Can Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o win the Heisman Trophy?

Just a handful of weeks ago a big, popular website scoffed openly at the potential of Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o winning the Heisman Trophy, deriding the journalist who dared to suggest the possibility. Well, now that same website looks (even more so than usual) pretty stupid, as all the biggest sporting sites are openly discussing and indeed suggesting the validity of the young man’s candidacy.

Whisper it quietly, but Manti Te'o could just very well become the first defensive player to win the Heisman trophy since Charles Woodson. Manti’s play speaks for itself, as do his defensive statistics. 80 tackles in itself shows what kind of a demon he is on the field.

Obviously, the award is heavily weighted towards offensive players, to use that ugly old refrain, chicks dig touchdowns. However, as evidenced by the sheer weight of volume of text being put forth towards a Te’o win, it appears he really, legitimately is in with a shot.

Looking around the wide expanses of the World Wide Web, it is truly astonishing to see the growth of support for the fierce defender. First the best news. The ESPN fan ballot has Manti crushing it. Absolutely crushing it.

You do of course have to take that with a pinch of salt. That’s just fan voting and relative busts like Matt Barkley are still polling 5% because of the vagaries of said style of voting. The ESPN experts poll is probably a better measure of his actual chances, and they have him at number two, behind Kansas State QB Colin Klein.  This is of course still very respectable

USA Today is perhaps less kind to Manti, and has him second, with 23 second place votes, again behind Klein who has a whopping 35 first place votes.

Sports Illustrated also has Te’o at the two spot.

What appears obvious is that thanks to The Fighting Irish’s incredible run of success this season, Te’o is right there in the spotlight, and is seriously being touted as a possible Heisman winner. The problem is basically Collin Klein. The logical answer to the question whether Te’o can take the award or not, is that basically Klein needs to submit a couple of stinkers.

If Te’o can keep his performance levels at the lofty heights they are right now, and if he can perhaps chip in a couple more flashy plays, and if Klein slips even just a little bit, Te’o could very well be that rarity of rarities.

A defensive Heisman trophy winner.

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Notre Dame go to 8-0 but, is it all in vain?

Notre Dame appear to have something cooking this season. Defying pre-season expectations they have beaten all comers culminating in an impressive 30-13 win over Oklahoma last night, on the road, no less. Everett Golson threw for 177 yards and dove for the decisive 1-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. They got some serious help on the defensive side too. Just a few weeks ago some idiotic websites scoffed openly at the chance of Manti Te'o winning the Heisman, well now bigger, national sites are commenting that the young man bolstered his Heisman Trophy candidacy with a late interception. That's right, bolstered.

Notre Dame would appear to be, as they say, legit.

Here's the problem. The possibility remains of this incredible season being eventually measured as having been basically for naught, lost in the quagmire of the usual vitriolic debate over how College football should award its winners.

The fact to bear in mind here is the switch to the much anticipated playoff system doesn't come into force until next season. That means that even if Notre Dame run the table, and beats (in order) Pittsburgh, Boston College, Wake Forest and USC (on the road), the chances are they are not going to be playing for the National Championship.

How can we suggest that with such confidence?

Easy.

Alabama, Kansas and Oregon are all now 8-0 after impressive weekend wins, and are ranked higher than Notre Dame in the BCS standings. Kansas have beaten three ranked teams, including their last two victories. and have a relatively easy run-in on their schedule. Kansas should finish 12-0. If Alabama survives next week's battle with LSU, they should also finish 12-0.

Oregon faces perhaps the toughest run in, on paper at least, however USC and Stanford are not the forces they once were, and California should be easily swiped aside. Oregon's last game against Oregon State will probably decide whether they go 12-0 or not.

The bottom line is, at least two of those three should finish 12-0, and even if The Fighting Irish beat their own last four opponents, they most likely will not be playing for the National Championship.

Up to now, many great college teams have lost out of playing for the National Championship thanks to the antiquated, out-dated and frankly farcical old BCS format. Thankfully from next season four teams will have a chance to battle it out, in what should provide excellent, dramatic viewing for us the fans.

Sadly, that will most likely come a season too late for this Notre Dame squad.

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Former Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine taking chances with Ortiz comments

You may have seen former Boston Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine’s comments on David Ortiz the last 24 hours and thought to yourself, ‘so what, it’s just Bobby being Bobby, right?’. Well, apart from the fact the Valentine now appears to be alienating one of the few Red Sox players that actually backed him in the clubhouse, Bobby is also risking legal action by his former employees.

What’s all the fuss about? Basically in an interview on NBS Valentine called Ortiz’s desire to play through injury out. The quote is pretty damning, however, judge for yourself.

"David Ortiz came back after spending about six weeks on the disabled list and we thought it was only going to be a week. He got two hits the first two times up, drove in a couple runs; we were off to the races. Then he realized that [the team's trade with the Dodgers on Aug. 25] meant that we're not going to run this race and we're not even going to finish the race properly and he decided not to play anymore. I think at that time it was all downhill from there."

