Written by: Mike Disappointment. Shock. More questions than answers.
These feelings describe the people from Chicago, ardent supporters around the country, and the guy writing this piece. I wanted the 2016 Olympics to be held in Chicago for completely selfish reasons both personal and professional. But, in the blink of an eye, Chicago was out; and the difficult process of finding out why begins. The graphic below really encompases everything im about to write about, and i imagine Alessandra Ambrosio will cause many of you to stop reading.
I love football, but there is one thing i love more....
Ah, you’ve stuck with it. Great! The best thing Rio had going for it was its location. When you think summer you think beaches and hot bodies. You don’t think Lake Michigan and street vendors. Your country stands a better shot when the face of your advertising and promotional campaign can be Adriana Lima instead of Oprah.
And that’s it. There are no other reasons why Rio won, or conversely Chicago lost. Chicago has the infrastructure already in place to support hosting – not so sure Rio does. Security will be a big topic of discussion as the crime rate in Rio is not all that great.
But it all comes back to the atmosphere. Deep down, the voting members of the IOC just felt good about having a summer Olympics be in a tropical climate. Beach Volleyball isn’t played on the shores of Rhode Island for a reason, Bobsled teams come from Russia and Canada not the Bahamas (except for that one time in a really awesome movie!). Point is, if you’re going to stage and international competition of athletics in dog days of summer, it should be at a place that reminds you of summer.
Written by: Patrick Galvin 
Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz were among the 104 major league players listed as having tested positive for performance-enhancing substances in 2003, lawyers with knowledge of the results told The New York Times.
The two were key members of the Boston Red Sox World Series championship teams in 2004 and 2007.
It’s over. As a Boston sports fan I can’t begin to elucidate how shitty this is. Think about what it was like when the Red Sox won back in 2004. Boston was the city of the underdog. The Patriots were yet to be outed for their creative use of a videocamera, and the most famed and notorious championship-drought, tethered to the ghosts of dead baseball players past and years of agonizingly close encounters with greatness, had finally been brought to an end with the ALCS comeback against the Yankees and the World Series win against the Cardinals. The whole country was rooting for Boston. Call it a bandwagon, but it was better than a bandwagon. It was authentic. America always has loved underdogs, and the Red Sox were the quintessential underdog for the better part of a century. There was something ephemerally satisfying about seeing them finally come out on top, even for sports fans from different areas. But it wasn’t just the underdog status that attracted non-residents to the Sox. It was the way they won. It was their “idiots” mentality, they personified a group of people playing the game the right way, for the right reasons. Ortiz and his infectiously happy demeanor was one of the faces of this organization’s newfound bonhomie. Until now.
Don’t let anyone tell you differently. New England sports fans deserve the shit they’ll eventually get from the rest of the U.S. First we gloated about the Patriots. Much like the Red Sox, they were a free-spirited bunch with team spirit and a little extra brains and an unusually cleft-chinned quarterback on their side. We rubbed it in hard. Three championships in four years and we made sure you knew it. Then the videotaping scandal occured, and the Patriots still went 18-0 with no unfair help, and we fans said “Ha! They won because they’re great, not because they cheated!” We exuded headstrong confidence, only to see the Pats produce what is now the “EPIC FAIL” moment of the NFL this decade. They choked hard. And you, the rest of the U.S, reveled in it the way you reveled in Sadaam Hussein’s hanging. But the Sox were still clean, and they were the loveable underdogs. Until the signs started coming…
1) When the Mitchell report first came out, it was for one reason or another swept under the rug that Mitchell himself had ties to the Red Sox. He was a director for the Red Sox at one time, and has regained that title since. But a few names from the Red Sox showed up on the list, so people weren’t too upset. None of them famous, though. Mo Vaughn 10 years after his prime? Jason Giambi’s brother Jeremy? Yawn. I ignored this. Ortiz and Varitek were supposed to be on that list, but if they weren’t, they weren’t. After all, Mitchell was a senator. When it comes to the truth, senators are always an absolute entity.
2) Then came speculation regarding Ortiz’s home-run surge. When he was in Minnesota, he never reached reached 30 homers. Then he came to Boston and was a HR/RBI machine. Boston fans like myself rationalized it accordingly: Boston had better hitting coaches. Ortiz was a natural pull-hitter, and Minnesota tried to make him a contact hitter. Boston let his true form reign. It had nothing to do with his ballooned physique.
