Zack Grienke rightfully and overwhelmingly won this year’s American League Cy Young award, the results of which were announced yesterday. The only only other pitcher in the conversation should have been Felix Hernandez, so you’d expect a writer from Detroit to vote for one of the two of those pitchers, right? This is baseball, of course not. From Mlive’s Steve Kornacki:
Hernandez finished with two first-place votes. The final first-place vote, the vote I cast, went to Tigers starter Justin Verlander.
Verlander received my first-place vote because nobody was tougher on the mound with the season on the line for his team.
He threw at least 120 pitches in six of his last eight outings and won his last three starts, forcing a one-game playoff against the Minnesota Twins with his final victory.
What’s the point of an award if the voters are going to make up their own criteria for who should win? Last time I checked, the Cy Young went to the league’s best pitcher, not the best pitcher during a three-game stretch. Verlander received only one first-place vote, and it was from Detroit’s Kornacki. I’ve got nothing against Verlander, but Jesus Christ, Steve. His “justification” for the vote is a joke; I’d be less upset if he had simply written, “I’m from Detroit and I wanted to vote for the home town guy. The end.”
I’m not telling anyone how to vote, and it’s damn refreshing to see that the voters have started to shy away from wins as a measuring stick for pitchers’ success. But when someone totally neglects an astonishing season for the sake of giving a vote to “his guy,” that person probably shouldn’t have a vote.
I was going to vote for Pujols for the NL MVP, but Hanley Ramirez had like four awesome games in a row at one point. Plus Fredi Gonzalez called him a “horse.” The Marlins almost made the playoffs, and Hanley plays for my home town, so he gets my vote. Sure Pujols had a better season overall, but I cherry-picked four crucial games as a way of justifiying my absurd pick. I like to wear my mother’s makeup and jewelry.
Did anyone happen to catch the Arizona/Louisville game last night? If not it was pretty uneventful from a game standpoint.
Rick Pitino’s 20th ranked Louisville Cardinals gave no mercy to John Pelphrey;’s short-handed Arkansas Razorbacks in the Hall of Fame Classic in St. Louis. Senior Reginald Delk scored a game high 20 points to lead the Cardinals to a 96-66 win. [Via KY3]
However what was most entertaining or should I say not even remotely entertaining was the commentating of Bobby Knight. Knight is not made for the booth, period. He talks slowly, he’s annoying as all hell and you can tell that he absolutely hates sitting on the floor with other boring commentators.
This is a guy that used to throw chairs, hit his players and nearly spit in reporters faces. Now you’re telling me his “expertise” is gonna be put to good use with in game analysis? No.
Either get this guy back coaching a team or banish him from basketball. You really can’t have an inbetween with this guy.
Want the real Bobby Knight? Check out some of his best after the jump
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The Press
LeBron James Wasn’t Always The King – [HoopDoctors]
Dude Gets Jacked In The Face Whilst Shirtless – [WithLeather]
Mystics Calendar Gives Nerds Everywhere Hope – [DoubleViking]
Oktober Fest Pics Showing The Fest At Its Finest– [Uncoached]
10 Years In 7 Minutes Video Makes Time Go By Fast– [Manofest]
Everyone’s Had A Shitty Coach – [Deadspin]
Megan Fox Gets Coffee, Stopping The World In Its Tracks – [DonChavez]
In His Shoes, Jeff Pearlman’s Stop Toward Greatness – [JeffPearlman]
Let The Matt Holliday Sweepstakes Begin – [MySportsRumors]
Eight Random Videos Including Palin and Nuts– [NESW]
NBA and Pythagorean Theorem Have A Lot More In Common Than You Think – [EmptyTheBench]
Amidst all these stupid Brady Quinn cheap shot talk, come on guys!
Even after Baltimore had punished Brady Quinn(notes), Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis got in one more vicious hit on Cleveland’s quarterback. Angered over Quinn’s questionable chop block on Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs following an interception, Lewis accused Quinn of a dirty play. “Heck yeah it was a cheap shot,” Lewis snapped after Baltimore rocked Cleveland 16-0. [Via Yahoo]
Come on Ray! You of all people shouldn’t be talking smack about cheap shots my man. In fact this very season you clocked one of your best friends.
Can you blame Quinn for getting a little angry? I mean the guy plays for one of the worst sports franchises in the country right now. They get pounced 16-Nil and come on Ray! Ah screw it.
Want some cheap shots? Here are five pretty fun ones.
Terence Moore of Fanhouse wrote a memo to BCS “whiners” to stop whining. My response isn’t asking you to keep whining, but to bash. Because college football isn’t ultimately important enough to condone whining, but it’s always fun to bash something that simply doesn’t work.
In the piece, Moore argues that a playoff system would have exposed teams like Penn State and Auburn who some have argued got the shaft from BCS polls in the past. He instead insists that the BCS gets it right most of the time, including their most recent rankings with Florida and Alabama at the top saying, “the defensive monsters from Florida and Alabama clearly are No. 1 and No. 2, followed by a Texas bunch with a defense that also clobbers people.”
In my opinion, nothing is clear without seeing it first hand. It’d be like sitting in your office, saying “it’s clearly not raining outside,” because a weather report said so (weather.com, you’ve failed me for the last time!), without taking a moment to actually look outside. We need to see Florida, Alabama and Texas take on Cincinnati and TCU. Sure, maybe they’d get blown out, but as we’ve learned from other leagues with playoff systems, upsets are inevitable. Continue Reading »
It looks like Dennis Rodman is in trouble once again. From The Globe and Mail:
Former NBA star Dennis Rodman has been temporarily detained in Germany after a hotel said he skipped out on a $5,100 (all currency U.S.) bill.
This isn’t surprising, but it’s also nothing for Dennis Rodman. Skipping out on a huge bill? Big deal. We’re talking about someone who if he was found masturbating in his own feces, you’d shrug your shoulders and chalk it up to Dennis being Dennis.
Rodman’s done a lot of crazy shit over the years, and to be honest, I sort of miss him. Keep reading for five of Dennis Rodman’s most insane moments.
For a reason I can’t quite figure out, the 7-2 Cincinnati Bengals signed former Chiefs running back Larry Johnson. Always a man of class and grace, Larry Johnson updated his Facebook page with the following message last night:
“Gonna gallop all over the Chiefs. Cleat prints on the chests. Mud in the face masks.”
Great. At what point do the Bengals regret this signing? Today? And what’s with Larry’s beef with the Chiefs? I suppose he thinks he deserves more respect from his former team after averaging 2.7 yards per carry and becoming a public relations nightmare. So Facebook is the place to gripe. I’m actually somewhat surprised he didn’t refer to Jamaal Charles as a fag.
Wow, talk about being a poster child for going to Europe for a year and hiding out on the bench. Just in case any of you don’t remember, this is the path that Brandon Jennings took.
After graduating from Oak Hill Academy, he decided to play professional basketball the Italian club Lottomatica Roma instead of playing collegiately for the University of Arizona Wildcats, leading to controversy and debate on the NBA’s “prep-to-pro” policy adopted in 2006. After a year in Italy, Jennings declared for the draft and was selected by the Bucks tenth overall.
Controversy huh? I think this is a kid who knew exactly what he was doing. Jennings knew he was an excellent ballplayer and clearly thought he was ready for the NBA. So what’d he do? Instead of going to college for a year he made $2MM bucks to stay in shape, play against pros, and have a kick ass time in Europe.
And what is he doing now?
