Michael Vick Guilty!… Criminal Aliens… and more

So I apologize for the lack of activity the past few weeks on this blog… I had been busy hosting a few friends visiting the area (which was so much fun) and with work in general. Additionally, I felt slightly bad about completely donking away my roll over the past three weeks playing cash games way outside of my limits. I’m going to redeposit and recommit myself over the next few days with just SnG tournaments because I know I’m a winning player in those.

MICHAEL VICK

The biggest news of the past few days, in the sports world and perhaps news world in general, is that Michael Vick has reached a plea deal with the federal government in regards to charges of dogfighting. I’ve said from the beginning that I would give Vick the benefit of the doubt (following the debacle in Durham last spring) before I wrote anything in depth about the situation. Now that we basically have a conclusion, let me offer some of my own thoughts to this whole ordeal.

First off, make no doubt about it, I think Michael Vick is a cruel, awful, terrible, indecent, retarded (insert any other horrible adjectives) human being for funding and being involved in dogfighting. Some of the allegations – how Vick personally oversaw the execution of these dogs by electrocution and drowning – are truly unimaginable. He deserves whatever jail time he will ultimately be sentenced to by federal judge Henry E. Hudson (who is notorious for giving out tough sentences). I won’t say that Michael Vick will never play another down in the National Football League, but it will take an owner willing to take one hell of a risk to go out and grab Michael Vick when he does come back from behind bars. Out of all the positions in the NFL, quarterback is probably the one that would require constant practice – reading defenses, memorizing playbooks, timing passes, etc. Also, the quarterback of a team is usually the face of a franchise. I don’t know a single owner out there in the NFL right now that would want to present a dog killer to his fans as that face. Finally, this just popped up on SportsCenter… a SportsNation poll to the question “Would you want Michael Vick to play on your team after a prison sentence” came back with a resounding 75% majority of “No”. Maybe the CFL or AFL can take a chance on Vick, but I just don’t see an NFL team doing it.

In some respects, this whole situation with Michael Vick is a bit depressing. We all know about Vick’s younger brother Marcus, who once stomped on a linemen in the crotch after a dead ball whistle. It seemed, at the time, that Michael was above his younger brother’s behavior. He was a superstar in the NFL, had just signed the richest contract in league history, and was doing his best to lead the Falcons to a championship season. Sometimes you just can’t get away from your past. It seems like that was the case here with Vick. His three co-defendants invovled with the dogfighting operations were all childhood friends and appear to have continued to provide a bad influence on his livelihood. I’m not saying that their influence exonerates Vick by any means… I’m just saying with all the money and fame that follows these athletes, there are some things out there that just can’t be changed. Let’s hope Michael Vick learns a lesson from all of this and comes back to society as a better person.

CRIMINAL ALIENS

In case you missed it, two weeks ago four students in Newark were lined up and shot execution style by a gang of men. Three were killed and one was critically injured. It has become apparent, since then, that at least one of the suspects is an illegal immigrant. Jose Carranza is an illegal immigrant from Peru. The crime itself was completely horrifying. What makes me even more enraged is the fact that some of those involved were in this country illegally. I won’t get into my own views on immigration policy, but obviously I am sympathetic to most immigrants as the child of immigrants myself. I also realize that this country probably does need illegal immigrants in order to provide cheap labor that many other Americans are unwilling to perform. My problem comes when illegal immigrants commit crimes within our borders and then are GRANTED BAIL (yes… Mr. Carranza was granted $2 million bail for his role in the shootings of these four teenagers). I think that if you’re going to commit a crime as an illegal alien in the United States, you should be punished to the fullest extent of the law and then deported instantly upon serving your required jail time (assuming it isn’t a life sentence). Rest in peace to the three kids who were murdered in these shootings.

