ivan to vin ze vorld sheriesh

wow! as soon as you blink something happens. the yankees just traded for ivan "pudge the fudge" rodriguez. thats great and all, but the truly wonderful thing about this deal is who the jankees gave up for the 14-time allstar. kyle "the wrong end of highlights" farnsworth. woohoo, yayy. this is a joyous day for any avid yankee fan who got to watch the team play on a daily basis for the last 3 years.
granted hes been pretty good for the most part of the 2008 year, but there was a quiet feeling he would snap back to the real kyle we know on any given pitch. this guy caused more male pain than elizabeth taylor. a guy with immense talent unable to harness it. a guy who always made you sweat (the bad sweat not the good sweat). thank g-d he didnt get paid by the hour. a guy who got bailed out by mariano so many times, mo was hired by pacman jones just in case.
anyway im off the topic. it truly is a good trade for both teams. the tigers get the bullpen help they were looking for (pepcid ac gets a big boost in the detroit market). they unload an aging catcher with a contract that runs out at the end of the year, who was splitting time anyway with brandon inge for a 32 yr old back of the bullpen type guy, in which they desperately needed. the yankees on the other hand, get a legendary defensive catcher who, while he is 36, is still batting .295. assuming the yankees are picking up the remainder of his 2008 salary they will be responsible for about 1/3 of a $12 million price tag (thats a $4 million rental). not bad considering posada is out for the year and jose molina cant hit a beach ball. pudge is free at the end of the season so there are no contractual obligations beyond september, make that october. they are still able to cut the payroll like they plan(within the next 2 years the oversized contracts of abreu, giambi, moose, and pettitte will all be gone). posada will be back next season( didnt love the four-year deal btw- what exactly are they gonna do with a 40 yr old catcher/1st baseman).
what im really getting to is the fact that cashman is dominating the phones. his last couple moves have been genius. this year alone he found ponson in a bar and he has gone 4-2. salary: minimal, $150,000. he got sexson to back up giambi and play vs lefties for $390,000. and those were the dumb moves. cashman traded 4 minor leaguers ( jose tabata is highly rated but has many detractors, ohlendorf could still be solid one day) for xavier nady and reliever damaso marte( which then opened the door for the pudge trade). production/value-wise, nady is at the top of the list. .325, 14, 60 for $3.35 million. its been a long time since the yakees traded for a bat like this and are not grossly over paying(if ever). they both will be free agents at the end of the year and likely will return. with injuries(posada, matsui, hughes, bruney) and ineffectiveness (hughes, kennedy) the entire look of the team has changed since the beginning of the season. whoever doubted the yankees and girardi and cashman before are surely nervous that the new-look yanks are not going down easy. i love the new way of doing business. keep the prospects, avoid signing free agent for massive contracts, and look for value over star-power. the old way had this team losing in the playoffs evey year and losing money while doing it. in the coming seasons the plan is to have a younger, less expensive but still talented unit. it took a couple of jaret wrights and pavanos but they figured it out.
now if only they can somehow unload jeter and a-rod.

jimmy sports

dog days of sports

hmmmm lets see. whats eating at me today. oh i know, the freaking fact that there is nothing in sports worth commenting on. the summer sucks and its dead. so all i have is a link to a great objective article. if you can handle it:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07302008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/a_sick_salute_122190.htm]

represent!

iran has qualified an olympic berth in basketball. yeh, they are one of the twelve teams vying for the gold in beijing. i hope they lose every game 350 - 0. i know for a fact that there will be at least 2 or 3 articles on the wonderful story of a country with a small basketball program and makes it all the way to the olympics with just heart and determination. jemele hill, theres your cue. what they wont talk about is the country that the team represents are terrorist-run, hate-mongering, antisemitic, racist, anti-american, violent lunatics who have attained a nuclear program illegally with the intentions of bullying(and probably worse) their enemies into getting what they want. and they dont want what me and you want. what they wont tell you is that the murderers who run that country dont really care how the results turn out. and if the team is successful and they say they care its only to announce to everyone else to pretend that they are a normal country like everyone else. in reality, basketball, or any sport for that matter, represents freedom. the entire olympics represent freedom. so its ironic that iran is in the olympics.

p.s. there was a bit of an uproar recently pertaining to the fact that becky hammon the blonde all american girl from rapid city, south dakota will be suiting up for the smelly, sandal wearing, pimple nosed russians. to me its not a big deal. its womens basketball so no one cares(she plays their in the wnba offseason and has received citizenship in order to qualify for the team). but when you get past the vodka jokes and really ponder the level of seriousness of a decision like that it really is hard to swallow. at least the cold war ended years ago and the russians are supposed allies. did you catch my foreshadowing there. get this: there is a man named joe vogel(sounds jewish) donning the old green, white, and red. no, not italy, the freakin lebanese. the runnin' jihadists. the guy is from north platte, nebraska and he represents Lebanon in all international competition. joe vogel is the staring center on the lebanon national team. at least russians you can joke with. with these guys, one missed free-throw and your arm comes off.

jimmy sports

Never Forget !!

