August 24th, 2015

There is a major nerd crisis going on in the Dodger front office, and a disaster happening on the field.  They got swept away by the A’s and Astros.  Meanwhile, the front office thinks they are brilliant but they are about to get slapped in the face when LA misses the playoffs this year.  Last week they acquired old man 2nd baseman Chase Utley from the Phillies.  This is a great move…..if it were 2008.  What’s the plan next? Convince Roy Halladay and Brad Lidge to unretire?  I guess Andy Friedman thought the best way to jump start the Dodgers offense was by adding another .220 hitter to the lineup.  To make matters worse, he hasn’t fixed the bullpen.  For all his brilliance, he can’t fix the easiest part of a team to fix.  It cost them multiple times last week.  I mean for god sakes, if the Dodgers are so obsessed with 19 year old pitcher Julio Urias (who they refused to trade for David Price or Cole Hamels), just bring him up now and use him out of the pen!  All of those Atlanta Braves rejects the Dodgers acquired have a collective ERA of 8.  What they really need to do is start using a trash truck to shuttle relievers from the bullpen to the mound.  5 straight losses and it looks like this team is running out of gas before September even gets here.

The Angels won’t be sending the Dodgers any fruit baskets after the Astros opened up an even bigger lead in the AL West over the weekend.  The Halos took a Ronda Rousey like beating from the Blue Jays, and now even the Rangers have blown past them in the division.  Andrew Heaney doesn’t look invincible anymore, and the Angels most reliable starters are bleeding runs.  2nd base is a black hole, and the cast of characters they acquired in the outfield has been useless. Oh, and the extra kick in the balls is that Mike Trout looks like he’s going to lose his reigning MVP trophy to Blue Jays 3rd basemen Josh Donaldson.  The Angels remind me of a ship that is slowly springing one leak at a time, and once one leak is plugged, two more show up.  Seems like they need a real General Manager this winter before they start fixing them.  It sure would have been nice if that GM was Dave Dombrowski.  Then again, it’s going to be tough to get a real General Manager in Anaheim with Mike Scioscia proving recently that he had more power than ex-gm Jerry Dipoto.

On to college football, where USC coaches still act like buffoons.  Head coach Steve Sarkisian was speaking to a group of alums on Saturday for their football kickoff event, where he completely embarrassed the program.  Sark must have stopped by the Sigma Chi house for a few keg stands prior to showing up, because he was totally liquored up and slurring his words while speaking at the event.  He then proceeded to drop an F-bomb while introducing his team to donors, then claimed that Notre Dame, Oregon, and Arizona State suck.  By the way, Sark is a combined 0-9 against Oregon and Arizona State all time.  He then said a number of other inappropriate things while cussing some more, and he had to be pulled off the stage by Athletic Director Pat Haden and John McKay Jr.  Annnnnd……just like that Sark is on the hot seat.  He’s been rumored to have had some legendary drunk nights at local bars in Seattle, and seeing him at an event like this just confirms that he’s a PR liability.  The Trojans had better live up to that #8 preseason ranking, or else Pat Haden is going to kill Sark’s USC career faster than Waterworld killed Kevin Costner’s career.

Over in Westwood, Jim Mora Jr. is totally screwing with Jon Rosen.  This freshman stud should have been named the starting quarterback ages ago, but Mora is clearly trying to create some competition among him and soon-to-be backup Jerry Neuheisal.  Mora went off at Rosen in front of the media during a practice last week, where he ripped the freshmen after doing one lackadaisical drill at the end of practice.  Good thing Rosen’s dad isn’t a famous rapper, or else Mora might really be danger of his star freshman quitting the team.  Rosen has actually had the benefit of going up against a very good UCLA defense in practice, which should prepare him very well for his first game action in a couple of weeks.  There is simply no way that Mora goes into week 1 with Jerry Neuheisal as his starting quarterback. Even Neuheisal probably knows that.  But Rosen’s ego put off some people in the recruiting process, and Mora is aware of that.  He’s doing his best to keep the kid humble, which would be tough for any freshman starting quarterback at a big time university.  I like the motivation tactics by Mora, but it wouldn’t kill the guy to be a little more media friendly!

If I hear one more thing about deflate gate, I’m going to throw my television out the window.  At this point, Tom Brady is stomping his feet saying he’s only going to accept a punishment for obstructing the investigation and not deflating footballs.  The league thinks otherwise.  What I really want is for a judge to go “That’s it!…..you Mr. Brady and you Mr Goodell…..you’re going to jail!”  On the field, you’re probably losing your mind right now if you drafted Kelvin Benjamin or Jordy Nelson in your fantasy football league, since both are done for the season with knee injuries.  Speaking of injuries, football is back, and that means RGIII is injured! He’s about as durable as an IPhone charger.  I can’t believe any quarterback has to play behind that offensive line.  It’s just about time for both sides to split from one another for the good of the Redskins, and RGIII.  So let me get this straight…..RGIII thinks he is the best QB in the league, Tony Romo thinks the Cowboys will win the Super Bowl, the Eagles signed Tim Tebow, and Eli Manning thinks he should be the highest paid Quarterback? The league needs to drug test the entire NFC East immediately.

Nice move by the LA Kings signing veteran defenseman Christian Ehrhoff.  The Kings were badly hurting for some veteran depth on the blue line, and they got it for a cheap $1.5 million.  I’m still surprised that the Rangers took a chance on Jarret Stoll after he got busted for drugs.  I mean, they are taking a guy who loves dope, and putting him in a city with plenty of party action.  That’s like telling your friend that loves to sleep with Asians that he can’t do that anymore, and then sending him on a vacation to Thailand.

It’s amazing isn’t it? Caitlyn Jenner went from being admired for man slaughter to being arrested for manslaughter.  What a difference a space makes.

JR Smith is returning to the Cavs.  He celebrated by going to the bar and taking a shot.  And another……And another….

News broke last week that former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle is pleading guilty to child porn charges.  Looks like when Jared goes to prison, he will be tasting a different type of foot long from now on.

There was some good stuff on TV last night for a Sunday night in August.  First off, we had the Season Finale of Ballers on HBO.  I definitely love the show, and they should keep it going, but there wasn’t really a whole lot of adversity that any of the main characters really faced by the time the season ended.  It actually reminded me of Entourage, where the biggest problem facing the main characters was where they were going to go party.  In any case, it’s a show they can do a lot with, and should absolutely continue.  How likable of an actor has The Rock become?

Then of course there was the Series Premier of Fear The Walking Dead on AMC.  For several years, many of us have been watching The Walking Dead, and although we are hooked, we all wonder how the heck the illness and zombie apocolypse started.  After a 90 minute pilot that was the prequel to The Walking Dead, we have a little bit of an idea, but still nothing certain.  My only problem with the show thus far is that most of us are tuning in to get some answers, and there seem to be very little.  In fact, all we have seen so far is civilization right before it began to fall apart.  At the same time, a bunch of characters seem to consistently withold information from one another.  This is frustrating.  For instance, Maddie has a conversation with a troubled student who wouldn’t fully explain what he saw on TV, and what strange things are happening across the country.  I also get the feeling that watching this show will simply be like replacing one annoying set of teenagers on The Walking Dead with another set in Fear The Walking Dead.  The show has got my attention so we’ll see where it goes from here.

August 17th, 2015

We’re about a year away from the selection of the 2016 USA Basketball team for the Summer Olympics in Rio De Janeiro.  Most of us seem to think that Kobe Bryant’s Olympic career ended in 2012, after winning his second gold medal.  Apparently, he and Jerry Colangelo, who is the chairman of USA basketball, think otherwise.  Colangelo said that he and Bryant have had discussions about him possibly being on the team next summer, if he plays well enough to earn a roster spot.  That conversation tells me that Kobe finally realizes that his odds of winning another NBA Championship before his career is over are about the same as my odds of marrying Jennifer Aniston.  An Olympic gold would be the next best thing to finish it up.  Problem is, I have my doubts Kobe can make it through an entire NBA season healthy enough to play.  Even if he does, whose roster spot would he take?  It would surely mean a promising young player like Kyrie Irving, DeMarcus Cousins, or Klay Thompson would get left off the roster.  It would be a nice way for Kobe to end his career, but probably not a realistic one.

