Blog Posts For Tag: Sports

The Houston Texans are trying to fill the void left by Peyton Manning in the AFC South. The Colts are winless, making Manning’s placement on the IR more and more likely. Meanwhile, the Texans are taking advantage of an impressive running game while the passing game heats up.

It has been two weeks and the NFL is down to seven undefeated teams, and three of them are in the AFC East. This really is incredible. The teams on the list are even more unbelievable. There are the typical teams like the Patriots and Packers, but then there are the Redskins, the Bills, the Lions, and the Texans (the Jets could really go either way here).

Gentleman, we can rebuild him. We have the short attention span and penchant for sports hero worship. We have the capability to rebuild the career of the world’s most dangerous fantasy football player. Michael Vick will be that man. Better than he was before. Better…more experienced reading blitzes before the snap…more accurate from the pocket.

I am beginning to think the NFL should always operate on an abbreviated offseason. Last week I was intrigued by the Washington Redskins and this week I am contemplating the hopes of two teams that have remained committed to the run in the age of the pass. These two teams, the Minnesota Vikings and Tennessee Titans, obviously believe they should be playing in the postseason and have added veteran quarterbacks in hopes of proving that they are not fools for investing in the running game.

Is LeBron really the best player in NBA history? Who knows, he still potentially has a decade left until he retires. Choosing to live in the here and now I am more excited about this NBA Finals matchup! I know this pains the hyperbolic sports media, but they should really be dissecting the Heat-Mavericks rematch because this could be a better series than the beloved Lakers-Celtics finals of the past few seasons.

The New York Yankees are right where they belong, at least according to fans with season tickets to Yankees games, in first place. This AL East leading team came into the 2011 MLB season with valid criticism of the batting order and the pitching staff. Now, Yankee Stadium, in any incarnation, is no stranger to poor starting pitching, but to assess the offense as “lacking” felt quite foreign to anyone who has followed baseball since the 1990s.

As the 2011 MLB season kicks off I am still flummoxed by just how the perennial powerhouses have fallen, the New York Yankees. This is not to say that this fan base is going to have to endure losing seasons. Rather, it is how the baseball franchises that could once be counted on to take first place in their AL East each season (even when they were not winning World Series) have serious concerns.

Now that Carmelo Anthony has arrived it appears the balance of power may have shifted from the Western Conference to the Eastern Conference for the first time since Michael Jordan was shooting Space Jam.

An NBA trade, or the events leading up to the completion of an NBA, can be compared to many arduous or inclement events. It can be compared to building a pyramid over several generations or surviving a Category 5 hurricane. I like to think of it as a grotesque front office marathon. The talks begin a month into the season, ESPN prematurely reports and laments on potential deals, and the team that ends up with the coveted player is the last one mentioned in February. This February the player is Carmelo Anthony and the team appears to be the New York Knicks.

The road to Super Bowl LXVI runs through Gillette Stadium in Foxboro on the AFC side of the playoffs and through the Georgia Dome on the NFC side, but the Super Bowl tickets will only be good for the game at Cowboys Stadium on February 6, 2011.

For those looking ahead to February in Dallas, Week 13 in the NFL proved to be a revelation for the AFC and a confounding experience leaving a glut of potential Super Bowl suitors in the NFC. The New England Patriots set themselves apart as the best team in the AFC East and the team with the most momentum heading into the last few weeks of the NFL regular season. Meanwhile, the top six NFC teams all won, most struggling in the process.

The Philadelphia Eagles are 7-3 and suddenly they are clearly the best team in the NFC East. They also may be the best team in the NFC. They certainly possess the best weapon in the NFL in Michael Vick. I know Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are enjoying early MVP buzz. I also know Aaron Rodgers continues to be a vastly overlooked quarterback. But, Vick can outrun and maybe out throw this competition, though he does lack the touch and the recognition these pocket passers possess.

One look at the NFC standings and I wonder if any of these teams truly deserve Super Bowl tickets to Cowboys Stadium as players or fans. The list of teams more than two games over .500 is short, just four teams. This is quite embarrassing compared to the plethora of AFC teams meeting that criterion - eight teams. Of those four teams with the best early season chances, which is most likely to survive the remaining 10 weeks of the NFL schedule?

The Dallas Cowboys may have won state bragging rights after Week 3's 27-13 win over the Houston Texans, but they have won nothing else, literally. The 1-3 Cowboys are in last place in the NFC East, a division plagued with three 3-2 teams atop the division standings.

