said? The Yankees are stacked despite the A-Rod injury and scandal, the Red Sox are always a trendy but solid pick, the Rays have captured the attention and heart of millions of casual and front running fans in the US, and the Blue Jays remain competitive up in our northern neighbors domain.

The Yankees abandoned their recent approach of promoting young prospects and went hog wild in free agency. Looking at this team you wouldn't know that we were in a recession. CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett, and Mark Teixiera all inked monster deals with the Bronx bombers. More experience for young guys like Chamberlain, Melky Cabrera, and Robinson Cano (no way he's as bad as his numbers showed last year), along with returning all stars Derek Jeter, A-Rod, Mariano Rivera and a healthy Hideki Matsui should spell a ton of runs with stellar pitching for this team. I don't like the Yankees but I just feel like they're due to return to their position on top of this division and the top of baseball in October. If they make the playoffs I don't know that anybody can mess with their rotation and power. My prediction: First and front runners for the whole thing in October.

The Rays are the sexiest pick in all of baseball. I'm not sold. I love their team and their potential, I just worry about how much they're relying on youngsters like Evan Longoria. Longoria is on his way to being a stud but young players seem to take a step backwards in their second year. Still, with the most underappreciated player of the last decade (Carl Crawford) and a nice rotation, the Rays will compete with the BoSox for first runner up behind the Yankees and probably a wild card position.

The Red Sox could be in trouble this year. David Ortiz struggled last year and will sorely miss Man Ram's protection in the lineup. Beckett seemed to have lost his dominance last year and Dice K will be easier to figure out in his second year in the US. I love Jacoby Ellsbury and his speed, Pedroia and how he reminds me of Craig Biggio with some more pop, and Jason Bay. It's more of a gut feeling and a desire to see "The Nation" bitch and moan about the Yankees "buying players" than anything, but I think this is the year that the Sox relinquish their spot in October.

The Blue Jays lost AJ Burnett which will hurt because the guy just eats innings and gives solid results when healthy. They have some solid players that will keep them competitive and it'll be interesting to see if Halladay gets dealt if they're out of contention in July. They could compete in the West but there's just way too much in NY, Boston, and TB for the Blue Birds to hang in there this year.

Well that's all I have for the Al East.
Wait...
I'm forgetting something...
Oh yeah!
The Orioles.
Yepp, that's all I have to say about them.

Look for the last update from Ryan before tomorrow night's season opener.

AL WEST

2009-04-04T10:55:00.004-04:00

Well folks...Considering Ryan and I are both a high level mixture of busy and lazy, you'll be getting three division previews between now and tomorrow night.
The AL West is...well...a joke. There's the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (they should put that on their uniforms) who just seem to get it done every season. I see no reason why this season should be any different. The Angels have a very nice rotation that should only get better now that Jered Weaver has another year of experience under his belt. On offense the Angels lost Mark Teixeria to the Yankees during Free Agency. There were rumors circulating that the Angels would counter by signing Man Ram this offseason but his asking price was way too high and he resigned with LA rival Dodgers. Ultimately, they ended up with Bobby Abreu. Abreu is aging and not what he once was, but I think a smaller spotlight away from Zoo York will be welcoming to Abreu. The Angels did say farewell to two staple players of their franchise this offseason when K-Rod bolted for the Mets and the player who has been so underrated through his career that he's bordering overrated, Garrett Anderson to the Braves. Anderson is replaceable but K-Rods presence may be missed in late games. However, the Angels can afford to lose some late games and still take this division by double digits.

The Oakland A's brought in Matt Holiday and brought Jason Giambi home. They're the one wildcard team in this division that could challenge the Angels. However, while I expect big numbers from Giambi and Holiday, there's just not much else to be excited about. Giving up Huston Street in the Holiday trade was necessary but will hurt the A's because they're not in a position where they can afford to lose many late games and Street was a reliable closer. Still, I could see this team hovering around .500 and if the Angels rotation suffers a few injuries it could be closer than expected, but I doubt it.

The Texas Rangers got great attention last year for the resurrection of Josh Hamilton. This year, they bring up stud prospect Elvis Andrus at SS. He's potentially so good that the Rangers are moving Michael Young to 3B just to let the kid come up and play. The Rangers gambled and brought in Andruw Jones for a lowball contract which I think was a good move. He's obviously a shell of his former Atlanta Braves self, but he's not half as bad as he showed last year. If he doesn't produce this year his career is over. I think AJ will shed some pounds and give some average production given his playing time. The problem with the Rangers is their pitching. I don't understand how a team who has had the same major weakness for the last decade still can't seem to address it. Rangers fans will be entertained with many high scoring affairs at the Ballpark at Arlington. Unfortunately, I don't think the Rangers will be on the winning side of many of them.

The Seattle Mariners could arguably be the worst team in MLB. Reasons to like them: Felix Hernandez. Reasons to watch them: Sentimental value seeing Griffey in an M's uniform (this will ware off by June). Reasons not to like them: Everything else. This team is just a mess. I like Jose Lopez and Yunelesky Betancourt (great name bro) but aging overpriced players like Adrian Beltre just aren't going to help you win now or in the future. There's no excuse for a team with this kind of payroll not to be competitive. While teams like the Pirates are bad because they have no money, the Mariners have all the resources but just can't get it done. I'd like to make a movement to remove all professional sports from Seattle at this point.

The Wheelhouse Preview: NL Central

2009-03-26T00:32:00.015-04:00

I’ll be honest, the NL Central is one of those divisions that I can never predict prior to the season. I have no clue what these teams will do from year to year. Well OK, I know where the Pirates will be, but as for the rest of the teams who the hell knows. I could seriously pick this division based on recent history, and I think that’s pretty much what I’m going to do as I try to break down this division.

Chicago Cubs – Despite the fact that the Cubs continue to just not show up for the playoffs, they still remain the best team in the NL Central. They went 97-64 last season and didn’t really lose much besides Mark DeRosa, Jason Marquis and Kerry Wood. The starting rotation is still solid with Carlos Zambrano, Ryan Dempster, Ted Lilly and Rich Harden. If Harden actually stays healthy for a season, the Cubs will cruise for most of the summer. The departure of Wood leaves a hole at closer but waiting in the wings in Carlos Marmol and former Marlins closer Kevin Gregg will be ready should Marmol falter early this season.

The North Side’s offense will keep blasting away in the bandbox that is Wrigley Field. Milton Bradley was added in the offseason to an already potent lineup that includes Alfonso Soriano, Aramis Ramirez, Derek Lee and Geovany Soto, who is looking like one of the best young-hitting catchers in the game. Don’t overlook that Bradley pick up as he quietly led the American League in on-base percentage with a .436 clip while hitting .321 for third-best in the AL. Who cares if these guys disappear in October? The NL Central is the Cubs division to lose, which means we get another whole season of hearing back how this could finally be the Cubs year to end the curse! Ugh, this is going to be a long season. Prediction: First in the NL Central

St. Louis Cardinals – I’ve given up trying to figure the Cardinals out. Every year on paper, the Cards don’t really look that talented, but they always end up competing for the division while finishing like 10 games over .500. Like him or not, Tony LaRussa gets his teams to play…period. He does more with less than any field general in baseball without a doubt. So as usual this team will be there all season. And why wouldn’t they be with Albert Pujols doing his thing every season. Pujols will drive in 100 plus, Ryan Ludwick won’t match his breakout season, but he’ll be a force in the lineup and young guys like Skip Schumaker, Brian Barden, Brenden Ryan and Chris Duncan will fill their roles out nicely and get the job done. The pitching staff won 86 games last year and that was pretty much without Chris Carpenter. Carpenter is healthy this spring and is tearing it up. He’ll return as the ace of the rotation while Adam Wainwright, Kyle Lohse, Todd Wellemeyer and Joel Pineiro will do enough for this team. Lohse and Wellemeyer both had winning records last season with mid-3.00 ERA’s…now that’s unbelievable. With Carpenter returning to take the pressure off of those pitchers a bit, expect the Cardinals to be in the hunt all season…as usual. Prediction: 2nd Place

Cincinnati Reds – Stay with me on this one. When we look back on the 2009 season, I think one of the surprise teams in the National League will be the Reds. Trading Ken Griffey Jr. was one of the best things this could of done. They are loaded with young talent and just enough experience to be able to put that combination together and surprise some teams. Joey Votto and Jay Bruce showed what they could do last season and they are two studs that should be featured in this lineup for years to come. Then you have 2B Brandon Phillips who can do it all from hitting the deep ball to stealing 25-30 bases a season. Bruce, Votto, Phillips, Edwin Encarnacion all hit 20-plus home runs last season and should all improve. Plus, Chris Dickerson is another up and coming prospect that should see plenty of playing time in the outfield. The Reds also signed speedster Willy Taveras this offseason to ignite the Reds at the top of the order. Problem was, his on-base percentage was horrendous last year, but he still stole 68 bases. If he can get on base more in front of the young hitters in their launching pad of a ballpark, then look out for the Reds to put up some runs.

The Reds rotation is another haven for young prospects. Edinson Volquez arrived in a flurry last year, going 17-6 with a 3.21 ERA in his first full season in the Majors. The scary thing is Volquez has the chance to get even better and he’s joined on the staff by Bronson Arroyo, Aaron Harang, Johnny Cueto and former Diamondback Micah Owings. Owings might not be the greatest pitcher, but hell every fifth day he’ll add another potent bat to the lineup. And if you think I’m kidding, look up Owings hitting stats in his career. And to close out games, Cincy has a capable setup man in Dave Weathers and quietly one of the game’s most consistent closers as of late in Francisco Cordero. The bottom line is the Reds have plenty of things going right for them. I really like their chances to be a surprise team this year.Prediction: 3rd Place (but should compete for most of the season).

Milwaukee Brewers – The Brew Crew had their storybook finish to the regular season last year with the C.C. Sabathia show to clinch a wildcard and first postseason birth since they were part of the American League. It ended with a quick exit from the playoffs from the hands of eventual champions Philadelphia Phillies. The problem for the Brewers in 2009 is they lost Sabathia, Ben Sheets and Eric Gagne while Salomon Torres retired. They didn’t really add much besides Trevor Hoffman and Braden Looper. The staff features two young prospects in Yovani Gallardo and Manny Parra, who have both showed promise but I think it’s just too early for Milwaukee to rely on these guys to anchor the rotation. And if any injuries happen, which Gallardo is coming off of one, the depth is nowhere to be found. The Brewers shouldn’t have a problem hitting the ball with Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, J.J. Hardy, Corey Hart and Mike Cameron, but other prospects Rickie Weeks and Bill Hall have struggled to hit about .230 consistently. I just see this team dropping off big time by losing an ace in Sabathia. Let’s face it, this team was not running to the wildcard spot without him last year, and I just see this team fall back toward .500 this season.Prediction: 4th Place

Houston Astros – The Astros are just like the Cardinals…every year since the retirement of Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio, you just have to count them out, and then they put together some incredible run and finish somewhere around 86-90 wins. This team finished 86-75 last year…I have no idea how that happened. I do not expect that to happen in 2009. When your biggest free-agent move was losing Brad Ausmus and signing Pudge Rodriguez, you know it’s been a quiet offseason. Hitting wise, the Astros are set with studs Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee with soon-to-be-stud Hunter Pence. Who knows what to expect out of Miguel Tejeda or Kazuo Matsui, but this team is a little light on talent and not just in the lineup. There’s Roy Oswalt at the top and then there’s everyone else. When Wandy Rodriguez, Mike Hampton, Brian Moehler and Brandon Backe are the rest of your rotation, you have problems. Of course, the Astros owner will once again ignore all that and make a ridiculous move in mid-July to go for it! (See last year when they picked up LaTroy Hawkins). I don’t get the Astros and therefore, I don’t like them to do very well in the NL this year.Prediction: 5th Place

Pittsburgh Pirates – Hey, someone has to end up in the basement, and it might as well be the Pirates, who have made that a habit in the majority of my lifetime. The only story in Pittsburgh this summer (if it’s not players’ wives stealing babies) is the infamous sports record they are about to set for most consecutive losing seasons. The Steelers opening training camp up in July will also be the main story of the summer, but back to the Buccos. They’ve already had 16 losing seasons. They are ready to make it a record 17 straight losing seasons. Think about that for a moment. I was 10 years old the last time the Pirates put together a winning season. We’ve had four different presidents during that time. Forget about it, don’t expect the Pirates to compete this year or even next year. I figure they just want to shatter the record to own something. The ONLY possibility that I could fathom for the Pirates to reach .500 and actually be decent is if Paul Maholm, Ian Snell, Zach Duke all put together the great seasons we’ve seen them have before, but actually all have those great seasons all together in the same season. Like I said, forget about it. The Pirates might not be in the basement, but it doesn’t matter because they are headed for another losing season at PNC Park.Prediction: It's gonna be cold, it's gonna be gray, and it's gonna last you for the rest of your life. (If you can name the movie that line's from, you win…well nothing, you’re just cool).

That’s all I have for the NL Central. See what I was saying about predicting it from recent history? You can slot in the Cubs at the top, the Pirates at the bottom and then the middle four teams are pretty much a crap shoot. Expect this division to be tight for most of the season with the Cubs pulling away down the stretch. With the Dodgers and D-backs strong out west and the stacked NL East, barring a midseason trade for a pitcher like Sabathia, I wouldn’t expect the wildcard to come out of this division.

NL EAST PREVIEW

2009-03-19T15:42:00.002-04:00

Here’s the NL East rundown. I tried to mask my Braves bias as much as possible, but don’t be surprised if they’re as good or better than I advertise!

Florida Marlins- If ever there were a team that the Pittsburgh Pirates should model themselves after, the Florida Marlins are it. Working with a budget that makes the Pirates look like they have owners who care about winning, the Marlins are always capable of surprising the world by remaining competitive throughout a season. Featuring a lineup that is completely loaded with speed and anchored by five tool player Hanley Ramirez and led off by promising young speedster Cameron Maybin, the Marlins will look to play a lot of small ball again in 2009. On the other side of the diamond the Marlins showcase a below average rotation that largely consists of middle tier starters from top to bottom. Andrew Miller could have a breakout season after a year of experience when he came over in the trade for Dontrelle “one year fluke” Willis and Miguel Cabrera. The Marlins are an interesting team, because on paper they look downright pathetic (with the exception of Hanley Ramirez and possible prospects like Maybin and Miller), but they always seem to surprise. Unfortunately, I don’t see this being one of those years where they’re able to surprise anybody.
My Prediction: Last in a stacked NL East

Washington Nationals- Ah, the good old Washington Nationals. The Nationals GM Jim Bowden must be hanging out with Marvin Lewis and Al Davis because he seems to be willing to take in all the misfit young players that everybody else has given up on. If you don’t believe me, just check out the MLB wrap sheets of Elijah Dukes, Lastings Milledge and Austin Kearns. However, who can blame them? Nobody wants to play baseball in our Nation’s capitol. When fifty percent of the crowd is made up of lobbyists who score tickets for selling their souls to corporate America and the other half are transplants rooting for the other team, it’s difficult to want to play for a cellar dweller even if they have a new stadium. So, the Nats take whoever they can get, and the scary thing is on paper they’re not as awful as you’d expect. Dukes and Milledge still have tremendous upside if they can stay on the straight and narrow, and the addition of Adam Dunn (despite his 200 k’s) should really benefit returning cornerstone Ryan Zimmerman. Actually, the offense is pretty formidable from top to bottom, being led off by respectable speedster Christian Guzman. If teams only had to hit, I might even call the Nats a wild card sleeper. However, unfortunately for them, they have to pitch too. When Scott Olsen is your ace, you’re in some trouble. Admittedly, I’m a Braves fan who sees a lot of Nats games during the course of the season when they play the Braves and I don’t even recognize half of the names in their starting rotation. That’s ok though, because I don’t think most of the names will still be in the Majors by midseason anyways.
My Prediction: 4th in the East

Philadelphia Phillies: The Phillies brought the city of Filthadephia their first championship since Rocky knocked out Clubber Lang to avenge Mickey’s death. Unfortunately for the Phillies, shortly after Rocky knocked out Clubber Lang he lost his reliable friend Apollo Creed, and the Phillies lost their Creed when they lost Pat “the bat” Burrell which is in my opinion the biggest offseason loss that nobody is talking about. However, everything is still sunny in Filthadelphia as their lineup still includes familiar faces like Ryan Howard, J Rollins and Chase Utley. Utley’s offseason surgery is a concern but Rollins looks great in the World Baseball Classic so far. Their lineup returns ace Cole Hamels. After Hamels, I’m not sold on their rotation with the likes of the ancient Jamie Moyer being counted on. The Phillies don’t have a lot of holes, but I feel like the city of Philadephia deserves another 75 years of misery and the odds of repeating are stacked against the Phillies.
My Prediction: 3rd in the East

Atlanta Braves: The braves were the most talked about NL team of the offseason. Unfrurtunately, like their decade of the nineties, they were talked about for being second best. They got burned by Rafael Furcal and Ken Griffey Jr. They had a deal on the table for Jake Peavy until the Padres demanded the first born child of every player in the Braves organization. In the end they still managed to upgrade by bringing in aging but reliable Garrett Anderson to their offensive lineup. The rotation is completed rebuilt and arguably one of the deepest in the league with the additions of Derek Lowe and Javier Vazquez, who despite their ages are as reliable of solid inning eating starters you can find, and Japanese pitching sensation Kenshin Kawakami. Returning young star Jair Jurjjeins and Tom Glavine round out their starting rotation. Tim Hudson could return as early as late August from Tommy John surgery to further bolster the rotation. Perhaps the most exciting things for Braves fans is the next crop of minor league studs that are ready to be called up. Minor league phenom Tommy Hanson is probably the closest thing to a can’t miss pitching prospect since Felix Hernandez came up for Seattle. He was the first pitcher in history to win the MVP of his Minor League. He’s being blocked from the rotation and will likely begin the season in AAA but the first sign of struggle for either Tom Glavine or Japanese import Kawakami could give Hanson the green light into the bigs. On the offensive side of the ball the Braves should benefit from the extra year of experience to young players on the rise like Yunel Escobar, Kelly Johnson, and Jeff Francouer. Brian McCann looks like he’ll be the cleanup hitter and don’t be surprised if he’s good for 35 and 120 in that spot the way he’s killing the ball in the Classic right now. Jordan Schaeffer, a top 5 minor league prospect last year before getting suspended for HGH, looks to take over the leadoff spot and man center field. If Chipper Jones can stay healthy I think the Braves can compete for the wild card and possibly push the Mets for the division title. If he gets hurt, the Phillies will easily take over this second spot in the East. For now, I’m feeling more optimistic about the Braves than I have in recent years and think their depth will have them playing meaningful games in late September.
My Prediction: 2nd in the East

New York Mets: The Mets are the ugly step child of New York. Lost in the shuffle of the Yankees wild offseason spending spree on CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeria, the Mets solidified what should be an absolutely filthy bullpen. K-Rod and JJ Putz basically shortens each game to a 7 inning affair. Johan Santana headlines a rotation that drops a lot after him, but their offense is loaded and unfortunately for the rest of the East, Beltran and Delgado seem to have found the fountain of youth because both have just killed the ball in the Classic so far. There was talk about moving Reyes down in the order and I hope that the Mets make the move because I think it’s ridiculous. He has power but I don’t see him hitting more home runs than Beltran, Delgado or Wright so what’s the point. I think this is finally the year that the Mets pull it all together and get their money’s worth and win the NL East. However, if they want to march deep in the playoffs they’ll be shopping for another top end member of the rotation by June because a short 5 game series could be ugly for the Mets once you get past Johan and are relying on Mike Pelfrey and Oliver Perez in the clutch.
My Prediction: 1st in the East

The Wheelhouse Preview: The NL West

2009-03-14T16:56:00.003-04:00

With the signs of spring and baseball slowly approaching, The Wheelhouse will be unveiling its MLB division previews over the next couple of weeks leading up to Opening Day on April 5. Today, we begin with the NL West.

