Don Nelson Does Something to Make Me Smile

That's right, I agree with him for the first time in a long time. He has decided to bench Jamal Crawford for Friday's game. I have nothing against Crawford and I think he will be a valuable player next year for the Warriors, however, the young people in the Warriors organization have a great opportunity with this blown season to see the court.

I love this move because I do want to see the Warriors looking to the future. One of my beefs with Nellie last year was that he ran his players to death and by March and April, his team was finished. They could not close out their season and therefore missed the playoffs. Next, I'd like to see Corey Maggette's minutes go down dramatically because he tends to get hurt a lot. Not Tracy McGrady hurt, more like whiney kid on your high school basketball team hurt.

-Mark P

Stephen Curry

The countries most overrated athlete. 6 foot three inch, 185 pound Stephen Curry will surely get dominated in the NBA. His small stature, average shot, average speed, and poor decision making can only cut it playing sub-par teams in the NCAA. Stick any guard on him in the NBA and he is going to get shut down like an old P.C..

-Mark P

A's Decide to stay in Oakland

Article here

So after enduring all the whining from A's fans about how "Freemont sucks", and "The OAKLAND A's need to stay in Oakland", it appears that now they will get their wish. The A's will continue to play in that piece of crap stadium that Al Davis ruined.

Don't get me wrong, the Coliseum has a special place in my life. I saw my first ever live professional baseball game there: Dave Stewart pitching against the lowly Royals. I've seen division crowns come down to a 3 game series in the Coliseum vs the hated Angels. I've seen Marco Scutaro hit a walk-off home run against Mariano Rivera. Oh, yes, some fantastic times at the Coliseum. But it's time for us as A's fans to view the sad truth.

The A's have one of the top 3 worst facilities in Major League Baseball. Other candidates for the list include: The Metrodome, Tropicana Stadium and Dodger Stadium. That's right, Dodger stadium. I hate Dodger Stadium and everything that it represents. When you go to an A's game, aside from being greeted by half empty bleachers and fantastic food, you can't help but notice the monstrosity that has been erected in center field. It's hard to believe that this is what the Coliseum used to look like.

The advent of the Raiders doomed the Coliseum's hopes of continuing to be a legitimate MLB ballpark. Here is my solution. Raiders: go away. Go share your stadium with the 49ers, go play in LA, do whatever. Just take that terrible brand of football elsewhere and give a good baseball team its stadium back. The part about the Oakland Coliseum that infuriates me the most is that when football season starts is right when baseball season is entering its stretch run. In September penants are being decided and games are at their most exciting. What's a great way to ruin a baseball game? Have the players play on a field that is marked up with yard lines and numbers. The football/baseball field is not only visually displeasing, it's also terrible for both sports. While football players have to deal with getting tackled on infield dirt, baseball players have to deal with a torn up outfield and uneven infield surface. The situation is beneficial to no one, especially not fans and players.

All this being said, I do understand the money issue. Especially in this economy it is hard to move a team to a new stadium and maintain the fan base. I couldn't care less about the Raiders. But I just want the A's to be in Northern California for the rest of my life. I would tolerate a slightly longer drive to a slightly more whack location if it means I'm seeing a better game environment and better baseball.

-Bryce B

Highlife

That's right, Highlife. If super bowl commercials had their own oscar, you better believe Miller's "Highlife" commercial would take home the bacon. It was tastefully done, the point got across, it was highly anticipated and it did not fail to impress. It took an entire one second. It was genius.

-Mark P

Greg Oden

Greg Oden may quite possibly have the most potential in the NBA right now. I predict, however, he will fall well short of his full potential. The kid is T-Mac, Gilbert Arenas, and D-Wade combined. He bruises easier then apples. He has the size and athleticism to dominate the paint, but if he keeps getting injured, he will be forgotten within a couple years of his career ending injury.

-Mark P

TIGER!!!

The most dominant athlete in the history of the sport of golf is prepared to make his return to the pro tour. After a heroic showing in last year's US Open in which he defeated fan favorite Rocco Mediate in an epic 18 hole playoff...all while on a torn ACL and a double stress fractured tibia, Tiger had surgery to repair his tattered leg and missed the rest of the season. But now he's back, scheduled to make his return for the Accenture Match Play Championship.

One of the things analysts were discussing after the surgery was who is gonna be the guy that will step up in Tiger's place and be the new force in professional golf. The answer is no one. Rocco was unable to ride his wave of momentum after taking the best golfer ever down to the wire. Sergio has still yet to win a major tournament. Vijay has seemingly fallen off the face of the earth. And Phil...is still being Phil: the not so lovable loser. With no up-and-comer (save Padraig Harrington I suppose) there is no reason to believe that Tiger will not be able to win this year.