The news that Michael Vick had supplanted Kevin Kolb as the Philadelphia Eagles starting quarterback hardly came as news to Eagles fans and hardcore NFL fans. We all knew once Kolb gave Vick a chance to electrify the fickle crowd at Lincoln Financial Field, then Kolb’s tenure would come to an end. This serves as an example of one of two ways a professional quarterback not in a body cast can lose his starting job.

I began this piece trying to find a way to compare football to a relationship because it is just that. Every season I begin a love affair with a definite shelf life. I like to think of it as my Fall Fling. However, I discovered the stages of a relationship are far more arduous and contentious than my feelings about the NFL season.

Last season I wrote pretty extensively about the NFC East. This is a hard fact to swallow for a NFC North kind of guy, but the division had the most compelling storylines and it seemed every team in the division had at least a couple of weeks in which they appeared to be serious playoff contenders (even the Washington Redskins were once 2-2 in 2010). This season I am going to have to swallow that bitter pill again.

Fifty games left in the MLB season and we are lucky enough to have five pennant races remaining. The only division that is all but statistically won is the AL West, where the Texas Rangers have pulled themselves out of the middle of the pack and nearly out of bankruptcy.

The Washington Redskins are the 2010 Redeem Team. Donovan McNabb needs to prove he is a Super Bowl-caliber winning quarterback, Coach Mike Shanahan has to prove he was not just riding John Elway and Terrell Davis’s coattails for two years, and a host of veterans want to prove they have not yet passed their prime.

Team USA has puts its collection of talent together for 2010 FIBA Championship in Turkey. This initial collection of 22 potential national representatives is far from as impressive as the All-NBA team that rolled out for the 2008 Olympic Games in China. Still, there is no real sense of worry that our national team will fail to bring home the first outright FIBA Championship since 1994.

The Miami Heat are a few roster spots short of going to war in the NBA Eastern Conference. There is no question LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh will be starting, but there will be two more spots left on the floor though. While Zydrunas Ilgauskas will likely start at center, the question is who will take the fifth?

The NBA has an obsession with the number three. The ultimate expression of dominance in this new era of basketball is the three-peat. Every team must have a three point specialist to space the floor in this age of unimaginably tall basketball players at every position. And now the rule of three is being applied to the championship equation.

The 2010 NBA Finals (and yes, I am preemptively giving the Western Conference Finals to LA.) is neither a rematch of the Celtics and Lakers from the 2008 season nor a series between the 2008 NBA Champion Boston Celtics and the 2009 NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers. This may seem perfectly obvious to many, but pundits are sure to compare a Celtics team with a healthy Garnett to the championship team two years ago and a Lakers team with a healthy Andrew Bynum to the championship team from last season. This could conveniently by billed as a battle between the optimal incarnation of both storied franchises in the 21st century, especially as the NBA tries to steal attention from the LeBron watch.

This weekend marks the beginning of MLB’s vaunted “Put the NL in its Place” Week and the completion of the first quarter of the 2010 baseball season. Instead of ragging on the National League, making fun of its Triple A pitchers and Little League hitting, I am going to play stat geek and look at the best each league has to offer.

Yesterday I was watching the replay of PTI on ESPN2 and caught an interview with Derek Fisher. Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon were asking his thoughts on the aging of Kobe Bryant and on the backlash from Utah Jazz fans during the last playoff series. This is where I get angry. He has the gall to summarily dismiss the anger of the Jazz fans, saying that he simply plays a game.

I hate to write a reaction piece, but I was listening to Bill Simmon’s Sportsguy Podcast with Ric Bucher yesterday and was intrigued by the re-emergence of the thought that LeBron James might be the most physically gifted player in the history of the league, but his passion for basketball falls short of eventually making him the best player in the history of the NBA.

The NFL offseason has overshadowed the NBA postseason this year. While the NFL made fans squirm, holding the NFL schedule release back until it could serve as a terrific lead in for the NFL draft and the latest Ben Roethlisberger drama, the NBA has been having another spectacular first round of the playoffs. So, for those sports fans just coming out of the football trance, here is what you have been missing.

Half way through April the baseball season is in full swing. Sure it is way too early to close the polls and declare a winner, but some very interesting things are happening through the first 10 or 20 games. Every division has its own story, so let’s take a look at the American League.

The first week of MLB baseball has come and gone, and if the season ended today there would be one clear MVP candidate in the AL, the Texas Rangers’ Nelson Cruz. Cruz has been on a tear, crushing the ball over the fence, making plenty of contact, and driving in the runners when he has the chance.

