Cassel gets a "Golden Shower"

This offseason could be a dream come true for Matt Cassel, but it isn't off to the best start. According to the New York Daily News, a drunken fan allegedly peed on Matt Cassel's leg during the Super Bowl. The incident occurred in a Raymond James bathroom stall at halftime. Apparently, a drunken fan was giving Cassel a hard time, and when Cassel told the man to wait his turn, he deliberately peed on Cassel's leg.

This has to be one of the funniest stories I've ever heard. I wonder if Tom Brady put someone up to it. The biggest question on my mind is, what the hell was Cassel doing in a public bathroom?

As a Bucs fan, I'm very excited by the prospect of Cassel coming to play in Tampa. But that fact the he was peed on in our stadium seems like a bad omen.

Nadal...Need I Say More?

Let me start by saying this: Rafeal Nadal is the greatest thing to happen to tennis. He has officially stated his position to every tennis player on the tour to why he is the best tennis player in the world. Nadal won his first major on hard surface after it was dominated by Roger Federer for many, many years.

Fresh off of a 5 hour 14 minute match in the semi-finals win over Fernando Verdasco, many speculated how Nadal would hold up in the finals. But truth of the matter is, he is Rafeal Nadal, world's number 1 tennis player.

Nadal beat Federer 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-2 in a nearly four-and-a-half hour match. It lasted well past midnight locally into a simmering Monday morning in this southeast Australian metropolis.

I stayed up to watch this match until I ended up falling asleep in the middle of the third set. I was happy I was able to watch some of the math. I was so similar to their Wimbledon finals only a season ago. They were both brilliant. When these players are done playing, this match up will be on the the greatest rivalries in sports history. They are a joy to watch, and I cannot wait to keep watching in the future, especially this year.

Phelps smokes Weed? Who cares?

News of the World leaked a photo of Michael Phelps olympic gold medalist and superstar, hitting the bong. And my first and only reaction about this is, who the hell cares? I think this probably makes him more likeable to college kids everywhere, but that's not the point.

The man is 23-years-old, just off a historic run against the best in the world and emerged from the training for the first time in god knows how long. And he smoked weed. Holy shit, lets all stop what we're doing and pretend to be overly outraged and concerned that this happened. How dare this man do this, when half the population has and a ton of the college guys his age currently are doing it all the time. That's not to say that it's okay, but I don't want to hear about how he's a role model and he should know better.

The real people who should know better are the idiots who reported this. If they were role models, they would have realized what a national icon he is to kids everywhere and they wouldn't have published this picture. Now that would have been the intelligent thing to do. But no, let's publish the photo and rip the kid and make some money. Good for us.

News of the World sucks, just like a lot of media outlets that find it convenient to rip people like Michael Phelps and tarnish them all they please for being role models when they are rarely responsible and/or role models themselves.

More Joe Torre

More and more of Joe Torre's new book "The Yankee Years" have been coming out. We already knew that he criticised A-Rod, Brian Cashman, and Yankee management, but now more names and comments have been released. Other players that Torre spoke out against include Randy Johnson, Kevin Brown, Gary Sheffield, David Wells, Carl Pavano (for obvious reasons), and Johnny Damon.

Wells spoke out on a radio show in response to what Torre said about him. In the book, Torre says, "The difference between Kevin Brown and David Wells is that both make your life miserable, but David Wells meant to."


Wells said that Torre favored guys like Jeter, Rivera, Posada, O'Neil, and Pettite, and that if you weren't one of "Joe's Boys" it wasn't fair. Wells also told a story about when Torre fined him for wearing Babe Ruth's hat during a game one. Wells said when Torre asked for the money he threw it at him and told him to go buy some new rims for his beat down car. When asked what Wells would do if he ran into his ex-manager in the next month or so, Wells said that he would probably just laugh at him.

In Johnny Damon's case, during the 2007 season when Damon was suffering from a leg injury, Torre told him that he doesn't have the same attitude he used to have and that he wasn't the player or person he once was. At the end of the private meeting, Damon told Torre that he didn't think he could do it anymore, and was close to retiring after the season.