"The Tiger Effect" is a very real thing in the world of professional golf. The bottom line is, the guys on the tour are afraid to play against him. No one wants to be matched up with Tiger on Sunday, with a major title on the line; especially if he has the lead. I would venture to say that we haven't seen a competitor quite like Tiger since Michael Jordan. It matters very little to him what his opponents do, all he cares about is how well he is playing. And as we all know, when Tiger plays well, there is no one in the world that can beat him.

Asked about his expectations for the year: "Nothing changes from every tournament I enter--it's to win. That's my intent, to go in there and win. Nothing has ever changed." Those words have got to worry the rest of the field. All this being said, I think Tiger will win one major championship this year. I think he will win one of the latter two majors--either the British Open or the PGA Championship. But I will not be shocked if he wins more than one. And I certainly won't be surprised if he wins the Match Play Championship this weekend.

Bryce B

Zach Randolph

Video

This is a video of Zach Randolph sucker punching Lou Amundson. This punch connected to Amundson's jaw. This kind of behavior is unacceptable in any league except hockey, and even then, sucker punching someone would be enough to get jumped by four other people.

It was flat out dangerous. Amundson took the punch like a champ, but he could have fared far worse. Some have speculated that this could result in a two-game suspension, but I think that number is outrageously low. He could have done serious damage. He is out of control. He should not be on a court until he decides punching people maybe isn't a good idea. He didn't just push Amundson around; let me be clear, he flat out sucker punched him like a coward. He should be out for a minumum of seven games and if it were up to me, I'd suspend him for the rest of the season.

-Mark P

Three Point Competition

The three point competition is not a very serious event. Its purpose is to get a group of guys together who shoot the ball well as to show the crowd a good time. Warrior announcers (Jim Barnett and Bob Fitzgerald) have been chirping for weeks about how Anthony Morrow and Kelenna Azubuike were robbed of the opportunity to participate. Anthony Morrow leads the league in three point percentage and Buike is not far behind at third.

The ultimate question is; what does it take to get into the contest? Answer: you have to be a household name who is known for shooting the trey. Question to J. Barnett: is Morrow a household name? Answer: absolutely not. Sure he shoots it well but that is not all it takes to get into the contest. The spirit of the contest is to have a good time. It is by no means a serious competition. The fans don't want to see Morrow shooting it; they want to see someone they might of heard of shooting the ball. End of story.

-Mark P

The Kings

Here are the Kings' problems (in no particular order):

Coaching: while I disagree with the philosophy of firing the coach to solve a team's problems, if the Kings are going to move in a new direction they will need a coach who is up to the task. A coach who stresses defense and rebounding. A coach who has both the vision and the intelligence to make that vision a reality. In the rebuilding process, the coach is perhaps the most vital aspect.

Defense: The Kings give up 108 points a game. Nothing else needs to be said about that.

Big Men: The Kings front line is soft. Here is a unit that no one in the NBA respects and for good reason. The lack of a true post player has been a trait of Kings teams going back to the days of Olden Polynice. Having a respected big man does a number of teams for a ball club: prevents guards from driving to the basket at will, draws double teams which enables shooters (Martin, Garcia) to get open easier, blocks shots so the thought is at least in the mind of the opposing team and most importantly rebounds the damn basketball.

Leadership: the Kings have no leader. Kevin Martin is the best player but is he the guy everyone looks to in the locker room? The team appears to have put its faith in Beno as their point guard but is he ready to assume the role of leader? Brad Miller? Yeah right.

Lack of a Marketable Player: There is no face of the franchise right now. The Kings have no player who is easily identifiable. If the casual basketball fan were to see a picture of Kevin Martin it is likely that they would fail to identify him. Publicity is a good way for a team to gain respect and a great way to increase desirability for free agents.

Fans: Arco Arena is dead. There is no excitement, no enthusiasm, and for some games barely any fans. Sacramento has gone from bringing the ruckus every night to not caring. This will not change until the team puts a better product on the court.

Brad Miller: He just needs to be traded to clear salary cap room so the rebuilding effort can seriously get underway.

Too many of the same player: Swing men like Francisco Garcia, John Salmons and Quincy Douby are a dime a dozen in the NBA. Instead of taking up roster space with players like that, why not add some depth at point guard or on the front line?