Most years, being first on the clock is a mere formality in the NFL Draft game, with the last-place team’s needs and choices obvious, and left to be envied by much of the league. Such is not necessarily the case for the St. Louis Rams in 2010; with the direction they choose going a long way in determining the franchise’s long-term future.

To dissolve or not to dissolve, that is the question. Commission Bud Selig has been presented with a few ideas to improve the game as MLB tries to offer something new to divert our attention from the steroid saga that simply will not die. The latest ideas include realigning the leagues to do away with the divisions.

The Minnesota sports fans must be in agony. Not only did they just have to listen to Brad Childress tell the public he is going to let Brett Favre waffle all summer long, but they just found out that the best pitcher they have, Closer Joe Nathan, will miss the entire season to go under the knife for Tommy John surgery.

Selection Sunday is as much about conference respect as the NCAA Men’s Tournament and this season the power conferences took a huge, humbling blow to the gut. Sure the Big East received eight bids and the Big 12 received seven, but the other conferences have to take stock of what happened this year and either accept that the Mid Majors have arrived or cry and whine until the field is expanded to 96 teams.

Infidelity and unsavory business practices are the backdrop for the Los Angeles Dodgers upcoming season. Accusations and thousand-page divorce documents have been made very public and suddenly Los Angeles Dodgers tickets are available for a family drama fitting of a Greek tragedy as well as America’s pastime.

The first official pitch has yet to be thrown at the Cactus League in Arizona and the first error has to doom the Double-A ballplayer trying to get a shot at the majors. Still, most of the American fan base is beginning to take stock of the upcoming 2010 MLB season. They are trying to get a grasp on their favorite team’s starting rotation (who’s our number three starter?) and trying to see if there is any hope late in the lineup.

The world seemed off its axis to most of New York for the first decade of the new century. Nothing seemed right as the Yankees failed to win year after year following their annihilation of the Mets in 2000. The Yanks lost two World Series and the Red Sox came back from a 4-0 deficit to go on to win their first one since 1918. It was a dreadful eight years marked by the bastardization of the homerun by steroids and the inability of George Steinbrenner to sign a big-name starting pitcher. Then came 2009 and the baseball world was jolted back to its natural axis as the Yankees finally won another championship. Now that things appear to be right again in the world and here are five reasons to believe that they will stay right as the Yankees will defend their 27th World Series.

This Valentine’s Day thousands of husbands bought their wives and girlfriends diamond necklaces. Los Angeles Angels’ first baseman Kendry Morales took his wife to a meeting with super agent Scott Boras and promised that next season (after either arbitration or a massive contract extension) he will be making enough to buy her a diamond encrusted house in Orange County.

Two thousand and ten is the dawn of a new decade and the coming teen years of the 21st century appear to be loaded with greatness (LeBron James) and conflict (multiple potential season-ending collective bargaining agreements). So, let’s take a trip to the future after these years of calamity and see what the world of sports is like in the post-apocalyptic date of 2020.

I have not seen the new movie Legion, but I have seen trailers and read reviews and the big-budget apocalyptic thriller is by all accounts a disaster. Similarly, I have not seen the backroom collective bargaining agreement (CBA) discussions between the NFL Players Association and the team owners, but I have seen trailers (the three debacles known as the 1994-95 MLB strike, the 1998-99 NBA strike, and 2004-05 NHL lockout) and have read the reviews (Tim Graham’s February 1st ESPN column) and am pretty sure it would be a disaster of actual biblical proportions.

The Monday after the NFL conference championships the football news is pretty scarce. There is some analysis of the Colts victory (they looked bored until the Jets scored their second touchdown, at which point they outscored New York 24-3) and the Saints overtime win (they struggled to win despite winning the turnover battle 5 to 1). In other news, the Pro Bowl replacements have been announced for the four players playing in the Super Bowl. Then, there was a little ditty about the league canceling a second game in Britain next season…and possibly expanding the league with a team in the UK. That’s right; the NFL is publicly championing expanding American football to a country whose sports fan base is upset that we call their version of football soccer.

Conan, Leno, and NBC. This is the entertainment debacle spotlighted in the news. No Lindsey Lohan weight loss watch or Disney teen actress sex scandal can bump this story off the “lite” news cycle. It has been examined from every angle – the straight forward news angle, the industry angle, and the fan angle- and whenever something becomes the subject of this much analysis it invariably eventually falls into sports metaphors, a nice, concise way to explain the most complicated situations in terms of something a good number of Americans know better than the constitution or basic nutrition.

