Good Shape

How does seven playoff victories in a row sound? That's what the Chicago Blackhawks have done since dropping Game 5 to Vancouver in the conference semi-finals, and are now up 2-0 in the Stanley Cup Finals. In The Beard's odd little hockey world, that works just fine. Games 1 and 2, while being polar opposites in many respects, have one (and the most important) thing in common which is they were both won by the Hawks.

The other amazing thing both games have in common, are a lack of production from the Hawks first line of Toews, Kane, and Byfuglien. All three of them have a combined plus/minus of -7 thus far in the series, yet the Hawks still scored 6 goals in game 1. Toews had his consecutive games with at least 1 point streak snapped, Kane has been held in check by an aggressive Flyer defense, and Chris Pronger has simply toyed with Byfuglien the entire time. The Flyers finally got a penalty called on them midway through the first period of game 2, after committing no infractions in the first game.

The real story of the series so far though is the play of Antii Niemi. After throwing up a 5 goal turd in game 1, he did his usual outstanding goal tending skills on display in game 2. One thing most Hawks fans know about Niemi is that he never has back to back horrible games. Game 2 was no exception as he withstood a barrage of shots (33 total), particularly in the third period (15 shots) to preserve the lead.

The Hawks now take their act on the road starting Wednesday. Some numbers the Hawks have in their favor? The team that has won the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals has won 31 out of 33. Unfortunately, one of those two teams was the 1971 Blackhawks who won the first two games against Montreal, but lost the Cup.

Don't think that will happen with this team though. GO HAWKS!

Go Get Your Shinebox Dwayne!

Speaking of the Bulls, Dwayne Wade decided to open his mouth this week and complain about the Bulls lack of "loyalty" as a reason why he would be wary of signing with them. "I see Michael Jordan is not there, Scottie Pippen is not there. … You know, these guys are not a part..Things like that. So that is probably one of the biggest things for me, because I am a very loyal person." You have got to be friggan KIDDING ME!? That might be the dumbest thing he's ever said in his life right next to "I, do" to that crazy woman he's now divorcing. There's a million things wrong with it, but I'll keep it simple.

First of all, Wade says he's a loyal person, yet he's talking about signing with another team!? How loyal is THAT Dwayne? It seems that Wade has no issue or qualms with the business of professional sports when it allows him to get top dollar from the highest bidder, but he also feels can selectively call somebody else's perceived lack of loyalty into question when it doesn't apply to him? That is inconsistent at best, flat out ignorant at worst. Not to mention, how stupid it is to publicly disparage a potential suitor in negotiation tactics. Even if he really feels that way, his agents and lawyers should have stopped him immediately from sharing that opinion because they know he's sabotaging his own cause with those remarks.

Secondly, and most importantly in my opinion, he is just FLAT OUT WRONG. If anything, the Bulls have been too loyal over the years. Let's start with his feelings about Jordan and Pippen not being "there". Jordan wanted/felt entitled to a piece of ownership with the Bulls. The Bulls (very presciently I might add) said no. He went to Washington D.C., ruined that organization, was seen attending Bulls games in the owners luxury box in 2003-04, became a half-assed GM and now owner/ruiner of the Charlotte Bobcats. Oh and by the way...his silly statue is still outside the north gates at the United Center. Pippen was given a golden parachute of a sign-and-trade contract in 1999, came back in 2003 and retired as a Bull, plus had his number retired. Sounds like they've been treated pretty fairly to The Beard...

Now let's get to the meat and potatoes of how loyal the Bulls have been, particularly to the non-superstar players. Jay Williams certainly feels they were really loyal to him in 2003, especially when they had every right to walk away from him (pun). Bob Love also feels they've not only been loyal to him, but pretty caring and nurturing as well. The Bulls also flew Bill Cartwright around the world looking for the best specialist available when he damaged his larynx in a game years ago(incidentally Cartwright knows who injured him, but he still won't say). Randy Brown was pawning his championship rings because he was flat broke, when the Bulls gave him a job as an assistant - a job which didn't exist until Brown needed one. Pete Myers has been the interim coach twice now, and the Bulls have always taken care of him since he first played for them in 1986. Also, isn't somebody still the Bulls GM even though he's had every reason to be fired? Once again, sounds like the Bulls are pretty loyal to me...

