The Sultan of Squat

10 Bold Predictions (11/12/11)

2011-11-12T08:31:00.001-08:00

Greetings loyal readers and welcome to another futile attempt at predicting the weekend in sports. Last weekend saw a brutal beatdown, as every single one of my predictions did not come true.

Some of you even stated that you didn't even notice that I got them all wrong because you were too busy looking at the pretty ladies. Pretty smart tactic if I do say so myself.

Let's try this again shall we?

Ducks?

Or Cardinal?

1. No. 12 Penn State will lose to No. 19 Nebraska

2. No. 4 Stanford will beat No. 7 Oregon but the Ducks cover the spread (Final score 23-21).

3. The NBA season will be saved. A 72-game season will be played.

4. The Indianapolis Colts will win their first and only game of the season.

5. The Atlanta Falcons will defeat the New Orleans Saints and it won't be close.

6. The Miami Marlins will sign at least one big-name free agent this weekend.

7. Tony Stewart wins Sunday in Phoenix, takes over point lead from Carl Edwards.

8. Juan Manuel Marquez will knockout Manny Pacquiao.

9. Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Drew Brees and Tony Romo will all throw for UNDER 300 yards.

10. I predict that I will stop doing this column if none of these ones come true.

Be sure to check back Monday night to see how they turned out.

Thanks for reading.

10 Bold Predictions (11-4-2011)

2011-11-04T20:48:00.000-07:00

Welcome Loyal Subjects to a new feature. Every Friday night, I will run down 10 bold sports predictions for the coming weekend. Sometimes they may not be so bold, but I'll try. Here are this week's 10 predictions. (They are not in order of boldness)

Tigers or Tide?

Hard to choose

1. Alabama will not only beat LSU, they will win by double-digits.

2. Washington will beat Oregon in the finale of Husky Stadium.

3. Stanford will lose to Oregon State.

4. The NBA lockout will not be resolved and the entire season will be cancelled.

5. Theo Epstein will announce that Terry Francona will be the next manager of the Cubs.

6. The Buffalo Bills will beat the New York Jets.

7. The San Diego Chargers will hand the Green Bay Packers their first loss since December 19, 2010.

8. Javon Ringer will have more carries than Chris Johnson against the Bengals.

9. Jimmie Johnson will win the Texas 500 this Sunday.

10. You will all regard me as a GOD if I get all of these predictions right.

Have a great weekend. See you on Monday for gloating.....or apologizing.

Thursday Thrash (9-15-11)

2011-09-15T20:45:00.000-07:00

Time can be a cruel mistress. It sneaks up on you and slips past you without you even noticing. It doesn’t seem like it’s been 6 months since the last time I posted on this blog, but lo and behold that is the case.

To say that I have been busy would be an extreme understatement. But now I’m back, ready to rock and cause trouble like I’ve been doing for the past seven years on various platforms and venues.

For those of you who are reading for the first time, welcome. For those of you who are Sultan-faithfuls, welcome back. I’ve got a lot to talk about on this first of hopefully many in a new segment I’m calling “Thursday Thrash.”

First of all, I want to open the Trash with a look at some of the things we learned in Week 1 of the NFL season with a few one-liners.

--------------------------------------------------

Green Bay- Have the best chance of any Super Bowl champ over the past decade to repeat.

New Orleans- Defense is not going to win very many football games for this team.

Cincinnati- Enjoy that first win, it may be the only one you get in 2011.

Cleveland- It’s only a matter of time before the Madden curse strikes Hillis.

Jacksonville- MJD goes the whole game without a catch….not good.

Tennessee- Training camp or not, if Chris Johnson can’t get it going against Jacksonville, the Titans should be worried.

Philadelphia- Vick continues to get the job done….against sub-.500 teams.

St. Louis- Sam Bradford and Steven Jackson go down, as do chances of making playoffs.

Baltimore- Ray Rice was PISSED that he wasn’t the top pick in his own family’s fantasy football draft and took it out on Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh- The Steelers were looking ahead to this Sunday’s game against Seattle….or not.

Pittsburgh (bonus)- Ben Roethlisberger thought Ed Reed was his new receiver.

Houston- Just think about what the score would’ve been if Arian Foster had played.

Indianapolis- They did only lose Peyton Manning right?

Buffalo- Ryan Fitzpatrick looked like Manning, but it was against the Chiefs.

Kansas City- Getting embarrassed at home should be the norm for K.C. this season.

Chicago- If Matt Forte can stay healthy; the Bears are who we thought they were.

Atlanta- Still waiting for the Falcons to start the season, they didn’t play in week 1.

Detroit- Could they possibly make the playoffs this year?

Tampa Bay- LaGarrette Blount needs to sucker punch someone again.

San Francisco- Take away the two returns by Ted Ginn and the Niners only win by 2.

Seattle- With the first pick, of the two thousand and twelve NFL draft, the Seattle Seahawks select Matt Barkley of the University of Southern California.

Arizona- Now the front-runner to win the division, though that’s not saying much.

Carolina- Cam Newton throws for 422 yards and they still lose.

San Diego- Only gave up one touchdown on special teams in their first game. Progress.

Minnesota- Is it too late to call Brett Favre?

Washington- Rex Grossman looked more like Tom Brady than Eli Manning.

New York Giants- Eli may not be in the same class as Brady, but he’s the top Manning now.

New York Jets- Plaxico Burress will be a BIG friend to Mark Sanchez.

Dallas- Tony Romo chokes again in the clutch.

New England- I’ve never seen a machine operate like that n person, to see video game numbers put up n person was WOW.

Miami- 4th and Goal at the ½ yard line with Reggie Bush in the backfield and you attempt a passing play????

Oakland- Al Davis wants to have Sebastian Janikowski kick field goal attempts on first down for every possession.

Denver- The Broncos’ personal Jesus, Tim Tebow to the rescue.

--------------------------------------------------

Now that we have week one out of the way, here are my official predictions for the NFL season. I only felt it was fair that with all the moves and the lockout that I get to see one week before making the picks.

AFC East
New England- 12-4
New York Jets- 10-6
Miami Dolphins- 8-8
Buffalo Bills- 6-10

AFC North
Baltimore Ravens- 12-4
Pittsburgh Steelers- 10-6
Cleveland Browns- 9-7
Cincinnati Bengals- 4-12

AFC South
Houston Texans- 10-6
Indianapolis Colts- 7-9
Tennessee Titans- 6-10
Jacksonville Jaguars- 4-12

AFC West
San Diego Chargers- 9-7
Oakland Raiders- 8-8
Denver Broncos- 7-9
Kansas City Chiefs- 3-13

NFC East
Philadelphia Eagles- 12-4
Dallas Cowboys- 10-6
Washington Redskins- 8-8
New York Giants- 5-11

NFC North
Green Bay Packers- 14-2
Chicago Bears- 11-5
Detroit Lions- 9-7
Minnesota Vikings- 5-11

NFC South
New Orleans Saints- 12-4
Atlanta Falcons- 10-6
Tampa Bay Buccaneers- 7-9
Carolina Panthers- 4-12

NFC West
Arizona Cardinals- 9-7
St. Louis Rams- 8-8
San Francisco 49’ers- 5-11
Seattle Seahawks- 2-14

Playoffs
New Orleans def. Arizona
Chicago def. Atlanta
Houston def. Pittsburgh
San Diego def. New York Jets

Green Bay def. New Orleans
Philadelphia def. Chicago
New England def. San Diego
Baltimore def. Houston

Green Bay def. Philadelphia
Baltimore def. New England

Green Bay def. Baltimore

--------------------------------------------------

MLB Predictions

In my last posting here, I gave my predictions for the MLB season. Now that the season is almost over, let’s see how the picks have stood up. Below is my predictions and in parenthesis are the current records.

American League
East
Boston- 107-55 (86-63)
New York- 97-65 (90-58)
Toronto- 90-72 (75-74)
Tampa Bay- 84-78 (83-66)
Baltimore- 64-98 (60-88)

Central
Chicago- 93-69 (73-76)
Minnesota- 89-73 (59-89)
Detroit- 86-76 (87-62)
Cleveland- 67-95 (72-75)
Kansas City- 53-109 (65-86)

WestOakland- 91-71 (67-82)
Texas- 89-73 (86-64)
Los Angeles- 82-80 (82-67)
Seattle- 73-89 (62-87)

MVP- Adrian Gonzalez (Boston)- .315/42/130 (.338/26/111)
Cy Young- CC Sabathia (New York)- 22-8/3.05/224 (19-8/2.93/216) Verlander will win though.
ROY- Dustin Ackley (Seattle)- .285/18/55 (.286/6/34)

National League
East
Philadelphia- 99-63 (97-51)
Atlanta- 95-67 (86-64)
Florida- 84-78 (67-83)
Washington- 71-91 (71-77)
New York- 61-101 (71-79)

Central
Milwaukee- 93-69 (87-63)
Cincinnati- 90-72 (73-76)
St. Louis- 88-74 (81-68)
Chicago- 83-79 (65-84)
Houston- 72-90 (51-98)
Pittsburgh- 64-98 (67-82)

West
San Francisco- 94-68 (79-70)
Colorado- 89-73 (70-78)
Los Angeles- 84-78 (73-75)
San Diego- 76-86 (63-87)
Arizona- 68-94 (87-63) Who saw that coming?

MVP- Albert Pujols (St. Louis)- .327/43/128 (.296/35/93)
Cy Young- Cliff Lee (Philadelphia)- 22-8/2.57/210 (16-7/2.38/223)
ROY- Freddie Freeman (Atlanta)- .305/15/74 (.292/19/72)

--------------------------------------------------

Finally tonight, I wanna brag about my little ones. Captain Nintendo (almost 12 years old) trades in his controllers this time of year to play a little football. His first game was this past weekend and he threw a beautiful touchdown pass on a play-action to the running back.

His team lost 26-12 but having been down 19-0 at the half, my son went to the assistant coach, filling in for the head coach and told him that they needed to throw more (they had tried one pass play in the first half). I am very proud of my young leader.

Then on Sunday, my little guy (9 years old) played his first double-header of the Fall Baseball season. His batting wasn’t there on Sunday but his pitching was. Boasting a 47-mph fastball, my little Jon Lester pitched two innings, allowing two hits and one earned run while walking one and striking out SIX!

This spring was the first time he has ever played organized baseball and he’s striking out six batters in two innings a few months later. Hey Boston, Atlanta, get him now. He will be a hot commodity in about eight years.

That’s it for tonight. Congratulations, you made it through the Thrash!See ya’ll Sunday night for a return of an old favorite.

Thanks for reading.

2011 MLB Predictions

2011-03-30T21:47:00.000-07:00

Twenty years ago, the Atlanta Braves and the Minnesota Twins did what no other team had ever done before. They were the first two teams to go from worst-to-first (finishing last in their division one year and first in it the following year).

As fate would have it, the Braves and Twins met in the World Series that year. It was one of the greatest Fall Classics of the last quarter-century. But, as a Braves fan, the outcome of that Series was less than desirable.

Now, 20 years later, both teams are in a position to try to make it back to the big stage. Opening Day is only a few hours from now and the old adages are still true.

- Hope springs eternal.

- New season, new hope.

- Everyone's tied for first.

But we all know that six short months from now, there will only be eight teams standing, fighting in October for the title of World Champion. Ever since that 1991 season concluded, the Sultan has sat down and written (at first, then came the internet) down my humble predictions for the season.

Sometimes I'm right, sometimes I'm WAY off. But it's always a lot of fun. So without further adieu, here are my predictions for the 2011 season (20th anniversary edition).

American League

East
Boston- 107-55
New York- 97-65
Toronto- 90-72
Tampa Bay- 84-78
Baltimore- 64-98

Central
Chicago- 93-69
Minnesota- 89-73
Detroit- 86-76
Cleveland- 67-95
Kansas City- 53-109

West
Oakland- 91-71
Texas- 89-73
Los Angeles- 82-80
Seattle- 73-89

MVP- Adrian Gonzalez (Boston)- .315/42/130
Cy Young- CC Sabathia (New York)- 22-8/3.05/224
ROY- Dustin Ackley (Seattle)- .285/18/55

ALDS- Boston def. Oakland
ALDS- Chicago def. New York

ALCS- Boston def. Chicago

National League

East
Philadelphia- 99-63
Atlanta- 95-67
Florida- 84-78
Washington- 71-91
New York- 61-101

Central
Milwaukee- 93-69
Cincinnati- 90-72
St. Louis- 88-74
Chicago- 83-79
Houston- 72-90
Pittsburgh- 64-98

West
San Francisco- 94-68
Colorado- 89-73
Los Angeles- 84-78
San Diego- 76-86
Arizona- 68-94

MVP- Albert Pujols (St. Louis)- .327/43/128
Cy Young- Cliff Lee (Philadelphia)- 22-8/2.57/210
ROY- Freddie Freeman (Atlanta)- .305/15/74

NLDS- Philadelphia def. Milwaukee
NLDS- Atlanta def. San Francisco

NLCS- Atlanta def. Philadelphia

World Series- Atlanta def. Boston

So there you have it. For this first time in twenty years, I am picking my favorite team to win the World Series. But it's not a homer pick. They are a legitimate title contender this year and I think they can pull it off.

Right or wrong, I'll be here every two weeks with an update to see how my picks are stacking up.

Thanks for reading.

Sultan's Soapbox (1/29/2011)

2011-01-29T17:43:00.000-08:00

Greetings loyal subjects. I've decided to give a name to the soon-to-be-regular segment in which I spout my opinions of the sporting world, update you on my NFL Training Camp progress and other little tidbits.

Modeled after ESPN.com Page 2's Jim Caple's column called Off Base, I give you the Sultan's Soapbox. Let's get to it.

Gil Meche, formerly of the Kansas City Royals, announced his retirement the other day at the age of 32. He left the remaining $12 million of his 5-year $55 million contract on the table.

Meche has been hampered by a sholder injury that kept his status for 2011 in doubt. Rather than sit out the season and collect the money, or accept a reduced role in the bullpen, Meche walked away. No buyout, no deferred money, just retired.

"After a lot of thinking and prioritizing of issues in my life I have decided to retire from baseball. As a competitor my entire life this is the hardest decision that I've ever faced, but it's not fair to me, my family or the Kansas City Royals that I attempt to pitch anymore."

"I came into this game as a starting pitcher and unfortunately my health, more accurately, my shoulder, has deteriorated to the point where surgery would be the only option and at this stage of my life I would prefer to call it a career rather than to attempt to pitch in relief for the final year of my contract. I can't thank the Kansas City Royals and their fans enough for my four seasons there and if I have any regret, it's that we weren't able to accomplish on the field what the goal was when I signed there."

I can't find any fault with Meche's decision. The only thing that strikes me is that this is news. This should be the norm, not the exception. Instead, we have too many Mike Hamptons and Kevin Browns in baseball, taking millions while they sit at home "rehabilitating."

Mike Hampton signed an 8-year $121 million contract before the 2001 season. In those eight years, Hampton pitched in 147 games (missing the 2006 and 2007 seasons entirely). That means that Hampton made $823,129 each time he took the mound, $135,752 for every inning, or $2,160,714 for every win (56 in 8 years).

Hampton made over $29 million in the two seasons he completely missed. Don't you think the Braves would've liked for him to retire and give that money back to them so they could've had another bat in the lineup?

Now, I know there are those of you who say 'it is an on-the-job injury, they have a right to be paid just like you or I would.'

I understand that thinking, but it's a little off. For one thing, most employers are only required to pay 2/3 of an employee's salary while they are on job-related disability. Would it have killed Hampton to take $10.5 million instead of $14.5 million each of those years?

There is a ridiculous double standard in baseball that a player should be allowed to make these millions of dollars but the team that employs them can't drop them off the books when they aren't earning that money.

My only hope is that one day, we will see a story that says something like 'Tim Lincecum retires' and there is no mention of the fact that he left $30 million on the table. It will just be understood.

------------------

NFL Training Camp update

It has been a long time since I updated my progress and for that I am sorry. It was a busy week here in the Palace. The Sultan bought a new car and there was a lot of time spent surfing the web, filling out papers and working out the details. I did make all of my workout dates, except one which I did a day late. Here are the results.

Workout #9 (25% arms, 40% legs, 25% cardio, 8% core)
Workout time: 23:34
Calories burned: 234.8
Avg. heart rate: 115 BPM
Current draft status: 5th round, 154th overall

Workout #10 (36% arms, 31% legs, 22% cardio, 9% core)
Workout time: 24:31
Calories burned: 201.6
Avg. heart rate: 114 BPM
Current draft status: 5th round, 140th overall

Workout #11 (44% arms, 29% legs, 17% cardio, 9% core)
Workout time: 23:59
Calories burned: 214
Avg. heart rate: 121 BPM
Current draft status: 5th round, 135th overall

Workout #12 (7% arms, 67% legs, 14% cardio, 10% core)
Workout time: 27:34
Calories burned: 228.5
Avg. heart rate: 111 BPM
Current draft status: 5th round, 132nd overall

And today's workout, where I began Phase 2
Workout #13 (29% arms, 36% legs, 25% cardio, 8 % core)
Workout time: 23:48
Calories burned: 234.1
Avg. heart rate: 115 BPM
Current draft status: 5th round, 129th overall

------------------

That's all I got today. See you tomorrow with another weight update.

Thanks for reading.

It's been a rough few days

2011-01-21T21:23:00.001-08:00

Work and life can be hell. Everyone knows that. This is nothing new. But it is during these times that the will to continue will be tested.

I don't mean the will to live....I am not depressed. I am simply talking about my workout and diet routine.

I missed my workout on Thursday (but made up for it today) and I have been cheating on my diet WAY too much.

I am not eager to see the damage on the scale tomorrow morning. But, I will keep on keeping on.

Here are the results from workout #8 (Day 14 of 60)

Workout #8 (7% arms, 67% legs, 14% cardio, 10% core)
Workout time: 24:41
Calories burned: 196.1
Avg. heart rate: 118 BPM
Current draft status: 6th round, 161st overall

See ya tomorrow with another workout update and maybe a sports take or two.

Thanks for reading.

Wii NFL Training Camp Day 11

2011-01-18T16:36:00.000-08:00

Welcome loyal subjects. Did you see Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes? Hysterical. For those of you who missed it, here are some of the highlights.

Also, the other night....Kaitlin Olson, better known as Sweet Dee on 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' was on Conan. Here is a great clip from that interview.

But for those of you who are following along with my weight loss journey, here are the results of Workout #7.

Workout #7 (44% arms, 29% legs, 17% cardio, 9% core)
Workout time: 22:24
Calories burned: 178.7
Avg. heart rate: 111 BPM
Current draft status: 6th round, 165th overall

The fact that this workout was centered more on the arms than the legs was a welcome sign today. My legs are still sore from Sunday's double-header.

This was also the first workout that I had the kids (Captain Nintendo and The Boy Wonder) do along with me. They set up profiles yesterday when I showed them some of the football drills.

It was hard work for all involved but they say they feel good and I know how it makes me feel so hopefully we can make this a regular thing.

Finally today, I will leave you with my predictions for this weekend's NFC and AFC Championship games.

Here are the current lines.

Green Bay -3.5 @ Chicago
@ Pittsburgh -3.5 NY Jets

So the Bears are 3.5 point home dogs? I don't like that one bit. Chicago can put up some points as shown last weekend. But it was the Seahawks, who despite beating the Saints, did not belong in the playoffs. I like the Packers here, but I'm not sure about that line. The Bears and Packers each won a meeting this year with the Bears winning by a field goal and the Packers winning by a touchdown.

Green Bay 17, Chicago 10

The Jets and Steelers met earlier this year with the Jets winning 22-17 at Pittsburgh. But in that game, the Jets offense really couldn't generate any. Mark Sanchez was 19 of 29 for 170 yards. The only TD from the offense came from Sanchez on a 7-yard run.

Brad Smith opened that game with a 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Nick Folk kicked two field goals and Jason Taylor tackled Mewelde Moore in the end zone for a safety.

The Steelers WERE able to move on the Jets. Rashard Mendenhall was a yard short of 100 yards on the ground with a score. Ben Roethlisberger has 264 passing yards and a score. I think the same will hold true in this game and this time, the Steelers will defend special teams better.

Pittsburgh 24, NY Jets 13

Thanks for reading.

Wii NFL Training Camp continues

2011-01-16T17:39:00.000-08:00

Wow! What a busy weekend. The time just flew by. As I continue the 60-day challenge on EA Sports' NFL Training Camp, it is time to check in with the weigh-in.

I started this journey on Saturday January 8, 2011. My starting weight was 238 lbs. After the first week and four workouts, my weight on Saturday January 15, 2011 was....234 lbs. A loss of four pounds or 1.7%.

It won't keep me on the Biggest Loser Ranch, but it's good enough for me to keep on pushing.