At its best, the NBA is a competitive league with the best athletes in the world playing at such a high level that it shames the fans watching over the age of 25 (who have come to grips with the fact that they are terrible athletes in a perpetual decline) and inspires fans under the age of 18 (who still have the youth on their side and unbridled confidence that they can do anything). At its worst, the NBA is a league in which overpaid athletes coast during games and fans fail to truly care about the game. Every year, without fail, the worst example of this is the NBA All Star game.

When do we know that a sports query or sports story has truly resonated with the public? When a group of guys over 25 gets together for a mini-reunion and manages to talk about them between embellished stories of debauchery. My buddy Bill came back from New York this Holiday season and there were two sports topics discussed: the ever-escalating Tiger Woods sex saga and whether or not LeBron James will stay in Cleveland or bolt for New York. As interesting as it was pretending to be the PR team for Tiger, the most interesting question had for me was the LeBron talks.

With one week left in the regular season I must ask, has the tide finally turned? Has the unbridled domination of the NFL by the AFC finally been undone? Can the NFC finally hold its head high and make a case that it is not a Triple-A version of professional football?

The NBA may still be a perimeter oriented game, but coaches and general managers still yearn for a dominant center to reside in the post with his back to the basket. However, just as seven-footers are rare in the general population, quality big men are an exciting find in the game of professional basketball. There appears to be a great influx of these giants developing their game in the pros now. The future is bright for fans of these old school basketball players, but the fact that they are developing now beckons the question: who are the best now?

With three weeks left in the 2009 NFL season the playoff picture is still unclear. The NFC is wrapped up in NFC East drama and the AFC has four teams vying for the last wild card spot with a 7-6 record. All the while, there may be two undefeated teams in the postseason. Suddenly I am worried that this will not end in a historic match up between the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl. Alas, before we get to that February 7th game at LandShark Stadium in Miami more than a month of football has to play out, so I say why not offer a few predictions.

Get ready for one the worst years for parity in the NFL in 2010. Some would argue that parity has been on its way out since the Patriots went 16-0 in 2007 and the Lions went 0-16 the very next season. Those franchises are just aberrations though. The New England Patriots were somehow able to convince aging players to take a pay cut in exchange for a very real chance for a Super Bowl ring and the Detroit Lions are just a franchise with a terrible front office year after year. The real attack on parity is behind closed doors being decided by the players union, owners, and Roger Goodell.

Most years my football obsession begins to lose a bit of its maniacal edge in the last few weeks of the season, especially as a Chicago Bears fan. However, the 2009 edition of the NFL still has kept me on edge and checking ESPN just about every day to look for more than just fantasy football advice for the weekend. What is so different about this year that I have remained tethered to the television for 10 hours every Sunday through Week 12?

Just two divisions left and all the starting quarterbacks in the NFL have been unfairly judged by me. The AFC South and AFC West are perhaps the two divisions in football with the most upheaval ahead. They have consistent champions, yes, but they also have franchises that have consistently fallen behind in the standings and need a gale force wind worth of change throughout their organization.

Last week I scrolled through the current starting quarterbacks in the NFC, did a little mental carbon dating, and gave each quarterback a shelf life, giving some praise and future accolades and damning others to the fledgling United Football League. This week I look at the AFC East and make some bold and some quite obvious evaluations.

Great running backs and playmaking receivers have been a rare find in the NFL, championships teams have always been able to get by with simply very good backs and wide outs. At the turn of the century this could be said about quarterbacks as well. Just look at a list of Super Bowl champions. The Tampa Bay Bucs won the big game in 2003 with Brad Johnson behind center and Trent Dilfer managed the Baltimore Ravens offense in 2001 as they won the Super Bowl. Now the league is more pass happy than ever and a simple game manager will not be enough, making a quarterback the most precious commodity on a football team once again.

The World Series is finishing up with the Yanks up 3 games to 1. The NFL season is about halfway through and just about every team still has a shot at the playoffs. The college football season has just a few weeks over, meaning it is time for the BCS standings to screw a deserving team over and start the annual clamor for a playoff system. In the midst of all this the NHL and NBA seasons have started.

This could definitely be a World Series the country could get behind. On one side there are the New York Yankees, the most hated team in baseball trying to win its first title since the 20th Century. On the other side are the Philadelphia Phillies, the defending champions trying to start a dynasty of their own. On both sides there are insanely passionate sports fans that could leave 108 miles worth of blood and guts between New Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and Citizens Bank Park in Philly.