Speaking of Team USA, during their mini camp scrimmage that was aired on ESPN, Austin Rivers had a few things to say on Twitter.  Rivers said  “Straight up better than a lot of those dudes playing last night….. Have to prove that this year.”  Does Rivers mean he’s actually better at playing basketball than those dudes? He must mean beer pong, or bowling, or something else, because he couldn’t even stop Pablo Prigioni the 2nd round of the playoffs last year.  Oh, and then he must have forgotten about this moment too…..

Don’t you just love the NBA? The Cavs have yet to re-sign restricted free agent big man Tristan Thompson.  Thompson wants a 5 year $94 million contract.  $94 million for a guy that averaged 8 pts and 8 rebounds?  Typical NBA.  The only factor that could make this happen is Lebron James putting pressure on the Cavs to get this done, since they share the same agent.  I don’t care what Lebron says, signing Thompson to a deal that big would be idiotic.  He’s a nice player, but he’s not a max guy.  You have to draw the line somewhere.  Good for the Cavs for playing hardball.  If teams are going to give out max money like financial crisis bailout money, I’d like to personally declare myself an NBA free agent today.

On to baseball, where the Dodgers took 3 of 4 from the Reds over the weekend, but it’s hardly anything to get excited about.  For roughly the last 80 games, the Dodgers have been nothing more than a .500 team, and they’ve done that by beating up on scrub teams like the Reds, who have been waiving the white flag for months.  People want to blame Don Mattingly for the decisions he does or does not make with his bullpen.  However, Andy Friedman has given Mattingly nothing more than an empty water pistol to put out a forest fire.  Friedman has had nearly a year to fix a bullpen, which is the easiest area to fix, especially for a team with a unlimited financial resources.  Somehow, he’s managed to make the bullpen even worse than last year, The man just doesn’t know pitching.  He even had a chance to add another all-star starter which would put much less importance on a week ass bullpen, but failed to do so.  This is a team doing it with smoke and mirrors that’s going to get exposed come October.

As for the Angels, things aren’t much better.  They blew a 9th inning lead last night, and lost in extra innings to the Royals on Sunday Night Baseball.  They ended up losing 3 of 4 to KC, and now sit 3.5 games back of the Astros in the AL West.  They are also trailing by .5 games for the 2nd wild card spot.  Even though they seem to be within striking distance of the playoffs, the pitching is crumbling.  Matt Shoemaker suddenly can’t pitch, CJ Wilson is done for the season, and Jered Weaver is more unpredictable than Nicki Minaj’s hair color.  It’s gotten so bad that the Angels actually think Chase Utley might save their season.  Wouldn’t it have been easier to acquire a real impact bat a few weeks ago?  What they really need is an effective leadoff hitter.  No team in baseball has a lower OBA from its leadoff hitters.  That’s tough when you’ve got Mike Trout and Albert Pujols in the middle of your lineup.

The NFL preseason games are pretty overrated, but they’ve provided us with some nice entertainment over the last week.  Phil Rivers played his hand very well with the Chargers, securing a 4 year contract extension with $65 million guaranteed.  For that price, I’m sure he’ll move his 65 million children to Los Angeles if he has to.  They say Geno Smith tried to punch back after getting his jaw broken.  He missed the punch by about 10 yards though.  Trent Richardson is amazing.  He’s the only running back in the NFL that knows how to run right into a pile of lineman instead of a gaping hole that will lead to the end zone when both are right in front of him.  You know it’s the preseason when Jay Cutler isn’t throwing interception and the Browns are winning.  Speaking of the Browns, Johnny Manziel really had to check himself after scoring a TD the other night so that he would not flash that stupid money sign he used to.  Even Tim Tebow managed to get into the end zone for the Eagles over the weekend.  Here’s a look at what was going on at the ESPN headquarters after that happened…..

For a second there, Jay Day was beginning to look like the new Phil Mickelson, who was the lefty loser for so many years.  He finally broker through and won the PGA Championship over the weekend.  Meanwhile, Tiger Woods has fallen off a cliff and missed Saturday’s cut.  Do you realize in Tigers first 8.5 years as a pro, he missed one cut.  He’s now missed four of the last ten cuts.  He has literally lost his mind, more than his game.  You can’t free fall like that just off of losing a skill set alone.  Oh, I’m also pretty sure that when Jason Day loses, he still wins.  Meet his wife Ellie….

August 10th, 2015

The Dodgers need to bring back their slogan “A Whole New Blue” from two years ago.  That’s because this team is more painful to watch than having blue balls.  This weekend’s series against the Pirates was a perfect example of that.  The Dodgers are a good team, but they don’t look ready to beat a great team in October.  After refusing to trade Yasiel Puig at the deadline, Don Mattingly is on the verge of benching him for his inconsistencies at the plate.   If Puig were the real superstar we once thought he was, we could live with some of his stupid mental mistakes.  However, now he’s just a guy.  Then there’s rookie Joc Pederson, who is baseball’s new Adam Dunn.  He’s either going to walk, strikeout, or hit a home run.  Lately it’s been mostly strikeouts, and the only thing keeping Pederson in the lineup is his defense.  This is all compounded by the fact that the bullpen is terrible.  How many times do I have to see Joel Peralta give up a bunch of runs, then have that “I’m so disgusted with myself” look on his face? It doesn’t matter how much money the Dodgers have.  They just don’t know how to play their cards right.

Then there’s the Angels.  They had a relatively free drama week, but they are still chasing the Astros in the AL West, and they’ll also need to fend off the Rangers.  First, the Astros made moves at the deadline to jumpstart their team, then Texas acquired notorious Angel killer Mike Napoli from Boston.  I’m not sure what exactly Bill Stoneman is waiting for…..to turn 72 years old?  The man has a part-time job and essentially has nothing to lose, yet managed to acquire every useless left fielder in the American League at the trade deadline.  Meanwhile, Yoenis Cespedes is already tearing it up with the Mets.  He sure would have been a nice bat to put next to Mike Trout and Albert Pujols.  Speaking of Albert Pujols, MASN’s Gary Thorne probably didn’t use the right adjective here on this play…..

To the NBA, where Kobe Bryant says the Lakers can “absolutely” make the playoffs this year.  That is true assuming LA is playing NBA 2K in rookie mode.  Kobe also said that he can envision himself finishing his career overseas before retiring.  This would really be a complete no-brainer if he has the opportunity to do so.  The Lakers are going to need some time to develop their young core.  Kobe isn’t going to stick around for that beyond this year, especially if the Lakers are going to ask him to take a pay cut from the $25 million salary he’ll be making next season.  The Black Mamba can easily go to Italy to play for an easy $50 million a year, where he’ll be playing a much less stressful 30 games a year or so.  If Kobe knows he can’t win another title before it’s over, he should go for another payday.  Speaking of Kobe, Brandon Armstrong is a former overseas player who recently made a video impersonating him.  Armstrong has also made numerous other hilarious videos impersonating NBA all-star’s on the court, including Lebron James, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, and Tim Duncan.  Even the Mamba thought this was hilarious….

College Football is underway, and that means camps have opened for both USC and UCLA.  It absolutely blows my mind that Cody Kessler is in the preseason discussion as a potential Heisman Trophy Candidate.  Never in my life have I seen statistics as deceiving as this guy put up.  He has huge games against horrendous competition, and is nothing more than an average quarterback against real competition.  He also doesn’t take too many chances throwing the ball down the field, so naturally, his interception numbers are going to be low.  The Trojans have got some depth this year, but maybe not the star power they had in the past.  The non-conference schedule is pretty weak early, but things get tough down the stretch with games at Notre Dame, at Oregon, and at home against UCLA.  This has the makings of another 8 or 9 win season.