More of the relationship between Torre and Cashman came out as Torre was furious with Cashman over not bringing back Bernie Williams. Torre wanted him back more than anything but Cashman wanted to move on. I love Bernie Williams, he is one of my favorite players of all time, but I have to take Cashman's side on this one, Bernie was finished and the Yankees needed to bring in better players.

What most people don't know in reference to the A-Rod and his relationship with his teammates is that in the 2007 offseason when A-Rod, Pettite, Rivera, and Posada were all free agents, Pettite, Posada, and Rivera all personally told GM Brian Cashman to sign A-Rod first because the team needed him. So obviously his teammates can not hate him that much if they wanted him to get signed before themselves.

I have been saying for years how much of an idiot Joe Torre is. I hate how people are so quick to defend him. People always said how loyal and classy he was and he didn't deserve to get fired from New York. Well maybe now people notice how much of a problem this guy was. I wonder what the current players on the Los Angeles Dodgers are going to think about this. How are they going to be able to trust him after he comes out with a book with tons of dirt on his former team? Not only did he blow numerous games and potential playoff runs or even World Series hopes, but it turns out that most of his own players didn't even like him. He obviously was a different person when he was behind the cameras and the media played him out to be some sort of hero. He well overstayed his welcome in New York. The Yankees could have had Lou Pinella as their manager if they realized sooner (even though I like Girardi). There is no way that someone can defend Torre after this crap that he is pulling. I hope his legacy is tarnished forever and Yankee fans forget about him as quickly as possible for trying to ruin a franchise that gave him his 3rd chance as a manager. The Yankees made Joe Torre into who he is, he didn't make the Yankees who they are.

Best NBA All-Star Event: Rookies vs. Sophomores

I couldn't care less about the upcoming NBA All-Star game. Fan voting is a bunch of shit and the NBA one is just as bad as all the others'. I think the MLB game is best, but not by much, but that's neither here nor there. I like the Dunk Contest, but it lacks any real excitement or punch nowadays. The Skills competition is cool, but only goes so far. The real fun is in the Rookies vs. Sophomores game.

The NBA just released the rosters for the game and I think this year's should be a good one. The Sophomore squad is weaker than in years past and the Rookie team is stacked. Also, a most likely useless, but interesting addition is that Dwayne Wade will assistant coach the Rookies and Dwight Howard will work with the Sophomores. Here's rosters:

Rookie Team Roster
Michael Beasley (Heat)
Rudy Fernandez (Trail Blazers)
Marc Gasol (Grizzlies)
Eric Gordon (Clippers)
Brook Lopez (Nets)
O.J. Mayo (Grizzlies)
Greg Oden (Trail Blazers)
Derrick Rose (Bulls)
Russell Westbrook (Thunder)
Sophomore Team roster
Aaron Brooks (Rockets)
Wilson Chandler (Knicks)
Kevin Durant (Thunder)
Jeff Green (Thunder)
Al Horford (Hawks)
Luis Scola (Rockets)
Al Thornton (Clippers)
Rodney Stuckey (Pistons)
Thaddeus Young (Sixers)

On name recognition alone, the Rookies seem the clear-cut favorites and are projected to win, which would be a first for them in a long time. But I still think that the Sophomores are going to find a way to pull it out. Kevin Durant is the best player playing in the game and I don't see any Rookies who can stop him. Westbrook, Mayo, and Rose should run wild up and down the floor and seeing as no one plays defense in these games I don't see anyone stopping them. However, Al Horford is a great post-player, polished, and smooth, good chance he goes for atleast 15 and 15.

In the end, I see Durant leading the Sophomores to a thrilling win and finish and ending the night holding up the MVP trophy of the game. Then again, the game is being played on Friday, the 13th, so who knows what could happen?

