August 1st, 2016

We’ve reached the baseball trade deadline, and the Dodgers do not look like they are going to do anything of significance yet.  Even though they have until 1 pm PST on Monday to do so, don’t hold your breath.  The Boys In Blue have crept within 2 games of the Giants in the NL West, and have a 2 game lead in the wild card standings.  However, Andrew Friedman and the Dodger front office probably look at where they are as a pleasant surprise.  LA has less talent than in previous years, and their next wave of talent is still developing.  The trade market is complete garbage (as is the coming free agent market), so less than impactful players are commanding premium talent.  It’s like a Ford dealer asking $100,00 for a Prius, because there aren’t that many Ferrari’s available.  Still, a player like Jay Bruce makes too much sense for the Dodgers, because they need power in their lineup, and they shouldn’t have to give up top tier prospects to get him.  I guess that explains why all they want to give up is Yasiel Puig, who’s play is about as consistent as Hilary Clinton is on any social or economic issue.    I also love how Dodgers reliever Adam Liberatore told the LA Times that he’s the best left hander in baseball.  Is Clayton Kershaw dead and we just don’t know about it? That’s a pretty awkward statement for Liberatore to make considering arguably the best left-hander of all time is his teammate.

Then there’s the Angels, who endured a rough weekend against the Red Sox.  The Halos ended up splitting four games with Boston, but closer Huston Street blew yesterday’s game in brutal fashion, giving up 5 runs in the 9th inning.  Street cost the Halos last season down the stretch as well, blowing a crucial game against the Astros that probably prevented the Angels from making the playoffs.  At least this year the team won’t have to worry about his games costing them the playoffs, because they stink even when he doesn’t blow games.  On the bright side, Tyler Skaggs looks great, while Matt Shoemaker and Hector Santiago are looking more and more reliable.  In fact, teams have been calling the Angels about Santiago and Shoemaker, but the Angels are hesitant to give up any cost controlled pitching when they barely have any healthy arms for next year.  I’ve never seen a situation like this before: a team that can’t afford to be buyers or sellers.  It’s the worst possible situation, and one that sets up the Angels as no better than a .500 team for the next three years.

For years people criticized Michael Jordan for not being outspoken enough against social issues.  Finally, MJ stepped up and not only spoke out against police brutality against African Americans, but also made a $2 million donation to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and the Institute for Community Police Relations.  Still, journalists like Kevin Blackistone are finding a way to criticize Jordan for his actions.  Blackistone suggested that he donate his money elsewhere, like the Black Lives Matter movement, and also felt that Jordan should encourage Hanes to bring jobs back to the US from overseas.  These types of criticisms are ridiculous because Jordan is simply trying to be part of the solution, and not part of the problem.  How much money did Blackistone donate to Black Lives Matter? Jordan can’t be criticized for putting his money in the place where he feels is best to solve the problem.  Also, the notion that bringing back jobs to the US will suddenly improve relations between policemen and African Americans is shortsighted.  Jordan should absolutely be applauded for stepping up and speaking out.  As for why he never acted before, his livelihood was never impacted the way social issues impacted the livelihood of Muhammad Ali, Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, and Jim Brown.  Times change, and Jordan should be credited with adapting to the changing social environment around us.

The Clippers are reportedly exploring options to move to a new arena.  It’s about time this happened, however, it won’t be easy.  The Clippers are the bastard child of the Los Angeles sports market.  They have their best team they’ve ever had, yet their popularity is unchanged.  Do you have any idea how difficult it’s going to be to get approval to build an arena on the westside of Los Angeles? I highly doubt Steve Ballmer could get the approval to build in Santa Monica, Westwood, or even Inglewood.  Look how hard it was just to get a football stadium approved in Inglewood. That makes me think he would consider Orange County, but suburban stadium and arena building is becoming a thing of the past.  There’s still some conspiracy theorests that think this is all the start of a ploy to eventually move the team to Seattle.  However, those that think that just don’t understand business.  Even as the least relevant sports franchise in the Los Angeles market, the Clippers are still far more valuable in Los Angeles than they are in Seattle.  The same way a piece of real estate is more valuable in Southern California than it is many other places in this country, the Clippers can command more TV money in LA than in Seattle.  The Nets just recently built a beautiful new arena in Brooklyn but it didn’t make them any more relevant compared to the Knicks in New York.  Expect the same with the Clippers if they build a new arena.

The next time the NBA collective bargaining agreement is negotiated, it’s going to be interesting to see which way the owners decide to go.  Do they care more about making money, or competitive balance?  During the last negotiation, it appeared as though they wanted competitive balance, but in the end it was all about profitability.  Now there’s whispers that they want more competitive balance again.  They hate the idea of super teams, like the one Kevin Durant just created by signing with the Golden State Warriors.  If the owners are really serious about competitive balance, they might consider a rule that allows them to place a “franchise tag” on one player on their roster.  Under that rule they could pay one player as much as they wanted without it counting against the salary cap.  That would likely eliminate super teams from being created, but the owners might balk at that since it would cost them quite a bit of money.  Just think, a player like Lebron James might get $50 million a year from a team.  Even though that might eliminate the super teams, it would give the bigger markets a competitive advantage over the smaller markets when bidding for superstars.  It would also expose certain owners as being cheap or more frugal than others.  Ultimately, I think the owners care more about profitability than anything else, but we’ll find out come the next negotiation.

What a great turnout the Rams had at UC Irvine over the weekend as training camp opened up.  10,000 fans showed up on Saturday, and they had another great turnout on Sunday.  I stopped by for a couple of hours to watch practice, and the energy surrounding the team was incredible.  Jared Goff looked a lot better in the last two days than he did at the end of OTA’s.  However, it probably won’t matter who the Rams quarterback is because they really don’t have any reliable wide receivers who can make plays.  The teams success is going to rest on their defense, and how effective they can run the football with Todd Gurley, who looks like one of the best backs in the game.  We’ll see how long the honeymoon lasts, but this is definitely going to be a brutal division to play in.  Also, now that Nick Foles has been released by the Rams, he should have plenty of free time to film Napolean Dynamite 2.

Elsewhere around NFL training camps, Tony Romo decided to add 20 LBS of fat to protect his collarbone, since the Cowboys offensive line couldn’t do so.  The Titans have signed Andre Johnson.  His retirement plans is to play on a worse AFC South team this year.  Anquan Boldin will sign with the Lions.  At 106 years old, he should be an excellent replacement for Calvin Johnson.  Josh Gordon celebrated his re-instatement with a few more bong rips.  Starting next Sunday, there will be professional football every Sunday until February.  Unless of course you live in Cleveland.  It’s going to be hilarious when Ryan Fitzpatrick returns to his horrendous play after his dramatic contract standoff with the Jets.

Someone asked me about Sharknado yesterday, and why they needed to make four of these movies.  I explained that this was a very complex question.  One that is similar to “what happens after we die?” Or “Are there other forms of life in the universe?”  Then again, those questions can probably also be answered just by watching a movie or two on the SyFy channel.  Sure enough Sharknado 4 premiered last night on SyFy, and once again, this mock buster nearly broke Twitter.  This movie actually featured Gary Busey, who was a mad scientist.  I think it’s far more likely a Sharknado occurs before Gary Busey would be any kind of a scientist.  Speaking of Busey, if you played a drinking game while watching the movie, your BAC still wouldn’t be higher than that of either Busey or Tara Reid.  I still think a movie about a Sharknado is far more factual than the Republican and Democratic National conventions combined.   If this movie has taught us anything though, it’s that Apple needs to come out with a shark emoji instead of that stupid whale emoji we are forced to use if we need it.

Finally, the RNC and the DNC were like nothing we have ever seen before.  This is the new reality TV.  It’s polarizing drama that people are tuning in for, just to see what kind of disaster is going to happen next.  At this point though, it would take WWIII or martial law to keep Obama as President.  Maybe WWIII is better than Trump or Hillary?  Every single speaker at the DNC was fantastic.  All I could think about was how all of them would make better Presidents than her.  I’m also amazed at the networks.  CNN used to hide their democratic bias.  Not anymore.  We always knew Fox News wore the Republican tendencies on their sleeve.  However, in this election, watching two networks that are totally polar opposite extremes is way more interesting than watching a balanced perspective.  Still, I don’t need 9 analysts on CNN giving me their opinion.  That’s right folks…NINE! CNN apparently thinks this is NFL Primetime.

July 25th, 2016

Last week Kobe wrote a letter to his 17 year old self in The Players Tribune.  You would think the letter might reflect back on what he might have done differently in his career, but it was much different than that.  The letter was a sad reminder of just how fractured Kobe’s relationship is with his parents.  Kobe essentially said that if he could do it all over again, he wouldn’t give his family and friends material things, but rather give them opportunity to help them achieve for themselves.  It’s truly a shame that their relationship has fractured to the point of Kobe not feeling like he should take care of people in his life that took care of him at one point.  That’s not to say though that Kobe’s attitude is wrong.  The man has a tireless work ethic in whatever he does, and it’s clear that he is trying to inspire those around him.    Kobe is a complex person, but that definitely played a key role in getting him to where he is in life.  If the rest of us wrote a letter to our 17 year old selves, we’d probably just remind ourselves to wear a condom or find a better fake ID.