The recent signing of Manny Ramirez has apparently handed the Dodgers the NL West title already. I, on the other hand, am operating under the belief that the Manny signing has made the NL West a two-team race and not just a one-team runaway by Arizona.

While most of the attention this season will be on the Dodgers and Manny, the Diamondbacks will be the team quietly getting the job done. And they will be toward the top of the division the entire season because of one of the top pitching staffs in the National League. The D-Backs duo of Brandon Webb and Dan Haren will keep them from any significant losing streak plus the signing of innings-eater Jon Garland will help the staff. And keep an eye out for big-time prospect Max Scherzer, who probably will be limited as the team’s fifth starter, but he’s a future ace and could give the team a boost at the bottom of the rotation. Plus with Chad Qualls, Tony Pena and Jon Rauch coming out of the bullpen in the late innings, this team won’t have to score many runs to win thanks to its solid pitching. This is a good thing for the D-Backs because last year their offense hit just .251, tied for third-worst in the NL with the Nationals and Padres. Yikes. The good news is there’s nowhere to go but up and the young hitters should improve significantly. Justin Upton is a budding star waiting to emerge while OF Chris Young, SS Stephen Drew and 3B Mark Reynolds all are young 20-home run guys that should all improve their game. Arizona tanked late in the season and ended up losing the division to Manny mania and finished 82-80. If the hitting improves even slightly this season, Arizona should easily win 90 plus games.

The Dodgers should be just as good as Arizona this season as they proved last season that they are a different, offensive team with Manny in the lineup. Though the big question mark is what to expect from Manny this year? Will he hit .396 like he did in 53 games for LA last year when he was pissed off at Boston and wanted to show what he could do? Probably not. I expect him to be the down to earth Manny and hit around .300 with 30-40 home runs, but the Dodgers will desperately welcome that. Catcher Russell Martin, outfielders Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier showed last season that they are the new crop of Dodgers baseball. They struggled in the NLCS against the Phillies, but all they did was gain great experience for a very young group of sluggers.

The loss of Derek Lowe to Atlanta will hurt as they lose a solid and consistent pitcher on the staff. But get like the D-Backs, the Dodgers feature some young pitching prospects. Chad Billingsley had a tremendous 2008 season, emerging as one of the best pitchers in the NL while Clayton Kershaw should take a step forward this year after getting a taste of the Majors at a very young age last season. Kershaw is so promising that he’s drawn comparisons to some Hall of Fame southpaw in Sandy Koufax. But after those too, Los Angeles has Hiroki Kuroda, who was pretty efficient (3.73 ERA) in sprawling Dodger Stadium and then free-agent pickups in Randy Wolf and Jason Schmidt. Wolf has always been overrated, and I don’t know what the Dodgers front office saw in Schmidt, who hasn’t pitched in more than a year due to injuries, but I doubt he will have any sort of positive impact for this team in 2009.

Does is really matter who is the next best team in this division? Does anyone care? It might be the Padres or the Giants. Speaking of the Giants, they put off of the young guys for years to keep Bonds around to hit home runs and finish in the bottom of the division and then when they finally make that move to youth, they go out and sign Edgar Renteria and Grandpa Randy Johnson. How does GM Brian Sabean still collect a paycheck from the Giants? He should have been canned years ago when he traded Liriano, Joe Nathan and Boof Bonser for AJ Pierzynski, but I digress. The Giants actually might not be a terrible team this year thanks to a decent rotation, led by reigning NL Cy Young Tim Lincecum. Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez and the Big “Old” Unit should put together a formidable staff. And then there’s Barry Zito, who throws a stellar game about once every two months.

The Rockies have a chance to be horrendous after losing their most prolific hitter in Matt Holliday to free agency. And to make matters worse, their top pitcher Jeff Francis probably won’t be ready for opening day from his shoulder injury from last year. I don’t really see the Rockies being around .500 much this season. The Padres won’t be much better. This is a team that went 63-99 in 2008 and I don’t really think this team improves at all. They lost two starting catchers, Khalil Greene and future Hall of Fame closer Trevor Hoffman and they added David Eckstein. Oh boy, look out for the X-factor. He’s not going to turn this team around. Mark Prior is on this roster, which is never a good sign. Jody Gerut and his one knee probably will start in center field. The only thing this team has going for them offensively is if Chase Headley can bust out and join Adrian Gonzalez in a home-run fest. The Padres and Rockies should be competing for the NL West basement all season.

This division has gained a reputation over the past five or so years of being a close, weak division (four different champions in six years) where if you were hovering around .500, you could compete for the division title. That changed last year as the Dodgers and Diamondbacks broke away from the pack down the stretch, and I think the space between them and the rest of the teams will increase this year. This division is a two-team race, and I would be absolutely stunned if Arizona or Los Angeles didn’t end up winning it. I think both of those teams will win 90 plus games and have one of the closest pennant races in the bigs, but ultimately I like the Diamondbacks rotation better and believe it will be the difference late in the season to give Arizona its fifth division title.

Round Two for Team USA

2009-03-05T13:57:00.006-05:00

To call Team USA a disappointment in the inaugural World Baseball Classic three years ago would be a severe understatement. They weren’t just disappointing, they were an embarrassment.

The team might have slightly overlooked their opponents as Todd Jones duly noted following their exit: “We thought we’d crush everybody.” Whoops. As it turned out, they didn’t crush anyone (outside of South Africa, but who couldn’t do that?) while stumbling to a 3-3 finish that ended with a loss to Mexico to knock them out of contention of even the semifinals.

Expect Team USA to come out more prepared and focused this time around when they kick off the second WBC this Saturday against Canada in Toronto. That won’t be the problem, but I don’t believe the USA has enough on its roster to compete for the WBC title. Don’t get me wrong, their roster is loaded with hitters by featuring a 20-home run player at every position. My concern is their pitching. Just like it goes in the MLB postseason, you can’t rely on hitting to come through in a tournament as short as this one. Instead, you need your pitching to be great.

Team USA has Roy Oswalt and Jake Peavy at the top of their rotation, which doesn’t look so bad on paper until you remember Oswalt’s horrendous April-May last year before he turned his season around. Will he be shaky and revert back to the struggling pitcher he was at the beginning of last season? If that answer ends up being yes then Team USA is in trouble. But even after Peavy and Oswalt, the next best starter on the team is Ted Lilly and then its fourth starter is Orioles young pitcher Jeremy Guthrie. Lilly is actually coming off one of his seasons in recent memory, but the guy is still a middle of the road, 4.50 ERA career pitcher. The bullpen should be just fine with arms like J.J. Putz, Scot Shields, Jonathan Broxton, John Grabow, J.P. Howell, Matt Lindstrom and Brad Zeigler available in late innings.

If the hitting gets hot, it won’t matter if I’m on the mound pitching, but three years ago the hitting was MIA as they scored 2, 4, 3 and 1 runs in four of the games. Team USA will show up better prepared than three years ago, but I think it’ll be starting pitching that will eventually do them in again.

Quote of the Year?

2009-03-03T23:10:00.008-05:00

I needed a good laugh this afternoon, and thankfully the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and newly added Pirates outfielder Jeff Salazar were willing to oblige.

"I like what the Pirates are trying to do. It's one thing to talk about it, but there are people around baseball who see what they're doing. And being here, you can just see it in their body language: They're done with the losing." - Jeff Salazar

Oh Jeff, Jeff, Jeff...you really have not been here that long at all. I love when the Pirates sign new free agents and they say something along the lines of this. Salazar has no idea what he just got himself into...if he even makes the team. Welcome to the Pittsburgh Pirates organization...Pride, Passion and unprecedented losing. We're talking about 16 seasons and counting. Get ready for all-time sports history, Jeff. Welcome to the Pirates, where the losing never ends.

A Sad Sight for Sunday Sports

2009-03-03T00:50:00.008-05:00

Recently, on a Sunday night in the marvelous town of New Castle, I found myself rapidly searching through my DirecTv lineup to find some good sports to watch. The NBA network had a thrilling matchup featuring the LA Clippers (yeah, LA still has another team) and the Utah Jazz. To say that I was even remotely interested would be the overstatement of the year. I mean, seriously, can't we even get a little Kobe or Lebron? Oops, that's right, ESPN owns most of their games so they can make us believe that the NBA matters before the playoffs.

At least FSN had ACC Sunday going on. Thankfully, I get to watch two teams buried in the standings so I know what to expect when they serve as sacrificial lambs to UNC and Duke in the conference tourney. Oh, and speaking of UNC, I was amazed when I recently watched an Oklahoma-Texas matchup and realized that Dicky V. had managed to drop North Carolina's on at least half a dozen occasions. While we're at it, how about everybody quits acting shocked when the #1 team in the nation falls. Face it folks, there's no dominate team in the nation and that's not a bad thing. Hell, the only thing I feel confident about in college basketball is that 50% of my friend's brackets will be killed when Pitt undoubtedly will choke again in the sweet 16.

Anyways, back to my Sunday night dilemma. My night finally took a good turn when over on ESPN Classic, I could catch replays of classic baseball games from the last decade. Well, at least what ESPN deems as classic, which is great news if you're a Yankees, Red Sox, or Cubs fan. See, here's the problem: When you live in a country where one ignorant, Connecticut based company is the predominant source for sports information and exposure, you're going to have hundreds of thousands of frat boys sporting their backwards Boston caps who will tell you how they've been a Red Sox fan since birth. Unfortunately, 80% of these tolls still think that Manny Ramirez is in Boston. My point is this: If your favorite team doesn't play in New York, Chicago, Boston, or LA then you probably should just forget about this baseball season. After all, judging by the affiliations and predictions oozing out of ESPN's "MLB Experts" (sorry if I doubt the expert knowledge of a panel that features John Kruk), these are the only teams in the league, let alone in contention for a World Series win.

But wait...what if there were 32 teams in the league?!?! What if somebody could tell you about ALL of them?

That's where Ryan and I come in to the picture. Unlike the millionaires employed by the juggernaut that is ESPN, we see things in a different light; a light that shines on the entire league, even on cities like Pittsburgh and Baltimore!

So here's how it's going to go down... Baseball begins in a little less than a month. Conveniently, there's only six divisions in MLB. For those who don't see where this is going, let me continue. For the next month you'll be getting major league division breakdowns and predictions. So mark your calendars and mute your ESPN experts because you're about to get the low down on the next seven months worth of baseball action!

Now Introducing...

2009-03-02T23:17:00.005-05:00

The Wheelhouse is glad to welcome a new contributor to the site and the world of sports blogging in my good friend Jared. I've know Jared for many years, spending a majority of our lives as neighbors and oddly enough, we still are neighbors to this day. Jared grew up around sports and he's gained a wealth of sports knowledge over the years and can sit down with anyone to discuss many angles of the game for hours. His love for sports fuels his desire to want to write about it on a variety of topics.

I think he's similar to me in that when asked what his favorite sport is, he would quickly respond football. But, just like me, I think he knows there's no time like Opening Day in baseball and come a sunny June afternoon, there's no place he'd rather be than at the ball yard, listening to a crack of the bat or the smell of a grill sifting through the air.

Not only is The Wheelhouse bringing Jared on for his knowledge of sports in general, but he will be providing us with his expertise in the great game of baseball. With spring training in full swing and the World Baseball Classic less than a week away, things will be picking up very shortly with baseball talk on this blog.

I must warn readers out there that Jared is a Braves fan, but go easy on him and try to ignore his Atlanta Braves bias mindset at times. Jared's first post will be coming shortly as we launched our MLB preview with a breakdown of each division heading into the 2009 season and which teams to watch for throughout the summer.

Welcome to The Wheelhouse, Jared.

Here We Go Again...

2009-02-11T11:46:00.004-05:00

So I wake up today, as I do every day, and the first story I see when I turn on ESPN is this...

Not Again

Does anyone actually believe Brett Favre this time around? I was waiting for him to make an announcement the night of the Super Bowl to steal some thunder, but he actually waited until the week after to drop this decision. I don't believe it.

I compare this to the movie Fever Pitch with Jimmy Fallon being two different people basically in summer and winter/baseball offseason. We're hearing from winter time Brett, he's always ready to retire because the football season is over and it seems like the right thing to do. Winter time Brett should not be trusted. Just wait till July or August when football season Brett shows up and he's bored, training camp begins and Favre is chomping at the bit. Favre should not be allowed to make an announcement from January to June.

Big Ben

2009-02-04T23:08:00.003-05:00

As far as I can remember growing up a Steeler fan, one of the most popular positions on the team was the backup quarterback. People were always criticizing Neil O'Donnell, Kordell Stewart (with good reason there) and yes, Ben Roethlisberger. I knew I had to do a post this week on Big Ben regarding his performance this season and especially in the Super Bowl. It's no secret that Pittsburgh fans have been hard on him, especially over the past two years after his horrible 2006 post-Super Bowl season. And sure, I've said some of the lines this year, "Put Leftwich in!", "Ben's been hit too many times, get him out of there." Well after that game-winning drive Sunday in Super Bowl XLIII, I'll never say a bad thing about Big Ben again.

Sure you can get on Ben about not playing that great all game and waiting for the last possibly chance to get the job done, but hey he has proven to be unbelievably clutch. It's the same reason why people love Brett Favre...you take the bad with the good because you've seen what he can do. I've come to the realization that's it's just Steelers football. Shut teams down with the defense and then score just enough points to get the win. It'd be a lot better on my blood pressure if they would take care of teams and put the game away somewhat early, but as it happened a lot this year, they just love taking it down to the final couple of minutes to decide the game's outcome.

What Roethlisberger did on that final drive was nothing short of amazing as he inserted his name into the great final drives talk of Elway, Montana and others. He did it all season with fourth quarter comebacks and he performed on sports biggest stage Sunday. And he did it with not much help from the O-line. They get him killed all season and he just bounces back with wins. The line had a holding call on the first play of the last drive Sunday that backed them up to the 12 and 1st and 20. And the very next play was key...Ben almost gets sacked, eludes the rush and hits the open man for a big pickup. He's had absolutely no time to throw all season and yes he holds onto the ball a little longer than usual, but he makes plays with his feet to find space more often than not.

He's 26 years old, has a ridiculous amount of wins already, engineered one of the greatest last-minute drives in Super Bowl history and has two Super Bowl rings. Say what you will about him, but you can't argue with all that. In the future if I ever hear people scrutinizing Ben again, I will defend him until I'm blue in the face.

A Super Parade

2009-02-03T22:45:00.001-05:00

Who would of thought a cold, gray Tuesday afternoon in February could be so much fun? Only in SIX-BURGH! Only in Pittsburgh would everything totally shut down for four hours for a Super Bowl parade...school closings, offices closing, people lining up at 8 a.m. for a noon parade. If you didn't make it out to the Super Bowl parade today at noon than shame on you for six weeks. But if you didn't make it out, here's what you missed.

You missed out on driving around for 30 minutes wondering "how can all these parking lots be full?!" And then when you did find a parking spot, you missed at least a good two-mile walk in 20 degree weather to the parade route. Then you missed trying to fight your way through thousands of fans and trying to find your friends when they are wearing the same thing that everyone else is wearing. But once there, you missed shouting with random strangers at the Steelers players, you missed Mike Tomlin, Ben Roethlisberger, James Harrison, Hines Ward, the Vince Lombardi Trophy, STEELY MCBEAM and much much more. What a day, what a parade! I saw people hanging and standing places I didn't think were possible, rooftops, parking garages, vending machines, traffic lights, etc. The Post-Gazette says city officials estimate about 400,000 Steelers fans today...that's insane. Downtown Pittsburgh is not that big, but then again all of those fans were only on about two streets come parade time.

There have been two Steelers Super Bowl parades in my lifetime. Three years ago I missed the Steelers Super Bowl XL parade because I was living across the country in California (don't ask). I kicked myself for not being here for it, and there was no way I was going to miss this one. I'll leave you with a few pictures of mine from today's celebration...

Steely!

Polamalu

Super Bowl XLIII

2009-02-02T23:09:00.008-05:00

My hat is off to the Arizona Cardinals on a valiant effort and making it one of the most exciting games in Super Bowl history. But this game will be remembered for the Steelers sixth Super Bowl title, Ben's incredible game-winning drive and James Harrison's longest play in Super Bowl history. The game ended up not being how I expected it to turn out. It started out that way with the Steelers seemingly in hand leading 20-7, but then a ridiculous fourth quarter showed up to make for one exciting finish.