I then forgot to workout on Saturday so I completed Saturday's workout and today's workout back-to-back.

Here are the results.

Workout #5 (29% arms, 38% legs, 23% cardio, 8% core)
Workout time: 21:25
Calories burned: 163.1
Avg. heart rate: ?? (More on that in a moment)
Current draft status: 6th round, 180th overall

Workout #6 (38% arms, 31% legs, 20% cardio, 9% core)
Workout time: 27:15
Calories burned: 225.7
Avg. heart rate: 114 BPM
Current draft status: 6th round, 169rd overall

So in the first workout today, I experienced some problems with the sensors. They apparently weren't picking up my movements on three of the 19 workouts. The computer kept telling me to stand and hold still (completing the rep) while I was standing up and holding as still as an ice statue. STUPID SENSORS.

So I skipped those three. The heart rate sensor then failed to monitor my heart rate after that. I know that the time would've been longer, the calories burned would've been higher and my sanity would've stayed intact if the damn sensors would just do what they are supposed to do.

Oh well. I made up for it with a grueling 2nd workout. Though I had to do 16 pushups at one point to get the sensors to record that I had done 10.

All in all I feel great about the progress and can't wait to see what it looks like next Saturday.

Thanks for following along.

2011 MLB Hall of Fame voting

2011-01-15T11:52:00.000-08:00

I wrote this first bit in 2004. Forgive me if you have read it. But I wanted to revisit this piece and then touch on a few more points later.

FROM 2004:

In life, one can only hope that amongst the chaos and ruckus there is a greater power at work.

A sense of justice is desired. We need to feel that for every action there is a suitable reaction. Now in many situations this is abundantly obvious.

If I choose to eat cousin Bobby's eye-twitch-inducing-peel-your-socks-down-and-fan-your-ankles-while-searching-blindly-for-something-to-drink chili, I will pay dearly.

And really so should Bobby, but again one can only hope.

On the other hand sometimes life just isn't reasonable. The following is an example of karma's sometimes slipshod behavior.

On Sunday, Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn were officially inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

It was a poignant and well-deserved moment for both players, who executed their careers with dignity, class and style.

However, I can’t help but be saddened by the omission — once again — of the ultimate class act in the history of baseball.

Mr. Clean himself, Dale Murphy.

Dale Murphy spent 18 seasons in the majors, most of it with the perennial losers the Atlanta Braves.

Murphy has been compared to Ernie Banks in that he was the greatest player of his time, never to win the World Series.

Not only did he never win the World Series, he was never even in it. The Braves only made the playoffs once (1982) when they were swept in the NLCS by St. Louis.

Murphy is the youngest player ever to win back-to-back NL MVP awards when he did so in 1982 and 1983.

He was a 7-time All-Star selection and a 5-time Gold Glove winner.

Let’s go back to that comparison of Murphy and Banks.

Both players won back-to-back MVP awards.

Both players won the award only those two times. Both players started in seven All-Star games.

Murphy won five gold gloves to Banks’ one.

Both players led the league in homers twice and RBI’s twice.

Murphy played for 18 seasons, three of which were at catcher and saw limited playing time.

Banks played 19 seasons and only three times did he play in under 130 games compared to Murphy’s six seasons under 130 games.

Mr. Cub is in the Hall, Murph is not.

Had Murphy stayed healthy late in his career and played in the outfield at the beginning of it, he would have passed Banks in homers and we wouldn’t be talking about this.

I know that’s a lot of ifs.

The fact remains, he fell two home runs short of the magical 400 mark, but still ranks 45th on the all-time homerun list, and was as high as 27th when he retired in 1993.

In the next two seasons, Murphy will be passed by Chipper Jones (currently with 374), Andruw Jones (361), Jeff Kent (360), Jim Edmonds (357), Jason Giambi (357) and Vladimir Guerrero (352).

This will push Murphy out of the top-50.

Despite his achievements — and there are many — what stands out most in my mind is what he did off the field.

Murphy — a devout Mormon — dedicated his life off the playing field to his family and to assisting others through numerous charitable venues.

Dale was named one of Sports Illustrated's Sportsmen of the year in 1987 and has lent his support to Huntington's disease and cystic fibrosis foundations, among others.

The only "dirt" anyone has ever uncovered on Murphy was a speeding ticket for driving 35 MPH in a 25 MPH zone.

In other words, completely boring to those looking for “edge”.

I realize that Hall of Fame induction is not merited on charity work, but the fact that Murphy was such an excellent ball player AND one of the premiere statesman of the game, should help further his case for induction.

Since his first year of eligibility in 1999, Murphy has received the following vote totals (96 (19.3%), 116 (23.2%), 93 (18.1%), 70 (14.8%), 58 (11.7%), 43 (8.5%), 54 (10.5%), 56 (10.8%), 50 (9.2%)).

If Murphy drops below the 5% mark next year, he will be off of the ballot and at the mercy of the Veterans Committee.

If you ask me, the Karmic Boomerang should finally swing around and smack the voters upside the noggin and make them realize what a mistake they have been making for the past nine years.

Here is a man who was voted as one of the best players through the 1980's, having led the majors in home runs and total bases for the decade.

Second and third on the homer list for the 1980’s is Mike Schmidt and Eddie Murray, both hall of famers.

So here is a guy who ranks in the Top-100 of many offensive categories all-time.

A classy individual who always put the welfare of the team, his fellow players, his family and complete strangers ahead of his own.

A man whom, in a time of rising salaries, actually asked to be traded so that the Atlanta Braves could spend the money that had been owed only to him, to use on young talent and develop a winning team.

Of course, that next year the Braves went to the World Series.

Did I mention he’s a Portland native?

Dale Murphy: Nice guy, hero, legend....and hopefully next year, Hall of Famer.

Me and Murphy in 2009 at Triple-A All-Star festivities at PGE Park in Portland.
-----------------

Now of course, those of you who follow these things know that Murphy was snubbed yet again. He received 73 votes (12.6%). far short of the 75% needed for induction.

I have always said three things about the Hall of Fame. 1) It's the Hall of FAME, not the Hall of Stats. That should be taken into account when voting for someone. 2) If you need more than a sentence to describe someone's career, they are not a Hall of Famer. 3) Steroids were a part of the game. We can't look back and second guess. All players of the era who were deserving should get in.

Let's look at some of this year's ballot nominees.

Roberto Alomar: One of the greatest 2nd baseman of all time. (One sentence, enough said)

Bert Blyleven: ERA and strikeouts are far more impressive than won-loss total.

Barry Larkin: Very good shortstop who won an MVP and would've won more Gold Gloves if it weren't for Ozzie Smith

Jack Morris: Won a World Series with three different teams.

Lee Smith: Was the all-time saves leader despite playing for some really bad teams.

Jeff Bagwell: Rookie of the year, MVP and one of the greatest first baseman to have ever played for a crappy team.

Tim Raines: Played 23 seasons and still didn't get to 3,000 hits.

Edgar Martinez: The ultimate Designated Hitter.

Dale Murphy: Back to back MVP awards and more homers and RBI than anyone in the 1980's.

See what I mean? If you can define their career in one sentence and it sounds hall-worthy, they get in.

Since the BBWAA only allows a voter to vote for 10 each year (something that will be very difficult to do in 2014) here are the ones I would've voted for.

Roberto Alomar
Bert Blyleven
Lee Smith
Jeff Bagwell
Edgar Martinez
Mark McGwire
Fred McGriff
Dave Parker
Dale Murphy
Rafael Palmeiro

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Any objections?

And getting back to the 10 vote rule and how bad it will get in 2014...here is the list of new nominees for that ballot.

Barry Bonds
Roger Clemens
Greg Maddux
Tom Glavine
Frank Thomas
Mark McGwire
Mike Piazza
Sammy Sosa
Curt Schilling

And then the next year, John Smoltz, Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson and Gary Sheffield join the list. Now pick only 10.

Tough I know.

The Fat continues to fall

2011-01-13T21:23:00.000-08:00

Sorry I forgot to update after my Tuesday workout. That's because I forgot to workout on Tuesday and made up for it yesterday. Here are the stats for that workout and today's.

Workout #3 (48% arms, 32% legs, 8% cardio, 10% core)
Workout time: 20:53
Calories burned: 162
Avg. heart rate: 111 BPM
Current draft status: 7th round, 195th overall

Workout #4 (8% arms, 72% legs, 7% cardio, 11% core)
Workout time: 25:00
Calories burned: 179
Avg. heart rate: 117 BPM
Current draft status: 7th round, 193rd overall

I'm really anxious to see how much weight I lost this first week when I take the scale on Saturday morning. I am trying to taper my expectations. The workouts are on the easy setting to start out. I am not going through a "Biggest Loser" workout routine.

Regardless, I feel like I should see some results. But enough fat-talk. Be sure to check back tomorrow (non-workout day) to hear my thoughts on this year's MLB Hall of Fame balloting.

Thanks for reading.

And the BCS National Champion is.....

2011-01-10T20:34:00.000-08:00

Wow. What a game huh? Not exactly the 45-40 game everyone was expecting. Oregon converts two 2-point plays, including one on a fake point after try where the kicker ran the ball in for the conversion. Both defenses have stepped up and the game score remained under 20 apiece until the game-winning field goal by Wes Byrum as time expired.

Oregon has nothing to be ashamed of. They came to play. They showed the country that they deserved the chance to play in the title game. But the Tigers were just an 18-yard field goal better this year.

As promised, I will explain why despite me being an Oregon native, I was not rooting for Oregon.

A few years ago, I started a local sports periodical. We put out 6 issues over the course of 18 months. We had a website and a weekly talk show on a local AM radio station.

Despite the popularity of our publication, we were unable to continue it due to lack of funding.

Back when we first started, we attempted to obtain media credentials from the major Universities in Oregon (University of Oregon, Oregon State University, University of Portland and Portland State University).

OSU, UP and PSU welcomed us with open arms, giving us a press pass and a photo pass for every sport. Access to players and coaches for interviews whenever we needed (just like any major publication would get). We had press credentials to the Portland Beavers (Triple-A baseball), Portland Lumberjax (NLL), Portland Timbers (Minor League soccer), Portland Winterhawks (Minor League hockey) and even the Portland Trail Blazers of the NBA.

But our response from the University of Oregon people was simply.....we don't know you, you aren't big enough. Check back with us when you've been around for a few years.

Now to be fair, we aren't around anymore so maybe they were right. But I still feel slighted by them. There was just an obnoxious arrogance to the organization that was not to be found in any of the other programs.

And why? What had they won? They have never won a Rose Bowl, never won a BCS title game, never played for a National Championship before tonight. Where did this attitude come from?

Even as I type this, I still find myself torn. As an Oregon native I want to see my home state represented well on a national stage. However, I know that if the Ducks were to have won tonight, that ego....that swagger....that arrogance would just be multiplied exponentially. And I would no longer be able to live here.

But I don't have to worry about it. Chip (douchebag) Kelly and the Ducks leave Glendale without the crystal football. And I can breathe a sigh of relief until next season. Now let's have some fun with Photoshop.

Congrats to Auburn. Congrats to Oregon. It was definitely a great game.

See you tomorrow night. Thanks for reading.

The Sultan's Training Camp (Day 2)

2011-01-09T20:26:00.000-08:00

Today was the 2nd day in my 60-Day challenge with EA Sports' NFL Training Camp. If you missed me recap Day one earlier today, you can find it here.

Today's workout was 42% arms, 24% legs, 22% cardio and 12% core. I went through the lineman's drill (which was fun and not very challenging as I set a best time each of the two times I did it).

Overall, the workout was good. I can really feel the areas in which I need help. Primarily, my core. Considering all the problems I have had with my sacroiliac joint and my lower back, this doesn't surprise me. My physical therapist had me working on core exercises that I quickly dismissed when the sessions were over. BIG MISTAKE.

Here are the stats from workout number two.

Workout time: 23:25
Calories burned: 180.4
Avg. heart rate: 122 BPM
Current draft status: 7th round, 199th overall

Tomorrow, I will post reaction to the BCS title game, whatever the outcome. And I will give my reasoning as to why I was not rooting for the Ducks, despite being from Oregon....and no I did not go to Oregon State.

Thanks for reading.

Happy New Year.....New Posts!

2011-01-09T07:50:00.000-08:00

Greetings loyal subjects. I trust your holidays were wonderful but that you are happy to see them at an end for another year. Christmas being over means that I can go back to a somewhat normal schedule at work and have more time to get back to filling your heads with my mindless drivel.

I have a lot of great things planned for the new year. I plan to give you my take on the MLB Hall of Fame balloting this year (congrats to Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven), there will be some movie reviews, reactions to the BCS title game (Go Tigers....yes I'm from Oregon, I'll explain that too) and lots of other fun things.

But I want to start off on a personal note. 18 months ago I looked at a photo taken of me and my kid sister at her high school graduation. My weight had gotten out of hand and I didn't even realize it.

I set out on a quest to lose 50 pounds in a year. Starting at just over 250 pounds, my goal was for 200 by June of 2010. I documented some of my trials and tribulations right here in this space in the early part of last year.

I got down to as low as 215 before falling off the bandwagon and reverting to old habits. But those days are over. Call it cliche to have a New Year's resolution but I have a new tool and this should be a lot of fun.

For Christmas, the only thing I really wanted was the new NFL Training Camp for the Wii by EA Sports. My mother-in-law came through and I couldn't wait to get started.

One of the game play options on the game is a 60-day challenge, in which you set a workout schedule for 60 days and your progress is monitored through the heart monitor to determine your heart rate and calories burned.

The amount of work you do, improves your NFL Draft status, starting out as the last pick in the draft and working your way up to the top. I will chronicle my progress each workout day (4 days a week) and update my weight every Saturday.

My first workout session was last night. Here are the stats.

Starting weight: 238 lbs.
Workout time: 18:45
Calories burned: 137.1
Avg. heart rate: 112 BPM
Current draft status: 7th round, 207th overall

The first workout was mostly stretching, squats, planks and some light cardio. I can't wait to get into the more football-themed activities like WR route-running, field goal kicking and the RB drills.

That's about it for today. I'll be back tonight with the results of my 2nd workout.

Thanks for reading.

Week 14 NFL picks

2010-12-12T08:37:00.000-08:00

Greetings loyal subjects. I know you are all anxiously waiting for this post so you can call your bookie and blow your holiday shopping money on the beast that is the NFL.

Since Week 5 I am 87-43 after a wonderful 13-3 week last week. I am already 1-0 this week after picking the Colts over the Titans in my Power Rankings post. Here are the rest.

Buffalo over Cleveland

Green Bay over Detroit

Pittsburgh over Cincinnati

Tampa Bay over Washington

Atlanta over Carolina

Jacksonville over Oakland (sorry Jaime)

New Orleans over St. Louis

San Francisco over Seattle

New England over Chicago

New York Jets over Miami

Denver over Arizona

San Diego over Kansas City

Philadelphia over Dallas

New York Giants over Minnesota (if they find a place to play the game)

Baltimore over Houston

There you go. In case you missed it earlier this week, I gave you the NFL Power Rankings in the form of a song that reminded me of each team at this point of the season. You can find the 3-part post by clicking here, here and here.

Here are a few bonus songs and videos that popped up in my head as well.

New England Patriots

Indianapolis Colts

And I leave you with a clip from one of my favorite TV shows, which sadly but accurately describes what the Washington Redskins are going through with a certain quarterback that they thought they were getting. (Warning, some questionable language for younger readers is used in the opening.)

Always Sunny - Donovan McNabb - McDonalds from Zosie Monzon on Vimeo.

I love that show...Thanks for reading.

NFL Power Rankings (Music video version) Top-10

2010-12-09T21:27:00.000-08:00

I promised you some new content this week and I always try not to disappoint. In case you missed the first two posts, you can find them by clicking here and here.

Here is the final part of the 3-part post.

Tonight, I give you the Top-10 in the NFL. Each team is defined by a certain song. Try to guess what team is represented and then check your answers at the bottom. If you need an explanation, email me or comment and I will tell you my reasoning.

Here we go.

Let's take a look at the NFL power rankings (song version)

10.

9.

8.

7.

6.

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

The answers:

10. Philadelphia Eagles
9. Baltimore Ravens
8. New Orleans Saints
7. Green Bay Packers
6. Kansas City Chiefs
5. New York Jets
4. Chicago Bears
3. Atlanta Falcons
2. Pittsburgh Steelers
1. New England Patriots

NFL Power Rankings (Music video version) 11-20

2010-12-08T21:18:00.000-08:00

I promised you some new content this week and I always try not to disappoint. In case you missed last night's opening post, you can find it by clicking here.

Here is Part 2 of a 3 part post, with part 3 coming Thursday night.

Tonight, I give you the middle 3rd of the NFL (11-20). Each team is defined by a certain song. Try to guess what team is represented and then check your answers at the bottom. If you need an explanation, email me or comment and I will tell you my reasoning.

Here we go.

20.

19.

18.

17.

16.

15.

14.

13.

12.

11.

The answers:

20. Cleveland Browns
19. Miami Dolphins
18. Seattle Seahawks
17. San Diego Chargers
16. St. Louis Rams
15. Oakland Raiders
14. Indianapolis Colts
13. Jacksonville Jaguars
12. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
11. New York Giants

Be sure to check back tomorrow for the top-10. Oh and before I forget, I have the Colts bouncing back and beating the Titans on Thursday Night Football tomorrow night.

Thanks for reading.

NFL Power Rankings (Music video version)

2010-12-07T21:53:00.000-08:00

I promised you some new content this week and I always try not to disappoint.

Here is Part 1 of a 3 part post, with part 2 coming tomorrow night and part 3 coming Thursday night.

Tonight, I give you the bottom 3rd of the NFL (21-32). Each team is defined by a certain song. Try to guess what team is represented and then check your answers at the bottom. If you need an explanation, email me or comment and I will tell you my reasoning.

Here we go.

32.

31.

30.

29.

28.

27.

26.

25.

24.

23.

22.

21.

ANSWERS:

32. Carolina Panthers
31. Cincinnati Bengals
30. Detroit Lions
29. Buffalo Bills
28. Arizona Cardinals
27. Denver Broncos
26. San Francisco 49'ers
25. Dallas Cowboys
24. Washington Redskins
23. Minnesota Vikings- Thanks to the late Don Meredith for the motivation here.
22. Tennessee Titans
21. Houston Texans

Check back tomorrow for 11-20.

Thanks for reading.

Week 13 NFL predictions

2010-12-05T08:59:00.000-08:00

Greetings and salutations. This is the Sultan's busy time of year at the M-F job that pays the Sultan's bills. I don't have a lot of time to write, be creative, talk smack or do much of anything but sit on the couch and recoup from the previous week.

But I would be remiss if I didn't make my weekly NFL picks. After another great week (12-4) last week, I am now 74-40 since beginning my picks here in Week 5. I missed the Thursday night game, but with a confidence rating of 15 on Madden Superstars on Facebook, I picked the Eagles. So I am taking that one.

Here are the rest for Week 13.

New Orleans over Cincinnati

Chicago over Detroit

Green Bay over San Francisco

Jacksonville over Tennessee

Kansas City over Denver

Miami over Cleveland

Minnesota over Buffalo

New York Giants over Washington

San Diego over Oakland

Indianapolis over Dallas

St. Louis over Arizona

Seattle over Carolina

Atlanta over Tampa Bay

Pittsburgh over Baltimore

New England over New York Jets

I will try to get online at some point next week for some witty commentary. I have a lot to say about the upcoming BCS title game, LeBron's return to Cleveland, Jeter's new deal and much much more.

Hope to see you early next week.

Thanks for reading.

Happy Thanksgiving (And NFL picks)

2010-11-25T08:41:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to take a quick minute to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving from everyone here in the Sultan's Palace.

I am thankful for my wonderful wife and children, my annoying but lovable family and my wife's equally annoying but equally lovable family. I am thankful for Brett Favre, Tiger Woods and all of the other sports figures that give me so much to talk about.

And finally, I am extremely thankful for all of you, who give outlet to my voice. Have a great day.

I want to get my NFL picks in, given that there are three games today I can't wait until Friday to make my picks. I was 10-6 last week, bringing my record to 62-36. Here are this week's pick.

New England 30, Detroit 20

Dallas 28, New Orleans 24

New York Jets 27, Cincinnati 20

Atlanta 28, Green Bay 27

Pittsburgh 27, Buffalo 21

Cleveland 21, Carolina 13

New York Giants 27, Jacksonville 20

Minnesota 24, Washington 21

Houston 28, Tennessee 17

Oakland 20, Miami 17

Kansas City 24, Seattle 20

Philadelphia 27, Chicago 24

Denver 21, St. Louis 17

Baltimore 27, Tampa Bay 17

San Diego 24, Indianapolis 21

San Francisco 20, Arizona 17 (Someone has to win right?)

Thanks again for your support. Happy Thanksgiving.

