The Colorado Rockies are a franchise doomed

The only reason to pitch for the Rockies.

When one thinks of a franchise that will never have a shot at consistently winning, he will typically pick an ultra-small-market squad (i.e. the Kansas City Royals or Charlotte Bobcats), an eternally overmatched team (any low-major college basketball team, like Murray State or the Charlotte Bobcats), or a club with incompetent ownership (the Charlotte Bobcats).

However, smaller-market teams like the Oakland A’s can find niches, be it with their scouting or their coaching, to combat market inefficiencies. Mid-major college ball squads can find recruiting footholds (see: St. Mary’s [CA] in Australia), or use their schedule to be more appealing to recruits (Long Beach State).

But, the Colorado Rockies have no chance to consistently win in MLB, despite having a deep-pocketed owner and a great fan base.

Since their debut in 1993, the Rockies have been solid-to-great hitting team. Coors Field’s altitude and spacious dimensions make it a slugger’s dream. As a result, excellent hitters have graced the park throughout the years, from the mid-’90s Blake Street Bombers (Larry Walker, Andres Galarraga, Ellis Burks, Vinny Castilla, and Dante Bichette) to franchise icon Todd Helton, as well as current superstars Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez. Unfortunately, the reverse is also true: Coors Field is a place where pitchers go to die.

NFL midseason rant: tuna and balls salad edition

“I’m gonna take your job one day, and do it much better than you”

It’s been a while since my last football rant; it seems that being employed is getting in the way of my creative expression spending afternoons in my underwear rambling about a bunch of shit with no regard for grammar whatsoever. Anyway, here’s the dealio, y’all.

I’m still amazed at how people actually doubted Peyton Manning, many of whom being Pats homers who still think Peyton is a crybaby from the 2001-2005 era back when Tom Brady had no arm strength and won on the backs of his coaching and defense while Manning was stuck on teams whose defense resemble last year’s Colts.

He’s clearly not at full strength and he can’t throw a fucking spiral anymore (even Mark Sanchez can throw a spiral) yet he’s still elite. Watching him manipulate defenses and completely run shit continues to amaze me.

It pains me when the coaching staff makes him huddle up; it’s not like the offensive coordinator is going to do a better job calling plays than The Sheriff. Having Willis McGahee in the backfield has been absolutely huge too – McGahee is by far the best RB to play alongside Manning since Edgerrin James – and he should feel indebted to Tim Tebow, whose incompetence throwing the football resurrected his career.

The truth behind the Lakers’ silly new logo

You might have noticed a change to the Lakers’ logo on the STAPLES Center court as you watched them lose to the Mavs on Tuesday.

From Lakers.com:

The biggest feature of the new court can be seen dead center as the team takes a cue from the world of soccer by adding a star for each of the 16 championships around the primary logo.

The odd thing about “the 16 championships” is that five of them are from the George Mikan era, when the Lakers played in Minneapolis from 1946 to 1958.

The NBA’s first marquee player shows off his Hall of Fame basketball skills

So, Los Angeles claims to have five rings that were actually celebrated in Minneapolis, from an era when the chiseled athlete you see above was THE basketball superstar.

It’s not that I’m bitter, but you don’t see Oklahoma City pretending they won the 1979 NBA title – because the Seattle SuperSonics did. All right, I’m bitter. The Boston Celtics won all of their titles in Boston, and won their first eleven in the Bill Russell era (you tell me whether the Mikan or Russell era was more legit). Lakers fans will tell you they are one ring shy the Celtics’ seventeen, but with eleven homegrown rings, they’re not even close.

I’ll let comedian/visionary Bill Burr take it from here:

Minnesota civil rights “leader” actually thinks white players sell NBA tickets

“How did we get a roster that resembles the 1955 Lakers?” – Civil rights leader Tyrone Terrell to the Minnesota Star Tribune last Sunday.