After six weeks of the 2009 NFL season it is just about to start seriously listening to those early MVP murmurs. The field is going to be dominated by quarterbacks with eight starters posting a quarterback rating in the triple digits, lacking running backs with just one back averaging more than 100 yards a game, and unfairly biased against defensive players because an assisted tackle is simply so much less sexy than anything a running back can do.

The NFL is entering a new era when quarterbacks have more fantasy value than running backs, home field is not that big of a deal (the home team only wins 54 percent of the time this season), and parity has dissipated as nine of the 32 teams in the league have either no losses or no wins. Yes this is a new age in the league and there are seven football seals that have been broken this season to put an end to everything we knew about football.

No Bears, no Packers, no Saints, no Chargers oh my! What will Week 5 behold without two of the classic football franchises and what may be the NFL’s best football team. We can do without the Chargers until the last five or six weeks since that is when they start playing for real and making there annual improbable playoff run. This week definitely has some interesting match ups, but there are plenty of blowouts on the horizon to boost the fantasy numbers.

After three weeks of NFL football all the preconceptions from the 2008 season have been washed away and replaced by new beliefs. Some of these new revelations are not that ludicrous, for instance the Jets look like they will actually be a good team this season and may challenge the New England Patriots for AFC East supremacy. Most of these developments are just trends that will fade in the next couple of weeks though. Five of those most bizarre trends are listed below.

The first week of football is great for two reasons. The first is that you get to watch 10-plus hours of football. I know I woke up at 7:00 in the morning because I was so freaking giddy to sit on the couch for 10 hours. It somehow seems ridiculous that I could get so excited to play an invalid for the day. The second reason is that suddenly you have real stats to compare and make educated guesses and bets for Week 2. Below are my guesses, with scores compiled by some miraculous mental operation that takes into account stats, injuries, the latest Vegas lines, and useless emotional allegiances.

Is it too early to use Halloween sayings in September? Well, five pound bags of candy imaginable have been out on the shelves since August so I guess not, especially when that simple turn of phrase so perfectly embodies the NFL preseason. Should fans expect what transpires on the field in the four-game preseason to become any sort of a reality during the long 16-game regular season? Is this a trick or a treat? What are we supposed to expect from these preseason trends?

The National League, also known as Quadruple A baseball, looks like they will have few surprises as the final 50 or so games dwindle down in this awful August heat. Most of the divisions look pretty set no matter what the standings say about a team nipping at their heals. The only real question is who will win the Wild Card spot?

If you have doubts over my brazen predictions lets go through the three divisions first and clear the air.

Baseball has passed the 100-game mark, the trade deadline has come and gone, and the All Star game has once again ended in the American League’s favor. Now its time to deconstruct the American League and decide which teams have a chance and which teams are destined to fall apart

This weekend’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony, which honored former Boston Red Sox right fielder Jim Rice, former Oakland A’s and New York Yankees outfielder Rickey Henderson, and former Yankees and Cleveland Indians second baseman Joe Gordon, came and passed with some tears, some humor, and, of course, some controversy. While some may lament spoiling a moment that is meant to celebrate baseball with continued strife, perhaps it is best to discuss these larger issues when so many are listening. The two subjects that were discussed, or at least mentioned on ESPN and in newspapers across the country, were the Pete Rose and steroids.

The All Star game has passed, the pennant race has officially begun, and the trade deadline (July 31) is fast approaching. Any team with a chance to win their division or compete for the wild card is looking for ways to improve their chances, while any team that is more than 10 games out is looking to deal the soon-to-be free agents for some young arms and position players with potential.

As of the MLB standings right now, five American League teams are facing double digit deficits in the standings and truly have no hope of qualifying for even a Little League regional final and one AL team has already called it quits despite being just 9.5 games back (the most exciting thing for Blue Jays fans the rest of the season will be waiting to see who they get for Roy Halladay). The rest of the teams have some chance for the division crown or a wild card spot. These teams could all use something to shore up their chances and what follows is a quick grocery list of wants and needs for those remaining nine American League teams.

The first half of the baseball season is over and after Tuesday night’s All Star game the pennant race really begins. Well, as the pennant race begins, so must the quest for the MVP award and like the first place teams in each division, certain players already have a huge advantage.