Duke vs. Wake Forest

Duke is back at No. 1, but staying there has proved to be difficult this month for Atlantic Coast Conference teams.
The Blue Devils (18-1, 5-0), looking for their 11th straight win, will be tested in a major way, traveling on Wednesday to face No. 4 Wake Forest, the team Duke replaced atop the rankings this week.

Duke made their climb to the top with a rout over Maryland on Saturday, combined with a Wake Forest loss to Virginia Tech earlier on in the week.

Duke became the third ACC team to reach No. 1, as North Carolina was there until a Jan. 4 loss to Boston College.

"It's a big deal for us because it means we're playing really well," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "We talked about it last week that, just don't worry about anything, let's just play. It's the same thing we're going to tell them going into this next week. ... It's an honor and it says you're playing real well. You don't get anything from it except a really big headline when you lose.

Wake Forest has won four of its last five home games against the Blue Devils, but the loss came when the Blue Devils were No. 1.
Wake Forest is 4-24 against No. 1 teams with all those wins coming when the Demon Deacons were unranked. Wake's previous victory over a top-ranked opponent.
The Blue Devils have taken five of the last six overall meetings and lead the all-time series 155-76.

Look for Jeff Teague to win the the point guard match up for Wake Forest against Nolan Smith, and Greg Paulus. Kyle Singler, and Gerald Henderson should handle their match ups easily, but Al-Faroug Aminu and Chas McFarland should win their match ups against Duke's big men.

This is a very exciting match up for any college basketball fan. I am looking forward to this great game, as well as many other college game on tonight that can be seen on the ESPN family of networks.

2009 NHL All Star Weekend

The NHL All Star break came and went, but not without providing fans with something to cheer about. All the superstars put on a show in Montreal, beginning with the Skills Challenge Saturday night.

The events were fastest skater(similar to fastest runner in SBAA little league which I took first in), hardest shot, special shootout, shot accuracy, and regular shootout. Andrew Cogliano of the Oilers won won the fastest skater, Boston's Zdeno Chara won the hardest shot with 105.3 mph blast, the regular shootout was won by Shane Doan of the Coyotes, shooting accuracy champion was Evgeni Malkin and the special shootout was won by Alex Ovechkin.

The part that I found most interesting was the part when Malkin helped Ovechkin put sunglasses and a hat on before he shot. There has been a feud between the two Russians but the reason never surfaced. Malkin confirmed rumors that Ovechkin punched his agent once, but again, nobody knew what sparked this conflict. Every time the Caps and Penguins played, Ovechkin gunned for Malkin, looking to take his head off every chance he got. The YouTube video at the end of this article is a must to truly understand the beef between the two as Ovechkin tries taking off Malkin's head but just misses and gets the worse end of it. But this weekend they put their differences behind them and both credited country-mate Ilya Kovalchuk for helping them.

The All Star game was nothing short of exciting as the East topped the West 12-11 in a shootout. Unfortunately the MVP went to Montreal's Alex Kovalev, a result of hometown favoring. It was a good weekend for everyone and this is something to look forward to every year. Hockey starts back up tomorrow and the second half of the season should be exciting.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZkPn9kjRFE

Buy! Plaxico Means Peace!

This is a great t-shirt and a must buy for all good samaritans.

I may not buy one (money is tight), but shit, I want one!

Plaxico is a role-model and we should salute him with this t-shirt to properly remember his name and legacy.

Joe Torre Book

On February 3, Joe Torre's new book "The Yankee Years" will be on shelves all across the country. The long time New York Yankees manager bashes 3rd basemen Alex Rodriguez noting that he was known as "A-fraud" by some of the guys in the locker room and that he was absolutely obsessed with his relationship/rivalry with shortstop Derek Jeter. Torre also attacks General Manager Brian Cashman, saying that he was "betrayed on several fronts" by him. He is also upset with other members of the organization and claims that team doctors told Owner George Steinbrenner that Torre has prostate cancer in 1999 before they told him.