Tyrone Terrell, the chairman of St. Paul, Minnesota’s African American leadership council, is upset because he thinks the Timberwolves have too many white players. He had this to say to the Minnesota Star Tribune Sunday:

“I think everything is a strategy. Nothing happens by happenstance.” That strategy, Terrell and others in the black community believe, is to sell tickets to the Wolves’ fan base, which is overwhelmingly white.

Acccording to the Tribune, another Minnesota civil rights figure agrees:

Ron Edwards, a longtime Minneapolis civil rights advocate, said he remembers a day last winter when he was watching the Wolves and the only black player on the floor was Wes Johnson, a situation he calls “somewhat disturbing.” His sentiments grew stronger, he said, as he watched the team’s roster grow even more white this offseason.

“It raises some real questions to me about what’s really intended,” Edwards said. “I think, personally, that it was calculated. Is this an attempt to get fans back in the stands? Minnesota, after all, is a pretty white state.”

Terrell calls it “scary” that the Wolves would assemble a roster almost 70 percent white in a sport so dominated by blacks. For Edwards, the numbers trouble him by the “historical view,” what he calls a “nullification of diversity and a reversal of history.”

I’m no expert, but I’m not sure if I buy that too many “others in the black community” believe that most white Timberwolves fans are racists.

I assume that with players from Russia, Montenegro, Spain, and Puerto Rico, along with five American black players and five American white players, the ‘Wolves are one of the most diverse teams in the NBA.

I also assume that these activists forgot about Minnesota signing Nicolas Batum to a max offer sheet this summer (Portland matched), and their aggressive pursuit of Jordan Hill (he re-signed with the Lakers).

Current ‘Wolf Brandon Roy provides the voice of reason:

“It’s just basketball,” Roy said. “I never really had to feel like I’m the only black guy out here. I’ve played on teams that maybe had all black guys and the feeling is just the same when I’m out there on the floor playing with these guys.

“The only problem we have is in the weight room, arguing over what music we’re going to listen to.”

If I understand him correctly, no one should get too worked up about an attention-seeker like Terrell and his 15 minutes of fame.

But, it’s worth noting that the 1955 Lakers, to whom Terrell alludes, lost to the Fort Wayne Pistons in the championship series, 3-1. I think Minnesotans of all races would be thrilled with that type of roster this season.

MLB superlatives for 2012

This San Francisco hipster looks on as the Giants and Tigers bore the crap out of America

Well, that was a World Series. The Giants’ four-game sweep of the Tigers set a record low for ratings in the Fall Classic.

In an effort to maintain our own sky-high readership, here’s a baseball post that has nothing to do with the World Series. The following MLB superlatives are solely the opinion of goodsportsblog.com (and therefore correct by default). So here’s a nice, easy read for you simple fucks dignified readers of our humble website.

Biggest Workhorse: C.C. Sabathia

Best “Stuff:” Justin Verlander

Best Control: Cliff Lee

Smartest Pitcher: Roy Halladay

Best Strikeout Artist: Stephen Strasburg

Best Big-Game Pitcher: Matt Cain

Best Pitch: Mariano Rivera’s Cutter

NBA 2012-2013 season preview

The world of sports just isn’t the same without its most spoiled athletes, worst officials, and least knowledgeable fans. Welcome back, NBA!

In goodsportsblog.com’s first NBA preview, we’ve broken down the league with lengthy team-by-team descriptions and forecasted the 16 playoff squads and their records. Disclaimer: our assumptions about this season should be taken with a box of salt, since none of the bookies employed by the Referees Union are returning our calls.

But, here are 3 totally out-on-a-limb predictions to start us off: each team will play 82 games, David Stern will shock the world by announcing his retirement, and the zebras will ante up on 2 teams, 1 in Florida and 1 in southern California. We’ll go with the Magic and LA Clippers.

Teams I love: the Oakland Athletics

“Coach, I just started using this bomb supplement, the whole team should try it!”

This was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Oakland A’s. After losing their ace Brett Anderson to Tommy John surgery, trading their number 2 and 3 SPs Gio Gonzalez and Trevor Cahill, and closer Andrew Bailey, no one (not even Billy Beane) could have expected dividends this fast.