If I Could Turn Back Time....

2010-11-18T20:12:00.000-08:00

Time travel is usually reserved for science fiction novels and Star Trek movies. But a friend of mine sent me a text the other day (thanks Mark) that really got me thinking. The text said that given the idea that you would be able to travel back in time, if you could have season tickets to any MLB, NFL and NBA team in history, which would you choose?

The NFL and NBA I was able to answer immediately because I am not a big NBA fan, and I have only become an NFL fan over the past few years. I chose the '72 Dolphins (for the perfect season) and the '80 Lakers (Showtime!).

But when I turned my attention to MLB, I quickly realized how hard this actually was. I am a huge baseball fan. How could I possibly choose just one team from one year? So, I decided to pull a page from ESPN's Page 2 and come up with a Top-10 of teams I would choose.

This list is entirely my opinion, it is not a list of the ten you would choose, though you may agree with some. It is strictly my list.

First of all, I want to rattle off some Braves seasons that I am not going to include in my list. I am a Braves fan, of course I want season tickets to any and all Braves games. But I want to think outside the Braves' box. But here are a few I would choose. Let's call them the honorable mentions: 1995 (The lone Atlanta title), 1991 (The year the streak of division titles began), 1982 (Dale Murphy's first MVP season), 1974 (Hank passes Babe), 1957 (The lone Milwaukee title) and 1914 (The lone Boston title).

Here are my 10.

10. 1948 St. Louis Cardinals

There is no real underlying reason why I picked this particular Cardinals team. I just wanted a chance to see Stan Musial play in person. He won the MVP in '48 (becoming the first person to have won the award three times) and just missed the Triple Crown. - A home run he hit in a game that was later rained out would've given him a tie for the home run title.

Despite that, he finished first in the majors in batting average (.376), hits (230), doubles (46), triples (18), total bases (429), and slugging percentage (.702). He won the NL batting crown by 43 points. He also led the NL in runs scored and RBI. He was the only player in the 20th century to have led their league in runs scored, hits, doubles, triples and slugging percentage in the same season.

I can only imagine that it would've been a great season to witness.

9. 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates

The "We are Family" Pirates stormed the baseball world in the summer of 1979, led by Willie Stargell.

The team boasted Dave Parker, Bert Blyleven, Kent Tekulve and defeated Earl Weaver's Orioles in a 7-game series.

The main reason I picked this team - other than seeing Stargell play in person - is because I was born in 1979, so it would be nice to see the best team from the year I was born. Plus I love those old uniforms.

8. 1989 Oakland Athletics

The only one on my list that I remember watching on TV. Besides the '79 Pirates, the only one I was alive for. Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Dave Stewart, Dennis Eckersley, Rickey Henderson. Need I say more?

The season began with the major league debut of Ken Griffey Jr. in a game at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum and ended with the Battle of the Bay World Series against the San Francisco Giants. A four-game sweep by the A's, giving the Bash Brothers their only title in three-straight appearances.

7. 1941 Boston Red Sox

I don't have much in the way of reasoning for this one except, I would want to see the season in which Ted Williams hit .406. The last time a player has hit .400 or better in a season.

This team also boasted future hall of fame players Joe Cronin, Bobby Doerr, Jimmie Foxx and Lefty Grove.

6. 1908 Chicago Cubs

These are the saddest of possible words:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."
Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,
Tinker and Evers and Chance.
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
Making a Giant hit into a double -
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."

- Franklin Pierce Adams

Why wouldn't I want to see the season in which the Chicago Cubs won their most recent World Series? The Hall of Fame double play combination of Tinker, Evers and Chance. The pitching prowess of Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown.

Not to mention the infamous "Merkle's Boner" game. This one is I'm sure number one for most Cubs fans.

5. 1919 Chicago White Sox

Who wouldn't want to witness the "Black Sox" scandal up close and personal? Not only that, but look at who was on that team. Eddie Collins, Eddie Cicotte, Chick Gandil, Buck Weaver and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson.

If any of you have seen the terrific movie "Eight Men Out", you are familiar with the story. The '19 White Sox were found to have thrown the World Series against Cincinnati to get back at owner Charles Comiskey for his penny-pinching ways.

The players involved were acquitted of all legal charges, but Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis (Best name in the history of baseball) banned the players for life. I would like to be there to personally decide whether I thought players like Weaver and Jackson looked as if they were really throwing games.

4. 1975 Cincinnati Reds

The Big Red Machine of the 1970's got their first of their back-to-back World Series titles in 1975. Joe Morgan, Pete Rose, Tony Perez, Dave Concepcion, Johnny Bench, George Foster and Ken Griffey were led by the late Sparky Anderson.

The Reds clinched the World Series title on the road at Fenway that year, but I would still pick this season over the 1976 team that also won the title. The '75 team was more dominant in the regular season, posting a 108-54 record, finishing 20 games ahead of the 2nd place Dodgers. Plus, most people remember the '75 series with the Red Sox more than they remember the '76 sweep of the Yankees.

3. 1961 New York Yankees

The only team to have two spots in my top-10 gets their first one in at number three. Unless you know absolutely nothing about baseball, you know that this is the year that Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris were involved in the great home run chase which Maris eventually won.

Maris' 61 homers in the 162 game season stirs debate even to this day. Amidst the death threats and the stress both players faced in chasing the Babe's record of 60 homers, this would have been worth watching.

Also in the lineup that season was Yogi Berra (though mostly as an outfielder), Elston Howard and Whitey Ford. It may not have as many future hall of famers as other Yankees teams of the past, but it is one of the more historically significant ones.

2. 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers

If I had a chance to witness the season in which Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier, I would take it. The '47 Dodgers - even without Jackie - were a great team. Duke Snider (also in his rookie season), Gil Hodges and Pee Wee Reese were among the others on that team.

The Dodgers may have lost the World Series to the Yankees that year, but watching Robinson play - winning the Rookie of the Year - watching Duke Snider begin his Hall of Fame career - though he only played in 40 games - and being able to see games 3, 4 and 5 of the World Series (with Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio and Phil Rizzuto) would be worth it. This is a solid number two pick.

1. 1927 New York Yankees

To me, this is a no-brainer. Even though I despise the Yankees in their current form, you cannot deny their historical significance in the sport. The 1927 team is commonly referred to as "Murderers' Row".

The team which consisted of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri, Earle Combs, Waite Hoyt and Herb Pennock, all of whom are in the Hall of Fame.

Babe hit 60 homers that year, Gehrig added 47 and 175 RBI - en route to the AL MVP - as the Yankees stormed to a 110-44 record, 19 games ahead of 2nd place Philadelphia. They swept the Pirates in the World Series. Like I said, a no-brainer.

So there you go. That's my list. What's yours? If you could pick one team, one year to have season tickets to, who would it be and why? Let me know in the comment section or in my email link.

Thanks for reading.

The Sultan's Monologue (11-17-2010)

2010-11-17T06:45:00.000-08:00

Welcome everyone to The Monologue. As always, there is a lot on my mind this week, so let's get right to it.

The Major League baseball offseason is in full swing and we are already getting some hot stove action on top of the awards season. First, the awards.

The Rookies of the Year in Major League Baseball have been announced and as expected, Texas' Neftali Feliz and San Francisco's Buster Posey nabbed the honors. It marks only the third time since the inception of the award (1949 is when the award was first given to a rookie in each league) where both eventual winners of the award faced each other in the World Series.

In 1951, the New York Yankees and the New York Giants met up in the World Series with Rookies of the Year Gil McDougald and Willie Mays going head to head. Thirty years later, in 1981, Dave Righetti and the New York Yankees met Fernando Valenzuela and the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.

This afternoon, Roy Halladay - as expected - won the NL Cy Young award, joining Gaylord Perry, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez as the only pitchers to have won the award in each league. The unanimous decision marks the 21st time since the awards inception (1956) that the award was given out unanimously (out of 98 winners).

We have the first big trade of the MLB offseason. The Braves acquired the big bat they were searching for when they traded Omar Infante and Mike Dunn to Florida for Silver Slugger award winner Dan Uggla.

The Braves will move All-Star Martin Prado to left field to make room for Uggla. As a Braves fan, I am truly excited about this move and think that the Braves stand a good chance of being able to re-sign Uggla to a long-term deal.

------------------------

Now for some NFL one-liners. But first, from one of the hottest team in the NFL, I give you some of the hottest....alright, I'll stop talking and just give you the pics.

Moving on....

The Dallas Cowboys: Same team, new coach, new results.

The Cowboys defeated the Giants on Sunday 33-20 after losing to them in Week 7, 41-35...a 19 point swing.

The only teams who are completely out of it are Buffalo, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Carolina and Minnesota.

After this week, Houston, Arizona, Washington, Cleveland and Denver will be added to that list.

Is it really a big deal that Todd Haley didn't shake Josh McDaniels' hand?

Michael Vick is making a case for MVP, at least in fantasy leagues (he scored 63 in my league Monday night).

As far as we know, Brett Favre went all last week without sending a single inappropriate text....as far as we know.

I made it through half my post without mentioning Favre. (Now I've mentioned him twice)

------------------------

A little accountability is good for the soul. I was unable to retrieve my Week 10 picks that I posted in my Monologue last week. Something happened to the post all together. I even tried to repost it but it just disappears. There must be some html code imbedded in that post that I don't know about since I don't know much about that kind of stuff.

Anyways, back to the accountability. I was 12-1 on my NFL picks in Week 9 and 8-6 in Week 10. I am now sitting at 52-30 on the year. Here are my picks for Week 11.

Miami 16, Chicago 14

Cincinnati 24, Buffalo 17

Dallas 27, Detroit 20

Tennessee 27, Washington 17

Kansas City 31, Arizona 13

Green Bay 27, Minnesota 24

New York Jets 28, Houston 24

Oakland 27, Pittsburgh 21- (Bold prediction of the week)

Baltimore 28, Carolina 13

Jacksonville 23, Cleveland 20

Atlanta 34, St. Louis 14

New Orleans 31, Seattle 14

San Francisco 21, Tampa Bay 20

Indianapolis 27, New England 24

Philadelphia 28, New York Giants 24

San Diego 31, Denver 17

------------------------

Finally tonight, I am admittedly not much of an NBA fan. I watch it if it's on, I loosely follow the hometown Trail Blazers and keep tabs on players with local ties.

That's why what Kevin Love did the other night caught my eye.

Love became the first player in 28 years to record over 30 points and over 30 rebounds in a single game, when he scored 31 and pulled down 31 boards in Minnesota's 112-103 win over the Knicks on Friday.

The 31 rebounds is the most in a game since Charles Barkley had 33 in a game in 1996. The 30-30 is the first such game since Moses Malone had 38 and 32 in 1982, over six years before Love - a Lake Oswego, Oregon native - was even born.

To prove it was not a fluke, Love went out there and posted 22 and 17 on Sunday and 20 and 9 in another loss on Monday. Love leads the league in rebounds - go figure - at 14.3 per game. Not bad for a kid who shot down offers from Oregon State and Oregon to play his one-and-done year at UCLA.

No I'm not bitter. Congrats Kevin.

That's all for this week. Thanks for reading.

The Seattle Mariners - Making mistakes since 1977

2010-11-03T21:28:00.000-07:00

The Seattle Mariners just completed one of their worst seasons in franchise history. The offense is officially the worst team offense in the past 100 years. The one shining star is pitcher Felix Hernandez. Hernandez may win the AL Cy Young, despite finishing with a 13-12 record.

In fact, the M’s pitching staff is one of the best in baseball and they are young. They are going to be around for quite a few years. If the team could just get some offense, they could contend for the AL West title next year.

I know, I know, once you stop laughing you have to realize that I’m right. The M’s had the 3rd best ERA in the American League last year (3.93) with 90 quality starts - 5th best. They lost a lot of one-run games….A LOT!

You could probably turn 30 or more of those losses into wins with just one or two runs scored. But the 2010 Mariners only scored 513 runs - 100 runs fewer than the next-worst team. And their team batting average was 11 points lower than the next-worst team.

Bottom line…..they need sticks! At least one, preferably four. So why is it that the Mariners are planning to bid for the right to sign Japanese pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma? The bidding for Iwakuma will begin next week and the Mariners are thought to be at the front of the line to bid for his services.

The cost? Between $16-$17 million. JUST FOR THE RIGHT TO SIGN HIM. Then you are looking at a 3-5 year deal worth anywhere from $5-$8 million per year. For what? For a 10-9 pitcher with a 2.82 ERA. Iwakuma is 101-62 with a 3.32 ERA in 10 seasons in Japan - a glorified Triple-A.

I have been watching the Mariners pretty religiously since 1989. They have been making BAD moves for decades. Their big bat acquisition two years ago was to bring an old, washed-up Ken Griffey Jr. back to town. The fans ate it up. So they brought him back for another year this year. He took a few clubhouse naps, batted .184 and called the team to announce his retirement while he was already on the road heading back to Florida.

In the 1990’s it was a constant joke that left field was a rotating door for whatever aging power hitter or rookie the team threw out there. And they kept finding new people to put out there, all the while needing pitching. Those were the Mariners teams that had Griffey, Jay Buhner, Edgar Martinez and a young Alex Rodriguez. What they didn’t have was a decent pitcher outside of Randy Johnson.

Left field was occupied by Jeffery Leonard, Greg Briley, Kevin Mitchell, Mike Felder, Eric Anthony, Vince Coleman, Rich Amaral, Darren Bragg, Warren Newson, Marc Newfield, Mark Whiten, Jose Cruz, Rob Ducey, Lee Tinsley, Roberto Kelly, Glenallen Hill, Shane Monahan, Brian Hunter and John Mabry in the 90’s.

Meanwhile, the pitchers that followed Randy included Bill Krueger, Brian Holman, Chris Bosio, Tim Belcher and Andy Benes. It wasn’t until they acquired Jaime Moyer that the team had a true one-two punch. Of course, Johnson delivered the punch while Moyer lulled them back to sleep. When the Mariners traded Randy Johnson in 1998, they got Freddy Garcia in the package and the team began a stretch of good pitching and good hitting that culminated in the 2001 season in which they won 116 games.

But now, the fortunes have reversed. The pitching is great and the hitting is atrocious. And the only true solution is complete and total change at the top. This team will not compete in the American League in the next decade or longer if the current ownership and upper management remains.

Stop spending money for the right to talk to a Japanese pitcher who may be at best, the 4th best pitcher on your team, and spend the money on what you really need. Then, and only then will the good fans of the soggy Pacific Northwest get a true competitor to play in that beautiful stadium.

---------------------

Did you watch the Oregon Ducks and USC Trojans play last Saturday? For three quarters it looked as if Oregon and USC were two guys hanging onto the landing skid of a helicopter, climbing up each other trying to hang on. They managed to hang onto each others’ waists and take turns climbing up and hanging on but not quite able to shake the other.

But then in the fourth quarter, the Ducks grabbed a firm hold on the skid, watched as USC slipped down around the Ducks’ ankles and then delivered one swift kick to the face, knocking the Trojans off for good.

---------------------

I was 10-3 on my NFL picks last week and am now 32-23 over the past four weeks. Here are my NFL picks for Week 9.

Atlanta 28, Tampa Bay 20

Chicago 20, Buffalo 17

New England 27, Cleveland 17

New York Jets 24, Detroit 20

Minnesota 28, Arizona 17

New Orleans 27, Carolina 20

Baltimore 24, Miami 20

San Diego 28, Houston 24

New York Giants 27, Seattle 17

Oakland 20, Kansas City 17

Philadelphia 24, Indianapolis 21

Green Bay 28, Dallas 17

Pittsburgh 24, Cincinnati 17

---------------------

Congratulations to the San Francisco Giants for defeating the Texas Rangers four games to one to claim the 2010 World Series. It marks the first win in four tries since moving to the Bay and the first title since 1954.

As a native of Salem, Oregon, I was paying close attention to this series to see several former Salem-Keizer Volcanoes (Single-A short season) shine on the big stage.

Former Volcanoes include Sergio Romo (‘05), Jonathan Sanchez (‘04), Travis Ishikawa (‘02-’03), Pablo Sandoval (‘05), Nate Schierholtz (‘03), Buster Posey (‘08) and Tim Lincecum who was on the 2006 Northwest League championship team. Congrats boys.

---------------------

That’s all for today. Be sure to check back Saturday for the Fantasy Football Fix. Thanks for reading.

Sultan's Fantasy Football Fix (Week 8)

2010-10-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the fourth week of the Sultan’s Saturday Fantasy Football Fix. Each week, I will run down the best and worst players for this week’s NFL games. The Sultan is here to help set your lineup and avoid a horrible tragic defeat.

I’ll also take a look at each individual game and help pick some winners, for those of you who like to waste money on that sort of thing.

Sorry to get this up so late in the game this week. I have been under the weather all week and it's been difficult to stay at the computer for long stretches.

Let’s get started with a look at a team that will destroy your team this week - unless it’s your team. Remember, this team is based on a standard 10-team PPR league. This isn’t a dream team.

QB- Peyton Manning
RB- Arian Foster
RB- Darren McFadden
WR- Terrell Owens
WR- Dwayne Bowe
TE- Jason Witten
Flex- Patrick Crayton

Also must start QB’s: Aaron Rodgers, Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Sleeper QB- Jon Kitna gets his first start for the injured Tony Romo and it couldn’t come at a better time. The Jaguars bring their horrible pass defense to town. Kitna should be good for 300 yards and at least 2 TD’s.

More must start RB’s: Steven Jackson, Frank Gore.

Sleeper RB- If anyone is looking for someone to deliver a sucker punch to your fantasy opponent this week, look no further than LeGarrette Blount. Blount has slowly been getting the bulk of the carries for Tampa. And in a game against the Cardinals, that could translate into a lot of yards.

More must start WR’s: Pierre Garcon, Andre Johnson.

Sleeper WR- Anthony Gonzalez makes his return for the Colts this week and it couldn’t come at a better time. Without Dallas Clark, Joseph Addai and Austin Collie, Gonzalez could see a lit of targets right out of the gate.

More must start TE’s: Zach Miller, Antonio Gates.

Sleeper TE- Aaron Hernandez is the guy you want if you need a replacement for Brent Celek or Tony Gonzalez this week. He may not get glamorous numbers, but I guarantee a score.

DO NOT START! Here is a list of 3 of each position to sit down if you have them this week.

QB- David Garrard, Mark Sanchez, Matt Hasselbeck.

RB- Tim Hightower, Ryan Matthews, Ronnie Brown.

WR- Mike Sims-Walker, Donald Driver, Michael Crabtree.

TE- John Carlson, Visanthe Shiancoe

Now, let’s look at my predictions for all of Week 8.

Miami 21, Cincinnati 20.

Dallas 24, Jacksonville 17

Detroit 24, Washington 21

Kansas City 31, Buffalo 20

St. Louis 20, Carolina 17

New York Jets 28, Green Bay 17

San Francisco 24, Denver 20

San Diego 27, Tennessee 21

Oakland 24, Seattle 23

New England 31, Minnesota 27

Tampa Bay 21, Arizona 20

Pittsburgh 27, New Orleans 24 (OT)

Indianapolis 35, Houston 24- Peyton gets revenge.

Check back early next week for the Monologue to see how the picks stacked up.

Thanks for reading.

The Sultan's Monologue (10/27/2010)

2010-10-27T11:01:00.000-07:00

Greetings loyal subjects and welcome to the Monologue. I am sorry I wasn’t able to get this posted on Monday night, or even last night. But I finally succumbed to a nasty stomach bug that the family all of had over the past two weeks. Sitting at the computer became impossible if you know what I mean.

Let’s kick things off today with a little fantasy football accountability. It was a crappy week for my predictions I think. Let’s look.

Must starts that made me look good.

Matt Cassel (193 yards, 2 TD)
Frank Gore (102 yards rush, 4 rec. 57 yards)
Steven Jackson (110 yards rush, 2 rec. 35 yards)
Dwayne Bowe (3 rec. 81 yards, 2 TD)
Anquan Boldin (6 rec. 92 yards, TD)
Santana Moss (5 rec. 63 yards, TD)
Greg Jennings (6 rec. 74 yards, TD)
Antonio Gates (4 rec. 50 yards, TD)

Must starts that made me look bad

Drew Brees (365 yards, 2 TD, 4 INT)- The 4 picks did him in.
Phillip Rivers (336 yards, TD, INT, 9 yards rush, FumL)
Chris Ivory (48 yards rush)
Marshawn Lynch (89 yards rush)
Ray Rice (72 yards rush, 1 rec. 1 yard)
Benjamin Watson (1 rec. 18 yards)
Kellen Winslow (5 rec. 44 yards)

Sits that made me look good

Vince Young (Did not play)
Chad Henne (257 yards, TD)
DeAngelo Williams (44 yards rush, 4 rec. 19 yards, 2 FumL)
Bo Scaife (3 rec. 7 yards)
Chris Cooley (7 rec. 52 yards)- Not bad if in a PPR league

Sits that made me look bad

Carson Palmer (412 yards, 3 TD)
Carnell Williams (12 yards rush, 8 rec. 34 yards, TD)
Knowshon Moreno (53 yards rush, 3 rec. 37 yards, 2 TD)- Damn passing game
Mike Sims-Walker (3 rec. 38 yards, TD)- The TD saved him
Lee Evans (6 rec. 105 yards, 3 TD)- WHAT THE HELL??!!
Davone Bess (6 rec. 66 yards, TD)
Jason Witten (9 rec. 95 yards, TD, FumL)

Sleeper picks

Alex Smith (129 yards, TD)
Beanie Wells (54 yards rush, TD)
Buster Davis (6 rec. 53 yards)
John Carlson (1 rec. 3 yards)- Completely asleep

Now for my NFL pick ‘em, I went 6-8 this week with big surprises coming when Oakland destroyed Denver, Cleveland embarrassed the defending champs and Kenny Britt beat the Eagles.

