25 reasons to be excited about the forthcoming MLB season

Here it comes. In fact, it actually started yesterday. That's right. MLB is upon us, whether you like it or not. Sticky pine tar, watered down beer, four hour plus Sox\Yankee games, some of the worst sporting commentary in organised sports, $2,500 seats behind home plate at Yankee stadium, and those horrific new Miami Marlins uniforms.

Thankfully it's not all bad. There are plenty of reasons to be excited and delighted about the upcoming MLB season. And, as the title implied, here are 25 of them.

25. Mike, or should we say, Giancarlo Stanton.



24. This new look Anaheim Angels squad should be pretty interesting to say the least. Albert Pujols and CJ Wilson are obviously the marquee additions, but what about Kendry Morales coming back from a lost season due to injury? Mark Trumbo is going to hit a lot of long balls, and what's Jered Weaver going to do for an encore to his scintillating 2011 season?

23. Justin Verlander.

22. Jose Reyes batting in front of Hanley Ramirez.

21. Prince Fielder playing in Detroit - Just a hunch really, but once the city of Detroit gets its loving arms around this affable character, it may never, ever let go. Particularly if he does this a couple of times.

20. Maybe we will get lucky and A-Rod will take more pictures like this


19. Four Wild Card teams. No, you heard that right, four. In case you missed it, instead of the old two Wild Card system, MLB will be implementing a new four team format for 2012 and going forward. I am sure there are all sorts of archaic old monoliths out there ranting and raving about 'tradition' and what not, but by the time the playoffs start, most of us will love this move.

18. Mr. Jonathon Papelbon closing games in Philadelphia. Luckily for Papelbon, the good citizens of Phillies nation are a shy, retiring sort. Patient to a man, they will no doubt continue to applaud and support Papelbon even after the hairiest of blown saves. Take for example the end to the Red Sox season. If Papelbon does that (blows the save against the Orioles and with it the season) the Phillies fans will no doubt groan a little, but this will undoubtedly be followed by a polite round of applause for the effort put forth. My keyboard just melted from sarcasm.

17. The Muddy Chicken doin' work.

16. The fact that someone, somewhere out there, is about to hit a walk off home run, and it about to get all crazy up in here.

15. Lester\Beckett\Bucholz, Hallady\Lee\Hamels, Lincecum\Cain\Bumgarner. Three of the finest front-threes in the Majors.


14. Joba Chamberlin's next stunt.


13. Buster Posey back in action after a year lay off from injury. Posey figures to be one of the more exciting up and coming young players for the next couple of seasons. Word on the proverbial street is he will hit the ground running.

12. Saturday afternoon to evening to night triple headers live on TV (In Ireland too!!)

11. Jamie Moyer, aged 49, pitching in the majors

10. Red Sox v Yankees (even if it takes 4 hours to complete)

9. The Chicago Cubs, possibly the best supported club in all of baseball (in terms of loyalty and support despite relative failure), have just as good a chance as anyone at winning the World Series. Until the season actually starts, of course.



8. Fenway franks

7. MLB TV on the PS3 (It is absolutely awesome)

6. Star Wars baseball



5. The first time you back a player in running to hit the next home run, he steps to the plate, takes a ball outside, then blasts the next pitch 435 feet over the left field bleachers.

4. Rex Ryan has nothing to do with baseball.



3. Bryce Harper - coming soon to a 500 foot home run near you. Harper might start the season in the minors, but expect a Tebow like fervour to get him up to the bigs. The kid can flat out rake.



2. The first no hitter of the 2012 season.

1. Because there is every chance the new Red Sox manager might just be their craziest one yet. Doubt it for even half a second? Well, check this out.

Links.

• Contact Cormac
• From the Bleachers on Irish Central
• Irish Central

The second coming =Tim Tebow definitely traded to the Jets this time

What a crazy day in the NFL. First the league absolutely nukes the Saints chances of playing a home Superbowl this coming season by suspending head coach Sean Payton for the season, for his involvement in the disgraceful 'Bounty Gate'. Second, Tim Tebow gets traded from the Broncos to the Jets. Then the trade falls through. Then, and we make no apology for the pun here, the trade gets resurrected a second time. This time Tebow is really going to the Jets.

The trade is just a complete noodle-scratcher. Tebow to the Jets? Seriously? Whilst it might be a decent potential move for the man himself, it is almost impossible to see the logic the Jets as a team applied to this trade. Let's get this straight, we are not 'having a go' at Tebow here. The Jets are the ones that have opened themselves up to ridicule. It's not as if Tebow came cheap. To secure the deal New York had to agree to pay $5 million in extra bonus money that otherwise Denver would have had to have paid.

As practically everyone knows, the Jets have just forked out almost $60 million to Sanchez, and just signed up another backup QB too, Drew Stanton.