It now less than a month until the All Star teams are announced, something I realized this weekend when I received a ballot at my baseball game of the season. I looked at the ballot and realized that I really did not have a clue who to vote for (even though I get to vote 25 times according to the MLB website). My attention has been waning as my favorite team has been busy dashing all my delusional spring training hopes. The only stats I really know are those for the players on my fantasy team, so I took about an hour and looked at the list of names and decided who actually deserves to make an appearance at the game and contemplated who many players will get voted on just because of rabid fans and name recognition.

The Orlando Magic are down 0-2 in the NBA Finals to the Los Angeles Lakers. Sports sites and basketball experts are busy decoding every game and pinpointing the Magic’s struggle and one of the arguments you and I are sure to hear is that the Magic take too many threes.

I do not know if anyone noticed between news of Randy Johnson reaching 300 wins and the Braves dishonoring Tom Glavine, but this weekend the only two teams with winning percentages above .600 are playing. The Los Angeles Dodgers, who have continued to play incredible baseball in the absence of Manny Ramirez, host the Philadelphia Phillies in a rematch of last season’s NLCS.

Every year just before the NBA playoffs begin, the postseason, the 16-team tournament or “second season”, seems to be sold as a story with plot points at every round and a black and white biopic for every charismatic player or superstar for each remaining team.

After a month prelude that was at times compelling (Celtics-Bulls) and at times uninspired (Mavs-Spurs) the conference finals have finally begun. The Los Angeles Lakers, who won last night thanks to Kobe’s fourth quarter performance, play the Denver Nuggets for the Western Conference title and the Cleveland Cavs play the Orlando Magic for the Eastern Conference title.

The American League is being dominated in the early season by shades of blue. Every division has a team clad in blue, in powder blue, in blue block lettering, or in a bright blue outline, leading the way. Each team, the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East, the Kansas City Royals in the AL Central, and the Texas Rangers in the AL West, is surprised to be there. So which team will hold on to a little bit of Their Blue Heaven and which teams will come crashing down to Earth and be singing the blues by the time the pennant race really begins?

Woe is the Greeks. They have a mythology seemingly based on the gods’ series of one night stands (all those father-less children destined to perish in misguided quests just to get their father’s attention), they have had their greatest ruler defiled by Oliver Stone in the movie Alexander (a movie with Angelina Jolie and Rosario Dawson clad in revealing robes, yet the most intimate moments are between Colin Farrell and Jared Leto), they have endured an unwarranted attempt to turn My Big Fat Greek Wedding (which resurrected Joey Fatone’s career) into a television series, My Big Fat Greek Life, (and Fatone’s career began its downward spiral once again), and, frankly, have been nothing but bad for the beautiful game of baseball.

This year’s NBA Playoffs is turning out to be as predictable as I expect the summer blockbusters to be this summer. The Eastern Conference has only one possibility for the NBA Finals, the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Celtics and Magic are an injury or a year or two of experience away from cancelling the coronation of LeBron James. Despite the abundance of quality teams in the Western Conference(the first six seeds had a winning percentage of at least 60 percent), the Los Angeles Lakers appear to be playing on another level, with a deep bench, a penchant for smooth interior passing, and a superstar. Still, there or more storylines than simply the finals this spring, there are 14 other teams in the postseason and yesterday I discussed the Eastern Conference seven, now I get to take a look at why exactly the rest of the Western Conference is playing.

The NBA Finals has been set since it became evident Kevin Garnett was not coming back to Boston this postseason. It is all but a foregone conclusion that it will be the Los Angeles Lakers and the Cleveland Cavaliers - the deadly assassin versus the newly anointed king, the perennial champions from the land of the sun and stars versus the have-nots from America’s rust belt. Still there are 14 other teams in the playoffs, and there must be some meaning in their postseason participation besides avoiding a lottery pick in one of the worst drafts in the last decade. So, this begs the question, what are they really playing for?

One of the most exciting things about the beginning of the baseball season is the first few weeks. I think they are kind of like he first few rounds of the NCAA Tournament. You get some real surprises at first before reality sets in and brings those hopeful teams and players crashing down to Earth. Here are some of my favorite trends that will come burning through the stratosphere over the next couple of weeks.

After a few months of wondering what was going to happen in this new season of MLB, opening day finally commenced yesterday. Of course this was simply game one for many teams (apart from the Philadelphia Phillies and the Atlanta Braves who officially opened the season on Sunday night) in a long schedule that will give the winners 161 more chances to end their perfect season and losers 161 more games to find redemption. Still, to say that a few things did not surprise me would be a liar.