As for the Bruins, everything starts and finishes with true freshman quarterback Josh Rosen.  By all accounts, this kid is going to be good, the questions is how much time will it take?  The Bruins could be as good as an 8 or 9 win team if he learns slowly, or good enough to win the Pac 12 if he’s as good as advertised in his first year.  The early trip to Arizona and the late trip to the Coliseum will determine who is going to come out of the Pac-12 South.  The talent has been there for the last few years, it’s simply a matter of whether or not UCLA can come to play against the elite.

NFL Football is back! Ok sort of.  We got to watch the Hall of Fame game last night, which everyone salivated over, even if we get to see the starters play for a few seconds.  I’ve never really been a fan of attending preseason sporting events.  You pay regular season prices to see talent that probably won’t be playing during the regular season.  It’s even worse for season ticket holders, who are forced to actually buy those tickets with their season ticket packages.  Meanwhile, Alden Smith was released by the 49ers this past week under their “23 strikes and you’re out” policy.  Have the Cowboys signed him yet?  With Arian Foster set to miss part of the season, the Colts are now projected to clinch the AFC South when their week 1 game kicks off.  Amazing, Robert Griffin III has gone an entire hour at Redskins camp without suffering an injury, which sets a new personal best for him.

Finally, The GOP debate on Thursday night in Cleveland was simply epic television.  It felt like I was watching an episode of Saturday Night Live, especially every time Donald Trump opened his mouth. Trump may end up hurting the Republican’s chances in the long run, but his presence alone is generating the biggest and most attentive audience in American politics at this point.  In the most conventional of thoughts, most people would think Trump actually hurt himself with some of his smart ass comments.  However, when you have so many new people engaged in politics that generally don’t come out to the polls for elections, all bets are off.  There’s a great deal of frustration and anger that these new viewers have when tuning in, so in many ways, Trump is appealing to them.  The real surprise was actually that Jeb Bush didn’t do much to give people a reason to go the polls and vote for him.  There was simply nothing about him that set him apart.  There were other candidates like Marco Rubio and Carly Fiorina that did well, but nobody outshined Trump.  I can’t wait for the next one of these in September.  You knew it was going to be a great two hours when Trump opened with this…..

 

August 4th, 2015

Ok, so Monday Morning Coffee became Tuesday Morning Coffee this week.  I needed an extra day to rationalize my disappointment in the Dodgers.  I can’t accuse the franchise for being cheap.  I can’t accuse them for trying to develop their farm system.  I can’t even accuse them of not trying to build sustainable success.  However, what I can accuse them of is not taking advantage of their window of opportunity to win a World Series.  They failed to do that at the trade deadline when they had the opportunity to get Cole Hamels, David Price, or even Johnny Cueto.  Instead, we were left with a handful of underwhelming moves that you baseball nerds, who are super into analytics described as “cagey”.  Nobody cares if you are good for 20 years, but can’t win a World Series in that time.  The Dodgers have been a player or two away from it forever.  Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke won’t be here and performing well for an infinite period of time.  Why spend money getting rid of players and taking chances on a ton of prospects instead of spending that money on star talent while you have fewer but more quality prospects developing?  Grabbing another ace would have put them over the top, but they failed to capitalize.  They did sweep the Angels over the weekend, but that’s a small consolation.  It was fun while it lasted, but I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the Dodgers for participating in the 2015 MLB season, because it’s virtually over now.

Meanwhile, the Angels are suddenly sinking like the Titanic.  After a brief stay in 1st place, the Astros swung a few deals at the trade deadline, and now have a 4 game lead on the Angels in the AL West.    The Halos badly needed a bat, but settled for some mediocre outfielders in Shane Victorino, David Murphy, and David DeJesus.  Bill Stoneman should have been more aggressive going after the likes of Yoenis Cespedes, Jay Bruce, or even Justin Upton.  Even though the Angels roster is better than the rest of the division, the turmoil has been non-stop.  The latest issue came from CJ Wilson, who most fans would prefer if he and his contract were ejected from the universe.  Wilson has struggled on the mound, and now is claiming he will shut down his season to have elbow surgery.  Reports are however, that his teammates are angry with him, and think he can play through the pain.  Sounds to me like CJ is really getting backlash for a number of things.  It’s either that he publicly supported that bum Josh Hamilton, that he takes artsy photos, or that he seems more focused on his car dealership.  In any case, sounds like there’s a good chance CJ won’t be with the Angels next season.

Elsewhere around the MLB trade deadline, David Price was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays, which will allow him to unique opportunity of being able to miss the playoffs in another country.  The Mets’ Wilmer Flores was caught on camera crying during a game when he heard the rumor that he had been traded.  That rumor ended up not being true.  It’s hard not to cry when you realize that you can’t escape from the Mets.  Speaking of the Mets, they acquired Yoenis Cespedes from the Tigers.  I guess Billy Beane must have known something when he traded him from Oakland 2 years and 47 trades ago.

On to the Olympics, where I would like to thank the city of Boston for pulling out the running for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.  This was a mistake from the start, awarding the games to a city that had little to no desire to have them, and had no financial plan in place for them.  Meanwhile, Los Angeles is a city that is perfect for them, and far more economically viable than any other city in the running.  We could be ready for the Olympics in the next 5 minutes if it were necessary.  The existing venues and infrastructure are that good, and they will be even better in 2024 if and when a privately financed NFL stadium is built.  However, I still have no idea why the IOC continues to award the Olympics to countries that simply have no business hosting the games, like Brazil.  It was revealed last week that many of the bodies of water that the athletes will compete in are contaminated with dangerously high levels of viruses and bacteria, and that there is no way they can fix this problem by the time the games start next summer.  The athletes who spend much of their lives training for this moment should not have to make the decision of whether or not to compete, but many of them probably still will.  I’d like to see many of the IOC committee members get into that water before any of the athletes do if they think it isn’t a problem.

Byron Scott says that Kobe Bryant will likely see some time at the Power Forward position this season.  Say what?  Will this also be complementing Roy Hibbert when he is running the point? Congrats so Sasha Vujacic on returning to the NBA, after signing a one year deal.  The former Laker and “That Machine”, as they call him, once dunked on Lamar Odom in practice, and trust me folks, Phil Jackson had to shut the practice down and send everyone home.  How on earth is Josh Smith going to feed his family on the measly $6.9 million he is scheduled to make this season from the Clippers and Pistons?  Everybody should text “Smoove” to 12345 to donate $5 so his family won’t have to suffer.

We’re getting closer and closer to football season folks.  That means we are 6 weeks away from Tom Brady’s appeal of his appeal of his appeal of his suspension; Russell Wilson being unhappy about being paid $22 million per season; Browns fans looking forward to the NBA season after being 0-1; the Raiders winning…….the coin toss and then losing the game 41-6; Trent Richardson finishing with a career high 17 yards on 11 carries for his new team; and Chip Kelly trading DeMarco Murray for a bag of chips after a week 1 loss.  Speaking of Tom Brady, his 38th birthday just past, and Jock Talk LA was able to get a copy of his birthday wish list:

Finally, Ronda Rousey is unbelievable.  I’m not even an MMA fan, but her dominance is astounding.  Her fight against Bethe Corriea over the weekend was like watching a sledgehammer vs an ant.  Rousey finished her so fast, I felt like she could have won 12 more fights that night.  As for Corriea, she should be invited to play a walker on the upcoming season of The Walking Dead, since that’s about all that’s left of her.  Honestly, my only intrigue of watching Rousey at this point would be to start putting her up against men and see how long they can last in the Octagon against her.  I don’t think many would do well against her….