Whatever way you read it back, it would appear Valentine is throwing Ortiz under the proverbial bus. If that’s the case, it is a shocking move even by Valentine’s standards. As all Red Sox fans know, Ortiz is a proud man, and will not take these comments lightly. The manager versus player aspect will play itself out eventually, and Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe dissects it all knowledgeably here, however, there is another potential thread to this storyline that could come back to haunt Valentine.

The more eagle eyed of Sox fans will have noted how polite Valentine was as he was shown the door. He was throwing verbal bouquets at everyone and everything associated with the Sox, without as much of a snide aside tacked on. Not exactly the Valentine we became used to in his single, disastrous year at the helm of the good ship Fenway.

As it turned out, Valentine had to sign a ‘No mudslinging’ clause to his contract, meaning he couldn’t say anything bad about the club after leaving. The Red Sox front office possibly foresaw potential issues in the case they did have to jettison Valentine, and had the clause put in place. Valentine would not have got a cent of his millions of dollars of severance money had he not signed, and subsequently obeyed.

Here’s the thing, will the Red Sox see this rather obvious attack on Ortiz as an attack on Boston as a whole, and therefore a very clear break of Bobby’s contractual obligation not to slander his former club?

If he keeps this crap up, can Boston get their severance package back off of him?

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2012 World Series preview

And then there was two. The Major League Baseball season is long. Very long. 162 games, to be exact. Now, finally, the playoffs have whittled the remaining field down to a final two, and all that remains is the World Series. This column would contend that there are no better teams suited for this World Series than the Detroit Tigers and the San Francisco Giants.

The two teams are both great examples of exactly what a ‘team’ is, at least in Major League baseball terms. Much more costly, extravagant and indeed fancied teams have all been cast by the wayside on route to the final. The Yankees? Gone, along with their ridiculous $220 million a year in salaries. Texas? Gone, their big sluggers couldn’t bash their way through the playoffs. Detroit and San Francisco are arguably the most complete teams in baseball in their respective conferences.

San Francisco play great defence, have some shut-down type starting pitchers, a great bullpen, and can play small-ball when they want to, or bang home-runs when they have to. The Tigers? Detroit have a couple of the best pitchers in the game right now, and a fear-some middle of their order unlike almost any other in baseball.

Two truly great teams, very worthy of their slot in the finals.

The Giants are jam packed with high-character players. Marco Scutaro, a player that the Boston Red Sox idiotically cast off last season, is having a playoffs for the ages, the baseball must look the size of a large water melon to him right now. Scutaro is a what they call in the English Premier League, a ‘players player’, just a gentleman and a true professional. It is heart-warming to see him succeed at the highest level. The wonderfully named Buster Posey is coming back from a terrible injury last season, playing catcher for the Giants. He is their ‘long ball’ threat and when he makes contact, the ball really jumps off of his bat.

The Giants are really defined by their starting pitching, the ‘horses’ who get the ball for (hopefully) six to seven innings from the start of the game. Matt Cain is the calm, cool and collected ace in the pack, while Ryan Vogelsong is striking batters out at a incredible pace. Keep an eye out for popular and humble Tim Lincecum, a young, free spirit, with buckets of talent, trying to bounce back from an average season.

The Tigers are bringing some heavy-lumber to the party. Their batting lineup is big, bad and mean. Their fulcrum is the fearsome duo of Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder. Cabrera is fresh of winning a rare ‘Triple Crown’ which means he topped the MLB charts in runs batted in, home runs, and batting average. A truly Herculean feat. His running mate, his partner in crime is the affable  Prince Fielder, a huge man who bashes home runs like you and I swat flies.

Detroit also bring arguably the single most dominant pitcher on the planet right now. Justin Verlander is on top of his trade. He can touch triple figures on the radar gun, and his curve ball can make a batter question his very existence. He is a ferocious competitor, and really ‘gets’ what it means to be the ace, the figure head of the Tigers.

That final aspect touches on perhaps the best part of this World Series.

It was really pathetic watching the Yankees play their home playoff games, as Detroit put them to the sword. The disgustingly priced $2000 plus seats behind home plate were only half full, and Yankee stadium itself was basically only three quarters full. Worse yet, the Yankee fans jeered their team more than they cheered them. It was ugly.

No such problems in this Series, you can bet.

These two teams really mean something to and in their respective communities. Their fans really love their teams, both playing in front of adoring, packed houses on a nightly basis. The Giants stadium is really a sight to see, arching high into the San Francisco night sky, with a swaying, colourful crowd jammed into every available seat. The Tigers, meanwhile, perhaps mean even more to their City (and that’s saying something). Detroit and Michigan has had a tough few years, and the Tigers do an incredible job giving their City and State something to be proud of, and something to cheer for. You can really feel the connection between the team and its fans every time they play ball.

Who’s going to win? It is a very tough call. Each game should be closely contested. San Francisco have some fabulous players and characters, and Marco Scutaro is a man on a mission right now. However, you simply can’t ignore two men in particular for the Tigers. Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander are once-in-a-lifetime type talents, and for me, they will swing the series towards Detroit.