I have been one of the many baseball fans outraged by the Alex Rodriguez saga this summer, but sometimes it helps to back up and take a look at the allegations I have simply accepted as fact in the last few months. I have to really look at facts, our at least first hand encounters, and decide does A-Rod really deserve all the flak he has been getting.

Whenever anybody thinks of the NBA and can’t miss games, the same match up comes up, the game between the purple and gold Los Angeles Lakers and the green and white Boston Celtics. This is perhaps the only nationally recognized rivalry in basketball, which is odd considering that the NBA has been around since the 1940s (which is also why everyone was so excited about last year’s finals). However, if you live near a city lucky enough to have one of these professional basketball teams you know that there are plenty of regional rivalries that have as much passion or are revving up to be as intense as the ultimate East Coast-West Coast showdown.

My heart jumped when I realized that my latest move landed me in the cave of married friends’ duplex in Chicago without any means to watch March Madness. They did not want to get cable, which is cool, and meant to get rabbit ears at some time but never quite got around to it. I could have gone out and splurged on rabbit ears and that digital signal box but I really did not want to start feeding me television habit. So there I was stuck between my desire to watch endless hours of basketball and not wanting to spend needless money on something I was going to use for a couple weeks. Then I found that NCAA.com was streaming the games live and the heart murmur went subsided.

Normally I would be appalled by the rampant East Coast bias that has an undeniable imprint on ESPN and many other major publications and media outlets. However, with three number teams in March Madness, the return of the NFC East to the forefront of competitive football ball this last fall, and after a  quick look at the divisions throughout Major League Baseball I simply cannot blame the networks. Even though the MLB season has yet to begin I can already rank the divisions pretty confidently and found that the East is king this year.

As I watch this modern version of basketball I often wonder where the game is going. I wonder how these stars will change the way the game is played and what coaching strategies will make the game look different in an arbitrary date it the near future like 2015.

Invariably, any basketball postseason experience, whether you are watching an NBA game or any of the contests on the slate during March Madness, will have a game that will come down to the final minutes and a four or five point deficit. It is moments like these, after years of watching painful finishes, that have made me despise announcers who feel required to say that the team trying to claw into the lead does not need to go for three.

This weekend not only signals the beginning of the March Madness, but it also marks the final playoff games of the World Baseball Classic and the beginning of the MLS season. The sad reality is that I do not care about either one. I do not care about the WBC because I have 162 games of MLB baseball in front of me and that is a lot of baseball to care about. I simply do not know why I cannot get myself to care about the MLS though.

Last year around this time I was eagerly awaiting the normal insanity brought about by the first two rounds of the Men’s Tournament only to find a rather lame series of results. Nine and ten seeds do not get upset status in the first round. So, there were five upsets in the first 32 games. That was not a very exciting development.

A week ago the number one seeds in the NCAA Tournament seemed pretty much set. UNC, Pittsburgh, UConn, and Oklahoma were on their way to leading the regions, but then a little funny thing happen called Championship Week. First Oklahoma lost in the Big 12 quarterfinals to Oklahoma State, then Pittsburgh lost in the Big East quarterfinals to West Virginia, and most recently UConn lost a ridiculously fantastic six-overtime game to Syracuse a few hours later. Meanwhile UNC is set to take on Virginia Tech with out star guard Ty Lawson. So, what is the seeding committee thinking?

Back in the 19th century the Netherlands surprised the world. They were a small country with more channels than natural resources, yet they built a Dutch imperial empire that dominated parts of Brazil, South Africa, southern India, and Indonesia. Now the year is 2009 and the little country has again upset the world, this time keeping the Dominican Republic out of tournament play in the World Baseball Classic.

Terrell Owens left America’s Team for a team he dubbed North America’s Team. While some might be amused by this clever turn of phrase, many more are surprised by the decision to play in Buffalo for Dick Jauron, the place offense goes to die. In retrospect, the last couple of years have actually been a pretty dynamic and shocking time for us in the sports world. Owens decision joins the ranks of these other sundry moments that have kept me on my feet in the last couple years.

With a little more than 20 games left to go before the NBA regular season is over it is time to take a look at the stories that are sure to dominate the speculative headlines, features, and blogs.

If the Los Angeles Dodgers thought the pressure was on when they spent all winter trying to deal with Greed Master General Scott Boras, then they need only wait until the season begins to find a whole new boulder thrust upon them smashing a few vital organs.