July 27th, 2015

It’s that time of year where sports fans have to try things like going outside to actually entertain themselves.  Fortunately, Shaquille O’Neal has given us something to talk about.  He sparked a debate on social media last week between himself and Scottie Pippen, claiming that a Lakers all-time team of himself, Kareem, Kobe, and Elgin Baylor, and Magic would destroy a Bulls team of D-Rose, MJ, Scottie, Rodman, and Horace Grant.  Shaq claimed the Lakers would win by 50, which obviously Pippen disagreed with.  Ok fine, I’ll play along Shaq.  I think the Lakers win a close one, but there are some awkward match ups.  Magic would have a major size advantage on Rose, although, he might not have the easiest time defending him.  MJ has the slightest of edges on Kobe, which is canceled out by Baylor’s slight edge on Pippen.  I’m not really sure how Grant and Rodman can guard Shaq and Kareem, but then again, how do those two play together?  Shaq should have put Kobe at the 3 and Jerry West instead of Baylor, but that just goes to show you how many great players have played for the Lakers.  They would have Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain coming off the bench!  We’re talking about 4 of the top 10 players in NBA history on the floor together.  That volume of talent alone makes me want to give LA the nod over Chicago.  I think NBA 2K is the only way to settle this.

Speaking of the Lakers, it never surprises me how people constantly criticize Kobe as a teammate.  A few weeks ago, everyone was all over Kobe’s ass for not having a solid recruiting pitch to big time free agents like LaMarcus Aldridge.  Some of you actually thought Kobe should just shut his mouth so he didn’t risk giving off any kind of bad impression.  Just a few weeks later, Kobe gets three new teammates in Brandon Bass, Roy Hibbert, and Lou Williams, and those same people are criticizing Kobe for not reaching out to them.  So is he supposed to speak or not at all? This is more confusing than Caitlyn Jenner’s sexuality.  He can welcome these guys in October when they show up at training camp.  I admit though,this moment was funny…..

I’ve been saying it for years, but apparently the NFL does not read Jock Talk LA.  Football fans in LA are very apathetic toward having an NFL team move back there.  Emily Kaplan from THEMMQB.COM asked 100 locals about their desire for pro football to come back, and most didn’t really care.  That’s right, it’s been gone so long, a generation of people have grown up without it, and don’t even think they need it.  LA isn’t Cleveland, Pittsburgh, or Green Bay.  We have plenty of stuff to do here, and we sure as hell don’t need two teams.  Would we support a team? Sure.  However, if the league really wants a team here they should finance the whole thing themselves.  Frankly, LA gets to watch some of the best NFL games on TV every week.  Teams like the Chargers and Rams moving actually increase the likelihood of having more blackouts of the best games, while those two teams struggle to stay relevant.  This still isn’t as dumb of an idea as sticking a team in London or Mexico City.  Once again, the NFL has a great on the field product, but it’s run by idiots.

ESPN is losing talent.  Colin Cowherd is now leaving them to go work for Fox.  Before I get to his comments on Dominican baseball players, it should be noted that all this started with Dan Patrick departing, and finding his own success beyond the mothership years ago.  With the loss of Bill Simmons followed by Cowherd in just a few months time, ESPN is slowly losing its entertainment value.  It’s going to be providing us with people covering sports with the personality of a can of tuna.  As for Cowherd, I’ve always liked him, but sometimes he tries a little bit too hard to be too controversial with his constant discussions about socio-economics and how they are related to sports.  It was bound to get him in trouble at some point, and it did.  Colin loves to take things he doesn’t understand, like baseball, and tie them to a much bigger topic.  I really wasn’t even offended by his comments regarding Dominicans when you read everything he said.  However, he forgot how every word that comes out of a broadcasters mouth can easily be something offensive.  In my mind, that makes him guilty of stupidity.

Speaking of baseball, the Dodgers have a matter of days to make a trade to make them a real playoff threat, otherwise they might as well just flush this season.  At the moment, I’m not liking their chances of pulling off what they need to.  They already missed out on their chance to get Johnny Cueto.  Their best bet for a huge return would be to trade Yasiel Puig and Alex Guerrero, but for some reason they are still in love with Puig’s “star potential”.  Without Puig, I don’t see how they can meet the Phillies crazy asking price for Cole Hamels, or even the rental price of the Tigers’ David Price.   I’m thinking they’re to make some totally underwhelming trade for some limp dick starter or another reclamation project reliever.  Meanwhile, Howie Kendrick has been great for LA this year, but he said something pretty short-sighted things the other day regarding “armchair critics”, and how they shouldn’t be commenting on baseball because they’ve never played.  I guess Howie has never been to a restaurant and complained about the food because he isn’t a chef.  Or thought a movie was crappy because he’s never been an actor or director.  The fans complain because they actually give a damn.  Meanwhile, there’s probably a lot of MLB players that just don’t.

As for the Angels, they had a rough weekend against the Rangers, and they look to be in a serious battle for the division with the Astros.  This trade deadline is looking more and more of an arms race, especially in the wide open American League.  Although the Halos are playing better, they are screwing around with acquiring dudes like Conor Gillaspie instead of acquiring a real bat.  I guess when David Freese went down with an injury, Bill Stoneman thought what better way to replace mediocre hitting than with mediocre hitting.  The Angels injected some life into their team by calling up Andrew Heaney.  The Astros countered that with the acquisition of Scott Kazmir, and the Royals got serious about contending by adding Cueto.  The Angels need to keep up by calling the Reds for a bat like Jay Bruce.  The Halos window to win with Pujols and Trout isn’t going to be forever.  Hopefully they realize this before Pujols is reduced to a bench role while collecting his retirement paychecks.

Donald Trump is the “Sharknado” of Presidential candidates………

Speaking of Sharknado, hopefully you all watched the disaster that was “Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!” on SyFy last week.  Once again, this was terrible television at its best, and this pop culture phenomenon continued to dominate Twitter, resulting in 360,000 tweets.  It also resulted in some very improved ratings for SyFy, despite a slight decline in ratings from the 2nd Sharknado movie.  While some of you think the odds of a tornado forming with sharks in it is less than 1%, keep in mind that this is 2500% more likely than the Clippers, Cubs, Browns, or Jaguars winning a championship.  I like how the storm in the movie was so bad that it was actually tearing stone off of buildings.  There were also some tremendous celebrity cameo appearances in the film that were great as well.  Mark Cuban plays the President, among many others celebs.  To come to think of it, Chad Johnson was in the movie longer than his career with the New England Patriots lasted.  If you have yet to see it, I’m sure they will be re-showing it later this week, or even On Demand.  I know what you’re thinking though: if you want to watch a bunch of Sharks spin around and fall aimlessley to the ground, you’re better off watching a replay of 2014 NHL playoff highlights.  It’s worth watching though.  You’ll even find the special effects great.  For instance, we saw the Sharknado tear through a Nascar race, which didn’t even contain any Confederate flags.  There’s going to be a 4th one folks and why not? It’s July, what else could you possibly find on TV? Oh, and of course April is going to live.  They aren’t doing another one of these movies without Tara Reid and Ian Ziering.

July 20th, 2015

The amount of over-analysis of the Lakers summer league team is unreal.  I get it…..they have 7 players on the team that stand a pretty good chance to be on the roster come opening night.  However, most of them are 19 and 20 year old kids that are still trying to figure out how to buy beer, let alone play in the NBA.  I don’t care that they lost games.  I saw enough flashes of brilliance from D’Angelo Russell, Julius Randle, and others to get me excited about the future.  It’s going to take time people.  Everyone forgets that John Stockton and Steve Nash, two of the best point guards ever, had pretty unsuccessful rookie seasons before becoming stars.  They are going to make mistakes.  You might even throw your TV across the living room in frustration during the process,  but embrace it.  It’s going to be fun and when the product is finished, I think it’s going to be great.

Ok, if the Clippers weren’t “The Clippers”, I’d actually pick them to win the NBA title next season.  They managed to steal back DeAndre Jordan, they added some veteran leadership with Paul Pierce, and they solidified their bench with Josh Smith and Lance Stephenson.  They are now the most talented team in the league, but the only question is whether or not they can overcome their chemistry issues.  I realize that adding Josh Smith and Lance Stephenson to a team with chemistry issues in the first place is about as dangerous as giving Jason Pierre-Paul fireworks, but it’s a gamble that they needed to take.  Your window to win in the NBA doesn’t last forever, and Doc Rivers realizes that.

