StumpTownSports

I can’t wait for March Madness. Not only is it the greatest sporting event on the planet, but the sports world is just completely devoid of interesting topics, events, etc. Let’s review the depressingly bleak landscape: 1. Jon Amechi is gay. First, I don’t really care. Second, I hate the way the media uses stuff like this to try to trap players and coaches into saying something politically incorrect so they can stir up a story where there isn’t one. I imagine the professional jocks of our country are perhaps not the most culturally sensitive folks in the country and frankly that is fine with me. But this is a non-story trying to become a story in hopes that others will comment and make it an even bigger story. This guy has a book to sell and this is an easy way to get publicity. The sports media are like the refs who still buy Manu Ginobili’s flops. They should all know this is just to get their attention, but they just can’t help themselves in turning it into a “story.” Now ...

I’m getting frustrated. Maybe it is because none of my sports teams are any good. Maybe it is because I haven’t been on a basketball court other than shooting with my 6 year old in our driveway in months. Maybe I’m just naturally impatient. But I have to get some things off my chest. 1. I’m sick of Barry Bonds. I held out longer than most and still think he’s the best hitter in the history of the game, but now I’m just tired of him and all the allegations and stories and accusations and slamming he and the Giants on talk radio and on and on. For once I would like to be able to read and hear about the Giants and not have to talk or think about Bonds at all. Just once. I can’t wait for the Bonds era to end. I’m hoping this is the last year and then the Giants can trade for A-Rod and rescue him from NY. 2. I’m tired of NBA players being praised for their skills when the skills they have do not win basketball games. The point of the game in the NBA is not to score or ke...

Hello everyone. As usual, it is late on a Wednesday and I’m just now getting this posted, but better late than never…right? Tonight, we are going to take some time to discuss what we’re going to be discussing for the next few weeks. I admit that I was very intrigued by Larry Morgan’s comments about going through and putting people on the hotseat. Unless there are some objections, I’m going to propose that we do that. So, we’ll talk about that and how that might be structured. My thought is that we give some people some kind of structure to tell us about their lives. So, give some thought to what that structure might be….unless you hate the idea and then you should bring that up tonight as well. Regardless, we are starting tonight off with Larry’s “have you ever had a near death experience” question. See you tonight.

This week’s sports observations, coming to you at no charge as usual as far as you know. This was supposed to be posted last Friday, but technical issues intervened, so this is a touch dated, but oh well. Happy New Year. Zito to Giants – My very own penny pinching SF Giants (ok, so not compared to the KCs and Milwaukies of the world, but still…), agreed to pay Barry Zito 126 million dollars to land the free agent pitcher recently. A couple things are astounding about this. First, one of the NY teams (Mets) were in the hunt and no one ever outbids them except sometimes Boston. Second, it is very unlike the Giants to pay that much for a FA, and they did this even after paying Bonds his ransom for the year. Third, why pay Zito all this jack and not pay Schmidt? Schmidt has been their ace and they let him to their bitter rivals down I-5. if they had the money to pay an ace, why not pay Schmidt? Is Zito that much better? Maybe. Not a huge deal. Frankly, I’m just happy they got an...

So, here’s the thing. As much as I would love to be writing about and dissecting sports for a living, I’m really a lawyer with a family who was on the brink of two fairly major trials when my father got diagnosed with cancer. Why am I telling you that? Because it explains why I haven’t posted anything lately. But my trials went away, my Dad had successful surgery and is recovering nicely and my family and job still leave enough time for some blogging (barely), so I’m back. Enjoy. Meanwhile, there is a ton of stuff going on to weigh in on, so here goes. IVERSON A buddy of mine in my fantasy hoops league has Iverson and is facing the best team in our league this week without the services of his best player because Billy King understands how to run an NBA team about as well as Jessica Simpson understands quantum mechanics (just a guess there). Anyway, he was asking me when I thought AI would be playing again and here’s my take on that question: Not for several more days. Here's...

When I was writing my thoughts on the opening week of the NBA season, I inadvertently left out one of my favorite things. Have you seen the new Adidas adds? In case you didn’t notice from the trademark 3 stripes on every piece of NBA apparel, Adidas has the new deal to provide NBA teams with its gear. And to follow up that coup, they have also launched a new add campaign using its stars to try to get you to buy shoes. The new slogan is “It takes 5.” You know, as in, it’s not about the individual, but rather the whole team. One guy can’t do it by himself, but needs to have 4 other guys on the same page. They are pretty boring commercials which include such gripping scenes as players dressed in those motion capture suits they use for video games. What that has to do with team play in basketball, I will never know. But two things makes this a fun add campaign. First, in spite of the “It Takes 5” slogan Adidas thankfully kept the worst slogan in sports advertising – “Impossible is N...

Seeing Lebron come out and trash the new NBA basketball and at the request of one loyal reader, I’ve decided to throw out my 10 cents (my 2 cents are free) on the new ball. First, I am starting to agree with Bill Simmons at ESPN that the NBA may have a new publicity trend going that few are addressing. Last year they changed the rules on the dress code right before the start of the season. It wasn’t a change to the game, and meant very little to nothing to the fans, but it was a huge deal to the players and gave the media something to talk about and suddenly everyone was talking hoops during football/playoff baseball season. This year, they brought out a new ball. If there is some rule or code of conduct change right before the season next year, then I’m officially deeming Simmons a prophet and think we all have to admit that Stern is a genius. If it’s true, I see them making a change that brings the NBA rules closer to international rules (different size ball, shorter 3 line, tra...