I’m looking to rebound on my pick ‘em games this week. I am 22-20 over the past three weeks.

Moving on..

So the University of Oregon is number one in the AP and the Coaches poll but was number two yet again in the BCS rankings when Auburn jumped the Ducks, TCU and Boise State after their win over LSU and Oklahoma’s loss to Missouri.

So much for the Big 3. The LeBron, Bosh, Wade-led Heat fell to the Celtics in the season-opener 88-80 last night. Looks like LeBron got handed a heavy helping of “the grass isn’t always greener.”

On to baseball..

The Texas Rangers are in the World Series for the first time in their history. The San Francisco Giants are looking for their first World Series title since they moved out west. Regardless of who wins, it will be a win for MLB, despite what the TV ratings will say. And they will be bad.

Now for some NFL one-liners….

Now that Mike Williams has made such a huge turnaround after being reunited with Pete Carroll, look for the Seahawks to bring in Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush in the near future.

If Brett Favre has taken his last NFL snap, it’s only fitting that it happened in Green Bay.

The Darren McFadden we saw on Sunday is the one the Raiders have been waiting on.

I challenge you to name me the top team in the NFC if I take the Giants and Falcons out of the equation.

The Saints are suffering from post-Super Bowl traumatic stress disorder, usually it’s the loser that has the problems.

Be sure to check back Saturday for the Fantasy Football Fix. I’ll log in again sometime this week just to say hi. I’m sure something fun to talk about will pop up between now and then.

Thanks for reading.

Sultan's Fantasy Football Fix (10/23/2010)

2010-10-23T21:07:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the third week of the Sultan’s Saturday Fantasy Football Fix. Each week, I will run down the best and worst players for this week’s NFL games. The Sultan is here to help set your lineup and avoid a horrible tragic defeat.

I’ll also take a look at each individual game and help pick some winners, for those of you who like to waste money on that sort of thing.

Let’s get started with a look at a team that will destroy your team this week - unless it’s your team. Remember, this team is based on a standard 10-team PPR league. This isn’t a dream team.

QB- Drew Brees
RB- Frank Gore
RB- Chris Ivory
WR- Anquan Boldin
WR- Dwayne Bowe
TE- Kellen Winslow
Flex- Marshawn Lynch

Also must start QB’s: Phillip Rivers, Matt Cassel.

Sleeper QB- Alex Smith may be a big help this week if you are without Peyton Manning, Matt Schaub or Mark Sanchez. If he can eliminate the interceptions, there is a chance for a top-10 week from Smith if you need him.

More must start RB’s: Steven Jackson, Ray Rice.

Sleeper RB- Beanie Wells waited until Week 7 last year to get his first TD and his first real breakout performance came last year against Seattle. I don’t know if Wells will come near the 117 total yards and two TD’s he had last year against Seattle, but half the yards and one score would be nice for anyone who may be without Joseph Addai, LaDainian Tomlinson or Arian Foster this week.

More must start WR’s: Santana Moss, Greg Jennings.

Sleeper WR- Buster Davis could take advantage of the depleted WR core in San Diego. It may be a real stretch for anyone to actually start him, but if you are in a deep league and dealing with BYE week challenges and injuries, Buster may be your man.

More must start TE’s: Antonio Gates, Benjamin Watson.

Sleeper TE- For the 2nd week in a row I’m gonna go with John Carlson. He has been quiet lately but he has a good matchup this week against Arizona so he may be due.

DO NOT START! Here is a list of 3 of each position to sit down if you have them this week.

QB- Vince Young (if he’s playing), Carson Palmer and Chad Henne.

RB- DeAngelo Williams (you drafted him high and has been a huge disappointment), Knowshon Moreno and Carnell Williams.

WR- Lee Evans (was a sleeper a few weeks ago that panned out, not this week), Mike Sims-Walker (with Todd Whoman throwing at him?..nope) and Davone Bess.

TE- Jason Witten (going against the grain), Chris Cooley and Bo Scaife.

Now, let’s look at my predictions for all of Week 7. I am 16-12 over the past two weeks, this is the rebound week.

Atlanta 28, Cincinnati 20

Chicago 20, Washington 17

Philadelphia 27, Tennessee 24

Kansas City 31, Jacksonville 13

New Orleans 35, Cleveland 12

Baltimore 30, Buffalo 13

Pittsburgh 17, Miami 14

Tampa Bay 21, St. Louis 20

San Francisco 24, Carolina 14

Denver 24, Oakland 17

Seattle 31, Arizona 21

San Diego 27, New England 21

Minnesota 28, Green Bay 24

Dallas 27, New York Giants 24

Check back Monday for the Monologue and then on Tuesday to see how the picks stacked up.

Thanks for reading.

Sorry A-Rod, no back-to-back for you

2010-10-22T21:52:00.000-07:00

How fitting was it that Alex Rodriguez be the final out in the clinching game of the ALCS? Here is a guy who signed, at the time, the biggest contract in baseball history with the Rangers, with promises of getting them to the World Series for the first time in franchise history.

Then, after a few seasons of MVP numbers (and one MVP award) and no post-season, the Rangers trade him to the Yankees where he wins two more MVP awards and gets a World Series ring in 2009.

Then, the Rangers finally get back to the playoffs. They down the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS to win their first-ever playoff series. And who do they get? The Yankees.

But the Rangers dispatch of them in six games, moving on to their first World Series in franchise history. And the guy who recorded the final out of the clinching game?

None other then the aforementioned Alex Rodriguez...on a called third strike.

Victory is yours tonight Rangers fans. And you got to rub a little revenge in Alex's face. He may have a ring, but I'm sure this felt good just the same.

Meet the new Pac-12

2010-10-21T12:15:00.001-07:00

Details have been released on how the new Pac-12 will be divided into it's two divisions. Pac-10 Commissioner Larry Scott unveiled the plans for the realignment as well as plans for the inaugural Pac-12 Football Championship game in a press conference today.

The new Pac-12 North Conference will be as follows:

University of Washington
Washington State University
University of Oregon
Oregon State University
University of California
Stanford University

The new Pac-12 South Conference will be as follows:

University of Arizona
Arizona State University
University of Colorado
University of Utah
University of Southern California (USC)
University of California- Los Angeles (UCLA)

"Our key objective was to transform the Pac-10 to a modern 12-team conference that has long term strength, increased value, competitive balance and is fan friendly and we have done that with these monumental decisions today," commissioner Larry Scott said in a statement. "By unanimously adopting a plan for equal revenue sharing we have created a conference with a strong foundation for long term success. It's an exciting day for the Pac-12 and all of our fans."

As for the title game, it will be held in December of 2011 at the home of the school with the best overall conference record.

Each school will still play a nine-game in-conference schedule, playing each school in their division and four of the six in the other, with those rotating each year. This means that the four California schools will no longer be playing each other every year.

Cal and USC have played every year since 1929, while Cal has played UCLA each season since 1933. Stanford has played both Los Angeles schools each year since 1946. That will now change.

There will be no division splits in other sports. Men's and women's basketball teams will play an 18-game conference schedule that includes home-and-home games with traditional rivals, six rotating home-and-homes and then single games against the remaining four teams in the conference.

The Sultan's Monologue (10/19/2010)

2010-10-19T18:40:00.000-07:00

Greetings loyal subjects and welcome to the Monologue. I appreciate you taking the time to stop by. I’ve got a special feature in the works for early December. Keep your fingers crossed and we’ll see if I can get the right balls to drop to help make it happen.

First of all, a BIG Happy Birthday to my oldest son Captain Nintendo. Daddy loves you little-big man. Hope you had a great day!

Alright, let me get to my fantasy football picks from this past weekend. A little accountability never hurt anyone.

Must starts that made me look good.

Peyton Manning (307 yards, 2 TD)
Ahmad Bradshaw (133 yards, 2 rec. 10 yards) - Jacobs got the 2 TD’s.
LaDainian Tomlinson (55 yards, 2 TD, 2 rec. 12 yards)
Matt Cassel (201 yards, 3 TD)
Drew Brees (263 yards, 3 TD, INT)
Chris Johnson (111 yards, TD, 2 rec. 20 yards)
Adrian Peterson (73 yards, TD)
Frank Gore (149 yards)
Anquan Boldin (4 rec. 63 yards, TD)
Reggie Wayne (6 rec. 71 yards) - didn’t get the score, but good in a PPR league.
Vernon Davis (4 rec. 35 yards, TD)

Must starts that made me look bad

Phillip Rivers (249, TD, INT)
Miles Austin (2 rec. 12 yards)
Maurice Jones-Drew (57 yards, 2 rec. 8 yards)
Dallas Clark (6 rec. 52 yards) - not too bad, if you are in a PPR league.
Brandon Lloyd (4 rec. 74 yards) - See Dallas Clark comment.
Malcolm Floyd (2 rec. 15 yards)
Zach Miller (2 rec. 48 yards)
Antonio Gates (2 rec. 12 yards)

Sits that made me look good

Sam Bradford (198 yards, TD)
Matt Hassel beck (242 yards, TD) - Iffy
Mike Tolbert (3 yards, TD) - The TD is nice, but got no yards.
Brandon Jackson (53 yards, 3 rec. 29 yards)
Legedu Naanee (0 catches) - didn’t even play
Brandon Gibson (3 rec. 33 yards)
Visanthe Shiancoe (0 catches)
Jeremy Shockey (2 rec. 21 yards)

Sits that made me look bad

Aaron Rodgers (313 yards, TD, INT)
Braylon Edwards (4 rec. 46 yards, TD)
Marshawn Lynch (44 yards, TD, 3 rec. 9 yards)
Bo Scaife (4 rec. 53 yards, TD)

Sleeper picks

Vince Young (61 yards, TD) - Early injury hurt his numbers
Michael Bush (47 yards, 2 Rec. 12 yards) - Eh.
Dwayne Bowe (6 rec. 108 yards, 2 TD) - That’s the Bowe we remember.
John Carlson (2 rec. 21 yards) - He’s still asleep

Now for my NFL pick ‘em, I went 7-7 this week with big surprises coming when St. Louis beat San Diego, Seattle beat Chicago and San Francisco beat Oakland.

I’m looking to rebound on my pick ‘em games this week. I am 16-12 over the past two weeks.

Moving on..

So the University of Oregon is number one in the AP and the Coaches poll but was number two in the first BCS rankings of the season. Is there really any surprise to this? Oregon played Div. I-AA Portland State. Their only real impressive win was against Stanford.

Take Stanford out of it and the Ducks’ opponents have a combined record of 8-23 this season. Even with Stanford, that record only climbs to 13-24. Oklahoma’s opponents are 23-16 this season and the Sooners have played two ranked teams to Oregon’s one.

So calm down Duck fans. Oklahoma may very well lose this Saturday to Missouri. If you can beat UCLA on Thursday (and you should) you may find yourself with that giant bullseye on your back before you know it.

On to baseball..

Eric Wedge! Come on down! You’re the next contestant on try to fix the Mariners and get fired in under two years! The M’s have picked former Cleveland Indians skipper Eric Wedge to be the team’s 7th manager since Lou Pinella stepped down in 2002.

Of those who reportedly were interviewed for the job, Bobby Valentine would’ve been a better pick in my opinion. Now, it’s not known if Wedge was their first choice or not. Perhaps they picked Valentine and then he changed his mind and said no thanks. It’ll be nice to see how long Wedge lasts. I’m putting my money on All-Star break 2012.

Speaking of ridiculous hires, the Chicago Cubs have announced that Mike Quade - the man who filled in after Lou Pinella retired mid-season, will remain as the Cubs manager. Rumors swirled for months that Yankee skipper Joe Girardi may come to fill the open spot. Others had former Cub great and hall of famer Ryne Sandberg taking the bench as skipper.

Not only will Sandberg not be the manager, he won’t be on Quade’s staff, nor will he be back as manager of the Cubs’ Triple-A affiliate in Iowa (where he was voted International League Manager of the Year). Way to botch it again Cubbies.

Now for some NFL one-liners….

Welcome back to New England Deion Branch.

Time for the Cowboys to start buying tickets to the Super Bowl…as fans.

Someone needs to check Pierre Garcon’s gloves for duct tape.

Brandon Jacobs version 2.0, shutting up and scoring TD’s.

Will the real Rams please stand up?

For that matter, will the real Chargers please stand up?

Oh that’s right, with cheerleaders that look like this, this, this and this, they can’t stand up.

The NFC is B-A-D!

Those of you who say you can’t stand Brett Favre will be glued to Sunday Night Football this weekend.

Be sure to check back Saturday for the Fantasy Football Fix. I’ll log in again sometime this week just to say hi. I’m sure something fun to talk about will pop up between now and then.

That’s all for this tonight. Thanks for reading.

The Sultan's Fantasy Football Fix (Week 6)

2010-10-16T17:48:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the second week of the Sultan’s Saturday Fantasy Football Fix. Each week, I will run down the best and worst players for this week’s NFL games. The Sultan is here to help set your lineup and avoid a horrible tragic defeat.

I’ll also take a look at each individual game and help pick some winners, for those of you who like to waste money on that sort of thing.

Let’s get started with a look at a team that will destroy your team this week - unless it’s your team. Remember, this team is based on a standard 10-team PPR league. This isn’t a dream team.

QB- Peyton Manning
RB- Ahmad Bradshaw
RB- Maurice Jones-Drew
WR- Malcolm Floyd
WR- Brandon Lloyd
TE- Dallas Clark
Flex- LaDainian Tomlinson

Also must start QB’s: Phillip Rivers, Matt Cassel, Drew Brees

Sleeper QB- Vince Young goes up against an abysmal Jaguars team. The game-plan should be “hand it off to Chris Johnson” but Young will probably get enough points to help you out if you need a BYE week fill-in.

More must start RB’s: Chris Johnson, Adrian Peterson, Frank Gore.

Sleeper RB- Michael Bush proved me wrong last week when I said to bench any Oakland running back. This week, DMC may be back but will be limited. Bush could see the majority of work again and could have a good day.

More must start WR’s: Anqual Boldin, Reggie Wayne, Miles Austin.

Sleeper WR- Dwayne Bowe hasn’t been very awe-inspiring for fantasy owners so far this year. But this is a good matchup and he could be a very decent BYE week fill-in for those of you missing Larry Fitzgerald, Ochocinco or T.O.

More must start TE’s: Vernon Davis, Antonio Gates, Zach Miller (OAK)

Sleeper TE- John Carlson has been Hasselbeck’s most consistent receiver (not that that’s saying much). He’s not an every week must-start, but he should do well for you this week.

DO NOT START! Here is a list of 3 of each position to sit down if you have them this week.

QB- Aaron Rodgers (won‘t be 100%), Sam Bradford (if he‘s your best option, make a trade), Matt Hassel beck (see Sam Bradford comment).

RB- Marshawn Lynch (don‘t buy the hype), Mike Tolbert (Ryan Matthews reclaims his No. 1 spot) and Brandon Jackson (Aaron Rodgers is playing, BJ is useless).

WR- Legedu Naanee (even against the Rams, don‘t think he gets much), Brandon Gibson (even minus Mark Clayton, Gibson won‘t get much) and Braylon Edwards (the latest victim in Meet the Champ (Bailey)).

TE- Visanthe Shiancoe, Jeremy Shcokey, Bo Scaife.

Now, let’s look at my predictions for all of Week 6. I was 9-5 last week. I can do better me thinks.

Atlanta 24, Philadelphia 17

Pittsburgh 24, Cleveland 9

Chicago 27, Seattle 13

Green Bay 24, Miami 17

New York Giants 28, Detroit 17

New Orleans 21, Tampa Bay 20

San Diego 38, St. Louis 16

Kansas City 24, Houston 17

Baltimore 24, New England 21

Oakland 27, San Francisco 24

New York Jets 28, Denver 17

Minnesota 27, Dallas 20

Indianapolis 30, Washington 24

Tennessee 31, Jacksonville 21

Check back Monday for the Monologue and then on Tuesday to see how the picks stacked up.

Thanks for reading.

Tuesday Night Monologue (10-12-2010)

2010-10-12T21:48:00.000-07:00

Greetings loyal subjects and welcome to the Monday Night Monologue (on a Tuesday). There’s a lot to get to tonight so I’m just gonna get right to it.

First of all, let me get to my fantasy football picks from this past weekend. A little accountability never hurt anyone.

Must starts that made me look good.

Tony Romo (406 yards / 3 TD / 3 INT)
Aaron Rodgers (293 yards / TD / INT / 30 rush yards)
Steven Jackson (114 yards / 1 rec. 12 yards)
Chris Johnson (131 yards / 2 TD)
Cedric Benson (144 yards / 2 rec. 19 yards)
Michael Turner (140 yards) - Would’ve liked a TD but I’ll take it.
Marques Colston (7 rec. 97 yards)
Roddy White (5 rec. 101 yards / TD)
Larry Fitzgerald (7 rec. 93 yards)
Reggie Wayne (6 rec. 75 yards)
Miles Austin (9 rec. 166 yards / TD)
Antonio Gates (5 rec. 92 yards / TD)
Zach Miller (6 rec. 62 yards / TD)
Vernon Davis (5 rec. 104 yards / TD)

Must starts that made me look bad

Drew Brees (279 yards / 2 TD / 3 INT)
Peyton Manning (244 yards / INT)
Matt Ryan (187 yards / TD / Fum)
Arian Foster (25 yards / 2 rec. 2 yards)
Maurice Jones-Drew (84 yards / 2 rec. 9 yards)
Mark Clayton (1 rec. 6 yards) - And done for the year
Jermichael Finley (0 rec.) - Got hurt early
Tony Gonzalez (5 rec. 41 yards)

Sits that made me look good

Mark Sanchez (191 yards / 0 TD)
Shonn Greene (57 yards / TD)
Legedu Naanee (0 rec.)
Anquan Boldin (1 rec. 8 yards)
Visanthe Shiancoe (2 rec. 28 yards)

Sits that made me look bad

Brett Favre (264 yards / 3 TD / INT)
Vince Young (173 yards / 2 TD)
Brandon Jackson (115 yards / 5 rec. 25 yards)
Michael Bush (104 yards / TD / 3 rec. 31 yards)
Mike Sims-Walker (4 rec. 46 yards / TD)
Marcedes Lewis (4 rec. 54 yards / 2 TD)
Kellen Winslow (6 rec. 75 yards)

Sleeper picks

Ryan Torain (40 rush yards / 4 rec. 27 yards)
Mike Tolbert (11 yards / TD / 2 rec. 24 yards)
Lee Evans (5 rec. 87 yards / TD)
Jermaine Gresham (4 rec. 24 yards / TD)

Not bad for my first week at publicly making picks. Be sure to tune in Saturday for this week’s picks. Moving on…

Here is your cheerleader of the week.

Congrats to the Texas Rangers for winning their first ever playoff series, finishing off the Tampa Bay Rays 5-1 in Game 5 of the ALDS. The Rangers now get the Yankees in the ALCS.

Atlanta’s Bobby Cox retired on Monday night when the San Francisco Giants ended the NLDS with a Game 4 victory over Atlanta. Fredi Gonzalez will take over the Braves. The Giants now move on to the NLCS to face Philadelphia.

Now for some football one-liners….

Brett Favre texted pics of his junk to some sideline hoochie who claims she didn’t want to have sex with No. 4, didn't want the pics and yet waited a year and a half to bring this to everyone's attention...just days before Favre and the Vikings came to the Meadowlands.

Would you send pics of your junk to this chick?

Can you get an STD through text message? Perhaps Favre has the right idea.

I'm beginning to think that the New York Football Giants are better than that Indy game made us think they were.

Jay Cutler is back this week. Seattle Seahawks fans everywhere are excited.

If Buffalo doesn’t beat Detroit in Week 10, they will go 0-16.

So, Alabama loses and drops to No. 8. Does anyone think they are actually the 8th best team in the country?