Playoff baseball is a beautiful thing. Elegant, electric and to those that love it edifying, do yourself a favour, catch a few of the games, even if it means going into work a little late the next day!



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Making sense of the Patriot's 29-26 win over the Jets

The Patriots squeaked past the Jets last night 29-26 in a thrilling game that had a little bit of everything. Patriots fans were left on the edge of their seats as the secondary leaked like the Titanic post-iceberg, and the offence struggled to do anything right for long periods. The win did come, eventually, and Patriot nation exhaled. Whilst no one is jumping into the Charles this morning, the warning signs are there that the natives are restless. There was plenty of base, knuckle-dragging ‘booing’ throughout the night in New England. Once again, we are reminded, the ridiculous 2007 season ruined the expectations of Patriots fans World wide

 One thing you really have to understand and grasp onto as a Patriots fan is that you can’t win every single game 52-21.

Before 2007/2008 the Patriots were a blue collar, hardworking team  that managed to find ways to win close games. They were not generally a team that blew you out. They did the little things, they ‘did their job’ as the mantra goes. Just one season of blowing the doors of all comers right up to the Superbowl, and it would appear many Patriots fans have not adjusted as yet to winning games by a field goal, or indeed less.

Well, it is time to take stock of last night’s result and frankly, apart from that awful secondary, most of the analysis should trend on the positive side.

The Patriots sit top of the AFC East on a 4-3 record, having just beaten a fierce divisional rival. Make no mistake, Rex Ryan has not been lying all these years, the games against New England are indeed the Superbowl for the Jets. Ryan says it all the time, and you can see it from how his players conduct themselves. The two games against the Patriots are the Jets two biggest games every season. This means New England have to weather the storm of someone who is trying that little bit harder to beat you.

Last night? Job done. Storm weathered.

The 4-3 record is misleading, it may seem very ordinary, however on closer analysis, the Patriots have probably achieved more than their record describes. Take their three losses first. Those three ‘L’s were by a combined four points. No, seriously, look it up. That’s sensational, and means that the Patriots have, to some extent, been a little unlucky. Those teams that beat the Patriots by those combined four points are 17-12 against all their other opponents, in other words, they are above decent.

The wins have been pretty impressive. The improving Titans were hammered by 21 points. The Bills were annihilated after a slow start. The broncos scored a few in complete-garbage time to make the score look closer than it was.

The Jets? The Patriots found a way to beat them, in that old-fashioned Patriots way their fans used to be so used to.

If you find yourself, as a New England fan, worried that your team didn’t win 65-0 last night, a couple of tips.

First, calm down, and don’t be an idiot. Nobody likes self-entitled sports fans. Just ask anyone what they think of those moaning, whining Red Sox fans that are in abundance right now. The Patriots will win more than they lose, calm down.

Second, enjoy it! It’s kind of nice to see the Patriots working hard in all aspects of the game to scrape out a win, like their 2001, 2003 and 2004 clubs. Instead of letting Brady hock it up to Randy Moss every couple of plays, New England are utilising their entire roster, and it is refreshing to see.

A win is a win is a win.

Enjoy it, in the NFL they are hard to come by.


Just ask the Jets.

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The New York Yankees lose a game, a series and a dynasty

How easy was that? The Detroit Tigers simply swept the over matched Yankees aside, like dirt off their shoulders. The MLB International coverage was very good last night, something those of you Stateside don’t get to watch or hear, which is a shame. One very interesting note came late on, as they pointed out that with their season on the line, it was bemusing to see most of the Yankees slumped back in their seats. Ichiro Suzuki and Raul Ibanez were taking it like men and standing on the top step, however the rest of the Yankees were sulking back on their bench, quite literally as far away from the action as they could be without being in the club-house.

Losing is one thing, being embarrassed and not facing it like a man is a whole other issue. This Yankees team looked beaten all series long, and now has the toxic air of a broken down vehicle that has no use bar the scrap yard.

The Yankees now face a series of issues, the gravity of which does not appear to be sinking in for their own front office. Their problems are basically three-fold. First of all, they are old, Mike Illitch old. Secondly, those same old players, many of them are tied into huge salaries, the value of which would startle Donald Trump. Finally, those same players’ salaries are not only exorbitant, they are also long, long like a Miguel Carbera homerun.

Check out this list of the oldest Yankees players. This isn’t an ‘issue’, it’s an epidemic.

• Hiroki Kuroda 37
• Derek Lowe 39
• Andy Pettitte 40
• Eric Chavez 34
• Derek Jeter 38
• Alex Rodriguez 37
• Raul Ibanez 40
• Ichiro Suzuki 38

Even the Yankees ‘younger’ stars are ‘young’ only compared to the walking zombies in the group above.

• CC Sabathia 32
• Mark Teixeira 32
• Curtis Granderson 31

In terms of salaries, the Yankees as a group cost $200 million a year in pay. That’s big. In a lot of cases, it is their oldest players receiving the highest figures. Kuroda is getting $10 million. They are paying CC Sabathia, who looked older than 32 even last night, $24 million a year. A-Rod, Jeter and Teixeira combined are 107 years old are are earning a cool $68 million a year (22 each).

