Gracious Winners Wanted

The Los Angeles Lakers' Derek Fisher, left, and Kobe Bryant. Photo courtesy SportsIllustrated..

Nothing supports a player's legacy more than being a gracious winner while nothing destroys their reputation worse than being a graceless loser. While I don't consider Kobe Bryant to be an arrogant person, his public persona says otherwise. The pat he gave Phoenix Suns coach Alvin Gentry could be misconstrued as arrogance, a sign of "we own you" or "payback time". Kobe's media sessions both at practice and postgame are short, with the Black Mamba not being very talkative and at times can be aggressive toward reporters. Again, I don't think Kobe is inherently arrogant and graceless, but his public actions don't do anything to discourage the notion that he is. To contrast, teammate Derek Fisher is eloquent with the media, complimentary of the opposing team, and while he's not the best player on the Lakers, he's certainly one people can look up to. In a world of 24/7 media coverage, it is imperative that players realize they are role models both in attitude and conduct.

But the players aren't fully to blame. Success can breed arrogance and there's a reason why franchises like the Lakers, Boston Celtics, and New York Yankees are known for having fanbases that can get cocky. It is the unstated objective every season for the New York Yankees to win a title because that's what their fanbase expects and demands. The Lakers are prone to picking up bandwagon fans during their playoff runs, as evidenced by how many Laker flags magically sprout up on cars around Los Angeles in May. These fans don't help the matter. They pull the ol' "I've been a fan since Showtime!" routine, but can't name the current Lakers starting five then have the cajones to mock the opposing team and call it all sorts of things not fit for print. This weekend, I had a Laker bandwagoner slam not just the Phoenix Suns but the city of Phoenix and the state of Arizona itself, calling it all sorts of vulgarities. As someone who's originally from the Grand Canyon State, this did not go over well with me. This fan behavior is a shame for the team they root for, whether its the Lakers, Yankees, or the Kansas City Royals.

And for fans of teams that are on the losing end, it's best not to say any witty retort back. There's always another year. The law of averages dictates that a championship will come to you, eventually, unless you're the Chicago Cubs. By retorting back, the loser becomes just as graceless as the winner who brags or tries to pull a Terrell Owens-esque stunt.

What do you, my readers, think of the situation? Are there fanbases that have a reputation for arrogance? How do you deal with graceless winners/losers?

Down to the Wire

Photo courtesy of Baseball1027.wordpress.com.

The baseball playoffs are just about set. Here are the American League seedings if the playoffs started today:

1) NY Yankees vs. 4) either Detroit Tigers or Minnesota Twins
2) LA Angels vs. 3) Boston Red Sox

Yankees have home-field throughout the playoffs including the World Series, assuming they go that far. Angels have home-field against the Red Sox. The Tigers are only two games up on the Twins with 3 games remaining, so it'll come down to the final weekend in that division.

Here are the National League seedings if the playoffs started today:

1) LA Dodgers vs. 4) St. Louis Cardinals
2) Philadelphia Phillies vs. 3) Colorado Rockies

The Dodgers have lost 4 straight, have not clinched the NL West division, and are only two games up on Colorado. They play each other in LA beginning tomorrow, and all the Dodgers need to do is win one game to clinch the division. The Rockies have to sweep in order to clinch the division. Home-field is still up for grabs between LA and Philly.

Showdown Weekend

The Colorado Rockies' Yorvit Torrealba and the San Francisco Giants' Travis Ishikawa face-off again in a 3-game series starting tonight. Photo courtesy of NachoPhoto.com

It's going to be a huge weekend in baseball...

Texas Rangers @ Tampa Bay Rays
San Francisco Giants @ Colorado Rockies
Florida Marlins @ Atlanta Braves
Chicago Cubs @ Los Angeles Dodgers
New York Yankees @ Boston Red Sox

Prior to tonight's games, the AL wild card standings are very tight. The Red Sox lead, but the Rangers are a game back. Tampa is 4 games back of Boston. The Texas-Tampa series this weekend could make a huge impact on the wild card race. If Tampa sweeps, then, it'll be an even tighter race. If Texas sweeps, Tampa's season is pretty close to done.