Could there have been any more ups and downs in this game? Starting with the Steelers looking like they were going to blow the Cards out early, only to have the Cards battle back. Then to have Harrison make an amazing effort to stop the Cardinals from taking the lead and giving the Steelers at 10-point lead at the same time. When the Steelers led 20-7, I didn't think I would be sitting there seeing the Cards have the lead at some point...and just as fast as Larry Fitzgerald streaking down the middle of the field, the lead was gone. The Steelers blew it. I thought their inability to finish teams off by settling for field goals had finally caught up to them on the biggest stage. You hold the lead the entire game and then with just under three minutes left, you're trailing. That's a sick feeling...and I'm just a fan. I can't imagine what the players were going through, and then just when you thought it was over...there was Big Ben and Santonio Holmes. Oh my, what a finish (more on that drive in another post).

Following the game, everyone always wants to compare games to the all-time greats and things like that. People love to get the lists going. The best one ever? How can anyone answer that? How about one of the most exciting ones ever. Look, it's hard to compare this game to last year's game or Super Bowl XXV or Super Bowl XXXIV. I didn't think it could get any better than last year's game with the Giants upset over the Pats, but this year I found myself on the edge of my seat once again. You can't compare all the games and say this one was better than this or that. Different time, different teams and different circumstances are factored in with each great game and what it means to everyone out there watching the game. What someone says is great might not mean a whole lot to the next person. I can't say that last night's game was the best Super Bowl of all-time, but you'd have to agree that it's in the top five of all-time exciting Super Bowls.

World Champs!

2009-02-02T00:34:00.002-05:00

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Super Bowl Sunday

2009-02-01T16:00:00.005-05:00

Super Bowl Sunday is finally here. What a long two weeks. We were so busy worrying about the two-week layoff that we did zero posts in two weeks. Well this is the day where champions are remembered and losers are forgotten. It's been a nice run for two teams, but today only one will come away victorious. So who's going to win this game. You guessed it...I'm going with the Steelers, and it's not just because I'm from Pittsburgh. Anything can happen on any given Sunday, but looking at this game there's a huge advantage for the Steelers. It's not by accident that the Steelers are seven point favorites by Vegas today in Tampa. They have more overall talent than the Cardinals. They also have a better defense and what wins championships? Defense.

Another thing I always like to look at when it comes to the Super Bowl is the teams overall competition throughout the season and who they played during the regular season and playoffs. The Cardinals played in arguably the worst division in the NFL this year and went 6-0 against that competition. Outside of their division, the Cards went 3-7. Ouch. That's bad enough, but then you have to look at how they played some of their games. When they played the Jets, Patriots, Vikings and Eagles in the regular season...the Cardinals didn't just lose, they got beat down. And I don't hear about them mailing it in after they clinched the division toward the end of the year...they had their starters in and if they didn't come to play, well then that says something about what kind of team they are. The Steelers, on the other hand, played one of the toughest schedules in the NFL...having to play the Ravens twice, Chargers, Giants, Eagles, Redskins, Colts, Cowboys, Patriots, Jaguars and Titans. Come on, that's a brutal regular season schedule. Would the Cardinals have won nine games with that schedule? I don't think so.

I'm going to close with something I said (in another blog) before Super Bowl XL and it holds true this year. Pittsburgh is the toughest team that the Cardinals will face this season, but the Cardinals are not the toughest team the Steelers will face all year. That was true with the Steelers and Seahawks in 2005-06 and look what happened then. I expect much of the same today as the Steelers are more battled tested than the Cards and their defense is superior than Arizona's. I think Kurt Warner will be smothered by the Steelers D and Ben and the offense does enough to hoist the trophy.
Prediction: Steelers 31, Cardinals 17

Hey, What Happened to Ed Reed?

2009-01-19T01:50:00.004-05:00

With the celebration of the Steelers AFC Championship game victory dying down late in the night (or early in the morning), one question popped into my head...what happened to Ed Reed? In case you forgot, Reed is that safety from Baltimore who is supposed to be the greatest defensive player on Earth and better than Troy Polamalu. Yeah...well after the Steelers crushing win over the Ravens, I'm trying to figure out where Ed Reed was because I didn't see him at all during the game. I did see him talking to Mike Tomlin following the game so he was, in fact, in Pittsburgh. Well, I came up with a couple ideas of where Reed was during the game tonight...

Maybe Ed didn't know how many more trips he would be making to the 'Burgh that he had to check out Primanti Brothers to see if it was as good as advertised.

Or he could of had a dinner date with Eagles coach Andy Reid last night to discuss Reid's failures as a head coach...again.

Ed possibly could have been too stressed out waiting for the game to start and decided to ride the Duquesne Incline on Mt. Washington and just lost track of time. That could be it.

Or Ed could have really wanted to cruise the three rivers and rode the Majestic up and down the river all night.

If you didn't catch the sarcasm in this post then you're a mess. In all seriousness, Reed was in the official stat line. You wants cold, hard facts?
Ed Reed, two tackles. Troy Polamalu, three tackles, one interception, one touchdown and one ticket to Tampa. 'Nuff said.

Conference Championship Picks

2009-01-18T12:05:00.003-05:00

Today's the big day in the National Football League. If you're a fan of the Steelers, Ravens, Eagles or Cardinals, you're going nuts and your stomach has been in knots all week. If you're a general NFL and your team was knocked out already, you're still ready to watch history unfold today. I haven't made any picks all season on The Wheelhouse, but I decided these games were too big to pass up.

Eagles at Cardinals
For some reason I happen to like the Cardinals in this game today. They've been playing just as good as any team in the playoffs to this point. They are at home today in the desert. Their defense has been playing great in the playoffs while stopping two of the best running backs in the game in Michael Turner and DeAngelo Williams. Larry Fitzgerald is a beast and continues to make ridiculous catches. Anquan Boldin should return and be a factor for the Cards. And Kurt Warner has been to the Super Bowl before and got the job done. The Eagles, on the other hand, have been way too inconsistent this year for me to expect them to win for a fourth week in a row. I think the Cardinals contain Brian Westbrook today and Warner gets it going through the air and makes Philadelphia play the Cardinals way in a shootout.
Cardinals 31, Eagles 21

Ravens at Steelers
Here we go again. Baltimore and Pittsburgh meet for the third time in what is quickly becoming one of the best rivalries in football. Just like the first two games in the regular season, expect this game to be a knockdown, street fight between two teams that genuinely don't like each other. Pittsburgh won both games in the regular season on a final game-winning field goal in overtime, and they won the second game on a touchdown with under a minute to play. So it's tough to beat a team three times in one season right? Wrong. Read my post from a couple days ago if you disagree with me. I like the Steelers in this one today. First, the Steelers defense is better than the Ravens all season and they proved it in the first two games against the Ravens. Second, I'd rather have the Steelers offense than the Ravens offense led by a rookie. Joe Flacco has done a great job this year, but he really hasn't been asked to do much with that defense behind him. I just don't see a scenario where Flacco goes into Heinz Field and wins a game to the Super Bowl. Call me bias, but I think that's too much to call on a rookie to do. I think the Steelers move the ball well against the Ravens defense today and PROTECT the football, which is key anytime in the playoffs especially in a game like this. I like the Steelers today, and I actually like them by about two touchdowns. I pray I'm right on this one.
Steelers 24, Ravens 9

The Common Sense Rule

2009-01-16T17:05:00.004-05:00

In a story that flew under the radar yesterday, owners voted to change a MLB rule that finally makes sense. The baseball owners approved the change to allow head-to-head records determine home-field advantage for one-game playoff tiebreakers following the season. It's a refreshing change that I applaud being made considering they previously used a coin toss to determine the home site.

That's right, a coin toss. As you can see, it's about time a change was made. I'm calling this the common sense rule from now on. If you remember back to last October when the Twins and White Sox met up for a one-game playoff for the division in Chicago. They played at US Cellular in Chicago because despite the Twins winning the season series, the White Sox won a coin toss. Under the new common sense rule, the Twins would be hosting the playoff in the Metrodome and would have won. Not that it would have mattered because neither team was getting past the Rays, but it's about time they made the change to dump the coin toss as a tiebreaker for something as important as a one-game playoff. I don't know who ever came up with using a coin toss to determine home field originally because that's garbage. The coin toss is used as a very last resort to breaking a tie in sports...I think the NFL uses it as like number 10 on a long playoff tiebreaking list.

Kudos to the MLB owners for making one good decision this offseason.

Defeating a Team Three Times in One Season? Never!

2009-01-14T23:53:00.001-05:00

With the Steelers AFC Championship game against the Ravens looming this week, I've heard the same line over and over again, and I'm sick of it. Apparently it has become universally known that it's difficult to defeat the same opponent three times in one year. It's almost become a cliche. I thought it was tough to beat a playoff team once period. I don't know who ever came up with that idea, but did anyway think of actually researching it? Thankfully, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette took care of that.

According to the Post-Gazette, there have been 18 instances in NFL history where teams have met up for a third time in the playoffs with one team winning both regular season contests. The team that won both games the first two times around are 11-7 in the crucial third game, including a 7-3 record in the most recent 10 times it has happened. Not too mention that the Steelers are 2-0 in these games after beating the Browns (the old Ravens) three times in 1994 and more recently in 2002. I'm not saying that it can't happen, but these numbers clearly prove that the team winning the first two games are well over .500 in the final game. So can the media and experts please put this argument to bed? I'm tired of hearing it.

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin had a great answer this week when asked about the myth...

"I personally don't subscribe to that hocus-pocus to be honest with you."

Me neither, Coach.

Worst Performances of the Divisional Playoffs

2009-01-12T16:11:00.005-05:00

Everyone likes to talk about the top performances from the weekend and hand out game balls all the time. But that won't be happening here. The Wheelhouse will hand out the worst performances from the latest NFL week. We want to know who failed and really stunk it up each week. So instead of game balls being awarded for good play, this will be like eggs being thrown out for terrible play. We'll hand out a couple here each week, but there's no limit as we'll let the bad play deem how many to give out.

Jake Delhomme, 17/34, 205 yards, 1 TD, 5 INTs, 1 fumble.
Jake Delhomme is not a great quarterback nor is he a bad quarterback. He has good games more often then he has his share of bad games. On Saturday night, however, Delhomme was downright awful in the Panthers loss to the Arizona Cardinals. We're talking one of the worst performances by a player in the history of the NFL postseason. In a game the Panthers were heavily favored, Delhomme did not keep it close as he turned the ball over six times...six! He threw five interceptions and lost one fumble on way to Arizona's easy 33-13 victory.

Sometimes you can't put all the interceptions on the quarterback, but this game it was pretty much all Delhomme's fault. He was impatient from the start of the game, making terrible reads and throwing into double and triple coverage while a couple times tossing it right to the Cardinals defenders. He said after the game that he apologized to his teammates in the huddle during the fourth quarter. I don't know if I've ever heard anyone else do that before. It was such a terrible performance that it almost became laughable at some point during the second half as it just was not his night at all. And the kicker was that this all happened on his birthday. Ouch. I feel bad for ol' Jake, but he gets an egg for that horrendous performance.

Eli Manning, 15/29, 169 yards, 0 TDs, 2 INTs.
There were plenty of bad performances in the Giants-Eagles game Sunday because the defenses were pounding the offenses all game, but the blame for the Giants has to fall on Eli Manning. He got the much deserved credit last year for their Super Bowl run, but he was not the same quarterback late in this season when they lost Plaxico Burress from the lineup. Manning's quarterback rating drop almost 30 points without Burress and yesterday, he did not get the job done at home for the G-men. He threw two interceptions, one directly in the stomach of Asante Samuel, ran probably the worst QB sneak in NFL history on fourth and inches and he failed to find a deep threat or get the ball into the end zone as they settled for three field goals.

Playcalling was also suspect in this game by New York. In what was a close game all four quarters, the Giants continued to try and put the ball in the air in windy conditions instead of pounding it to Brandon Jacobs all day. Jacobs was effective with 19 rushes for 92 yards, but could of easily had another 10 carries while Manning continued to struggle. And just like that, the defending champs were out.

Honorable mention this week goes to the referees in the Titans-Ravens game. Refs never had control of this slug fest from the first whistle, and how does a back judge miss a blatant delay of game in a tie game when his job is to watch the play clock?

Is Peyton Manning Still a Choker?

2009-01-08T10:41:00.005-05:00

Deadspin ran a post earlier this week posing the question if Peyton Manning was still a choker after his Colts were knocked from the playoffs again last Saturday. I don't hide the fact that I don't really like Manning. I like to watch him lose, it's fun to me. I don't know where that comes from, probably because I'm scared as hell when he's going up against the Steelers. He has those commercials that you can't help but laugh at, but besides those I'm not a big fan of him.

Will that being said, is he a choker that can't win the big game? Absolutely not. I've been reading other articles about this same thing from different news outlets, and I can't believe it. Manning won a Super Bowl just two years ago. I don't care how many times he loses in the playoffs before and after that...he defeated his rival Tom Brady and the Patriots in the AFC Championship game that year and then won the big game. Dan Marino couldn't win the big one. Peyton Manning has already won a Super Bowl.

To further my point, has anyone watched the Colts team this year? The Colts running game was horrendous and their defense was mediocre at best. Manning was the MVP of the NFL this year and that was the right choice because without him, the Colts would have been 6-10. The Colts didn't lose to the Chargers because of something Manning did or did not do. The team had other problems. Earlier in Manning's career, he was choking in playoff games and throwing three or four picks to the Patriots and Ty Law. But I don't recall him making any mistakes last week against the Chargers. Plus, no matter what happens in the future, Manning still has that ring to flash to critics.

James Harrison = MVP

2009-01-05T16:36:00.004-05:00

If you're a diehard Steelers fan, then you've known about James Harrison's ability years before the rest of the NFL got the memo. You remember him dominating on special teams for years and at linebacker during preseason games before becoming a regular starter in 2006. And you also remember the game on Christmas Eve 2005 when Harrison body slammed a drunk, Browns fan who had run onto the field during a 41-0 beat down of the Brownies. Of all the accolades that Harrison has accumulated, that was easily my favorite James Harrison moment...

Today, Harrison (the pride of Kent State!) finally earned his due by being named the 2008 NFL Defensive MVP. His monster season includes breaking the Steelers sack record with 16 to go along with a career-high seven forced fumbles and he did all that despite being held on every single play and sitting out the season finale against Cleveland. When you're breaking the Steelers single-season sack record...that's getting it done. Congrats to Harrison on the very deserving honor, and let's hope he's well rested and ready to get after Philip Rivers this Sunday.

Worst Performances of the Wild Card Round

2009-01-04T23:57:00.004-05:00

Despite it being late in the NFL season, I'm going to start this weekly post anyway. Everyone likes to talk about the top performances from the weekend and hand out game balls all the time. But that won't be happening here. The Wheelhouse will hand out the worst performances from the latest NFL week. We want to know who failed and really stunk it up each week. So instead of game balls being awarded for good play, this will be like eggs being thrown out for terrible play. We'll hand out a couple here each week, but there's no limit as we'll let the bad play deem how many to give out.

Here are the worst performances from this week's NFL wild card round...

Chad Pennington, 25/38 for 252 yards, 1 TD, 4 INTs. Chad Pennington's storybook season peaked last week when he led the Dolphins into his former place of work and defeated his old team to clinch the AFC East Division. This week his season ended with an early exit from the playoffs with a performance you can only describe as a lame effort. You can't turn the ball over against the Ravens defense...you just can't do it. Pennington threw seven picks all season and threw four today...two of them to Ed Reed, which by the way is unbelievable that people still throw Reed's way at all.

I believe the Jets were correct in getting rid of Pennington before this season because even though he had a great regular season, Pennington is the same guy he's always been. He might get you to the playoffs, but he won't win the big one for you or even get you close to the big one for that matter. Congrats Chad on getting the first egg thrown at you in the history of The Wheelhouse!

LaDainian Tomlinson, 5 rushes, 25 yards, 1 TD, a detached groin and a lot of sitting on the bench. I think it's time to declare that LaDainian Tomlinson disappears in the playoffs. And not because he doesn't perform, it's because it seems like every time a playoff game hits, LT has some weird injury that came out of nowhere. If you played all season with it, why can't he play now? It's the playoffs...show me something, get out there! Remember the AFC Championship game from last year where all LT did was sit on the bench with his helmet and coat on looking cold and bored in New England. He apparently was injured in that game too. But even if you're injured, show some emotion for your team LaDainian! He makes no attempt to be a cheerleader on the sideline and get behind his team...he just sits there, looking like he'd rather be anywhere else but at the game.

Thankfully for the Chargers playoff hopes, they had speedster Darren Sproles to carry the load and be the dagger to pierce the Colts hearts yesterday. LT has been one of the best running backs in the NFL the past five or so years, but let's face it...he disappears in the playoffs.

Honorable mention goes to Tarvaris Jackson. I don't care how great Adrian Peterson is, the Vikings will never go anywhere with Jackson at QB.

The Big Ten is Officially Down

2009-01-03T16:37:00.002-05:00

Every year when that classic debate arises of which football conference is the strongest, Big Ten supporters always point to the bowl games and its surprisingly good bowl record. And with good reason. Bowl games are always a good measuring stick for conferences because teams are playing competition from other conferences that they don't face very often. It actually makes the bowl season a little more interesting to watch. So Big Ten fans make it a point that the conference isn't really down because of what they do in bowl games over the last couple of years. Well, they won't be doing that this year.

Everyone knew that the Big Ten was down this year during the regular season and now you are getting real proof at just how bad it is. The Big Ten is an awful 1-6 in bowl games so far this season and with Ohio State left to play Texas Monday...I'm not really expecting much out of them. If OSU loses, it will drop the Big Ten to 1-7. If that wasn't bad enough, Penn State, who for most of the season looked like an explosive team that had a good shot at the national title, got leveled by USC in the Rose Bowl. The only conference with a worse winning percentage this year is the MAC, which is 0-4 with one game to play.