The New York Yankees are paying $130 million in salaries to a bunch of players who will be 30 or over for the 2013 season. That’s even removing Swisher, Lowe and Suzuki’s salaries, those three will presumably not be in pinstripes next season.

As for the length of those dead-weight, anchor  or indeed anvil like contracts, the poster child for this topic has to be good old A-Rod. The Yankees are paying A-Rod $30 million dollars a season every season until the year 2017.

Read that above sentence to yourself again and let it sink in. The guy they sat on the bench for the crucial part of the ALCS. The man once called ‘The Cooler’ by his own team-mates in Texas (for his ability to cool off rallies). The man mercilessly booed by his own fans, and completely slaughtered in the press by Donald Trump, that’s the guy they are paying $30 million a year until 2017.

You think they have a snowball’s chance in hell of trading the big lug to anyone? Even the LA Dodgers are not stupid enough to take that kind of cash on board.  New York is stuck to their broken down, head-case (who hands out baseballs to women in the stands looking for phone numbers during the AlCS?!) of a strike-out machine.

Worrying for Yankee fans is their General Manager appears to have his head buried in the sand.

"A lot of people are pointing to this team, and saying we're old and that's the reason we're not getting anywhere," Cashman said. "I'm like, 'Hey, we got there and we are old.' You know, if you're old and still good, it's not an issue."

What Cashman appears to be missing is that you can beat up second tier pitching all year long. You can mash homeruns at a record pace in the dog days of summer, and build inflated numbers in-spite of the relative old age of your squad. However, when October hits, your team best have energy and stamina (something that is more present in, let’s face it, younger players) and you better be ready to hit the best pitching in the Majors.

That Tigers rotation absolutely sliced and diced the Yankees aging bats. It was a no-contest. Max Scherzer almost no-hit the Yankees in a crucial, potentially season ending game for the latter. Think about that for a second. He almost no-hit them!!

The Yankees simply had no defence.

Most worrying of all, on top of all the points above, is that the rest of the AL East is primed to simply move on without New York. Tampa is young, talented and run on a very impressive low budget, allowing them to grab free agent parts at the right time. They have a great manager and deep, talent laden rotation. The Orioles are perhaps even more deeply loaded with young talent. They also have a good manager and baseball is once again buzzing in Baltimore, the City has taken to their team again, and they don’t want to let go. The Blue Jays are a much better team than their last season, the injury bug decimated them and they will be back with a bang in 2013.

What’s going to really pain Yankee fans is their arch rivals the Red Sox removed their problems like a surgeon removing an unwanted growth, biting the bullet and giving away the 2012 season in order to be competitive next season and beyond. The Red Sox are young, baby young compared to the Yankees, and have the financial freedom to rebuild their club in any manner they see fit.

The Yankees are an old, decaying team, and they are tied to the weighty contracts of those same players for many years to come. There is no wiggle room.

Where does that leave the Yankees?  The answer might be, out in the cold, looking in, as the rest of the AL East blasts off without them. The Yankees didn’t just lose a game last night, or a season either.

They lost their dynasty.

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After disgraceful scenes at under 21 football match Serbia must be banned by UEFA and FIFA

First things first, apologies if any normal, polite and reasonable Serbian football fan or regular Serbian Joe Punter person takes offence to the below, this is not directed at you, this is directed at your brethren who can’t contain themselves, and your football federation, who won’t contain them.

On to the matter at hand. Our American readers are going to find the pictures and videos on this piece shocking. You just don’t see this level of hate and violence in organised sport in the USA. Now, our Irish and European readers are going to think ‘Sure, seen this before, it’s just Serbia being Serbia’. However, enough is enough. No more excuses. No more warnings. This has to be the final straw. It is time to kick Serbia out of all FIFA and UEFA competitions for a good period, preferably ten years. FIFA needs to act now, and show its members, show the World, that FIFA does not condone racism, violence and thuggery at any level. At this stage there is absolutely no alternative, and FIFA has to stand up to these disgusting Serbian bullies.

Throw. Them. Out.

Now.

A quick recap on last night’s Serbian indiscretions.

• England beat Serbia 1-0 in a crucial Under 21 match last night – meaning England went through and Serbia were knocked out. The end of the match saw the English players and coaches quite literally fighting, scrapping for their lives as some Serbian coaches, officials, players and fans attacked them
• Other Serbian fans hailed missiles in the form of bottles, cans and other paraphernalia at the English players and backroom staff
• England coach Martin Thomas was head-butted by a Serbian coach after the game (No, seriously, check the picture out above)
• English player Danny Rose was racially and violently taunted all night long 'Two stones hit me in the head when I went to get the ball for a throw-in and whenever I touched the ball there was monkey chanting.’

Serbia, as they say, has priors. Last year UEFA president Michel Platini threatened Serbia with expulsion from Euro 2012 and their clubs with exclusion from European competition if they did not sort out their hooliganism and racism problems. Prior to that Serbia were fined £16,000 in 2007 by UEFA after England defender, Nedum Onuoha was abused by fans at the 2007 Under-21 European Championship in Holland.