A few sports observations after a long lay off from this blog. There is no good excuse for abandoning this blog, but if I were to offer one, it would be fantasy basketball. Running a fantasy hoops league and football league where I feel the need to comment and trash talk on those respective sites eats into the time I have to rant and rave here. Nevertheless, I still have more to say. So here are some observations after the first few days of the NBA season and by now some of this is already out of date. 1. I love fantasy hoops. We have a head to head league where your team has to put up better numbers in at least 4 of 7 categories to get a win. For a recap of my draft and a team by team breakdown of the league (if you are extremely hard up for something to read or just want to check out what fantasy hoops is all about), you can click on the 26by2sand3s link on this site. It’s a great league and I think I have a decent, though not great team. I lost to the preseason favorite t...

It’s only Tuesday, so maybe we’ll get two updates this week….probably not,…but hey, I can dream. Here’s the day’s random collection of sports thoughts: 1. I believe last night’s performance by Rex Grossman may very well have been the worst ever by a fantasy QB starting for his team. In my fantasy league’s format, Rex’s 6 turnovers combined with other horrible stats netted him -5 points. By contrast, my QB Matt Hassleback got me 33 points. Good job Rex. 2. Guys, have you ever been holding something and dropped it and gone to catch it just as the object falls below your waist and you catch it by inadvertently slamming it into…well…yourself? Uhmmm, me neither, but if I had that feeling as you double over in pain while contemplating your own stupidity is how the Arizona Cardinals and their fans all feel right now. What an embarrassment. At least Leinert looked great. Pretty cold comfort I’m guessing. 3. Remember how I said Edge was ...

I had high hopes that I would post something, maybe just something short, to this blog every day or at least 5 times a week. Well, it has turned into a once a week thing, but I’m not giving up my dream just yet. Instead, I would rather delude myself into thinking I am mysteriously going to get an extra hour a day for the rest of my life. Here’s what’s on my mind in the world of sports: 1. I hope the Yankees trade A-Rod. I like A-Rod. I think he gets unfair treatment by fans and the media. He is, as far as I can tell, a good guy as athletes go and he came up in the NW for Seattle and he is if not the best player in baseball, at least in the conversation. I love the guys who make their living being clutch since that’s a huge part of sports and to date in his career I will concede that A-Rod hasn’t exactly been Larry Bird in that department, though as Bonds proved a few years ago that can change. But A-Rod takes way too much heat for this just as the others get too...

Here are my quick hit sports thoughts for the moment: 1. This weekend’s game against the Raiders is a huge game for the Niners. I thought KC last week was going to be the game where the Niners established themselves as a team moving in the right direction and not to be taken lightly. Instead, they went out and got killed. After a couple days, I’ve had sufficient time to fully rationalize the loss. First, KC is better than it played in the first couple weeks and had a bye to fully plan and remotivate itself. It was still a bad loss, but not quite as bad as it first seemed. That said, the Raiders are that bad. They aren’t as bad as they looked in the first 2 weeks against 2 of the best Ds in the league, but they are still really, really, really bad. That is a game the Niners have to win. If they don’t it is going to be hard to see how they have made any progress from last year. Gore has to hold onto the ball and the defense has to show up. I’m predicting an ugly game as bo...

I don't have time this week to do a recap of last weekend and it is almost the next weekend anyway, so I'll just toss a few things out there: 1. Are people fired up about the baseball playoffs? Are there any compelling stories? Howard with the Phils I guess, maybe. I don't know. Maybe I'm just still bitter about the Giants, but I can't get into it. 2. Speaking of the Giants, why is no one talking about the fact that in September, with his knee finally recovered, Barry is hitting balls out like he was when he was allegedly juicing. Doesn't that cast even more doubt on the whether we should care if these guys are roiding? I'm not saying it doesn't matter at all, but maybe the reasons it matters have nothing at all to do with stats or performance...at least with Bonds. 3. More great NFL matchups this weekend. I'm really looking forward to Chicago and Seattle on Sunday night. Can the Seahawks win with Hasslebeck throwing 45 times? I think we ...

It’s time for another weekend recap. One of the really nice things about football season is that almost all meaningful sports happenings take place on the weekend, so it makes it easy to keep track of it all. You just put in the intense time over the weekend and you have almost a full week to digest and recap. Of course now that we have college football on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and Pro football on Monday and later on Thursday and Saturday, it is becoming harder and harder, but it’s still mostly a weekend sports world right now. When the NBA season starts I may just have to give up sleeping all together. Anyway, here are my thoughts about the weekend: 1. Friday was a great day for sports because I got to play basketball for the first time in longer than I care to admit. I would play basketball every day for as long as my body could take if I could find a way to make it work, so the fact that I haven’t played regularly in a while really bothers me. But Frid...