NBA Preview

With the start of the NBA season, there are many storylines, players and teams to look out for.

A quick link to the Oye Times website and you will see my thoughts on the upcoming NBA Season.

The preview has been broken up into 3 parts. Part one can be found here and part two here. Part three will go up tomorrow so check back.

Enjoy...

Manny being Manny, eh?

It didn't take long for the Toronto Blue Jays new manager to attract players. In his welcome to the team press conference, new Blue Jays manager John Farrell was asked about the chances, and if he would welcome, the addition of Manny Ramirez. Farrell was on board with adding the former all-star slugger who he coached while with the Red Sox.

Although Farrell got to see the best of Ramirez during his Red Sox days (thanks to performance enhancing drugs?) he might not have followed his career all that closely since he left for the left coast. Ramirez struggled in his year and a half in Los Angeles due to injury and then was traded at the deadline last year back to the American League where he could be the DH and not worry about his defense. He didn't fair any better in the windy city and the White Sox actually dropped out of the playoff race once Manny arrived. So would adding the wild Manny Ramirez into the line-up help Toronto?

It wouldn't be terrible. You wouldn't take at-bats away from Adam Lind or Travis Snider as they could play in the field while Manny is the designated hitter. His outgoing personality would certainly draw fans to the ball park. He would also offer some protection for 2010 home run champ Jose Bautista.

The Blue Jays would only have to offer Manny a one year contract and if he succeeds in Toronto, they could use the "money ball" theory and trade him to a contender in August for draft picks or minor league stars. If he struggles, it is a one year experiment and gives all media types something to write and twitter about.

Would you like to see Manny Ramirez at the Rogers Centre player for the Jays come April?

The Shot (No One) Heard 'Round the World

Coming into the 2010 baseball season, there were a handful of teams that looked like legitimate contenders to be in the World Series. It was no coincidence that a few of those teams also had the highest payrolls.

The Yankees, Red Sox and Rays from the American League, along with the long shot Seattle Mariners who made some bold off season moves. Well, the Mariners never got out of the gate and since only two of the three AL East teams could move on to the post-season it seemed likely the Yankees, who made it to the ALCS would represent the AL in the World Series. It turns out the Texas Rangers, who made the mid-season move to acquire pitching ace Cliff Lee when it looked like they had a shot at making the playoffs, are going to represent the AL this year.

In the National League, there was only one thought from the outset – Philadelphia Phillies. They replaced the aforementioned Cliff Lee with Roy Halladay, kept there power in place with Jayson Werth, Ryan Howard and Clint Utley and although they started the season slow, kept winning games while the rest of the division faded. Then to ensure their dominance, they acquired Roy Oswalt to solidify their pitching staff. Many said that no team has ever rolled out a top three starting pitching staff in the playoffs like the Phillies. Unfortunately for the Phils, the Giants didn’t listen. From clinching a playoff spot on the last day of the season, to some great pitching from their ace Tim Lincecum the Giants, San Francisco will represent the senior circuit and try to win their first World Series since moving to the Bay Area.

So the World Series that everyone wanted to see (Yankees vs. Phillies) didn’t happen and we get the series that no one thought we would get (Rangers vs. Giants) and that most people think might be one of the lowest rated in history.

This World Series reminds me of two World Series that when you think back at, you try to remember who exactly played in that series, who won, and who was the MVP. First was the 1997 series between the Florida Marlins and the Cleveland Indians. This one could be remembered as the first championship for the Marlins and the Indians at the time were trying to win there first title since 1948. Still the amount of anonymity in that series is off the charts. The other series was a Los Angeles based series that the rest of America tuned out. It was the 2002 series between the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the SF Giants. You may remember this one as the “rally monkey” series, but after that the memories are very fuzzy.

Ten years from now, I think we’ll think of this series the same way. It is the Rangers trying to win their first title, similar to the Marlins and the Giants trying to win their first title since 1954 similar to the Indians. We can just thank our lucky stars that there are no rally monkeys this time, just Barry Bonds.

SuperContest - Week 7

If you want to see how the pros really do this, you can follow the Hilton SuperContest on Twitter at @HiltonContest - they give you updates on how the best are doing and they are way better than me.

If you still are trying to make money off of my picks, good luck, but here we go for Week 7. At least I got the Buffalo Bills pick right last week.

Browns +14 over Saints - New Browns QB Colt McCoy looked frisky last week and has played in big games. Could this be another draft steal? The Saints finally showed life last week in crushing the Bucs, but they aren't the same offense that won the Super Bowl. The Browns keep it close.

