Sports Archive

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Top Ten Entertainment Experiences Of 2007

2007 was pretty lopsided for me in terms of where my quality entertainment experiences came from. It was a phenomenal year for video games. Perhaps the best single year of new releases for the medium since 1997, if not better. Conversely, there just wasn’t much there in terms of great music. Some solid releases, sure, but nothing that remain etched in my mind as transcendent. Live shows definitely resonated better for me than the album experience did. For sports, I’ll preface my conclusion by saying that I only regularly follow the MLB, the NFL, and the NBA. Besides the lone entry on the list, there were no other truly memorable moments for me this year. Television was fairly solid, despite the writers strike putting a damper on my mood late in the year. Comics had some pretty high moments, and also some pretty “meh” ones as well. Finally, 2007 was just not my year for movies as I wasn’t motivated to seek out much other than the obvious films. While some were fairly entertaining, I just couldn’t argue for their inclusion on this list over the items picked.

Without any more ado, here’s my top ten entertainment experiences of 2007:
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The Mitchell Report Was Pointless

waste of time
Earlier today, former senator George Mitchell released the findings of his yearlong investigation on Major League Baseball’s problem with performance enhancing drugs. When you cut through the extensive verbiage of the report, you can essentially break it down to these components:

  • a list of players with alleged evidence linking them to performance enhancing drugs prior to 2002
  • the conclusion that prior to 2003, players, team executives, and MLB officials did not make a huge effort to make sure performance enhancing drugs were not used
  • the conclusion that if the players union and MLB officials can agree to cooperate, they can lessen the the number of cases of performance enhancing drug use
  • the recommendation that players named in the report not be punished for past actions

Obviously the most exciting aspect of the report is the list of players who have supposedly been linked to performance enhancing drugs. Unfortunately, the list is comprised of either evidence we have already heard before or hearsay. Mitchell’s report references the whole BALCO scenario from a couple years back, along with the more recent cases of players purchasing drugs via the internet. In both cases, the evidence was not considered concrete enough in order to convict players of wrongdoing. The more interesting allegations are of Roger Clemens and Andy Pettite. Former Yankees trainer, Brian McNamee admitted to injecting Clemens and Pettite with HGH and other performance enhancing drugs prior to 2001. Most of the evidence for the other named players are not more substantial than a “I heard that someone told him that he injected steroids.”

However, we have no way of knowing whether Clemens, Pettite, or any one of these players actually used performance enhancing drugs because they have never tested positive for any sort of doping. In fact, most of the drugs in question are not currently detectable by any means. The best thing we can do is finger point and say “This dude (who is probably saying what he has to in order to not go to jail) says he injected you.” In addition, the conclusions of the report, while they needed to be reiterated, were not exactly as enlightening as when the apple fell on Newton. Anyone with half a brain now can see what baseball was doing wrong in the late 20th century-early 21st century.

In other words, this whole report was a waste of time.

Read the Mitchell Report in its entirety [mlb.com]

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Angels Trade Cabrera For Garland

Apologies for the tardiness on writing about this, but I’ve had other pressing things to do lately.

A couple of days ago, the Anaheim Angels traded Gold-Glove winning shortstop Orlando Cabrera for Chicago White Sox starting pitcher, Jon Garland.  As an Angels fan, the only way this deal makes sense is if this was to acquire trade chips to flip a bigger deal down the road.  I’m clinging onto that belief, because as it stands it does nothing to fix the problems of the team, namely hitting.  The Angels aren’t getting bounced in the first round of the playoffs every year because of terrible pitching, they’re getting bounced because the dudes simply can’t hit in the postseason.  Watching the games last season, Cabrera was the second most clutch guy in the lineup last year behind Vlad.  He batted .302 and won the Gold-Glove at shortstop.  Don’t get me wrong, Garland is an above average pitcher, but the Angels have a gaggle of above average pitchers.  Between Lackey, Escobar, Weaver, Saunders, Santana, and Mosely, there just isn’t room in the rotation for any more pitchers.  Especially at the expense of a key batter.

If this deal gives us what it takes to land a Miguel Cabrera that’ll be perfect.  I can deal with Erick Aybar at short if it means a huge bat like Miguel Cabrera is batting behind Vlad.  On the other hand, I sincerely hope Tony Reigans isn’t thinking about Miguel Tejada as the power solution because he is as powerless as the Queen of England these days.

(Also, my mind is trying to put the names of these players in a transitive Frankenstein.  Orlando Cabrera Cabrera Miguel Miguel Tejada.  Is there a player named Orlando Tejada?)

Angels Trade Cabrera [ESPN.com]

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Joel Zumaya Hurt Himself Again

guitar hero 3

Hard-throwing Detroit Tigers relief pitcher, Joel Zumaya, can’t seem to catch a break. He injured his shoulder severely while trying to help evacuate his parents from the California wildfires last week. ESPN reports that Zumaya will be sidelined until at least the middle of the 2008 MLB season. Last year, Zumaya missed the last three games of the ALCS and all of the World Series because of an arm injury due to playing Guitar Hero.

Frankly I’m surprised he didn’t injure himself again on the recently released Guitar Hero III. That Slipknot song on level 7 is complete and utter bullshit on hard difficulty. On the bright side for Mr. Zumaya, Rock Band comes out in roughly three weeks. Not having to worry about baseball until March means he can rock out all he wants.

Then again, I’m sure thousands of Tigers fans and fantasy baseball players out there are PLEADING for Joel to take it easy on the rhythm games. Todd Jones and his adventurous 4.26 ERA seasons don’t exactly inspire confidence.

Zumaya Injured [ESPN.com]