Iowa is the only Big Ten team to record a win so far while Wisconsin was blown out by Florida State, Michigan State lost to Georgia, Minnesota was hammered by Kansas. Northwestern was the only team to put up a close fight, losing to Missouri in overtime. Maybe the record wouldn't seem as bad as it is, but then you look at how the majority of the teams lost, it's not a good sign for the conference. I don't think it'll get any better for the Big Ten in the next couple of years either. The SEC seems to get better every year, the Big 12 has four to five elite programs now and the PAC-10, who is another conference the rest of the country writes off, went 5-0 in bowl games this year.

The Jets are Classy

2009-01-01T23:39:00.002-05:00

In sports, you win as a team and you lose as a team. Apparently, the New York Jets haven't figured that out yet. It's bad enough to go in the proverbial downward spiral, losing your last four out of five games to miss the playoffs. But it's another whole story when your players start throwing their teammates under the bus not even a week after their season ended. Thomas Jones and other "anonymous" teammates have been doing a lot of talking this week saying things like Brett Favre was distant from the team, his careless interceptions should have warranted a benching and coach Eric Mangini wasn't the reason the team missed the playoffs. Jones has since backtracked his comments, saying he has nothing but respect for Favre, but the damage has been done with his and other players comments.

I'm not going to say that Favre wasn't horrible down the stretch. He actually stunk, throwing seven picks in his last three games. But Favre wasn't the only one stinking it up on this team in December. There were a lot of dropped passes by Jet receivers in their final game against Miami so you can't put it all on Favre. Maybe Jones should point the finger at himself...he didn't run for 100 yards in his last four games while managing only 67 yards against Seattle and 23 yards against the Dolphins. Also, the Jets defense was an absolute joke the past month so there's plenty of blame to go around. Favre has always thrown picks throughout his career and still racked up wins all the time. The Jets knew what they were getting themselves into and the owner has already stated that he wants Favre to return next year.

The Jets were 8-4 with Favre and despite what happened at the end of the season, let's be honest...the Jets would not have been leading their division in Week 13 without Brett Favre. Who else were they going to turn to? Kellen Clemens? Come on. I wonder what kind of year Jones would have had running the football with Clemens behind center? He had a more productive season because defenses were accounting for Favre. Jones should think about that before opening his mouth.

Then there's anonymous players talking crap toward Favre about him being distant. All I have to say to that is if you aren't man enough to put your name behind what you are saying then don't go spreading rumors to the media or anyone. There's a better way to handle these issues. The Jets were already set up for an interesting offseason with the Favre retirement issue, but now these comments should make for a fun couple of months especially if Favre comes back. Jones and these anonymous players need to spend the offseason looking at themselves and figuring out what they can do to improve the team for next season.

The Year 2008 in a Blog Post

2008-12-31T11:04:00.002-05:00

Can you believe the year 2008 is almost over? Another year passes by and I still feel like it was just yesterday that it was 2003 when the only care in the world I had was if I was going to finish that research paper by deadline. But here we are on the final day of 2008, and there's no better time for The Wheelhouse 2008 Recap! I'm going to do a quick rundown of the top five sports stories in 2008 that held my interest the most. We'll start with ol' numero uno...

1. Super Bowl XLII - Easily the number one story of 2008, at least for me, was the Giants stunning win over the Patriots in SB XLII. This game had it all. Undefeated team, upstart six seed from the NFC, stars like Tom Brady and Eli Manning. We wrote a lot about the game on this blog leading up to the game about how everyone wrote off the Giants and how the media had already handed the "greatest team ever" title to the Patriots. Well as the saying goes, that's why they play the game. Eli Manning's scramble through about five New England defenders to launch it in the general direction of David Tyree and Tyree's unbelievable catch on the Giants game-winning drive will go down in Super Bowl history as one of the greatest catches ever. If you watched this game and hated the Patriots, you were going absolutely ballistic when the Giants pulled this game out. I remember telling my friends that I was more excited at the end of that game than I would have been if the Steelers had won it all. That probably wasn't true, but it proved how thrilling of a finish it really was.

2. Michael Phelps Mania - No one can really explain how it happened, but in mid-August 2008, the country fell into Michael Phelps mania. Phelps dominated the swimming competition at the Beijing Olympics, rolling to an Olympic-record eight gold medals while shattering world records in the process. Suddenly everyone was into swimming, terms like individual medley, butterfly, freestyle, world record were being thrown around by people who I don't think ever watched a swimming meet in their life. Phelps captivated millions during his amazing run at Beijing and easily was the story of the Olympics...if not the entire year. Out of his eight gold medals, none was more exciting than his seventh in the 100m butterfly as he rallied to win the gold by 0.01 second over Serbia's Milorad Cavic. The replays were analyzed over and over, but clearly showed Phelps touch the wall just before Cavic. I don't know if we'll ever see someone dominate like Phelps again at the Olympics, but I'll always remember where I was during Phelps mania in August '08.

3. Penguins Stanley Cup Run - While this subject gets buried in mainstream sports media, if you were a fan of hockey or the Penguins this run to the Cup Finals was a memorable one. Even though the Pens came up short in the finals, losing to the Red Wings in six games...it was an exciting Stanley Cup finals that did its best to save hockey and excite newer fans to the game. This had been building in Pittsburgh since the strike ended and a salary cap was in place in the NHL. The Pens got the number one pick in 2005 and drafted the phenom Sidney Crosby. They also had drafted Evgeni Malkin in 2004 and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury in 2003. Everyone was waiting for the team to finally click and put it all together and they exploded toward the end of the 2007-2008 season and rolled through the Eastern Conference in exciting fashion. Everyone in Pittsburgh had Cup fever for the first time since the early '90s. I had the opportunity to attend Game 2 of the Cup Finals in Detroit and while the Pens forgot to show up to the game, I don't regret it for a minute. While the first two games ended up being one sided, the Pens got their act together and made the next four games all close games, including their thrilling 4-3 victory in three OTs in Detroit for Game 5. The series posted the best ratings since the NHL had returned from strike in 2004 and was pretty much a 100 percent increase from the previous finals.

4. The Brett Favre Saga - Not all these stories can be things that were good for the sport. The will he or won't he question for Brett Favre continued on even after his "official" retirement in March of 2008. After sitting around for four months, the Favre rumors started hitting in July that he contacted the Packers about the possibility of coming back. And what followed for the next month was something I don't think the sport has ever seen. ESPN basically camped out in Green Bay and Louisiana for weeks and in the process, we heard about secret meetings, phone calls, text messages between Favre and coach Mike McCarthy and GM Ted Thompson and then the owner flying down to Louisiana to talk him back into retirement and on and on and on. And then there was the press conference that sealed the deal and the Packers finally stating that they met with Brett and that they were moving on in another direction with Aaron Rodgers. Thompson sat there looking like a deer in highlights while all McCarthy could do was say the word "mindset" more times than Allen Iverson said practice in his famous clip. This whole farce finally ended with Favre being traded to the Jets and that was that. Packers moved on with Rodgers and the Jets got their man in Favre. And as we now know, both teams aren't going anywhere but home for the playoffs. Just for the record, this was not a story I enjoyed hearing about, instead it was incredibly annoying and come July I didn't really care who Favre played for, but the story was a memorable one. Get ready for the Favre question to come up again in 2009...I can't wait.

5. Tom Brady's Injury - Unless you are a Patriots fan or a female, you were cheering Tom Brady's injury in week one of the 2008 NFL season. You purchased your Bernard Pollard shirt and secretly or publicly stated that Brady deserved it. Even if he did or not, you loved every moment of it and you were waiting for the collapse of Bill Belichick this season. While the latter didn't happen, the Pats still went 11-5 with a high school quarterback, but missed the playoffs anyway. How far the mighty has fallen. Just 12 months ago, the Patriots were undefeated and cruising to their fourth Super Bowl title...then came fate with the Giants in the Super Bowl and then the devastating injury to Brady. It was about time things fell apart for once for the video-taping cheaters.

As for me, 2008 was just another year to add to the madness. I had the good fortune of making it out to Chicago a couple times for a White Sox-Pirates game and also a Cubs-Pirates game at Wrigley Field. Like I stated above, I went to Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals in Dtown. I also went to Central Michigan's primetime game as they hosted Ball State (random, yes I know). I was in attendance to watch Ohio State roll Sparty and Michigan State in East Lansing. And I made my second trip to the Sky Dome...er Rogers Centre for a Blue Jays-Red Sox game in September. Also, 2008 will be remembered as the year Todd and I launched this site after years of talking about it. Overall, not a bad year at all.

What does 2009 have in store? We'll find out shortly. I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year!

So This is Christmas!

2008-12-25T11:35:00.004-05:00

Everyone here at The Wheelhouse would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Have a fun and safe time in your travels to visit family and friends today. And remember it's better to give than to receive...or at least that's what they say. I'm giving our readers one of my favorite Christmas clips that's posted on youtube...it's the classic Charlie Brown Christmas special performed by the cast of Scrubs. It's worth a watch even if you've seen it a million times. Have a great Christmas!

JoePa is Going to Die on the Football Field

2008-12-16T22:14:00.003-05:00

Hey, I love Joe Paterno. He's one of the greatest football coaches in college football history, if not the best considering he's the winningest coach in Division I-A history with 383 victories and his longevity at Penn State is a remarkable achievement. He's been involved in Penn State football even as an assistant since 1950. Think about that for a minute. That's 58 years he's been at State College yelling at college kids trying to turn these players into a solid college football team. Of course, I don't think he's actually coached a game for the Nittany Lions in about 10 years while posing more as a figure head for the university lately. Everybody knows defensive coordinator Tom Bradley has really been coaching the team the past decade, but everyone ignores that fact because it's JoePa. But I've also said in jest that JoePa is going to die on the football field...and with the news that came out today, it might just happen.

Penn State and JoePa agreed to another three years of coaching. That makes him the coach of the program through 2011. JoePa turns 82 this Sunday. 82 years of age! He has to be the oldest coach in the history of college football and if he isn't, he probably will be in 2011. We are talking about a coach that made more headlines in the news about whether or not he would be on the sideline or in the coaches box this year then actually coaching decisions.

I don't think Penn State will ever tell JoePa no, and I don't think JoePa will ever say he doesn't want to coach. And since we have these two things happenings, he is going to die on the football field...during a game sometime in the future. It'll be one of the biggest stories to cover in years. ESPN will be there for weeks after and Lee Corso will be crying like a baby. It'll be a tragic and incredibly sad day in Happy Valley as well as everywhere around the country, but I think he would be happy with it all because I don't think there's any other place JoePa would want to be when his time is up then on a football field doing what he loved.

Buffalo, Don't Play Football in Toronto

2008-12-09T23:45:00.003-05:00

It's time to discuss this whole Buffalo Bills playing football games in the SkyDome (Rogers Centre) in Toronto and what do do with the roof. If you aren't fully aware of the situation, here's a quick update. Last offseason the Bills decided to strike a deal with the city of Toronto and the Rogers Centre to play a certain number of games in Toronto over the next couple of years. The idea behind this is that Buffalo is attempting to lure people from Canada's largest city to extend their fan base and gain some extra revenue as well. I always thought the Bills had a great and passionate following already in Buffalo, but whatever...they want more. They played a preseason game against the Steelers in the summer and last week was their first regular season game in the SkyDome, and it was against Miami.

The problem arose when the Bills thought that the retractable roof would be open in an obvious cold, snowy weather game against a team from sunny Florida. Not too mention a Dolphins team that has struggled heavily over the years in Orchard Park. The roof ended up staying closed and the Dolphins rolled to a 16-3 win in the climate-controlled atmosphere. While the Rogers Centre people agreed that it would be great to open it, they said they just couldn't and listed two main reasons. One being that the SkyDome does not have the proper drainage system on the field because when it rains for baseball games, they close the roof. Makes sense. The second reason was that the roof is "locked" into place once the Blue Jays season ends. Now, you can say both parties are to blame for not discussing this roof scenario from day one when this contract was agreed to, but I think the blame falls on the Bills. Blame Canada? Nope, not this time. If you have a problem with the roof, don't play the games in another venue, period.

They took a marquee home game against a division rival in Miami and took it out of Orchard Park and into a dome in a foreign city and did not think to even mention if they could have the roof open for these games. Memo to Buffalo, don't play games in another city two hours away. Yeah you want extra revenue, but at the same time, you risk alienating your own fans for taking home games away from them.

Guess what Toronto is getting out of this deal? They want to showcase their city as a future NFL team home. The Bills front office are playing a very dangerous game with this Toronto deal because Toronto obviously wants a team in the future. There are two ways I see this playing out. One is that Toronto does get an NFL franchise in the future and being only two hours away from Buffalo, the Bills are going to lose fans, lose revenue, lose sponsorships, lose merchandise sales and have to compete right in their own market for coverage. The second thing that could happen is that Bills owner Ralph Wilson, who is 90, dies in a couple years, the team goes up for sale on an open market and some executive in Toronto buys them, moves them to Canada and just like that Buffalo is out of a NFL franchise.

The Bills need to rethink this deal for next year. Stick to playing games in your own city and country...not two hours away so a different city can show off how into football they are. If I were a Bills fan up in Buffalo, I would be very uneasy about this current arrangement. Instead of spending time moving games to Toronto, they need to start figuring out how they can hold onto the team and keep them where they belong in Buffalo once Wilson passes on.

The Burgh Blog Ends

2008-11-18T16:58:00.002-05:00

The online blogging community lost one hell of a blogger today as The Burgh Blog decided to cease operations. You can read the final post here. The Burgh Blog ran for three years and though I did not become aware of the blog until earlier this year, it was one that I checked almost daily since then to read PittGirl's latest stories and happenings in and around Pittsburgh.

Living outside of Pittsburgh for the past two years, reading the Burgh Blog always made me feel that I was staying in touch with the city and its people. PittGirl shared a love for Pittsburgh that many readers knew all too well and made others long to return to the city. Her writing was intellectual, witty, honest, humorous, real and in short, fantastic.

We here at The Wheelhouse know the inordinate amount of time it takes to put into something as simple as a daily post. And how a various number of things get in the way of writing with the biggest obstacle being life. Life gets in the way: That 9-5 job, the commute to and from work, family, old friends, new friends, kids, significant others, emergencies, etc. So for whatever reasons she chose, we can understand the decision to stop the blog with everything else going on in life. As I'm sure it will be hard on PittGirl to stop doing what she loves after three years, it'll be almost as tough to not be able to check it anymore and read the insightful writing. PittGirl, thanks for the daily breaks from our lives...you will be missed.

It's Football Season

2008-11-17T14:19:00.006-05:00

Yesterday while watching the bizarre Steelers-Chargers game early in the game, I was thinking the same exact thing that Todd, the other esteemed author of The Wheelhouse, texted me after a Hines Ward catch and run of 30 yards in the snow...

"Hines Ward is just great."

It's so true. Hines has always been a favorite player of mine for years as you can always count on him to produce year in and year out (and annihilate a couple linebackers from time to time). But during Sunday's game, it just didn't feel like football season was in full effect until you see Hines Ward sliding his way past defenders in the snow and muddy field at Heinz Field. At least to me it doesn't. Well, football season is officially here now as Ward had a monster day with 11 catches for 124 yards, the referees tried to change the outcome with penalties and terrible calls and the Steelers won the first 11-10 game in the history of the NFL. In fact, to drive home the fact of how strange a game it was...when was the last time a team had a 300-yard passer, a 100-yard rusher, a 100-yard receiver, had no turnovers and scored zero touchdowns? Let me know if anyone finds that out. How can the Steelers top that next week?

News Flash to Keith Olbermann: The Election Ended

2008-11-13T17:04:00.007-05:00

Keith Olbermann is a dick. I've known this for a while now and that's why I do not "Football Night in America" on NBC...actually I never really watched it because he's intolerable. The guy should of just stuck to sports...something he knows, but no he wanted to be a "real" newscaster! Yeah that's right, he went from calling slam dunks on Sportscenter to being an "expert" on politics. So for some unknown reason last night, I found myself watching his show on MSNBC, "Countdown with Keith Olbermann."

During this offensive show, Olbermann rambles on and on for a 10-minute rant on the many interviews Governor Palin has been doing since the election ended. Oh and that rant goes on and on with the camera two inches from his fat face. Who cares that Palin's being interviewed? If there are networks out there that want to talk to her then obviously somebody wants to hear from her. Keith, you do know the election is over right? You can't persuade any Americans with your shitty liberal show anymore. Leave the woman alone.

After ruining my night by watching the show, a funny thought hit me. What will Olbermann talk about with no George W. Bush around or no Republicans in office? This show should come to a crashing halt. Since Olbermann's had the show in 2003, he's criticized the Bush administration and any other Republican he could find. What will he do with his boy Obama in the White House? He wouldn't dare say anything to hurt a Democrats image to the American people! Maybe he can make fun of everything Bush does after his term is up. Maybe they can just pull his show since he'll have nothing to talk about anymore. Then again, he never really had anything paramount to say anyway.

Start Spreading the News

2008-09-28T17:20:00.002-04:00

For the first time since 1993 (excluding the strike year), the MLB playoffs will not feature a team from New York.

What a shame.

How dare the baseball world move on to the post-season without the Yankees or Mets. It's the first time this has happened since the divisional series and wildcard have been added. Just think about the waste of millions of dollars with each team.

The Yankees focused on their potent lineup, but did not add any depth to their rotation and it cost them. They relied on pitching "prospects" Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes to bolster their staff, but they ended up in Triple-A or the DL for the majority of the year. They dealt other prospects away for Ivan Rodriguez and Xavier Nady to replace the injuries of Posada and Matsui. All for not.

Then you have the Metropolitans who went out and traded potential superstar Carlos Gomez to Minnesota for Johan Santana. The hope was for Santana to push the Mets into the post-season after last season's September collapse. Santana did his part. The Mets bullpen did not. The pen was awful, especially after losing Billy Wagner to injury late in the season. They wasted numerous Santana starts all season and then could not close out games down the stretch, leading to another missed playoff opportunity.

Talk about two teams with similar comparisons. Two New York teams closing their respectable stadiums this year, featuring $100+ million payrolls and nothing to show for it on the last day of the season.

We won't have to hear from the Big Apple this October, and that's just fine with me.