To baseball, where Zack Greinke hasn’t given up a run in a month.  He’s threatening Orel Hershiser’s 59 inning scoreless streak, and could get there with two more great starts.  This comes at a pretty interesting time considering that Greinke has an opt out at the end of the year from his massive contract, and the Dodgers will have to decide if they want to extend him again or not.  Hard not to when he’s going this good.  Speaking of pitching, Clayton Kershaw pitched the All-Star game like a playoff game against the Cardinals, however, it was nice to see him make up for it by striking out 14 batters on Saturday.  With these two studs already, the Dodgers need to acquire Johnny Cueto from the Reds to complete their pitching rotation.  More importantly, they need to acquire a hat that actually fits Cueto.  In fact, this is probably one of the best rivalries in sports: Cueto vs his hat.  Right now, his hat has serious edge…..

Those Angels are continuing to come on strong.  Mike Trout did nothing but remind us that he’s the best player in baseball with his stellar All-Star MVP honors.  Speaking of the All-Star game, I loved the fact they actually had a clock during the home run derby.  It made the event far more exciting to watch, and did a much better job pulling in the casual fan.  Baseball seems to be content with being a regional sport, however, if it’s not careful it won’t even be that.  I realize that baseball has it’s “old boys club” owners that are slow to evolve, and some fans that are traditionalists, but if the sport wants to remain relevant it needs to consider making these types of changes in the actual regular season games.  We live in a world with a lot of distractions.  Baseball is currently giving us more reasons to be distracted if they don’t continue to evolve.

Donald Trump is amazing.  He’s like a comment section of a CNN article that is running for President of the United States.  There’s nothing like avoiding capture in every single war you’ve never fought in and talking smack on people in your own party that aren’t even running against you.  While I think Trump would do unbelievable things for the U.S. economy if he were President, he’s simply not Presidential.  I can’t even imagine him wanting to grind it out in a campaign and go state to state rallying support for himself.  If nothing else, at least his campaign will be entertaining.

I don’t know about you guys, but I have less and less desire to go swimming in the ocean anymore.  Yesterday during a competition in South Africa, pro surfer Mick Fanning had to fight off a shark like he was Chuck Norris.  You guys think this only happens in South Africa and Australia? Think again…..we’ve had plenty of Great White Shark sightings from the San Diego beaches all the way up to Malibu the last few years.  It’s almost amazing that we don’t have more incidents like this because swimmers are constantly in the same area as these sharks that are coming closer to shore to feed on Stingrays.  It’s not like we are being hunted, but if you’re going for a swim in the ocean, you’ve gotta accept the risk that comes with it.  In case you haven’t seen it…..

Have they caught El Chapo yet? I heard he’s headed to Florida and enrolling at FSU….

Ok, I’ve ignored it for too long.  I have to comment on the Caitlyn Jenner showcase we had at the ESPY’s last week.  For just a second, I actually could subscribe to the idea that making this massive 45 minute speech would actually save somebody’s life and prevent a transgender from committing suicide.  Then, you’re disgusted by the fact that after all this you learn it’s simply a publicity stunt to plug her new reality TV show that will be premiering this month.  People can be whoever they want to be.  However, Jenner has had a history of this type of narcissism, and frankly, it probably is hurting the perception of transgenders in the long run.

July 13th, 2015

I can’t wait for the ESPN 30 for 30 to come out on the hostage situation at DeAndre Jordan’s house this week in Houston.  DJ proved that he is a 26 year old man with the maturity level of a 3rd grader. There is nothing wrong with him changing his mind, and deciding to renege on his verbal committment to the Mavericks, and re-signing with the Clippers.  However, he didn’t even have the balls to call Mark Cuban and the Mavericks to tell them.  DJ texted Cuban on Tuesday to tell him that he was “on a date” while Cuban arrived at his home.  Turns out that date was dinner with Blake Griffin.  You’ve gotta hand it to Doc Rivers and DJ’s teammates though.  They knew how immature the guy was, and took advantage of it.  Of course they weren’t going to let him talk to Cuban again before signing the contract.  My favorite part of all this though is that the Clippers will go from a 1st round playoff exit to a 2nd round playoff exit after this charade.

The real beauty of this entire DJ story was the dialogue going on between Mark Cuban and ESPN “Insider” Chris Broussard.  Broussard is supposed to be ESPN’s star analyst, with real sources.  This guy is such a fraud, and as I’ve suspected for years, he doesn’t know jack.  In fact, he’s wrong so often that if he predicted the sun was going to come up tomorrow, I’d be concerned that the world was going to end.  Broussard was completely exposed by Cuban.  Imagine what kind of disaster this would really be if we knew he was credible?

@Chris_Broussard how about this. You post any proof I was calling/texting his friends asking anything I give 100k to charity of yr choice.

— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 9, 2015

Broussard then back peddled with this on his blog:

“Regarding my Wednesday report: I should have attempted to contact Mark Cuban before reporting what my sources were telling me. I always try to carry myself with honesty and integrity both personally and professionally. I recognize that I tweeted hastily, I’m sorry for it, and I will learn from my mistake.”

Meanwhile, how funny is it that Lakers summer league games are generating the most excitement the team has seen in the last two years? I watched D’Angelo Russell for two summer league games, and I get why they picked him 2nd overall.  You can see the talent, but he’s got a lot to learn, and a long way to go before becoming the star the Lakers hope he will be.  It’s hard to be patient when Jahlil Okafor is already a 20-10 player in summer league.  Heck, the Lakers actually have 7 promising young players on their summer league roster, and if even half of them live up to their potential, LA could be on there way back to contention.

In other NBA news, Joel Embiib is likely to miss the entire 2015-2016 season with a foot injury.  In a related story, Sixer fans will also be sitting out the entire season as well.  Embiib has now made $9 million while spending the last two years in the hospital and on Twitter..  JR Smith looks like he’ll be signing a one year deal with Wendy’s, and he should have some stiff competition from Kendrick Perkins to be the starting fry cook.   OKC owner Clay Bennett is a total cheapskate and a moron. He gives the green light to his General Manager to pay Enes Kanter $17 million a year, but refused to pay that kind of money for James Harden.  Thank god we’ve reached the point in the NBA off-season where we are analyzing the banana boat ride that was taken by The King, CP3, The Flash, and Gabrielle Union.

On to baseball, where we’ve reached the All-Star break with the Dodgers holding a 4.5 game lead in the NL West.  We all know however, that if this team doesn’t make a trade, when October baseball rolls around they will disappear faster than Bruce Jenner’s penis.  The front office was bold over the summer, so now they need to be even more bold to make this team a contender.  Call the Reds and trade Yasiel Puig, Alexander Guerrero, and a couple of minor league prospects for Johnny Cueto, Ardolis Chapman, and Todd Frazier.  The Boys in Blue get the pitching help they need in their rotation and the bullpen, while adding some pop at third.  The Reds on the other hand get a potential superstar with Puig, and another rising star in Guerrero to rebuild their club.  Anything short of a major move like that, and we’re likely to see another disappointing fall.  That’s a shame for a team with five all-stars playing in the mid-summer classic on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, after all their 1st half drama, the Angels are in 1st place in the AL West by .5 games.  The Halos have won 11 of their last 14 games while the Astros have lost 6 straight.  The Angels have made up 5 games in the standings in the last 11 days.   I don’t care who they have to remove from their starting rotation when Jered Weaver comes off the DL, but Andrew Heaney should be a regular the rest of the season.  The Josh Hamilton drama seems so far away now, and the departure of Jerry Dipoto is already forgotten.  Bill Stoneman should probably look to add another bat in the outfield or at 3rd base before the month is over, but the Angels look like they have a decent shot in a wide open American League.  By the way, the last time the Dodgers and Angels were both in 1st place at the All-Star break was 2009, when they both lost in the LCS.

As if the DeAndre Jordan incident wasn’t a reminder enough how dumb some professional athletes can be, we also had two NFL players blowing their fingers off with fireworks in the last week.  I don’t know about you guys, but I haven’t really had a desire to go buy fireworks since I was about 12.  I also never really thought there was much of an issue actually letting go of the firework immediately after it was lit.  Apparently none of this applied to the Giants Jason Pierre-Paul and the Bucs C.J. Wilson.  EA Sports has already updated the next version of Madden given JPP’s injury……..