People keep saying that this book isn't about exposing the problems that the organization has or the poor attitudes and bad relationships of some of the guys on the team. They say that it's just a small part of the book and it focuses more on his time with the Yankees and how his Yankee teams changed baseball. (the growth of information analysis, revenue sharing, growth of intellect in front offices, changes in Red Sox ownership, the Steroid Era, etc.)

To be honest with you, this stuff is interesting but irrelevant to me as a fan. I could care less how A-Rod gets along with his teammates. As long as he keeps producing, like he has been his whole career, he can be whoever he wants to be off the field. Criticising the best all around player in the game, and potentially the greatest hitter who ever lived, isn't a smart thing to do. As for his relationship with Brian Cashman, sources say that the two have talked on the phone and that they are still friends. I think Torre is just bitter and frustrated that the Yankees cut ties with him and this is a cheap shot by him. As professionals, things that happen within the team should stay within the team.

Even though Torre did win 4 World Series with the Yankees I felt like he overstayed his welcome by years. People ask me "how can you say he was a bad coach?, he won 4 championships!". Well when he had the highest payroll in the league 7 years in a row he won nothing. It started getting to the point where Torre made a dumb decision game in and game out and their loses were the result of his inability to coach. Most people who say this don't even watch that many Yankee games. It's similar to how a lot of Phillies fan don't think Charlie Manuel is a good coach, but to someone like me who only watches a few Phillies games a year, thinks that he is a great manager because the Phils won the division 2 years in a row and now a World Series.

Bottom line is that this book is ridiculous and unnecessary, and just because Torre had a bad ending in New York, he feels like he needs to lash back at the organization which he feels abandoned him. I don't think this will be too much of a distraction for this Yankees team, as they have changed not only the players on their team but the mentality of the organization.

Superbowl Prediction and More

A few weeks back, I made the prediction that the Pittsburgh Steelers would be Superbowl champions. Although I did have them defeating the Carolina Panthers instead of the Arizona Cardinals. Nevertheless the Steelers are there and to no ones surprise, it's because of their defense. Ben Roethlisberger has been shaky and Hines Ward has been injured, but when your defense is this good, it doesn't really matter. Like the old saying goes, defense wins championships.

I don't think people realize how amazing this defense is. Yes, Kurt Warner has the experience and is playing amazing, and Larry Fitzgerald has been unstoppable, but I'm predicting that the Steelers hold the Arizona offense to 13 points. Football guru Dick LeBeau who has been around forever, will draw up something to shut down Fitzgerald and frustrate the rest of the Cardinals offense. Between Polamalu, Harrison, and Farrior, this defense is one of the best in the past 20 years and fans need to know that.

Now even though I'm obligated to root for the Cardinals because they bounced the Eagles out of the playoffs and if the Steelers win they will pull ahead of the 49ers and my Cowboys for most Superbowls by a franchise, I feel that Pittsburgh will win this game easily.



On a side note, I know this blog is for sports, but I have to let everyone know how upset, disappointed, frustrated, annoyed, and embarrassed I am with our new president. I knew he was going to ruin this country, but I didn't expect it to start only a few days into his presidency. He already signed pro-abortion laws which gives money to other countries in support of abortion. He made Timothy Geithner Treasury Secretary, a man who didn't pay his taxes for 4 years and owes thousands of dollars now. I don't want an idiot like this handling our nations debt and taxes, what is the president thinking? His stimulus package is going to slap another trillion dollars on our national debt and his VP has made more comments that make you shake your head and say " did he really just say that?". He told the public that he plans to close Guantanamo Bay within a year. So if you live in the States, terrorists could be coming to a prison near you! He is in a pre-9/11 state of mind and it's only making our country more vulnerable. I hope that Palin, Huckabee, Romney, Jindal, or Rudy G, are preparing to come save us in 2012.


Random Fact: Mariano once left his sun-roof open before he went into a movie, when he came out, the rain storm had passed, but not before doing damage to the inside of his car. ( but let's take it easy on him, he's a real smart kid. For a Eagles fan, we all know they have smaller, weaker brains)