June 9, 2009

The NHL has a serious problem that they themselves created.

Since its 2005 labor issue, the NHL’s popularity plummeted.  When the NHL returned to the regular season, it came back to television on VS and NBC instead of ESPN.  VS – REALLY – a major sports league wants its games played on a channel which specializes in hunting and bull riding.  The NHL should have done whatever it takes to stay on ESPN.  REALLY – ESPN is.  It is – REALLY. For sports, clearly, ESPN is.  It is money, fame, recognition, fresh, popularity, hip, always on.  It is good business.

SERIOUSLY – who made the decision to put a critical Stanley Cup clinching game the same night as the NBA finals?  If you are trying to grow your sport’s popularity, why would you put your biggest stage on the same night as Kobe Bryant?  SERIOUSLY – that’s just bad business development.  All the advertisers and major sponsors are heading to ABC, home of the NBA Finals (and LOST), not NBC, home of “I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here”.

I mean, C’MON, this ignorance deprives people of seeing a beautiful, fast, action-filled sport with young stars like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Pavel Datsyuk.  Hockey combines speed and hitting and slick passes with 100 mph slap shots.  How can you not like a sport where there are penalties for slashing, boarding, and fighting – C’MON!!!!!!!

June 8, 2009

Living in Phoenix has its advantages:  Six months of absolutely perfect weather, great golf courses, three hours from snowboarding in the winter, five hours from the beach in the summer, and (of course) the most complete school in the Pac-10 Conference at Arizona State University.

But Phoenix isn’t a major sports city.  It’s nothing like the life or death of New York, Boston, or Philadelphia sports.  Phoenix isn’t even in the Chicago, Miami, Dallas, Los Angeles second class of sports cities.

Yet, Phoenix has a professional team in each of the major sports leagues:  MLB, NBA, NHL, and NFL.  That’s usually what puts a city in the top tier of sports cities.

So what is wrong with Phoenix sports?  Simply put:  It’s a fickle sports town where people flock to whoever is hot and avoid whoever is not.  But 2009 is even more different . . .

It all started when the former cellar dweller Arizona Cardinals became the NFC Champions.
Next, the Phoenix Suns organization wanted to change its essence, but their players didn’t.
Then, the Arizona Diamondbacks, in the middle of their youth movement, forgot that their young players still have a lot to learn.
Finally, the Phoenix Coyotes realized that moving 20 miles west of Phoenix to one of Phoenix’s oldest suburbs, in a state that is years behind improving its highways, cuts your fan base in half for Sunday through Thursday night games.

All the previously mentioned cities (New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Miami, Dallas, LA) would be completely shell shocked if they were in Phoenix.  Grown men would be calling out sick from work.  Local sports radio hosts would be calling for organizational firings.  Newspaper columnists would be writing brutally honest columns reprimanding players and coaches.

What was the final blow for me?  A bunch of things . . .

The Diamondbacks won a game in 18 innings, and all I heard around town was the 9 innings of no-hit ball the Diamondback bullpen put up.  Are you kidding me?  Why isn’t anybody talking about the five runs the first two relief pitchers gave up TO SEND the game into extra innings – REALLY – we are going to focus on those nine innings instead of how the game got to extra innings – SERIOUSLY – It was David Eckstein who homered off of your relief pitcher – David “33 Homers in 10 Career Seasons” Eckstein. David “I’m not tall enough to get on the rides at DisneyLand” Eckstein.  David “My bat is the size of a toothpick” Eckstein – C’MON! – What a joke.

Earlier this past weekend, the Phoenix Suns, who have lost a lot of season ticket holders and are desperately calling them multiple times a week to get them back,  had their best player, Amare Stoudemire, went on a country wide radio campaign to express his displeasure with the organization.

The Phoenix Coyotes are broke, and people are just starting to care now that the team seems destined for Canada.

This wouldn’t happen in most other cities – instead, Phoenicians (yup, that’s the fancy West Coast wannabe term) just keep playing their golf, traveling to California for the beach, or getting ready for the next season.  Phoenix will never be a main-stream top sports city.

