Stephen Strasburg Alert

I wanted to wait a for a couple of starts before I jumped on the Stephen Strasburg bandwagon. Now I’m driving it. Let’s take a look at his numbers after 5 starts: 2 wins, 2 losses, 2.27 era, and 48 strikeouts in just 31 innings. It’s too bad he can’t pitch every day. Its also too bad that he can’t hit either because his team sucks offensively. There were a lot of naysayers before this kid got drafted. No one thought risking a #1 pick on a pitcher was worth it, especially since he’s not an everyday player. But the $15.1 million the Nationals signed this kid for was worth every penny. There’s a lot to be said about knowing that you are going to win every 5th game. All the Nats need to do now is shore up their offense. They’re in a tough division with the Phillies, Braves and Mets but having a young cornerstone like Strasburg is something any team would love to build around. Being 6’4, 220 lbs ain’t hurting him either. He’s pitching this coming weekend against the Mets and hopefully his team will get him a win after going winless in the last 3 starts. We’re witnessing something special.

Brazile Serves Chile’

This was supposed to be the game of the game.  Brazil, Chile, two South American old school giants matched up against each other in the first round of the playoffs.  What we got instead was a 3-0 ass-whooping. This game wasn’t even as close as the score indicated.  It took about 34 minutes for the first goal to come in, but then they came in a flurry.  I don’t know how you can allow 2 goals in 4 minutes.  One thing I wanna stop seeing is players raising their hands when they think there’s an offsides.  This happened on a close play when Brazil scored. Instead of looking for a call, they should have been playing defense and not allowing players to walk into the goal.  Looks like Brazil advances to the next round.  Is it just me or does Brazil play at a completely different level than anyone else?  Nice to watch a game without any officiating controversy.

ENGLAND: FIFA REFS BURN THE BRITS

What a HUGE MISTAKE!!! The 2010 World Cup is going to go down as one of the most infamous ones ever.  I’ve never seen so many refs blow so many calls.  Quick recap on today’s game: England goes down to Germany 2-1.  Late in the first half, England mid-fielder Frank Lampard seems to score against the Germans when he hit the cross-bar and ball bounced almost 3 feet past the goal line. Goal right? WRONG!!! Refs don’t see it, instead of a brand new game headed into the half, the Brits are devastated.  They shouldn’t have even come out in the second half.  I don’t want to hear anything about, “well, they lost by 3 goals so it doesn’t make a difference.”  As an athlete myself, you take away a goal that could’ve tied up the game, it changes EVERYTHING. You feel out of gas.  England would’ve come out with a completely different game plan in the second half. I’m not going to even get into the bad no-call in the Argentina-Mexico game because I wanted Mexico to lose.  But it’s just not fair to the players.  U.S. got burned a couple times by bad reffing.  FIFA hasn’t done shit because U.S. is too nice.  Now England.  Still, no comment. Let me tell you what it’s gonna take for FIFA to do something like implement instant replay: Brazil or Argentina need to get burned by a bad call; either that or one of these refs are gonna get shot. I’ll tell what else, the German goalkeeper needs to get fined for conning the refs. Throw in all the flops and the World Cup has turned into a freakin’ drama performance.  Win the game on its merits for pete’s sake…

TIME TO DISCUSS THIS USC DEBACLE

I”ve had mixed feelings about this scandal.  On the one hand, we all knew something fishy was going on with O.J. Mayo.  We knew Mayo was going to play for SC for 1 year to showcase his talent and then take off.  We knew this before he even signed with SC. So I think the punishment that USC got, 1 year Big Dance ban was well deserved.  I don’t think that they should’ve punished the team after Mayo left.  Moving on to Reggie Bush, all Bush had to do is pay back the $300,000 he owed to this f-ing agent that loaned him all that cash and put up his family in a fat house in San Diego.  I have no doubt that SC was aware of this.  But the fact that Bush delayed in settling the case and still to this day admits no wrongdoing makes me sick.  SC got was it deserved with respect to the punishments, but the present athletes are getting burned.  The NCAA and the NFL/NBA need to come to some sort of disciplining agreement.  These athletes are banging their schools and leaving for the pros and signing million dollar contracts before they get caught and the school and students are left burning in the aftermath. Now this type of “cheating” happens everywhere.  Make no mistake that almost every big time college program in this country has some sort of down low shit like this going on.  The problem with SC was that they didn’t nip it in the bud. They let it get too big.  They made a laughing stock out of the NCAA, especially with their “above the law” attitude. For nearly a decade, SC was on top of the world.  Now, SC is begging for only a 1 year bowl ban instead of 2 and only 15 scholarships revoked instead of 30.  It’s going to take at least 5 years for USC to recover from the effects of these sanctions. Looks like everyone’s favorite coach Pete Carroll escaped at the right time.  He was a great coach, but I guarantee that this guy knew what was going on. Now I have to trash my Reggie Bush jersey.  One piece of advice for Bush, no one gives a shit about your opinion, if you’re not going to come clean, shut your mouth. Most overrated/overhyped college recruit in years. AARRRRGGGHHHHHHH!!!!! Better not show your face on campus.