Going into tonight's series, there was a 4-team race for the NL wild card. Colorado is in front and two games up on next-place San Francisco. They face off this weekend in a series that is crucial for San Fran. Both Atlanta and Florida are tied, 4 games back of Colorado, 2 behind Frisco. They play a three game series in Florida starting tonight. If that series is a sweep for either Atlanta or Florida, the loser's season is pretty much finished. Also, the Chicago Cubs are 6 games back, but they play the Dodgers in LA this weekend. It's not looking good for the fans in Wrigleyville.

Oh yeah, and the Red Sox and Yankees play this weekend. Sunday night will be a great duel (Sabathia vs. Beckett) and it's on Sunday Night Baseball (ESPN, 8ET/5PT).

Enjoy a great baseball weekend!

A Reminder of a Giant Mistake

Picture courtesy of StlToday.com/Associated Press.

Randy Johnson won his 300th career game Thursday as the San Francisco Giants beat the Washington Nationals 5-1. I've always liked Randy, especially after his performance in the 2001 World Series, but seeing him in a Giants uniform reminds me of all the junk after the Series. Randy is a reminder of what happens when team ownership gets stingy...at a bad time.

Randy came up through the Montreal Expos (now Washington Nationals) farm system, then was traded to the Seattle Mariners where he made a reputation for being a nasty pitcher to face. He was traded again, this time to Houston, then signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks prior to the 1999 season. He won the Series MVP in 2001, multiple NL Cy Young Awards, and was at his most dominant in this period. After the D-Backs' disastrous 2004 season, Randy was traded to the New York Yankees, where his two seasons were deemed a flop. He returned to Arizona for the 2007 season, and helped stabilize the rotation. When he became a free agent after the '08 season, the Diamondbacks ownership had decided on not bringing many players back. They let second baseman/defensive whiz Orlando Hudson go to the Dodgers, outfielder/power hitter Adam Dunn go to the Nationals, and after a lot of back and forth, Randy signed with San Francisco.

When Randy first signed with Arizona in 1999, the owner was Jerry Colangelo, who was bent on assembling a championship roster as fast as possible. After the world championship in 2001, the D-Backs were loaded with aging players and lots of deferred money on contracts. These contracts helped lead to the ousting of Colangelo as majority owner in 2004. He was replaced by Ken Kendrick, who has since made a reputation of being one of the worst owners in regards to penny-pinching.

The fans in Arizona still like Randy, even though he left for a division rival, but a growing number of fans are getting irritated by the management. The D-Backs went from the NLCS in 2007 to a current 4th place standing in their division (looking up at both San Fran and the LA Dodgers). While some of the decline involves injuries to key players, the losses of Hudson, Dunn, and Johnson are just too big to overcome. It was unlikely for all three to come back, especially given the economic climate, but for none to return was a terrible mistake. Now, as Randy Johnson has won his 300th game, it only serves as a reminder that if it weren't for a stingy ownership, Arizona fans could have seen him achieve the accomplishment in a Diamondbacks uniform.


On a separate note, if you'd like to see the news broadcasts from the class I took this past semester, just go to CougarNews.com. Among other things, I did the sports anchoring for the March 18th and May 6th shows. It was a challenging but very rewarding class.

Slimy Agents?

Image courtesy of the BBC.

A controversy reached boiling point this week when the agents for Los Angeles Dodger shortstop Rafael Furcal, shown above, were presented with a contract offer by the Atlanta Braves for Furcal, but he resigned with the Dodgers a day later at terms nearly identical to the Braves' offer. The Braves front office is furious about it and making their displeasure known in the press. They have advised Arn Tellem and Paul Kinzer, the agents involved, to remove the Braves from their clients' wish list of teams, effectively ending any business dealings between Tellem, Kinzer, and the Braves.


Image courtesy of daylife.com/The Associated Press/Lenny Ignelzi.

Supposedly, the Braves agreed to a contract offer with Furcal via Kinzer, shown above, and Tellem for a three-year deal and an option for a fourth. The Braves were told Furcal would sleep on it, but Kinzer reportedly took the offer to the Dodgers and negotiated a similar deal. The Braves contend that they had a deal and that once Furcal would sleep on it, he'd sign with Atlanta (he played there from 2000-2005.) The agents argue that a deal was never in place and that what they did was above board. If Atlanta follows through on their threat to not sign any players from Tellem and Kinzer's agency, there could be potential problems regarding baseball's collective bargaining agreement (or CBA).