I don't care how nice of a guy Wade supposedly is. I don't care that he backed off his original statement. I don't care that he's going through a horrible and acrimonious divorce. I don't care that he give 10% of his salary to his church, and his other philanthropic works. I don't care that it's most likely Michael Jordan putting these dumb ideas in his head that the Bulls aren't loyal. None of that matters because it doesn't replace the fact that he's not smart enough to see through MJ's B.S., and that he basically doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut. So to paraphrase Billy Batts in Goodfellas, "Go Get Your F*cking SHINEBOX!" and stay in Miami you dummy.

White Sox Nuggets

• In an somewhat unexpected, yet completely necessary development MLB handed out fines to Ozzie Guillen, Mark Buehrle, AND Joe West. Apparently Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports reads my blog and agrees with The Beard that Joe West has become the exact thing umpires should never be....High Profile. According to Passan, MLB has indeed had enough of  the "Country Joe" act and took him out to the proverbial woodshed with a tongue-lashing phone call in addition to the fine. Score one for MLB for getting this one reasonably right. A suspension would have been more appropriate in my opinion, simply because West is lucky to even have a job considering he was one of those umpires that resigned in 1999 while trying to negotiate a better labor agreement. West was re-hired in 2002, although I'm sure MLB can't remember why now, and for him to still not understand what his role as an umpire is supposed to be, a suspension might have hammered home the point better. Either way though, good for MLB for recognizing a problem and instilling discipline.
• Even with West getting his comeuppance, all is not right in Ozzie Guillen's world apparently, with reports once again surfacing that Guillen and Kenny Williams' relationship has deteriorated even further. To be fair, mlbtraderumors.com is reporting that Ozzie isn't going to be fired anytime soon, but they also echoed the report of the friction two hours later. Whatever...I'm really just tired of this entire story. To see the two guys who are responsible for the greatest White Sox team in history, unable to act like a professional baseball organization because they can't stand each other so much is very disheartening. It reminds me of the Phil Jackson-Jerry Krause fallout 12 years ago. Reinsdorf wasn't able to save that sports marriage, will he be able to save this one? Is it worth saving, let alone even possible to be saved? I don't know...I just hate that it's come to this since I can't think of another baseball team having these types of stories surrounding them.

Balk-Gate

Another series won, and yet I still feel awful about my team. Let's get the obvious preliminaries out of the way. I think ejections are vastly over-hyped. I do not believe they have any sort of intrinsic or quantifiable value on a team, good or bad. What I mean is, they don't automatically help or hurt a team just because they happen. I also believe that the real story of this game is not the ejections, but Bobby Jenks nearly blowing a 4 run lead in the 9th inning by not throwing enough strikes.

Now that we got that out of the way, let's discuss what transpired between Mark Buehrle, Ozzie Guillen and Joe West. If you didn't get a chance to see it on TV today here's a clip of it. It starts off innocently enough but like most things in baseball, it's much more complicated than it appears to be. A big reason why it's complicated is because the main participants have a lot of "history" involved.



Buehrle has had a long history of having a borderline Balk pickoff move to first base his entire career, similar to a lot of left handed pitchers i.e. Andy Pettitte. Ozzie Guillen has had a long history of getting tossed from games. Joe West has a LONG history of not only ejecting Ozzie Guillen out of games (so much so West's Wikipedia page has a pic of him ejecting Ozzie in 2007 for gods sake!), but for also making himself become a focal point/attention grabber of games he umpires. You combine all of this history going into today's game, and it's no wonder things got as heated as they did.



Were the two pickoff attempts today balks? Well technically yes they probably are. Are they any more egregious than other left handed pitchers in baseball? Not really. Did Buehrle do anything in those two moves, that he hasn't done in the (yes I went back and counted them) 70 pickoffs versus 12 Balks he's thrown in his career? It sure didn't look like it, but still it's the umpires job to make those calls if he deems them balks in his judgement.