USC cornerback Isaiah Langley has been suspended by the Trojans for the season opening game against Alabama.  Langley was arrested on suspicion of three misdemeanor offenses in May, including being intoxicated and trespassing on the UCLA campus after a fraternity party.  Langley was a backup last year, and probably won’t be looked at as a critical missing piece when the Trojans take on Alabama in week 1.  However, most schools, especially those rednecks in the SEC, would probably just hit the kid with a slap on the wrist and have him suit up anyway.  Hopefully this is Clay Helton with an early statement about how he will treat discipline.  I guess we’ll never know though until one of his star players gets in trouble.  Nevertheless, Langley’s arrest after trespassing is a reminder that even USC football players can’t get into the UCLA.

To baseball where the Dodgers are still holding their breath on the health of ace Clayton Kershaw.   Skipper Dave Roberts seemed to have lost command of the English language because everyone suddenly come away with the impression that Kershaw might need season ending surgery.  If that happens they might as well just pack it in and go home, because they couldn’t contend with Kershaw, and they sure as hell won’t contend without him.  Even though LA took two out of three against the Cardinals, they have blown a serious opportunity to gain more ground on the Giants.  San Fran is sinking like the Titanic but the Dodgers are providing them with plenty of life rafts.  Kenley Jansen is still a great closer and all, but he has blown some pretty awful saves this year, and it feels like the Cards still have his number.  He’s also probably exhausted from all that extra work LA gave him in the early going, while they fixed a bullpen that was garbage at the time.  There’s also the teams mind blowing inability to hit with runners in scoring position, which is totally pathological, as is Andrew Friedman’s incompetent devotion to analytics.  At this point the trade market is awful, and I’d be angry if the Dodgers gave up an important prospect for a mediocre player, when they are more than 1 player away from truly contending.  This especially when you consider that they refused to give up prospects when the likes of David Price, Johnny Cueto, Cole Hamels, and Aroldis Chapman were available a year ago.

Then there’s the Angels who got destroyed in Houston over the weekend, getting swept in three games.  Tim Lincecum gave up 8 runs in just over 1 inning of work, including three home runs.  These days that should count as a “quality start” for an Angels pitcher, since he didn’t need his arm surgically replaced when the game was over.  The same can’t be said for Andrew Heaney, Garrett Richards, and most recently Nick Tropeano, who needs Tommy Johns as well.  You can add CJ Cron to that disabled list too.  After a nice little win streak to start the 2nd half, the Angels came crashing back to last place in the West, and reminded us that 2016 is over, and 2017 might as well be too.  They only have three healthy starters under contract next year, making it difficult to trade anybody to improve their horrendous farm system.  In other words, not only do the Angels not have the assets to be buyers at the trade deadline, they probably can’t afford to give up their limited pitching assets to be sellers, especially with horrible options coming up in free agency.

I don’t know if Chris Sales is either a total genius, or if he has the maturity of a 5 year old.  Sales was not happy with the White Sox throwback jersey on Saturday, so he cut it up with scissors.  How could he destroy all that hard work put in by all those Asian children?  The Sox actually have pretty cool throwbacks.  Can you imagine what he would have done if he had to wear the Astros or Padres throwback jerseys or if he had to wear one of those ugly NBA jerseys with sleeves? He would probably take a bazooka or a grenade launcher to them.  Sales probably does have the maturity of a 5 year old, however, he might have done this just so no team would want to trade for him, and bring that immaturity into their locker room.  Then again, maybe the Sox will just decide they need to get him out of their clubhouse ASAP.  I guess we’ll find out shortly.

The IOC decided not to ban the entire Russian Olympic team from next months summer games.  This comes after everyone knows that virtually all their athletes participated in institutionalized doping.  This decision had to have been made out of fear that Vladimir Putin has some major dirt on the IOC.    I’m sure much of this includes bribes accepted for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, among other ridiculous corruption.  How else do you explain the IOC giving the Summer Olympics to Brazil? That country has more problems Johnny Manziel.  I love the Olympic Games and what they are supposed to stand for, but I hate what they are turning into with each passing day.  The IOC is looking more and more like it’s run by a bunch of third world miscreants that could care less about what the Olympics mean, and only want a pay day regardless of the collateral damage.

Tiger Woods announced that he is out for the season.  Why do we care? Because golf just hasn’t been the same without a dominant Tiger.  For years, the PGA has been trying to sell us on Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, and other “young stars”.  Nonsense.  Not a single one of these guys are half as dominant as Tiger Woods was in his prime, and to this day, none of them can hold an audience the way Tiger can.  He’ll never be what he used to be, but I’m still holding out hope that Tiger can give us another exciting couple of major victories.

June 27th, 2016

The Lakers didn’t screw up the draft.  They didn’t overthink it, and took what the 76ers didn’t take, which was Brandon Ingram.  Ingram is arguably the best player in this years draft, and easily the best fit for the Lakers.  More importantly, the Lake Show is finally developing an identity.  That is defined by uptempo, position-less basketball.  Ingram can play 3 positions.  So can Julius Randle, while Jordan Clarkson and D’Angelo Russell can play both guard spots.  If you are ok with building around youth and assuming you’re doing it with the right guys, the Lakers are off to a great start.  As for free agency, I find it strange that the Lakers don’t have a meeting scheduled with Kevin Durant, even if the odds of Blake Lively becoming my girlfriend are greater than him signing in LA.  Maybe Mitch Kupchak is going to try to lock down another veteran or two, and then attempt to secure a meeting with Durant.  Otherwise, there isn’t going to be much to pitch to Durant, other than how nice the beach is in Southern California.  For a team that’s been so superstar hungry the last few years, its hard to believe that Kupchak doesn’t have a plan.  He has one, and regardless of how effective it’s going to be, he knows how to operate with the secrecy of the FBI.

As for D’Angelo Russell, his Foot Locker commercial where he poked fun of his cell phone incident was very well done.  No matter how much you hate Russell for breaking “the man code”, he’s owning up to what he did, and it’s part of the maturation process for a teenager that is new to the NBA.  Then there’s Nick Young, and I don’t think there’s any way that those two can be teammates again, after D-Lo essentially monetized the incident with the commercial.  I don’t think anybody really cares though, because ultimately, Nick Young was the one who cheated on his girlfriend, and nobody wants him on the Lakers anymore.  Actually, the biggest trade of the NBA offseason so far has been Swaggy trading his classic Impala back to Iggy Azalea, in exchange for his engagement ring.  In case you haven’t seen Russell’s Foot Locker commercial, here it is…..

Meanwhile, the Clippers actually had a first round pick this year.  Doc Rivers made a solid, but predictable 1st round draft choice with Brice Johnson.  Johnson might end up being a useful player off the bench, however, Doc Rivers General Manager playbook continues as follows: draft players out of the ACC, and acquire players who played well against you, played for you in Boston, or are related to you.  This type of cookie-cutter operation should keep the Clippers in 2nd round purgatory indefinitely.

On to baseball, where the Dodgers have found a way to fall further and further behind the Giants in the NL West.  I guess Clayton Kershaw must be washed up since he gave up 4 runs last night to the Pirates.  Keep in mind, LA is falling further and further behind after a stretch where prior to their series against Pittsburgh, they played their best baseball of the season, which still hasn’t been good enough.  They are barely hanging on in the wild card race, and some of you seem to think this is ok given the youth on the team.  As far as I’m concerned, this has been unacceptable.  When Andrew Friedman took over the team, the Dodgers had a roster that was a World Series contender.  Now they likely won’t even make the playoffs.  Even if they did, I don’t care what the statistics say, I wouldn’t trust any Dodger starters not named Clayton Kershaw in a playoff game.  Frankly, the Dodgers are a lot closer to being trade deadline sellers than buyers, and watching them continues to be aggravating.

For the Angels, despite yesterday’s win, they have now lost 6 of 7 games, and are quickly sinking to the bottom of the American League standings.  Only the Minnesota Twins have a worse record in the AL, and they aren’t even trying to win games.  The Halos are on pace to lose 95 games, their worst under Mike Scioscia.  The worst part about it is that the injuries that have ravaged the team are probably masking the real issues: the starting pitching isn’t that good, and the lineup is fundamentally flawed.  They are still getting underwhelming production out of left field, the middle of their infield, and there is very little to no help on the way in their farm system.  Even putting aside the disaster that is this season, Billy Eppler is going to have to get really creative to improve this team in the coming seasons.

To the ice, where it’s been an interesting last week of the offseason for the Kings and Ducks.  Of course the year the Kings don’t win the Stanley Cup, their star players finally get recognized for awards.  Drew Doughty won the Norris Trophy last week as the league’s best defenseman, and Anze Kopitar won the Selke Trophy, as the league’s best defensive forward.  It’s nice to finally see the voters have actually subscribed to cable, and stayed up past their bed times to do their jobs and cover the games.  The Kings also made a very smart move in letting scoring left wing Milan Lucic go, while signing Trevor Lewis to a long term deal.  Players like Lewis win championships, while Lucic is simply a luxury for a team in cap hell.  On the other hand, I’m not sure why the Ducks traded goaltender Frederik Anderson so damn soon.  They could have afforded to sign Anderson, then use him as an asset to trade much later.  Their offseason moves have been about as confusing as Hilary Clinton’s sexuality.