We haven't even touched on the hysteria.
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It is all well and good to say 'Well, Tebow can simply back Sanchez up', however anyone who thinks that is going to fly seems to have forgotten the kind of hysteria that seems to follow Tebow and his saintly image around the United States. People in Denver hired actual billboards trying to influence the team to start him! You think New York is going to remain calm about this? Actually, has anyone checked in on New York tonight? Is it even still there, or did it simply implode under the weight of expectation at word of this trade?

They might have to build a whole new New York when all of this is said and done.

The effect on Sanchez himself can go one of two ways, It could galvanize the thin-skinned QB into action, or it could absolutely crush him under the pressure. Now, you all saw Mark Sanchez play last season. If you had to place a wager on which way the situation might go, would you go for the former or the latter? I know which I would pick anyway!

Thirdly, isn't New York supposed to be trying to calm things down? Didn't their season completely tear itself apart amidst locker room controversy and the kind of chinese whispers that would make a gossip column blush? This is the answer? Bring the Tebow circus to town? Isn't Rex Ryan supposed to be diverting attention away from his ball club, in order to give it a chance to breathe, and to get away from seasons of suffocation self hype and impossible expectations? This showboat of a trade is the answer to the Jets problems, really?

You know what, good for them. Good for the Jets. You just want to stand there like some guy on the Titanic, slow clapping facetiously as the boat hits the iceberg, droning sarcastically, 'Oh, well done, just, great job, well done''.

This whole situation is about to end about as well as the Titanic's first voyage too.

Not fabulously.

Links.

• Contact Cormac
• From the Bleachers on Irish Central
• Irish Central

Wexford Notre Dame fan shows his pride with Irish tattoo

With Notre Dame coming over to play Navy in Dublin, Ireland this summer, there will be plenty of Irish fans making the trip over. Funny thing is, there are plenty of them here already. They are a pretty passionate bunch too.

Take for example 37 year old father of five Michael Kavanagh from Wexford. 'Iron' Mike is a devout Irish fan who has been following Notre Dame and American football in general since back in 1989. He literally never misses an Irish game, and has been looking forward to the team coming to Ireland since the trip was announced.

Mike had always wanted to represent his passion for Irish football more visually, and with Saint Patrick's day coming up, decided to pull the trigger. He designed a tattoo of the famous interlocking ND in the middle of a traditional Shamrock design.

While this was definitely an unusual request at ''The Screaming canvas'' tattoo parlour in New Ross, they did a fantastic job on it.

Mike fell in love with the history and tradition of Notre Dame football at an early age and, like many college football fans in Ireland, felt a connection to the Fighting Irish that grew in the 80's and 90's into a strong bond. Whilst Mike is excited about this coming season for the Irish, he admits he says that every pre-season!

When I asked him if he was 'pumped' for the forthcoming season, he said;

''Very much so but then again i've been saying that going into every season for a long time now. With Manti Te'o and Jamoris Slaughter returning on defence and Tyler Eifert on offence I expect big things.''

'Iron' Mike summed up the feelings of all the Irish and NCAA football fans in Ireland about the forthcoming game by adding;

''Besides how can I not be excited with being able to see them practically in my back yard!''

Links.

• Contact Cormac
• From the Bleachers on Irish Central
• Irish Central

Musical chairs - NFL wide receiver style: Several big names finding new homes

The landscape of the NFL is changing before our very eyes. Experienced NFL commentators are finding their collective heads spinning with the number and importance of the free agency changes particularly in the ranks of the NFL’s wide receivers. Now pay attention, here’s the list. We have news for you on all of these chaps. Brandon Marshall, Vincent Jackson, Pierre Garcon, Marques Colston and Mike Wallace.

No, we have nothing on Peyton Manning. This is one piece where you will read nothing on the affable quarterback with no home. Except that. We do have, however, some really big names, either coming, going or staying, this is proving to be one of the busiest NFL free agency periods ever.
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First to troubled former Miami Dolphins wide-out Brandon Marshall. Busy week for Brandon, who was allegedly involved in an incident where he punched a woman in the eye at a Manhattan birthday bash. Marshall was also traded to the Chicago Bears. Should be pretty interesting to see how he gets on with other noted anti-hero type, Jay Cutler.



Marshall is no stranger to drama. He has a history of arrests that includes disorderly conduct, drunk driving, and domestic violence. Marshall was stabbed less than a year ago in the abdomen with a kitchen knife during a domestic dispute. Marshall’s wife, Michi Nogami-Marshall, was arrested but charges were later dropped.

Chicago, have fun with that.

Meanwhile, the ‘Team from Washington’ (This column will not use their racist team nickname, in much the same way you would not like to hear a soccer team from Denmark called ‘The Copenhagen Caucasians’) is proving a real mover and or shaker in free agency. They have nabbed former Colts wide-man Pierre Garcon. Insert comment on potential big name QB free agency signing here!