Image courtesy of New York Magazine/Getty Images.

Kinzer and Tellem aren't the first agents to anger baseball teams. Scott Boras, shown above, is the biggest agent in baseball and has a colorful reputation in the sport. Some have called him a variety of names including "The Prince of Darkness" and he is known for getting his players top dollar, even if they aren't worth the amount. For example, when Johnny Damon went from the Boston Red Sox to their archrival New York Yankees a few years ago, he received a contract in the $50 million range, which most observers at the time said Damon was being overvalued. In other words, it's believed by most baseball observers that whoever offers the most money to a Boras client automatically wins the bidding. And while Boras has gotten teams into bidding wars, he's never done anything quite like what Kinzer and Tellem have done to Atlanta. The fact that Boras gets his players top dollar is good for him, that's what he's hired to do. What Kinzer and Tellem did only reinforces the stereotype that agents can be schmucks (if you haven't seen the animated film Bolt, the stereotypical agent makes multiple appearances, each time getting worse) only interested in money, book deals, etc. that the get a cut in.

Hot Stove Getting Warmer

Even in the current economy, you can always count on baseball teams to spend like crazed Christmas shoppers this time of year. Despite the fact that baseball is in its offseason, this is when the free agency period and player movement begin. Some of the major trades and deals so far:


Image courtesy of Sports Illustrated/CNN.

Slugger Matt Holliday, pictured above, was traded to Oakland from Colorado for relief pitcher Huston Street, outfielder Carlos Gonzalez, and pitcher Greg Smith. While Holliday is now the main hitter in the A's offense, I don't think he'll be the 35-homer guy that he was with the Rockies. Due to the thin air in Colorado, the balls go higher and farther, whereas Oakland is right next to San Francisco Bay, where the dense marine air takes the flight out of balls. Conversely, the pitchers sent to the Rockies have to hope that they don't get lit up every night. In other words, this deal was a good one for the clubs, but a bad one for the players' individual careers.


Image courtesy of Sports Illustrated/CNN.

Pitcher C.C. Sabathia, who previously played for the Cleveland Indians and the Milwaukee Brewers, signed with the New York Yankees for seven years, $161 million. Sabathia is a good starting pitcher, but he's not $161 million good. His yearly salary will be $23 million, the second highest on the team, even more than sure Hall-of-Famer and Yankee icon Derek Jeter ($21 million). Sabathia has a playoff ERA over 5.00 but a 21-8 record against AL East teams excluding the Yankees (Boston, Toronto, Baltimore, and Tampa Bay). Also, C.C. had reservations about playing in New York and, to paraphrase ESPN.com columnist Buster Olney, only greatness will be expected of him from the New York fans. Even if he fails though, he has an opt-out clause in his contract after the 2011 season.


Image courtesy of the CBC.

The Yankees also signed Toronto pitcher A.J. Burnett to a five-year $82.5 million deal. That's $16.5 million a year for a pitcher who's career average is 3.81, not great but not terrible. He has an injury history, but he was dominant against the Red Sox last year, going 5-0. Getting Burnett from a division rival was a bonus for the Yankees, but he's a high risk-high payoff player.

Book Review: The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty

Despite the ongoing story regarding Kobe, I've been hankering to write a baseball-related entry. So, I'm changing gears for today and presenting the following book review:

I purchased Buster Olney's The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty a couple of years ago and finished re-reading it recently. Yes, re-reading it. It's a great book about the pressure on the New York Yankees to win a World Series every year. The thing that makes the book work is that no one is made to be the villain, but rather people with significant flaws. Each chapter focuses on one person (everybody from pitcher Roger Clemens to centerfielder Bernie Williams to general manager Brian Cashman) while giving snippets of the game that brought the Yankee dynasty to an end: Game 7 of the 2001 World Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. But the most intriguing aspect of the book is its portrayal of team owner George Steinbrenner. What drives Steinbrenner is an insatiable hunger for World Series championships every year,so much so he is willing and very capable to spend any amount necessary to make his dream of never-ending championships possible. Olney doesn't portray Steinbrenner as bad, just having an unbridled passion and craving for victory with the power and pocketbook to match. Even though I am not a Yankees fan, I strongly recommend this book to anybody that is a baseball fan. This book is available on Amazon.