3) I still ignored the signs. We all did. But then the last one came, the precipitous fall in power numbers. We’ve seen it in the steroid-era players all the time. Normally a player’s numbers should drop off at a much more gradual pace, as their body slowly deteriorates. Instead Ortiz’s numbers dropped in almost immediate conjunction with increased scrutiny over steroid use: Here are the HR and RBI numbers over the last decade (Minnesota numbers added for emphasis)…
2000 (MIN) – 10/63
2001 (MIN) – 18/48
2002 (MIN)- 20/75
2003 (BOS) – 31/101
2004 (BOS) – 41/139
2005 (BOS) – 47/148
2006 (BOS) – 54/137
2007 (BOS) – 35/117
2008 (BOS) – 23/89
And now in 2009 it’s taken him 93 games to crack 13 HR and 55 RBI. We all knew what was coming. Then additional evidence poured in anyway, just for good measure.
4) Amidst comments from Lou Merloni, it was rumored Red Sox doctors tacitly approved steroid-use by trying to educate their players on how not to abuse them. Sox fans started shivering in their sleep.
5) Ortiz’s friend Manny Ramirez was linked to steroid use and suspended 50 games. At this point we were all practically sobbing, forlornly playing “Sweet Caroline” on our speakers alone in the dark while reminiscing of the naive and innocent past. We knew it was coming.
Finally, it did. Ortiz, our beloved and always-smiling hero, was a steroid-user. All the clutch homeruns, all the chest bumps, the shots of Jack with his fellow “idiots” before games, all of it had become hollowed out. The Yankees were supposed to be the “Evil Empire,” but the Red Sox were no better. They just hid it slightly better.
The only team I really have left right now is the Celtics. So help me God, I think they might be a team that without sneaky videotaping or HGH or steroids, might have actually bonded together and won a real championship the right way. I swear, if it turns up Kevin Garnett was on performance – enhancers I’m giving up following all sports except golf and billiards for the rest of my blonde days.
R.I.P. Boston-mania. R.I.P. Red Sox Nation. R.I.P. all of the excitement and Stephen King books and “I can die happy now” plastered on the grandfathers’ graves. R.I.P. to being “idiots,” the rare whiskey-drinking, fun-loving cavaliers who remembered that sports were supposed to be fun. R.I.P… Boston’s heroes.
Written by: Mike 
Ever get the feeling in baseball that the same teams are always in the conversation for post season play? Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Dodgers… it hasn’t changed all that much in the past 10 years or so. I’m not even old enough to remember when the Pirates were good, and barely remember Toronto when they were good in the late 80′s. Point is, this wild spending in baseball needs to be corralled. Look at the following chart – Five out of Six division leaders are also the team that has the highest payroll in that division.
With only a week luxury tax to prohibit rampant spending, teams in large markets able to generate able to generate revenue from non-profit sharing avenues are able to negate this cost quite easily. Further, any team not in contentino by the trade deadline trades away talented players for prospects so they can ‘rebuild for the future’. How well is that working out for the Nationals, Pirates, and Royals?
What we need is a fresh look at a legitimate salary cap, but with one major exception which would give advantage to the best run scouting and general management in the league, not the teams with the biggest pocketbook.
Institute a soft cap similar to the NBA where the cap is a percentage based on league revenue. This would encourage teams to do as much as they can to make money, something that shouldn’t need to be done, but its still a great incentive. Other exceptions built in are very advantageous to the teams which know how to use them well. Its mind boggling so just visit the wikipedia link to learn more.
The big idea I have is to reward teams with a keen eye for scouting and player development. Any kid a team signs to a minor league deal from the draft, or as a free agent, does not count against the salary cap in any capacity so long as the prospect remains with the club. What this does is place a bigger emphasis on player development and makes your young guys more valuable. A practical example of this is Dustin Pedroia of the Red Sox.
Old people tell great stories
They signed im out of Arizona St and brought him up through the minors. An AL Rookie of the year, followed by an AL MVP award show the Sox were both wise and committed to this player. The league should reward them by not counting his contract under the Sox salary cap.
There are flaws to this idea, and we could get into a whole debate about how effective this would be (would teams sign their home grown players to absurd contracts to keep them away from the big fish? how would free agency and trades in general be effected?) Bottom line is that in the current system the rich get richer and the poor need to rely on miracle seasons to compete.