I’m really looking forward to seeing how the NFL revises the punishment it handed out to Tom Brady for “deflate-gate”.  Tom Brady currently is facing a four game suspension.  In 2014, Josh Brent received a 10 game suspension for manslaughter.  In other words, taking the air out of a football is 40% of taking a human life.  Glad we cleared that up.  Here’s a live look at the NFL trying to determine what Brady’s new punishment will be…..

Finally, the NFL is inching its way closer to LA.  However, it’s interesting that last week the Rose Bowl decided not to be a temporary venue for an NFL team that relocates to LA.  That almost guarantees the Coliseum as a temporary home, but it’s doubtful that they would come to any agreement with the Raiders, given the history between both sides.  The only other temporary stadiums that make sense would be Dodger or Angels Stadium, which are the only venues large enough to hold an NFL size crowd.  Look, I’m all for the NFL coming back to LA under the right circumstances.  Circumstances that don’t include paying any taxes on a new stadium, which is how most Southern Californians feel.  However, I don’t see why the league is slamming not one, but two teams down our throats when the market has failed them before.  We don’t need the NFL in LA as bad as the NFL does.  It’s a miscalculated view from a league that may be the most popular sport in the country, but one whose operation looks more foolish by the day.

July 6th, 2015

The Lakers are really taking this tanking thing very seriously, as they have now tanked free agency.  Roy Hibbert and Lou Williams are about all there is to celebrate.  Things haven’t been this bad since…..last summer.  You didn’t really think LaMarcus Aldridge or any other free agent was going to come play with a bunch of 19 year olds did you? There’s absolutely nothing wrong with rebuilding.  However, there is something wrong the LA’s half-ass plan the last couple of years.  The Lakers are too worried about public perception.  They’ve resisted a full commitment to developing young players, so they can convince us they are “staying competitive.”  However, they’ve also failed to open up enough cap space to convince multiple free agents to come to LA at one time the last few off-seasons.  You can blame that on the massive contract they gave Kobe.  That of course has resulted in lame free agent presentations, revolving only around marketing and not basketball.   Their plans are short-sighted.  The Lakers used to be the smartest and richest team in the NBA.  Now they look like the ignorant rich guy, whose in financial trouble, but afraid to fire the butler because people will think he’s poor.  They can start by realizing that their fans don’t need to be sold a bill of goods.  They are more sophisticated than that.  Develop the Clarkson’s, Russell’s, and Randle’s, and collect assets to make the right trades.  Once they do that, the free agents will have something desirable to come to.  The fans are smart enough to realize this.  Why can’t Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak? When they don’t, that’s where the real backlash comes from.

Then there’s the other basketball crisis in LA, the Clippers.  The Clipps are probably still hoping they can foul DJ in hopes of stoping the clock to extend negotiations with him.  Too bad he’s off to Dallas. I think DeAndre Jordan is crazy for going to a team that is not nearly as talented as the Clippers, but the fact he left tells you a lot about the culture in LA’s locker room.  These guys just didn’t enjoy playing with each other.  CP3 is a demanding player, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but Blake and DJ just weren’t coming along fast enough on an emotional or mental level.  They needed to be accountable.  Not even Doc Rivers and Steve Ballmer can change that.  Where do the Clippers go from here? Probably the same place: an early playoff exit.  Sure they are going to have a lot of cap space next summer, but so will just about every other team in the NBA, many of whom have a much stronger culture.  How soon before Blake and CP3 want out?  The more things change, the more they stay the same with the Clippers.

NBA free agency was unbelievable.  I haven’t seen much money blown since we all bought the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight.  5 years and $80 million for Reggie Jackson?  5 years and $85 million for Draymon Green?  4 years and $60 million for Demarre Caroll? If your team didn’t get anybody, at least be happy they didn’t flush money down the toilet.  Everybody has spent the last week wining and dining LaMarcus Aldridge like he’s one of the Kardashian sisters.  We might as well just get straight to the Spurs-Cavs NBA Finals after he signed with San Antonio.  The Sacramento Kings practices are basically going to be a steel-cage match between Rajon Rondo, George Karl, and DeMarcus Cousins.  I like how they gave Rondo $10 million when nobody was bidding against them.  Kendrick Perkins has free agent visits lined up with Burger King, McDonald’s, and Wendy’s this week.  Poor Damian Lillard.  Now he knows how Will felt at the end of the Fresh Prince….

Staples Center’s tenants are just full of drama these days.  Even the LA Kings have a potential PR problem on their hands.  They are having all kinds of salary cap issues, and they badly need another top 4 defenseman.  They couldn’t afford any that were on the free agent market.  Wouldn’t you know it, they have a very affordable top 4 defenseman under contract in Slava Voynov, but Voynov has been suspended since last fall for domestic violence.  Last week he pleaded no contest, and will serve a short jail sentence.  If Voynov can avoid deportation, the league might allow him to return.  Would the Kings take him back after what he did? They aren’t saying it, but of course they would.  What really makes the Kings look bad here is that they just terminated the contract of Mike Richards, after he was allegedly caught with oxycodone with no prescription at the Canadian Border.  If Richards was still a good player, there’s no chance his contract would be terminated.  Neither one of these guys should ever play for the Kings again, but if Voynov does, I sense the public backlash won’t be that great, simply because hockey players aren’t as high profile as NFL players or NBA players.

Meanwhile, the Ducks aren’t having quite as many salary cap issues as their Western Conference rivals, but they missed out on a great opportunity to improve their team by signing former King Justin Williams.  The Kings couldn’t afford him despite the reasonable $3.25 salary he will be receiving from the Capitals.  Williams is known as “Mr. Game 7, for his big game playoff performances”, which is exactly what the Ducks need.  They have blown 3 consecutive game 7’s at home, during the last 3 seasons  Seems like a no brainer to sign Williams.  Anaheim will still be formidable, but not only did they miss out on the chance to improve, but also stick it to the Kings.

The Dodgers have now opened up a 4 game lead in the NL West, but they are having more and more problems everyday.  They are just a .500 team since June 1st, and their offensive run production has declined steadily since the start of the season.  They’ll need to acquire not one, but two starting pitchers before the month is over if they want any chance of succeeding in the playoffs.  If those problems aren’t enough, rumors are starting to fly about how bad of a teammate Yasiel Puig is.  Some of his teammates even think that they would even be better off without him.  Most people say Puig is a top 3 or 4 talent in the game, but I for one do not believe that.  He has plenty of talent, but has shown no ability to harness that talent into consistent greatness.  Imagine the type of return the Dodgers could get if they put him on the trade block? It’s definitely something the Boys in Blue will need to consider if they are serious about making this team a World Series Champion.

What a week it was for the Angels.  The relationship between Mike Scioscia and Jerry Dipoto finally reached a breaking point.  Dipoto has obviously watched the movie Moneyball too many times, and tried to impose his statistical analytics on not just the coaches, but directly on the players.  Scioscia and the players did not take kindly to this, and ultimately, Arte Moreno took Scioscia’s side.  That resulted in Dipoto’s departure, since he could no longer exert the influence he desired.  Scioscia is still a very good manager, but Moreno and the general managers he has hired the last few years have gotten away from the type of players that makes his style of managing successful.  Then again, I’m not sure what general manager would want to take the Halos job knowing the Scioscia is more powerful than him.  Bill Stoneman is a temporary solution at best, because the game has likely passed him by, 8 years after being a GM.  Once again, Arte Moreno has created a mess, and is leaving more and more of a disastrous legacy as an owner.