That Argentinian beat down of the USMNT in Copa America was a reminder that we still can’t hang when it comes to soccer.  It’s also a reminder that it’s probably time to remove Jurgen Klinsmann from his head coaching duties for someone who will actually trust his younger budding stars.  Klinsmann showed about as much trust in those younger players as Iggy Azalea has for Nick Young.  At least this tournament tells us now that we can’t hang with the best, instead of waiting for another year or two on an even bigger stage to let us know that.

Not only was I super pumped for Game of Thrones last night (more on that in a moment), but also, Shark Week on Discovery.  This year it has come about a month earlier than usual.  I definitely appreciate the focus on more scientific talk about Sharks, rather than scaring me about the next time I’m in the ocean.  That more scientific talk includes a discussion on Shark sex, which doesn’t exactly go down with your typical love making music in the background, and is much more analogous to an even more aggressive form of Fifty Shades of Grey.  Nevertheless, given the amount of sightings off the coast of our Southern California beaches, I have no desire to enter the ocean past my knees at this point.

Since Great Britain voted to leave the EU, we should all celebrate by drinking tea, canceling our next dentist appointment, and watching cricket.  It’s good to see that the financial markets didn’t overreact to the news on Friday or anything.  The US version of the Breexit we can look forward to is the Obama exit coming this fall.

Finally, a huge season finale of Game of Thrones went down on HBO last night.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it, so read no further if that is the case.  There was more that happened in the first thirty minutes of that episode than in the entire season! The Red Wedding was like kindergarden, however, what Cersei did was college, when she took down Kings Landing with wildfire.  I suddenly went from feeling terribly bad for Cersei, to hating her guts once again when she kllled Margaery, one of my favorite characters, but you knew she was going to get her revenge.  For nearly a full season, we forgot just how evil the woman is, and how far she will go to stay in power.  I guess you could say she got her trial by combat when it was all said and done.  Then there’s Tommen, the biggest pansy there ever was for a King.  He really re-defined the phrase “Kings Landing” with his suicide.  He probably decided to jump when he realized that he and his mother were seeing the same barber.  In some ways, Cersei losing her son that way was poetic justice for what she and Jamie did to Bran.  So many people died at once, it was hard to come to grips with it.  The Gily and Sam story wasn’t all that necessary, other than reminding us that Sam actually grew some balls.

Then there’s the Starks, who suddenly had the greatest comeback since the Beatles.  Arya’s revenge against Walder Frey made her “no name” nonsense totally worth the wait.  She’s now the “Frey Slayer”.  Something tells me Jamie Lannister isn’t so sad to see him go.  Funny how Lancel was stabbed once by a child, and couldn’t even move, while Arya was stabbed a bunch of times, yet managed to live and eventually take down her enemy like she was a Ninja Turtle.  If I were on my way home to Winterfell I’d wanna stop for food at McDonalds.  Arya decided to stop to kill somebody on her way home to Winterfell.  Sansa finally grew a brain, and decided not to trust Littlefinger.  After all this time, all she cares about is kicking ass, rather than being in power, which is exactly what she should be doing.  By the way….who knew that Sansa was actually much taller than Jon Snow? Of course we also learned that Jon’s mother is Lyanna Stark, which really makes him Ned Stark’s nephew.  Ned obviously lied because he knew the Lannisters would kill Jon if they knew he was a Targaryen.  It also explains the superpowers than Jon has, similar to Daenerys.  Speaking of Daenerys, she might as well be called the “Breaker of Hearts” instead of the “Mother of Dragons”.  When did Daario become as clingy as Ser Jorah?  Lady Mormont is one hell of a leader, and basically gave the Game of Thrones equivalent of a Ted Talk during that episode.  The only thing that would have made that episode better is if they somehow introduced Lady Stoneheart.  The last two episodes were maybe the two best of the entire series.  However, this is what happens when you realize you have to wait a whole year for the show to come back…..

 

June 20th, 2016

I think it’s safe to say Lebron James is still the best player in the world.  He cemented himself as not only the best player in the world, but in term of individual greatness, he’s easily in the top 5 all time.  It was simple, Lebron played out of his mind.  Steph and Klay were underwhelming, while Lebron got just enough support he needed from Kyrie Irving, JR Smith, and some other role players.  The Warriors are still a great team with two of the best shooters ever, but championships are still won for the most part with the same formula: dominant swing man or dominant big man (if you can find them).  None of the Lebron haters can say anything now.  As for the Warriors, they are still going to be contenders for a while, but they’ll need to ask themselves if they want to try some different role players, of it want to gut their depth and sign Kevin Durant.  Steph needed to control his wife Ayesha, and make her stop tweeting about conspiracy theories.  Ayesha probably just had her cooking show canceled because of that.  Nevertheless, the real winners last night were the strippers at the club JR Smith hit after the game.  Wait, since Cleveland actually won a championship, that must mean we all need to find a bomb shelter since the world is about to end.  Lebron’s block on Iggy in the final moments was savage….. As for the Lakers, the NBA draft is on Thursday, and some things have me very nervous.  Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield claims that he’s “very confident” the Lakers are going to select him with their #2 pick.  If that happens, I’m very confident I’m going to jump off the Santa Monica Pier.  I’m hoping this is nothing more than a smokescreen by Mitch Kupchak, otherwise this would make no sense.  The Lakers need help in the front court, at at the small forward position especially.  More importantly, this is a two man draft: Ben Simmons and Brandon Ingram.  After that, there is a major drop off.  The draft will be interesting, but free agency just got a whole lot more interesting after yesterday’s Cavs win.  It may sound weird, but Lebron James has earned the right to go wherever he wants to, and according to ESPN’s Stephen A Smith, he would absolutely consider LA if other max level players.  Golden State is probably a lot more likely to pursue Kevin Durant, and if Durant leaves OKC, Harrison Barnes becomes attainable (and more affordable), and eventually, Russell Westbrook  will be available too.  It’s lining up to be a very interesting summer, and a very expensive one too.

Then there’s the Clippers, who are looking for a new TV deal.  What would Fox Sports do without the Clipps? After the Lakers and Dodgers departed a couple of years ago, everyone thought Fox was screwed.  However, the Clippers came up with a halfway decent product, while the Kings and Ducks were competitive and maintained their loyal viewership.  Now, Steve Ballmer is looking to cash in on the fact that his team is a major piece of broadcasting for Fox Sports, while also incorporating a piece of fancy new broadcasting technology.  Meanwhile, DeAndre Jordan should receive some serious consideration for the US Olympic Team.  The squad is short on players who want to play, and short on big men.  Considering DJ is First Team All NBA (and I use the phrase loosely), he would be a very good fit, assuming he wants to play, and very deserving of a selection.

To baseball, where the Dodgers may have won 3 of 4 from the Brewers, but they’ve already dug themselves too big of a hole to catch the Giants in the NL West.  It’s funny because everyone is talking about how the Dodgers should be trade deadline buyers.  However, the closer we get to the end of July, the Dodgers may really be sellers and more than 10 games out of first place.  Then again, with the stupidity of Andrew Friedman, you would think the Dodgers are “sellers” with every trade they make.  His latest blunder was trading pitcher Zach Lee to Seattle yesterday, for a utility infielder.   That’s right folks, the organizations minor league pitcher of the year last year, was traded for a pile of crap.  I guess Friedman thinks injury plagued guys like Hyun-Jin Ryu, Brandon McCarthy, and Brett Anderson are trustworthy, when in actuality, they won’t be able to stay healthy for 5 more minutes.  Apparently Friedman has never heard the phrase “you can never have enough pitching”.

Speaking of pitching, the Angels got a really nice performance from Tim Lincecum on Saturday, in his return to the big leagues.  Lincecum pitched six strong innings against Oakland, and all of a sudden the Halos are getting some really good pitching from their starters.  The only problem is it’s probably too little too late, given that they are already 13.5 games out of 1st place in the AL West.  Will Albert Pujols every hit over .250 again?  It would be nice if he could since he’s making $25 million per year.  The only entertainment the Halos will be able to provide this summer is Mike Trout.

What a weird coaching hire by the Anaheim Ducks.  They re-hired Randy Carlyle, who coached the Ducks prior to Bruce Boudreau, from 2005-2011.  He had the benefit of having a loaded team in 2007, when the Ducks won the Stanley Cup, but afterward his best players quite on him.  Those best players at the time, Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, are still on the team.  His style is more of an outdated, rugged, “dump and chase”, and even in Toronto, his players quit on him as well.  The Ducks weren’t satisfied winning the division every year, and then getting bounced in the playoffs.  Carlyle is such a poor fit, now I’m wondering how they’ll feel missing the playoffs next year.