Today, Sunday, july 20th, is 24 weeks to the day since the greatest day in the history of the world. The day the new york giants won the greatest game in sports history. the day they were called champs.

Foosball is on its way, so we must begin preparing. emotionally, mentally, physically, and statistically. just a few things to start on. there are a few teams that are on the rise that i cant wait to see surprise people. jets, raiders, bills. the jets are going to be good. like 10-6 good. alot of things are coming together for this team. the raiders have slowly collected crazy talent. the defense went a bit under the radar bec team was so horrible, but they actually are a more than formidable unit(secondary is wicked-dhall, gibril, asomugha, huff). the bills are gonna score big. the offense has speed, size, smarts, skill, everything you want in a young offense about to explode.
plaxico wants more money. i say, screw him. i know he was one of the heroes of the aforementioned greatest game ever and yes i know he had a great year, and yes he was injured the entire seasons, but seriously. i hate these guys who sign a year or two too early see a couple guys sign bigger contracts than them then bitch and cry about it. you played great you got paid you won the super bowl. what else do you want. these guys are such divas. every guy wants to be he highest played player in the league, but thats what great about the nfl. nothing's guaranteed. if you suck you get released. ther are no carl pavanos in the nfl. but if you play "better than your contract" you get to sit out training camp or preseason or even demand a trade/release. you ever think they could make it up with endorsements by marketing themselves as the good/non-complaing/hard-working guy. instead in this "gots ta git mine"world we live in, its a normal occurrence. its the one negative about the sport if you ask me.
favre will be staring week one for the jets.
pats defense will drop them down to earth.
start doing your fantasy preparations, its gonna be a long year. ( i will have a couple fantasy tips, being that i am dominant in my leagues every year its the least i can do)
the 3 best teams in the nfl this year will be: 1 jags, 2 chargers 3 saints

jimmy sports

sexson time!

this just in: the new york yankees have signed the 6''8 richie sexson. sources in the organization tell me this move is primarily to help girardi reach the top shelf of the towel closet in the clubhouse.

star struck!

its 6:35 am july 16th. the all star game just went final. the longest allstar game is mlb history actually had a winner. there was no tie. this is no joke bec. if mornoeau doesnt score i think don zimmer was going to pitch the top of the 16th. after that who knows, but budsky selig defenitly pissed his pants just thinking about making that decision. what happened was, in the top of the ninth the score was tied, k-rod started the inning. francona( manager of al team) had a bit of a predicament. he (and everyone else except papelbon and his pregnant wife)wanted mo rivera to pitch the last a.l. pitch of the game. the problem was it was tied. if you bring in k- rod for the whole inning and save mo for the save, the al could score in the bott of the ninth and mo would be left stranded. if you bring in mo for the ninth he either gets the win or comes back out for 2 and pitches the tenth and gets the win then. the problem with that is the major league leader in saves doesnt get in the "allstar game". not to mention the fact that noone in history had more saves than k-rod at this point in the year (38). so k-rod started the ninth, recorded an out and got pulled for mo. sounds like everyones happy. but wait, there is a prob with that too. now you just burned a pitcher while using him for only 8 pitches and one out. dont worry this wont be a problem unless the game goes to the 15th inning, like thats gonna happen. it did. more important than that though was the fact that scott kazmir, the young (26) hurler who happens to play for the upstart division rivals of the team francona manages for, had threw over 100 pithces in a start only 2 days prior. tito was flirting with disaster. he had specific instructions to avoid using kazmir as much as he could hold out. thats why when every one else was used up by the 14th, his hand was forced and he sent kazmir to warm up and start the 15th. he then entered the game on one day rest and got thru the inning. but tito was visibly nervous. if the al doesnt score who trots out the next inning. the questions arose. did kazmir have a pitch count?if so, how many? would he have went for 2? if not, a tie? would have a position player pitched to avoid the tie and save seligs ass? would world series home field advantage hinge on the arm of joe crede, a 3rd basemen? alas, a huge relief came over francona when morneau crossed that plate and all these q's will never be answered. the real question is how we avoid this problem again. bud, give me a call. i got a couple of ideas. heres one: use tim wakefield as a designated pitcher when no one is left. like an "offical qb" in the school yard who played for both sides (and was supposed to be impartial even though i always felt he was playing worse for my team on purpose). he can go out there and fire away all those knucklers, never get tired, and entertain for at least 9 innings, if needed. aaron boone would love that. what about this one: change the rule specifically for the all star game that you would be allowed one or two substitutions using players who have already been in the game. usually allstar managers make decisions based on a 9 inning game. so they would bring in a guy for an appearance only for an out or two then sit him and bring in the next guy strictly to try and play every player selected. but when a game goes to extras they get penalized for this. theyre only doing it for the fans and then they get screwed when they need more pitchers. so i propose mlb implements this rule. if a bullpen is depleted and all of the pitchers have pitched, he can now bring in a pitcher that pitched 7 pitches in the 7th inning to give him a little more breathing room and save the league another embarrassment. same with position players, if the reserves are all on the field and one gets hurt, normally there would be nothing to do, but now you can bring a guy back in. little league has similar rules. if its good for them its good for me.