You can certainly question whether West's motivations were to get the calls right, or inject himself as a focal point of the game but where West doesn't get a pass from The Beard is how he conducted himself afterwards. I have no problem with him ejecting Buehrle for throwing his glove down after the second balk call. It's been long established that throwing equipment as a direct result of an umpire's call will get you thrown out. Buehrle knows not to do that, and he did it on the first balk call but West gave him a pass on that. West did go over the line though when (in my opinion) he baited Ozzie Guillen into getting tossed out. When you look at the footage, West immediately gives Ozzie the back of his hand is a dismissive gesture that seemed to say "Don't try it..." yet he allowed Guillen out of the dugout for what Ozzie described as wanting to know why West was showing Buehrle up.  West then continues his dismissive hand gesture almost knowing that Guillen will lose his temper and therefore will be able to eject Ozzie without any fear of consequence.



As I stated before, the history of the three participants led to this. All three of them acted like children, but of all of them, West should be the one that receives the most vitriol. It's not his job to be the center of attention, yet he clearly has been guilty of relishing any spotlight cast his way over the past several years. You can ask Andre Dawson if you don't believe me. When it comes to Benefit Of The Doubt, West should be familiar with that call:



Strike Three...

NFL Supreme Court Ruling

I'm sure all of you heard that the Supreme Court made a significant ruling that the NFL is not one large business, but rather 32 separate businesses, and therefore ineligible from Anti-Trust Exemption. Of all the breakdowns of this historic 9-0 ruling, Deadspin has the easiest break down of it here. Essentially this means that they cannot be protected as a whole, and are much more vulnerable to lawsuits than they would have been had they received Anti-Trust protection.

This also means a big victory for the players association for the upcoming lockout in my opinion. We shall see what impact it has a year from now...

Quick Hits

• The Chicago Blackhawks took care of business by sweeping the San Jose Sharks with a win today, and all it cost them were 4 of Duncan Keith's Teeth! The 4-0 sweep is a bit misleading as the Sharks played very well for the most part, particularly in Games 3 and 4. They threw everything they had at the Hawks, but the Blackhawks are simply just better at hockey than the Sharks with their right blend of offensive firepower and lethal penalty killing/superb goal tending. The door to the Stanley Cup is now wide open for the Hawks. Just four more wins away...
  
• Only the 2010 White Sox can make winning a series look bad. Throwing up a 13-0 turd at home to the Marlins is one of the easiest ways to feel terrible about taking 2 out of 3 games. Now comes a nice little road trip to Cleveland and Tampa all the while there's this report that the Phillies are looking at Jenks and Putz. In terms of the Phillies best prospect the one name that consistently comes up is Domonic Brown. He's 23 years old, 6'5" 200lb outfielder currently hitting .311, OPS .969 with 7 home runs and 24 RBI's. Might have to pull the trigger on that deal if it comes up between now and July 31...
  
• So when the Milton Bradley trade happened, you might remember that I said it was a great move by the Cubs? Well I never imagined that it would be this good! While the Cubs as a whole might be spinning their wheels , Carlos Silva is now 6-0 after the Cubs took 2 out of 3 from the Texas Rangers. While you're digesting that, here's another thing that might make you raise an eyebrow...he might make the All-Star Team if he keeps this up!Depending on your take, this is either an indicator on how overrated Wins are in pitching statistics, or just how dumb Seattle's GM is.
  
• I can't stand Bears Mini-Camp coverage. Every team that has mini-camps, the reports are nothing but warm and fuzzy fluff pieces like this. All of a sudden the Bears are going to be a playoff team now because they had mini-camp. All the questions surrounding this team on both offense and defense are now answered. There's no doubt about it, the Bears are in the drivers seat in the NFC North. It's enough to make your head explode because anybody who's watched the NFL for over a month knows that you don't learn anything about your team after Mini-Camp that you didn't already know before. The questions you have about your team aren't answered now, or during OTA's, or during the REAL Training Camp, or during the Preseason. The answers come during the season. If the Bears end up being good (And obviously I hope they do) then that's great. If not, oh well. All I know is when the season starts, I won't be remembering what they did in mini-camp, and neither will anyone else.

Well, Well Well...Better Late Than Never

Please click on the picture above to see a clip from the documentary Bigger, Stronger, Faster* in which Floyd Landis issues one of several denials regarding his stripped 2006 Tour De France win over his use of performance enhancing drugs.