49ers -3 over Panthers - The 49ers have been very inconsistent but are coming off a big win. The Panthers are one of the worst teams in the NFL and are going back to QB Matt Moore. The Niners should win this game handily, look for big games from Frank Gore and Michael Crabtree.

Bears -3 over Redskins - Another game of two teams that have won games they had no business winning and when that starts happening you have to watch out. Those teams can get on a run and if everything is going right, they gain confidence, which leads to a Super Bowl run. The Bears at home will get this win, but look out Jay Cutler for Brian Orakpo coming off the edge.

Steelers -3 over Dolphins - The Dolphins are coming off a huge road win last week and the Steelers are most pundits "best team at the moment". With the return of Big Ben the Steelers are now a threat on offence to go along with their lock down defence. Dolphins don't have enough weapons to hang.

Ravens -14 over Bills - Ohhhh the poor Bills. The Ravens lost an overtime game last week vs. the Patriots that they should have won and will take out there frustration on the lowly Bills. The Bills can't stop the run, so Ray Rice should have plenty of yards by the end of the day. The Bills can't stop the pass or rush the passer, so Joe Flacco should have lots of time in the pocket to find open receivers. The Bills will continue their push for 0-16

Are you hurt or injured?

Recently there has been a spike in the amount of injuries in all the major professional sports. If you include other forms of professional sporting activities like the Olympics, X-Games and the WNBA, the number of injuries to players is starting to get out of hand.

In some sports like hockey and football you expect injuries. They are physical sports at their core and fans shouldn’t be surprised if a player separates a shoulder or breaks an ankle. When you are having these same injuries in basketball and baseball though, you have to stop and think what is going on. It is not just the minor breaks and sprains anymore though. All sports are dealing with the biggest problem, concussions.

The professional sports leagues have tried to curb the injuries, by introducing rules to protect players (ie no head shots in football, no touch icing in hockey) or mandatory equipment (ie helmets in hockey), but none of these measures seem to be working. Every night in the highlight reels, we as fans get goals, dunks, last second buzzer beaters and injuries. Whether it is something as innocent as Mark Texiera of the Yankees running down the first base line and popping his hamstring, or the more serious like DeSean Jackson of the Philadelphia Eagles getting hit by Dunta Robinson of the Atlanta Falcons which resulted in both players getting concussions.

The leagues are trying to react, but the games are happening still and players are being carted off every night…what can the leagues do? Here are my top 3 suggestions to limit injuries.

1 – make the playing surface bigger: Every sport could use this. By making the playing area bigger you are spreading out the players more, therefore making it more unlikely that you could land a shot like Dunta Robinson because he would have had to chase Jackson down. They wouldn’t have been in the same square meter.

2 – less players on the field: If you don’t want to make the playing surface bigger (taking seats out costs owner $$) than lessen the number of players on the field. Again, this limits the people that can be in the same area and collide violently.

3 – remove equipment: In the “good ‘ol days” hockey goalies played without masks, football helmets were made of leather, baseball players never wore batting helmets. Maybe we don’t hear about some of the serious injuries that happened in those times, but if we made the players feel less like Superman and more like Superman after getting doused with kryptonite, maybe they wouldn’t be so reckless with their bodies.

Watching sports is at its best when we get to see the best players play. This isn’t happening right now because of some serious injuries. The leagues need to find a solution to some of these problems quickly.

Do you have solutions…leave your comments below.

Wayne Rooney, Wayne Rooney, he goes...where?

Another player has taken control of his future and decided that he no longer wants to play with the team that currently employs him. Wayne Rooney of Manchester United has been in a little spat with manager Alex Ferguson since the World Cup finished and this week it came out that Rooney has no intention of signing a new contract with United when his current deal ends after this season.

If you thought LeBron James was a big name free agent, you haven't seen anything yet. Rooney is a prolific goal scorer, footballer of the year and will command the highest transfer fee ever if he moves clubs. Rooney will have every team in Europe vying for his attention, but realistically there are only a handful of clubs that could really aspire to acquire him. If he decides he wants to stay in England the list gets smaller. Unlike LeBron who kept the whole league guessing, Rooney will not get a one hour special on BBC to announce where he will be signing, he will get a week's worth of coverage.

