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“House of Cards” is featured in an NBA playoff commercial. The NBA is clearly trying to get my demographic interested in the NBA again. I must admit that this commercial spoke to me. It is the one where two NBA star’s faces are morphed together and talking about how winning is everything. It sure is nice to have a team in Atlanta winning games in the playoffs again.

GO HAWKS!!!!

Hello fellow zombies!

I’m putting out a call to all potential fantasy baseball players.  As some of you know, I am working on a website called RotoJoe.com - a community blog site dedicated to fantasy sports.  Right now I’m looking for people who would like to participate in a fantasy baseball league for this site.  The goal is to use the league as an example for what happens in typcial fanatsy baseball leagues.  To provide a bit of knowldege, humor, strategy, and good old fashioned smack talk!

Now, the league will be 100% free, so there’s no costs to you!  Plus, it will be a 10 team mixed-league, auto-draft, roto league.  For those of you that have no clue what I just said, it basically means that you’re perfectly welcome to join even if you’re not a big fantasy geek!  In fact, I’m hoping to attrack a couple of fantasy new-comers who’ve always wanted to play but have never had the chance. 

I’ll break down the league type just in case you don’t believe me:  (1) mixed-league = players from BOTH the American and National League will be used.  This makes it easier by having more players to choose from, and makes it easier because there are fewer players you have to pay attention to. (2) Auto-Draft = a computer will draft all of the teams.  This helps new comers in that you don’t have to know everything to have a competitive team.  The computer will draft all teams (for better or worse) and then we’ll move from there.  This levels the playing field across beginners and experts a bit.  (3) Roto League = not head to head.  Over the course of the season your team will accumulate statistics in 10 different categories (batting average, home runs, runs batted in, runs scored, stolen bases, wins, saves, era, whip/ratio, strike outs).  Each category will be scored on a 10 to 1 basis, with the team doing the best in that category receiving a 10 and the team doing the worst receiving a 1 (assuming it is a 10 team league, if 12 team, 12 pts go to the best).  The team with the hightest total points across all categories for the season wins!

So think about it, and head on over to Roto Joe.com if you think you’re interested!  You can post your interest at the following page:

http://www.rotojoe.com/forum/09042008/roto-joe-not-so-experts-league-inquiry

    Over the past several weeks we have seen peaceful (and not so peaceful) protests regarding the Beijing Olympics. We, as Americans, have the right to protest, although I believe that a peaceful protest is more dignified and potent than attacking runners who carry the Olympic torch. They are, after all, engrossed in the Spirit of the Olympics. When we attack an innocent person, we ourselves are no less tactless that the ones we are protesting, right?

    I have read many articles that call for an all-out boycott of the Olympics, circa 1980 in Moscow. I believe that there is validity to this argument, we (the worlds most powerful) should make a PEACEFUL stand for the world’s weaker (Tibet and China’s oppressed). After all, our current governmental regime’s mantra is “liberating the world from tyranny”. America has taken such an aggressive stance in the Middle East, why not make a statement without armies and with a simple action…..Boycott.

    Believe me I understand the dilemma here, a complete boycott would deprive some of the world’s top athletes the chance to compete on a global stage; but a partial boycott (say boycotting the opening ceremonies) would send a subtle yet unmistakable message to the world that we hear, we understand and we will not ignore. Critics will claim that it would be the world that might need to Boycott the U.S. for our action or (mis) actions in the Middle East, to those folks I say “It’s always helpful to learn from your mistakes because then your mistakes seem worthwhile.”-Garry Marshal

    I have always been a huge fan of the Olympics. I remember watching Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson break into super-sonic speed around the track. Greg Louganis coming back and winning gold after cracking his head in the diving platform and The Dream Team’s dominance over the world in 1992. I’ve never missed an opportunity to watch the Olympics, but this year I will Boycott. I will not watch any coverage of the Olympics. It sucks, but I think it’s the right thing for me to do. Will it make a difference? Maybe only to me.

    To be honest I’ve never followed the plight of the Tibetan or Chinese people, but I feel like protesting (or Boycotting) the Olympics will bring to light the situation to educate people like me on the travesties that are occurring in China.
I hoped, although it was an empty hope, that our government would take a compassionate stance and stick up for the “little guy”, but needless to say our “leadership” has disappointed me. I really don’t think our President gets it. I read an interview that states he considers the Olympics only to be a sporting event….Really? Mr. President ever heard of Jesse Owens, Tommie Smith or John Carlos?

    The Olympics are only a “sporting event” where the entire world is watching and what we do (or don’t) speaks volumes to our character as a nation.

       As the counter in the upper right-hand corner counts…6729 hours left

How did the braves fans on the site miss this one?  34 years ago today, on April 8, 1974, an elder outfielder by the name of Hank Aaron launched an Al Downing pitch into the left-center field stands for a record breaking home run.  Yes, it was on this day that Aaron broke the Babe’s career home run record, belting out number 715.  It was the Braves’ home opener versus the Dodgers.

Congrats to Aaron! 

13-year-old Alexa Rodriguez was touring Fenway Park on a school trip Thursday and was attacked by a resident red-tailed hawk that drew blood from her scalp. Rodriguez wasn’t seriously hurt.

Vince Jennetta, a teacher who chaperoned her class trip from Memorial Boulevard Middle School in Bristol, Conn., told The Boston Globe that Alexa is “a little shaken, but OK.”