Apparently someone does have a conscience after all, and that someone in Floyd Landis. Here we are now, after years of his supposed righteous indignation denials, cockamamie excuses (i.e. "whisky defense"), filing countless court appeals, writing a book called "Positively False : The Real Story Of How I Won The Tour de France", and the ultimate douchebag move of Landis raising money for the "Floyd Fairness Fund" which people donated (approximately $1 million) to help him pay his outstanding legal bills. After all of this garbage he has spewed...now he wants go all Jose Canseco on us, and tell the truth.

And what a truth he has to tell too! Landis sent repeated emails to senior cycling officials confessing not only his own EPO and blood transfusions, but those of his former teammates Lance Armstrong, George Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer, and David Zabriske. He didn't stop there. He also claims that Lance Armstrong told Landis that U.S. Postal Service Pro Cycling Team director Johan Bruyneel had a financial arrangement with ICU to make sure that any positive tests were covered up. Landis went on to further say that Lance Armstrong's personal trainer Dr. Michele Ferrari of Italy to assist him with the extraction and re-transfusion of the blood transfusions, and that he only accepted cash for these transactions. Landis also give many other sordid details that upon reading them seem like they are pretty straightforward. WADA, USADA, and more importantly Jeff "Eat His Lunch" Nowitzky think so too.

The reaction from Lance? He's going the "credibility" route. Apparently Armstrong is not only 100% arrogant, but completely stupid too. All he needed to do was remember how many people in 2005 said Jose Canseco wasn't credible either, to know that issuing that charge is pretty much guaranteed to blow back in your face! Also following Lance's play is UCI President Pat McQuaid by saying "These guys coming out now with things like this from the past is only damaging the sport. If they've any love for the sport, they wouldn't do it." Oh...My...God....

There's several things at play here that The Beard is having a field day with. First of all, Landis is really just a complete moron! Straight up, indefensible, how does he put his shoes on in the morning type of moron! He's a moron not for telling the truth, but for telling the truth after YEARS of trying to B.S. his way around his own cheating. What's important to remember however, is that just because Landis is a moron, doesn't mean he has bad eyesight.

I do believe that like Canseco, Landis finally realizes that the truth shall set him free. I also believe that like Canseco, Floyd realized that by telling the truth and naming names, he can finally stop being the one that's been fairly or unfairly singled out as the doper in cycling. WADA has maintained for years that Cycling is the #1 sport in the world for drug cheating and dopers. Think about that for a second...that's more than football, track and field, baseball, hockey, golf, and bodybuilding/weight lifting. Floyd knows this too, and now because he's willing to sing, he is offering us a glimpse at just how far the Cycling Blood Doping and Performance Enhancing Rabbit Hole goes.

I also believe that we are now closer to finally taking down the false god that Lance Armstrong is. Yes he's been knocked down several pegs already, but nothing has ever been proven with him in terms of his cheating. There hasn't been a smoking gun so far, and to be fair even with his confession Floyd isn't really providing one either. Still Landis has filled in a lot of blanks today and Lance is certainly acting itchy about these new charges. That's probably because investigations are now actually going to transpire, and we now might have real proof that the guy who tells people dying of cancer "If you want it bad enough, you can beat cancer like I did", is nothing but a blood doping, steroid ingesting, lying dirtball.

But don't take my word for it, just ask the late George Carlin...

Galea Update

Doctor Anthony Galea has been formally charged today with bringing unapproved drugs into the U.S. and unlawfully treating professional athletes. In addition to treating Eldrick Woods, Dara Torres, and MLB players. Now comes word that he has billed three un-named current NFL Players roughly $200,000. Those players are also referred to in the affidavit as being "witnesses", meaning they are going to sing like Gary Sheffield and Jason Giambi in December of 2003.

Not that I'm wishing for the integrity of the investigation to be compromised, but it will be interesting to watch if a member of Galea's defense lawyers pulls a BALCO and starts giving sealed information to a reporter(s) looking to write a tell all book, or something of that nature. Game Of Shadows certainly proved there's a market for that type of book.

Galea shouldn't have to worry too much. After all he's got Chris Simms defending him!!

You Don't Say...