We are one step closer to having a BCS title game with Oregon and Boise State.

If Ohio State and Oregon each lose a game, we could be looking at a TCU/Boise State title game…..playoff anyone?

The Pac-12 is almost here. Looks like the two divisions will be: Arizona, Arizona State, USC, UCLA, Colorado, Utah / Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, Cal, Washington State, Washington.

Finally, the NBA and NHL pre-seasons have started to which I say…..eh. I am too into the MLB playoffs, NFL and NCAA seasons to even care a little about the NBA (I rarely care about the NHL). Sorry.

That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading.

The Sultan's Fantasy Football Fix (Week 5)

2010-10-09T19:26:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the first edition of the Sultan’s Saturday Fantasy Football Fix. Starting this week, I will run down the best and worst players for this week’s NFL games. The Sultan is here to help set your lineup and avoid a horrible tragic defeat.

I’ll also take a look at each individual game and help pick some winners, for those of you who like to waste money on that sort of thing.

But first, let's give the guys a taste of the real reason they love football so much.

Let’s get started with a look at a team that will destroy your team this week - unless it’s your team.

QB- Drew Brees (NO)
RB- Maurice Jones-Drew (JAC)
RB- Steven Jackson (STL)
WR- Marques Colston (NOS)
WR- Roddy White (ATL)
TE- Antonio Gates (SDC)
Flex- Cedric Benson

Of course, if this is your team, you cheated in the draft or you are in a three-team league. So here is a more reasonable team that will be tough to compete with this week (based on standard PPR, 10-team league).

QB- Tony Romo (DAL)
RB- Maurice Jones-Drew (JAC)
RB- Arian Foster (HOU)
WR- Marques Colston (NOS)
WR- Mark Clayton (STL)
TE- Zach Miller (OAK)
Flex- Ahmad Bradshaw (NYG)

Also must start QB‘s: Peyton Manning (always), Matt Ryan, Aaron Rodgers.

Sleeper QB- Shaun Hill (DET) gets his last start - for awhile - against the crappy Rams and Sam Bradford (STL) will be opposite of Hill. Both stand a chance to have big days.

More must start RB’s: Chris Johnson, Cedric Benson, Michael Turner.

Sleeper RB- Ryan Torain is the man in DC right now. Could do well against the Packers. Mike Tolbert has been stealing the San Diego spotlight from rookie Ryan Matthews. Both are good starts this week against Oakland but I think Tolbert gets more looks.

More must start WR’s: Larry Fitzgerald, Reggie Wayne, Miles Austin.

Sleeper WR- Lee Evans (BUF) should give the Bills fans something to get excited about as they face Jacksonville.

Must start TE’s: Jermichael Finley, Tony Gonzalez, Vernon Davis

Sleeper TE- Jermaine Gresham (CIN) may reap the benefits if TO and Ocho start getting extra attention.

DO NOT START! Here is a list of 3 at each position to sit down if you have them this week.

QB- Brett Favre, Mark Sanchez, Vince Young

RB- Shonn Greene, Brandon Jackson and any Oakland running back.

WR- Mike Sims-Walker (there’s only room for one stud hyphenated name on this team), Legedu Naanee, Anquan Boldin.

TE- Visanthe Shiancoe, Marcedes Lewis, Kellen Winslow.

Now, for another hot chick break. Don't you think? (There are a few this time so if you don't want like this sort of thing, I apologize, just keep scrolling...the picks are down there, I promise).

Now, let’s look at my predictions for all of Week 5.

Chicago 27, Carolina 20

Cincinnati 28, Tampa Bay 17

Detroit 31, St. Louis 27

Houston 31, New York Giants 24

Baltimore 24, Denver 21

Atlanta 35, Cleveland 13

Indianapolis 27, Kansas City 24

Jacksonville 17, Buffalo 14

Washington 27, Green Bay 24

New Orleans 31, Arizona 13

Dallas 24, Tennessee 17

San Diego 38, Oakland 21

Philadelphia 23, San Francisco 17

New York Jets 20, Minnesota 16

Check back Monday for the Monologue and then on Tuesday to see how the picks stacked up.

Thanks for reading.

Monday Night Monologue (10-04-2010)

2010-10-04T20:35:00.000-07:00

Greetings loyal subjects and welcome to the Monday Night Monologue. There’s a lot to get to tonight so I’m just gonna get right to it.

There’s been a lot of pissing and moaning about the fact that the Oregon Ducks jumped over Boise State in the latest AP college football Top-25 poll after Saturday’s 52-31 win over then-9th ranked Stanford.

Boise State won 59-0 over New Mexico State, but they might as well have been playing the New Mexico School of the Blind. Oregon leapfrogged the Broncos because they actually played a worthy opponent.

Thanks to pollspeak.com, I looked at the votes to see who in their right mind would give Boise State a first-place vote. Apparently, Pete DiPrimio of the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel believes that the Broncos are the No. 1 team in the land, with Oregon at No. 3.

I would expect something like that from the Boise sports writer, but Indiana? This guy needs to have his vote taken away immediately.

Moving on…time for some NFL one-liners.

Josh Scobee’s stork-like leg single-handedly put the Colts in a lot of trouble.

LaDainian Tomlinson found the fountain of youth. Now if he could just give some to Brett Favre.

The Steelers managed a 3-1 start without Big Ben, time to go on a 12-game winning streak.

New Orleans barely beat an abysmal Carolina team…at home. The post-Super Bowl letdown is in full effect.

Brett Favre managed to avoid throwing an interception this week.

Tony Romo managed to stay out of the news…watch out Tennessee.

I told you the Bears were using smoke and mirrors. Jay Cutler was on his back more than Paris Hilton. My wife, a big Cutler-hater, says “I wouldn’t trust him to throw me a party.” I love you honey.

The Seahawks beat the Chargers and then lost 20-3 to the Rams???!!! I told you they got lucky against San Diego.

Week 5 is a HORRIBLE week for NFL games. The most intriguing game is Green Bay and Washington….yikes.

And finally….

At the beginning of the MLB season, I made my annual predictions. I was updating you each week on the status of my predictions. Here are the final tallies categorized by how far off I was. The +/- indicates how many games I was off.

Holy crap I got it right! (+/- 0-4)

Atlanta: 91-71 (92-70, -1)
Arizona: 65-97 (67-95, -2)
Philadelphia: 97-65 (99-63, -2)
Minnesota: 94-68 (91-71, +3)
Kansas City: 67-95 (70-92, -3)
Milwaukee: 77-85 (80-82, -3)
Florida: 80-82 (83-79, -3)

Close, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades (+/- 5-9)

San Francisco: 92-70 (87-75, +5)
New York (NL): 79-83 (72-90, +7)
St. Louis: 86-76 (93-69, -7)
Detroit: 81-81 (73-89, +8)
Tampa Bay: 96-66 (87-75, +9)
Cleveland: 69-93 (60-102, +9)
Cincinnati: 91-71 (82-80, +9)

Just….a bit outside (+/- 10-14)

Houston: 76-86 (66-96, +10)
Oakland: 81-81 (70-92, +11)
Colorado: 83-79 (94-68, -11)
Los Angeles (NL): 80-82 (91-71, -11)
Los Angeles (AL): 80-82 (92-70, -12)
New York (AL): 95-67 (108-54, -13)
Pittsburgh: 57-105 (70-92, -13)
Boston: 89-73 (103-59, -14)
Washington: 69-93 (55-107, +14)
Chicago: 75-87 (89-73, -14)

Not even close (+/- 15-19)

San Diego: 90-72 (75-87, +15)
Baltimore: 66-96 (82-80, -16)
Chicago: 88-74 (71-91, +17)
Texas: 90-72 (72-90, +18)

WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING? (+/- 20+)

Toronto: 85-77 (64-98, +21) - They caught a lot of people off guard this year.
Seattle: 61-101 (87-75, -26) - Some people picked the Mariners to win the World Series this year. I didn’t even have them making the playoffs but this was ridiculous.

How the award picks turned out.

AL Cy Young: Felix Hernandez (34 GS, 13-12, 2.27, 232 K, 6CG, 1 SHO) - He led the league in ERA, was 2nd in the league in strikeouts (Jered Weaver had 233 but unlike Felix, Weaver’s manager let him make his final start). Felix has a lot of support from many writers. I think he ends up getting it despite the 13-12 record.

Who will win: Felix Hernandez would’ve gone 27-4 with the Yankees run support. The team scored 13 runs in his 12 losses. They scored 18 runs while he was on the mound in his nine no-decisions. C.C. Sabathia may have won 21 games but his 3.18 ERA is almost an entire run higher than that of Felix’s. King Felix should win.

NL Cy Young: Roy Halladay (33 GS, 21-10, 2.44, 219 K, 9 CG, 4 SHO)- Halladay had a rough patch mid-season, but so did the Phillies. He and St. Louis’ Adam Wainwright were the league’s only 20-game winners. Halladay was 3rd in ERA behind Florida’s Josh Johnson (2.30) and Wainwright (2.42). Halladay was 2nd in strikeouts behind Tim Lincecum (231).

Who will win: Wainwirght and Halladay will split votes due to their similar seasons. The edge may go to Halladay because the Phillies are in the playoffs and the Cardinals are not. Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez could sneak in there too. But I think Halladay gets it.

AL MVP: Joe Mauer (.327, 9 HR, 75 RBI) - Mauer finished 3rd in the league in batting average despite playing in only 136 games this season. His power numbers were down from last year (28 HR last year) but he was still a valuable component to the AL Central champ Twins. But he’s not gonna win this year.

Who will win: Jose Bautista will get some votes for his year (54 HR, 121 RBI) but his .260 average and the fact that the Blue Jays finished 4th in their division will hurt him. Josh Hamilton (.359, 32 HR, 100 RBI) led the league in batting average and led the Rangers to their first AL West title since 1999. He will win.

NL MVP: Albert Pujols (.312, 42 HR, 118 RBI)- Pujols had another banner year. His average was down a bit from previous years but it was still good enough for 5th in the NL while leading the Senior Circuit in both homers and RBI.

Who will win: While I won’t argue if the writers give it to Pujols, I feel the real winner is Cincinnati’s Joey Votto. Votto (.324, 37 HR, 113 RBI) finished 2nd in the league in average, 3rd in homers and 3rd in RBI while leading the Reds to their first postseason since 1995. I think Votto will get it but I won’t be surprised either way.

AL ROY: Brian Matusz (32 GS, 10-12, 4.30, 143 K) - A lot like Hernandez, Matusz suffered because of the fact that he played for such a dismal team. But, he finished strong, winning his last six decisions. He led the Orioles in strikeouts and looks like he’ll be ace material in a few years.

Who will win: The Rangers Neftali Feliz (4-3, 2.73) burst onto the scene and was a key part in the Rangers AL West title. Feliz converted 40 of his 43 save opportunities and held opponents to a .176 average.

NL ROY: Jason Heyward (.277, 18 HR, 72 RBI) - Full disclaimer: Heyward gets my vote because I’m a huge Braves fan. But look at the numbers, he earned it. Unfortunately, this a crowded field of really good rookies who all deserve it.

Who will win: San Francisco’s Buster Posey has similar power numbers as Heyward (18 HR, 67 RBI) but had a higher average (.305). Florida’s Gaby Sanchez had a lower average (.273) but led the rookie class in RBI (85). Fellow Marlin Mike Stanton led the rookies in HR (22) but had a .259 average.

On the mound, the Cardinals’ Jaime Garcia went 13-8 with a 2.70 ERA. Atlanta’s Jonny Venters had 24 holds and 93 strikeouts with a 1.95 ERA in 79 appearances. The Reds’ Mike Leake and the Nationals’ Stephen Strasberg had their seasons shut down early and that should eliminate them from consideration. I still vote for Heyward, but I think Posey gets it.

That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading.

Tuesday Night Monologue (09-28-2010)

2010-09-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

I know it’s not Monday, but I spent the better part of yesterday dealing with a bout of food poisoning and didn’t feel like sitting at the computer. So today, I bring you the Monday Monologue on a Tuesday. Here’s what is rattling around my head this week.

The annual MLB Hunt for October is in full swing (pun intended). The Texas Rangers have clinched the AL West, the Minnesota Twins have clinched the AL Central, the Cincinnati Reds have clinched the NL Central and the Philadelphia Phillies have clinched the NL East.

Well, we know it will be the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL, but who goes in as the AL East champ and who goes as the Wild-Card is still to be decided. The only races left are the NL wild-card and NL West.

I’m here to tell you right now, it’s gonna be the Phillies and the Yankees in the World Series. Yup, seen that one before. Personally, I’m rooting for the Braves and Twins (rematch of 1991) but I am a Braves fan, I’ll take the Braves vs. anyone.

Speaking of the Braves, they picked a great time to slip on the top step of the dugout and tumble back into mediocrity. The Phillies won 11 in a row and the Braves were too busy losing to the Nationals (4 out of 6 times) and getting swept by the Phillies (part of their 11 straight) to realize that they had lost their grip on the NL East and then the wild-card.

The Braves have recovered to regain the wild-card lead, but have to hold off the Padres/Giants (whoever loses the NL West chase) for the next five days. The Braves end the 2010 season with three against the Phillies - who will be resting starters - so that bodes well for Atlanta.

The award races are coming to an end as well and there has been a lot of support being thrown at Seattle Mariners ace Felix Hernandez for the Cy Young, despite a record of 13-12 (with one start remaining).

Let me join the bandwagon and say that if anyone deserves an “individual” award while playing for such a horrible team, it’s King Felix. Hernandez has the worst run support of any No. 1 starter and possibly of anyone period. The Mariners are on pace to be the worst offensive team in modern history. Check out this article by ESPN.com’s David Schoenfield, it says it all.

I think it’s time for a picture of a hot chick.

Switching to football…the Chicago Bears, Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs are 3-0. Last year, the Indianapolis Colts, New Orleans Saints, Baltimore Ravens, New York Giants, New York Jets, Minnesota Vikings and Denver Broncos were all 3-0.

The Chiefs were 0-3 at this point last year. This season, the Detroit Lions, Carolina Panthers, San Francisco 49’ers, Buffalo Bills and Cleveland Browns are still searching for that first win.

There are still a lot of questions a lot of teams are asking themselves going into the fourth week of the young season. It’s hard to get a grip on what any team is going to actually be this season. The things that I have gathered from the first three weeks are….

The Steelers are good and will go 14-2, possibly even 15-1.

The Eagles under Michael Vick will win 10 or 11 games.

The Bears are using smoke and mirrors. They will finish 8-8 and miss the playoffs.

The Vikings didn’t get the same-old Brett Favre, they just got OLD Brett Favre.

The Falcons will go deep into the playoffs and may even make the Super Bowl.

The Seahawks only beat San Diego because of Leon Washington…otherwise, they suck.

I don’t care that the Texans lost to the Cowboys, Houston is the better team.

My picks for the playoffs after Week 3 are….

NFC

1. Philadelphia
2. Atlanta
3. Green Bay
4. Seattle
5. New Orleans
6. Dallas

NFC title game: Atlanta vs. Philadelphia

AFC

1. Pittsburgh
2. New York Jets
3. Indianapolis
4. San Diego
5. Kansas City
6. Tennessee

AFC title game: Pittsburgh vs. Indianapolis

Super Bowl: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh

How about one last pic of a hot chick, huh?

Finally….

At the beginning of the MLB season, I made my annual predictions. I was updating you each week on the status of my predictions. It has been a while but here we go with the latest update. Listed is the current record followed by my prediction and the record they need the rest of the way to get it. The +/- indicates how many games I was off.

AL East

Tampa Bay: 94-63 (87-75, +7)
New York: 94-64 (108-54, -10)
Boston: 87-69 (103-59, -10)
Toronto: 81-76 (64-98, +17)
Baltimore: 62-95 (82-80, -15)

AL Central

Minnesota: 92-65 (91-71, +1)
Chicago: 83-73 (71-91, +12)
Detroit: 80-76 (73-89, +7)
Cleveland: 66-91 (60-102, +6)
Kansas City: 65-92 (70-92, 5-0) - C’mon, let’s get a winning streak

AL West

Texas: 87-70 (72-90, +15)
Oakland: 77-79 (70-92, +7)
Los Angeles: 76-80 (92-70, -10)
Seattle: 61-96 (87-75, -21) - Worst offense of the past 100 years.

Cy Young: Felix Hernandez (34 GS, 13-12, 2.27, 232 K, 6CG, 1 SHO) - He’d be 27-5 on almost any other team.

MVP: Joe Mauer (.331, 9 HR, 74 RBI) - Picked wrong Twin.

ROY: Brian Matusz (31 GS, 9-12, 4.40, 134 K) - started off so promising.

NL East

Philadelphia: 94-64 (99-63, -1)
Atlanta: 89-69 (92-70, 3-1)
New York: 77-79 (72-90, +5)
Florida: 77-80 (83-79, -1)
Washington: 68-90 (55-107, +13)

NL Central

Cincinnati: 88-69 (82-80, +6)
St. Louis: 81-76 (93-69, -7)
Houston: 74-83 (66-96, +8)
Milwaukee: 73-83 (80-82, -1)
Chicago: 71-85 (89-73, -12)
Pittsburgh: 56-101 (70-92, -9) - Congrats on an 18th consecutive losing season.

NL West

San Francisco: 88-68 (87-75, +1)
San Diego: 87-69 (75-87, +12)
Colorado: 83-73 (94-68, -5)
Los Angeles: 76-81 (91-71, -10)
Arizona: 64-92 (67-95, 3-3)- WOOHOO! I may get one!

Cy Young: Roy Halladay (33 GS, 21-10, 2.44, 219 K, 9 CG, 4 SHO)- Lookin like a good pick.

MVP: Albert Pujols (.313, 42 HR, 117 RBI)- Either him or Joey Votto.

ROY: Jason Heyward (.279, 18 HR, 71 RBI)

See you next Monday with my MLB season-ending spectacular and playoff preview. Thanks for reading.

The Monday Monologue on a Wednesday

2010-08-25T19:47:00.000-07:00

Greeting loyal subjects and welcome to the Sultan of Squat’s Monday Monologue…..on a Wednesday. Things were a little hectic the last few days so I’m getting to it a little late. So without delay, here we go.

First off….

Lou Piniella called it a career this past week. The 66-year old Piniella (who turns 67 on Saturday) had already announced that this would his last season, but called it early to tend to his ailing mother. And let’s face it, the fact that the Cubs are what they are probably didn’t complicate his decision much.

Piniella’s storied career as a player and manager even had a stop in my backyard, Portland, Oregon as a Beaver from 1966-1968. It seems ironic that this is the last year for the Beavers in Portland as well.

Mr. Piniella, I wish your retirement began under better circumstances (both personally with your mother and professionally as it would’ve been fitting for you to get the Cubs their first World Series title in 102 years) but I wish you the best.

Moving on….

Speaking of the Portland Beavers, they are in fact leaving Portland after this season. The Beavers have been forced out of their home (PGE Park, formerly Civic Stadium) by the 2011 expansion Portland Timbers MLS franchise.

Yes, baseball has been kicked out for….wait for it….soccer. For years, the Timbers (a minor league soccer franchise) and the Beavers (currently the Triple-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres) have been sharing PGE Park. But the conditions set forth by MLS for awarding Portland with an expansion franchise was that the park be converted into a soccer-only stadium.

Several half-assed efforts to move the team, while keeping it in the Portland area, failed. The most promising of those efforts was to move the team to the suburb of Beaverton (home of Nike) but it was squashed by Beavers and Timbers owner Merritt Paulson who said there just wasn’t enough time to get something in place.

Because doing nothing is apparently better than doing something.

I was at PGE Park last week for what will more than likely be my final game there (I WILL NOT attend a single MLS game there). As one of the founding members of the Pacific Coast League in 1903, I can only help that something can be done to bring minor-league baseball back to Portland in the near future.

Now for some tidbits….

Brett Favre is back….did he really ever leave?

Tiger’s divorce is final….maybe now he can disappear.

Another no-hit bid broken up in the 9th inning. That makes 10 this season that made it to the 9th.

Back to Brett Favre, now that he’s back….will he have anyone to throw it to?

Finally….

At the beginning of the MLB season, I made my annual predictions. I was updating you each week on the status of my predictions. It has been a while but here we go with the latest update. Listed is the current record followed by my prediction and the record they need the rest of the way to get it.

Thanks for reading.

AL East

New York: 78-48 (108-54, 30-6)
Tampa Bay: 78-49 (87-75, 9-26)
Boston: 73-54 (103-59, 30-5)
Toronto: 65-60 (64-98, +1) - The first casualty of the season.
Baltimore: 45-82 (82-80, -2) - Didn’t take long to get another one.