Ownership?: Sometimes I wonder if building a successful basketball team is the Maloof's first priority. They have their casino and all that now in Las Vegas. I feel like maybe their commitment to the team is no longer as strong as it used to be.

I still maintain my faith in Geoff Petrie. I believe that if anyone can fix this mess it is him. I will not abandon hope. I truly believe that the days of Arco Thunder will return.

Go Kings!

-Bryce B

The State of Baseball

Can I start by saying what a joke the Yankees are? They easily had the leagues largest salary; paying their players 207 million (the second team were the Mets paying their players 127 million). A-Rod had the most expensive contract at 28 million while the Florida's entire team roster was merely at 22 million. How is a team like Florida expected to compete? Anyways, the Yankees massive salary did not yield a desirable outcome considering they missed the playoffs completely. How pathetic is that?

Moving on; 22 million vs. 207 million dollars. Almost 10 times as much money. Plain ridiculous. How can the MLB just let this happen?

This won't ever fix itself considering no one is going to want to go see a team with virtually no prospect of making the playoffs. Disclaimer: they ironically did finish with a winning record but that is beside the point. The point is; they will still be poor. Bad teams will still be poor. And being poor will give you a bad team. It's a cycle that needs to be attended to.

Teams like the Oakland A's have had times where they thought the future looked bright. Such a young team with plenty of talent that needed to be developed. However, when this talent develops it goes right over to the Yankees who can afford to pay, let's face it, whatever they want. My buddy pointed out that they were just another farm league for the Yankees to choose from.

Something needs to be done.

-Mark P

The State of Basketball

Watching the Warriors last week reminded me of how off base the NBA has gone. The Warriors had the ball in the a tied game with seconds left in the fourth quarter. Stephen Jackson gets the ball. After a couple seconds of him doing nothing go by, he attempts to take a shot over Bowen. Did I say over? And did I say attempt to take a shot? That is not what happened at all. Instead of trying to score the people are supposed to score in the NBA, Jackson dug his way into the body of Bowen and through the ball to the area of the basket trying to get to the line. His effort did not pay off.

However, I have seen many things like this happen; the shooter jumps forward into the defender while shooting trying to get to the line. This pays off about 75% of the time. When I think of the word foul, I think of a someone who makes too much contact with someone on the other team. So my question is; who initiates the contact in this situation? Every time I see something like this happen I want to make a call to David Stern telling him fix this atrocious behavior that has become so popular.

This same logic applies similarly to other situation that occur in basketball. In my mind, the defensive player has the same right to the basketball as the offensive player. The defensive player also has the same right to be on any given part of the floor as the offensive player. The game loses its integrity when an offensive player drives right through the defensive player and drawing a foul. How ludicrous is this? I honestly don't understand why this rule is in place. Set or not, the defensive player has every right to be where he is, as long he isn't jumping into the offensive players way. I understand that this is well within the rules so I am not calling out the offense. I am, however, calling for a change in the rules.

Point three: drawing charges is also something that blows my mind. When you have a guy coming full force into the lane, sure, go ahead and don't move and get your charge call. That isn't what bothers me. What bothers me is the defense using this rule to as if it is a skill one picks up. I've seen Shaq be the victim of this many times. Let's face it, the man is slow as hell. If he is has to drive to the basket, the defense could easily get in front of him to draw the charge, and it happens 50% of the time. What happened to playing basketball? Officials should use some common sense and give the fouls to those that deserve them.

Point 4: intentional fouling. Again, lets play basketball. If you are beat at the end of the game, instead of intentional fouling, play basketball. Have some respect.

In soccer, if a player flops, he gets a yellow card. I propose we do the same thing in basketball. T up the coward who decided he wasn't good enough to play his opponent.

-Mark P

Steroids in Baseball: A Sad Fan's View

Let me start by saying that the whole steroid "thing" in baseball makes me more sad than anything else. While it does make me angry, disappointed, skeptical and confused, the prevailing emotion for me is sadness. Some of my best sports memories were created by athletes who it now appears used banned substances. Who could forget The Bash Brothers? As a proud Oakland A's fan, I can say that both McGwire and Canseco (along with hall of famers such as Dave Stewart and Ricky Henderson) were among my favorite players early in life. Then there was the summer of 1998. And what a summer that was. We saw unprecedented stuff from Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire. I'll never forget the moment I learned about McGwire blasting #62. Then of course there was Barry Bonds, who took everything to a new level. In a park that was seemingly designed for him to hit home runs he put on a show that I can still scarcely believe. In a three year span he went from being a hall of fame 4-tool player (we all know he never had a very good arm) to the greatest and most feared presence at the plate in Major League Baseball history.