Oakland had the hottest team in the league down the stretch thanks to a 4-rookie starting rotation. And, despite a massive slump from their top HR-hitter Josh Reddick, the most amazing thing about the A’s this year was their clutch offense.

But, this isn’t a post about just this year.

They’ve always been known for young talent: Jason Giambi, Miguel Tejada, Eric Chavez, Barry Zito, Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, Jason Isringhausen, etc, etc. What’s less known is that the A’s brand of baseball emphasizes great clubhouse chemistry every season. Hell, Milton Bradley was part of a close-knit unit when he played there.

MLB post-Wild Card ramblings: NL in review

Presenting our review of the NL, complete with Bryce Harper, the Giants and Cards, and plenty of reasons Miami and LA suck.

NL East:

What was expected to be a deep division wound up being what I expected NEXT year: the Nats dominating, the Braves being as good as their bullpen (pretty damn nasty), the Phillies getting crippled by bad contracts and no offense, Miami finding a way to suck, and the Mets simply being the Mets.

I thought this would be the last year of Philly’s reign over the division. But, I still don’t understand how dating back to last year, people don’t realize how flawed they are, even at their best. Ryan Howard is super-overrated and his contract will hurt the team for years. Chase Utley is average now, and Roy Halladay’s trademarked durability is starting to dwindle. Most of all, the Phillies need to make over their bullpen to be competitive next year.

I don’t need to say anything about the Mets, who won’t be relevant any time soon. R.A. Dickey deserves serious fucking props though.

MLB pre-playoff thoughts: the AL in review

With the playoffs set to begin Friday, we took a look back at the 2012 season division-by-division, and made predictions for the playoffs and year-end awards.

AL East:

Even as the Red Sox fall into the horrible abyss previously mentioned in the Red Sox rant (that’s right, you fucking read it), this continues to be a strong division. New York and Tampa Bay have strong squads. But, the Rays are an atrocious offensive team, and the Yankees not only live and die by the home run, but they probably benefit more in the wins column from their home field advantage than any other team in baseball.

Boston is officially the worst team in the division. Toronto, at least, has potential to do better next year with the rise of their young players and a potential return to mere competence from Ricky Romero (he went from a sub-3 ERA to being the statistically the worst pitcher in the AL!), and, most importantly, a healthy Jose Bautista.

The story of the AL East this year is clearly the Orioles’ rise to relevance. They’re an interesting case, as their run differential is -1 and was much worse than that for most of the year. Baltimore has 11 wins based on the “Luck” Statistic (Yes, “Luck” is a stat per baseball-reference.com). This team doesn’t have many true standouts, but they are a completely ridiculous 27-9 in one-run games and 16-2 in extra-inning games, which doesn’t fucking happen.

How Theo, pink hats, and the media finally screwed the Red Sox

By pink hats and the media, we kinda mean YOU PEOPLE

For the first time since I can remember, it kind of sucks to be a Red Sox fan. The last time they had a losing record was when I first truly got into baseball, as a second grader in 1997. The Sox were a 4th-place team with terrible pitching even for the steroid era, but despite that I absolutely loved them.

My first favorite baseball player, Nomar Garciaparra, took the league by storm as a rookie that year batting .306 with 30 HRs, 44 doubles, 11 triples, and 22 steals. He quickly became one-third of the Holy Trinity of AL shortstops alongside Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter.

The Sox also had charismatic, power-hitting Mo Vaughn manning first, and role players Troy O’Leary and Wil Cordero. As a 7-year-old, I didn’t know about the role of the front office for a baseball team. I didn’t religiously listen to sports radio at the time. But, looking back, I can’t imagine that even if I knew what I do now I could ever dislike that team half as much as I dislike the Red Sox at present.

The franchise is in fucking disarray, and the fallout from the September 2011 collapse has been devastating. The only thing that’s given the Sox a fair chance to get out of this state anytime soon was a desperate attempt by the Dodgers to rejuvenate their fan base by displaying bottomless pockets.