From the "Imagine That" department...the Cubs announced today that the Carlos Zambrano 8th inning guy experiment is over. It didn't make sense then, and Lou Piniella and Jim Hendry finally realized what all of us knew right away.

The one thing that does raise an eyebrow though is Lou's comment of "...We thought his velocity would increase, and it hasn't..." So does that mean this was done because they realized Zambrano doesn't have his fastball anymore, and they thought this might help him recapture it? If that's the case, why would they think that would work? I understand that as a specialist reliever you only need to come in for the eighth inning and primarily throw fastballs, but just because you put Zambrano in a situation where he throws more of them, does that mean the ball will be thrown faster by Zambrano just because? His fastball will be faster simply because he will be pitching in the 8th inning, instead of him pitching in the 1st inning? Is that all it takes to throw a pitch 96 MPH, versus 89 MPH? Never mind silly traditional concepts like Pitching Mechanics and Arm Strength right? The Cubs say they have no official reason for why Zambrano's velocity has dipped the past season and a half. So it then begs the question, was this the best idea they could come up with? I really hope not for Cubs fans sake...

Not So Fast My Friend - LeBron Update Part One

There's a certain type of freedom, that comes with being totally screwed. The Chicago White Sox have already let me know that their season is over. The Chicago Cubs have also decided not to be competitive this season either. So there's no real reason to watch either team with any emotional interest other than comedic value. Both Bay Area baseball teams are fine, but that's for another blog. I have a sneaking suspicion that the Bears are more than likely going to be awful next season as well. Were it not for the Blackhawks, I might have to suspend myself from sports for a while.

Since I can't do that, I still need something to occupy my time especially if/when the Hawks win Lord Stanley's Cup. So even though I know better than to get caught up in this, I'm going to cast aside my own personal misgivings on writing about speculation, and join in the circus with my feelings about the upcoming LeBron James Sweepstakes.

One of the main reasons I will be following this story closely is because it does involve the Chicago Bulls at some level. The Cavs season hasn't even been over a week yet, and that still hasn't stopped the endless speculation as to what LeBron wants, where he wants to go, how much money does he want, and what is most important to him. In terms of numbers, the Bulls only have $32 million dollars committed to 6 players for the 2010-2011 season. The only teams with less money committed are the Nets, Knicks, Heat, and the Wizards. Of those teams, the only one that has pieces that would rival the Bulls, is the Nets in Devin Harris and Brook Lopez.

So the Bulls are definitely an option for LeBron. Which means we now have to watch for signs between now and July 1 in terms of how interested LeBron is in becoming a Chicago Bull. Here's what I've heard so far:

• Despite what Deadspin has attempted to debunk here, Dan Bernstein of WSCR-AM has reported that there is truth to the Delonte West-Gloria James tryst and LeBron finding out about it recently. Also, as the rumor goes, this is serving as the final straw that LeBron has made up his mind to leave Cleveland.


• Charles Oakley is claiming to have an inside glimpse into LeBron's thought process and he states "Chicago or Miami, not New York".


• Bernstein has also confirmed that there has been "contact" between the Bulls and Phil Jackson. Obviously whatever contact has been made is limited at best since there are tampering rules in play here, but contact has been made none the less. I'm guessing it's Phil's agent doing all the talking.

So that's what I got so far. I have a feeling if baseball keeps being this bad, these updates will be coming daily...

On Old Friend

I certainly didn't see this one coming. In addition to having Frank Thomas sub for Steve Stone in the TV booth, the White Sox have brought back an old friend of the family in Tom Paciorek to sub for radio commentator Darrin Jackson during the Royals and Tigers series. I, for one, am very pleasantly surprised by this decision as "Wimpy" was part of one of my favorite and arguably the best White Sox broadcast pairings of all time. As White Sox fans I believe we were very fortunate to have Hawk and Wimpy call our games as their blatant "homer" perspective, positive outlook, old baseball stories, and hilarious banter made White Sox games very enjoyable for the entire decade of the 1990's.