JOHN WALL: MEET THE NATIONS NEW CAPITAL

And the #1 pick of the NBA draft is…. John Wall of the Kentucky Wildcats. Hearing those words must be euphoric. Something finally went right for the Washington Wizards.  After a tumultuous season with all the Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Critterton debacle, this team, THIS CITY, finally is headed the right way.  First, the Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg surpasses all expectations and now Wall. It’s a good time to be living in the nation’s capital. Wall averaged 17 points, 4 rebounds and over 6 assists a game in college.  Sure it’s not the NBA, but this kid’s projected to be a star and I’m a believer.  I also like the rumors about Washington acquiring Kirk Hinrich from Chicago.  This kid’s a true point guard and has that “I hate to lose” attitude. Alongside a scorer like Wall, it would be a smooth transition from Derek Rose. For Chicago, it frees up cap space for the Lebron James sprint about to start in a week. If I’m Washington, I try to move Gilbert Arenas as soon as possible, maybe try to get a big man.  I wouldn’t want Arenas and his gangsta bullshit to touch or even be in the same room as Wall.  Remember when Portland gave away Zach Randolph after they drafted Greg Oden?  Hopefully, we’ll never mention Wall and Oden in the same sentence again.

WORLD CUP: U.S. Saves Best for Last

From what looked like deja vu for the U.S. turned into an instant classic.  This game was a nail biter.  The U.S. had to win to advance, after England took an early 1-0 lead over Slovenia.  Clint Dempsey appeared to score off a rebound from Hercules Gomez’ shot but the referee decided to make another bonehead and controversial call, flagging Dempsey for offsides, no goal (more on that later). After multiple, and I mean multiple U.S. blown chances, it seemed like U.S. was going to tie Slovenia and head home early.  But then it happened.  3 1/2 minutes left in extra time, the U.S. counter-attached, four on two, shoot, block, Landon Donovan shoot, GOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLL!!!! And were off into the next round against Ghana on Saturday.  That’s gonna be a tough game. Just want to make a note of a couple of points: (1) Slovenia seemed like they were content with a tie; didn’t someone tell them that they needed to win to advance; (2) ENOUGH OF THE HORRIBLE OFFICIATING.  How many controversial calls have been made this World Cup? I know at least 2 against the U.S. Give me a break.  We movin’ on to the next round!!!

NBA: BEWARE OF THE GRIFFIN

Blake Griffin is ready.  Rumors have this guy practicing at 100%.  I’ve been waiting for this kid to explode into the NBA since last year, but he got bit with the Clippers curse, injuring his knee in the last preseason game.  There were rumors of Blake returning to the Clippers during the regular season but apparently, the extent of his injury was never disclosed to the public.  Not until the Clippers shut him down for the remainder of the season.  When this kid was drafted #1, every person in the Clippernation thought and actually believed that he was the missing link, the key in turning this sinking ship around. Franky, I didn’t blame them.  He was tearing it up in college and preseason.  He had an NBA physique and a humble, blue collar attitude.  A starting lineup with Baron Davis, Eric Gordon, Blake Griffin, Chris Kaman and Rasual Butler is a 5 that can match up with any team in the league.  Let’s hope that he’s beaten the curse so the Clips can give those guys across the hall a fight.

PORTUGAL GIVES A WORLD CUP WHOOPIN’

7-0, is that a football score or a futbol score?  Winning by 2 or 3 goals gives you some serious street cred but how about 7? Portugal laid it on North Korea today.  6 different players scored for Portugal.  Twice, they scored in a span of less than 7 minutes.  The first flurry came right after the half.  I wonder what their coach told them in the locker room.  Portugal fans can somewhat rest assure, as their leader Christiano Ronaldo scored the 6th goal on an ugly play by both teams. Far cry from the North Korea team that hung with Brazil, 2-1, in their last loss. Thanks for coming though.  Mega game coming up Friday, Brazil against Portugal.  Get ready for real soccer.  It’s been fun with the Ivory Coasts, Nigerians, Cameroons, and Honduras’.  Time to put the women and children to sleep.  Time to go get that World Cup.

IVORY COAST FLOPS AGAINST BRAZIL

Thanks for coming Ivory Coast, you have one more consolation game before you get to go back across the mainland to your, say coast.  Over the years, I’ve noticed something about soccer that has disgusted me and frankly turned me off to the game. Flops.  I thought that once Vlade Divac of the Sacramento Kings retired, that would be the end of the flop.  Watching Brazil wax the Ivory Coast today was fun, expected but fun. Then with less than 5 minutes left, after the game had gotten a little chippy, Brazilian All-Star Kaka gave a little shoulder shove to the Ivory Coast’s Kader Keita.  You should’ve seen this guy go flying.  Now either Kaka has superhuman powers or Keita deserves and Emmy for his performance.  Of course, the referees who never see anything gave Kaka his 2nd yellow resulting in a red and ultimately, an ejection.  It doesn’t really matter for Brazil, as they are already advancing to the next round and their next game isn’t that important.  But imagine if it was? This bullshit call could’ve cost Brazil at a chance at the Cup.  I hate to harp on this but FIFA needs to implement some sort of INSTANT replay. Something to review the foul, especially if he’s gonna get ejected out of the game.  I leave it at that. Viva Brazil?!?!

REFEREE SAVES GOAL BY UNITED STATES

You gotta be kidding me?!?!  If this was Columbia or any other South American country, this referee would be 6 feet under by now.  What a travesty!!! After going down 2-0, the United States soccer team clawed back to tie the game in the 82nd minute.  Moments later,  it seemed like the U.S. had completed a comeback for the ages when Maurice Edu took a Landon Donovan kick and stuffed it into the net, only to hear referee Koman Coulibaly’s whistle.  No explanation, just no goal.  How could you make that call? At that time, with 4 minutes left in regulation?  This guy needs to be fired.  FIFA better look into this because this is an atrocity. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that this moron had money on the game.  In fact, I wouldn’t bet against it.  Luckily, all U.S. needs to do is beat Algeria and they advance.  But if this costs them the Cup, welcome to the top Mr. Coulibaly, public enemy #1.