AL Central

Minnesota: 72-54 (91-71, 19-17)
Chicago: 68-58 (71-91, 3-33) - Picked the wrong Chicago team to be a train wreck
Detroit: 63-64 (73-89, 10-25)
Kansas City: 54-73 (70-92, 16-19)
Cleveland: 50-75 (60-102, 10-27)

AL West

Texas: 71-54 (72-90, 1-36) - Don’t think I’m gonna hit this one.
Oakland: 62-62 (70-92, 8-30)
Los Angeles: 63-65 (92-70, 29-5)
Seattle: 49-77 (87-75, -2)

Cy Young: Felix Hernandez (27 GS, 9-10, 2.51, 183 K, 5CG, 1 SHO) - He’d be 20-3 on almost any other team.

MVP: Joe Mauer (.329, 8 HR, 66 RBI) - Picked wrong Twin

ROY: Brian Matusz (26 GS, 6-12, 4.79, 111 K) - started off so promising

NL East

Atlanta: 73-54 (92-70, 19-16)
Philadelphia: 70-55 (99-63, 29-8)
New York: 63-63 (72-90, 9-27)
Florida: 63-62 (83-79, 20-17)
Washington: 53-73 (55-107, 2-34)

NL Central

Cincinnati: 73-54 (82-80, 9-26)
St. Louis: 68-55 (93-69, 25-14)
Milwaukee: 59-66 (80-82, 21-16)
Houston: 56-69 (66-96, 10-27)
Chicago: 53-74 (89-73, -1)
Pittsburgh: 42-84 (70-92, 28-8) - Congrats on an 18th consecutive losing season.

NL West

San Diego: 75-49 (75-87, 0-38) - Can a team go on a 38-game losing streak?
San Francisco: 71-57 (87-75, 16-18)
Colorado: 66-60 (94-68, 28-8)
Los Angeles: 64-62 (91-71, 27-9)
Arizona: 49-77 (67-95, 18-18)

Cy Young: Roy Halladay (27 GS, 16-9, 2.22, 186 K, 8 CG, 3 SHO)

MVP: Albert Pujols (.322, 33 HR, 92 RBI)

ROY: Jason Heyward (.266, 14 HR, 57 RBI)

Monday Night Monologue (08-09-2010)

2010-08-09T22:10:00.000-07:00

Greetings loyal subjects and welcome to the Sultan of Squat’s Monday Monologue. Thank you for the emails regarding last week’s entry. I’m glad you are enjoying my return to the blogosphere. Let’s cut right to the chase and get to the rant.

First off….

The Seattle Mariners fired manager Don Wakamatsu earlier today. Let me just go on record as saying, FINALLY!

But it’s only a start. Wakamatsu really wasn’t the problem, but when a team is struggling the way the M’s have done this season (30th out of 30 in hits, team batting average, home runs and RBI), the Skipper takes the heat first. Who really needs to feel the heat is GM Jack Zduriencik and the leadership group of CEO Howard Lincoln and President Chuck Armstrong.

It was Zduriencik, who just last week stated publicly that he had full confidence in Wakamatsu. But all of a sudden, after completing their first series win since June 29-July 1, Zduriencik had this to say about his manager, “The truth of the matter is, I have lost confidence that Don, Ty (Van Burkleo, bench coach) and Rick (Adair, pitching coach) are the best long-term fits for us this season and as we move forward. New leadership is needed and it is needed now.”

WTF?! Someone upstairs prepared that statement for him which means Zduriencik is just a puppet. Ladies and gentleman, I give you Jack Zduriencik - Corporate Tool.

It wasn’t Wakamatsu who went out and got Milton Bradley (.205, 8 HR, $11 million), Chone Figgins (.254, 47 R, $8.5 million), Ryan Langerhans (.206, 3 HR), Casey Kotchman (.215, 7 HR), Eric Byrnes (.094, 15 games, retired), Mike Sweeney (.259, 6 HR) and Russell Branyan (.200 since being traded back to the M’s) not once…but twice.

Zduriencik traded away top prospects for Cliff Lee and then traded him to a division rival for the highly-coveted Justin Smoak (recently demoted to Triple-A Tacoma), a bag of peanuts and a one-way ticket out of town.

Wakamatsu is a good guy and will more than likely find another job and have a long career as an MLB manager. He will most certainly be a candidate for both the Braves and Cubs openings this winter.

But in the meantime, his departure from Seattle was a necessary move, but not the only necessary move. Hopefully, the ownership group decides to hit the reset button on the entire leadership staff in the near future.

Moving on….

Tiger is falling, failing, flailing and I am loving every minute of it. Don’t get me wrong, I never want to see someone fail, struggle or come across a string of bad luck the way Tiger has. That is, unless you are an arrogant, selfish, narcissistic, self-loathing, lying sack of dog $#!T, such as Mr. Woods is. I hope his fall from grace continues and takes a long, LONG time.

Moving on….

The NFL Hall of Fame game was on last night. Can you believe it’s time for football already? Between college and the NFL (preseason, regular season and playoffs), there will be football on every weekend from now until Sunday February 6, 2011 - Super Bowl Sunday.

Finally….

At the beginning of the MLB season, I made my annual predictions. I was updating you each week on the status of my predictions. It has been a while but here we go with the latest update. Listed is the current record followed by my prediction and the record they need the rest of the way to get it.

AL East

New York: 69-42 (108-54, 39-12)
Tampa Bay: 68-44 (87-75, 19-31) - It’s like they heard me ask them to lose.
Boston: 64-49 (103-59, 39-10)
Toronto: 59-52 (64-98, 5-46)
Baltimore: 38-74 (82-80, 44-6)

AL Central

Chicago: 63-49 (71-91, 8-42)
Minnesota: 63-49 (91-71, 28-22)
Detroit: 54-58 (73-89, 19-31)
Kansas City: 47-65 (70-92, 23-27)
Cleveland: 47-65 (60-102, 13-37)

AL West

Texas: 64-47 (72-90, 8-43) - Don’t think I’m gonna hit this one.
Oakland: 56-55 (70-92, 14-37)
Los Angeles: 57-57 (92-70, 35-13)
Seattle: 43-70 (87-75, 44-5)

Cy Young: Felix Hernandez (24 GS, 7-9, 2.94, 152 K, 5CG, 1 SHO) - Gets no run support.
MVP: Joe Mauer (.322, 6 HR, 59 RBI)
ROY: Brian Matusz (23 GS, 4-11, 5.08, 98 K) - started off so promising

NL East

Atlanta: 64-48 (92-70, 38-22)
Philadelphia: 62-49 (99-63, 37-24)
New York: 55-56 (72-90, 17-34)
Florida: 54-56 (83-79, 29-23)
Washington: 49-63 (55-107, 6-44)

NL Central

Cincinnati: 64-49 (82-80, 18-32)
St. Louis: 62-49 (93-69, 31-20)
Milwaukee: 53-60 (80-82, 27-22)
Houston: 48-63 (66-96, 18-33)
Chicago: 47-64 (89-73, 42-9)
Pittsburgh: 39-72 (70-92, 31-20)

NL West

San Diego: 64-46 (75-87, 11-41)
San Francisco: 63-49 (87-75, 24-28)
Colorado: 58-53 (94-68, 36-15)
Los Angeles: 58-54 (91-71, 33-17)
Arizona: 44-69 (67-95, 23-26)

Cy Young: Roy Halladay (24 GS, 14-8, 2.34, 168 K, 8 CG, 3 SHO)
MVP: Albert Pujols (.313, 28 HR, 83 RBI)
ROY: Jason Heyward (.262, 12 HR, 51 RBI)

That's it for this week. Thanks for visiting and feel free to agree, disagree, compliment and insult in the comment section.

Thanks for reading.

Monday Monologue (August 2, 2010)

2010-08-02T22:58:00.000-07:00

First off, I want to thank all of you who have come back and taken the time to read my little blog. I have been extremely busy with the family over the past few months. Moving my family back to my hometown and all the chaos that has gone with it has taken up the majority of my free time.

But now, things are settling and I am back and ready to force my opinions on you. For now, I am going to bring you two posts a week. On Fridays, I will bring you the Friday Film Review. And on Mondays, starting right now, I bring you the Monday Night Monologue.

New York Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis is a holdout as training camp gets underway. The All-Pro corner is under contract for $1 million this season but has said that he wants “50 cents more” than Oakland’s Nnamdi Asomugha -- the league's highest paid cornerback, who will make more than $16 million each of the next two seasons.

Look, I understand that the NFL has this contract advantage over its players that the MLB doesn’t. Most players don’t have a lot of guaranteed money and many contracts can be torn up and thrown out if an injury occurs.

But let’s be honest… Asomugha’s contract is ridiculous because the Raiders gave it to him. Much like the Yankees, the Raiders over pay for ALL of their players, except they don’t get the results the Yanks do.

Revis says he can’t control what the Raiders do. That Asomugha’s contract “set the bar”. If Revis had any sense - and clearly he doesn’t - he would comprehend that he has a much better chance at a Super Bowl title than Asomugha does and just get a deal done and GET INTO CAMP!

Look Beavis…err…Revis, the Jets can’t do this without you, that’s why you are holding out. But you need to stop being so freaking selfish and realize that what you really want is that ring…and you won’t get it if you force the team to go bankrupt just to keep you happy. Which is more important? The money? Or the ring? Stop being a butthead.

Moving on….

Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen is in the news again. Go figure. This time he is catching fire for comments he made claiming that Asian players were treated better than Latin players.

Guillen was quoted as saying, “Don’t take this wrong, but they take advantage of us. We bring a Japanese player and they are very good and they bring all these privileges to them. We bring a Dominican kid and say ‘Fuck you, you go to the minor leagues, good luck.’ And it’s always going to be like that. It’s never going to change. But that’s the way it is.”

First of all, let me say…he is absolutely right. Major League Baseball has been given a never-ending crop of young talented players from Latin countries and most of them aren’t even afforded a simple translator to help them communicate with their teammates.

Most of the players that come to America from Japan have played in the Japanese Major League, which is for more competitive and talented than any league in the Dominican, Venezuela, Mexico,
etc.

And that is why most times, Japanese and Korean players come straight to the majors while Latin players work their way through the minors. But there does appear to be a double-standard, even for those Latin players who are good enough to break right into the majors yet toil in the minors for years.

As for the interpreters, some people argue that because there are so many Latin players in the league, that there is always someone who knows enough English to help out another player. How do we know? Why is it that after 10 years in Seattle, Ichiro Suzuki still needs an interpreter in the clubhouse with him at all times? He hasn’t learned even enough English to hold simple conversations with his teammates?

Look, like usual, Ozzie makes a valid point. He just chooses to be so over-the-top, so loud and annoying that it almost counteracts the message he was trying to deliver.

On the lighter side….

New York Yankee outfielder Nick Swisher pitched a shutout inning last season, near the end of a blowout loss to the Rays. The highlight of the inning was a strikeout of Gabe Kapler.

On Thursday, Swisher found himself on the other end of that highlight as Indian infielder Andy Marte pitched a perfect ninth including a strikeout of Swisher. “I now have a new most embarrassing moment,” Swisher said, taking the line from Kapler after Swisher struck him out last season.

But Swisher was quick to point out that he and Marte both have a lifetime ERA of 0.00.

From the video vault….. I saw this on ESPN’s Sportsnation on Friday and thought it was pretty cool. You have to get past the first few to get to the pool hoops kids but it’s worth the wait.

Finally…. At the beginning of the MLB season, I made my annual predictions. I was updating you each week on the status of my predictions. It has been a while but here we go with the latest update.

Listed is the current record followed by my prediction and the record they need the rest of the way to get it.

AL East

Tampa Bay: 66-39 (87-75, 21-36)
New York: 66-39 (108-54, 42-15)
Boston: 60-46 (103-59, 43-13)
Toronto: 55-51 (64-98, 9-47) - Freaking overachievers!
Baltimore: 32-73 (82-80, 50-7) - Freaking underachievers!

AL Central

Chicago: 59-45 (71-91, 12-46)
Minnesota: 59-47 (91-71, 32-24)
Detroit: 52-52 (73-89, 21-37)
Kansas City: 45-61 (70-92, 25-31)
Cleveland: 45-61 (60-102, 15-41)

AL West

Texas: 61-44 (72-90, 11-46)
Oakland: 53-52 (70-92, 17-40)
Los Angeles: 54-53 (92-70, 38-17)
Seattle: 39-67 (87-75, 48-8)

Cy Young: Felix Hernandez (23 GS, 7-8, 2.90, 149 K, 5CG, 1 SHO)
MVP: Joe Mauer (.313, 6 HR, 53 RBI)
ROY: Brian Matusz (21 GS, 3-11, 5.46, 91 K) - started off so promising

NL East

Atlanta: 60-45 (92-70, 42-25)
Philadelphia: 57-48 (99-63, 42-15)
Florida: 53-52 (83-79, 30-27)
New York: 53-53 (72-90, 19-37)
Washington: 47-59 (55-107, 8-48)

NL Central

Cincinnati: 60-47 (82-80, 22-33)
St. Louis: 59-47 (93-69, 34-22)
Milwaukee: 49-58 (80-82, 31-24)
Houston: 46-59 (66-96, 20-37)
Chicago: 46-60 (89-73, 43-13)
Pittsburgh: 36-69 (70-92, 34-23)

NL West

San Diego: 62-42 (75-87, 13-45)
San Francisco: 61-45 (87-75, 26-32)
Colorado: 55-50 (94-68, 39-18)
Los Angeles: 54-52 (91-71, 37-19)
Arizona: 39-67 (67-95, 28-28)

Cy Young: Roy Halladay (22 GS, 12-8, 2.21, 149 K, 8 CG, 3 SHO)
MVP: Albert Pujols (.300, 26 HR, 75 RBI)
ROY: Jason Heyward (.268, 11 HR, 50 RBI)

That's all for tonight. Thanks for reading.

Sunday Funday

2010-05-23T19:18:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted something on here. And for those of you who have been reading, I apologize. To completely sum up the past three weeks would be difficult. But the basic facts are this:

- I was dealing with my father, who has a blood clot in his leg. Doesn't seem like it was anything serious but those things can always turn into something more serious.

- I also had an Uncle (my father's brother) who was dealing with some personal struggles and needed to seek help.

- At work, hours cuts and intense scrutiny have been the rule of thumb, creating a hostile work environment where no one likes to be.

- And finally, we were in the middle of trying to find a place to move this summer, with all of the craziness that goes along with that.

I am happy to report (as those of you who follow me on Facebook already know) that we have found a house back in my hometown and we are moving the middle of next month.

That is about the only thing that has changed, but one thing at a time right?

So, I thought I'd try to get back to writing. So here are a few random thoughts that are running around my brain.

RIP Jose Lima

Former Major League pitcher Jose Lima was in full cardiac arrest when paramedics arrived at his home in Pasadena, California early Sunday morning. Lima wasn't a hall of fame pitcher (89-102, 5.26 ERA) but he was a hall of fame character. He was very passionate and emotional on the mound, pumping his fist and yelling (sometimes into his glove and sometimes not).

I will always remember Lima for his self-proclaimed "Lima Time", the mood of fun and laughter that he brought with him to six big league teams over 13 seasons.

He was a 21-game winner and an NL All-Star in 1999 with the Houston Astros and was widely recognized as a rising star.

His death has been reported early on as a massive heart attack. An autopsy is pending.

Summer Movie Season

The 2010 summer movie season is here and the first big release was Iron Man 2. The movie was far better than I expected it to be but still fell short of other superhero sequels (Spiderman 2, X-Men 2 and Dark Knight).

I also saw Just Wright, starring Queen Latifah and Common. It was a good movie about a NBA star (Common) and his physical therapist (Latifah). It is a new twist on a classic love story and was pretty well-written. My wife and I both thought that the sex scene was extremely tame and therefore lame but otherwise, it was worth the price of admission.

The next big thing on the horizon for our family is The Last Airbender, which is based on Nickelodeon's widely popular cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender. This movie comes out on 4th of July weekend and we will be one of the first in line to see it.

MLB Prediction accountability

It's been almost two months since the 2010 MLB season started. So how are the predictions doing? Here are the latest numbers. Records listed as of games played through 5-23-10. Listed in order of prediction/actual record/record needed the rest of the season to get predictions.

AL East

Tampa Bay: 32-12 (87-75, 55-63)
New York: 26-18 (108-54, 82-36)
Toronto: 26-20 (64-98, 38-78) - they can STOP winning now
Boston: 24-21 (103-59, 79-38) - they can START winning now
Baltimore: 14-31 (82-80, 68-49)

AL Central

Minnesota: 26-18 (91-71, 65-53)
Detroit: 25-19 (73-89, 48-70)
Chicago: 18-25 (71-91, 53-66)
Kansas City: 18-27 (70-92, 52-65)
Cleveland: 16-26 (60-102, 44-76)

AL West

Texas: 25-20 (72-90, 47-70)
Oakland: 23-22 (70-92, 47-70)
Los Angeles: 21-25 (92-70, 71-45) - what a disappointing start
Seattle: 16-28 (87-75, 71-47) - what a disappointing start part 2

Cy Young: Felix Hernandez (10 GS, 2-3, 3.80, 58 K, CG)
MVP: Joe Mauer (.346, 2 HR, 21 RBI)
ROY: Brian Matusz (9 GS, 2-4, 5.26, 41 K)

NL East

Philadelphia: 26-17 (99-63, 73-46)
Atlanta: 23-21 (92-70, 69-49)
Florida: 23-22 (83-79, 60-57)
Washington: 23-22 (55-107, 33-85) - STOP WINNING!
New York: 22-23 (72-90, 50-67)

NL Central

St. Louis: 26-19 (93-69, 66-50)
Cincinnati: 25-19 (82-80, 57-61)
Chicago: 21-24 (89-73, 68-49)
Pittsburgh: 19-25 (70-92, 51-67)
Milwaukee: 17-27 (80-82, 63-55)
Houston: 15-29 (66-96, 51-67)

NL West

San Diego: 26-18 (75-87, 49-69)
Los Angeles: 25-19 (91-71, 66-52)
San Francisco: 22-21 (87-75, 65-54)
Colorado: 22-22 (94-68, 72-46)
Arizona: 20-25 (67-95, 47-70)

Cy Young: Roy Halladay (10 GS, 6-3, 2.22, 59 K, 4 CG, 2 SHO)
MVP: Albert Pujols (.303, 8 HR, 29 RBI)
ROY: Jason Heyward (.290, 9 HR, 33 RBI)

I know there are other things I want to talk about, but for now...that's all I have time for. Hope all of you are finding yourselves in happy times, and if not, just hang in there. Life changes in an instant.

Thanks for reading.

MLB accountability

2010-05-10T17:10:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, things are definitely better here lately. I can catch you all up over the next week as I am on vacation from Pony Express and have some free time.

I am looking forward to some movie reviews (just saw Iron Man 2) as well as writing just for the sake of writing. But for right now, in keeping with the theme of accountability, and to toot my own horn, here are the latest numbers from my 2010 MLB predictions.

Records are as of games played through 5-09-10

AL East

Tampa Bay: 22-9 (87-75, 65-66)
New York: 21-9 (108-54, 87-45)
Toronto: 19-14 (64-98, 43-84)
Boston: 16-16 (103-59, 87-43)
Baltimore: 9-23 (82-80, 73-57)

AL Central

Minnesota: 21-11 (91-71, 70-60)
Detroit: 17-14 (73-89, 56-75)
Chicago: 13-19 (71-91, 58-72)
Cleveland: 11-18 (60-102, 49-84)
Kansas City: 11-21 (70-92, 59-71)

AL West

Texas: 18-14 (72-90, 54-76)
Oakland: 17-15 (70-92, 53-77)
Los Angeles: 14-19 (92-70, 78-51)
Seattle: 12-19 (87-75, 75-56)

Cy Young: Felix Hernandez (7 GS, 2-3, 4.30, 39 K, CG)
MVP: Joe Mauer (.341, 1 HR, 13 RBI)
ROY: Brian Matusz (7 GS, 2-3, 4.91, 33 K)

NL East

Philadelphia: 19-12 (99-63, 80-51)
New York: 17-14 (72-90, 55-76)
Washington: 17-14 (55-107, 38-93)
Florida: 14-17 (83-79, 69-62)
Atlanta: 13-18 (92-70, 79-52)

NL Central

St. Louis: 20-12 (93-69, 73-57)
Cincinnati: 16-15 (82-80, 66-65)
Milwaukee: 15-16 (80-82, 65-66)
Pittsburgh: 14-17 (70-92, 56-75)
Chicago: 14-18 (89-73, 75-55)
Houston: 10-21 (66-96, 56-75)

NL West

San Diego: 19-12 (75-87, 56-75)
San Francisco: 18-12 (87-75, 69-63)
Colorado: 15-16 (94-68, 79-50)
Los Angeles: 14-17 (91-71, 77-54)
Arizona: 14-18 (67-95, 53-77)

Cy Young: Roy Halladay (7 GS, 6-1, 1.45, 48 K, 3 CG, 2 SHO) - He's walked 7 guys in 7 games.
MVP: Albert Pujols (.314, 7 HR, 25 RBI)
ROY: Jason Heyward (.291, 8 HR, 26 RBI)

Thanks for reading. See you soon.