Written by: Patrick Galvin 
First it was Brock Lesnar’s meltodown after his UFC100 fight with Frank Mir. Then it was Lebron James storming off the court after his Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Orlando Magic. And now Tiger Woods is the lastest celebrity athlete to be admonished by sportswriters for his poor etiquette when he is losing, this time by Rick Reilly.
Tiger Woods has outgrown those Urkel glasses he had as a kid. Outgrown the crazy hair. Outgrown a body that was mostly neck.
When will he outgrow his temper?
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He’d hit a bad shot, turn and bury his club into the ground in a fit. It was two days of Tiger Tantrums — slamming his club, throwing his club and cursing his club. In front of a worldwide audience.
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Put it this way: Will Tiger let his own two kids carry on in public like that?
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If my kids grew up to be the absolute best in the world at their profession, while simultaneously maintaining a high level of class with media and fans and building a comprehensive body of charity work that included a recent AT&T golf tournament for the troops, I’d actually let my kids carry on in public however the fuck they wanted.
I remember Tiger’s dad, Earl, telling a story. One day, when Tiger was just a kid, he was throwing his clubs around in a fuming fit when his dad said something like “Tiger, golf is supposed to be fun.” And Tiger said, “Daddy, I want to win. That’s how I have fun.”
Well, it’s not fun to watch.
Are you kidding me? It’s not fun to watch people who want to win so bad it alters their psyche in clutch moments? That transition from golfer to “killer” or Michael Jordan the basketball player to Michael Jordan the “assassin (in my best Marv Albert voice)” isn’t fun to watch?
To be fair Rick Reilly is not the first sportswriter to throw a fit over other people’s throwing a fit. He was the tipping point that drew my most concentrated ire. But it is articles like these that are great examples of why people are reading Bill Simmons instead of Reilly. When I think of Rick Reilly anymore, I think of him as a sports fan the same way rap fans think of Bill Cosby. He’s that old guy who keeps complaining about how things used to be, and how they should be, and how there’s just not enough manners and pudding pops going around.
People, just like everything else in the world, are a miasma of trade-offs internally. The CEO of a Fortune 500 company may not be getting as much time with the family as people think they should. People with a talent for critiquing things on their obscure website may also be functional alcoholics. And people with an unusual passion for winning will at times have a hard time battling their heat-of-the-moment temper. It comes down to realizing these things about yourself and finding the best balance you can. And when it comes to Tiger Woods’ balance, I think it’s just fine where it is.
Written by: Mike By now you’ve heard about and perhaps seen the Erin Andrews nude videos that caught fire on the net last Friday. Since then, a whirlwind of speculation and media frenzy unlike anything we’ve ever witnessed for a sideline reporter. Top stories on Foxnews.com and Yahoo.com prove this is much more than just a celebrity nip-slip; America is curious to see how Ms. Andrews will rebound, and what the outcome of this situation will be.
Think of the scene during Anchorman where Veronica Corningstone is fighting Ron Burgundy. All the women in the newsroom are pulling for Veronica because she is the first one to join the boys club of broadcasting. For years, sports reporting has been a male dominated venue with gentlemen like Craig Sager roaming the sidelines for the story. Women joined the club, but none as mainstream or attractive as Erin Andrews.
She’s now fighting not only for her own reputation and justice, but the legitimacy of good looking female sports reporters in the future. She has the chance to normalize the presence of attractive women on the sidelines of games, doing a legitimate job. Up until this point, blogs, and everyone but ESPN and other reputable news outlets, treated her job as a joke and her body like an object. Can she break down this barrier so that in 10 years a good looking girl can be on the sidelines of an NFL game who is liked for her reporting skills and not her outfits and hairstyles? I for one hope she does.
The next year will be very interesting, both from a legal perspective, and to see how Erin handles all of this. The best possible case would be a quick and minimally litigious settlement. Keeping the case out of the news is the best thing for her career. She needs to get back on the sidelines of college football and basketball this fall/winter and step up her game even more. The key will be not to change her approach, not to change what she believes in. If she wants to wear a nice outfit, she should feel she can without the scrutiny of the media referencing this incident.
What’s the worst case? Lets just say we wouldn’t be seeing Ms. Andrews covering sports on ESPN anymore. Lets hope instead she finds the justice she deserves and accomplishes everything she sets out to do. The rest of the pieces will fall into place.