As a young Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux once pointed out in one of Nike's best commercials, "chicks dig the long ball". However, chicks aren't the only ones who dig the long ball, we as baseball fans dig the long ball as well. It cannot be denied that the home run chase of 1998 propelled Major League Baseball to new levels of popularity. It's almost clear that the Lame Duck commissioner Bud Selig turned a blind eye to the goings on regarding performance enhancing drugs to boost the popularity of baseball. There's something majestic and captivating about the home run, Major League Baseball had to have realized that this was its biggest draw. As a result of this though baseball is now getting loads of negative publicity; perhaps more than ever.

I am all for cleaning up the game. If it takes urine tests, blood tests, lie detector tests, whatever, just get it done. Here's a couple things that I think are wrong though. First of all, what in the world is congress doing involved in this? I hate how the steroid "investigations" are turning into a witch hunt. If you watch the testimonies of McGwire, Sosa, Clemens and Palmeiro (sp) before congress, you can't help but notice that they bear striking similarity to the McCarthy communist trials. That is not right. Second, I hate how superstars are being singled out. Reportedly there are upwards of a hundred players who tested positive in 2003, why haven't all the names been released. I hate how it's only a big deal when the best players do it, while average and mediocre players who used PEDs get to fly under the radar while the big guys take the fall.

As far as I'm concerned there's nothing that can really be "done" at this point. The idea of revoking MVP awards, batting titles and records as a way of showing a firm stance against steroids is ridiculous. Because where does it stop? Should MLB also take back the World Series titles that the Yankees won with Clemens on the team? Should the A's lose their 1989 World Series because of Canseco and McGwire? Should the Giants lose their 2002 National League championship because of Barry Bonds? Absolutely not. Do we give Bonds' MVP awards to the runners up of those years? Or do we just have no MVP? The point is, there is far too much "stuff" to go case by case. Are we going to have no hall of famers from the steroid era? How ridiculous would that be? I think Bonds, A-Rod and Clemens all belong in the hall of fame and they deserve to keep all of the awards they won.

Baseball changes with the times. Let's not forget that ballparks are a lot smaller now than they used to be. How many homers would Hammerin' Hank and the Babe have hit if they played in this era? Let's not forget that after Bob Gibson posted an outrageous 1.12 ERA, baseball decided that the mound should be lowered because pitchers were becoming too dominant. That is a fundamental change in the way the game is played, and yet nobody is saying that we should take away any of Cy Young's wins because he had the unfair advantage of pitching from a higher mound. The game changes, and the players change with the game. If I had a hall of fame vote I would vote in Bonds, Clemens and A-Rod when his time comes.

-Bryce B

Superbowl

This year, we had an epic superbowl. Santonio Holmes made a fantastic catch. Watching it live, I had no doubt that he was not in bounds. The catch seemed impossible. It took me three replays to recover from my shock and realize the kid made a great catch. I couldn't have asked for anything more at that point.

However, I was a little disappointed with the last play of the game. Watching it live, I wasn't sure if Warner got the ball off or not. Watching the replays, I still could not tell. To this day, I do not know whether or not it was a throw or a fumble. But the officials decided to not review the play. What a blunder. It was a close play that happened to be the last play of an entire season. With no review. Very disappointing.

-Mark P

Playoffs

My Golden State Warriors would need to win the rest of their games (30) in order to make the playoffs. We believe. Just kidding.

At this point in the season, Don Nelson should be playing those who earn the playing time and not necessarily those that will help win the game. Since the playoffs are off the table, they are virtually playing for nothing (or maybe for a better draft spot). That being said, they could use the thirty games they have left to keep the franchise players from playing too many minutes and find out how the others fare in the NBA. It could be a good learning experience if Nellie decides to do what is best for the Warriors.

-Mark P

Steroids in Baseball

I am glad to see the MLB is cracking down on steroid users. However, I'd like to see a more strict disciplinary system for those who decided to use the substance. For those who did use (and can be proven), they should stripped of all their awards earned after using the substance.

It is no coincidence that the top six single season HR totals were tallied by those who doped. My point is; how can current major league hitters compete? They should be held to a different standard than those who chose to the rules of the game.

My second point deals with future baseball players. High school and college athletes will look at the major league and its players and see plenty of the players took steroids to up their game. Why is it fair for these kids to compete against the users?

Steroids has no place in baseball. In order to keep it out, action has to be taken to throw out everything steroids has tainted. Including hall of fame status' and any other personal achievement. Those who have used steroids and are still in the league should be removed.

-Mark P