Now there still has been no clarification, acknowledgment, let alone atonement for the White Elephant In The Room of why Paciorek left ten years ago in the first place. It certainly was not addressed in Paciorek's enjoyable interview with Dan McNeil on the SCORE today. You can listen to that interview here. All the rumors that have been circulating lo these past ten years have one underlying theme to them, and that theme is Hawk got Wimpy fired. Officially, the Wimp-A-Roo left to "spend more time with family", which anyone with a brain knows is NEVER the reason ANYONE leaves ANYTHING, especially in Sports.

Paciorek certainly has made both the news and the rounds during the past ten years. His admissions in 2002 that he and his brothers were sexually assaulted by a Catholic Priest numerous times when they were kids certainly aided in the exposure of the Sex Abuse Scandal the church can no longer sweep under the carpet. Broadcast-wise he's been a bit of a nomad calling Braves games from 2001-05, and Washington Nationals games in 2006 as well as some Tigers and Mariners games here and there. Other than that, he really hasn't caught on anywhere nor has he established himself nearly as well as he did with the White Sox.

So now ten years later, The Beard is hoping that this is the beginning of a reconciliation of some sorts between the Sox/Hawk and Paciorek. I'm sure Hawk and Wimpy have run into each other before now, and who knows what kind of terms they are on? Either way, with all due respect (for lack of a better word) to D.J., I believe it would be an outstanding move to bring Paciorek back to the Sox broadcasts in some capacity. D.J. doesn't even have to lose his job really. I'm sure a 3 man radio booth could work between Wimpy, D.J., and Farmio. It certainly couldn't hurt judging from what I've heard of Farmer and D.J.

Here's hoping that this is the beginning of something good and long overdue. Now if only this White Sox baseball team wasn't so crappy...

Close Out

The Chicago Blackhawks wrapped up their series against the Vancouver Canucks with spectacular fashion once again. They not only peppered Roberto Luongo with 35 shots on goal, they also beat UP the Canucks on their way to a 5-1 victory. Going into the series the Beard hypothesized that the series would come down to how well the Hawks killed penalties. They are still ranked #1 in the postseason at Penalty Kill Percentage at 88.7%, while the overly reliant on Power Play Goal Canucks, checked in with a 22% Power Play Goal Percentage which was not good enough to beat the Hawks. Couple that with Hawks winning 85.7% of their games when they score first, and also managed to score a beautiful short-handed goal by Dave Bolland and it was the final nail in Vancouver's Coffin.

Antti Neimi is now 4-0 following a loss, continuing his ability to have never have two bad games in a row. The Hawks are now 5-1 on the road during the playoffs and will look to continue their Road Warrior ways going into Le Shark Tank to face the San Jose Sharks in Games 1 and 2 in the Western Conference Finals. Both the Sharks and Hawks are pretty even in terms of matchups, and style of play. You heard it here first, I believe this one will go 7 games.

We'll worry about that later though, as this terrific Blackhawk playoff run continues to amaze even the most casual of hockey fans. Here Come The HAWKS!!!!

A Picture Is Worth What Again?

It's good to be back from vacation. Plenty of interesting things happening since my last post. The Blackhawks haven't wrapped up their series against the Canucks yet. The Cubs and Sox are still a big bag of AWFUL. Starlin Castro providing early mixed reviews at best so far, while Jake Peavy continues to be one of the few bright spots for his team. Lawrence Taylor managing to top himself in terms of self destruction by being caught with a little statutory sex slave - ouch... The Raiders finally said "Step In To My Office 'Cause You're F*ckin FIRED!" to JaJokeus Russell. Plus Eldrick Woods pulled out of the final round of the TPC because (Wannie voice) "He's Gotta Neckkk..."

The funniest and most ironic story though, was the report of Houston Texans Linebacker Brian Cushing being in violation of the league's Steroid policy. Cushing had apparently tested positive in 2009 and had been appealing the positive test, but the final decision was handed down last week. Cushing will now be suspended without pay for the first four games of the 2010 season. Cushing's story is that he took a non-steroid banned substance but hasn't said which one yet. He also said he's been taking it for the last 10 to 15 years with no issues at all, however that is completely not true.