BASEBALL

So I know in my Trade Deadline post, I was bitching and ranting about how Brian Cashman was such a dumbass for not getting Eric Gagne at the trade deadline becuase he didn’t want to give up Melky Cabrera. Well now I feel like a completely dumbass. Since going to the Red Sox, Gagne has essentially given the Yankees 3 games in the division race by sucking royal ass. I guess the transition from the non-playoff attitude in Texas to the championship attitued in Boston is proving tough for Gagne. Meanwhile, the Yankees are doing their best to keep pace in both the wild card and divison races. Although right now we are currently getting our asses raped by the Angels 13-5, I still like the way we are playing. If we can get our starting pitching to where it should be, I truly believe we will make the playoffs and be a serious threat to win it all. Two young arms – Joba Chamberlain and Edwar Ramirez – have proven to be critical in a few games so far when we’ve needed them. I’m especially excited for Chamberlain who simply has electric stuff. I know its a really small sample size (7 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 11 K’s)… but just watching some games in which he has pitched gives me a feeling that this kid will be really special in the future. Also, how the fuck are the Mariners so good? Can anyone please answer that question for me please…

Fantasy Football

So I’ve joined my first ever Fantasy Football league for the upcoming NFL season. It’s with a bunch of friends from Lawrenceville, so I’m expecting lots of trash talking and fun. It’s a 10 team league, and I got the 6th pick. Here are the draft results for my team:

Pick 6: Larry Johnson RB
Pick 15: Carson Palmer QB
Pick 26: Reggie Wayne WR
Pick 35: Terrell Owens WR
Pick 46: Carnell Williams RB
Pick 55: Jamal Lewis RB
Pick 66: Kellen Winslow Jr. TE
Pick 75: Ben Roethlisberger QB
Pick 86: Jerricho Cotchery WR
Pick 95: LenDale White RB
Pick 106: Michael Turner RB
Pick 115: Packers D/ST
Pick 126: Neil Rackers K
Pick 135: Jerry Porter WR
Pick 146: Muhsin Muhammad WR
Pick 155: Eddie Kennison WR

A brief analysis of my draft. I actually just entered the live draft room for my first round pick and was in a hurry to figure out what the hell was going on and who was left. Tomlinson, Jackson, Westbrook (wtf DJ?), Gore, and Addai had all been taken. I was in a struggle between Larry Johnson and Shaun Alexander. Both are great backs and due for big years in my opinion… the only question mark for LJ was his contract holdout and 400+ carries last season. I went with Johnson in the end because I think despite the 400+ carries last season, he’s the more explosive back and will have more opportunities to score TD’s with the QB situation in KC (compared to an established Pro Bowler like Matt Hasselback in Seattle). I picked Palmer for my second round pick because I felt there were no premium RB’s left in the draft. I hope Palmer will turn out to be the 2nd best QB in the league this year behind Peyton. The rest of the picks I think are pretty reasonable. I was stupid for taking a kicker in anything other than the last round (as I found out from Top 10 things not to do in a fantasy draft on SportsCenter), but in general I am satisfied with the way things turned out.

-K

Month In Review

So July has been a pretty good month for me personally. Started out with a nice getaway from NJ down to Washington DC and Chapel Hill, a good amount of poker throughout the month, a relaxing trip to the beach, a few trips up to NYC, and then a party this past weekend.

Now what about sports. Was it a good month for the sports world? Well… not so much. In fact, maybe one of the worst months in recent history of the sporting world.