Congratulations to the USWNT on their World Cup victory yesterday against Japan.  What a perfect weekend for this to happen, being that it was the 4th of July.  Nice to see us getting some revenge for Pearl Harbor.  If the Houston Rockets played soccer, they would be Japan.  By the time you finish reading this Carli Lloyd might have scored again.  Americans now have exactly 24 hours to celebrate  before they are legally required to stop caring about soccer.  It’s amazing what people will wear to get on TV…

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m very excited to see what’s in store for Shark Week on The Discovery Channel this year.  The last few years though, some of the programs have been ridiculous.  Some based entirely on fiction and fearmongering.  Look, I want to be entertained, and I appreciate having the balance between science and entertainment.  However, if I wanted to hear a bunch of mythical stories about monstrous sharks, I’d just flip to the SyFy channel, or just wait for Shaknado to come on again at the end of the month.  So far, I like what I’m seeing, but we’ll see what else Discovery has planned for us this week.

June 29th, 2015

Let’s start with the surprising events of the NBA draft.  Although it’s easy to say “let’s wait and see how the next three weeks turn out”, I can only judge the Lakers based on what transpired in the last few days.  Selecting D’Angelo Russell was a very risky pick.  An unnecessary risk that the franchise didn’t need to take.  He might be a superstar, as Mitch Kupchak and Byron Scott suggested, but he might also be a bust.  On the other hand, they could have selected Jahlil Okafor, who is probably one of the most skilled big men in the draft in the last 10 years.  Although there is some concern about his basketball IQ after hearing him willingly say he would like to play for the 76ers, LA still should have taken him.   There’s the notion that the Lakers could have two great guards now in Jordan Clarkson and Russell.  But imagine having a dominant front court with Okafor and Julius Randle for the next decade?  That’s an even more rare find.  Now, who is going to play center? It sure isn’t going to be Lamarcus Aldridge, Kevin Love, or Marc Gasol.  As if that wasn’t frustrating enough, the Lakers had the chance to get arguably the best shooter in the draft at #27 in RJ Hunter, or UCLA’s talented Kevin Looney, and instead they took Larry Nance Jr, who they could easily have had in round 2.

Speaking of Nance Jr, How embarrassing was it when the Lakers didn’t do their due diligence on Nance, and found out he sent out some inappropriate tweets about Kobe from a few years back?  Don’t we all know that even in the NBA, like when applying for jobs, you are liable for posting stupid ass things on your social media? Of course Kobe downplayed the whole thing, and said Nance apologized, as did Bobby Portis after his dumb tweet about the Bulls a few years ago.  Still, I’m sure Nance will have a ton of fun guarding Kobe in practice during his rookie season.  NBA teams better start doing better due diligence on guys before they find out they tweeted non-sense like this….

The Knicks are amazing.  They operate like a franchise being run by a kid playing 2K franchise mode after a night of binge drinking.  Whenever you feel really down about your team, just think…..it’s not as bad as Knicks fans have it…..

Then there’s the always exciting NBA free agency that awaits on Wednesday morning.  Although the Lakers have money, unless they can somehow find a way to pull off the Demarcus Cousins trade, there’s no way Lamarcus Aldridge, Kevin Love, or any other big man of significance is signing with them.  Veteran free agents want to win immediately as well as make money.  Aldridge will get that when he signs with the Spurs, and Love will get that when he re-signs with the Cavs.  Say what you will about Cousins but he’s a proven all-star talent, and any team with him is in way better position to attract other star players than without him.  There’s about a 50-50 chance the Clippers can retain DeAndre Jordan.  For some reason he seems to be intrigued by the Mavs.  The Spurs will have to compete for Tim Duncan’s services with a couple of shuffleboard teams, 2 badminton teams, and a bingo hall.  I’m sure Lebron’s demands after opting out will include being paid the entire salary cap, having JR Smith executed, and having the team name changed to “The Lebron’s”.  I completely understand his desire to maximize his earnings by opting out, but the notion that he has leverage is silly.  No way he has the balls to leave Cleveland, no matter what happens.

Just when you think Pete Rose is getting a little bit closer to getting re-instated, or getting put into the Baseball Hall of Fame, something else comes out about him that damages his chances.  This time it was documents that revealed that he bet on baseball as a player, in addition to betting as a manager.            Ok, I get it. Gambling on the game, even if not against your own team, totally impacts the integrity of the game and the decisions that are being made as a player and a coach.  It’s wrong.  However, the man won three World Series titles, three batting titles, and an MVP.  He’s clearly a pathological liar, but his character is just as flawed as all the other steroid users and cheaters that have embodied the game of baseball for centuries.  As I have said with the steroid users, you can’t tell the story of baseball without Rose.  Heck, re-instate the man and leave it up to the individual ball clubs to decide if they should hire him.  Unfortunately, Pete just can’t seem to fully come clean, and it will probably never happen.

The Dodgers may have taken two of three from the Marlins over the weekend, but this team has been more unimpressive than the 2016 Republican party presidential candidates.  Zack Greinke got his first win in almost two months, and the Dodgers barely gave him any run support.  The defense was also a total let down in Clayton Kershaw’s start on Saturday night.  LA is struggling to score, and their pitching depth is highly questionable.  Hurry up and make some trades Andy Friedman, or else you’ll be getting punked in October when things matter.

As for the Angels, they won yesterday on the always exciting walk off wild pitch.  The Halos are staying within striking distance of the Astros, just 4 games back in the AL West.  I said they needed a spark to get them going, and they may have found it in Andrew Heaney.  He looked great in his first start against the Astros, and may push this team further up the standings if he’s as good as all those nerdy baseball experts say he is.  Now, if only somebody other than Mike Trout and Albert Pujols can hit the ball, the Angels might actually go somewhere.

Thanks to P Diddy for doing something stupid this week, and actually giving me something to write about in the dog days of summer.  Justin Combs, Diddy’s son, was apparently humiliated by UCLA Football Coach Sam Alosi in practice.  That caused P Diddy to approach Alosi after practice, and eventually attack him with a kettlebell, resulting in Diddy’s arrest.  Come on Diddy.  Everyone knows you never mess with the strength and conditioning coach.  Those are the guys that buy their “made in Bangladesh” polo shirts two sizes too small for them, and are sure to kick your ass.  This also seems like a great opportunity for UCLA to upgrade their athletic facility (which is badly needed) and sweep this whole thing under the rug with a nice big fat donation from Diddy.  How about $20 million for the “Diddy Practice Field”? I’m extremely disappointed in TMZ that they haven’t found a way to get a hold of the video either.

On to some puck where the Kings and Ducks are doing their best to try and manage the ever tightening salary cap with free agency about to get underway.  The Kings traded for Boston winger Milan Lucic on Friday, illustrating that they are clearly in “win-now” mode.  The Kings also said goodbye to Mike Richards, buying him out of his miserable contract.  That move should have been made last summer, but Kings GM Dean Lombardi was too loyal.  Lombardi obviously hasn’t watched Game of Thrones, otherwise he would know what loyalty gets you.   Richards went into “party mode” and never came out of it after helping the Kings win two cups.  You’ll probably find him drinking at the nearest Manhattan Beach bar, while Jarret Stoll is in the bathroom doing coke.

The Ducks are having struggles of their own trying to re-sign winger Matt Beleskey. They acquired speedy Carl Hagelin from the Rangers as a replacement.  Anaheim is in a slightly better salary cap situation, but for some reason they acquired another goaltender in the trade with Carolina.  I guess this puts them in excellent position to start a different goaltender in each playoff round before they are eliminated.

Gay marriage legalized.  Obama singing Amazing Grace.  Escaped murder killed by police.  I haven’t seen this much action in one day since 24!

Finally, months ago, I talked about what a foolish selection it was to pick Boston over LA to represent the U.S. in a bid for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.  Nobody in Boston wants the summer games.  The residents are annoyed as hell there has been no communication, and they know it’s going to cost a shit load.  The plan has been a disaster, and now the US Olympic Committe is increasingly considering abandoning the Boston plan and going back to LA.  Southern California is littered with existing modern infrastructure, more than equipped to handle the games, and potentially make it even profitable.  Not to mention the fact that we’ll likely have a brand new privately financed football stadium in the next five years, which can serve as an Olympic Stadium as well.  Bring the summer games back to LA.  It’s been a success before and will be a success again.