A light at the end of a long tunnel

2010-05-02T20:05:00.000-07:00

One of the great things about having a blog is that you can just write about whatever is on your mind. If people are really interested in reading about it, they will read the whole thing. I can always tell by the comments I get whether someone actually read a particular post or not.

I don't particularly care if people who comment read the whole thing or not....I like comments regardless. But that brings me back to my main point, I can write about whatever I want....no one is making you read it. I hope though, that if you read this whole thing today, it's because....I don't even know where I am going with this...that's how messed up my head has been this week.

It all started when my father called me to tell me that he has a blood clot in his leg and had to spend hours at the hospital, getting poked and prodded before finally being sent home with a shot he must administer every day until the clot passes (hopefully in bits and pieces so it doesn't clog his lungs).

Then a few days later, my Uncle - Dad's brother - had some personal issues. Out of respect to my Uncle and his family I will not go into great detail about it. But he returned from Afghanistan (as a contractor) recently and has been dealing with some deep-seeded psychological traumas.

We are also in the process of preparing to move after spending the last 6 years in our home - surpassing the longest I've ever lived in one place by 6 months. Any of these things on their own merit, I would be able to handle over time. But to deal with all of them at once so quickly, I have been spiraling into a deep depression that I have been desperately trying to avoid. It's affecting my attitude with my kids, my eating habits, my sleeping and my computer time (less blogging and having fun, more mindless games to pass time).

Hopefully, opening up to anyone here who may read this will help me "get my words out" so to speak.

My father is only 58 years old now but has been suffering from some sort of health malady off and on for the past eight years now - give or take. The man has had a rough life - now when I say that, I don't mean your typical Hollywood "he's had a rough life" bit. I mean it's been rough but I know there are many of you who know someone who has had it worse.

He is on his third marriage after leaving his second wife of over 24 years (my mother) to be with a woman he was having an affair with. That is all water under the bridge for me. His new wife (not really so new anymore) is a comfortable part of our lives and my mother has moved on as well, but ever since the divorce, the health problems began taking hold.

Mental stress, psychological stress and anxiety can manifest themselves physically. I often wonder if that is what is causing all of this...some unresolved guilt over how things ended up. All I know is, my father is acting a hell of a lot older than he is and it scares me half to death.

My father and I never had the typical father-son relationship. Sure, he played catch with me, taught me to play baseball, helped me build my cub scout pinebox derby race cars, took me fishing, took me camping....but I never felt that I could really talk to him. He liked to lighten the mood, change the subject and over time, that led me to drift away from him (unknowingly, really) and try to handle things and figure things out on my own.

I made a lot of mistakes in my teen years and early adult years and sometimes I think that my relationship with him had something to do with that. Maybe it did, or maybe it's just the same stupid mistakes we all make.

Regardless, this blood clot really forced me to take a hard look at MY life. I have a good life. My wife and I have worked hard to get where we are. We are still working hard. But part of what I believe is missing, to this day, is a stronger relationship with my father. We have lived an hour away from him for the past decade and have probably seen him about four times a year (maybe less).

My wife and I have debating for over a year now, whether to move back to my hometown. It makes sense financially, as houses are cheaper there than they are here. It means a further commute to work but not necessarily a longer one, as there is little to no traffic in that commute compared to the one I make now.

This latest string of events has all but sealed the deal in my opinion. I feel that I need to go home, try to patch up my Dad and spend as much time as I can with him before that inevitable time comes where he won't be around, period.

I know it's probably a pipe dream. That part of the movie where the son dreams of having a normal relationship with his Dad only to wake up to hear him saying something rude and/or sarcastic to him is probably what it will be like. But I need to give it a shot.

My family (wife and kids excluded) is crazy, messed up, troubled and extremely stressful to deal with at times. But aren't all of ours? My family can't be anymore messed up than the next door neighbor's family, or my kids' principal's family, or yours...right?

Maybe my wife is right (she usually is). Maybe I just need to let people be who they are, do what they are going to do and just be there if/when they need me. I can't change any of them. And stressing about it is only going to change me.

MLB Predictions accountability (week 4)

Let's have a change of pace here and catch up on my MLB predictions. Remember, each week I will post every teams current record (predicted record, record needed the rest of the way) as well as the stats for my ROY, MVP and Cy Young picks.

AL East

Tampa Bay: 18-7 (87-75, 69-68)
New York: 16-8 (108-54, 92-46)
Toronto: 13-13 (64-98, 51-85)
Boston: 11-14 (103-59, 92-45) - Tell me they didn't just get swept by the O's
Baltimore: 7-18 (82-80, 75-62)

AL Central

Minnesota: 16-9 (91-71, 75-62)
Detroit: 16-10 (73-89, 57-79)
Cleveland: 10-14 (60-102, 50-88)
Chicago: 10-15 (71-91, 61-76)
Kansas City: 10-15 (70-92, 60-77)

AL West

Texas: 13-12 (72-90, 59-78)
Oakland: 13-13 (70-92, 57-79)
Los Angeles: 12-14 (92-70, 80-56)
Seattle: 11-14 (87-75, 76-61)

Cy Young: Felix Hernandez (6 GS, 2-2, 3.10, 36 K, CG)
MVP: Joe Mauer (.345, 1 HR, 13 RBI) - May land on DL
ROY: Brian Matusz (5 GS, 2-1, 4.40, 29 K)

NL East

Philadelphia: 14-10 (99-63, 85-53)
New York: 14-11 (72-90, 58-79) - Where did that win streak come from?
Florida: 13-12 (83-79, 70-67)
Washington: 13-12 (55-107, 42-95) - They'd better stop winning
Atlanta: 11-14 (92-70, 81-56) - They'd better start winning

NL Central

St. Louis: 17-8 (93-69, 76-61)
Chicago: 13-13 (89-73, 76-60)
Cincinnati: 12-13 (82-80, 70-67)
Milwaukee: 10-15 (80-82, 70-67)
Pittsburgh: 10-15 (70-92, 60-75)
Houston: 8-16 (66-96, 58-80)

NL West

San Diego: 16-9 (75-87, 59-78)
San Francisco: 14-10 (87-75, 73-65)
Colorado: 12-13 (94-68, 82-53)
Los Angeles: 11-14 (91-71, 80-57)
Arizona: 11-14 (67-95, 56-81)

Cy Young: Roy Halladay (6 GS, 5-1, 1.47, 39 K, 3 CG, 2 SHO) - He's walked 4 guys in 6 games.
MVP: Albert Pujols (.340, 7 HR, 24 RBI) - On pace for 47 HR's
ROY: Jason Heyward (.272, 7 HR, 23 RBI)

That's all for tonight. If you made it this far, thanks for sticking with me. I hope to get back to the fun stuff - movie reviews and sports opinions - later this week.

So much on the plate....

2010-04-25T20:20:00.000-07:00

Hello fellow cyber-friends. I have a lot I want to get off my chest tonight so I'm just gonna dive right in. I apologize if I ramble on a bit, there is a lot going on in the Sultan's Palace.

MLB Predictions accountability week 3

Week three of the 2010 MLB season is in the books. Let's look at some of the trends after the first three weeks.

- The best run differential in the bigs belongs to Tampa Bay (+50), the worst belongs to Pittsburgh (-68).

- Speaking of the Pirates, they lost a three-game series this week to Milwaukee by a combined score of 36-1. Brewers' starters went 3-0 with a 0.00 ERA in the three games, the Pirates' starters went 0-3 with an ERA of 15.82.

- Baltimore has yet to win a game at home (0-6). They are the only team remaining with a winless record at home or on the road.

AL East

Tampa Bay: 14-5 (87-75, 73-70)
New York: 12-6 (108-54, 96-48)
Toronto: 10-9 (64-98, 54-89)
Boston: 8-11 (103-59, 95-48) - Better start winning soon
Baltimore: 3-16 (82-80, 79-64) - Looks pretty unlikely already

AL Central

Minnesota: 13-6 (91-71, 78-65)
Detroit: 10-9 (73-89, 63-80)
Cleveland: 8-10 (60-102, 52-92)
Chicago: 8-11 (71-91, 63-80)
Kansas City: 7-11 (70-92, 63-81)

AL West

Oakland: 12-8 (70-92, 58-84) STOP WINNING!
Los Angeles: 10-10 (92-70, 82-60)
Seattle: 9-10 (87-75, 78-65)
Texas: 8-10 (72-90, 64-80)

Cy Young: Felix Hernandez (4 GS, 2-0, 2.15, 24 K, CG)
MVP: Joe Mauer (.382, 1 HR, 12 RBI) - Would like to see a bit more power
ROY: Brian Matusz (4 GS, 2-0, 4.38, 27 K)

NL East

Philadelphia: 11-7 (99-63, 88-56)
Florida: 10-9 (83-79, 73-70)
Washington: 10-9 (55-107, 45-98) - They'd better stop winning
New York: 10-9 (72-90, 62-81)
Atlanta: 8-10 (92-70, 84-60)

NL Central

St. Louis: 11-7 (93-69, 82-62)
Chicago: 9-10 (89-73, 80-63)
Milwaukee: 8-10 (80-82, 72-72) - Right on target
Houston: 8-10 (66-96, 58-86)
Cincinnati: 8-11 (82-80, 74-69)
Pittsburgh: 7-11 (70-92, 63-79)

NL West

San Diego: 11-7 (75-87, 64-80)
San Francisco: 10-8 (87-75, 77-67)
Colorado: 10-9 (94-68, 84-57)
Los Angeles: 8-10 (91-71, 83-61)
Arizona: 8-10 (67-95, 59-85)

Cy Young: Roy Halladay (4 GS, 4-0, 0.82, 28 K, 2 CG, SHO) - He's walked 3 guys in four games.
MVP: Albert Pujols (.301, 7 HR, 17 RBI) - On pace for 63 HR's
ROY: Jason Heyward (.246, 4 HR, 16 RBI) - 1 for his last 14....ouch

Biggest loser update

As those of you who have been reading for a while know, I have been on light duty at work for the past four weeks. My doctor extended my stay on light duty until May 5, which at that point I will more than likely be returned to regular duty. This extended stay has helped my back to get better, but my weight loss has stalled.

I started the week at 225.4 pounds. I weighed in this Friday at 225.4 for a zero loss/gain. I feel confident that I can still accomplish my goal, it's just going to be a tough fight these last few weeks.

I am now down 29.6 pounds (11.61%) since June 11, 2009. My original goal was to lose 50 pounds in one year. I now have six weeks to lose 20.4 pounds.

Sultan Movie Review

Thanks to all of you who read my first Sultan Movie Review: Avatar. I know my take on the movie is an unpopular one, but I hope you realize that it is MY opinion and just take it in stride.

I will be posting my second and third Sultan Movie Reviews later this week. Stay tuned as I review two other Oscar-nominated films; The Blind Side and Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (which is the longest title for a movie, ever, I believe).

On a more personal note

There has been a lot on The Sultan's plate lately. Between physical therapy and doctor's visits due to my injury and my ongoing fight for weight loss. There is also basketball practice and games for Captain Nintendo, we are trying to find a place to move to this summer (deciding to stay in the city we are in now, or move back to my hometown - 45 miles away).

Then I got a call tonight from my father. A day prior to his 58th birthday, he calls to tell me that he was in the hospital a few days ago for a blood clot in his leg. He tells me that it's not life threatening but it serious enough that he is on blood thinners and he is postponing our get together - for his birthday - because he' not feeling up to it.

This has been a pattern over the past several years. He will go see the doctor for something and then call me days later to tell me what happened and that it wasn't a big deal. What is that? Do any of you have a parent that does that to you? I'm really looking for some answers here. Even if it wasn't a big deal, I'm just afraid that one of these days it will be a big deal and I won't find out about it until it's too late.

My wife says that it may be a pride thing. A father not wanting to look weak towards his son. I understand that. But sometimes, humility is necessary for true human interaction. My father and I aren't as close as we once were. We were never really close when I was growing up - not in the traditional Growing Pains / Brady Bunch way at least. I never felt like he wasn't a part of my life, we just weren't extremely tight.

Now, I have a wife and kids, he is on his third marriage and his last kid is out of the house and I fear that we've drifted even farther apart than ever. I just want to be kept in the loop. I don't feel like I'm asking for much.

That's all I've got in me tonight. Thanks for reading. Thanks for listening.

The Sultan Goes to the Movies (Avatar)

2010-04-20T20:51:00.000-07:00

Thank you for joining me for my first Sultan Movie Review. I am going to jump right in and give you my take on what is now the No. 1-grossing movie of all-time; Avatar.

I went and saw the 2-D version this past weekend. But before I get into it, I need to set a few things up.

For those of you who are reading my stuff for the first time, I am a movie buff. I may not be Gene Siskel or anything, but I know movies.

I am a fan of James Cameron's work. I love the first two Terminator movies, I love Aliens, True Lies is one of my favorite movies from my teenage years and yes, I liked Titanic. So that being said, coupled with the tremendous hype that surrounded this movie, I was pretty excited to see it.

Then the movie started.

For the next 162 minutes, James Cameron used the latest digital technology to show us how beautiful this distant world was and did very little to make us care for what was going on, hoping to distract us - using visual effects - from the fact that this movie had no real direction.

I realize that's tough to swallow. This movie was nominated for best picture and best director and yet had no direction. The movie lacked a real beginning. I would've liked to see a 15 minute sequence, setting up Jake Sully's character and introducing us to Earth in the year 2154. Let us know how bad it was, who exactly is this company and why is this material they are looking for so valuable?

Speaking of the unobtainium....seriously? Unobtainium? You couldn't think of a better name for your made up alloy than unobtainium? It has been used before - The Core - and that was a horrible movie. Did James Cameron really want to be associated with The Core? At least Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry had the foresight to think of a name for his material (Dilithium).

Moving away from the absurdium, as the movie progresses we are shown more of the fake landscape and are told to believe that Jake falls in love with a huge blue alien over the course of a few months, all the time leaking information about the race to the Colonel who fully intends on forcing the Na'vi off their land if they don't move on their own.

More dramatic sequences in which we see how beautiful it is and how freaky the creatures are and then we are suppose to care that Jake seems crushed when the Na'vi find out that he was sent to seek intelligence information and now don't trust him.

I think what gets me the most, is how this is the movie Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest all over again. I heard whispers that people thought this was Pocahontas, but I think it's more Fern Gully. And apparently I'm not the only one who thinks so.

When it was all said and done, I was happy that - SPOILER ALERT - the Na'vi won the battle. It's not that I didn't feel connected enough to care about what happened to the Na'vi, I just didn't really care what happened to Jake. I was upset more about the fact that - SPOILER ALERT - Ripley...err...Grace died than I was interested in whatever was going to happen to Jake next.

James Cameron lost the Best Director Oscar to his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker. Sigourney Weaver recently said that, "Jim didn't have breasts, and I think that was the reason," Weaver told Brazilian news site Folha Online. "He should have taken home that Oscar."

No, Cameron didn't win the Oscar because he didn't direct anything but a hot mess of special effects and disjointed story lines. On a positive note, the acting was good. Those blue aliens were really believable...no seriously, I thought the acting was really good. But when you gross over $740 million domestically and over $2.7 billion worldwide, good isn't good enough.

It just didn't live up to the hype.

MLB Predictions Accountability (Week 2)

2010-04-18T19:56:00.000-07:00

Week two of the 2010 MLB season is in the books. There have been some exciting moments (Ubaldo Jimenez's no-hitter, the 21-inning marathon between NY and StL.) and some interesting trends being set.

Both of Baltimore's wins have been with rookie pitcher Brian Matusz on the mound (the Orioles still haven't won at home).

Every team in the NL West has an equal or plus-run differential.

Houston still hasn't won at home, but have won back-to-back games after starting the season 1-9.

Tampa Bay is 6-0 on the road.

The Dodgers have scored the 2nd-most runs in the league (70), but have also allowed 70 runs.

Here are the updated standings, followed by my predictions and the record they need to get there.

AL East

New York: 9-3 (108-54, 99-51)
Tampa Bay: 9-3 (87-75, 78-72)
Toronto: 7-6 (64-98, 57-92)
Boston: 4-8 (103-59, 99-51)
Baltimore: 2-11 (82-80, 80-69) - Looks pretty unlikely already

AL Central

Minnesota: 9-4 (91-71, 82-67)
Detroit: 7-5 (73-89, 66-84)
Cleveland: 6-6 (60-102, 54-96)
Kansas City: 5-7 (70-92, 65-85)
Chicago: 4-9 (71-91, 67-82)

AL West

Oakland: 9-5 (70-92, 61-87)
Los Angeles: 6-7 (92-70, 86-63)
Seattle: 6-7 (87-75, 81-68)
Texas: 5-7 (72-90, 67-83)

Cy Young: Felix Hernandez (3 GS, 1-0, 3.10, 18 K)
MVP: Joe Mauer (.378, 1 HR, 10 RBI)
ROY: Brian Matusz (3 GS, 2-0, 4.34, 23 K) - Baltimore can't seem to win without him

NL East

Philadelphia: 8-4 (99-63, 91-59)
Florida: 8-5 (83-79, 75-74)
Atlanta: 7-5 (92-70, 85-65)
Washington: 6-6 (55-107, 49-101) - They'd better stop winning
New York: 4-8 (72-90, 68-82)

NL Central

St. Louis: 8-4 (93-69, 85-65)
Pittsburgh: 7-5 (70-92, 63-85)
Chicago: 5-7 (89-73, 84-66)
Milwaukee: 5-7 (80-82, 75-75)
Cincinnati: 5-8 (82-80, 77-72)
Houston: 3-9 (66-96, 63-87)

NL West

San Francisco: 8-4 (87-75, 79-71)
Colorado: 6-6 (94-68, 88-60)
San Diego: 6-6 (75-87, 69-81)
Los Angeles: 6-6 (91-71, 85-65)
Arizona: 5-7 (67-95, 62-88)

Cy Young: Roy Halladay (3 GS, 3-0, 1.13, 21 K, CG)
MVP: Albert Pujols (.327, 5 HR, 15 RBI)
ROY: Jason Heyward (.302, 3 HR, 15 RBI) - Leads the team in HR and RBI

Tomorrow, look for the first Sultan movie review....of Avatar.

Thanks for reading.

Every once in a while.....

2010-04-17T16:50:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, like many of you I'm sure, I think about those moments that have come and gone and wondered...I wonder what would have happened if...?

Here are just a few of the what if's that have been tumbling around my head.

Every once in a while.....

.....I wonder if I would've played in the majors had I not let a few jackass jocks get to me, keeping me from playing through High School.

.....I wonder if I would be a successful media mogul by now, if only I had surrounded myself with better sales people and a better business partner.

.....I wonder what life will be like for my future grandchildren.

.....I wonder what it would be like to have a Muppet just start cussing out someone in a Muppet movie.

.....I wonder if life is just a giant video game and someone is pushing the buttons, making us do things.

.....I wonder if Star Trek will ever become a reality.

.....I wonder if the Cubs will go another 100 years without a World Series title.

.....I wonder if MLB will survive another 100 years.

.....I wonder if anyone will actually read this and think I am not completely insane.

Biggest Loser update

I continue my light duty work at Pony Express, so I haven't been able to exercise that much. My back is feeling better, but I still have days where I have to take pain pills.

I started the week at 226.6. I weighed in on Friday at 225.4, for a loss of 1.2 pounds (0.53%). I am now down 29.6 pounds (11.61%) since June 11, 2009. My original goal was to lose 50 pounds in one year. I now have seven weeks to lose 20.4 pounds.

Sultan movie review

I watched "I Love You, Man" on DVD this week and I am on my way to the theater tonight to finally see "Avatar". Then tomorrow, The Sweetness and I are taking the kids to see "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" at the local discount theater.

I love that place. They play movies that are either on DVD already, or will be coming to DVD soon. Tickets are $4, they have beer, pizza and tables inside the theater.

Anyways, I will be giving my first Sultan Movie review later this week when I break down the No. 1 movie of all-time, Avatar. I am extremely skeptical of it, but everyone I know has seen it and says it's worth the hype. We'll see.

Hope you all enjoy your weekend. I'll be back tomorrow with MLB Predictions Accountability.

Thanks for reading.

MLB Week 1 in the books

2010-04-11T22:23:00.000-07:00

Week one of the 2010 MLB season is in the books. There are no undefeated teams and only one team that has failed to win a game. What have we learned? There are a lot of teams trying to work out the spring kinks.

Each Sunday night, I will evaluate my preseason predictions and see how they are holding up. Let's begin. After the current record I will list my (predicted record and, what they need to get the rest of the season to get it).

