The End of the World? Nahh just more fodder for the interwebs....

We are less than 15 hours away from baseball’s Armageddon or 15 hours away from a furious sounding that ultimately means nothing. At 2.00pm on Thursday December 13th, 2007 George Mitchell will release his long awaited report on the use of steroids in Major League baseball. The inquiry (or witch hunt depending on what side you’re on) has taken 20 months. Mitchell and his band of merry investigators have conducted countless interviews often meeting a less than shocking lack of cooperation from players.

What information is going to be released tomorrow? Reports on ESPN.com state that Mitchell places blame on the owners and the players association. They also state that he is going to recommend several changes including adopting state of the art testing procedures and educating players on performance-enhancing drugs.

Nobody cares about that information. Everyone wants to hear the names!

The common fan already knows that owners turned a blind eye towards the growing problem in the late 80’s and 90’s. They continued to sign the big checks as the players transformed themselves into linebackers. Could the players association have stopped it early on? Of course they could have, but why should they? There were no penalties and the free agent contracts kept growing at a staggering rate.

That’s all in the past and like Mark McGwire we’re not here to talk about the past. Let the rest of the media gnash their teeth and lament the loss of innocence in America’s Pastime. Will anything about the game change?

Ultimately no. The names will be released and there will be outrage in the media and sheepish excuses issued by the players. Some will say it’s a misunderstanding and others will issue carefully worded apologies through their agents. Then slowly it will fade to the background. Baseball won’t banish anyone and no one will stand up and admit, “Yes I took steroids, HGH, performance enhancing drugs, etc. so that I would be a better player and make more money”.

Will we be shocked by the names on the list? Only if Jason Tyner Ben Zorbist are on there. In this day in age should any professional athlete be above suspicion? No. Every GM should be losing sleep tonight thinking about how to spin the news if their top players are named. Imagine Andrew Freidman having to step up to the podium to answer questions about Rocco Baldelli receiving shipments of HGH and Stanozolol while he was rehabbing his various injuries over the past two seasons. Admit it, it’s not that hard to picture.

That wasn’t meant to drag Rocco through the mud. The popular outfielder fits the profile of players who’ve already been named. Rick Ankeil, Jason Grimsley and Jay Gibbons were all players who allegedly purchased the substances to help recover from major injuries. The point is that this is a very real case scenario that at least one team will be going through tomorrow. It’s going to be a public relations nightmare.

The release of the names will make good copy for a few days, especially now during a slow sports period. Experts will appear on your TV and scream about the sanctity of the game and the tarnishing of records. Then playoff football will roll around and baseball will take a back burner. The College Bowl Season, Super Bowl and College Basketball will draw more attention away and by spring training the Mitchell Report will be nothing more than a footnote. After all aren’t we still supposed to be outraged at Michael Vick and Don Imus?

So far this off-season it doesn’t appear that teams are shying away from players that have been linked with illicit drugs. Jose Guillen signed a 3 year $36 Million contract on the same day Major League Baseball announced he was going to be suspended for receiving $20,000 worth of steroids and HGH in 2003-05. On Wednesday The Houston Astros traded their entire AAA roster for Miguel Tejada whose name has been associated with steroids more than once. (ed note – the trade was for Luke Scott and 4 prospects).

There are also reports that Major League Baseball won’t punish any of the players named in the report. So the athletes can mumble their explanations about tainted vitamins or doctors’ prescriptions and talk about moving forward while they line up their next multimillion dollar contract.

In the end, batting averages and ERA’s will replace horse tranquilizers and estrogen injections on the front page. The airwaves will be filled with complaints about the Rays bullpen instead of cries to purge the records of the steroid abusers.

The demise of baseball has been predicted before. As always baseball will survive this. Just like it has survived the Dead Ball era, gambling scandals, drug scandals, work stoppages and Dane Cook promos. Like Terrance Mann said, “This field, this game: it’s a part of our past…It reminds us of all that was once good and it could be again.”

Trade Winds are a Blowin'

Let’s see:

1. 2nd Annual Carl Crawford to the White Sox trade rumor – check
2. Random Scott Kazmir to New York rumor – check
3. Tons of chatter on message boards on other teams fleecing the Rays for their players – check

That means one thing – the Hot Stove League is in full swing. Baseball’s annual swap meet is humming right along at a fever pitch even though there haven’t been any big deals yet. The biggest news has been players resigning such as Alex Rodriguez with the Yankees and Mike Lowell with the Red Sox. The names rumored to be on the block are huge. Johan Santana, dubbed by some as the best pitcher in the game, is on the move to New York (Mets and Yankees), Red Sox, Angels or whoever else meets whatever outrageous price Minnesota is looking for. Miguel Cabreara has been mentioned in as many stories as Santana often for the same players that are in the Santana rumors.