June 22nd, 2015

In the end, it wasn’t all that surprising.  The NBA’s best team during the regular season, the Golden State Warriors, were the 2015 NBA Champions.  If you ask Steve Kerr what the most important decision he made was that led to the title, I’m sure he’ll tell you that it was turning down the Knicks job.  Props to Mark Jackson for enduring a season of broadcasting his former employers games, and become a championship squad right in front of him.  I’m sure he had his vomit bag handy during game 6.  As well as Andre Iguodola played, poor choice selecting him as the MVP.  It should have gone to Steph Curry.  He hit 40 more playoff 3’s than anybody in history, and he was the reason Iggy got all those open looks.  I guess Iggy “locked down” Lebron to the point where he couldn’t score 50, and had to settle for 35 and a triple double every game.  In any case, the Warriors are going to be contenders for the next few years, even in a stacked Western Conference.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is receiving more support than Lebron James did from his teammates in the NBA Finals.  I can just hear Delonte West asking Lebron: “what kind of fucked up Fathers Day gift is this?”  As much fun as it can be to pile on superstars because you hate them, Lebron was amazing, and you’re a moron if you think otherwise.  This is the best league in the world, and one player nearly beat 5.  That’s how good Lebron was.  If the Cavs bring this team back next year, and they are healthy, they can and should win the NBA championship.  As for his relationship with David Blatt, you can criticize him for that.  Lebron has no respect for the man, and that could be the only real hinderance to the Cavs winning a title in the future.  Frankly, if you have a superstar like Lebron, you need to make sure you have a coach who commands respect, and Blatt isn’t one that does.  Lebron has never had an elite coach that he has been forced to listen to like Jordan, Kobe, Magic, or Duncan had.  Maybe that’s what’s really preventing him from truly being one of the best ever.  As if it can’t get any worse for Cleveland, Browns training camp opens up in a few weeks.

On to the NBA draft, which is just 4 days away.  Laker fans haven’t been this excited since Mike D’Antoni was fired last year.  There still is some chatter regarding who the Lakers should take with the #2 pick, which will most likely be a choice between Jahlil Okafor and D’Angelo Russell.  Selecting Okafor is the correct choice, and nobody should even think twice.  Skilled big men are rare, and for decades, have been a critical ingredient for championship success.  Sure, some of you will try to convince yourself that “it’s a point guard league”, and that the NBA champions are built around a point guard.  That may be true, but they are also the first team since the Isaiah Thomas Pistons of 1990 that won a title while being constructed in such a way.  The Warriors also happen have the best shooting backcourt in NBA history.  Okafor has won at every level, been an elite player at every level he’s played at, and can continue to be elite in the NBA.  There’s a D’Angelo Russell available in the draft every year.  There isn’t a Jahlil Okafor, who can continue the tradition of great Laker big men.

Then there’s the Clippers, who made some headlines of their own last week.  First, they agreed to swap garbage with the Charlotte Hornets, trading Matt Barnes and Spencer Hawes for Lance Stephenson.  This is a perfect fit.  Stephenson blew in Lebron’s ear in the Eastern Conference finals.    If anyone knows about blowing in the playoffs, it’s the Clippers.   The Clipps don’t have many options to improve their roster, so they had to take a chance on Stepehnson, and ultimately, it’s a pretty low risk move considering they can cut ties with him next year if it doesn’t work out.  He was dismal last year with the Hornets, but he can’t make them much worse than they already are at the small forward position.  What is much worse however, are those nasty new uniforms the Clippers unveiled.  Who the hell approved this?  It’s like Steve Ballmer went to Walmart and bought some jersey design software from the $5 bin.  I’m not sure why they didn’t get a sense this was going to be the reaction when the design leaked on the internet weeks ago, and just squashed the idea.  Straight garbage.

Congratulations to the Chicago Blackhawks, who won won their 3rd Stanley Cup Championship in 6 years.  That’s a feat that would take the Cubs and the Bears 600 years to accomplish.  The NHL hasn’t exactly been a league of parity for the last 5 years like many people characterize it.  The league has mostly been dominated by the Blackhawks, who may not be a true dynasty (3 titles in a row, or 3 out of 4), but as close as you’ll come to one in the NHL’s salary cap era.  Sorry LA, you’ve won two cups in four years, but right now, the Hawks are the team of the decade.  Much like the Kings, they’ve played a lot of playoff hockey the last 5 years, but their style of play is all about speed, skill, and playing an uptempo style.  That style is much more conducive to long-term success, unlike LA, who’s style is based on puck possession and physical play, that has worn them out to the point of missing the playoffs.  Then again, you can only play that style when you have world class players like Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews.  They may not be the Oilers or Islanders of the 1980’s, but the Hawks are a modern day powerhouse with staying power.  Even this guy thinks so….

I guess the Dodgers got tired of taking a beating from the Giants yesterday, and finally fought back to salvage a game in their 3 game set.  Apparently nobody has told Don Mattingly that he’s supposed to beat his division rival, because in only 1 of the 4 series against the Giants this season, both Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke have started.  Despite hanging onto first place, does anybody actually believe these guys are really contenders?  Their starters can’t get past the 5th or 6th inning, their middle-relief is made up of a bunch of failed cast-offs that are still failing, their shortstop is barely hitting over .200, and they keep getting destroyed by the Giants and Cardinals.  This team was supposed to be better constructed than last season, but I would argue that it’s even worse off against the elite teams.  Changes better be coming before July 31st, or else it will be another year further from the last title in 1988.

I was quite surprised to learn that the St. Louis Cardinals of all teams are being accused of stealing information from the Houston Astros.  This is the Cardinals we are talking about.  What happened to “the Cardinal way”?  I’m sure when they hacked into the Astros computer, it was done in an “ethical” way right?  Let’s not loose our minds here folks.  This has nothing to do with how the Cardinals handle their business on the field, and there’s no reason to believe they are doing anything like stealing signs.  This is simply about some front office executives getting back at former Cards General Manager Jeffrey Luhnow.  The Simpsons predicted this would happen long ago….

The Angels just can’t get it going.  They had a chance to make up some ground on the Astros last week, but settled for a split with the lowly D’Backs, and then lost two of three to the A’s.  Now Houston is coming to town for an important 3 game set.  Mike Trout and Albert Pujols are in great form, but nobody else is.  One day their starting pitching looks great, but the rest of their lineup can’t produce.  The next day their lineup explodes, but the pitching stinks.  The only thing consistent about this team is that they are consistently inconsistent.  Speaking of Angels, Mike Trout is currently the only non Kansas City Royal that is projected to start for the American League in this years all-star game.  It turns out only people in Kansas City care about the all-star game.  This is a spectacular reflection on how unpopular baseball has become nationally.

That 3,000th hit by A-Rod was about as awkward as Caitlyn Jenner on Father’s Day.  The Yankees and their fans handled it with class and grace, despite the fact we know A-Roid is was a PED user.  Still, it would be foolish to pretend that a player like A-Rod isn’t one of the greatest players of his generation.  Cheating is doing something that gives you an unfair advantage over everyone else.  You don’t have an unfair advantage when everyone around you, including the pitchers, are cheating.  He was one of the greatest in an era of steroid users.  However, he was great before the drugs, and great after the drugs as well.  My only real knock on A-Rod is that for many years, he seemed to abandon his greatness in the playoffs.  Players like A-Rod should be recognized for what they accomplished, and even put into the Hall of Fame.  You can’t tell the story of baseball without the steroid era, and he’s a big part of it.

Finally, what a choke job by Dustin Johnson at the U.S. Open yesterday.  Jordan Spieth is kind of like a young Tiger Woods, except with morals and virtues.  The coverage of the event was terrible.  I’d like to thank Fox for giving us a split screen to see Jason Day walk from the green to the tee box.  It’s like the network was trying to give us vertigo with their coverage.  Meanwhile, Tiger Woods is so screwed up in the head right now that he would probably struggle playing minature golf at an 8 year olds birthday party.  It took a few minutes but Dustin Johnson is now over it…..