A letter to SI’s Jon Heyman

Before I brush my teeth or eat breakfast in the morning, I always visit firejoemorgan.com to see what new buffoonery in the sports-writing world they have espoused.

This morning, when I checked, I was not disappointed. Maybe it was because I hadn’t eaten yet, or maybe it was because I was especially on edge today, but I got so wound up over what Jon Heyman had to say that I decided to write him a letter. For those of you unfamiliar with Jon Heyman, the link is a link to all of the times the fine folks at firejoemorgan have found it worth their time to write about Heyman. You will quickly understand how my bubble burst this morning.

AGHHH! I wanted to post my letter here, but since I sent it from SI’s website and forgot to copy what I sent, I don’t have it any more!

At any rate here is what Heyman said that had me so worked up:

“The Red Sox disproved the old “crapshoot” theory espoused by a lot of folks who keep losing in the playoffs. The best team won in 2007, and that is no fluke.”

Did Heyman forget that the freaking CARDINALS WON LAST YEAR!!!! The 83-win Cardinals!!! Has he forgotten that Wild Card teams won the World Series from 2002-2004! Is he willing to overlook many years of data that proves that yes, the playoffs are pretty much a crap-shoot. And I’ll be the first to say that the 2002 Angels were not the best team that season.

Because the best team (and yeah, the Red Sox were the best team this year) wins in one year, that doesn’t mean the best team always wins. Anyone can win a five or seven game series. Nothing makes me angrier than when writers like Heyman use one convenient example to “prove” their points. It happens all the time and it’s amazing how many people actually buy it.

Links of the Day

A late deal has been reached so ESPN can show Saturday’s big Oregon-Arizona State game nationally. This is great news, for football fans, and for the Pac-10. (Awful Announcing)

The Broncos lost that Monday Night game more than Brett Favre won it. (Signal to Noise)

Is the NFL withholding evidence about how dangerous football is? I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again — If I ever have a son, I’ll strongly discourage him from playing football. The severe injury risk is so much higher there than elsewhere. (The Big Lead)

An excellent compilation of photos from the Red Sox’ victory parade. (Hugging Harold Reynolds)

Hippos are invading your backyard pool. (Larry Brown Sports)

Why do we hate A-Rod so much?

When it was reported that Alex Rodriguez was opting out of his contract during the final game of the World Series on Sunday night, fans and media everywhere went nuts. Many went on a tirade against A-Rod.

But why?

If you had a well-paying job and had a three-year contract, but were unhappy there and another company was offering you a longer contract for more money, wouldn’t you leave? If you said no, you’re probably lying.

I have every reason to be an A-Rod hater. For most of his career, A-Rod has played on a division rival of my favorite team, and for the rest of his career, A-Rod has been a Yankee, a team everyone is supposed to hate.

I don’t hate him. I don’t love him. But I don’t have the anger towards him that so many do.

Steve Hulkower at Bugs & Cranks had the best take on this I’ve seen yet.

Everything that people in the media knock Alex Rodriguez for is a quality existent in scores of other baseball players, but it is only Alex who has his name tarnished. Fans want their players to do everything humanly possible to help their team win, but when Alex does it he is chastised. The amount of players who seek bigger and better contracts at every opportunity are countless, but Alex is slammed for doing so. What makes this worse, is when Alex is slammed for common behavior among baseball players, people divert this bias into other parts of his game and slam him on topics that simply aren’t even true.

A-Rod has never done been involved in any bad off-the-field incidents. He’s never pulled a T.O. or Kobe and ripped his organization and teammates. He’s no saint, but he’s not worth this much hate either. He’s not linked to HGH or steroids like baseball’s other most-hated player, Barry Bonds.

If you hate the timing of the announcement, hate his agent Scott Boras first, then hate A-Rod. I highly doubt it was A-Rod’s idea for it to come out that way. You could also hate Fox and ESPN for hyping the story up as much as they did — they certainly could’ve focused more on the Red Sox winning the World Series.

The World Series is a tad bit more important than a player saying he’s going to be a free agent.

Bill Plaschke is a hypocrite, again

A couple of months ago, I ripped LA Times columnist Bill Plaschke for saying the Dodgers should give up on their season and go into a youth movement. Apparently, he’s already forgotten about that.

From Bill Plaschke’s Oct. 29 column:

Seventeen of the 23 players who played for the Red Sox in this series came from somewhere else.

This was a team not grown and nurtured, but bought and bartered.

And (parentheses mine):

(Dodgers’ owner Frank) McCourt and (Angels’ owner Arte) Moreno should be ready to talk about it now. They should call Rodriguez’s agent, Scott Boras, immediately.

They need to prove that all this talk about grooming young players aren’t just code words for keeping the payroll low.

Let’s compare all of that to what he wrote back in August:

If you want to cheer, you must first groan.

If you want to enjoy, you must first endure.

If you want to eventually celebrate the successes of the best collection of young Dodgers talent in the last decade, you must first watch them go splat.

There’s a reason they don’t call it growing joys.

Do you play your young guys and endure growing pains or go out and sign proven players? I’m confused.

The Red Sox are the new Yankees

In recent times, no baseball team has been hated, talked about or followed as much as the Yankees. As of Sunday night, that’s going to change. The Red Sox winning the World Series also means something else.