Johan Santana Must Hate the Mets

2008-08-07T23:45:00.000-04:00

Johan Santana couldn't have envisioned this when he decided to leave the Minnesota organization after eight stellar seasons to sign the New York Mets. Like most people in baseball, he was banking on the Mets being a power in the National League and with them adding him to the rotation, this was supposed to be his best chance at a World Series ring. Well the Mets are on their way to screwing that up.

Earlier today, Santana tossed another brilliant game for the Metropolitans, leaving in the 8th inning with a 3-2 lead. The bullpen promptly served up a game-tying home run in the ninth, taking the win away once again from Johan. They have done this on a routine basis this year, including two outings ago when the Mets bullpen gave up three runs over the past two innings against the Astros.

Santana currently has a dominating 2.85 ERA through 24 starts in 161 innings. His record to show for that sterling ERA? 9-7. Nine wins. He has tossed 16 quality starts and have lost four of those games. Another six of those starts have ended in a no-decision after the pen decided to blow it. Not to mention two starts where he suffered the loss after allowing only one run through seven plus innings due to lack of run support.

The bottom line is Santana is fifth in the National League in ERA and should have about 16 or 17 wins. If things keep up the way they are going, he's looking at his lowest win total since 2002, when he only made 14 starts and won eight. Obviously he's going to be saying the right things to the media, but this has to be frustrating. Also, this isn't just about him getting wins for his stat line, but the Mets signed him to help get them over their massive collapse from last year. That hasn't been happening, and it's not going to happen if they continue to waste starts from their best pitcher. The Mets are only two games behind Philadelphia for the division, but unless they find a way to take advantage of Santana's starts, the Mets are going to miss the playoffs for the second consecutive year.

You've Never Seen This Before

2008-08-06T23:51:00.002-04:00

One of the greatest appeals of baseball is that could watch two thousand games and one day see something you've never seen before. Well on a summer night in early August in Kansas City, Jason Bay hit one of the strangest doubles (and almost home run) you will ever see...

ESPN Should Welcome Rain Delays More Often

2008-08-05T01:15:00.000-04:00

ESPN had its Monday Night Baseball game of the Cubs-Astros all ready to go tonight, but an extended rain delay made for great TV. With the rain coming down and tarp going on at Wrigley, ESPN jumped around from game to game, showing fans a small morsel of almost all the games around the country tonight. And they had a knack for picking games at the right time.

In Texas, we saw a couple big home runs for the Rangers against the Yankees. In Tampa, we saw David Dellucci's moonshot for the Indians to give them the lead for good over the Rays. They also showed games that normally you would never see on national television, such as the Rockies-Nationals and the Pirates-Diamondbacks. Of course when they went to the Pirates game, the D-Backs were finishing a six-run eighth inning in a 13-7 win. They also sent us over to see Seattle's big comeback against the Twins as the Mariners put up a 10 spot in the seventh inning.

In the middle of this smorgasbord of games, the Cubs game got going again for a couple innings, but went to a delay again due to lightning in the area. It was eventually called a short time later. Before that though, ESPN capped off the live look-ins with the Angels-Orioles in what was the best game (or finish) of the night. With LA leading 5-1 in the ninth with two on and two out, the Angels summoned K-Rod in what would appear to be an easy save only needing one out for his 46th save of the season. That was not the case. Rodriguez got Roberts to ground to first base, but everybody was save after the ball skipped off Mark Teixeira for a fielding error. With the bases loaded, he served up a two-run single off Nick Markakis to cut the lead to 5-3. After a wild pitch that moved the runners into scoring position, Melvin Mora ripped a two-run double to tie the game. K-Rod stood shocked on the mound after only his fourth blown save of the year. The Angels went on to win it in the bottom of the inning, but at the point the Cubs game was over and we were sent to Sportscenter.

I don't say this often, but kudos to ESPN for not leaving us with John Kruk and Buster Olney for the entire length of the rain delay to hear them yap on telling rain delay stories. I felt like I had the MLB Extra Innings package as we jumped around from game to game all night. Maybe ESPN can just schedule nights where we see 8-10 different games. That would be fantastic, but I'm sure contract obligations and what not get in the way of that. Maybe I can just pray for rain delays on Monday and Wednesday nights. Either way, one thing is for sure. Tonight was a lot more fun watching that then any Cubs-Astros game has even been.

The Pirates Finally Made the Right Moves

2008-08-03T23:39:00.004-04:00

Look, I'm a Pittsburgh Pirates fan...probably the biggest one you'll find these days. I'll be the first to point out the horrendous signings, drafting and trades they've made in the past 15 years. But the two trades made in the past week at the trade deadline were the right moves. Most of the fans and people around baseball are saying "here we go again" with the Pirates. I understand that fans are fired up once again (trust me, I've been there), but this time it is different. Really.

Some are comparing the Jason Bay trade to the Aramis Ramirez deal in 2003 when the Pirates handed the Cubs an All-Star third baseman for pretty much nobody (Bobby Hill, Jose Hernandez and Matt Bruback). They went ahead with that trade because they could not pay Ramirez what he wanted, and the front office at the time had no idea how to value its stars for sterling prospects. This is not the case this time around.

The Pirates can afford Jason Bay. They can afford Xavier Nady. The problem is prior management (Cam Bonifay, Dave Littlefield) left this organization in shambles with the Major League roster and minor league system depleted of stars and talent. The Pirates weren't going to finish over .500 with Bay and Nady...they simply need a lot more. Forget about the history and press that will come with the 16th consecutive losing season because it's already over. It's going to happen and there's nothing to do about it in the final two months, but they can start to finally rebuild in the right direction.

Neal Huntington took probably the worst job in baseball last winter with the task of piecing together a winning team with absolutely nothing in the cupboard. The former GMs left him with prize pieces such as John Van Benschoten, Sean Burnett, Bryan Bullington, Matt Morris and so on. In short, it's a mess. That's why Huntington went out and traded his best two bargaining chips for prospects that are Major League ready in an attempt to flood this system with quality prospects and add depth to it. He was able to acquire two top prospects in the Red Sox organization (Moss and Hansen), along with the number two prospect in the Dodgers organization (Andy LaRoche) and the third in the Yankees organization (Jose Tabata).

Huntington and the Pirates still have a long way to go. These trades are not going to make them contenders tomorrow, but it's a start. They need to continue building with solid draft picks and smart free-agent signings in the offseason. For the first time in the past 15 years, I can confidently say that the Pirates are finally moving in the right direction.

A Little Bloggin from Curtis

2008-07-22T17:35:00.002-04:00

Any time fans can get a close look at an athlete's view of various things from the athletes themselves, it's an exciting feature. One of the ways to do that now is checking out all of the sport figures that are creating blogs. There are a few of them around today like Curt Schilling's very popular "38 Pitches" Blog. Twins reliever Pat Neshek has one and the NBA have a handful on its website, including Gilbert Arenas, excuse me, Agent Zero. I would actually probably read Gilbert's blog if I cared about the NBA whatsoever. But one of my favorites that started during spring training is Curtis Granderson's blog on ESPN. Check it out and bookmark it if you've never seen his page before.

Curtis' blog is very informative, entertaining and shows that he's a down-to-earth guy that is hard not to root for. Plus, unlike The Wheelhouse, his blog is updated frequently and talks mostly about the Tigers season and different opinions on topics around the baseball world. It's different to actually here a player's opinion on things instead of the lame quotes you read in game stories.

There's always people wondering if the players are the ones actually writing the blog, but I've got no reason to believe it's not Curtis blogging away. He's one of the few players in all of Major League Baseball to have earned a college degree, and I've heard from a pretty reliable source that he is the one producing the content.

Not only are blogs great from the fans perspective, but they're beneficial to the athlete too because they are receiving free PR for themselves while interacting with the everyday fan at the same time. I'm interested to see what other athletes will join their peers in the blog world in the future.

Extra, Extra!

2008-07-21T17:33:00.008-04:00

Always looking for some way to make news, the Pirates put together another great note during Sunday's 11-3 loss to Colorado. Not only did the loss put the finishing touches on a four-game sweep by the Rockies to open the second half, but the Pirates were knocked right into the Rockies record book...again.

What was it you ask?

Well as I was scanning yesterday's boxscores as I do each day at the office, I noticed that the Rockies had a truck load of doubles...eight to be exact. Add those doubles in with a triple and two home runs and you have 11 extra-base hits. ELEVEN!! That's a ton of extra-base hits. I don't care if it's at Coors or not, you don't see that very often. I quickly grabbed the Colorado media guide to see what their team record was for extra-base hits in a game. I wasn't surprised when I found that 11 XBH did in fact tie the Rockies record. It had been done three other times in Rockies history and no surprise again, one of those games was against the Pirates back on August 3, 2003 at PNC Park. Take a look at that boxscore at baseball-reference.com, it's not pretty.

I also was not surprised to look at the Pirates pitching line to see who pitched this gem and, of course, find that it was Zach Duke. How could it not be? Duke was hammered for nine runs on 10 hits in 5.0 innings of work. This is nothing new. Duke is probably the most hittable pitcher in the history of baseball. Numbers don't lie. He's surrendered 151 hits in 115 innings in 2008 and is not much better for his career (646 hits in 522 innings). Awesome. How he currently has an ERA under five is beyond me (4.92), but he won't be under that mark for very long...probably after his next start.

Even though the Rockies tying their XBH record isn't exactly breaking news, it somehow was lost in the AP recap thanks to Aaron Cook's All-Star year. I guess that's a good thing for the Pirates. Ah, just another day in the life of a Pirates fan.

I Don't See Barry Bonds Playing This Year...or Ever.

2008-07-08T19:35:00.005-04:00

Remember all that talk during spring training and April that some contender would pickup Barry Bonds because said contender would be desperate for a bat come mid-season? Well, it doesn't look like that's coming true anytime soon. We're heading into mid-July and nobody is talking about Bonds. I read an article about three weeks ago that said "Barry has no desire to play in the minor leagues or independent ball," and that his cell phone was not ringing. Yawn. Maybe that's because nobody has the desire to take a chance on Bonds for a ridiculous price.

And can you blame them? Despite what you think about the steroids issue hovering over his records and legacy, Bonds is...or was one of the best hitters in the game. He's the Home Run King. But we're talking about a guy who would be limited to play only DH thanks to his knee and someone who has not taken a competitive baseball swing in almost a year. What kind of hitter would they be getting and how far away would the next DL stint be?

Not too mention that he's asking for an absurd amount of money to play a half season of baseball. I don't even think the Yankees are that dumb to go out and spend the money on him. Teams would not only get Bonds at a high price, but they would be getting the media/steroids circus too. It would be the biggest story in baseball and the media hounds would be out every single day to try to entice Bonds into talking about his indictment and steroids. I don't see many teams that would want to deal with all that. And if he sits out the entire season because of all this, you can forget about a comeback in 2009. Bonds will turn 44 later this month and already played the last couple seasons on a hurt knee. That's too much to play through 162-game season.

The only way I see Bonds playing baseball in the Majors ever again would be at the trading deadline and only if his asking price comes down drastically for the half season. And at this point, with no teams talking about him, I don't see it happening. I think we'll be seeing Brett Favre throwing touchdowns at Lambeau Field before we ever seen Bonds swing his maple bat in the Majors again.

Pirates-Yankees

2008-06-22T02:04:00.002-04:00

With the Yankees scheduled to make their first trip to Pittsburgh since the 1960 World Series, the Post-Gazette is gearing up for the series. They've kicked off their preview to the three-game series that begins Tuesday with a great article by Paul Meyer that can be read here.

It's a sort of long, but well written and worth the time if you enjoy reading about the days when the Bucs were good. Growing up and watching the Pirates over the past 20 years, you find it hard to imagine the Bucs competing in the World Series with such franchises like the Yankees. This article helps. It takes you back to an era where baseball was at the top of the world and so were the Pirates. The '60 World Series hero Bill Mazeroski will be on hand Tuesday to throw out the first pitch to begin this series so hopefully the Pirates can actually do something and honor his presence instead of just getting swept. Now if only they could play this upcoming series in Forbes Field...

Interleague Play

2008-06-15T21:18:00.001-04:00

Back in the day, say 1996, the idea of having interleague play in baseball was exciting. All people could think about was seeing rare matchups between city rivals and great World Series rematches. You had the White Sox heading to the north suburb to play the Cubs in Wrigley. You also had the subway series with the Yankees and Mets, the Bay series with the A's and Giants among many others. I was 15 years of age when MLB added the interleague play to the regular season in 1997 and I was excited. It was thrilling to watch these teams that never played each other before battle it out during the season.

But things have changed. Baseball took a unique idea and went too far with it. Maybe it's my new wisdom that you acquire as you get older, but I don't like interleague play anymore. I find myself to be more old school lately. I believe the divisions should go back to the way they used to be with four total divisions and the Dodgers should be in Brooklyn and not in the city of Angels. And now I think interleague play has worn out its welcome.

The thing that makes interleague play special is the rarity of the matchups you get from it. The problem with the current form of interleague play is you see the same four-five matchups every year and even twice a year! The Yankees and Mets have played every year since interleague began in '97. How is that special anymore? It was a real event to see the Yankees and Mets meet up for the first time, but how about the 60th something game in 10 years? Not so much. I don't know about you but I'm tired of seeing the Yankees-Mets. Same thing with the Cubs-White Sox. It's not a story to see them play every year anymore. If you keep the games within your own league then it makes the World Series that much more special.

Another problem of many on the list of interleague play is that while the Yankees and Mets are having fun playing each other 50 times a year, you get those great Washington-Seattle, Kansas City-Arizona series. Nothing screams great historic rivalry like that Colorado-Tampa Bay matchup. Throw the records out when those two teams get together. Then add in a scheduling quirk since the National League has two more teams than the American League so while everyone is involved in interleague, fans in the NL are stuck with Pirates-Cubs.

Look, I know the reasoning behind adding interleague play in the mid-90s, and I agreed with it. MLB needed help bringing excitement and ratings back into the sport after the '94 strike. It worked...it shouldn't take all the credit since the McGwire/Sosa home run chase helped, but interleague played a big part in boosting the ratings after a low time in baseball. I don't have a problem with that. But it doesn't mean they can't change it up now that the sport is popular as ever again.

How about adding some balance to the schedule? Why not go to a NFL-like schedule where teams will play one division from the other league one year and then switch to another division the next year? They need some kind of balance with no importance placed on certain teams or certain matchups. Or maybe we can just go old school and scrap the whole thing altogether.

The Inexperienced Penguins Were Supposed To Be Swept, Right?

2008-06-03T22:52:00.005-04:00

Win or lose tomorrow night in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals, you can't talk about the Penguins lack of experience anymore. Not after last night's (or this morning) triple-overtime thriller that ended with a 4-3 Pens win and at least one more game in the Finals. Media members and NHL "experts" talked about the Penguins lack of playoff experience being the reason they would falter in this series. Everybody had Detroit down as their champion, except for the Pens of course. They heard that reasoning throughout the entire playoffs about them being too young and inexperienced.

I never bought into that argument. There are plenty of instances over the last decade of sports that disprove the no experience theory. Anybody remember the 2003 Florida Marlins? That went into Wrigley, scored eight runs in an eventful eighth inning and went on to knock off the veteran-laden Yankees team in the World Series. No experience for that team and they walked into Yankee Stadium on the game's biggest stage and stunned New York. How about the New York Giants in the past Super Bowl. Most of that team had never sniffed the big game and they walked in and defeated the undefeated, experienced, been there before New England Patriots. Give a young team a chance and things will happen.

I'm tired of hearing about the Pens lack of experience. The perseverance they showed last night on the road, rallying for a game-tying goal with 33 seconds remaining in their season and then fighting through three overtime periods for a victory was unreal. Crosby and Fleury are growing up before our eyes on national television on hockey's biggest stage. The Penguins have proven they can win games against the Wings...even on the road in a hostile environment. In the past three games, both teams have been battling and fighting for every loose puck in games that have all come down to the wire. Lack of experience? Forget about it.

If the Pens' Stanley Cup run does come to an end tomorrow night at the Igloo, it won't be because lack of playoff experience. Keep doubting this young Pittsburgh team and they just might have enough to win two more and pull this series off. Let's Go Pens!

June 1st Baseball Talk

2008-06-01T13:15:00.001-04:00

Well June is here once again so fire up your grills, hit the beach and start enjoying that warm weather. OK, temperatures are slowly rising at least in the Midwest so one of these days summer weather will show up, right? Regardless of the weather, June is the month in MLB when teams begin to separate themselves from the pack and you find out who the good teams are from the pretenders. Since today is the first day of June and the Pens lost last night, I can't think of a better time, than right now, to talk some baseball.

The Rays - The sun might not be shining bright in the northern part of the country, but the Rays are shining in Tampa, Florida. The Rays currently are 34-22, own the best record in the American League and are one game ahead of the Red Sox in the AL East. While I still think the Red Sox will end up winning this division, don't expect the Rays to fall much behind. Boston are the champs and still have enough talent and pitching to take over the division and be the favorite heading into October. But expect the Rays to be around all summer and compete for a wild card berth in the AL. Everybody knew about Tampa Bay's young hitting prospects coming into the season with BJ Upton, Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria, but the Rays are winning because of their pitching and defense. They are currently fifth in the AL in ERA with a 3.67 mark and have tossed seven shutouts in two months. The Rays also have the league's top fielding percentage (.989) and have the fewest errors with 23 in 56 games. Baseball is a simple game sometimes, you are going to win plenty of games if you are pitching and playing stellar defense. Don't expect this team to fade out of contention anytime soon.

Detroit Tigers - I'm burying this team for the 2008 season. Look, I live in the Detroit TV/media market so I get to watch the Tigers more than any other team. And yes, they are just 7.0 games out of first in the AL Central, yes there's plenty of time left in the season and yes they have an unbelievable lineup on paper, but hold on a second. This team has too many problems to dig themselves out of a 23-32 hole. Take for instance their AL-worst team ERA. Their bullpen is a mess with no one to go to when they are in a close game. And the stacked lineup will put up 10 runs one game and then get shutout the next two. The lineup people were talking about putting up 1,000 runs during spring training has surprisingly been shutout nine times. NINE times in two months! Forget about it. The Tigers hitters have been way too inconsistent to expect to compete.