Cushing (along with another one of my personal most wanted steroid suspects Clay Matthews Jr) reportedly tested positive for steroids at the 2009 Combine, but that report was later proven false. Take a look at the picture above though. As you can see Brian's body has undergone some (ahem) changes over his time at USC. The picture on the left certainly puts the "gyne" in "gynecomastia" doesn't it? I'm not a doctor, so forgive me if I find it hard to believe that some random supplement, or some herbal tea, or a B-12 shot would be responsible for boobies! Cushing can pass all the other tests in the world, but one test he's not passing for sure, is The Beard's Eye Test.

With that said though, I must admit that I believe Cushing is doing exactly the same thing that 90% of the NFL is doing. He just had the rotten luck of getting caught. While I've maintained that I don't want steroids in Major League Baseball for some time, I don't feel the same way about the NFL or College Football. Just to give you the Cliff Notes version as to why I treat the two sports differently :

1. MLB is all about it's numbers, statistics, and ORDINARY men achieving those extraordinary numbers and statistics. Baseball has been around for over 120 years, and those numbers are transferable from generation to generation. Steroids compromises the integrity of those numbers by deflating their significance when the records are broken by guys who wouldn't have been nearly the hitters they were without The Juice.

2. Football is about Large, Strong, Angry, Super Fast men running into each other for our amusement, nothing more. It's not the least bit concerned with it's numbers the way baseball is and to prove it, ask yourself this question - How many rushing yards did Emmitt Smith finish his career with? Odds are, you don't know the number off the top of your head. Yet if someone asks you how many home runs Hank Aaron hit you automatically know the number without even thinking about it, don't you? Therefore due to the numbers being negligible, the use of steroids (over the past 40 years according to some accounts) is much more permissible when it comes to Professional Football, in my opinion.

So while it is amusing that Cushing has maintained his supposed innocence over the years despite damning visual evidence, it's hard to come down on him too hard, since he's now been caught by the NFL's ILLUSION of being against Performance Enhancing Drugs, rather than an actual league trying to prevent it's players from doing steroids.

I Shall Return...

In case you start wondering, no I have not quit blogging. I just want everyone to know that I will be golfing in everyone's favorite state Arizona, until next week. I shall return at that time to share my thoughts and discuss all the various goings on in Major League Baseball and (hopefully) the Blackhawks series victory over the Vancouver Canucks.

Love,

Luzinski's Beard

Draft Grades

Ran across this fun little article on draftclass.com. It was written on May 1, 2007 and it serves as a huge reason why I will never give out team "grades" immediately after the draft concludes because it's just impossible to know if your team had a good draft until three years after the fact. Case in point, the Chicago Bears got a B+ grade even though now most Bear fans have come to accept that the 2007 draft was nothing short of a complete DUD.

"Chicago so desperately needed to add a playmaker to their offense to help Rex Grossman, and getting Olsen at 31 is a steal. The Bears expect to be back in the Super Bowl next season, and there was no single player in the draft outside the top-10 that would help them achieve that more than Olsen."

Keep in mind that Patrick Willis, Marshawn Lynch, Darrelle Revis, Michael Griffin, Brandon Merriweather, and Jon Beason were all taken after the top ten picks. They have also made Pro Bowls since that time, while the farthest Greg Olsen has gotten is 2nd Alternate in 2009 and is now on a team that does not have a use for him.

I won't crucify the author too much though because some of his projections were accurate i.e. predicting Revis would be a shutdown corner in the NFL. You can read the entire thing here. Kind of makes you wonder why Mel Kiper is as successful as he is doesn't it?

Now THAT'S What I'm Talking About (Parts I and II)!!!

Part I : The Chicago Blackhawks gave us another living example tonight of just how mentally tough this team really is. After being trounced 5-1 in Game 1 Saturday night, they were obviously looking to return the favor in Game 2 tonight. That favor was not easily returned though as the Hawks found themselves down 2-0 in the first period. Lesser teams might have panicked, but the Hawks nevertheless persevered by continuing their staple of killing penalties, scoring shorthanded goals (of which they are the best in the NHL), and riding the back of Antii Niemi who once again showed he doesn't have bad games twice in a row as he made 24 saves - one of which on a 3 on 1 shorthanded break and kept the score at 2-1. This win ties the series at 1 game a piece which is way better than being down 2-0 with Games 3 and 4 in Vancouver coming up. Way to go Blackhawks!