The hawk was perched on a railing in the upper deck behind home plate while the group toured the stadium. The hawk flew at the girl and swooped with its talons extended, scratching her scalp.

A single egg lay in the hawk’s nearby nest in an overhang near the stadium’s press booth.

The nest and egg were removed at the direction of state wildlife officials.

“A-Rod” getting Owned by the resident hawk…. A.K.A….”Hand of God”

In its April 1985 edition, Sports Illustrated published a story about a new rookie pitcher who planned to play for the Mets. His name was Sidd Finch, and he could reportedly throw a baseball at 168 mph with pinpoint accuracy. This was 65 mph faster than the previous record. Surprisingly, Sidd Finch had never even played the game before. Instead, he had mastered the “art of the pitch” in a Tibetan monastery under the guidance of the “great poet-saint Lama Milaraspa.” Mets fans celebrated their teams’ amazing luck at having found such a gifted player, and Sports Illustrated was flooded with requests for more information. But in reality this legendary player only existed in the imagination of the author of the article, George Plimpton.  It was an April Fools day joke.

To read the full story, click here

I think this video sums up what a lot of people were thinking about at the end of the USC (South Carolina) football season.

I know it’s been a while, but it’s a great clip if you haven’t already seen it.

In the past when you became a Green Bay Packer in particular a quarterback for the Green Bay Packers the shoes you had to fill were that of the legend Bart Star. Well Brett Favre is the one guy who came in and not only filled those shoes, but went above and beyond.

 News is filtering out today that Brett Favre is ready to turn in the cleats and retire. Brett leaves to undoubtedly join the Football Hall of Fame. Not only will he be joining the Hall when eligible, but he will also join the discussion of greatest quarterbacks ever. He won or shared the honor of league MVP a record 3 times. He was selected to the Pro Bowl 9 times, he was the player of the week 12 times in his career, most consecutive starts for a Quarterback 253, most wins by a quarterback 160, most career passing touchdowns 442, most career passing yards 61,655, most completions & attempts, and most games with at least 3 touchdowns 63. That is just the tip of the iceberg with his accomplishments. Above and beyond all the awards and milestones is the way Mr. Brett Favre played the game. He was the gunslinger. He laid it all out on the line and played hard and laughed hard while doing it. He was like a big kid out there on the field. It looked like his excitement was contagious. Surely someone you would want your son to have as a role model.  The NFL will miss Brett Favre Legends like him only come along so often. Thanks Brett! 

Well it is cold outside and a little rainy in Atlanta and across the northern part of the country they are still frozen and dealing with sleet and freezing rain, but fuck it Baseball gets kicked off today and preparation for the Cactus and Grapefruit leagues are about to begin!

I’d like to give you one more video to enjoy to get things started. This video is from 1986 and is one I personally enjoy quite a bit.

Bottom of the 10th down by 2 the mets come to the plate with Boston in the field. It all leads up to the magical moment at around 7:50. One of the biggest blunders in sports history Bill Buckner botches the play at first base and the Red Sox lose the World Series.

You can watch the entire inning below played out on Nintendo’s classic RBI Baseball.

I’m not sure how they recreated that but I’ve always thought that was pretty awesome.

Here we are one day away and it may not be spring in your area of the country but in baseball terms it is spring in Florida and Arizona! Pitchers and Catchers for their respective teams will start to trickle in tomorrow. Rumors of various folks trying out a “new pitch” will begin to float around and then the position players will show up. Some adding “10 pounds of muscle” while still others will be reported as “losing 10 pounds” and being the “best playing shape ever”. Journalist will eat this stuff up and in turn folks like me will live and die to hear every ounce and smidgen of information they can about the dealings in spring training, and right now it is so close i can almost taste it! Just 1 day remains!

For the last video I’m disappointed to say i had a really hard time finding decent footage of this historic moment. It is Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech at Yankee Stadium. He was and will always be the greatest Yankee to ever wear the uniform. Perhaps his stats were not as lofty as some of Babe Ruth’s but they were quite close, and what little Lou may have lost out on he more then made up in the way he played the game. The man gave it all on the field for his team. He was the Iron Horse. He took Wally Pipp’s place at first base and for 2,130 consecutive games he showed up with his firstbaseman’s mit and played the game. He is tied with Jimmie Foxx for all time consecutive seasons with 13 100+ RBI seasons. In 8 of those seasons he drove in more then 120 RBI’s. He has the highest OPS of any first baseman to ever play the game. He was the League MVP for what many consider the greatest team of all time the 1927 Murderers Row. He was also the runner up twice in MVP voting. In 1934 he won the triple crown (but not the MVP which is pretty amazing) leading the league in HR’s, RBI’s, & Average. He scored the game winning run in 8 world series games. Perhaps most importantly if you spoke to those who knew him not a person ever had a bad thing to say about Lou and the way he handled himself on and off the field. The definition of a class act.

His numbers on the field speak for themself. If i was making an all time team he would with out a doubt be my first baseman. This speech just shows how humble he is and why he was the first person in baseball history to have his number retired. Here is Gerhig addressing the faithful at Yankee stadium on the 4th of July 1939. His last trip to the stadium. Two years later Lou Gehrig’s Disease would claim his life in 1941.