NL East - I see this division coming down to the wire again this season, but the Marlins won't be there come September. The Mets will get it going over the next couple of months and the Braves are looking like the same well-constructed team that won 15 straight division titles. I think it will come down to the Mets and Braves with the Phillies not far off, but the Marlins will fade soon. Florida has been knocking the ball out of the yard this year, ranking second in the NL in homers, but their average is middle of the road and they aren't getting great pitching with a 4.38 ERA. The pitching will catch up to the Fish and they will fall behind the more experienced and talented Mets and Braves. I'll take the Mets to win the division with a real good chance that the wild card will come from this division in either the Braves or Phillies.

Pirates are 26-29. Will they finish with a winning season? Nope, absolutely not. Somehow this team is 26-29. I don't understand that, but their division is too talented for the Pirates to get past any of them. The Pirates have an ERA of 5.00 and the starting pitching has been atrocious with Phil Dumatrait suddenly becoming their most consistent pitcher. The Bucs two young starters that were supposed to carry them this year have been the worst two on the team...Ian Snell has been awful, same with Tom Gorzelanny plus he's hurt thanks to Jim Tracy. They are toward the bottom of the National League in hitting, second-worst in ERA and are dead last in fielding. The Reds, Brewers, Cubs, Cardinals and Astros all have more talent than the Pirates so they will be losing their 16th consecutive season.

Teams to watch for over the next couple of months to start making a run: Indians, Brewers, Rangers and Blue Jays.

Brooks Orpik Lays The Wood

2008-05-29T23:25:00.005-04:00

I've watched a lot of Penguins games in my lifetime and in the five years of watching Brooks Orpik play defense for the Pens, I have never seen him become possessed and start annihilating people like he did in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals last night. Hell, I haven't seen anybody take over this way before...

Wow. I could watch that all day.

Hold on Detroit fans. Cancel the Cup-winning parades. There's still a series going on. It's not over yet.

Here's hoping Orpik stays possessed for the rest of the series and Osgood stops his classless diving for cheap calls. LET'S GO PENS!

The Series That Could Save the NHL?

2008-05-22T21:52:00.004-04:00

Maybe save is not the right word for the headline. More like could this be the series to bring the NHL back? It's no secret that the NHL is suffering from lack of exposure in the media eyes. More people are going to the games than ever before (well, except Hockeytown), but the problem is the league's terrible TV deal with Outdoor Life Netw....er, Versus. ESPN doesn't bother showing much of the NHL playoffs and when they do, it's only the top plays of the day or about a fight or injury that occurred. Needless to say, the Penguins-Red Wings series could be huge for the future of the NHL. Is this the best possible series that the NHL could of asked for? Possibly, maybe having a team in Canada would have been more beneficial, but I don't think anybody can be complaining about this matchup.

What's not to like about this series? You have the best two teams in the league with the Wings winning the Presidents Trophy in the regular season and the Pens being the number two seed from the Eastern Conference only one point behind the one seed. Both teams have major star power with Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and Nicklas Lidstrom for Detroit and Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Marian Hossa for Pittsburgh. You have two hot goaltenders that will be facing off against each other. You have two great hockey cities and you have the young, up and coming Penguins pitted against the wiry, veteran "been there before" Red Wings.

Plus Detroit and Pittsburgh are both teams that have rich hockey history that older fans can remember the days of back-to-back Cups with Mario Lemieux or the days of Steve Yzerman. The last three Stanley Cup victors have been Anaheim, Carolina and Tampa Bay. Not exactly the three Meccas of hockey. I'm sure kids growing up in Southern California just can't wait to hit that frozen pond in their backyard and maybe someone would of cared about Carolina's victory if they were still in Hartford (at least Chris Berman would). Tampa Bay...come on. It was hard for people to get into watching those teams and I can't blame them. Hopefully this will change with Pittsburgh and Detroit.

I don't think you will see a sweep or a five-game series either way. I believe this series will live up to expectations and be a strong, hard fought six or seven-game series that could help acquire interest in hockey from all over the hockey world again. The NHL is banking on it.

Fleury Reason for Pens Success

2008-04-27T17:03:00.003-04:00

Let me just say how great it is to have the Penguins back in the playoffs. It's been a long time coming for them to get back. It's not only good for Pittsburgh, it's good for hockey and the NHL. The league isn't exactly in its best days at the moment, but you wouldn't notice by looking at Pittsburgh. The Igloo was rocking, just like they were when Mario captivated the city with two Stanley Cups in the early '90s. It's good to see. Period. Well unless you are the New York Rangers....

Today, the Pens defeated the Rangers 2-0 to take a two-games-to-none lead over the Rangers in the second round and improve to 6-0 in the playoffs. Everybody talks about the Pens offense and the talented goal scorers they have, but the reason they have been so dominant in the playoffs so far is Marc-Andre Fleury. If the Penguins were finally going to take that step toward the Cup, it was going to be with Fleury becoming that shutdown goalie he was drafted to be. And he's done just that. He missed a good chunk of the season with an injury but has returned and played nothing short of amazing. Give him the credit he deserves. Maybe it was the yellow pads he dumped that changed him. Who knows, whatever the reason it's crucial to the Pens playoff success.

I remember being at Fleury's first NHL game. It was a 3-0 loss to the Kings. Despite the loss and the fact that Fleury gave up two goals (the other was an empty net)...he faced 48 shots and had a hell of a game to keep the Pens in it. We all chanted "Fleury, Fleury, Fleury" in the crowd and couldn't wait to see where this kid's future would go. He struggled over the next couple of years as any young player can, but this year he turned the corner. The future is here. The crowd in today's game repeated the Fleury chant and it reminded me of that first game and seeing something special from him.

Since then the Pens have drastically changed the scenery around Fleury and the team is currently soaring, probably better than us at The Wheelhouse had expected in the playoffs. And it's not just Fleury stepping up...the defense is playing another level of hockey I haven't seen in a while in the 'Burgh. The defense has been the Achilles heal to the Pens over the past couple of years, but not anymore. I've never seen so many blocked shots by Penguin defenders than in today's game against the Rangers. Gonchar, Gill, Orpik, Letang, Whitney...hell even Scuderi is playing good D.

With the defense playing great and Fleury playing the best hockey of his life to go along with the high-scoring offense, the Pens have the ability and confidence to make a run at the Cup after all. It's been a long time coming for Pittsburgh.

Get Ready for History Pittsburgh

2008-03-30T10:57:00.006-04:00

From 1933 to 1948 the Philadelphia Phillies lost...a lot. Every year during that span the Phillies were under .500 at the end of the season to set the Major League record for most consecutive losing seasons at 16. Today, the Pittsburgh Pirates are in grave danger of making history by tying that record in 2008. The Pirates are just a mere six months away from history and barring a miracle, they are going to easily hit the record.

The Pirates have been losing since 1993. As of right now, our streak sits at 15 seasons. The Pirates have been losing since that '92 NL Championship Series when the Pirates took a 2-0 lead into the ninth inning in Game 7 against the Braves. Since the Pirates put in Stan Belinda in the middle of the inning and gave up a single to left field to Francisco Cabrera. Since Barry Bonds' bullshit throw to the plate to get a slow Sid Bream trying to score from second. And they have been losing since that play simply known as "Sid's Slid."

Think about that for a minute. 1992 was the Bucs last winning season. Do you know how much the world has changed since 1992? I was 10. The Summer Olympics were held in Barcelona, Spain, the Penguins swept the Chicago Blackhawks for their second consecutive Stanley Cup, the Bulls were winning championships with Michael Jordan, Windows 3.1 was released, there were no blogs and the Internet was nothing of what it is today. Yeah, that was a long time ago. Other teams like the Arizona Diamondbacks have come into the league and won a World Series title before the Pirates can just put together 82 wins in a season.

With all that said, what are the chances that the Buccos can turn it around and end their futile drought? As much as I would love to see the Pirates turn this around and just win...forget about it. The Pirates changed general manager, manager and coaching staff in the offseason, but they barely changed the bulk of the roster. A roster that lost 94 games last year. But they have a new manager in John Russell! Big deal, the Pirates have been changing managers since losing Jim Leyland (remember Gene Lamont, Lloyd McClendon, Pete Mackanin, Jim Tracy). The managerial change does not excite this Pirates fan. However, the GM and front office changes do provide more hope for the future. But even the new GM in town Neal Huntington has admitted that their effort is to improve the team through the draft and with prospects and that won't happen this year or even the next. Yaddi, yaddi, yadda...we've all heard it plenty of times before in the past 15 years.

In the meantime, the Pirates roster is pretty much the same as last year. Management is banking on a career year from a lot of players and it's too much to ask or even expect. Sure the pitching is a positive with Ian Snell and Tom Gorzelanny having great seasons last year...but players having a couple great seasons consecutively is not something that happens recently in the Pirates organization. They're hoping for Jason Bay to stay healthy and get back to his home run-bashing days, hoping that Adam LaRoche can avoid hitting .210 in April and May, hoping that Freddy Sanchez can put together another year of being a .300 hitter and hoping that anybody they throw out in the bullpen can hold on to the few leads the Pirates will have this year. It's a recurring theme for the Pirates every year...too many things have to go right for them to compete.

Lastly the biggest obstacle for the Pirates, forgetting about whoever they put on the field, is overcoming the fact of losing all the time. Over the past 15 seasons, the Pirates have made an art of losing. They invent ways to lose a baseball game. In essence, it's really not that hard to have a winning season. 83-81 is hardly a playoff team and many teams do it and call it a bad year. For the Pirates, an 83-81 season would mean so much more...an end to the curse.

Watching this team play over the last 15 years, I seriously began to believe that the individual players and coaches didn't even think they could win. And once the losing begins and May hits, it becomes status quo and everyone only shows up to collect a paycheck and go home. It's a sad thing to watch and it's what Pirates fans have been dealing with for longer than anyone should.

What once was a respected organization with tradition, World Series titles, Hall of Fame players and a rich history has quickly become a joke around Major League Baseball. After the way the Pirates have gone through their losing seasons, it only makes sense that the Pirates should own this record of consecutive losing seasons.

Get ready for history...infamous history.

Let the Madness Begin

2008-03-20T01:13:00.003-04:00

There was a time not that long ago before jobs, meetings, money and life got in the way that I was able to watch every minute of March Madness. And on the days leading up to tip-off, I would buy a huge poster board, draw the brackets out and then dissect every single possible matchup in the tourney. In high school you would pray you had a class that had a TV in the afternoon so you could get the teacher to throw the games on and in college, you just skipped any class that you happened to schedule on Thursday-Friday after noon. There's just no time for all that anymore. I will barely see any of the first round action with work in the next two days and due to traveling Friday night for Easter weekend. But on the eve of the NCAA tournament, it's still one of the best sports times of the year, and I can't wait to get this tourney underway.

I picked my Final Four about an hour ago for my office bracket pool and I ended up with Kansas winning it. But I take them pretty much every year so don't listen to me. The Jayhawks (ever since Roy Williams went to UNC) seem to disappoint every year in the tourney. I decided I'm taking them until that changes...there's just way too much talent on that team. Plus the North Carolina pick everyone else has is getting old.

Now let's talk about Pitt. They were probably projected to be a seven or eight seed until they rolled through the Big East tournament, beating Cincinnati, Louisville, Marquette and Georgetown in four days. That moved Pitt up to a four seed in the tourney, and what I don't like is they are quickly becoming everyone's trendy pick to reach the Final Four this year. Bob Knight even went so far as to take Pitt winning the championship over North Carolina. If you're a Pitt fan, you know this team hasn't made it past the Sweet 16 and their team this season has been inconsistent as hell. But if they repeat their play from the Big East tournament, they will go far. So which team will show up? Well, I have them losing in the championship game to Kansas, but that's just me and probably means they won't make it past Oral Roberts. Here's hoping they get a chance to take out Michigan State (I live way too close to East Lansing) and vastly overrated Memphis (Conference USA, are you kidding me?)

Oh yes, it's March Madness time. Let the madness begin.

Thank you Nicklas

2008-03-10T23:52:00.005-04:00

If the Pens go on to capture the Stanley Cup this year, I think Sunday's game against Washington is the game you can look back on as a turning point. Huge game against the Crapitals and it ends with one of the greatest things I've seen in a while. NBC's mic on Crosby was the icing on the cake...

"Did he shoot that in his own net?" - Crosby

Ah yes...thank you Nicklas, have fun playing golf in April.

I Hate Peter Forsberg

2008-02-27T20:16:00.007-05:00

I know, I know...this is the third consecutive post about the NHL on The Wheelhouse. Bare with us here...unlike the rest of the country, we enjoy hockey at The Wheelhouse.

There used to be a time like eight years ago that I was a fan of the Colorado Avalanche. Of course my main team was always the Penguins, but I enjoyed watching the Aves play with Joe Sakic, Patrick Roy and Peter Forsberg. They were loaded and exciting to watch. When the USA flamed out in the Winter Olympics...I always found myself pulling for Forsberg, Mats Sundin and Sweden (don't ask why...it goes back to the Nintendo game "Ice Hockey").

Well now I'm really tired of him. After sitting out the entire season as a free agent due to an "injury," Forsberg signed this week with Colorado...with about one month left in the season. How many times has he done this? Who does he think he is? I'm tired of hearing about his injury and that's the reason why he hasn't played an entire regular season in forever. It's garbage...the guy wants to skip the trials of the season and show up on a playoff team to attempt to get another Cup. All he does is take the year off, hang out in Sweden and play hockey with his buddies. Last year Nashville acquired the forward for their playoff push, and it didn't work out too well for the Predators as they were bounced from the postseason in the first round.

And now the Aves have picked him up for a playoff run. Couple of problems with that. First, Forsberg's apparently not ready to play yet. The PR machine says it's his "nagging foot injury." I say it's because he hasn't played competitive hockey in over a year and is out of shape, but whatever Colorado, pay him millions to sit the bench. The second problem with this signing is the Aves are currently two points out of the playoff race. So they go out and acquire a guy who only wants to play for a playoff team and there's no timetable for his return? Nice pickup Colorado.

Then again they also traded for defenseman Adam Foote bringing him back to the team that he won two Cups with as well. Oh I see what the Aves are trying to do bringing back players from their past. Where's Patrick Roy?

Marian Hossa

2008-02-26T23:50:00.002-05:00

The Pittsburgh Penguins made the big headline today during crunch time of the NHL trading deadline by shipping forwards Colby Armstrong, Erik Christensen, prospect Angelo Esposito and a first-round draft pick to Atlanta for Marian Hossa and Pascal Dupuis. I probably looked like a giddy school girl when I first heard the news...the Pens are really going for it all! When I saw who the Pens had given up for him, I was disappointed to see Colby and Christensen go, but it had to be done to acquire Hossa. After talking with some of my fellow Penguins fans and random co-workers, the general consensus was the Pens gave up too much for Hossa. I don't understand where that's coming from. Yes, in basic numbers of the deal, we gave up more pieces (4 to 2) but the talent in return makes the Pens offense absolutely scary and overall a better team.

Hossa is a legit goal scorer in the NHL. He was the biggest name on the trading block this year and plenty of teams were vying for his services. Through 60 games this season, Hossa has 26 goals, 30 assists after scoring 43 goals, 57 assists for 100 points last year, good for sixth in NHL scoring. He's also scored 30 or more goals in the past six seasons. And the Pens are putting him on the same team with Crosby (who was leading the NHL in scoring before his injury) and Malkin (who is currently leading the NHL in scoring after tonight). Hossa's a premier scorer and All-Star so you know what you're getting.

Now let's talk about what the Pens gave up for Hossa. The Pens dealt two fan favorites away in Armstrong and Christensen, but let's not go overboard here on them. Armstrong is in his third year and has declined since his rookie year when he scored 16 goals in 47 games. Last year in a full 80 games, he only scored 12 and through this year he only has nine goals and just 24 points. And his numbers are inflated (as anybody's would be) playing on a line with Crosby. Army's a third liner that will score about 35 points a season...you can find those guys anywhere. Christensen is another forward in his third year and he showed signs of a prospect last season with 18 goals in 61 games...but this year he has only 20 points through 49 games. Like Armstrong, Christensen is a third liner on most teams in the NHL. Look, the Penguins were not going to win the Stanley Cup with Army and Christensen...but they sure can win it with Hossa, Crosby and Malkin. Let's also not forget that the Pens did receive another player in this deal and Dupuis has 10 goals on the season (more than both former Penguins traded) and he's a bruising forward who can help Laraque give the Pens a little more punch.

But wait, the Penguins also dealt a future first-round pick and a prospect to the Thrashers. Trading an NHL draft pick is not that big of deal. Unless you have the top three picks, you probably aren't getting a given superstar like a Crosby or Ovechkin and plenty of stars in the NHL are found in the later rounds (Zetterberg, Hasek, Datsyuk, Alfredsson). There's about a two percent chance that draft pick would pan out to be anything productive for Pittsburgh. Plus the Pens already have four solid number one picks on their team, there's no room for another one and since the Pens won't be drafting high anyway next year...what's the point? Originally, Atlanta wanted Jordan Staal in exchange for Hossa and that would have been a disaster to lose Staal. But the Pens didn't give in to that and worked out a deal where they still got Hossa and kept Staal. If draft picks had to go, so be it.

The key to this deal is if Hossa will be a "rented" player for the rest of this year and then leave as a free agent next season. I really don't think Ray Shero made this deal to rent Hossa for two months and then let him go. I believe the Pens will do everything they can to sign him for a 2-3 year deal after the season and stay under the cap. And if Hossa helps Crosby, Malkin and the boys bring the Stanley Cup back to Pittsburgh this summer then the deal was worth it all the way whether Hossa stays or not.

Obviously the Stanley Cup is not guaranteed because of this trade, and there are plenty of other things the Pens need to fall into place to have a chance...like their defense showing up, Fleury and Crosby getting healthy and a little bit of luck along the way. But you have to be willing to take risks and put your team in a position to be lethal when you decide that you're going for it. Former Pens GM Craig Patrick did it back in 1991 when he dealt three players to Hartford for Ron Francis and Ulf Samuelsson. Two Stanley Cups later, I think that worked out well for Pittsburgh. Let's Go Pens!

Not Easterns Motors, But Still Funny

2008-02-25T23:44:00.002-05:00

I love car dealership commercials starring local sports celebrities.