• In baseball, Barry Bonds continued his historic (and probably tainted) run at the most hallowed record in the game. Everyone related to the sports – Hall of Famers, analysts, commentators, current players, former players – all have their own opinion on the whole issue. One of the few people who don’t? The commissioner of the league, Bud Selig. He’s going to be there when he hits the record HR, no he won’t, yes he will, no he won’t. The flip flop act the commissioner has been pulling is absolute bullshit. My opinion? He should be there. He MUST be there. And it looks like he will be. Selig doesn’t want to be another Bowie Kuhn, so regardless of the steroid issue, he needs to be there.
• In cycling, the leader of the Tour de France with 4 stages left, Michael Rasmussen, was removed from the race by Tour organizers because he failed to show up for two pre-race drug tests. Now I’m not a huge cycling fan, mainly because it takes too mother fucking long, but it seems to me the sport and its most storied race will have to try and repair its image over the next few years. This year’s winner, Alberto Contador, should be a good start. The 24 year old Spaniard, riding for Team Discovery (Lance Armstrong’s former team), could lead the charge by young riders to save the sport. Let’s just all hope that another Floyd Landis episode doesn’t occur again this time around. By the way… after the past two years in which multiple superstars have admitted to cheating and doping, why do we continue to worship Lance Armstrong and believe he was able to win 7 Tours cleanly while recovering form a bout with testicular cancer? I’ve always been an advocate of innocent till proven guilty, but there’s something fishy about the whole Armstrong era.
• Oh yeah, there’s that whole Michael Vick thing going on with the NFL as well. If you haven’t heard about the federal indictment of competitive dog fighting and conducting the business across state lines that Vick is currently being charged with, go back to Mars. This is one of the top 5 star appeal players in the league being indicted by the federal government. It’s not like this has happened in another major sporting league in the recent past, right? But this is different, and much more severe, compared to the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case from a few years back. I’m refraining from really going in depth about Vick until this case is brought to trial or a plea deal is met, but it seems like shit is starting to hit the fan with the most recent news that one of his co-defendants has flipped on the plea of “not guilty”, and decided to cooperate with federal officials.
• And finally, perhaps the worst of them all, the betting scandal involving a veteran NBA referee, Tim Donaghy. I’ve written pretty in depth about how big of a deal this is before in this blog, so I’m not going to talk about it directly some more. Instead, I’m going to try and provide my own opinion regarding the impact of this scandal vs. the Vick scandal that Jim wrote about last week.

Jim and I usually have pretty similar viewpoints on many things, but I’m going to have to disagree with him on this one. The NFL, at this point in time and probably for the foreseeable future, has the most viewers by far across the nation. It is truly American, and Americans love to watch it. The Super Bowl has no match in terms of the hype and anticipation it receives from the American public. Why is the NFL so successful? There are many reasons why (including the fact that 95% of games are played on Sundays when no one has anything to do), but one primary reason is that NFL fans are very team oriented. There are more die-hard NFL fans out there than any other sporting league in America. Only in the NFL will you find fans paint their faces in dress up in goth for Oakland Raiders games. Only in the NFL will you find fans take off their shirts, apply body paint to read out “PACKERS”, and cheer all game in below freezing temperatures for the their team. Thus, the Vick scandal, while obviously extremely bad for Vick, the Falcons, and to an extent, the league’s image to the American public, won’t necessarily deter Packers and Bears fans from watching their two teams do battle on the gridiron. I know I certainly won’t be missing any games because of the Vick scandal in the upcoming season. Yeah sure, you might have your random dog-loving PETA member shun the league in the upcoming season and refuse to watch any games because of Vick, but for the most part, I think viewership will either remain constant or go up.

The NBA, on the other hand, suffered some of its worst finals ratings ever this past season. The problem with the NBA is that there aren’t many die-hard fans out there that are team oriented. I agree with Jim, when he says that the NBA is player-oriented compared to the team-oriented nature of the NFL. The problem with player-oriented fans is that they tend to be much more casual fans in the grand scheme of things. Take myself as an example. My favorite team is the Nets and when I can, I will turn on YES and watch their basketball games (no matter how frustrating it is to watch Lawrence Frank fuck up my team by running a slow-tempo half court offense when you have one of the premiere PG’s in the game on your team). I wouldn’t say I’m a die hard Nets fan, but I’m more inclined to watch a Nets game than I am to watch a mediocre individual match up like… Suns (Nash) vs. Hornets (Paul). Because there are many more casual fans who might turn on the TV every once in a while and switch to TNT or TBS to watch an intriguing game, I think the Donaghy scandal will impact the NBA more. The NBA, in my opinion, will lose the casual fans it’s had in the past because honestly, who wants to spend time and watch a game that could be in the process of being tainted by a referee. Those who love basketball… should be watching college basketball. But those who really really love basketball and can’t get enough of it, will keep watching. It’s the casual fans who will view the Donaghy scandal as a violation of the fundamental trust that a fan and its officials share.

Well, at least we have SOMETHING to cheer about. Perhaps the classiest HoF class to be enshrined in Cooperstown in a while. Congrats to Cal and Tony for playing the game right and having tremendous careers.

-K