The question that remains to be seen is whether United makes the decision to transfer him, when they know he won't sign back with them. It is the same decision that a few NBA teams had to make - namely the Cleveland Cavaliers with LeBron and the Toronto Raptors with Chris Bosh. Both teams elected to keep their superstars and got nothing in return when they left. The Denver Nuggets are going through the same question this season with Carmelo Anthony, he has said he has no intentions of staying in Denver after the season, so do they try to win this year with him or get something for him?

It is a tough call for management, you have to take the feelings of fans into account, as well as that of the players and of course the financial implications. Although these are tough situations for clubs, there are worse contract situations. The ones where a player holds out similar to those in the NFL this season like Darrelle Revis of the NY Jets or Vincent Jackson of the San Diego Chargers. These are players who have signed long term contracts but don't want to play under the terms any longer because they feel (and lots of time they are correct) that they are worth more money than they are being paid and with careers so short the players feel they need to cash in.

So what does Manchester United do? They have to find a way to settle with him. He has been the face of United and it would be in their best interest to mediate the situation and put him back in a Red Devils jersey next year. If they can't...the hottest ticket will be when Rooney returns to Old Trafford wearing a Manchester City jersey, ouch.

SuperContest - Week 6

This is not going very well...I've already lost count of my record, and it is just very lucky that I actually didn't put up the $1500 to be in this contest.

As many of the sports talk people have mentioned the last couple of weeks the underdogs are taking over. They are something like 16 games over .500 for the season which hurts everyone's pocket.

Well, with all that said, let's see if I can make a move up the imaginary standings. One quick aside - if you didn't see my tweet the other week, I was very impressed with myself on two betting ventures. The first was the over/under baseball contest from Vegas Watch. In this contest you picked 10 teams, and based on the Vegas line, would they go over or under their season win total. Out of the 260 people who entered the contest, I finished 17th and nailed the tie breaker exactly - what will be David Wright's slugging percentage. I guessed that in April! This was a huge improvement over last season when I finished 260th...no joke. The other success was my fantasy baseball league with 15 random strangers who follow the @montreal_expos on twitter. It was a very competitive league and I ended up on top led by strong pitching (Halladay and Jiminez) and some good power up the middle (Tulowitzki and Josh Hamilton). Giving myself a pat on the back.

Now on to the picks...
Chargers -8 over Rams: This is when the Chargers normally heat up. Plus they caved and brought Marcus McNeil back and Vincent Jackson is on his way back as well. All adds up well for the San Diego Super Chargers.

Falcons +3 over Eagles: The Eagles are smoke and mirrors right now. We don't know who will be at QB (Kolb or Vick) and they just traded for a running back who as 12 carries on the season (Jerome Harrison). The Falcons are for real and will separate themselves from the rest of the NFC with this win on the road.

Seahawks +7 over Bears: Even though the Bears are 4-1 they have been so lucky. Last week with only 36 yards passing and 4 interceptions, they managed to win by 17 points! This can't continue and even though the Seahawks are bad, they should be able to keep this one close with their stout defence.

Steelers -14 over Browns: Both teams start QB's for the first time this season, the Steelers bring back Ben Roethlisberger after his suspension and the Browns start rookie Colt McCoy after both Jake Delhomme and Seneca Wallace are ruled out with ankle injuries. The Steelers defence will be too much for the rookie and the infusion of Big Ben into the Steelers offence, this one should be over after the first half.

Raiders +7 over 49ers: The 49ers were supposed to win the division and their owner still believes it is possible. The Raiders were supposed to be epic bad, but have been frisky in all their games and won against the Chargers last weekend relying on defence and special teams. The 49ers haven't shown anything to be favored by this many points, so the Raiders is the pick.

Here is one more just pick for fun...

Bye -3 over Buffalo Bills: The Bills just can't win no matter who they are playing. Unfortunately for them, the #1 pick in the NFL draft isn't clear cut (reminds me of when the Raptors got the first overall pick and chose Bargnani) and they need so much help, but also probably don't want to spend the money. Bad situation all around.

Go Yankees?

It may be blasphemous to say "Go Yankees" around these parts, but for the next month, the Yankees are pretty much the team I will be rooting for during the MLB playoffs.

Why the Yankees you ask when there are so many better options. Well, let me break it down for you.

1 - the National League is not for me. So that obviously rules out both the Phillies and the Giants. Although, I do have a soft spot for Roy Halladay, because of his connections to Toronto, but that is as far as my "brotherly love" goes. The Phillies have been free spenders on the free agent market and have mortgaged their future for the present. If they can bring another championship to Philadelphia, I guess why not. I just won't be cheering for them.