This Copa America thing is a very confusing to me.  I really need my soccer in World Cup form, every four years.  However, the US is giving us something to cheer about.  The problem with US Soccer is that any success they achieve, doesn’t seem to be sustainable.  Maybe by beating Argentina tomorrow, they can finally show us something sustainable.  The casual soccer fan can also start to figure out what all these other soccer tournaments are when they aren’t the World Cup. Congrats to Dustin Johnson for winning the US Open.  However, let’s be honest, we we’re all just stoked that we got to see Paulina Gretzky at the end of the tournament……. The OJ Simpson ESPN 30 for 30 was fantastic.  It was long but very fascinating, especially with the look at all the significant events between the black community and the LAPD prior to the trial.  I also love how former ESPN personality Roy Firestone was destroyed on Twitter earlier in the week for a chummy interview he had with Simpson in the early 90’s, after he had beaten up Nicole.  It’s really not fair to Firestone to criticize him with the benefit of hindsight.  You should be even more critical of Hertz and NBC, who completely ignored all the allegations of domestic abuse against Simpson.  Today, that would never fly.  Firestone owned up to it anyway, admitting he was way too chummy.  After watching the 30 for 30, my question for Johnny Cochran and all the black jurors who acquitted OJ to send a message about getting justice for black people: was it worth it? Is the relationship between black people and law enforcement that much better today because OJ was acquitted.  I don’t think so.  In fact, the potential nomination of Donald Trump for President tells me we might actually be going backwards when it comes to civil rights.

Finally, what a great episode of Game of Thrones last night on HBO! Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it, so read no further if that is the case.  Finally, a win for the good guys! Jon Snow and his undermanned army defeated Ramsay Bolton.  Was I the only one who was yelling in excitement when Snow was beating the hell out of Bolton? I had a feeling Sansa had something up her sleeve, and it was getting more men (who were supplied by Littlefinger).  There’s also more evidence supporting my theory that Sansa is pregnant, when Ramsay suggested she couldn’t kill him because he is part of her.  The episode was totally about girl power though, with Daenery’s destroying the Masters with her dragons.  There was also her suggestion that she and Yara would be better off running Westeros with the two of them in charge.  The fighting scenes were epic.  Unfortunately we had to lose Rickon Stark, but Sansa told us that was going to happen anyway.  Ramsay’s death was poetic justice, and one of the few times in this show where the underhanded evil tactics of the bad guys didn’t work.  Looking forward to the season finale but unfortunately, I wouldn’t expect the feel good episodes for the good guys to continue.

June 13th, 2016

What do I always say? People who watch the NBA often become “prisoner of the moment”.  That’s exactly what happened to Tyronn Lue, who convinced himself that starting a 35 year old Richard Jefferson over all-star Kevin Love, would yield a victory for the Cavs in game 4.  This was ultimately nothing more than shuffling chairs on the deck of the Titanic, because the Cavs were going to lose this series with or without Love.  The Warriors decided they just didn’t care in game 3, and ended up getting blown out, which had nothing to do with Love not being in the lineup.  In game 4, the Splash Brothers showed up and the Cavs were no match, just like we knew was going to happen at some point.  As great as Lebron is, he has a real Peyton Manning look to his legacy.  One of the great talents of all time, but doesn’t always assert his dominance in the biggest moments.  He did for a while in Miami, but now he’s reverted back to being passive in the 4th quarter.  The Cavs needed the Lebron of last years finals to have a chance in this series.  Draymond had this one game suspension coming.  There’s only so many times you can dish out shots to the balls.  Speaking of Draymond, he looks like that dude that takes a bite out of every piece of chocolate in the box, until he finds one he likes, then puts the rest back in the box.  I don’t think the suspension will matter anyway, because the Warriors have too much depth and create too many matchup problems.  It’s really good to finally see some back and forth trash talking between Lebron and the Warriors.  There’s just not enough hate in the NBA these days.  Despite Steph’s horrible first three games, he should still get the MVP if he has a good game tonight, and the Warriors should close it out.  The internet is amazing isn’t it?……

Everyone is going to make a huge deal out of Magic Johnson no longer being an honorary Vice President of the Lakers.  However, it needed to be done.  Magic’s tweets and public comments might  have eventually put the Lakers at risk for tampering with free agents, and even got them fined, despite the fact he isn’t really on the payroll anymore.  Magic’s tweets are ridiculous anyway, and can usually be found under #captainobvious.  I look forward to his next tweet which will probably tell us that the sky is blue, the grass is green, and the weekend consists of Saturday and Sunday.

I’m a huge fan of the Olympic games, but what the IOC is doing is totally wrong.  None of these athletes should be forced to make a decision between their own personal health and competing in an event they’ve been waiting their whole life for.  The decision is a little bit easier for the NBA players who are dropping out left and right, who don’t want to risk catching the Zika virus.  Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, Anthony Davis, and James Harden have already won Olympic gold medals.  Steph Curry, LaMarcus Aldridge, John Wall, and Blake Griffin probably wouldn’t play anyway, even if they were healthy.  The decision is much more difficult for Olympic athletes in other sports, who often only get this one opportunity to compete.  Many will compete and take the risk, but damn the IOC for putting the athletes in this situation.  There should be 5-10 countries in the world that host the Olympics, and Brazil is definitely not one of them.

UCLA has given head coach Jim Mora Jr. a two year extension.  This one is up for all kinds of mixed reviews.  In four years, Mora has guided the Bruins to 2 ten win seasons, four bowl games, and a 3-1 record against cross-town rival USC.  Although the talent level has gone up immensely under Mora, the final results have left you with a feeling that the program has underachieved.  Since a Holiday Bowl appearance in 2012, it’s felt like a slow and steady decline.  The Bruins still haven’t won a conference title since the 1998 season, and have only won the Pac 12 South once in Mora’s four years.  He’s become a poor man’s Bob Toledo.  At least the Bruins didn’t give him a 10 year extension.  I suppose you can give him a pass for the injuries last year, however, Mora should have the best quarterback in the Pac 12 South this year.  He also has 9 returning starters on defense, and the biggest conference games of the year at home: Stanford, Arizona, and USC.  Anything short of an appearance in the Pac 12 Championship game, and Mora will officially cement this program in underachieving mediocrity.

On to baseball where it looked like the Dodgers were going to make up some serious ground on the Giants this weekend, and then Kenley Jansen blew up on Saturday.  Blown saves are going to happen from time to time for anybody, but they can’t happen against your division rivals.  The Boys in Blue already have a lot to overcome like their inept offense, lack of pitching depth, an inconsistent offense and bullpen, as well as a front office executive that’s in way over his head.  Not finishing that game on top of all that is what’s going to seal their fate come the fall when they are on the outside of the playoff picture looking in.  Joc Pederson’s bone head play in the 7th inning on Saturday, when he attempted to steal third base, was also a major blunder as well.  Corey Seager and Trayce Thompson are very promising young players, but I’m still not sold on Pederson.  Andrew Friedman doesn’t want to hear it though, as he has forced his managers to play Joc everyday, regardless of their feelings for him.  Although Julio Urias keeps looking better, yesterday was not enough either.  Dodger baseball has never been more aggravating.

As for the Angels, they are steadily circling the drain.  After dropping two of three to Cleveland at the Big A, the Halos are now losers of 8 of their last 11, and are sinking to the bottom of the AL West standings.  I wouldn’t exactly say help is on the way either, with Tim Lincecum getting lit up in the minors, although Mike Scioscia claims he’s optimistic and excited about getting him in the rotation.  On the bright side, Matt Shoemaker has turned it around, and if he keeps this up, he could probably fetch some decent prospects at next months trade deadline.  Other than that things are pretty bleak for the Halos.  Even Mike Trout was hitting just .243 in June coming into Sunday’s game.  Things haven’t been this bad in Anaheim since they shut down Pirates of the Caribbean last year.

We really lost some amazing legends over the last week: first Muhammad Ali, and then Gordie Howe.  Ali’s memorial service on Friday was beautiful.  Billy Crystal’s eulogy was brilliantly done, and the passionate speech by Rabbi Michael Lerner was very powerful.  Whether you agree or disagree with what he said, his words were so perfect for the Ali service.  Ali was constantly fighting against the place American society tried to put him in, and was ultimately respected for it.  Lerner was simply echoing how Ali would feel about what’s going on today, if he were still alive, which is so symbolic of his great legacy.  Shame on all those people though who tried to profit off his memorial service by selling tickets, or even t-shirts.  I do have respect though for all those people that were willing to pay money to go to that service.  As for Gordie Howe, he wasn’t the transcendent figure in American society that Ali was, but he was an ambassador for hockey before Wayne Gretzky showed up.  Howe was a world class player, and a world class human being.  He played until he was 52 years old, and put hockey on the map.  I idolized Wayne Gretzky growing up, but Gretzky idolized Howe, who influenced him on and off the ice, which ultimately helped shape Gretzky as the player and human being he became.  In case you missed Billy Crystal’s eulogy, here it is.  It’s long, but definitely worth it!