The stock market may be a bear right now, but the first day of the free agent market was bullish. The opening day acquisitions have been somewhat surprising considering the fact that most MLB teams spent the winter in hibernation despite a very soft luxury tax and most NBA teams scrambling to gather as many expiring contracts as they could in preparation for the salary cap decrease, the loaded free agent market in the summer of 2010, and the impending lockout in 2011.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, between suicidal thoughts, once said that intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. According to this definition, Chicago Cubs fans must be geniuses.

First the pitchers and catchers reported. Then the rest of the position players came to camp. Now, on this fine Wednesday, the first exciting, but meaningless games begin.

New York Yankees fans will get the chance to heckle A-Rod in the Grapefruit opener, Chicago Cubs fans will reset the doomsday clock, and everyone else will practice making pitchers cry on the mound. Tomorrow morning baseball “enthusiasts” will read there first box scores since October 28, 2008, back when Bush was president and Philadelphia was rewarded with a team that did not let them down.

Last season the trade deadline was a chance to improve a team’s position to try and spoil the Boston Celtics or the Los Angeles Lakers chances to win an NBA Championship. This season the trade deadline was a chance to collect expiring contracts to put themselves in position to sign an NBA Star in 2010.

The summer of 2010 promises to be one of the best free agent classes in NBA history with a plethora of top tier players becoming unrestricted free agents or having a player option to terminate their contracts and cash in for bigger deals.

Professional sports in the United States are a funny thing. A sport that goes in circles can entertain millions. A sport as quick and violent as Lacrosse cannot make headway in a culture that loves to see pain being doled out and inflated scoring. A sport loved by the world fails miserably time after time (I must admit I cannot stand soccer either).

Sports leagues are an even more amazing phenomenon. Look at the history of the NBA, MLB, and the NFL. They each seemed to catch a lucky break or get a particularly stellar group of showmen that moved each league into the major three. Is there any room left for competition though? Four football leagues are about to find out.

This weekend the NBA All Star Game brings together the most popular (not the best) players in the league, a bonanza of sponsorship deals, and 20 hours of useless television coverage. This is truly a corporate retreat run awry. I should not have to listen Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith reflect on their careers as professional basketball players for hours on end just to watch a few events that should take a little more than an two hours to complete.

Before baseball season begins it has become tradition to wait for Brett Favre to decide whether or not he will retire. Word is in that he has decided to retire. Of course, we all remember that last season he told his agent the same thing. Then he found that he could still throw the ball around with some zip with a bunch of high school kids, decided to comeback, and cause the Packers a gigantic headache, sabotaging Aaron Rodgers transition into the starting quarterback role.

This weekend was one of extremes. It started with a Sports Illustrated expose that implicated New York Yankees Alex Rodriguez as one of 104 people who tested positive for performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) and ended with an NBA match up between two of the best basketball players in a game that did not disappoint.

The glorious world of the NBA has fans who adorn their walls with pictures of tremendous athletes who can work magic with an orange leather ball. How many guys have LeBron James posterizing some poor second string guy trying to earn a multi-year contract and not be remembered as a cringing face on a highlight reel? How many have people have Dwayne Wade on the wall twisting and contorting his way through the lane for level of basketball awe and impossibility.

This is the final week of the NFL regular season and there are still several games that are actually worth watching if you are not from that city or have become an indentured fan thanks to your family lineage.

The real question is not who is better, the 23-2 Boston Celtics or the 20-3 Los Angeles Lakers. The real question is can any team in either conference actually stop these teams in a seven game series?

The NFL Season is 14 weeks old and the experts are talking about who is the most value player. I hear names like Kurt Warner, Eli Manning, and Drew Brees. I hear about a couple of running backs named Adrian Peterson and Michael Turner and a safety called Troy Polamalu. I do not hear talk of who is the least valuable player, though.

Now I thought the Yankees got the memo about the recession. The memo read that everybody is supposed to be trying to save a little money and hold back on the spending spree.

Early on in the season the winners and losers of the weekly slate of NFL games are pretty clear. As the season wears on that simple definition becomes more and more complicated. Each game holds meaning and value with regards to the immediate postseason, the upcoming off season, and the team’s future seasons.

A recent CNN poll found that 61 percent of people opposed the bailout for the Big Three. Those 61 percent better not be fans of NASCAR because the sport that has been on the verge of cementing itself in the Big Four of sports is warning that a failure to help the automotive industry could set back the sport 30 years.