Part II : I just got a text from Jake Peavy after the game tonight and he paraphrased Shaq in his text by saying "Beard, tell me how my @SS Tastes!?" I'll be the first to admit, that it appears I was wrong about Jake's health as he looked spectacular against the Royals tonight. Peavy featured a nasty two seam fastball clocked between 93-95 MPH, and that wicked slider that fooled a whole lot of Royal hitters. Jake looked like the guy I remember winning the Cy Young in 2007 and the guy who pitched brilliantly in the last three games of his 2009 season as he posted 7 shutout innings, 9 strikeouts, and didn't give up a hit until the 5th inning in his first win of the season. Now that's a guy I don't mind paying $52 million for until 2012. Most importantly the Sox hitters seemed to look like they've played baseball before. Juan Pierre, Alexei Ramirez and A.J. Pierzynski finally realized that Andruw Jones, Paul Konerko and Alex Rios can't do it all by themselves as the Sox posted 11 hits and 5 runs on the night. Nothing like a little "Vitamin Royals" to make your team look better. Hopefully the Sox remember that they can play better than they have and spare themselves from being blown up.

Death March Continues into May

So let's talk blowup...because at this point that's what most of us White Sox fans have resigned ourselves to this season. One month in, and the White Sox are a 10-15 ball club, even though it feels like 5-20. They have won a grand total of ONE series so far, against the Mariners in which two of those wins were courtesy of B.S. Walk Off home runs. They've also lost two series against the lowly Cleveland Indians, including being swept by said Indians at Progressive Field. Now they are fresh off the heels of a 2-4 road trip which ended with the Yankees publicly molesting Mark Buehrle after 4 and 2/3 innings. I know it's a month in, and I know they are going to hit better than .223, blah, blah, blah. I'm out of patience at this point because this team is a big pile of garbage with a few diamonds sprinkled in.


After all the talk about "Ozzie Ball", "Twitter-Gate", Reality Shows (BTW can't WAIT to watch THAT car crash of a show!), not wanting to hit home runs to win games, Jim Thome, Jermaine Dye, and Scotty Pods, this team has done nothing but played one of the most demoralizing brands of baseball I can recall in quite some time. I really do fail to see how this season is anything short of a train-wreck? Sure there have been some positives:


1. Andruw Jones showing that he's still got plenty of gas in the tank.
2. Alex Rios looking normal, yet still WAY overpaid.
3. Paul Konerko playing like an MVP.
4. John Danks elevating his game to another level.
5. Sergio Santos being the wonderful surprise, and feel good story that he's been.

But that's where the list of positives ends. Juan Pierre has been a disaster with his .202 batting average. Gordon Beckham sure looks like he's been figured out by the rest of the league with all the eye level high fastballs he keeps waiving at. Same goes for Carlos Quentin, and Alexei Ramirez too. Whatever that Thing is disguised as Omar Vizquel can go away too. The only one I'm somewhat confident will bounce back is AJ Pierzynski, but even that's not a guarantee at this point. I've already mentioned what I think of Peavy. Gavin Floyd still hasn't figured out that Walks turn into Runs for him more than any other pitcher on the staff. And for the love of god please never let Randy Williams near the White Sox ever again...

So what now? Well, in terms of blowing it up, there's not too much flexibility. Jake Peavy, Alex Rios, Mark Teahen, Gavin Floyd, and the never seen Dayan Viciedo are under contract through at least 2012. A.J. Pierzynski is about to vest into a ten and five guy this month, and there's not too much money that can be shaved off the $103 million dollar payroll this season. Any thing they can do would help though. It's understood we can't trade our most valuable pieces due to Konerko and AJ having No Trade Clauses. Still it would be nice to see Jordan Danks, Brent Morel, Tyler Flowers, and Daniel Hudson show what they can do at the Major League Level if given the chance.

All of this is meaningless though because of the simple fact that Kenny Williams is physically and mentally unable to trim payroll, play kids for a season or to, and not try to win the World Series every season. Even with the best of intentions, he still can't stop himself from picking up a player (along with a really bad contract) that he's always wanted and as a result the White Sox always get caught in between in terms of not letting kids develop, and not having enough to win it all.

Like I said earlier, can't WAIT to watch the reality show...