I saw Part 1 of ESPN’s 30 for 30 on OJ Simpson: Made in America.  For those of you that haven’t seen it, the documentary is definitely worth it, because it’s much more than just the trial.  The first part put race into context in the 60’s and 70’s, and how it related to OJ.  He did not see himself as a black man, he saw himself as someone who was accepted by white America, and had no interest in helping the black community become more accepted, despite other great athletes attempts to do so. The documentary also explained how police brutality started in the LAPD during that time.  I bring this up because nearly fifty years later, despite the progress that has been made, race, religion, and sexual orientation are still major social issues in our country.  Although we just had our first black president, in many ways, the nomination of Donald Trump as our next President is somewhat of a response against the acceptance of individuals of certain race, religion, or sexual orientation.  Given the events that happened in Orlando on Sunday morning, sometimes it feels like these issues will simply never go away despite the progress.  On that note, my thoughts and prayers go out to all the families and individuals that were affected by that tragedy.

Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Penguins, who won the Stanley Cup yesterday by defeating the Sharks 4-2 in their best of seven series.  More importantly, the Penguins helped revitalize all of the jokes we will be able to make about the Sharks, and their inability to win the big one.  Yes the Penguins have Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.  However, they won the Stanley Cup because after seven years of failure since their last cup, they finally fixed their defense and goaltending.  That is something the Kings no longer had this year, and something the Ducks haven’t figured out in a decade.  It’s also a reminder that even when you’re struggling in January and February, it doesn’t matter as long as you make the playoffs and are peaking at the right time.  So don’t freak out when the Kings don’t re-sign Milan Lucic, or Steve Stamkos, or some other stud who can score goals.  They are way better off spending their dough on fortifying the defense.  In the meantime, enjoy making fun of the Sharks…..

Finally, another excellent episode of Game of Thrones went down last night on HBO.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  This episode made you realize how powerful certain relationship were in the show.  Jamie’s closest thing to a friend is probably Brienne, but the dynamics of their relationship are interesting in acknowledging that they might have to fight each other if necessary.  When the castle is recovered and Brienne floats away, I think they are both thankful it didn’t come to that.  I get the feeling that is probably the last time we are going to see those two together. It was somewhat moving, and frankly, reminds you why many of us have grown to like Jamie.  As for Varys and Tyrion, they seem to bring out the best in each other, but after all this time, I still don’t entirely trust Varys.  Then there’s Tommen, who has essentially sentenced his mother to death by banning trial by combat.  The stupidity of Tommen amazes me though, because as Jamie said, Cersei would do whatever it takes to protect her son.  Apparently he doesn’t feel the same way and in the long run, this stupidity is going to be his downfall.  Something tells me though that Margaery has a plan to save her brother, and Cersei will be a beneficiary of that process.  The Hound’s story was interesting for a while, but now that his revenge has happened, his story doesn’t seem that interesting.  Arya’s killing of the Waif was somewhat predictable, but it was good to see her reestablish her identity, instead of this no one stupidity.  I thought she was actually going to kill Jaqen  or a second, but they both seemed very satisfied walking away at that point.   Daenerys return to Mereen came just in the nick of time, but I wish we had gotten to see her Dragons destroy the slave masters.   Overall, great episode!

June 6th, 2016

So much for a competitive NBA Finals.  The Cavs were supposed to be out of excuses this time, with a healthy and rested roster.   Instead, they’ve been dominated by the defending NBA champion Warriors thus far, and are going back to Cleveland down 0-2.  Lebron’s greatness is always a constant.  However, the problem for the Cavs is that they can’t compete offensively without Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, and they can’t compete defensively with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love.  It’s looking more and more like a bad matchup.  Matthew Dellavedova and Timofey Mozgov need bigger roles, otherwise the Warriors bench will continue to issue beatings.  Klay and Steph haven’t needed to do very much, the Warriors turned it over 20 times yesterday, the Cavs shot 14 more free throws, yet Cleveland still lost by 30 in game 2.  JR Smith has probably taken more shots of tequila in the last week than shots on the court.   As for Lebron’s legacy, if the Cavs do indeed lose this series, it’s going to be a bad look for him.  The only questions left to be answered in this series include: how many more people Draymond Green will kick?  How many more shots to the balls will Dellavedova deliver? And how many more times will I have to hear Doug Collins remind me that he coached Michael Jordan? If he says it one more time, I will hunt him down and force him to watch the new Ghostbusters movie as punishment.

You’ve gotta love the fact that Kobe did a commercial for the new Ghostbusters movie all by himself.  He couldn’t get Rick Fox, Derek Fisher, or anybody else to represent the other three Ghostbusters with him?  For better and worse, that’s so Kobe.  Speaking of the Lakers, the early word is that getting free agents to take their money this summer isn’t going to be easy.  Kevin Durant, Lebron, DeMar Derozan, Nicholas Batum, and Andre Drummond are all a good bet to stay put.  Hassan Whiteside and Harrison Barnes seem like the only free agents with a small chance of leaving, but the Lakers would have to grossly overpay to get them.  That means you better get used to the idea of a slow and steady rebuild and not some fantasy basketball overnight re-load that makes the Lakers  contenders again.  That’s probably ok with fans, but it might not be ok with Jeannie Buss, who could can her brother and Mitch Kupchak next year.  In case you missed the Ghostbusters commercial, here’s Kobe, “keeping it 100” like he usually does……

I think it’s becoming obvious at this point that the Dodger front office has no intention of winning anything this year.  The latest evidence of this was when outfielder Carl Crawford, who is still owed a total of $35 million this year and next, was designated for assignment.   At this point, Trace Thompson has probably earned a spot as an everyday player, which is smart.  What’s not so smart however, was to start rookie Julio Urias against the Mets and the Cubs, instead of breaking him in against teams like the Padres and Rockies, so he can build his confidence.  Since Andrew Friedman is supposed to be a genius, I thought this would be a little more obvious to him.  Just think how much better the Dodgers would be with a bat like Ryan Braun, and a reliever like Aroldis Chapman.  Too bad the Boys in Blue don’t want to give up the prospects required to acquire those two.  My favorite quote over the weekend was from Clayton Kershaw, after earning his 8th victory of the season with 6 shutout innings against the Braves.  Kershaw said “six innings is not acceptable.  I’ll take it for tonight, but I don’t even want to leave three innings for the bullpen.”  What he’s really saying is “I wouldn’t trust those jokers in our bullpen with a cup of coffee.”

As for the Angels, they got a nice series win against a good Pirates team over the weekend.  However, do they have any starting pitchers left that aren’t injured? Nick Tropeano is the latest to join the disabled list, along CJ Wilson, Garrett Richards, Andrew Heaney, and Tyler Skaggs.  They say in the majors that you spend two months figuring out who you are, two months fixing it, and then going for it in the last two months.  The problem is the Angels problems don’t seem fixable.  Albert Pujols probably isn’t going to fix his .238 average.  Garrett Richards, Andrew Heaney, and CJ Wilson haven’t given us any reason to think they are going be healthy and effective.  Mike Trout seems like the only reason to go see an Angel game these days.  Other than that, it’s probably going to be a long summer for the Halos.

When I was 7, my family and I ran into Muhammad Ali while coming out of a restaurant in San Clemente, CA.  The man was incredibly gracious, signed autographs for both my sister and I, while he and his entire family took the time to engage in conversation with my family.  It was that kindness that was just one part of the incredible legacy he leaves behind, after passing away over the weekend.  He was a humanitarian, a philanthropist, in addition to being probably the greatest boxer ever.  Today, there is often controversy as to whether or not athletes should publicly voice their opinion over social issues.  Ali embraced tackling these social issues through his defiant nature, and leaves a legacy that goes well beyond sports.  He stands alongside athletes like Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, and Jim Brown, whose achievements beyond the playing field had a lasting impact on this country.  Ali had such deep convictions, they actually cost him three years of his prime boxing years when he refused to be drafted into the Vietnam War.  His bouts in the ring with Joe Frazier were legendary.  However, I’ll always remember getting chills in 1996, watching him light the Olympic torch in Atlanta.

We’ve had three great games so far in the Stanley Cup Final.  Of course ESPN just glosses over it and moves on to where Johnny Manziel spent his evening partying.  The Penguins lost an opportunity to take a commanding lead in the series, but the Sharks got back into it with an overtime win on Saturday, now trailing 2-1 in the best of 7.  Look guys, if there’s anybody that knows it’s always possible to choke away a series lead before it’s over, it’s the San Jose Sharks.  I also love Logan Couture accusing Sidney Crosby of cheating on face offs.  This is the same guy a few years ago who stuck his stick out while he was sitting on the bench to knock the puck away from a Kings player.   I still like San Jose to win the series, but this one might take 7 games to decide.

There are some animals like sharks and gators that fascinate me, yet completely terrify me for fear of being eaten by them.  Last week a 52 year old woman was attacked by a Great White Shark, right in front of my place in Corona Del Mar.  After that, I was too scared to take a shower, let alone go in the ocean.  It’s almost amazing that we don’t have more shark attacks give the number of Great Whites that are constantly being spotted of the SoCal coasts.  That still doesn’t make it any more comforting every time any of us enters the ocean, even if the chances are remote.  Then there’s those dudes that were playing golf in Palmetto, Florida, that ran into the biggest alligator anybody has ever seen.  Does this thing eat golfers?  I’m not sure if those guys were playing golf or walking through Jurassic Park.  If I saw this thing I’d probably run the other way, right back up the fairway.