The Academy Awards

2008-02-25T22:36:00.001-05:00

I've always been a fan of the Oscars. And why not? I'm a movie kind of guy. I watch tons of movies and try to keep up with the latest top flicks of the year. So every year I get excited to see the Hollywood contingent dressed to the nines, throwing a massive awards show honoring the best movies (according to The Academy). I look forward to the ridiculous scene that is the Oscars, that is, seeing overpaid actors living in paradise all blow smoke up each other's asses for four hours and give over-the-top acceptance speeches. Oh yes, Sunday was the 80th annual Academy Awards.

So last night I'm on my couch raring to go, but there was a problem. The 80th annual Academy Awards show sucked. There's no other way to put it. I don't know what exactly it was, but the show was far from what it had been in prior years. Maybe it was the lack of quality movies (There Will Be Blood, Sweeney Todd...come on, seriously?) up for awards or maybe it was the lack of one movie running away with the show or maybe it was Jon Stewart's jokes missing their marks or maybe it was just me. Nothing that exciting happened. The songs performed were snoozers (three numbers from Enchanted...are you kidding me?) by people nobody has ever heard of. Hell, get Beyonce back that the Academy fell in love with two years ago when she performed about 23 times. And Stewart did an okay job, not great though. He had some good jokes and some witty input throughout the show, but for the most part his jokes were missing their marks. Of course he did a joke about democrats and one on how Bush is dumb...blah blah blah...we've heard these before Jon. Maybe it was the lack of time the writers had to deliver these jokes with the strike recently ending...who knows. Plus I think he held back on directing the humor toward individuals in the crowd. Stewart's better than that...he should of poked more fun at celebrities in the audience. Plus some of the videos they showed that were supposed to be funny ended up being just stupid (see the movie montage to binoculars).

The whole night wasn't all bad though. A refreshing moment was watching the down-to-earth Coen brothers speech after winning for adapted screenplay and picture of the year. Joel Coen, who hardly said anything the first time on stage, added after winning picture of the year, "I don't have much to add from before....thank you." Thank you Joel for being modest and keeping it short.

I was pulling for Juno or Michael Clayton for picture of the year and even though neither won, it was nice to see Juno and Diablo Cody (no way that's her real name) win for original screenplay. Very odd to see an ex-stripper on stage winning an Oscar as voted by The Academy...that's just something you don't see everyday.

Also, there was no Al Gore sightings! (Unless of course Al has taken the identity of someone else and in that case, we are all in serious trouble). It became the norm over the past few years for the liberal Academy to parade Gore on stage to talk about some iceberg that's melting somewhere and totally kill the mood of the evening as well. Kudos to the Academy for canning that annoying act.

That's all I have on this year's show. Overall I thought it was a yawn fest and hopefully it'll turn around next year. I have an idea for 2009...get Lewis Black or Ron White to host it...that'll mix things up a bit. If you disagree on this year's Oscars, let me hear about it below.

FOX Robot Needs To Go

2008-02-18T20:25:00.005-05:00

Okay FOX, cut the crap. That annoying FOX robot needs to go. You know the one that shows up after commercial breaks during football games, jumps up and down, runs idly and does nothing that has to do with football. I know this is way overdue, but it needs to be said...or written.

I don't know when exactly the robot debuted for FOX. I know that it's been around a long time and grew out its welcome after about one Sunday. I've never understood why Fox felt the need to add this robot to its program or the reasoning behind it. I can't even imagine a conference room somewhere in Fox's studios where the idea was uttered up by some "marketing genius" and the people in the same room ate it up as an ideal plan.

Finally, someone decided it was time to kick the robot's ass. Enter...Terminator on Super Bowl Sunday. And the Terminator did not disappoint...

Justice! Now following the Terminator movie rules for time travel, I came up with an obvious answer. Someone in the future, who finally had enough of the FOX robot and knew he would cause the downfall of mankind if he continued, programmed the Terminator to travel back into the past and destroy the robot on national TV. I thought it was over.

I was wrong. Since nobody watches the Pro Bowl, you probably missed it. The robot made a glorious return in perfect condition. And...he was sporting a grass skirt and Hawaiian lei and was doing a hula dance. I wish I were joking.

What does any of this have to do with football?!?! And don't tell me it has anything to do with the advertisements. If I were those advertisers spending a fortune to have my logo on TV for five seconds and this freaking machine was jumping around like a damn pinball, I would be pissed. The robot idea was dumb from day one and it's dumb now. I can't think of a better word for it right now. It's just dumb. Get rid of it next year, FOX. I beg you...you can keep Joe Buck around, just can the robot now.

Pitchers and Catchers Reporting

2008-02-14T18:00:00.004-05:00

"They give you a round bat and they throw you a round ball and they tell
you to hit it square." -- Willie Stargell

Lost in the shuffle of the Clemens, McNamee, Pettitte, HGH headlines today was pitchers and catchers reported to Florida and Arizona, signaling that the first signs of spring and baseball are just around the corner! Thank God. Despite being a Pirates fan, every year I'm pumped for the start of spring training. I guess when you think about it every team (yes even the Bucs) has a shot at beginning anew and claiming that World Series title in the fall. Of course, the Pirates will be out of by the end of April, but hey from a sunny perspective in Florida we sure can dream right?

So what's going on this first day of spring training? Here are some news clippings from around the Grapefruit and Cactus League.

The World Champs are back. The Red Sox pitchers and catchers reported today to Fort Myers and apparently they are thinking about repeating as champions. Shocking, I know. And they have a good shot of doing the job. They didn't lose much of any significant players from last year's team and with a pitching staff that will return Josh Beckett, Dice K, young prospects Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz and the ever-reliable 4.00 ERA/180 IP guy per year Tim Wakefield. Forget about Curt Schilling for now...his loss, for half a season or whatever it'll be, hurts but this team won't need him to cruise into the playoffs. I'm sure he'll suddenly be back and healthy come October.

The Dodgers checked into Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Fla., for the 61st year and also their last as the team plans to move onto Glendale, Arizona next year (of course it would be the fast rising city of Glendale). Sure the move to Arizona makes sense geographically, but moving out of Dodgertown where you have been for over 61 years is a bit weak. But I guess the Dodgers are used to pulling out of things to make more money somewhere else.

Reigning AL Cy Young winner C.C. Sabathia checked into the Tribe's camp in Winter Haven, Fla., and announced that he was done talking about a possible extension with the Indians until after the season. Sabathia could become a free agent after the 2008 season, and I'm sure he wants to test the free agent market and see the $$$ that awaits him. Supposedly Cleveland offered him a four-year deal where he would make at least $17 mil next year. That wasn't good enough and really, with the Yankees and Red Sox out there reading to spend money, it probably wasn't enough. Sabathia is rolling the dice, though, in a contract year and better produce if he wants a Johan Santana type deal.

A couple of former junk Pirates showed up on new rosters today as well. Former No. 1 draft pick Kris Benson signed with the Phillies. Wow, look who's desperate for pitching. After his publicized divorce from Anna Benson, Kris missed the entire 2007 season due to some injury (it doesn't matter, he's had all of them in his career) and I totally forgot he could still throw the baseball. Also, Craig Wilson (nicknamed "Thor" in Pittsburgh) signed with the Reds. If there's one place that will tolerate striking out a ton and blasting home runs once a week, it's Cincinnati so maybe he'll make the team and then bury the Pirates in their first series with four home runs in three games.

Speaking of former Pirates, it was reported that Dodgers pitcher Jason Schmidt will likely not be ready for Opening Day and there's no timetable for his return. Yeah, that three-year, $47 million contract he signed last offseason is looking solid for LA. What does Schmidt have to show for all that money so far? One win. He went 1-4 with a 6.31 ERA last season before needing surgery. Joe Torre has his work cut out for him in the city of Angels.

Oh yeah, can you feel baseball in the air?! The Wheelhouse can and I can't wait to get the season underway.

Who Wants To Commit Perjury?

2008-02-13T21:42:00.002-05:00

When I was younger, like five or so, I used to believe that the sports leagues were government agencies. It made sense; their names were abbreviations, red, white and blue were in their color schemes, and often there were stars involved in the logos. When I found out that the NFL was run by a bunch of rich people instead of the government, I was completely crestfallen.

Now I'm wondering if I wasn't right all along.

Today the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a 4 ½ hour hearing to try and determine who is the bigger perjurer, Roger Clemens or Brian McNamee. What is this country coming to?

Seriously, both men walked into the Congress of the United States of America, swore to God Almighty to tell the truth, then told two completely contradictory stories while sitting at the same table.

Under oath:
Clemens: "I have never taken steroids or HGH..."
McMamee: "Make no mistake: When I told Sen. Mitchell that I injected Roger Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs, I told the truth."

Jesus Tap Dancing Christ. One of these bastards just committed perjury.

I don't know what I'm more offended over though, that one of these two guys have the balls to lie to Congress under oath, or that Congress is holding hearings to get answers about whether or not a baseball player got juiced like everybody else in MLB through what is now being called, “The Steroids Era.”

What business is this of Congress' anyway? Are we not at war? Seriously, because I thought we were at war. I could have sworn we were at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. I guess that's going well enough that we can focus on a game. A game!

Congress has created a media circus over these baseball hearings. From Mark McGwire refusing to answer questions, to Rafael Palmero wagging his finger, to today- blatant perjury by either one of the game's all time greats, or a confirmed scum bag- it has been a long road to nowhere.

Congress has about as much business in baseball as the Pittsburgh Pirates have in drafting appropriation bills. If you want to know the truth about all the shadiness that has taken place regarding steroids and baseball over the past thirty years, read the Mitchell Report, it's all there. There's no need to hold hearings, the only crime that has been committed is the waste of taxpayers' dollars.

Of course, this won't end here. Now that we know that either Clemens or McNamee has lied under oath, the media will set forth to prove one to be the liar that he is. This will obviously lead to federal charges of perjury, because lying to Congress under oath is a felony. Consider this, if somehow there were to be collected enough evidence to prove Roger Clemens lied today, he could land in federal “pound my ass” prison. All because he won't say what we all know, and because Congress wants to either make him admit it, or serve time.

The only court Clemens should be tried in is the court of public opinion, and the only business Congress should have in baseball is buying season tickets to Nationals games.

What a sad day for baseball, and what a sadder day for America.

Next Week on As the Clemens Turns, Roger Takes Former Trainer Hostage

2008-02-10T23:56:00.000-05:00

This Roger Clemens situation is getting ridiculous. No, we were at the ridiculous stage when Roger called a press conference to have the country listen to his 40-minute phone conversation with his former trainer Brian McNamee that revealed nothing. Now we've hit the insane stage as this story continues to get weirder. This was clearly evident on Friday when I read the latest story where McNamee claims to have injected Roger's wife with HGH. You couldn't make this stuff up for a daytime soap opera. Is it just me or is anybody else really tired of this Clemens-McNamee drama?

Everyone that knows me knows I'm a huge baseball fan...I even work in the sport and follow it everyday. But this whole situation is out of control and I just don't care anymore. The media continues to cover it because yes, it's a stunning story involving one of the premier pitchers in the history of the game. But I think a lot of people stopped caring about it a while ago, including me. It's terrible that the game has come to this with steroids, but there's nothing you can do about it since McGwire, Bonds and everybody in the Mitchell report was indicated. I'm ready to chalk this whole period as the steroids era and move on. The reports are out, testing procedures are at its strongest level ever so let's move on for the game's sake.

Roger, you are guilty...everyone knows you are guilty. Save face and fade away. You said yourself during your useless press conference that you didn't care about the Hall of Fame and all that so stop trying to clear yourself when you are clearly guilty. Maybe people could give you the benefit of the doubt, but when players who were named in the Mitchell report like Andy Pettitte and Brian Roberts come out and admit they did it, then it's hard to believe you Roger.

I have more respect for a guy like Pettitte to say, "Yeah I knew it was wrong and I did it anyway...I'm sorry, it was a mistake." Since admitting his fault, nobody is chastising Pettitte for his part in taking steroids. People make mistakes, we are a forgiving country...move on. But instead of learning a lesson from his friend, Clemens goes on national TV and lies that he's going to prove that he's innocent and make everyone sit through a conversation with his former trainer, where not once did he tell McNamee, "I'm innocent and you have to tell the people that because I've never done that to my body." Why didn't Roger just say that to him? Because it's not true. Both of them were bouncing around the truth in the conversation and the point of the call was Clemens basically telling McNamee, "After all that I've done for you, how can you rat me out." Roger took the stuff, knows that there may not be physical proof against him and made the decision to take McNamee head-on in this ongoing drama.

Every new headline I read about this each day makes me forget about Clemens' 354 career wins or his seven Cy Young awards or his 20 strikeouts in a game with Boston. The Mitchell report definitely put a dark shadow on Clemens' career, but this continuing drama and his defiance to take responsibility for his actions is ruining his legacy.

Romney Refuses to Tap Out

2008-02-07T22:48:00.000-05:00

I'm confused, did Mitt “Mittens” Romney quit the race for the Republican Presidential nomination today? I mean, it sure did seem like it. The media acted like it. His wife was certainly frowning as if that was what was going down. However, there's one thing that's keeping me from saying we've seen the last of Mitt Romney: he didn't say so.

Romney said the following, "I feel I have to now stand aside, for our party and for our country.” His people however are calling his campaign “suspended.”

Suspended? What the hell does that mean? I didn't know, so I looked it up. Here's some insight thanks to our friends over at Dictionary.com

-to defer or postpone
-to cause to cease or bring to a stop or stay, usually for a time
-to cause to cease for a time from operation or effect, as a law, rule, privilege, service, or the like
-to debar, usually for a limited time, from the exercise of an office or function or the enjoyment of a privilege

Anyone see a recurring theme above? There's some permanence lacking in the word “suspend.”

What is Mittens planning to do, take a couple months off, then pop back in the picture in October? You're either in or you're out. What we need is a good, old fashioned “I Quit” match to settle the race for President.

Now it's left to John McCain to unify the party. Apparently though, the far right of the party wants nothing to do with him. For some reason ultra conservatives don't believe that John McCain is an actual Republican. McCain has a long row to hoe, and maybe Mitt thinks he can lie in wait in the event that the base revolts. That, of course, remains to be seen.

Now the storyline will turn to the Obama-Hillary showdown. With any luck, that will come down to the convention. It would be great to see an old fashioned convention, where the delegates actually get together and vote on who the nominee will be, let it take a couple ballots. Imagine the most tense tribal counsel you've ever seen on Survivor, now multiply that by about a million, that's what a nominating convention would be like. Two will enter, only one will walk out alive.

Politics would be so much better if it were Wrestlemania.

Fool's Gold: Patriots Severely Overrated

2008-02-04T00:30:00.000-05:00

It's ok to make the statement. People will not write you off as crazy anymore. The 2007 New England Patriots were severely overrated.

All season and especially in the past two weeks, the football "experts" and national media would have you believe that the Patriots were the greatest team of all-time and Super Bowl XLII would not be close. An 18-0 team with the highest-scoring offense in NFL history heading for a perfect season as a 12-point favorite, failed in the end...in the biggest game of the year. Turns out, the "greatest team of all-time" wasn't even the greatest team of 2007. As Todd pointed out earlier this week, the Patriots had not won anything yet and this is the reason why you play the game.

Hats off to the Giants. How quickly things can change in the landscape of the NFL. Seven weeks ago, Eli Manning was a joke and never going to lead his team anywhere. At the end of last season a lot of people (me included) said Tom Coughlin should be fired. Now, they are both World Champions. Eli was always in the shadow and never going to be as successful as his brother...well there's one way to shut your critics up and have your name remembered and that's winning Super Bowls. On the other hand, all the records the Pats piled up this year mean absolutely nothing at the end of the season when they are not holding up the Lombardi trophy.

With everything surrounding this game from an undefeated season and a 12-point line...you have to say this is one of the greatest upsets in NFL history. Even though when they played in Week 17, it was a three-point game and even though the Giants were the hotter team in the playoffs. Despite all of that, still nobody gave the Giants a chance. Just like when nobody gave the Chargers a chance against the Colts this year or when the Steelers had no chance against the Colts in the 2005 playoffs. I've said it before...the worst thing a team can do is underestimate their opponent. Because that's when the upsets happen and become memorable.

STUNNED

If anything else, this game reminds me of why I love sports. While history was on the line for a season of perfection, a cast of unlikely players emerged to steal the show and make their own dent in history. Despite trailing in the fourth quarter, despite only scoring once in the entire game, you had that sick feeling deep down that the arrogant Patriots would somehow pull this game out. Their late score seemed to prove it as they took the lead. But the Giants moved the football, made an unbelievable catch that will go down as one of the greatest in Super Bowl history and pulled off the stunning upset.

Some will say it was just a game. But us sports fanatics know better. This game proved that anything can happen and that's why we continue to watch sports. You never say never.

Nothing's Gonna Change My World

2008-02-02T15:12:00.000-05:00

There were plenty of funny, idiotic and crazy news happenings this week and I figured to discuss a couple of them at The Wheelhouse.

Did you hear about this news? NASA is planning on beaming a Beatles song into outer space Monday. The Beatles' song Across the Universe (fitting) will head into outer space at 7 PM Eastern Time on Monday and will be aimed at the North Star, Polaris, which is a short 431 light years away from Earth and won't reach Polaris for a long time. I can't stress enough how stupid this is. They don't mention the numbers in any of these articles, but my guess is beaming sounds into outer space and perfectly aiming it to a point in the sky isn't exactly the same price as a happy meal at McDonalds. Why is NASA wasting time and money on this? Instead, why don't they focus their time to answer questions like life of Mars or if an asteroid is barreling toward us.

Happy Groundhog's Day! Today in the small (and I stress small) town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania everybody's lovable groundhog, Phil, was pulled out of his hole to forecast the weather. And as usual Phil saw his shadow again, leading to six more weeks of winter. A record crowd of more than 30,000 people gathered at Gobler's Knob to see Phil this year with Feb. 2nd falling on a weekend. We at The Wheelhouse used to make the small trek from our hometown to Punxy every year to celebrate the festivities during the simpler times of our college days, but like everything else, jobs and our lives got in the way this year.