AL East

Toronto: 5-1 (64-98, 59-97)
New York: 4-2 (108-54, 104-52)
Tampa Bay: 3-3 (87-75, 84-72)
Boston: 3-3 (103-59, 100-56)
Baltimore: 1-5 (82-80, 81-75)

AL Central

Detroit: 5-1 (73-89, 68-88)
Minnesota: 5-2 (91-71, 86-69)
Cleveland: 2-4 (60-102, 58-98)
Chicago: 2-4 (71-91, 69-87)
Kansas City: 2-4 (70-92, 68-88)

AL West

Oakland: 5-2 (70-92, 65-90)
Texas: 3-3 (72-90, 69-87)
Seattle: 2-5 (87-75, 85-70)
Los Angeles: 2-5 (92-70, 90-65)

Cy Young: Felix Hernandez (0-0, 3.29, 9 K)
MVP: Joe Mauer (.381, 1 HR, 4 RBI)
ROY: Brian Matusz (1-0, 3.60, 7 K)

NL East

Philadelphia: 5-1 (99-63, 94-62)
Florida: 4-2 (83-79, 79-77)
Washington: 3-3 (55-107, 52-104)
Atlanta: 3-3 (92-70, 89-67)
New York: 2-4 (72-90, 70-86)

NL Central

St. Louis: 4-2 (93-69, 89-67)
Milwaukee: 3-3 (80-82, 77-79)
Pittsburgh: 3-3 (70-92, 67-89)
Cincinnati: 3-3 (82-80, 79-77)
Chicago: 2-4 (89-73, 87-69)
Houston: 0-6 (66-96, 66-90)

NL West

San Francisco: 5-1 (87-75, 82-74)
Arizona: 4-2 (67-95, 63-93)
Colorado: 3-3 (94-68, 91-65)
San Diego: 2-4 (75-87, 73-83)
Los Angeles: 2-4 (91-71, 89-67)

Cy Young: Roy Halladay (2-0, 0.56, 17 K)
MVP: Albert Pujols (.375, 4 HR, 10 RBI)
ROY: Jason Heyward (.292, 3 HR, 8 RBI)

Tiger on the prowl....this time, on the golf course

2010-04-11T08:22:00.000-07:00

As the final round of the 2010 Masters gets ready to tee off at Augusta National, there is really only one story line that the majority of the country is following: Can Tiger win?

Tiger begins Sunday in a very familiar position. He is four shots back of the leader, Lee Westwood and three shots behind Phil Mickelson. In other words, right where he wants them. How many times have we seen this scenario play out? Tiger is three shots, four shots, even five shots back of a leader only to see Tiger shoot a 66 or better and see the leader choke on his putter and watch Tiger claim victory.

Not this time. I am rooting for Tiger to fail.

The drama that has unfolded over the past few months, beginning on Thanksgiving weekend has been nothing short of a Telenovela. But for those of you who truly believed his contrived apologies, I have news for you. Tiger IS sorry....sorry he got caught.

Guys, gals too, here's a lesson for you. If you cheat on your spouse and are truly sorry...whether you got caught the first time or not, you will NOT do it again. If you have a string of elicit affairs, with multiple women, stretching over the course of several years and several states and you get caught....you aren't truly sorry. You are sorry you were caught.

That's Tiger. Does he have a problem? Absolutely he has a problem. I'm not saying that it's not possible that he had some sort of mental illness that may or may not have prevented him from being faithful to his wife. But I honestly don't think he was sorry for what happened.

And if Tiger wins the Masters, this will all be gone in a matter of weeks. America as a whole has ADHD. We live in a country, not of; what have you done?, but what have you done for me lately?

If Tiger wins, many people will begin the process of forgetting his indiscretions. That's not fair to his wife, who will NEVER forget what happened, it's not fair to his children and it's really not fair to Tiger, who needs to be held accountable for his actions and always have that little voice in his head to remind him.

Am I saying he can't be forgiven? No. I'm all for forgiving, just not forgetting.

-----------------

My Biggest Loser update

In keeping with accountability, I gained a little over a pound this past week. This could be due to a number of things. I have been on light duty at work since I hurt my back two weeks ago. So I haven't been getting the same amount of activity that I'm used to.

I also haven't been eating as well as I had been. So taking all of that into account, I feel pretty lucky that it was only a pound. I now sit at 226.3, with a starting weight of 255.0 on June 1, 2009. My initial goal was to drop 40 pounds in one year. So I have less than two months to lose 11.6 pounds.

-----------------

Baseball season

The 2010 MLB season is underway. In case you missed it, I posted my annual predictions last week. In the spirit of accountability, I will post every Sunday night with updated team standings/records with a comparison to my predictions. Should be fun to see as my predictions start falling one by one.

-----------------

That's all for today. Have a great rest of your weekend, GO PHIL!, and thanks for reading.

2010 MLB Predictions

2010-04-03T11:12:00.000-07:00

Each and every year for the past 10 years, I have made MLB predictions. Unlike many other predictions you will read out there, I also predict the actual won/loss record for the upcoming season.

This, being the 10th year, feels pretty good for me. I tend to be more successful in even years than in odd years. Last year, I predicted a Red Sox/Cubs World Series.....oops. But in 2008 I predicted a Phillies/Red Sox series.

Individually, most of my won/loss predictions are off by +/- 4 games. Over the past 10 years, I have picked 9% of the teams exactly right, 27% are within +/- 2 games, 83% are within +/- 4 games with only 3% being +/- 7 games or more.

All bragging aside, here are my picks for the upcoming 2010 season.

AL West
Los Angeles: 92-70
Seattle: 87-75
Texas: 72-90
Oakland: 70-92

AL Central
Minnesota: 91-71
Detroit: 73-89
Chicago: 71-91
Kansas City: 70-92
Cleveland: 60-102

AL East
New York: 108-54
Boston: 103-59 (wild-card)
Tampa Bay: 87-75
Baltimore: 82-80
Toronto: 64-98

ALDS: Minnesota vs. New York
ALDS: Boston vs. Los Angeles

ALCS: Boston vs. New York

Cy Young: Felix Hernandez, Seattle
MVP: Joe Mauer, Minnesota
ROY: Brian Matusz, SP, Baltimore

NL West
Colorado: 94-68
Los Angeles: 91-71
San Francisco: 87-75
San Diego: 75-87
Arizona: 67-95

NL Central
St. Louis: 93-69
Chicago: 89-73
Cincinnati: 82-80
Milwaukee: 80-82
Pittsburgh: 70-92
Houston: 66-96

NL East
Philadelphia: 99-63
Atlanta: 92-70 (wild-card)
Florida: 83-79
New York: 72-90
Washington: 55-107

NLDS: St. Louis vs. Philadelphia
NLDS: Atlanta vs. Colorado

NLCS: Atlanta vs. St. Louis

Cy Young: Roy Halladay, Philadelphia
MVP: Albert Pujols, St. Louis
ROY: Jayson Heyward, OF, Atlanta (not Stephen Strasburg, pictured above)

World Series: New York def. St. Louis 4-2

Time flies when you aren't having fun

2010-04-02T19:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the break in activity this week. It's been a rough ride. I hurt myself at work on Monday and have spent the last few days unable to sit at the computer for longer than a few minutes.

I pulled a muscle in my back and the doctor was kind enough to order three weeks of physical therapy, Vicodin, muscle relaxers and a two week minimum stay on light duty at work.

This is good and bad. Good because I am able to rest and get better, bad because I mostly sit in the office and go stir-crazy.

But I am excited to talk some baseball, finally. The regular season kicks-off Sunday night with Yankees/Red Sox. Then the official Opening Day is Monday.

I have been making regular-season predictions in my various blogs over the years and am happy to say that I am going to be posting my 2010 predictions sometime tomorrow (Saturday).

On the weight loss front, I lost another 1.3 pounds (0.57%) this week. Not as much as I had hoped, but since I lost six pounds last week and with all the meds I'm on and with my activity level dropping this week, a loss is a loss.

That's about all I can muster today. Hope to see you all tomorrow with some feedback on my picks (whether you think I'm crazy or not).

Thanks for reading.

The Biggest Food Revolution....in the real world

2010-03-28T08:50:00.000-07:00

There are few things in this world that are worse to a writer, than writer's block. Maybe it's because there are so many things that I want to talk about that I just don't know where to begin. So, I'm just going to spout out a few of the things that are on my mind today and perhaps I can make a full blog post out of them.

The Biggest Loser and Jaime Oliver's Food Revolution

Like many people, I have been known from time to time to root for the extremely obese to lose weight while working out 12 hours a day at 24 hour Fitness while eating Jennie-O turkey, storing their food leftovers in Ziploc bags and chewing Extra gum on The Biggest Loser.

I also, this past Friday, began watching British chef Jaime Oliver try to change the eating habits of the unhealthiest town in America on Food Revolution. I myself have been on somewhat of a food revolution with The Sweetness and I'm starting to see the benefits.

Only nine short months ago, I weighed in at just over 250 pounds. I am a shade under six feet tall and I am not a football player, so that's pretty big. It was the most I have ever weighed and it was - pardon the pun - weighing on me.

A picture taken of me with my sister at her high school graduation last June was the nail in my sugar-loving coffin. I began a low-to-no sugar, low-to-no gluten diet. I ate as many natural things as I possibly could and on Halloween, I was down to 218 pounds.

Then the holidays hit and I just couldn't help myself. Old habits kicked back in. I didn't weigh myself until earlier this month and when I did, I was back up to 232.

So my wife, the kids and myself are now all on the bandwagon. It's been just over a week and I'm already back down to 226. The no-gluten thing has been extremely hard, as I love bread. But I'm seeing the benefits as my son's eczema is going away.

The sugar thing is hard too, as I do love my candy bars and such. But that is easier to overcome with the multitude of sugar substitutes out there now. Stevia is the best one as it is all natural (depending on the brand you get, some are just Stevia derivatives).

This brings me to The Biggest Loser and Food Revolution. They are both great concepts, in theory. The Biggest Loser takes these people and helps them learn to do the right things on their own and they lose hundreds of pounds. But how many of them do you see after the show is over? Do you know how many kept the weight off? There is a reason they keep showing Ali, who won a couple of years ago, along with only a handful of other past contestants. The others gained at least a third of their weight back.

Jaime Oliver has the right idea on his show. But still misses some finer points. He still points out that we need to not be eating fat in our diets.

We are animals. We eat meat. We have for thousands of years. When did we start getting fat as a people? 50 years ago? 100 years ago? It all began when we started using processed foods, processed sugar, corn starch, high fructose corn syrup and all of these other ingredients that most people aren't even sure how to spell, let alone know what it is.

If the ingredient list to the food you are about to eat reads like the dictionary, it probably isn't good for you.

There are a few bloggers that I have found (actually my wife found two of them) that share similar theories and beliefs and are a great source of inspiration and information if you would like.

Free the Animal is one that my wife found. He has lost 60 pounds over the past year and a half and has some of the most detailed information out there on how to lose weight and eat healthy.

Whole Health Source is run by Stephan Guyenet who has a B.S. in biochemistry and a Ph.D. in neurobiology. He has a ton of information on his site regarding the paleolithic and native diet as well as many articles debunking myths and offering suggestions.

Losing it in the real world is run by my friend Mechele. She has lost over 50 pounds in the past few years and shares her trials and tribulations with readers, offering suggestions and insight on exercises, diets and even a celebrity bashing here and there.

Wow. What do you know? I was able to just talk about food for a half hour and that's my time for the day. If you are someone who is struggling with weight loss and are tired of the same answers (lose weight, stop eating, get off your ass) then I hope you can find some answers from these blogs as well as from me.

As I continue my journey, I will blog about my experiences. What worked, what didn't and I will post my weekly weigh-in results to help keep me honest....because if I have to share with all of cyberspace, I'm not gonna want to post a +3 on any given week.

Good luck, see you soon and thanks for reading.

Thursday Thrash (03-25-10)

2010-03-25T20:50:00.000-07:00

Welcome friends to what I hope will become a weekly tradition simply titled, Thursday Thrash. The goal of the Thrash is to pick someone or something that is bugging me and thrash it to shreds. No holds barred, uncensored, raw.

The late, great George Carlin used to have a section of his comedy routine he called Free Floating Hostility, where he detailed things that he was "bored with, tired of and pissed at." It's a lot like that.

This week's Thrash is dedicated to the Hollywood film executives that are too lazy to come up with something good to put in theaters, so decide to remake something already done.

Now, I know what you're thinking...Avatar was completely original. Wrong! I haven't seen it yet (probably the only one in the freaking country who hasn't) but I have heard from several who have that it's basically the story of Pocahontas, with aliens instead of Native Americans. AND the name - Avatar - was taken from the Nickelodeon kids show which is being made into a movie by M. Night Shamalan and they had to call their movie The Last Airbender to avoid confusion.

Side note: I do know that the word Avatar was not originated by Nickelodeon and James Cameron had every right to call his movie Avatar, but with the T.V. show already out for several years and an upcoming film, you'd think he would've thought of his own name.

Moving on. I started thinking about this last weekend as my kids were watching Alvin and the Chipmunks for the 30th time. No, not the 1980's totally awesome cartoon but the 2007 big-screen abomination...err...adaptation.

Don't get me wrong, I'm totally okay with making things that were popular in the 1980's cool again. I loved the 80's. The best cartoons in the history of Television came out in the 1980's. It is home to some of the best movies and music. The 80's, hold the key to my youth. But is there any reason you can think of, as to why we need a remake of Karate Kid?

For those of you that haven't seen the previews, there is a Karate Kid movie coming out with Jackie Chan as Mr. Han (Mr. Miyagi) and Will Smith's son Jaden as Dre Parker (Daniel Larusso). I do admit, the preview looks promising and all the elements that made the original so good appear to be there. But who thought it needed to be remade?

This is just one of a long list of movies that are on the slate over the next three years to be remade. Studio executives like to classify these remakes as "reboots" because it doesn't sound like they are taking someone else's idea and doing it again.

Here's just a small list of the movies that are already in the works or are reportedly being considered for reboot.

Arthur, Clash of the Titans, Short Circuit, Overboard, Footloose, Red Dawn, Child's Play and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Sequels and true reboots don't bother me and will not make this list. The new Star Trek movie is a perfect example of a true reboot. It took the concept and applied a completely new story to the old franchise.

The upcoming Ghostbusters sequel as well as the last Indiana Jones and any that may come in the near future are also exempt from this rule. But it still begs the bigger question; Has Hollywood run out of original ideas?

I know that there are hundreds of movies made every year and not every single one is a remake. But I would love to be able to check my favorite movie news site (Comingsoon.net) and not see a headline that reads "Studio green-lights remake of (insert great 80's movie here)" every day.

A little original creativity. Is that too much to ask?

Back to the grind....just in time

2010-03-22T21:04:00.000-07:00

Today was my first day back to work after an 11-day vacation. It's also the first day of Spring Break, which made going back to work that much easier.

Why you may ask? My kids are home this week. I love my kids, I consider myself to be a good father and love spending time with my kids. But if I were home this week, with very little money in the budget for non-essentials and nothing on the to-do list, they would get bored very quickly and things could turn ugly.

My children are like puppies (which we call them often). They need constant attention and supervision or they will eat your shoes and piss on the rug. We don't have a lot of money to pay for activities that keep them occupied 24/7 and the boys share a bedroom so alone time is at a minimum.

We as parents, rely on the boys to get along because otherwise....it's up to us to entertain them. We live in a small, less than 1000 square foot triplex with no cable TV (We do have a digital tuner with antenna that allows us to get about 25 channels, but half of them are public-access religious garbage).

We don't have our own yard but there is a little courtyard that separates the two triplex units. It's off the street, fenced off, safe. Because of this, it has become the hot spot for the neighbor kids as well....another reason I am glad to be at work. Weekends can get really crazy around here as the neighbor kids show up for hours at a time and hilarity ensues.

My poor wife. I can only take so much of having everyone over here before I bring our kids in the house and send the neighbor kids packing. This is sometimes counter-productive because now they are in the house and it's back to us entertaining them if they are bored of what's in their room.

The Sweetness has to deal with this all week long this week. She deals with it all week long normally, but now she doesn't even get the wonderful 7-hour break of them being in school. This all adds up to a much easier transition for me going back to work.

I enjoy my job at Pony Express. I'm good at my job and they pay me quite well for what I do. So why then no fun money? That's due to the massive amounts of debt my wife and I piled up in the years before I got the job and we are now digging out.

So yes, I like my job. What I don't like is all of the corporate nonsense that plays itself out on a daily basis. You get that with any job with a major corporation, I just think people should be treated better than they are. There are some challenges at work right now. Some are due to the economy, some due to poor decisions or lack of decisions made by the company. It can all be very frustrating.

It helps me feel better to write it down. Of course, I am a little hesitant to go into tremendous detail because I am a little fearful that if I say the wrong thing, I will lose my good-paying-job-that-I-like-but-don't-want-to-do-forever-but-can't-afford-to-be-without-it-now.

So in the coming weeks, as I vent from time to time about the trials and tribulations at Pony Express, I will tread lightly.

Until next time.

Thanks for reading.

Suffering the effects of MMBDS

2010-03-20T08:09:00.000-07:00

Millions of people each year suffer from the effects of MMBDS. Symptoms include sense of loss, self-loathing, depression, frustration and envy.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the horrifically debilitating condition of MMBDS or March Madness Bracket Deficiency Syndrome, let me explain.

Before the NCAA Tournament, you fill out your bracket. Perhaps you are in an office pool, a family pool or perhaps you simply fill out the online brackets at ESPN, Yahoo, Fox or Sporting News (among others).

You feel confident that No. 13 Siena can defeat No. 4 Purdue in the South Region and are sure that No. 13 Murray State couldn't possibly defeat No. 4 Vanderbilt in the West. But then the reality of the first two days sets in and your bracket looks more like a completed to-do list than a work of art.

The only thing that can bring a person out of MMBDS is if their pick to win it all is still alive. Even more effective treatments include having all your Final Four and Elite Eight teams still alive.

Alas, there are millions of people across the country who have already lost all hope of Bracket glory for 2010. And MMBDS is setting in.

Here in the Sultan's Palace, we filled out brackets. I am a huge sports fan, but don't watch any college basketball until Tournament time. I have a history of fairing well in my bracket selections and even won a pool with a group of friends last year.

But The Sweetness, Captain Nintendo and The Boy Wonder (My wife and two boys for those you missed my first entry) haven't got the slightest clue when it comes to college basketball.

Captain Nintendo went mostly with favorites, but did pick Gonzaga - a No. 8 seed - to win it all. The Boy Wonder picked several upsets that did not quite pan out (Houston, UCSB, Vermont, Wofford, Sam Houston State, Siena and Montana). But he did manage to pick Ohio, Georgia Tech and Washington.

The Sweetness took this about as seriously as an email in your junk inbox (and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way). She picked several upsets. Some panned out (Ohio, St. Mary's, Old Dominion, Washington) and some didn't (New Mexico St., Houston, San Diego St., UTEP, Minnesota, Oakland, Montana and my personal favorite, E. Tennessee State).

Not only did my wife pick East Tennessee State to take down one of the odds-on favorites and my choice to win the whole thing (Kentucky) and become the first No. 16 seed to ever defeat a No. 1 seed, she had them winning all the way into the National Championship game (laughing every time she said their name when asked about the winner of the next game).

So, after the first round it looks like this:
The Sultan: 21-11 (All Elite 8 teams and 14 Sweet 16 teams still alive)
Capt. Nintendo: 21-11 (All Elite 8 teams and 13 Sweet 16 teams alive)
The Sweetness: 18-14 (Five Elite 8 teams and nine Sweet 16 teams left)
Boy Wonder: 17-15 (Two Elite 8 teams and six Sweet 16 teams left)

So the effects of this crazy and unexplained phenomenon have not taken hold of me just yet. But I am only a few second round games away from plunging into full-on MMBDS.

But take heart, for those of you already suffering, there are always the second-chance games.

Greetings and Salutations

2010-03-19T08:35:00.000-07:00

What have you stumbled upon? What is this blog? What does it mean? Why am I starting off this blog with a bunch of questions?

I am the Sultan of Squat. I am not an expert on anything, but I have educated opinions on a variety of things and I want to force...err... share those opinions with the world.

What will you find here? One day it will be sports analysis, another day it will be a movie review and then another day it will be a restaurant review. You'll hear a lot about life around the house with my lovely wife (The Sweetness), my two crazy boys (Captain Nintendo, above right and The Boy Wonder, above left) and my daytime gig as a delivery driver for a major corporation (which we shall call The Pony Express).

So sit back, relax and enjoy the show. My plan coming out of the gate is to post something at least four times a week (more if funny things happen or I get the urge to share, less if I get really busy at Pony Express).

Thanks for reading.