Enough is enough.

Check this video out. Watch as the missiles start to rain down, the crowd chants aggressive, racist slogans and slander, and then the fights break out amongst the players and staff.



There is absolutely no excuse for last night, and Serbia has a back-list of priors, so there has to be a line drawn under this. Toss the book at them, and make them an example to all who would try to bring hate, ignorance and aggressive bullying to the stadium. The excuses being set forth so far are completely pathetic. History, colonialism, cultural differences, excuse me but that’s just pathetic. Take responsibility, Serbia. No one is picking on you, this is your problem. Stop lashing out and blaming everyone from Imperialist Britain to Bosnia to Obama’s America.

This is your problem, take responsibility and deal with it. No one forced your fans to throw missiles at the English players last night, and certainly no one forced the idiots amongst your fans to make monkey noises at Danny Rose, the young, talented English player. Look at yourself in the mirror, Serbia, and ask yourself, ‘Is this acceptable?’ No it is not.

This video gives an even more graphic portrayal of events last night (not sure how long it will survive before being taken down however)




At best, Serbia look simply like sore losers, throwing missiles on the field after England beat them 1-0 with a dramatic late goal from Sunderland’s Conor Wickham. At worst, Serbian football supporters look like hateful, spiteful, ignorant and dangerous racists. They have priors, they have been doing this for years and FIFA and UEFA has warned them over and over.

Until their football federation is brave enough to do something about their disgraceful behaviour, Serbia has to be banned from World football.

There is simply no place in the modern World for their knuckle-dragging behaviour.
 

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A Norwegian kicking in the NFL? Håvard Rugland 'kicking exhibition video" goes viral

Håvard Rugland

Every day we are pointed towards something to watch or read on the Internet. We all are guilty of ushering folk to do same also. We are all butlers to the Internet. We usher our friends and family to links, articles and videos, and we’re doing it more and more every day. In such a saturated market it is often hard to find something genuinely jaw dropping, however, this video, I wager, is just that. If you have any interest in the NFL, soccer, or sports in general, if even you like well put together amateur video with a difference, this video is for you.

At its most basic, it’s a young man kicking an NFL ball around, trying (and succeeding) with some ridiculous trick shots, however that’s like describing Mozart as a ‘decent’ composer.

Taking a step back, From The Bleachers found this video yesterday, and on our first view the video had 6,000 hits. As of this morning, it stands at 140,000. We reached out to the maker, Håvard Rugland, to ask him a few questions, and he graciously replied straight away. Frankly, I doubt he’s going to have much time for anything in the near future, if the video continues to explode across the Internet as it has done so far.

Really refreshing video, and also very refreshing response from the young man. First the video, then a little bit more about Håvard.




Pretty cool, right?

The guy in the video making the football do all those amazing things is Håvard Rugland, 28, from Ålgård in Norway. Amazingly, he told From the Bleachers he has been kicking field goals for just one and a half years. Basically, a soccer fan all his life, he knew he had a good leg, and wanted to try his ‘foot’ at kicking. Initial results were good, very good, and Håvard decided to make the video just to show his friends and family what he was up to. Kicking field goals alone wasn’t exciting enough for him, so he decided to add some fun elements, tricks and funny kicks into the mix.

Let’s just say he succeeded. Watching a man hit a moving target, in a boat, is just something you don’t see every day.

The interesting thing is, it appears kicking came first, and Håvard became interested in the NFL because of same, not the other way round. Up to now, he hasn’t picked a favourite team as yet, he just loves watching the games. Apart from the NFL, Håvard’s favourite sports are snowboarding, soccer and the UFC.

The latter is an interesting choice. As you will see from the video, Håvard is a well-built man, and if he ever did get a chance to play in the NFL it looks like he would be the kind of kicker that would have no problem laying out any kick returner who thought he was home clean.

In terms of the video itself,  Håvard created it over the course of a couple of weeks with the help of his brother and a few friends, and it is shot entirely ‘on location’ in his home town of Ålgård in Norway.

What strikes you about Håvard is his amiable humility. One of the last questions we put to him was, if you found yourself kicking field goals in front of 50,000 screaming people, how do you think you would react? He replied

‘’I don’t know how I would react, but I hope i would be able to handle it. I have never played American football other than by myself, so I think with the help of a good coach, I know I could become a very good kicker. I have still a lot to learn, but I think I have the talent to get really good and I am a fast learner.’’

You couldn’t ask for a more honest down to earth answer. Having had the chance to put a few questions to Håvard, and having enjoyed his video so much, it is impossible not to root for him.

Here’s wishing him the best in future, and hopefully an NFL general manager gets a chance to see it, rolls the dice, and ends up with a linebacker size Norwegian place kicker, who can knock the pigskin from Fjord to Fjord no problem.