While nothing solid looks to be eminent it does keep fans busy coming up with their own unsubstantiated and all out crazy trade rumors. As usual Joe Commenter thinks they are smarter than the 30 GM’s in Major League Baseball. Apparently if GM’s read more blogs and message boards they’d be a lot better at their job.

That makes today’s rumor so interesting. A proposed “mega deal” between the Rays and the Twins has spread through the internet community like a California wildfire. La Velle E. Neal III (great name by the way) reports on startribune.com that the two clubs are “close to finalizing a multi-player deal” that would send Delmon Young, Brendan Harris and Jason Pridie to Minnesota for stud pitching prospect Matt Garza, reliever Juan Rincon and shortstop Jason Bartlett.

Reaction from the masses has been mixed. Opinions have ranged from it being a horrible deal for the Rays to being a horrible deal for the Twins to it being a great trade for both clubs. This is an extension of fans having a tendency to over value their own prospects. Delmon Young could be the next great right-handed hitter a la Albert Pujols. Or he could be a one year wonder (paging Kevin Maas). Matt Garza could be a dominating starter or he could blow his arm out skipping rocks on a river somewhere.

The point is, well one of the points is, that you have to surrender talent to receive talent. With all of the scouting and information on players available the chances of one team robbing another in a trade are greatly reduced. There won’t be too many Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano deals anytime soon, especially in the off-season.

Many fans would like to see Young in a Rays uniform for many years to come. These same fans acknowledge that the Rays can use another starter in the rotation. Well they can’t have it both ways. Teams aren’t going to deal a number 3 or above starter to the Rays for an oft-injured Rocco Baldelli or malcontent such as Elijah Dukes.

So it comes to dealing key players. The two biggest chips in the Rays arsenal are Delmon Young and Carl Crawford. Right now Young may have more upside to his career, but Crawford is more important to the organization. CC is still young enough to just be entering his prime, but also has enough experience that you know what you’re getting out of him year in and year out – 50 steals, over .300, 15-20 home runs and slightly above average defense in left.

Young has one year and despite the fact that it was arguably a Rookie of the Year caliber season there are still a lot of question marks for his career. Will he hit for power (only 13 homeruns in 645 at bats)? Will he curb his strikeouts (127 last season)? Those are realistic concerns.

If this deal goes down it will be the first major deal for the new ownership; deadline deals not withstanding. It will give the Rays a strong rotation (Kazmir, James Shields, Garza, Andy “The Chosen One” Sonnanstine, Ed Jackson) for next year. With Jeff Niemann and David Price around the bend Tampa Bay could have a dominating staff for years to come.

The outfield of the future from a few seasons ago (Carl Crawford, Josh Hamilton and Delmon Young) never materialized and has morphed into Crawford, BJ Upton and as yet to be named right fielder if Young is moved. Next season will probably see a platoon of Jon Gomes, Justin Ruggiano or a yet to be signed journeyman in right. While losing Delmon would be a blow to the lineup the Rays could hope that the addition of Evan Longoria would offset any loss of offense.

As usual all of this could be for naught if the deal doesn’t happen. The important point (see there is more than one) is that fans shouldn’t reject a deal out of the gate just because it involves a player that has been billed as a can’t miss prospect. He is still just a prospect. There’s a 50/50 chance he could turn into a bust. Then you only can say – “Gee if only we had dealt him back when he was good”.

I'm back

So what did I miss while I was enjoying beer and anti-Nazi riots ? Let’s see:

The Lightning were on a hot streak!
The USF Bulls are making a push for a bowl game not located in Birmingham.
Aubrey Huff said something dumb in Tampa about Baltimore. It’s like he never left!
New uniforms and a possible new stadium for the Rays.


The first three are nice stories and we’ll look at them in due time. For now lets focus on the Rays. It’s official they are now the Tampa Bay Rays and as expected they unveiled the worst kept secret in the TBA.

The uniforms will be comprised of a blue, white and yellow color scheme. The focus is moving away from the animal and more into Rays as in sunlight. The fate of the cow nose rays in the centerfield “Rays Tank” has yet to be determined.

The news was met with a muted response. Any hope of suspense or excitement was removed when the details were leaked online during the summer. Luckily the Rays had another bullet in the chamber.

