Dr. Jack Ramsay (1925-2014): A Man The NBA Can Be Proud Of
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Friday, April 25, 2014
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Friday, April 11, 2014
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Friday, April 4, 2014
It's Friday, Time to Dance
So here's the thing — I don't understand Drake. I mean, I understand that he's from Canada and really popular with younger people, but I don't understand what Drake is. Is he a rapper? An R&B mix of a singer? I don't know.
All I do know is that Drake's music is absolutely terrible to my ears, which only adds to my confusion. His voice is annoying. His lyrics are stupid. And he's not really good at rapping or singing. Yet he's everywhere. And I mean everywhere.
Now, he has a song about Johnny Manziel, another guy I don't understand but for entirely other reasons.
Manziel was an excellent college quarterback, winning the Heisman as a redshirt freshman and doing some amazing things at Texas A&M. But I don't understand the infatuation with him as far as his off-the-field incidents, which don't seem like a big deal at all. And I don't understand how he'll fit in the NFL, or where he'll be drafted.
So maybe it makes perfect sense that Drake wrote a song about Johnny Manziel, because both people are pretty damn confusing.
Anyway, here it is. I listened to it once, and I will never listen to it again because Drake is terrible.
All I do know is that Drake's music is absolutely terrible to my ears, which only adds to my confusion. His voice is annoying. His lyrics are stupid. And he's not really good at rapping or singing. Yet he's everywhere. And I mean everywhere.
Now, he has a song about Johnny Manziel, another guy I don't understand but for entirely other reasons.
Manziel was an excellent college quarterback, winning the Heisman as a redshirt freshman and doing some amazing things at Texas A&M. But I don't understand the infatuation with him as far as his off-the-field incidents, which don't seem like a big deal at all. And I don't understand how he'll fit in the NFL, or where he'll be drafted.
So maybe it makes perfect sense that Drake wrote a song about Johnny Manziel, because both people are pretty damn confusing.
Anyway, here it is. I listened to it once, and I will never listen to it again because Drake is terrible.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
I'm Already Sick of Ryne Sandberg
Well it took all of three games for me to get sick of Ryne
Sandberg. When he took over for Charlie Manuel late last season, it was
whatever. The Phils were out of contention, and it was nothing more than an
opportunity for him to get his feet wet. Let him evaluate his players and get a
feel for managing at the big league level.
Expectations are low for the 2014 Phillies, as Ruben Amaro
Jr. has managed to turn the World Series caliber team he inherited into an
aging, middle-of-the-pack squad. But that doesn’t mean they shouldn't go out
and try to win games, and it doesn’t mean fans shouldn’t hope for the
unexpected. After the season-opening series in Texas, my patience for Ryne
Sandberg is already waning.
The Phillies will head to Chicago with a 1-2 record, but
they could have very easily been 3-0 and absolutely should be 2-1. Tuesday’s
loss isn’t 100% on Sandberg, but he made some decisions before the game even
started that I disagreed with. Most people will look at Wednesday night’s loss
and point the finger at Jonathan Papelbon, and he deserves his share of the
blame (especially with his comments last year about “not coming here for this”
and wanting to be in a competitive situation). But despite Papelbon’s piss-poor
performance, he did enough to get the job done and the Phillies should have
escaped with the victory if not for a crucial error in judgment by Sandberg.
What I disagreed with on Tuesday was the lineup. I didn’t
like that he sat Dom Brown, and I really didn’t like that he sat Cody Asche.
Asche, making his first opening day start, had perhaps his best game in the
majors. He was 3-for-4 with a home run and a walk, drove in two runs and scored four
runs. The kid had to be feeling great and had confidence through the roof. But
instead of penciling Asche right back in the lineup, he sits him. The logic was
to “protect” him from a lefty pitcher. I say why not send the kid right back
out there while he is feeling great and see if he can build off of the hot
start. Instead he rode the pine, along with Dom, and the offense banged out a
whopping two runs.
There are going to be lots of lineup changes over a 162-game
season, with a lot of factors playing in. Sometimes managers just like to go
with a gut feeling. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. I understand that and can live with it, but I disagreed with his decision and it irked
me.
What happened on Wednesday night did more than irk me. I was legitimately angry. It was an in-game decision, and making the wrong one directly led to the Phillies losing the game.
What happened on Wednesday night did more than irk me. I was legitimately angry. It was an in-game decision, and making the wrong one directly led to the Phillies losing the game.
Allow me to set the scene: Phils lead 3-2, bottom of the 9th,
runners on 1st and 3rd. If you are able to induce a
groundball, you can turn the double play and end the game. So here I am
watching the game, and I see the ball hit on the ground. Looks like it should
be a tailor-made double-play ball. I begin to stand in anticipation of the
possible double-play and the Phillies win, when to my horror I see the ball
shoot pass a diving Utley, who had apparently been playing just behind the
front of the infield grass. Tie game. Long story short, Papelbon concedes
another run and the Phils lose.
I was watching the
game on ESPN instead of the local feed, and they made no mention of the
Phillies' defensive alignment, so I was just assuming that they were at
double-play depth. So when I saw Utley diving for a ball that looked off the
bat like a tailor-made double-play ball, I was shocked, shock that eventually
wore off leaving behind anger.
After the play, ESPN aired a pre-pitch replay that showed
that the Phillies were, for some reason, playing the infield in. It makes
absolutely no sense. If you are hoping for a groundball anyway, why would you choose
the riskier proposition of the drawn-in infield and the potential play at the
plate when you have the safer option of the double play? Even if you get lucky
enough to have the ball hit right at a drawn-in infielder and get the out at
the plate, you have still left yourself with an out to get with the tying run
still in scoring position and the winning run on base. If you are at double-play depth, you give your fielders a better chance because the ball doesn’t
have to be hit right at them, and a successful double-play ends the game and
gets you a series win to open the season.
Again, I cannot see the logic to playing the infield in
instead of at double-play depth in that situation. Even if the Rangers had hit
a sac fly to tie the game instead of that grounder, I would have been angry
upon finding out they weren’t at double-play depth. As it plays out, there is a
grounder hit basically right to where Utley would have/should have been playing
that more than likely would have ended the game. Instead it snuck through, and
the Phillies lost as a direct result of the manager’s poor strategy.
Two days, one questionable lineup decision and one baffling
defensive strategy decision, and I am already fed up with Ryne Sandberg. At
this rate it won’t be long before I’m painting the “F” on my “Fire Sandberg”
sign.
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