 

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Lance Armstrong no longer able to hide from the evidence: The full USADA report

You could drive yourself pretty crazy trying to reconcile the gap between Lance Armstrong the cheating doper and Lance Armstrong the incredible champion of the fight against cancer. Perhaps a time will come when former fans of Armstrong like myself can view Armstrong in two lights, separating his wonderful charity work, and his disdainful steroid usage. Right now that time feels a long way away, as the level of cheating that has been exposed is simply overwhelming.

There are plenty who aren’t wildly familiar with Armstrong’s charity work who are reviewing the mounting evidence and screaming ‘Just throw him in jail and throw away the key’. For those of us who witnessed the positive impact of both Armstrong’s written and physical work in the fight against cancer, it has been hard to face up to the facts.

The release of the US Anti-Doping Agency’s (USADA) report today basically wipes away any possibility at all that Lance ‘didn’t do it’.

Sadly it is all there in black and white. Armstrong was an enormous cheat. Still feeling in any way in doubt? Well, check this out.

US Anti-Doping Agency’s (USADA) report

Whatever way Armstrong and his legal team try to spin this, perhaps the most damning evidence amongst the over 200 pages of material published by the USADA is the fact that no less than eleven former team-mates of Armstrong, including some still highly respected members of the cycling World, have come forward to give evidence that yes, he was sticking needles in his backside. Those eleven names basically wipe away any doubt whatsoever, and they are; Frankie Andreu, Michael Barry, Tom Danielson, Tyler Hamilton, George Hincapie, Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer, Stephen Swart, Christian Vande Velde, Jonathan Vaughters and David Zabriskie.

It is impossible to see how Armstrong can continue to deny not only the 200 page report but also the evidence from those eleven former tem-mates.

What is left is two sets of facts which have to be weighed against each other.

In the positive corner, the very name Lance Armstrong has become a guiding light to those people and their families and friends that have fought and are fighting cancer. Want to put some numbers on this? Easily done. The Lance Armstrong Foundation has raised almost $500 million (340 million euros, 310 million pounds) since it was created in 1997. That is a mind boggling number and worthy of praise no matter the situation.

In the negative corner, we can simply use the USADA statement . Armstrong, they claim, was at the heart of "the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen. He was not just a part of the doping culture on his team, he enforced and re-enforced it."

What is clear is that Armstrong is gone now from organised cycling, and with his record seven Tour De France titles stripped from his grasp, all that remains is his legacy.

As for that, now it is up to us as sports fans to figure out just what exactly that legacy is.

 

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Old Sox: Your 2013 MLB all Red Sox castoff all-stars

Sitting there eating popcorn watching Josh Reddick mash and swagger his way through the playoffs, his locks blowing in the wind, it is hard not to think, ‘what might have been?’ if the swashbuckling young man had stayed in a Boston Red Sox jersey. Damn would he look good patrolling right field, providing the finishing touches to an outfield of Ross\Ellsbury\Reddick which would be more than competitive, even amongst the daily grind of the AL East. Of course, Reddick isn’t the only ‘one that got away’.

Extrapolating this line of thoughts further it didn’t take long to create an entire team of former Red Sox from around the Major Leagues. Our ‘Old Sox’ squad would be extremely competitive, we think. In fact, it is hard not to imagine this Old Sox team bashing the living daylights out of the current incarnation which sapped the life out of baseball in Boston all 2012 long.

Assuming this column won the lottery this week, we would build a beautiful tidy little, fan friendly stadium in Cape Cod, naturally something ergonomically acceptable. In line with the swagger of our right fielder we would simply call them ‘The Old Sox’ and our uniform would be suitably unique. The stadium would fill up on a nightly basis, a mix of inevitable  Cape Cod tourists, gnarly Portuguese fishermen, college kids working on the Cape for the Summer, curious Irish J1 visa students, also working in the Cape’s bars and eateries, handsome older gentlemen  in crisp wind-sheeters, happily and diligently filling out old-school scorecards, holidaying New York families with the kids in Jets and Giants jerseys, dreamers and poets, artists and entertainers, the finest of the Cape and the North East. The Old Sox would play the game the right way, and their adoring fans would applaud the right moves.

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Booing your own team, players or coaches would mean instant and permanent expulsion from the stadium.House rule.

The mascot? A giant clam or something, who cares, everyone would be too busy to notice, lost in a dreamy haze of Cape Cod summer nights and Hanley Ramirez monster blasts over the left field wall.

We’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Let’s meet the team.

The Old Sox lineup
1. CF: Coco Crisp - Oakland
2. 2B: Marco Scutaro - San Francisco
3. 1B: Adrian Gonzalez - LA Dodgers
4. SS: Hanley Ramirez - LA Dodgers
5. 3B: Adrian Beltre - Texas
7. C: Victor Martinez - Detroit
8. RF: Josh Reddick - Oakland
9. DH: Anthony Rizzo - Chicago Cubs
10. LF: David Murphy - Texas

Not bad, right? The above is of course with apologies to Jed Lowrie and Kevin Youkilis. We just couldn't fit them in. How about that lineup though? Reddick batting 8th? The front two might be a little 'light' but our feeling is they will be energized by their incredible team-mates and will go about setting the table in front of the big bashers with glee. Our 3 through 6 is amongst the best in baseball, with a healthy Victor Martinez providing serious pop in the 7-hole. Adrian Beltre will be the glue that holds the whole thing together, and you can expect some highlight reel moments in defence from him and Gonzo in particular. Anthony Rizzo is a fine young slugging prospect who made it to Chicago from Boston via San Diego. He is one to watch. David Murphy batting 9th? Great defence and a consistent bat. The Old Sox would be a serious contender right out the gate.