Reports surfaced and were confirmed that the Rays are in negotiation with the city of St. Petersburg to build a new stadium at the waterfront property currently occupied by Al Lang Field.

The public’s reaction has been less than positive. According to a special report by the St. Petersburg Times 57% of registered voters surveyed approval of the plans to build the stadium (yea more than half!), but 69% of those same voters don’t want taxpayer money to pay for it. The sample size was 616 voters and has a 4% margin of error.

Wow how about those numbers? This town loves its Rays don’t they? Instead of embracing the fact that the team is making a commitment to stay in town and improve the atmosphere for its fans the public is worried about paying for it.

It’s a tough time in Florida for sure. The housing market is down, taxes are creeping up and the threat of a hurricane wiping out everything is always right around the corner. That’s understandable, but if you want to call yourself a true sports town there are sacrifices that have to made. You concede that you’re going to pay more for tickets every year, you understand that the price of a beer inside the stadium is going to be more than a six pack outside of the stadium and once in your lifetime you and everyone else are asked to pony up for a stadium.

It’s not the Rays fault that the City of St Pete convinced voters and taxpayers to build a stadium as a way to entice Major League Baseball into giving the area a team. Tropicana Field was outdated before Wilson Alvarez threw a pitch inside it. Aren’t you embarrassed as a fan to have explain the catwalk rules to fans from out of town?

The days of owners paying for stadiums out of their own pockets have come and gone. I was surprised that the ball club has already said that they’re willing to kick in any money at all. Think back 10 years and ask yourself how much money the Glazers kicked in for Raymond James. Were the Bucs any better than the Rays are now? Fans can’t have it both ways. They can’t complain about the park the team currently plays in and then shoot down the idea of a new park before there’s even a concept in place.

This is a good thing. This needs to be done. Whining about the “secret” negotiations or the lack of parking or the burden it’s going to place on downtown isn’t going to endear the owners to the town. If this goes to a public referendum and gets shot down don’t be surprised to hear serious talk about the team moving. A cynical person may say that Stu Sternberg is floating this out there knowing it’s going to fail just so he has an excuse to move the franchise.

Don’t take this as a blanket endorsement for the current ownership. There are hundreds of details that need to be ironed out. The parking concerns are valid as is the minor problem of finding $450 Million + to pay for the stadium. The point is that it is not time to focus on the negative. What the team is looking for is excitement. Let’s talk about the virtues of an open stadium or a retractable roof. Should there be a version of McCovey Cove and what should it be called (Canseco’s Cove? Huff’s Harbor? Boggs Bay?)

2012 is the estimated completion date for the stadium. By then the organization should know what the product on the field is going to be like. Will Scott Kazmir and James Shields fulfill their potential? They’ll know if BJ Upton is an All-Star centerfielder and if Delmon Young is the player they hope him to be.

Imagine a team that has been able to compete in the toughest division in the MLB. Imagine a truly competitive team stepping out under a sunny April sky instead of the dull florescent lights of the Trop. Imagine ESPN and Fox gushing about seeing sailboats in the distance. Imagine an All-Star game in St Pete.

Those are things that team should be hearing about right now. There is plenty of time left for the details. For now imagine the possibilities.

Always Late and Never Right... The World Series Preview

I know it’s late, but you probably weren’t expecting me to write anything anyway. Well here it is – CB’s World Series Preview/Review. Let’s skip ahead to the prediction. I say, with sorrow in my heart, the Red Sox win in six games. I used to like the Red Sox, they were harmless. No matter how well they were playing you could count on them blowing it at some point. No matter how cocky their fans would get all you would have to say is “Bucky Dent” or “Bill Buckner” and they would be brought back to reality. Unfortunately 2004 changed all that.

At first I was happy for them. A long suffering and loyal fan base had finally been rewarded for their years of suffering. That lasted for about 2 weeks. I was familiar with the term Masshole. In the small Florida college I attended I had encountered several of them. For some reason our school recruited heavily from that region and so for four years I listened and smirked at their harsh accent and rolled my eyes when they called mommy and daddy for more money.

Since the World Series victory in 2004 the so-called Red Sox Nation became infested with Massholes. No longer was the face of the typical Sox fan a middle aged bearded fellow with despair written across his face. Now it’s Dane Cook. They invade other stadiums with foul language still screaming NOOOOOOOMMMARRR for no particular reason. They bully and mock home town fans. It reminds me a lot of another group of fans that harassed fans in the late 90’s and early 00’s – Yankee fans.