Written by: Mike With the upcoming UFC 100 event, major media outlets such as ESPN are trying to get in on the action. They all seem to have the same perspective; because the UFC has had 100 events and featured bouts, it is now somehow a legitimate sport that needs to be covered.
MMA and the UFC in general has two things going against it that will always keep it entertainment for a niche market. The first is that most of our nations advertisers are large, image conscious corporations who would see sponsoring or purchasing ad space for a regular TV broadcast on a regular basis as a very risky deal. What this means, ultimately, is that the major broadcasters (ESPN/ABC/FOX/CBS/NBC) won’t sign any type of lucrative TV deal. Without that one element the UFC is already in trouble.
Sure the Neilsen ratings may be favorable for events like Ultimate Fighter, but keep in mind, this is a weekly event. It is aired once per week; compared to MLB, NBA, and NFL who all have multiple games a night/week. For these 18-34 year olds, its like tuning into a weekly sitcom, they mark the time on their calendar and tune in every week. A game like baseball or basketball can see fans casually tune in and out because the sports have such deep offerings of teams, players and games. If you miss a game on Wednesday, you can just watch again Friday.
Secondly, the fighters themselves have not quite grasped the PR aspect. Some dude just signed a Gatorade deal, a few of them are getting movie offers (The Rock aka Dwayne Johnson anyone?) but aside from that, they are not household names. Trying to market a sport where the majority of America has little clue who your stars are is not a good sign if you want to make it to the big time. Dana White still can’t figure out how to both manage and market his stars (whoever they are). So they continue to pursue the one avenue that never seems to fail.
Selling through sex. Yes, it works on the internet, and Spike TV; throwing a pair of tits by a product is a surefire way to get attention, especially the attention of young men. This is a major reason why it has seen success in the 18-34 male demo. Putting these physical specimens next to 2 hot octagon girls instantly makes it appealing to watch. It’s seen as a masculine activity – fighting and women. But this does not translate well to a sport you can watch with the family.
Fox wont televise a Saturday fight with buxom blonds prancing around the ring in halter tops and short shirts. ESPN and the NBA would be appalled if Rasheed Wallace did this to Erin Andrews:
The UFC will ultimately succeed or fail based on how well it can transition its product from an underground phenomenon to an accepted mainstream activity. But one has to question the shelf life of such an event; baseball and football have been around for over 100 years, basketball around 80 due to the fact anyone can pickup a ball and and have fun after watching a game. You and your buddies can’t just get up off the couch and beat each other into a bloody pulp after UFC 93.
Written by: Mike At the Travelers Championship on Saturday I saw something that you do not typically associate with golf. While beginning the 3rd round at the Travelers Championship Sergio Garcia, with the help of his caddy, was planting the seeds of some type of relationship with 3 very attractive females. Due to the PGA’s strict no PDA’s/Camera rule I couldn’t take a picture, but this story is a first hand account of the proceedings on the 2nd green/3rd tee.
"This is really just an excuse to dress in slutty clothes and get wasted!"
After hitting his approach shot on 2 and landing safely on the green, Sergio’s caddy jogged over to the 3rd tee and grabbed a bunch of bottled water (sold normally for $4) and handed it to 3 absolutely stunning women. I was standing a foot away from this transaction and know for a fact 2 outta the 3 were easily at least 9.5′s. While this is going on Sergio is back on the green lining up his putt. Normally the caddy will help, but there were more important things like properly hydrating attractive patrons.
After calmly making his putt and walking to the 3rd tee box, he and his caddy were joking around about the whole ordeal. At this point, Sergio says something to the effect of “You are just the caddy, there’s 2 for me and 1 for you, just caddy man”. The poor caddy was just left standing there with a rotting apple core Sergio threw at him after he was done eating. Serg then proceeded to rip a drive about 300 yards straight down the fairway.
I will never know if Sergio and his caddy ended up getting with those 3 women after the round. What I do know is that Sergio ended up shooting a +1 over par on the day. His scores after the first 2 rounds were 67, 69 with the course playing much easier during the 3rd round. Perhaps he had other things on his mind? Perhaps its safe to say that Sergio’s failures in the past have been incorrectly attributed to his lack of putting, but rather his increased focus on extracurricular events? We will leave that speculation up to the analysts.