The uber-gifted and uber-hard-to-play-with (by all accounts) receiver Vincent Jackson is taking his undoubted talents to Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers and QB Josh Freeman are being seen as the big winners so far in free agency, landing Jackson with a five-year, $55 million deal that includes $26 million guaranteed. Pretty good walking-around-money, if you can get it.




On to two players who are definitely not, and probably not, moving teams but are still grabbing headlines.

One of the finest players in the NFL today, Marques Colston, is staying put in The Big Easy. Not long before free agency began on Tuesday, the Saints' star receiver agreed to a lucrative five-year contract to remain in the New Orleans. No word on if he got a cut of any of those injury incentive bonus payments the Saints hand out!
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Finally, the Steelers are making-eyes at their speedster, Mike Wallace, in the form of a reported first-round tender. As a restricted free agent, the first-round tender would guarantee him a reported $2.7 million in 2012. However, as a restricted free agent, another team can potentially swoop in and sign him. Possibly more to come on that one.

That’s it for now. Great start to the free agency period in terms of drama and big names. There are of course, a couple of big names left to talk about!

Great exercises in futility - the March Madness bracket

fu•til•i•ty (fy-tl-t)
n. pl. fu•til•i•ties
1. The quality of having no useful result; uselessness.
2. Lack of importance or purpose; frivolousness.
3. A futile act.
4. Filling out a March Madness bracket

In the 1600s, Don Quixote took part in one of the most futile ventures of all time. Driven by a desire to revive chivalry, he set out on a quest during which he assaulted a number of windmills. Pretty futile. In 1863 Maj. Gen. George Pickett expanded further on the use of the term futile by leading 13,000 men in a Civil War infantry charge towards their slaughter across open ground and against heavy Union artillery and rifle fire, losing over 50% of his men in the battle of Gettysburg. In 1939, as Panzer divisions swept through Poland, Polish Cavalry launched a brave yet incredibly futile attack on mechanized Wehrmacht columns at the battle of Krojanty. Daremny!

Whilst the above historic and literary ventures were no doubt futile, they pale in comparison to you fools who are about to complete out a March Madness bracket. Yes, sorry, we said it, you fools. You clowns. You Chug Monkeys. You who should have better things to do with your time.

To paraphrase Jeffrey Lebowski, I love March Madness, you love March Madness, that’s terrific! However, there are few ventures as futile as filling out one of those asinine March Madness brackets.
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Here’s the science.

There are a total of 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 possible bracket outcomes, making the odds of a perfect bracket over 9.2-quintillion-to-1. In fact, the odds are so bad that if every individual alive in the world completed a bracket, the odds are a billion-to-one against any of them being perfect.

By all means enjoy the games, there are few tournaments as exciting as March Madness. But for the love of Don Quixote, save yourself the time wasted on completing a bracket. Go read a good book. Give your Grandparents a call. Fix that shelf that needs fixing. If you spent the next two hours doing push-ups it would be time better spent than completing a March Madness bracket.

Amazingly, despite the astronomical numbers, despite the obvious futility of it all, it is estimated that one in ten Americans will complete out a March Madness bracket.

There are communities of Lemmings that live less futile existences than these people.

To those who actually place genuine, hard-earned, cash-money, financial bets on their brackets, you special people are the Polish Cavalry of the gambling world. Let me save you the bother of looking up the battle of Krojanty.

Much like the inevitable demise of your bracket, it did not end well.

Jeremy Lin continues to grab the headlines; Now has a Class A recreational drug named after him

The Jeremy Lin show just rolls on and on. Like 'Stomp' or 'Wicked', the tickets just keep on selling. The headlines have toned down a little since ESPN tried to explode the Internet with a racist headline Rush Limbaugh would have been ashamed of, but the publics hunger for Lin related news material is simply insatiable.

The content of said news 'stories' ranges from the banal, to the insane and back. Two particular stories grabbed ones attention this week. First, that bastion of modern new reporting, the New York Post, belched out a story on how Lin doesn't like women who dress 'slutty'. No, seriously. An entire piece was devoted to this. Second, we can now confirm, thanks to the New York Observer, that Lin has his own recreational drug names after him. Or at least a strain of same.

First to the Post. It 'reported', and we use that term loosely, that Lin was spotted out and about dressed in a "..classic dorky Harvard guy, jeans, sneakers, a blue plaid shirt and a white sweater..'' ensemble. Other important items brought to our attention by the Post were that Lin did not drink (alcahol, anyway, no word on what his favourite soft drink is) and that he was surrounded by teems of adoring women

Fascinatingly, the Post deemed it important to note that Lin only; ".. seemed interested in smart girls that didn't look slutty." Well now! Ring chasing, money grabbing, sluttily dressed women of New York beware, you ain't gonna get Lin's attention dressed like that!