On the field the transition was much the same. Back in ’04 the Boston club was charming. Kevin Millar was cowboying it up and Pedro was pulling one last year of magic out of his arm. Curt Schilling was the savior who decided to sign with the club after talking to fans on an internet message board. He was heralded as the Savior with a capital “S” when he pitched with blood leaking out of his ankle.

Now J.D. Drew patrols right field. Julio Lugo plays average short stop – at $9 million a year. Schilling makes the news more for running his mouth then his actions on the mound. David Ortiz hobbles around the field like a 90 year old man. Trot Nixon is gone, Johnny Damon is gone, Millar and Derrick Lowe are gone.

Manny Ramirez is still around, but there is a 75% chance he thinks he’s still playing for Cleveland. The talking heads like to glorify GM Theo Epstein’s decision not to trade Ramirez. It’s not like he didn’t try. He just couldn’t work a deal.

A team that couldn’t “afford” Damon paid $101 million for Daisuke Matsuzaka who is at best their number three starter. An argument could be made that despite their overpaid talent if it wasn’t for the emergence of some of their young players like Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroria then they might not be playing tonight.

If you just read that and thought it sounded like 7 paragraphs of sour grapes, well it was. I don’t really care. I’m sick of the Red Sox. The day after they vanquished the Indians to advance to the World Series Foxsports.com headline story referred to them as “Destiny’s Darlings”. A few days before that ESPN.com plopped a Red Sox fan’s plaintive comment of “haven’t we suffered enough?” on it’s front page.

Really? You’ve suffered so much in the 3 seasons since you won a title? Go talk to some Seattle or Texas or Cubs fans about suffering. Heck even Rays fans are suffering more than Sox fans these days.

So far the media coverage has been decidedly pro Boston. The Rockies have been cast aside as a neat little story that will be crushed under the tidal wave of Red Sox love. Aren’t Tim McCarver and Joe Buck supposed to be impartial announcers. The amount of man love that they’ve spewed over the Sox so far has been indecent. Thank you Fox for the cheesy Chariots of Fire music as Schilling walked off the mound and into the dugout. Maybe you can petition Cooperstown to wave the five year waiting period and have him inducted into the Hall of Fame following this game.

People can’t seem to get used to the fact that they are in the playoffs and they won 21 of 22 because they are a good fundamental team. They keep it simple, hit the ball, throw the ball, catch the ball. Down the stretch they did it better than any other team.

Of course the long lay off between series hurt them in game one. Anyone arguing that it wouldn’t wasn’t thinking straight. Timing played an important role in their streak. Timely hitting, timely pitching and even timely roster moves were all integral in their success. Nothing disrupts timing like a long delay. It showed Wednesday night in Boston. The bats cooled off and the pitchers looked rusty. They will catch back up.

The series will change once it reaches the mile high air of Denver. While I don’t think it will be enough to overcome the Red Sox I don’t see them getting swept. The Boston fans were unbearable after winning their first title in 86 years I fear living in a world where they win two in four seasons.

If you lose...will they still come?

Thanks to my wonderful girlfriend I was lucky enough to attend the USF vs. West Virginia game in September. Along with Link and Big Mike we watched as a young program burst onto the national scene with a rousing 21-13 victory over the Mountaineers.

One of things that stood out to me was a fan sitting in front of me. It was a gentleman in his mid 40’s who was sporting a brand new USF visor to go along with his brand new USF T-Shirt and always classic camouflage shorts. As he and his drunken fans leered at the college girls walking by I noticed that he sported a cell phone holder on his belt. What kind of cell phone holder? Why a Florida Gator one of course.

That is the crux of the problem that now faces Bulls. What becomes of the fans that made their way to the front of the bandwagon while USF was crashing the party at the top of the BCS polls? Do they stay or do they go back to their Gators or ‘Noles or, God forbid, their ‘Canes? For the better part of two months even the Buccaneers and their decent start to the NFL season took a back seat to the wunderkinds of the Big East.

A reported 67,012 fans showed up for that match-up against West Virginia on September 28. It was a Friday night, but for once the fans were actually in their seats at kickoff. Maybe the fact that many of them had been tailgating since 10.00AM helped them show up on time, but still for a town that rivals Los Angeles for its game time tardiness it was an impressive feat.

However, now that the buzz around town has worn off what will become of the crowds? Thursday’s uninspired 30-27 loss to Rutgers destroyed any chance the Bulls had at winning the national title. It allows the smug commentators the satisfaction of knowing that the upstarts from Tampa won’t ruin their prestigious end of the season party. Will it affect the crowds?