How about pitching, I hear you say. Okay, you found out weak link, perhaps. The Old Sox are going to probably have to win a few games with the bat, however the starting rotation is not absolutely horrible. It has its moments. You could argue it is streets ahead of what Boston put on the field in '12. Have a look and see what you think.

The Old Sox rotation
SP: Bronson Arroyo - Cincinnati Reds
SP: Justin Masterson - Cleveland Indians
SP: Josh Beckett – LA Dodgers
SP: Anibal Sanchez - Detroit
SP: Casey Kelly - San Diego

Arroyo gets the ball opening day, through sheer consistency alone. He may not be flashy, he doesn’t light up the radar gun, he just wins.  Masterson has the potential to go on and be a major league number two type in any rotation. Josh? We all know what the World Series MVP can do. Anibal Sanchez just needs to find a vein of form and health, and he can build on that no-hitter he threw, and Casey Kelly is one for the future, and a good one at that.

There it is. The Old Sox. Maybe 'The Cape Cod Old Sox' - we're not sure yet. Planning permission on the stadium still in the works. Dreaming aside, the point is, you can name a pretty darn good MLB team from recently-former Red Sox cast-offs.

Read into that what you will, however, it does not speak highly on Boston's ability to hold onto good players.


Right now, more than anyone, Josh Reddick is a whirling, bashing, strutting piece of evidence of just that.

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Romney the Wolverine: Ohio State student paper links Mitt to Michigan

Readers of Friday’s copy of the Ohio State student newspaper the Lantern were greeted by an enormous, ultimately hilarious full page advertisement linking Presidential longshot Mitt Romney (currently trailing incumbent President Obama by a whopping margin in the only poll that matters, Vegas bookmarkers) to the Michigan Wolverines.

The text reads "I have been a Michigan and a Wolverine fan for a long, long time" a statement the former Massachusetts governor, who was born in Michigan, made the last year.

This statement will not go down well amongst the passionate throngs of Buckeye nation.

The advertisement was paid for by the Ohio Democratic party and is an interesting tactic, a cheeky and welcome break from the usual negative, ugly and spiteful tactics that have been used to date by, in particular, the Republican party.

The image challenges Buckeye fans to question themselves, can they really vote for a man who roots for their most fiercest of rivals? Can the question cause a ripple in voting numbers in a key state? Stranger things have happened.

You wonder what The Mittster makes of all this. Probably not much. To his credit, Romney to date exudes a certain deflective aura of contentment, it would appear basically nothing can hurt him. Let’s face it, this chap is wonderfully detached from reality, this is the same individual who described the $374,000 in speaking fees he earned a year as “not very much.”

Now call me a Libtard Commie Barock O’Hussein Obama supporter if you will, but $374,000 DeNiros would make a welcome addition to this struggling freelance sports journalists’ wallet. Yes, very much.

As for The Mittster, If you were to ask him were he worried about the fallout from this incident, he would no doubt shake his jowls in that Nixonian manner he has and reply ‘’Not very much’’.

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Analysis of a disaster: Meet the 2012 Red Sox club-house trouble makers

One of the first things that basically dragged me into the World of loving the Boston Red Sox was the superb level of in-depth journalism around the team. I remember sitting on a beach in Cape Cod in ’93 reading about Ken Ryan’s fastball and Johnny Val’s potential and devouring it all hungrily. Nothing has changed, although the out-put from the 'Knights of the keyboard' (as Teddy Ballgame dubbed them) might be a bit more negative the last couple of seasons in particular.

The scribes are still as incisive, however, none more so than the Globe’s Pete Abrahams, who really gets dug in to his task as beat writer to the Sox. There is a really interesting, short and yet illuminating piece by him in the Globe online today, in which he praises several players for being a pleasure to deal with. Basically he breaks the clubhouse down into three parts. Those who were a pleasure to deal with, a secondary level who he makes a point of saying were also easy to deal with, and then a pointed few who he doesn’t mention at all.

Mr Abrahams obviously has to be careful about who he chastises for being difficult to deal with, assuming they are back next season and assuming he is covering the Red Sox in 2013. However, it can’t be ignored that he named so many players and left a small number out in the cold as it were.

You be the judge.

Abrahams’ first group;

‘’But Ortiz, Pedroia, Ross, Aviles, Melancon, Will Middlebrooks, Clay Buchholz, Andrew Bailey, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Felix Doubront, Franklin Morales, and Scott Atchison were especially patient and friendly.’’

Then the second tier:

‘’So were Rich Hill, Andrew Miller, Aaron Cook, Craig Breslow, and Daniel Bard.’’