Finally, another episode of Game of Thrones went down last night on HBO.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it, so read no further if that is the case.  I would ask how in the hell The Hound is still alive after Brienne skewered him, but that would be ridiculous since Jon Snow came back to life as well.  It’s an interesting twist, but not necessarily a storyline I find more interesting than anything that is taking place already.  After this season there’s only going to be 7 episodes in season 7, followed by another 6 in season 8 which will conclude the series.  That’s right folks.  That means there are only 16 episodes left in the entire series.  That also means they really need to pick up the pace to give us all satisfying conclusions to everything.  I sure wish we had gotten to see Daenerys and the Dragons, and catch up with Bran.  Nevertheless, the Hound is bound to take some revenge on those people that killed his group.  Arya could probably use his help right now though since she is bleeding profusely in the middle of the street.  She is sure to survive this one though, and I have no doubt she will get her revenge.  As for Sansa, my guess is that she reached out to Littlefinger for help, but this feels like it’s going to bite her and Jon in the ass.  Then again, going into battle with only 2,000 men isn’t going to be enough.  I still can’t figure out what Margaery’s end game is.  Whatever it is though, it’s probably going to work since her husband has no idea how to be a King.  Who knew that Yara was gay? There’s gotta be some epic battle scenes in the next three episodes between Jamie’s showdown at Riverrun, Jon’s battle at Wintefell, and a fight involving The Mountain at Kings Landing.  It’s going to be a bloody last three episodes.

May 30th, 2016

Have doctors examined Klay Thompson for first degree burns? I hope they have because that man was on fire in game 6 vs OKC.  Win or lose game 7, that guy is easily a top 10 player in the NBA. Steph made some clutch buckets as well, meanwhile, Tony Romo was somewhere shaking his head at the amount of turnovers Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant had.  Game 7 is going to be epic.  The Thunder aren’t just going to roll over and play dead like most of you think.  I doubt that KD and Russ are going to shoot as badly as they did in the last two games, but it’s also much more likely the Warrior bench and role players play well back at Oracle.  Legacies are definitely on the line, as is the case for Lebron James, who advanced to a sixth straight NBA Finals when the Cavs beat the Raptors in six games.  Lebron knows he has to win a championship this year.  Otherwise, getting to the the finals six times and winning only twice is like a chick getting pregnant six times and having only two kids.  After the Cavs eliminated the Raptors, Drake is ready to buy a Lebron jersey.

Clippers center DeAndre Jordan was named first team All-NBA, which basically makes him the recipient of the “We Hate DeMarcus Cousins” award.  Jordan is a nice player, and one of the better centers in the NBA.  However, his first team selection is simply a product of a flawed voting system, and a weak set of centers.  Jordan probably couldn’t score against Shaq, Patrick Ewing, or David Robinson at their current ages.  A 2nd team with Cousins and Kevin Durant is laughable when you consider DJ is on the first team.  It probably would have made more sense to put Draymond Green as first team center over DJ.  Green received more overall votes than DJ but fewer at the center position.  I suspect this voting flaw will get fixed in the coming years.

The Lakers are closing in on a deal to make Brian Shaw their lead assistant on Luke Walton’s staff.  This is fantastic news because Shaw has been one of the best lead assistants in the game, despite his unsuccessful head coaching stint with Denver.  Shaw was great under Phil Jackson, helping the Lakers win two titles, and great with player development with the Pacers.   I’m even more impressed with the fact that Jim Buss would approve of an assistant that was associated with the Phil Jackson regime.  Whether the Lakers end up with a veteran team, or a young team, Shaw will command respect from the players and be an important part of Walton’s staff.

To baseball, where we got a very brief glimpse of Dodger prospect Julio Urias on Friday in New York.  His start lasted about as long as Jeb Bush’s Presidential campaign.  The kid might end up being good and all, but he’s only 19, and way too far away from making an impact to get excited about.  That makes me even more dumbfounded why the Dodgers didn’t sign Zack Greinke for the extra year he wanted.  By the time Urias can actually contribute, Clayton Kershaw will be in a retirement home.  What the Dodgers should be doing is trying to get something for Yasiel Puig, while has has some limited value left.  When the guy is hitting only .250, I can’t deal with his complete stupidity at times.  I say call the Mets and see if they are willing to swap Matt Harvey for Puig.  Both are low cost reclamation projects.  Andy Friedman loves injured pitchers, so why not take your chances with one who could be an ace?  Then the Mets can put Puig in an environment where he is more comfortable with fellow Cuban outfielder Yoenis Cespedes.

As for the Angels, they lost 2 out of 3 for the third straight series over the weekend.  This time is was to the struggling Astros.    It’s tough to find a whole lot of positive here.  How long does Albert Pujols have to hit .220 or less before Mike Scioscia moves him down in the order?  Seems like every hit or home run he gets comes with nobody on base, or in blowouts.  The guy is also a machine when it comes to hitting into double plays.  Pujols contract makes the Mo Vaughn signing from years ago look like a bargain.  It was good to see Matt Shoemaker find his game on Friday, but the rest of the starting pitchers have been laying an egg of late.

I’m absolutely amazed at how much money these athletic apparel companies have to spend, and how they spend their money.   UCLA is clearly the beneficiary of location, after scoring a record $280 million contract with Under Armour.  I realize that the company wanted a larger presence on the west coast, but Notre Dame and Ohio State must think they got short changed after that, since they currently have more successful athletic programs.  The bad news for UCLA fans is that this will only keep AD Dan Guerrero around for longer.  As for those bitching about college athletes not reaping any of the financial benefit, it’s not as simple as just writing a check to the athletes.  Should football and basketball players get paid more than other athletes? Do star players on teams deserve more? You all forget that this money supports the 15 other sports that don’t bring in real money for schools.  I admit, I’ve come around a little on this issue in thinking that a scholarship isn’t necessarily enough, but nobody has a real solution to fairly compensating student athletes beyond that.    One idea could be to provide some level of compensation for those athletes that actually graduate, while another portion of funds goes to helping truly needy student athletes.  There’s a reasonable compromise to be made between the NCAA’s archaic rules and division I football and bball players desire to make it rain by driving Lambeau’s and Ferrari’s to school.  I’m just not sure we’re going to get there anytime soon.

The news about the sexual assault scandal that broke at Baylor this week is a reminder of the atrocities going on in college athletics, and especially college football.  Some of you probably thought the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State a few years ago was an isolated incident.  It wasn’t.  The bottom line is that numerous institutions are turning their back on sexual assault victims, all to protect their money making machine that is their college football team.  Since media coverage is so much more vast today, you can be sure we will be hearing about more of these incidents where rape victims are no longer intimidated to come forward, even if legal action is required against the universities they attend.  Art Briles is just one of many college football coaches that are morally bankrupt.  As for Baylor, if a ban is imposed for a year or two on the team, which it probably should, then the players should be allowed to transfer elsewhere to continue their collegiate careers.

Let’s go to the ice where the Kings are already starting the shakeup.  Dustin Brown has reportedly been asked to relinquish the captaincy.  Brown has gone from a bruising power forward and emotional leader of a two time Stanley Cup Championship team, to an overpaid player whose production is in severe decline.  Changing captains isn’t as big of a deal as you would think.  Back in ’89, the Kings asked Dave Taylor to give up his captaincy to Wayne Gretzky.  The Sharks currently have Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau on their team, who have both been their team captain at one point during the last 7 years.  Joe Pavelski is now their captain.  The real question is whether or not Brown is going to remain a King, and whether or not he can have the effectiveness of 3-4 years ago.  General Manager Dean Lombardi is abandoning the loyalty that he used in his decision making the last few years, and is all business.  He may be putting pressure on Brown to waive his limited no trade clause to make it easier to move him.  More than anything though, the Kings clearly recognize that changes need to me made in both leadership and roster to become Cup champions again.

The Sharks and Penguins will be battling it out for the Stanley Cup starting tonight.  These are two teams that most people thought would be undergoing major rebuilds after last season.  Instead here they are, reminding us of the parity in the NHL.  The Penguins were smart enough to go back to Matt Murray in goal, which helped them get back to the final.  Even though they have arguably the best player in the world in Sidney Crosby, the Sharks are too big, too deep, and have better special teams.  I’m taking San Jose in five games, which will sadly forever ruin anymore jokes Kings fans can make about them.