Terrelle Pryor is milking his college decision for everything it's worth. Pryor, the number one prospect coming out of high school this year, is down to about four schools on his list of who to sign with and play football for. I don't like to rave about what athletes did in high school because mostly it's against joke competition, but coming out of Jeanette High School outside of Pittsburgh, Pryor had a ridiculous career (only player in PA history to run for 4,000 yards and throw for 4,000 yards) while leading his team to the state championship his senior year by mercy-ruling teams the entire way. The NCAA national letter of intent day is February 6th and according to an article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pryor was going to announce his decision live on ESPN, but now might hold off on his decision for a while due to a possible visit to Oregon next week. Michigan and Ohio State are still the two main frontrunners for Pryor, but Oregon and Penn State are still in running though he had this to say about Happy Valley last week, "I just don't know about the area up there. I don't know if I'd like being in that kind of area." Uh, hey Terrelle...you don't like State College? Have you been to Columbus?

The Super Bowl is tomorrow. I will admit that I have watched zero minutes of analysis, highlights and pre-game hoopla from ESPN the past two weeks because it's all a circus and I just want the game to start. So on the eve of Super Bowl XLII a report is released that claims a Patriots employee taped the Rams walkthrough the day before Super Bowl XXXVI. That was the Super Bowl where the Pats were heavy underdogs and then came out and shocked the Rams for their first championship. Now the report is missing certain details at this time and the NFL is looking into it, but there's no doubt in my mind that this is true. The Pats were caught doing this in Week 1 of this season and punished by the NFL, but it's naive to think they haven't done it in other years. The media needs to stop downplaying spygate and finally admit that some of their Super Bowl titles (if not all) might not be legit as we all think. In a three-point game against the Rams in SB XXXVI, you think having the other teams' plays and signals wouldn't make a difference? Please. Hopefully the NFL investigates and gets to the bottom of this. If anything it's another cloud that hovers over Belichick and Patriots as they go for 19-0 tomorrow in Arizona.

Entrapment: Plaxico Burress and Media Day

2008-02-01T01:16:00.000-05:00

How is anyone giving Plaxico Burress any guff for predicting his Giants would beat the Patriots 23-17 in the Super Bowl? Seriously, what do you expect him to say?

This week, during one of the approximately 123,084 media sessions where players are forced to meet with reporters, Burress gave the score in response to a question asking what the game's outcome would be.

For some reason, this didn't go over very well. Tom Brady acted as if you had called his woman a whore, and Giants coach Tom Coughlin promised a quiet man to man talking to. Why?

Players are forced to meet with the media, and the media (needing a story) set up players with leading questions so they can make their deadline. It goes sorta like this:

Reporter: Plax, do you think you guys are going win Sunday?
Plax: Yeah, we'll win.
Reporter: You think you're going to win? Would you guarantee it?
Plax: Yeah, whatever, I guarantee it, we'll win.... 23-17
Reporter: Thanks, Plax.
Later......
Reporter: Hey, Tom Brady, did you hear what Plax said about beating you Sunday?
Brady: No, what he say?
Reporter: He says they're going to win 23-17 and that you're gay.
Brady: That fucker.

BAM. Instant story.

This is what the media does, they manipulate and create stories from thin air. What else was Plax going to say? Of course he thinks his team is going to win, and of course he has to guarantee it- what else is he going to say- that he thinks they have a good shot but it all comes down to how much pressure they get on Brady and if they can knock Randy Moss off his routes?!

As for Coughlin getting pissed and reading Plax the riot act for giving Brady and the Pats bulletin board fodder, that's nonsense. Do you seriously think the Patriots were lacking motivation in the Super Bowl? Like Plaxico's score prediction is going to get them up more for the game.

Instead of being all over Burress for being so bold as to predict the team he plays for is going to win the biggest game of his professional life, why don't we just call bullshit on the media for once again creating a story where there isn't one. This, along with all the other comical nonsense that was part of this year's Super Bowl Media Day, is proof enough that there should be no week in between the conference championships and the Super Bowl. It simply leaves the media with too much time on their hands to hype a game which should stand on its own as simply the World Championship of Professional Football.

Al Davis Is a Cheap Bastard

2008-01-29T23:41:00.000-05:00

If there's a lesson that can be learned from the rift that has erupted between Oakland Raiders head coach Lane Kiffin, and owner Al Davis, it is this: let the buyer beware.

Davis has completely ostracized Kiffin, barring him from team meetings, personnel decisions and the hiring and firing of his own coaching and administrative staff. Why would Davis so tie the hands of the man he's paying to run his football club? Well, the answer is simple: Al Davis is a cheap old bastard.

Clearly, Davis doesn't want Kiffin to continue as coach, so why not ax him? Well, coaches in the NFL (unlike players in the NFL,) have guaranteed contracts, so if you want to fire the coach you'll have to pay the remainder of the dollars owed. It's believed that Kiffin's contract is in the neighborhood of $1.7 million for next year, the final of the two year deal he signed prior to the start of last season. There's apparently an option for a third year, but it doesn't look too likely they'll opt for that. So, for Davis to show Kiffin the door it'll cost him a cool $1.7 million. However, if Kiffin quits first, Davis is off scott free.

Kiffin may be the youngest coach in the league, but he's not stupid. Valuing money over pride, when Davis presented Kiffin a letter of resignation for him to sign after the season, he thumbed his nose at Davis and stayed on board.

Of course, Kiffin is not totally without sin in this ordeal. The event which supposedly set off this powder keg was Kiffin putting his name out there for possible college head coaching positions that opened up this year. Hearing this, Davis decided he didn't want another Bobby Petrino on his hands, and went to work making Kiffin's life incredibly uncomfortable.

Now, some people may say, “Hey, it's Al's team, if he wants to fire the guy, who cares?” Well, this is true, Al Davis is the owner of the Raiders and it's his team. However, it's his cheapness which is ruining this once proud franchise. Davis won't open his wallet to hire a top tier coach, this is why he had to turn to a 31 year old man whose top coaching achievement was being the offensive coordinator for USC. Furthermore, despite Kiffin's attempt to bring some accountability to the team, Davis won't allow the firing of his coaching staff because he would have pay off their contracts.

Where will this go from here? Well, who wants to play for a coach living on borrowed time, putting in a half-assed effort just to get a paycheck? Who wants to coach a team when they know their days are numbered and they have no authority over anything except for whether or not to punt on forth down?

So, next year, look for the Raiders to again be not only the bottom feeders of the AFC West, but the NFL as well. At least Al Davis will have saved some cash.

A new football league with Eric Crouch and Tee Martin? This has to be a good idea.

2008-01-28T19:55:00.000-05:00

When Vince McMahon created the XFL in 2001 he was naive enough to believe that the league could compete with the NFL. Less than a month after the conclusion of the first season, the league folded after being dropped by NBC and is considered one of the biggest jokes in sports history. Seven years later, a new league is about to begin play this spring...get ready for the All American Football League! (AAFL).

In case you haven't heard by now (and you probably haven't), the AAFL is a six-team league that will play a 10-game schedule running from April 19 to the championship game on July 3. The league consists of teams from Arkansas, Alabama, Texas, Florida, Tennessee and Michigan. And the teams will be playing their games at college stadiums. Wait a minute, I've heard of this league before...it's called the SEC.

Michigan is the only team out of place being the only one from the north...don't worry though, they will be playing indoors at the climate-control environment of Ford Field. I don't know where Michigan (with their economy in the shitter) found money to waste on this league. Speaking of where they will be playing...can you imagine the capacity of the stadium on AAFL gameday. Think about it...six thousand people sitting in Neyland Stadium in Knoxville that holds just over 102,000. Yeah, that'll create a raucous environment for the visiting team.

The inaugural draft was held last weekend and if you hurry to the AAFL website you can watch the taped version of the draft with all 50 rounds hosted by Frank Frangie! (who?) There are some interesting rules to follow for the teams as they can protect players from their own region. For example, players that graduated from the University of Arkansas would be protected by Team Arkansas. No other team is permitted to take them. Players that graduated from LSU and weren't gifted enough for the NFL are also protected by Arkansas. Georgia players fall into the Alabama region and so on. An excerpt from the AAFL website states,

"The League teams will feature grads of the local university. For some players, the All American Football League will be a stepping-stone into, or back into the NFL. For many, it will be a chance to continue playing football on the campus of their alma mater in front of the loyal and enthusiastic fan base that has grown to love them."

Yeah so the theory here is a lot of players that played for these teams in college won't move on to the next level, so why not have them still play football in the very same stadium they played college football in and the locals will love it!

Great. That's all we need now, college athletes not good enough for the NFL hanging on, chasing the dream for another year instead of moving forward with their lives. I understand what they are trying to do, but besides families and friends, the "favorites" that the local fans remember and want to see again are being drafted in the NFL anyway.

We don't need an extension to college football to a semi-pro college football because that's what this is sounding like to me. If you want to pay these athletes then just do it in college since the schools are making millions off of them anyway. One of the executives during the draft described the reasoning for this league and said, "There was no middle level between college and the NFL." Hmm, I thought that was what the Arena League was for or the CFL.

The colleges are supporting the AAFL and allowing stadiums for use because of a league rule that players can only be in the league if they have a four-year college degree. Oh, well...what an idea, considering most of the players in the NFL don't have a four-year degree. Now we know these players in the AAFL really aren't good enough for the NFL.

So who will be playing in this league? Any big names? Well former Nebraska standout and 2001 Heisman winner Eric Crouch was drafted by Team Texas in the first round. Eric Crouch, the same guy who was drafted by the Rams and retired about two weeks into training camp because the coaches said he was too confused with the professional game...and this was in training camp. Oh yeah, this will be great.

Other notable names are Bryan Randall, Chris Leak, Clint Stoerner, Tee Martin (Tee Martin!!), Peter Warrick and Team Florida Head Coach Shane Matthews. Warrick, Martin, Crouch...how long have these guys been out of football? This is a league full of has-been college athletes playing in their college stadiums trying to channel that success and fond memories they had years ago against other washed up athletes. This is going to be a mess.

It seems the AAFL is still currently working on a deal with a network to broadcast the season, which isn't good that they do not have one solidfied yet. The XFL had a deal with NBC and they folded after a year so this will be interesting. Many leagues have tried to compete with the NFL and all that remains are gravestones. XFL, USFL, World Football League, etc. The Arena League is hanging in there, but they changed the rules so much that their game barely resembles an NFL contest. The NFL is the most successfully run sports league out there and I don't know why people keep pouring money into new leagues that just won't work.

This league does however appear to not be going for a direct competition with the NFL as they are not stealing players while taking in B, C, D-list players who have been out of football and they know it. With that in mind and the fact that the AAFL looks to be running with a little more integrity than McMahon and the XFL was running with, I think the league will stick around longer.

I give the All American Football League two seasons before the collapse.

Super Bowl Called Off- Patriots To Receive Rings Wednesday Afternoon At Ceremony Attended By President

2008-01-28T00:42:00.000-05:00

With the 17th pick overall in this year's NFL Draft the the Minnesota Vikings are projected to select Calais Campbell, a junior defensive end from Miami. Sure, the Vikings could use someone to actually catch the football, but it's thought that they'll go defensive end to help shore up their pass rush.

How do I know all this? Well, thanks to an article on Fox Sports, which was posted on the MSN homepage Saturday January, 26th, I know all about the coming draft and how the Cowboys will be looking hard at Mario Manningham at 22.

I don't know what is more ridiculous, the fact that someone took the time to write this prognostic drivel, or that the lead NFL story on MSN is talking about a draft that won't take place for another three months. Hey, do you know what NFL event takes place even sooner than the draft? That's right, the Super Bowl. Maybe we could talk about that for a little bit.

Of course, despite everything on the line in the “Big Game,” there's not a buzz around this championship. The paparazzi has written more about this game than has the sports community, as they follow Tom Brady around Manhattan with his chick.

Another thing before I stray too far from Tom Brady. Have you ever heard of the starting quarterback of one Super Bowl team spending the bye week before the championship in the city of the team he's playing? I don't recall Ben Roethlisberger spending a week catching fish at that market in Seattle, or John Elway scoping out the Atlanta nightlife. What the hell is that about?

So, next week at this time we will have crowned a new NFL champion. That is, there will be an official crowning, the informal one took place in October when Chris Collinsworth called the Patriots the greatest team ever.

I guess it's just a forgone conclusion, the Patriots are going to win, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. It's such a lock, we can start talking about the draft. Don't worry about the Pro Bowl, the Patriots are going to win that too.

The Countdown crew over at ESPN agrees. Today, rather than actually talking about the Super Bowl and how the teams matchup, the guys batted around the idea of calling the Patriots the greatest dynasty of all time, and Bill Belichick the greatest coach of all time. Four championships in seven years certainly is impressive, considering the nature of the game- injuries, free agency, age. Yeah, that is a remarkable feat.

There's only one problem: the 2007 New England Patriots haven't won anything yet.

Maybe Super Bowl XLII isn't the match up the NFL wanted. Brett Favre will be at home, and the Giants are far from what could be called, “America's Team.” Still, this is the game that will be played, and the Patriots are going to have to convince the only 53 men in the NFL who haven't bought the hype, and don't think their win in a forgone conclusion.

This week, as the discussion revolves around comparing Brady to Montana and Belichick to Noll, could we maybe mention that on Sunday night there's a game to be played, and that maybe there are a few guys who call themselves the New York Football Giants who might have something to say about all this Patriots talk.

That's why they play the game.

No football. Now what?

2008-01-27T21:54:00.000-05:00

Every year the weekend before the Super Bowl is probably the worst weekend for sporting events ever. Why the NFL feels the need to have a week off before the big game, I will never understand. But anyway with the football season pretty much over that leaves the question...what to do with all that free time until baseball's Opening Day. If you're like me, you start banging your head off the wall come mid-February in what is by far the worst month of sports. But don't worry, here are The Wheelhouse's top four things (in no particular order) to help pass the time until March 31.

College basketball - Hey it's no football, but college basketball is still a solid sport to watch. It was a lot better when players actually stayed for three or four years, but there are plenty of unbelievable freshman to check out this year. Indiana's Eric Gordon, UCLA's Kevin Love, Memphis' Derrick Rose and USC's O.J. Mayo are just a couple of the freshman worth watching. ESPN does a stellar job of having games on all week along with CBS on the weekends. Plus with the regular season finishing in about a month, conference tournaments will begin followed by one of the most exciting couple of weeks in sports...March Madness. The opening rounds feature a plethora of games filled with upsets, exciting finishes, buzzer beaters and Bill Raftery catch phrases...the dagger! And another reason to tune in, it's not the NBA. My early Final Four is North Carolina, Kansas, Michigan State and Tennessee.

NHL - Ok, so the National Hockey League isn't the most popular sport around right now, but it's doing it's best to get back on its feet after the strike in 2004. The salary cap made the play more competitive (listening Bud Selig?), the play is more wide open and goals are being scored, shootouts have made overtime more exciting and a new group of young players are ready to take the league on its shoulders. Seriously, tune in if you haven't in a while...it's really not as bad as the media and ESPN portrays it. All you have to do is scour your cable channels to find Versus and you are set...that is, if you even have Versus.

Catch up on your 24 seasons - I've never been on illegal drugs before in my lifetime to experience an addiction or a withdrawal...until I had full seasons of 24 at my disposal. 24 is the hit show on FOX where Jack Bauer (played by Kiefer Sutherland) foils terrorists' plots while working for a counter terrorism unit in LA. With Kiefer currently behind bars for multiple DUI's and the writers guild on strike, I wouldn't expect a new season anytime soon. In the meantime, catch up on the six seasons. If you have not seen all the seasons, go buy one and enjoy. And even if you are an avid fan and seen every episode already...watch a season again. No time like the present to do so and you will not be able to watch just one episode in a sitting...it's impossible. I don't know how I ever went seven days before seeing the next episode because with the full season in front of you, the show consumes you.

Spring training - Even though it's hard to think about baseball weather with most of the country buried in snow and bitter temps, pitchers and catchers report to camp in only 18 days! MLB.com allows fans access to spring training games (with a small fee of course) as last year you could listen to any game and also watch games from your computer throughout March. And if you can't wait to see baseball in April and have an urge to get out of the cold, take a road trip to Florida or Arizona to see some baseball. Tickets are cheap, games are everyday and the sunshine is warm.

There you have it. Hope is not all lost after the Super Bowl and Pro Bowl so cheer up, get your 24 fix and get ready for a cold February to crawl along.

The Wheelhouse Is Open For Business

2008-01-27T00:32:00.000-05:00

Welcome to The Wheelhouse! For several years this blog has existed only in the form of conversation over scotch and soda, talk of how great it would be to finally bring together all of our thoughts and have a discussion about all the things that make up our lives. However, for quite some time with jobs, life and everything getting in the way, we were starting to wonder if this idea would ever transpire into anything at all. Well, we're excited to say that The Wheelhouse has finally arrived.

The Wheelhouse joins the other thousands of blogs currently on the Internet today that cover various categories from sports to fashion to random happenings. What category does The Wheelhouse fall into and what can you expect to read here?

Well the word "Wheelhouse" in baseball terminology is described as,

"A hitter's power zone. Usually a pitch waist-high and over the heart of the plate."

Basically, if you put a ball in the hitter's wheelhouse it's going to end up in the bleacher seats for a 400-foot home run. In this Wheelhouse, you are entering our writing zone. The pitch is coming in slow-motion, we can see the stitches, the sweet spot and are ready to knock it out of the ballpark.

As you can tell from that we will definitely cover sports in this blog, but we are not tied into that category alone, as we will discuss plenty of the topics that make up life. From the little things to the big things, it's all on the table, and you're invited to join us.

Founded by two college grads with a writing background from the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, The Wheelhouse will be bringing you fresh thoughts and ideas all the time as we work to raise the level of discourse. We're not experts, and don't claim to be, but what we will be is open, honest and unfiltered.

We invite you, the reader, to join in on our reindeer games. Comment, post, email us- participation isn't just welcomed, its encouraged.

Go ahead, bookmark us right now before you forget, and check back often. Better yet, shoot us an email and say hello, we want some two-way traffic as we travel down the highway of life.

Cheers,

Ryan Alexander

Todd Leight

Editors, The Wheelhouse