The Red Sox are the new Yankees.

The Red Sox are the only team this decade to win more than one World Series. They have built a massive following of fans, bandwagoners, media hyping them and people who hate them. Their payroll has risen significantly over the years, and they may pass the Yankees next year since Alex Rodriguez has opted out of his huge contract with New York.

The Red Sox are the team to beat now. What a crazy world we live in.

Just 153 days until baseball season starts again.

(I got the photo here.)

Yet another UCLA loss to a bad team

For those of you not following UCLA football this season, I don’t blame you. I envy you.

For the third time this season, the Bruins got blown out by an inferior opponent. Yes, this is a team with loads of talent, 20 returning starters and a team that was ranked as high as #10 early on in the year. Instead, UCLA is 5-3, and 4-3 against teams they were favored against.

I wish I was surprised, but I’m not.

I wanted to believe that UCLA had turned the corner after the win over Cal last week, but I’ve learned that Karl Dorrell-led teams don’t ever turn corners, they just go back and forth between playing well and playing horribly.

Beating Washington State should’ve been easy — the Cougars’ only other wins this season were against San Diego State and Idaho.

UCLA has one good win this year (Cal) and three bad losses (Utah, Notre Dame and Washington State) — that’s not the sign of a well-run team.

Stewart Mandel, one of the best college football writers in the country, sums it up better than me:

UCLA is officially the worst-coached team in America. OK, Karl Dorrell — I give up. You win. I’ve given you every opportunity to avoid this designation … I included your team in my preseason rankings because I figured even you couldn’t screw up a team with 20 returning starters and an ultra-loaded defense. But I’ve gotta hand it to you, Karl — you’ve outdone yourself this time.

I can’t argue with Mandel — I certainly can’t think of a worse coach.

Sports this weekend

Last night’s World Series game was tough. I’m not even a true Rockies fan (just a bandwagoner) and it was still painful.

As sports fans, we really need the Rockies to comeback. The Red Sox winning another World Series would turn them into a Yankee-type franchise. And we certainly don’t need one of those.

Here’s your weekend sports listings. As usual, only sports I follow are included (no auto racing, sorry). All times are Pacific and I list only games on national TV networks.

FRIDAY

4:30 p.m., exhibition, Cavaliers vs. Celtics (ESPN)
6 p.m., Boise State at Fresno State (ESPN2)
7 p.m., exhibition, Lakers vs. Kings (ESPN)

SATURDAY

9 a.m., #7 West Virginia at Rutgers OR Colorado at Texas Tech (ABC)
9 a.m., Michigan State at Iowa (ESPN2)
9 a.m., Indiana at Wisconsin (BTN)
9 a.m., Ball State at Illinois (BTN)
9 a.m., Northwestern at Purdue (BTN)
10 a.m., Delaware at Navy (CSTV)

12 p.m., #12 USC at #5 Oregon (FSN)
12 p.m., Arizona at Washington (Fox College Sports)

Genarlow Wilson to be released from prison

The Georgia Supreme Court has ordered the release of Genarlow Wilson.

If you hadn’t heard of Genarlow Wilson before now, read this story ESPN did on it a while back. When he was 17, Wilson had consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old, and was acquitted of rape, but was sentenced to 10 years in prison anyway.

You read that right — because of what seems like a loophole in Georgia law, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for having consensual oral sex (everything I’ve read seems to indicate that both sides were sure it was consensual).

I’m no legal expert, so I don’t really understand how he was released now, but I don’t care. He’s out of prison, finally. As the We Suck at Sports blog said — Let us all join in a standing slow clap for Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears and the other 3 Justices who ruled in Genarlow’s favor.

Maybe BC is for real after all

Boston College 14, Virginia Tech 10

So all that talk about BC going to Blacksburg and losing didn’t exactly happen.

Great teams know how to execute at the end of games, and BC did just that. Matt Ryan was great at scrambling around, taking all the time his offensive line would give him, which was a lot, because not only did BC’s offensive line play great at the end, but Virginia Tech only rushed three or four guys on some of those plays in the last two drives.

Are they a legit #2 now? If they’re not, they’re pretty darn close.

BC still has a tough schedule remaining, as all four teams have winning records (Florida State, at Maryland, at Clemson, Miami). None of them are nearly tough as a game at Virginia Tech though.

And no, I don’t want to talk about the World Series right now.

(I got the photo here.)

Don’t give up hope yet

I know the Red Sox just won 13-1.

The previous time the Colorado Rockies had lost a game, they won their next 10.

Every time a World Series team has won Game 1 by 11 runs or more, they went on to the lose the series.

The last time Josh Beckett won Game 1 of a series, his team lost the next 3.

Today is a new day. What happened in Game 1 doesn’t matter now. This is baseball. Teams lose badly one day and win the next day all the time.

Anything can happen.

Baseball needs the Rockies to win the World Series. A small-market team with a low payroll winning the World Series would continue to give hope to all those teams that haven’t won a World Series in a long time. Eight different World Series winners in eight years would have baseball continue in the parity that helps the sport, giving fans everywhere hope. The Red Sox winning the World Series would kill that hope, as more fans would think you have to have a huge payroll and be in a big market to win it all.

13-1 is a slaughter, but it’s just one game. This series isn’t over yet.

(I got the photo here.)