Jeremy Lin says' ''No!!''

The Post closes by telling us that Lin left alone. But, you probably guessed that already. Informative stuff anyway, riveting! But, what do you expect from an article that contains the following in the comments section; ''The Knicks was awesome against the Cavaliers''

I am sure they 'was'. Anyway, moving on...

Jeremy Lin says; ''Maybe!!''

On to this whole recreational drug thing, brought to us by the good people at the New York Observer. We are going to tread carefully here, due to the nature of the content of the story, but the Observer tells us that; ''Jeremy Lin now has a (recreational drug) strain named after him, one that appears to be sold in an undisclosed (but fairly reputable-looking, judging by the handiwork on the label) (recreational drug) dispensary.''

No comment from the Lin camp on this one, as yet, however you can imagine the lawsuit is just around the corner, given how Lin feels about, you know, sluttily dressed women.

The Saints and 'Bounty Gate' - Sean Payton must go - VIDEO

Goodness me, the New Orleans Saints have landed themselves in quite the juicy pickle. The NFL is basically, at this moment, winding up Popeye style to deliver a debilitating haymaker right in the Saint’s kisser. Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, is this week meeting with his minions to decide the punishment for the Saints ‘bounty’ scheme, where they paid out extra dollars to players who injured and or sidelined opposition players.

After a Mulder and Scully like investigation the NFL has uncovered in a damning report that the Saints paid ‘’$1,500 for a "knockout" shot and $1,000 for a hit that results in a player being carted off the field’’ . The sensational NFL report found between 22 and 27 defensive players on the Saints, as well as former assistant coach Gregg Williams, ‘’maintained a bounty system for inflicting injuries on targeted players.’’ Payments under the scheme doubled or tripled for the playoffs.

The Saints appear to be offering zero resistance thus far, and indeed Williams called his role in the pool a "terrible mistake" when he issued a public apology late last week. Williams, in particular, has a lot to answer for. Williams was the Redskins' defensive coordinator from 2004 to '07. The below hit on Peyton Manning took place in that time-frame, and the good people of Indianapolis would like to talk to Gregg about it.
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There is absolutely no doubt that Sean Payton, as head coach, knew about it. Unbelievably the league first investigated the Saints in early 2010, and issued a ‘cease and desist’ order. Payton knew about the order, as did Williams. Yet, still the bounty hunters plied their trade. New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson stepped in and directed the bounty program be discontinued immediately. However, they persisted. In its damning, positively toxic, release Friday afternoon, the NFL said Payton "was not a direct participant in the funding or administration of the program" but said "he was aware of the allegations, did not make any detailed inquiry or otherwise seek to learn the facts, and failed to stop the bounty program. He never instructed his assistant coaches or players that a bounty program was improper and could not continue."

Here’s where the whole story gets positively murky.



The NFL review of the situation has uncovered a very shady character, hiding in the dark shadows of the Saints guilty conscience for the last six years. The NFL report has uncovered that a convicted felon named Michael Ornstein, on at least four occasions, pledged his own money to the Saints' defense's bounty fund. Ornstein was an NFL executive in charge of marketing but was convicted of fraud amounting to $350,000 in 1996. He reappeared a decade later, as the marketing agent who represented Reggie Bush when he turned pro. It subsequently came out that Ornstein was a central figure in providing Bush with illegal benefits while at USC. Despite this, Ornstein followed Bush to New Orleans and became a member of the Saints' inner circle.

Ornstein, who is disturbingly a close friend and confidant of Sean Payton, pledged $10,000 in 2009 toward knocking an opposing quarterback out of a game. In 2011 Ornstein made two separate contributions towards targeting the quarterback. Unfortunately for Payton, Ornstein made at least one of these damning pledges in email to his buddy, the head coach of the Saints. How does the NFL know this? They have the email!

This all leads to the Superbowl of 2009. It was during that Super Bowl season that Ornstein was allegedly offering $10,000 to players to injure opposing quarterbacks. In addition, the NFL said its research has concluded that the bounty pool amounts peaked in 2009, the year the Saints won the Super Bowl.

Here’s a simple solution.

Take the 2009 Superbowl off the Saints. Award it to the Colts. They were pretty much cheated out of it when the entire refereeing crew ignored the blatant, clear as day block in Manning’s back on the interception return that won it. Take the trophy off them, fine and suspend all players involved in this scandal, and, most of all, fine and ban both Williams and Payton. Saints owner Tom Benson must act and act with conviction to protect whatever dignity the Saints organization is left with, by sacking Payton.

The weight of evidence is heavily against both coaches. These two men are completely indefensible. They encouraged a system where players were maliciously trying to injure other players.

Neither man deserves to coach in the NFL ever again.