The NL West is probably the division I follow the least in baseball. Besides playing late games and therefore never really being able to watch them on TV and missing their highlights constantly, the teams are blah. The Giants and Dodgers would still be better served playing in New York. The Giants don't have much going for them besides Tim Lincecum and Pablo Sandoval so why would I cheer form. Besides that fact, they have little to no chance of beating the Phillies, so why would I waste my time cheering for four games.

2 - The Rangers and Rays are both the up and comers of the American League and while it might be fun to cheer for them for awhile, as a fan I will just get frustrated watching their young players try and make it through the post-season.

Also, the Rays "fans" bug me. They averaged a little over 20,000 fans per game which ranked 22nd out of 30th in the Majors. Now, they are pulling back tarps to uncover seats in the highest parts of the stadium to accommodate the new support. If they didn't start the games at 5pm, they might not average 10,000 fans as all the seniors in Tampa need to head home early for the news.

The Rangers have tried to be the Yankees for as long as I remember. Overpaying for over the hill and mediocre talent and then they are shocked when they finish last in the AL West. This year they finally made a trade that made sense when they acquired Cliff Lee and hit the jackpot when they poached Josh Hamilton from the Rays, but even there recent all-stars like Michael Young have fallen on hard times. It will be nice if they win a playoff series so they can say they have done it, but other than that, the Rangers aren't a team I will cheer for.

3 - So that leaves the Yankees. It makes sense because they are in the AL East and if the World Series champs come from the division of the Jays, at least I can say we beat the best head to head this year and it gives me hope for the future.

Also, the Yankees have tradition like no other franchise. When you have won 27 World Championships, you might not need another one in the trophy case, but why not build up the resume a little further.

This season, the Yankees have had added motivation of losing key members of the organization. The most prominent being owner George "the boss" Steinbrenner and long time voice of Yankee stadium announcer Bob Sheppard. Although most of the current players don't have any connections to Steinbrenner or Sheppard they know how much it means to the fans and the rest of the organization to see the two of them off as winners.

So there it is, I'm going to join Spike Lee, Jay-Z and Billy Crystal and don the Yankees cap for the next month...

The Most Unimpressive Record Ever

Yesterday in the National Football League wasn't a good one for the gambling set. Many underdogs won, there is parity all around and with so many injuries you can't tell which team is going to be good from week to week.

For the first time in 40 years the NFL doesn't have a team that is 4-0. What does this mean - well, for starters, the 1972 Dolphins get to celebrate again. As the only undefeated team in NFL history, the players from the 1972 Dolphins celebrate annually with a bottle of champagne when the last undefeated team falls and there is no longer a threat to their record.

There have been many close calls for the Dolphins alum recently, most notably the Patriots from 2007 who went 18-0, but lost in the Super Bowl to the NY Giants. Another close call, was the 2009 Indianapolis Colts who were 14-0, had clinched a playoff berth, and decided to rest starters, so they ended up losing their last two games. In fact, the 2009 season marked the first time in history where two teams started 13-0 (Colts and Saints).

For all the close calls, especially recently, does it matter if a team really goes undefeated for a season as long as they win the championship? Apparently not for both the Colts or Saints, who put winning the Super Bowl ahead of the perfect season. If this is true, then does this record of being the only undefeated team in NFL history really matter anymore? Should the 1972 Dolphins be indulged year after year with news stories when the last of the undefeated teams lose, like the KC Chiefs did on Sunday?

With the longer season, more injuries and obviously more parity, the undefeated season is a thing of the past in the NFL. As a fan we can no longer expect that this will happen again and although, this was once an impressive record to hold, it is no longer something to hold up as a be all and all of football superiority.

In other sports, an undefeated season is still something to be proud of. Whether it is men's or women's college basketball a approx record of 40-0 is needed to win the championship. In NCAA men's college football a record of 13-0 would get you the BCS National title and with all of the rivalries and expectations placed on teams of "boys", small errors happen regularly that can cost teams a game each Saturday.

Obviously, the baseball, hockey and basketball seasons are too long for an undefeated season. One record that might be approached this year in though, is the best record ever for a basketball team. The 1995-96 Chicago Bulls had 72 wins and only 10 losses. The new "big three" in Miami of LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh will do their best to get 73 wins. If they don't though, it won't be considered a big deal, unless they don't win the championship.

Winning the last game matters, not winning them all.