Now, for those absent from the list.  Do we assume these individuals were impossible to deal with? Do we assume they were the opposite of the above players, in other-words, impatient and unfriendly?

Notable absentees from Pete’s list of those above are;
Alfredo Aceves, Jon Lester, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Vincent Padilla, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jose Iglesias, James Loney, Ryan Lavarnway, Daniel Nava and Scott Podsednik.

You can excuse Dice-K on the basis that even now he seems a fish out of water in America. For whatever reason, he just hasn’t fitted in. Iglesias, Loney, Nava, Podsednik and Lavarnway can all be excused also as short-timers and rookies and so forth.

That leaves a short-list of Aceves, Ellsbury, Lester and Padilla.

In effect, the most embedded and detailed Red Sox beat writer has isolated and nominated Aceves, Ellsbury, Lester and Padilla as the most difficult players to deal with in 2012, the least patient and the least friendly. Aceves and Padilla are no shock. Their toxic behaviour means they might have a hard time getting another job in baseball, let alone the Red Sox.

Lester is a tough one to swallow. Before this season he has always been a pillar of the Red Sox community. To see him isolated as one of the problems is both shocking and sad. Whatever is going on in that young man’s mind, you can only hope he figures it out and returns to being an ace on the mound, and in the Boston club-house too.

Ellsbury’s exclusion from the good list, and inclusion in our bas list, is a complete head scratcher. Did he just not get on with the writer? Or was he actually a club-house cancer, as is basically suggested. It is very hard to tell from afar, however it would appear he certainly rubbed at least one writer up the wrong way, enough to be sent a sack of coal as opposed to making the ‘nice-list’.

What we can take from this most of all is, the Red Sox club-house had plenty of good apples, a few bad ones, and that Pete Abrahams is a pretty ballsy writer, willing to (basically) come out and identify those very same bad apples.

One thing is sure, that 2012 Red Sox season could not end soon enough.

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How the US sports media is taking the Ryder Cup loss (clue: not very well)

Well, well, well. Would you look at this. There is cowardly, and then there is downright pathetic. Over the course of a magical Sunday yesterday, the European Ryder Cup team pulled off one of the greatest, most dramatic, come-back victories in team sports history. On Saturday night, despite Ian Poulter’s animated dramatics, most considered Europe completely down and out. The bookmakers had USA restrictive 1/5 favorites, with Europe available to back anywhere between 6 and 10 to 1. Come Sunday night, and Europe had hauled the USA all the way back in, to the point that Tiger Woods pathetic miss on the 18th meant Europe not only tied the US and retained the title, they won the tournament outright 14 ½ to 13 ½ .

A spectacular come-back for the ages, and, you would assume, headline news, right?

Visiting the US sporting media main pages today, it is very interesting to note that the US’s sports journalists appear to have run, scampered to the hills, their proverbial tails firmly between their legs. Is it embarrassment? Shame? Or just undignified, cowardly journalism? Instead of correctly acclaiming or at the very least tipping their caps to such a sensational come-back victory, the US sports media has simply avoided the topic of the Ryder Cup like the plague.

It should be noted strongly most US players have been class acts since their shocking defeat. Take for example Bubba Watson.

The media? Not so much.

Let’s have a look around at the usual suspects.

ESPN has barely a mention. A tiny single line buried on the 'headlines' feed announcing demurely 'Europe snags shocking Ryder Cup win' with as much gusto as someone selling life insurance door to door. NASCAR, college football, the NFL and baseball take all the neon lights. NASCAR, yes, that sport where everyone turns left constantly until someone is declared a winner.

The New York Times allows a tiny insert photo amongst the MLB and NFL action, with a soft headline saying, ‘Europe Retains Ryder Cup’. That’s something like saying ‘The Godfather is a movie’ or ‘The Lafayette Steak in Tante Zoes in Temple Bar is OK’.

You have to scroll down a couple of times on the Washington Post to find anything to do with the Ryder Cup, and when you find it, let’s just say it isn’t worth all the scrolling. It is buried deeper than a pro Obama article on FOX news. Here’s a screen shot of their front page, before scrolling down. There’s fat burning ads, RG3, MLB and regional NCAA action. The Washington Post would have you believe The Ryder Cup did not happen this weekend just passed!

The Boston Globe has plenty on the Patriots, Celtics and Red Sox, and another one of those tiny little insert pen-pictures on the Ryder Cup, so popular with mainstream American Sporting media today, as it apparently hides its embarrassment from the rest of the World.

Perhaps the prevailing image that will define the US sporting media’s participation at the Ryder Cup, will be ESPN’s Rick Reilly, who reportedly earns $3 million a year, sleeping soundly in the press box during the tournament.

US sporting media, wake up, stand up and be counted, show some dignity. The Ryder Cup come-back yesterday was a sensational sporting story, nay, a fantastical human story. Get your collective heads out of your hands, pull your heads out of the sand, and stop snoring on the job.

Show some respect and give the Ryder Cup and the famous European victory it’s dues.

Or else we’ll send this guy round.

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