June 2, 2009

It’s summer time. 24 ended another exciting season with Jack Bauer saving lives while batting an interesting moral dilemma over prisoner torture.  LOST fanatics are even more lost than ever.  Memorial Day has passed.  School is ending.  Beaches are getting busier.  MTV Movie Awards have come and gone with only one major celebrity blow-up.  Summer movie blockbusters are releasing every weekend.  Star Trek and Terminator have opened with Transformers, Funny People, and G.I. Joe coming out later this June.

Eight weeks of the Major League Baseball season have passed.  It’s enough time to get a feel for how your team is doing in the standings.  It’s been enough time to see how those risky picks during your draft or auction have panned out.  As I was looking through some of the statistics from the past eight weeks, some obvious things really stood out:

Albert Pujols is good.
Mark Teixeira hates the month of April.
Zack Greinke has put all that potential together.
Justin Verlander is absolutely filthy.

There was some less obvious stuff out there; both good and not-so-good.  In honor of those summer blockbuster movies, here are my two thumbs up and two thumbs down.

Two Thumbs Up

Justin Upton, OF (ARZ)
33 R, 12 2B, 4 3B, 9 HR, 29 RBI, 6 SB
0.326 BA, .400 OBP, .599 SLG, 999 OPS

Just 21, Justin Upton is the only good thing in the Diamondbacks bad start to the season.  Upton has sick talent which is probably why he made his MLB debut at the age of 19.  J-Upton has reduced the strikeouts this season while showing improved contact. And it’s not that soft contact – most everything is hit hard.   J-Upton will be a fantasy monster – soon – but watch him carefully as he is still 21 with the usual ups and downs of a youngster.  What is truly amazing is that most Diamondback hitters stall in their development (Conor Jackson, Mark Reynolds) or worse, they regress (Chris Young).  Upton’s talents are overcoming his organizational shortcomings.

Adam Jones, OF (BAL)
41 R, 14 2B, 1 3B, 11 HR, 36 RBI, 4 SB
0.344 BA, .400 OBP, .608 SLG, 1008 OPS

As the Wieters era begins in Baltimore, Oriole fans should not forget about Adam Jones.  Acquired in the Erik Bedard trade, Jones is the Oriole center fielder of the future.  Jones is a tremendous athlete (remember he started as a shortstop in the Mariner organization) who has 20/20 potential in his prime.  Jones is consistently improving each season which is a great sign, but there is a slight caution flag though – Jones’ May numbers show a drastically reduced walk rate and increased strikeout rate – hopefully it’s just an off month.

Two Thumbs Down

Troy Tulowitzki, SS (COL)
21 R, 6 2B, 3 3B, 5 HR, 16 RBI, 4 SB
0.221 BA, .313 OBP, .387 SLG, 699 OPS

The former Long Beach State Dirtbag had a superb rookie season in 2007 and a disappointing injury-plagued 2008.  This season Tulo was supposed to come back with vengeance, but it has been a poor start which included a couple benchings from former manager Clint Hurdle.  Hurdle told the media that Tulo was benched for not being smart at the plate.  Surprisingly, Tulo seems to be controlling the strike zone with an above average 12.6% BB/PA and average 19.1% K/PA.  It’s the contact rate which is down.  May’s statistics show a good trend with a decreased K% and an increased batting average, but most of the month was spent hitting in front of the hot Todd Helton.  New manager has dropped Tulo to seventh in the batting order which decreases his at-bats and provides him with no protection.

Howie Kendrick, 2B (LAA)
21 R, 6 2B, 1 3B, 4 HR, 20 RBI, 6 SB
0.225 BA, .266 OBP, .350 SLG, 616 OPS

Kendrick rose to the big leagues as a hitting machine with a career minor league batting average of .360.  He isn’t a major source of power or a source of walks, so his real value to the team is getting on base through hits in front of the sluggers.  This season is completely different as Kendrick is struggling to find his hitting grove.  There are rumors circulating that the Angels are ready to call up Sean Rodriguez who is tearing up AAA, but when asked, manager Mike Scioscia stated, “it’s something we’re watching very closely.”  If you have Kendrick, you may want to pick up Sean-Rod so you don’t lose plate appearances.  The Rodriguez rumor itself is extremely odd as the Angels called up Brandon Wood for two weeks to sit the bench in favor of Erick Aybar at SS and Maicer Izturis at DH

Statistics as of June 1^st, 2009