Finally, Game of Thrones went down last night on HBO.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it so read no further if you plan on watching later.   This episode was bound to slow things down after last week, but still provided some interesting storylines.  The Sam and Gilly storyline seemed pointless at first, however, by the end, we learned that he’s grown a pair of balls after all this time, standing up to his father, and stealing his sword.  He may be a minor character, but he’s had a big transformation.   I knew it! Arya wasn’t going to go through with this no name nonsense.  I’m sure she’s going to beat the crap out of The Walf, or Jaquen will change his mind and save her.  As for what’s happening in Kings Landing, Margaery knows how to play the game, and would tell Tommen anything because she’s dying just for some shampoo and conditioner at this point.  Tommen is swayed so easily by both her and the sparrow.  That kid isn’t going to live long the way things are going.  The high Sparrow is way more deceptive and powerful than we thought and is still winning the game against the Lannisters.  Since Jamie is headed to Riverrrun and so is Brienne, I smell an awkward reunion coming between the two.  We had to have at least one super evil guy in the episode, and since we didn’t get Ramsay, we got the old and crusty Walder Fray.  These Bran visions are cool and all, but can he actually impact the past already? Those Daenerys speeches never get old, but getting the Dothraki on board ships won’t be easy, since they are afraid of water.  Sounds like she’s going to need a bigger army and more ships.  Four more episodes to go and it’s gonna get intense from here!

April 18th, 2016

Never could I have imagined that Kobe Bryant’s legacy would actually improve before playing the last game of his career against the Utah Jazz.  No Hall of Famer has ever scored more than 29 points in their final career game.  Kobe obliterated that by scoring 60, and reminding us of the glory days for Laker fans, one last time.  Only Kobe could steal the show from the Golden State Warriors, on a night where they broke the single season record for wins.  It was beautiful sight to see, and gave you chills.  For those that hate him, it was just one last reminder, that your criticism drove Kobe to all his success, which is why he embraced it when it was over.  Leave it to the LA Times though to give you a tribute section to Kobe in yesterday’s paper, only to throw in a few articles that don’t actually show either Kobe or his wife, Vanessa, in the post positive light.  The sad part is that now that he’s gone, you’ll really see how much you miss him.  It was a fun ride while it lasted, but it was twenty great years.  It’s going to be really weird when we continue to crumple pieces of paper and throw them into the trash while yelling “Kobe!” and our kids are trying to figure out what the hell we are talking about.

Oh I guess we have to talk about the Clippers now. LA took care of the Blazers last night in game 1 of their 1st round playoff series.  For some reason Damian Lillard struggles against CP3, but always seems to play well against Steph Curry.  Last night was another case of Paul getting the best of him. There will probably be a game in this series where Lillard and backcourt mate CJ McCollum go off and steal a game, but that night wasn’t last night.  The Clipps have too much fire power, and this shouldn’t take any longer than 5 games.  LA better hope that they can build some better rhythm between CP3 and Blake during that time, if they want any fighting chance against the Warriors in round 2.

What a joke the first round series of the NBA playoffs have been so far.  I feel like I’m watching a bunch of #16 seeds take on a bunch of #1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament.  The Houston Rockets were probably considering boarding a plane and heading back to Houston before the 2nd half started in game 1 against the Warriors.  The Mavericks got blown out by the Thunder.  It was 21-7 after the first quarter.  It’s like football season never ended.  I guess Reggie Jackson thinks that just because he played with Russell Westbrook that he is Russell Westbrook.  I’ve got the Cavs in 4, Raptors in 6, Celtics in 7, Miami in 6, Warriors and Spurs in 3, Clipps and Thunder in 5.

Let’s talk puck.  Sorry Kings fans, but it’s over.  LA is in serious trouble against the Sharks.  I’m sure some of you are clinging to the false hope of 2014, but this is not the same Kings team, nor the same  San Jose team.  Darryl Sutter can’t come up with a line combination that can consistently generate offense.  Anze Kopitar has disappeared like Houdini, and no defenseman outside of Drew Doughty and Jake Muzzin can be trusted with a cup of coffee.  Marian Gaborik might have been the Kings best player in game 2, and he hasn’t played in 9 weeks!  The Sharks may be downplaying it, but they are determined to make up for their embarrassment in 2014.  Sharks Coach Peter Deboer also wants revenge for the Kings beating his Devils team in the finals in 2012.   The Sharks are beating the Kings at their own game.  They are more physical, manhandling LA in front of their own net, and getting the better of the special teams play.  The Shark jokes were fun while they lasted, but the Kings are going to be done playing hockey this season on Wednesday night at the Shark Tank.  That’s the parity of the NHL.

Speaking of trouble, the Ducks are down 0-2 as well to Nashville, after dropping the first two of the series at home.  Don’t you just love the NHL Playoffs? There’s really no such thing as an upset.  The Ducks have been more frustrated than Tim Tebow’s girlfriend, as Pekka Rinne has been solid in goal for Nashville.  Their defense has been tough, and they’ve gotten the timely scoring they need at even strength.  Corey Perry was nowhere to be found last night either.  It’s tough to win a playoff series when your best players don’t show up, which is exactly how the Kings feel right now.  The worst part about this for Anaheim is that they have some demons of past playoffs they are trying to overcome, so going down 0-2 has to shake their confidence.  Don’t count the Ducks out yet, but the way things are going, they’ll be done playing this week, and Bruce Boudreau might be looking for a job shortly after that.

Let’s go to the NFL, where the Rams stole the headlines from Kobe on Thursday, by acquiring the #1 pick in the draft.  Yes, I realize that the Redskins and their fans are laughing their asses off after this trade, and that the Rams won’t have another 1st round pick for the next 30 years or so.  However, I’m actually a fan of this trade.  You can’t win in the NFL without a quarterback, and that QB isn’t Case Keenum.  Jeff Fisher and Les Snead know that.  The reason the Rams were able to make this trade was also because they made the RGIII trade, and were able to build their team to the point they have now.  However, that team is consistently a 7-9 or 8-8 team.  That’s not good enough.  Sounds like Carson Wentz is the better long term player with more upside than Jared Goff. The Rams have the time to develop Wentz, since they don’t move into their new stadium until 2019.  I hate the notion however, that this trade was made because it’s a star driven town.  That’s a poor way to run a franchise if that’s the sole reason it was made.  As a result, Jeff Fisher’s phone has been blowing up since the trade was announced…..

I feel like the only requirement to be the USC AD is to have played football at the University.  The Trojans surprised quite a few people by hiring Lynn Swan as their new AD.  This feels very similar to the Mike Garrett hire.  No specific experience that would make him qualified to run a major NCAA athletic program.  One thing he does have is a membership to Augusta National, so I’m sure some of the powers that be at USC will be taking advantage of a few rounds of golf there.  Heck, OJ has to be telling himself that if he didn’t end up in the slammer or on trial, he would have easily been on USC’s short list for the AD position by now.  I’m most curious to see how much slack he gives Clay Helton, since he did not hire him.  Speaking of Helton, I’m surprised he didn’t proclaim Max Browne his starting quarterback after the spring scrimmage.  I still think there’s no way he’s going to lose the job, and that he’s probably just making Browne work for everything.  I’ve never really been a fan of these spring scrimmages, because it’s just more wear and tear on these guys bodies, but at least the Trojans scaled down the scrimmage, unlike a lot of other schools.

Just how bad is the Dodgers bullpen? It’s bad enough that closer Kenley Jansen is already being asked to come in during the 8th inning for extended appearances.  When will the Dodger front office learn? Jansen can’t make up for a terrible middle relief group.  The same way that Clayton Kershaw can’t make up for a crummy pitching staff.  Scott Kazmir proved once again this weekend that you wouldn’t even trust him to tell you what he wanted on his pizza.  What a waste of $48 million.  At least the Dodgers finally managed take a series from the Giants, who seem to be just dripping with championship pedigree.  I like Dave Roberts, but the front office hasn’t done him any favors.

Finally, a brutal weekend for the Halos.  They were swept by the lowly Minnesota Twins, who hadn’t won a game yet this season.  The Angels bullpen just couldn’t get it done.  It was one close loss after another.  This was supposed to be a softer part of the Halos schedule, but it’s turning into more of a mine field.  After the three straight losses in the Twin Cities, the Angels now go to Chicago to play the upstart Chi Sox, who have won 8 of their first 12.  We’re also still waiting for Albert Pujols and Mike Trout to find their offensive groove.  Wake me up when someone decides to take control of the AL West.

March 28th, 2016

What the hell is Lebron James thinking? His team is in 1st place in the East, and trying to contend for an NBA championship, yet he’s talking about joining forces with his three best friends.  Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love must feel like a girl who’s new boyfriend won’t stop talking about how great their ex was.  What better way to alienate your teammates.  It feels like Lebron is already giving up on the season after watching the Warriors, and is already planning to devastate Cleveland fans again by leaving.  Of course I told you all that this was bound to happen after he signed a short term deal.  What’s funny about this is that Lebron actually assembled this disaster by getting David Blatt fired, having Andrew Wiggins traded for Kevin Love, and Tristan Thompson signed to a monster deal.  However, things are much tougher in Cleveland than Lebron thought they would be, and he looks extremely unhappy, which is why he told Howard Beck he’d love to play with Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, and Dwayne Wade.  Who wouldn’t love to see those four play together? The question is where can it happen.  It could actually be the Lakers.