The Bulls have the honor of playing in a large stadium. Whereas it doesn’t rival the seating capacity of Penn State or Michigan (both of whom can boost attendance over 100,000) it is still a fairly large stadium. More importantly when the stadium is full it is a very loud arena.

However, when it’s not full it has a dreary feeling to it. All of the empty red seats clash with the scattered green shirts in the near empty stadium. The student section is rowdy as always, but in other sections the atmosphere resembles a Saturday afternoon youth soccer game more than a major college football match. That is why fans outside of the TBA ridicule USF on message boards and leading analysts decry their tradition, or lack thereof.

In the future questions should be focused on how the team is playing, not where the school is located. More wins on the field and more support from the town will render the question of “Why is the University of South Florida located in the middle of the state?” moot. Win on the field and the taunts about geography will seem childish coming from fans of other teams.

USF, whose football team is only 11 seasons old, has to earn respect. Jim Leavitt’s leadership is slowly allowing them to do it on the field where early season upsets of Auburn and West Virginia shot the team up the BCS rankings. To earn respect off the field the fans need to continue to show up even if the ESPN cameras aren’t going to be there.

The Bulls are still in the hunt for the Big East championship and with that a bid to a major bowl. They need the fans to shrug off the loss to Rutgers and move on. The big test comes on November 3rd when the team plays at Raymond James once again. Will there be over 60,000 screaming fans there or 25,000 semi-inspired, glad to be outside on a Saturday afternoon quasi fans?

The answer to that question will show how far along this program has truly come along over the last few years.

Crappy Lightning Post

Three games into the season and the Lightning are one of the 5 teams that still have a big fat shiny “0” in the loss column. Even more impressive is the way they’ve been winning, with solid defense. Wednesday nights 2-1 victory over the Florida Panthers marked the first time in 31 games that the Bolts won a game while scoring less than 3 goals. Last season they were 0-30-1 when not hitting the 3 goal mark. While that might not rank up there in impressive streaks like Cal Ripken or Brett Farrve’s consecutive game streak it is still impressive in a “hmmm I didn’t know that way” kind of like the Bucs never returning a touchdown or the Mets never throwing a no-hitter.

The key to the solid defense starts in net. Johan Holmqvist, who broke camp as the unspoken number one goaltender, has performed up to the potential that Coach Tortorella and the Lightning faithful had been hoping would come to fruition since he first donned the mask. After a strong camp he has posted 3 wins and a sparkling .945 save percentage in those 3 wins. With games scattered out over the next two weeks and Tort’s perchance for riding the hot hand it could be a while before Marc Denis finds some playing time.

Goaltending isn’t the only strength of the defense so far this season. Much like during the cup run of 2004 the entire time is buying into the program. Tuesday night’s effort saw 13 blocked shots by Bolt players. Those types of numbers are usually reserved for playoff match ups not weekday games in October.

The offense is on track with Vincent Lecavalier (who Martin Brodeur called “the best player in the league”) has 3 goals and Marty St Louis has 5 assists. It’s still two early to see how balanced the team will be, but it was nice to see Chris Gratton chip in a couple of goals.

It’s a long season and there are many games left to play, but one week in it looks like this years version of the Tampa Bay Lightning is exceedingly more well rounded than the last two seasons.

Lightning News

I wish it was better, but ESPN.com is reporting that Dan Boyle will miss "several weeks" after slicing a tendon in his wrist hanging up his skates after the game on Saturday. Add that one to the list of odd sports injuries (Glenallen Hill, Mike Matheny and Tom Barrasso among others).

This isn't good for the team or for Boyle. The Bolts were thin at the blueline going into camp and now the situation is worse. Look for a young player like Matt Smaby or Bryce Lampman to step up. By missing the first few weeks of the season Boyle misses valuable ice time going into his free agent year.

Other bad news has Vincent Lecavalier leaving the game with an undisclosed "upper body injury". Erik Erlendsson is reporting on his Tampa Tribune blog that Vinny's injury "isn't serious" and that he shouldn't miss any time. That's nice to hear, but it makes me wonder why they aren't releasing any information about the injury. I understand the trickery and shenanigans come play off time, but this is preseason.

So far since the Boys in Black donned the new jerseys they've been swarmed with a rash of injuries. Chris Gratton, Andre Roy, Michelle Ouellett, Boyle and Lecavalier all have been bitten by the injury bug. Let's hope we're not looking at a new curse - The Reebok Jersey Curse....shudder.