side notes from the game: timmy lincecum went to the hospital before the game due to flu-like symptoms and b-webb tossed over 100 pitches on sun as well so he was being avoided and couldnt go more than an inning, leaving the bullpen even more depleted than normal. dan uggla, who has the biggest neck in baseball, had the worst performance at an allstar event maybe ever. 3 errors 3 strikeouts, a GIDP, 6 LOB. he must have been nervous, madonna was watching this game.

jimmy sports

some favre beans and a nice chianti

brett favre, go away! seriously who do you you feel worse for andy dick or aaron rodgers? this guy(rodgers)is having his emotions yanked around like the little red ball on the string. i sympathize. how ironic is it that the greatest cold weather qb of all time lost in the coldest playoff game in nfl history in what should be his final game. quick poll: who do you want to send to an exotic island for an extended vaca?bonds big head, clemens big butt, favres puffy red eyes. i choose all three. what is the deal with played out veterans who make mistakes while the media uses their "legendary status" to juice up the story and suffocate us with every possible tidbit as to make everyone want to puke. GO AWAY! all of you go away ! dont worry about us we ll be fine without you, trust us. we still have guys called pujols and manny and peyton and utley and ladanian. the truth is i actually like two of the 3 guys (guess which). clemens screwed up royally, no doubt, but he really did bust his ass for alot of years and always had significant character until a skinny trainer with a lot of issues took him down. favre claims he is guilty of retiring early. hes 38 coming off a great and unexpected year, carrying a young team to the nfc ships losing to the eventual world champions the new york football giants. i say he chose a good time. bonds can get hit by a train for all i care. it feels as if roger and barry actually have gone into hiding. you dont hear much out of them, which is a good thing. favre, hes a good guy, and a good player. if you want to play make up your fucking mind and live with that decision. this guy makes more things into a spectacle than vegas does. all these tactics and maneuvers and mind games didnt work, so you cant come back to gb and they wont release you (which is clever on gb side). ask for a trade, which theyll do for you, albeit not in their division, (youll have some say as to where youre headed) , go play and be happy again, if thats what you really want. baz and rog deserve all the crap being thrown on them bec of the decisions they made are catching up to them. with brett hes not breaking the law or doing anything against the rules. its just that hes starting to come off as a bit slimy and shaky. ok, youre indecisive we get it, but this worse than the parties and goodbye cars clemens was showered with half a decade before he actually retired. at least clemens had some other business to take care of away from baseball to finally force him to retire(btw if this steroid thing doesnt happen, is roger still pitching for the yankees?).

i dont know if its you or a production of the media but every back and forth is not a huge story. granted its an interesting development and as a fan i am curious, but its not breaking news every time a small,irrelevant statement is released. i would love to see brett in a jets uniform or dolphins uni but until he gets there it could be draining. one day a report comes out of a supposed quote from an executive then the next day there is a big reaction and the next day another statement is released clarifying the original comment. this same thing happened with the clemens saga, and its still not over, in fact 2 more breaking news items dropped yesterday. these are indeed riveting stories, but i dont need to see a red ticker scrolling on the bottom of my tv every time clemens takes a steroid induced dump. g-d knows the bonds thing is not over, not even close. he hasnt even gone to trial yet. do you know 3 days dont go by without a report coming out that a team is showing interest in barry the bear. guess what, the next day his agent releases a quote either how its not true or how theres collusion going on or how bonds is still working out. nobody gives a shit. get the fuck off my ticker. seriosly, let it be known that on this day, july 16, i, jimmy sports, am calling for an end to "quote" reporting. the new rule should be, if it can be said in less than ten words its not news. let things happen, let stories build up, then break it as one giant story. no more recurring bullshit.

jimmy sports