Jim Buss and possibly Mitch Kupchak are desperate to save their jobs before Jeannie hits the eject button on them next summer.  The Lakers have more cap space than anyone, and young assets that they aren’t necessarily married to.  The Lakers could easily sign Lebron and Wade, while trading for Melo this summer.  Paul would be a little tougher to acquire, but he’s unrestricted in the summer of 2017, so once you acquired the other three, getting CP3 would be a foregone conclusion.  Then again, as exciting as those four would be, it would be short term stimulation for Laker fans.  Lebron is still arguably the best but he’s getting long in the tooth, and CP3 is still a top 10 player.  Wade and ‘Melo are not though, and those four probably don’t give you enough shooting, while providing a lot of deteriorating defense, especially when you think about the dominance of the Warriors.  It might give you 2 years of contention, but not enough to actually win a title.  On the other hand, continuing to build from within and adding some other younger free agents would be slower, but gives you a better chance to return to sustainable success by the time the Warriors run is over.  I do hope “The Banana Boat Crew” gets together somewhere though for sheer entertainment purposes, however, it’s likely to crash and burn in spectacular fashion.  Mitch Kupchak is smarter than that to let that happen here.  In Cleveland, they aren’t that smart.

This fast break basically sums up the Lakers season……

Remember when you thought the Clippers we’re better without Blake Griffin? Yea, well I sure do.  The Clippers are good team, but not an elite team with our without Blake.  The Clipps are 2-8 against the Warriors, Spurs, and Thunder, and they are looking like a good bet to face Golden State in round 2 of the playoffs.  Then again, they got manhandled against a shorthanded Memphis team last week, so the first round will be no cake walk either.  By the way, how come nobody asked Chris Paul what his thoughts were on Lebron James suggesting that he, Dwayne Wade, and Carmelo Anthony could play together? I’ll tell you why.  It’s because even the local media members that cover the Clippers don’t cover them all that thoroughly.  Nobody holds them accountable for such coverage because nobody really cares about the Clippers in the LA sports landscape.

The Final Four is set.  My Fighting Irish of Notre Dame put up a spirited fight, but North Carolina was just too talented for them.  They also probably saved me from dropping a lot of money on a trip to Houston for the Final Four.  I thought for a second Mike Brey was right that the Irish can’t lose on Good Friday or Easter Sunday.  Roy Williams must have threatened his Tar Hell players by telling them they will have to go to class if they lose.  I guess Syracuse got tired of everybody telling them that they suck, and they are just a 10 seed.  Meanwhile Virginia is advancing to their traditional seats on the couch for next weeks Final Four.  Perry Ellis shouldn’t be that upset that Kansas lost to Villanova.  He did get the opportunity to play in 20 Final Fours since he looks like he’s 20 years older than everybody else.  After Oregon got smoked by Oklahoma, they plan to unveil Nike’s new “eliminated in the NCAA Tournament” jersey’s next week.  Buddy Hield is a phenomenal player, and if I didn’t know who he was, I would think he was the next favorite horse to win the Kentucky Derby.

it sounds like the one and done rule in college basketball is going to be seriously re-evaluated by the NBA.  However, the question is how it will be changed.  Some people think we should go back to the days of high school players being able to enter the draft, but if you end up going to college, it should be for at least two years.  I’m completely against high school players being able to enter the draft.  The NBA has become an extremely watered down league because of young players that have no business being in the league.  For every Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Garnett, there are a ton more players that flame out of the league because they weren’t ready physically, emotionally, or mentally.  Going to college isn’t about getting an education, but rather learning about yourself.  Many of these teenagers fail to realize that.  The purpose of the NBA draft is to create some competitive balance in the league.  It’s difficult to do that when the players being drafted need 3-5 years to become something.  If a player is so desperate to start making a living, let them go to China or Europe to play.  However, don’t let them ruin both the college game, and the NBA game.

The LA Times just did an interview with UCLA AD Dan Guerrero, which as expected, was full of spin.  Guerrero claimed that the Bruins aren’t about a coaching carousel, and that basketball coach Steve Alford giving back his one year extension showed how committed to the program he is.  The best news I heard out of the interview is that Guerrero might actually step down before 2019 because they are nearing the end of the $4.2 billion centennial campaign.  Somebody should have asked Guerrero if it was the UCLA Athletic Department that wrote that letter.  Had somebody actually done their homework, they might have realized that former Bruins football coach Karl Dorrell wrote nearly the same letter to the fans just months before he was fired.  Dan Guerrero has become selfish.  It’s all about him and his own job.  Not about the Bruins basketball program.

What do Dan Guerrero, Jim Buss, and Jeff Fisher all have in common? They are powerful LA sports executives who put themselves first, rather than taking any necessary risks to be successful.  Guerrero won’t get rid of Steve Alford because he’s afraid he’ll lose his job if he goes through another basketball coach.  Jim Buss was afraid to hire Phil Jackson as head coach again, fearing that he would have no voice in the Lakers organization.  Jeff Fisher refused to sign off on the Rams signing RGIII because he didn’t want to take the heat for another quarterback screwing up on his watch. These types of people usually play it safe for the sake of their own job security, and can sometimes find success.  However, when the expectations are championships like they are in Los Angeles, it’s difficult to meet that bar.

You didn’t really think that the Dodgers and Time Warner Cable’s attempt to lower the price of SportsNet LA was going to lead to a deal right away did you? Yes, they may have lowered their price, but none of the cable providers are going to bite when the price is only for a year.  There’s still another week to go before the season starts, so a deal can be struck, but it would be even worse for cable providers to accept the deal then lose the channel a year later.  If these two sides were really serious about making a deal, they would lock themselves in an air tight room until the deal is done.  I have no problem with TWC and the Dodgers trying to get the most money out of it, but at this point, it’s TWC that is bleeding money by not making a deal.  The good news is that none of the cable providers have really commented on the status of negotiations, so hopefully a deal is in sight.  On the field however, no relief is in sight for the Dodgers.  Andre Ethier is out 10-14 weeks with a broken leg, adding to the slew of injuries on this brittle roster that Andrew Friedman has assembled.

Roger Goodell said last week that he has not ruled out the possibility the Raiders moving to Las Vegas.  Please let this happen! Could there be anything more perfect for Raider Nation than being in Vegas? Raider Nation is filled with insane people, and so is Vegas.  Heck, people that hate the Raiders would probably even come to Vegas to see the spectacle.  Better yet, this would probably be the best thing to happen to Southwest Airlines since they put strip clubs in Las Vegas.

This last episode of The People vs OJ Simpson on FX was probably one of the slower episodes, yet it was still fantastic.  I never realized just how close the whole criminal case was to being a mistrial, once the jurors started protesting by wearing all black.  They nearly ran out of jurors, and it was amazing to see just how many of them lied on their questionaires just to be a part of a historic case.  At that point, the prosecution was probably dying for a mistrial, because they were getting obliterated.  My favorite part of the episode was the ignorance that Judge Ito showed when a juror was complaining to him that the white jurors were receiving an extra 30 minutes to shop at Target, while the black jurors were getting less time to shop at Ross.  The hilarious moment was when he had to ask the juror to re-confirm the question of whether or not black people actually like to shop at Ross instead of Target.  Johnny Cochran quickly chimed in to confirm that was the case, but it was just a reminder of how unaware people were of the multitude of ways race impacted the trial.  The show also clearly fabricated the fact that particular juror ran down the hall screaming so that she would be relieved of her duty.  She was relieved, but not in that fashion.  I also forgot that prosecution witness Dennis Fung decided to shake the hands of OJ and the defense team after they destroyed him during the cross examination.  Another important figure in the criminal case who fell victim to being star struck.

Finally, we made it through another edge of your seat episode of The Walking Dead last night, and nearly lost our minds during the final moments.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  I thought we weren’t going to lose anybody, but we just might have lost Darryl, at the hands of Dwight. We won’t know until next week.  We saw blood splatter everywhere once he shot him.  That was followed by Dwight saying “you’ll be alright.”  I have a feeling it isn’t Darryl he’s talking to.  He’s talking to the rest of us to let us know that we’ll eventually be alright even though our favorite son may have just died.  I keep asking myself if the show would do this to us, and I think the answer is yes, despite trying to convince myself otherwise.  What the hell was everyone thinking leaving Alexandria again?  What’s the point of having these freaking “safe zones”  in the post-apocalypse, if people just up and leave all the time? This is all Darryl’s fault.  Glenn even told him it was bound to go wrong and it did. Ugh!  I don’t know what Morgan was thinking either, leaving himself an excuse not to come back to Alexandria to defend the group, as he continues to hunt down Carol.  Speaking of Carol, just when you thought she might be becoming a little emotionally unstable by leaving the group, she reminded everyone how much of a badass she is by killing four of the Saviors on the road.  I think Carol will definitely be fine on her own, but it’s too bad because the group really needs her to help defend Alexandria.  Morgan’s story about The Wolf prisoner who changed is bullshit.  That prisoner didn’t save Denise’s life.  He was taking her hostage during the escape, but fortunately somebody shot him before he could go any further.  I expect that we’re going to get some big time answers in next week’s 90 minute season finale.  Some answers that we probably aren’t going to want to hear.