Links of the Day: Last ones in January

The top 10 fantasy baseball flukes of 2007. It’s never too early to start getting ready for fantasy baseball. (Baseball Mastermind)

Michael Beasley is simply amazing, and also delivered on a guarantee. (Larry Brown Sports)

Darren Rovell brings up an excellent point — Barry Bonds has probably hit his last home run, and no one knows where the ball is or who owns it. (Sports Biz with Darren Rovell)

The Dan Patrick Show has a new website affiliated with SI (DanPatrick.com). It’s better than the old one, but there’s still more they can do. (Palaver)

The Cavaliers should really hire hecklers to make fun of LeBron James on the road, heckling LeBron just seems to make him play better. (We Suck at Sports)

Will Leitch learns that there aren’t many Arizona Cardinals fans in Arizona. (The Sporting Blog)

Bloggers are no longer alone in mocking Barbaro

In the sports blogosphere, making fun of Barbaro and his fans and supporters is nothing new at all. We’ve been doing it for over a year now.

But until today, I hadn’t seen anyone in the mainstream media make fun of the Barbaro phenomenon. Enter T.J. Simers:

As far as I’m concerned, this is Super Bowl 2 since that great courageous warrior, Barbaro, kicked it. The Indianapolis win over Chicago a year ago in Super Bowl 1 is a little hollow knowing the big fella never got the chance to neigh with approval.

Later:

There’s no question I was off my game Tuesday at Super Bowl media day, forced to work by unsympathetic editors on the one-year anniversary when Barbaro officially went four hoofs up.

T.J. Simers’ columns range from hilarious to awful. This one was a home run.

60 days ’til Opening Day

There are 60 days left until that best day of the year, MLB Opening Day.

I passed on writing about Roger Maris and 61 yesterday, so I figured I’d do the obvious one here — Babe Ruth for a long time held the home run record with 60 home runs.

What’s more amazing to me about that, is Ruth had more home runs himself than any of the other American League teams. I think it’s safe to say that won’t happen again.

61 days left ’til Opening Day

There are 61 days left until that best day of the year, MLB Opening Day.

61 is also the number of hits Adam Kennedy got in 2007, his lowest total since his rookie season.

Of course, Kennedy will always be remembered by Angels fans for his three homers in Game 5 of the 2002 ALCS, which helped the Halos win the game and clinch their first and only World Series berth in franchise history.

Kennedy had to be the least likely Angel to hit three homers that day, since he had hit only seven dingers all year long.

2007 wasn’t nearly as good for Kennedy. He was horrible while he played (.219/.282/.290 for an OPS+ of 50), and missed a good chunk of the year due to a knee injury.

Recently, St. Louis manager Tony La Russa was upset at him for missing the Cardinals’ winter fan festival, and also said he wouldn’t be as patient with Kennedy this season:

“I’m disappointed he’s not here,” La Russa said. “This is a statement we make to our fans: ‘Thanks for coming out,’ and he’s not here.

“In the first three months of the season, his playing time was extensive when he really wasn’t productive. I really gave him the benefit of the doubt a lot, to the detriment of a guy like Aaron Miles.

“This year, I don’t think we have that margin. Adam is a key guy in that mix so I expect him to return to his winning-player form.”

Here’s hoping Kennedy rebounds. Even if he doesn’t, Angel fans should always remember Kennedy lovingly.

Why isn’t Tim Floyd punished?

First let me clarify one thing — I don’t think any college basketball player should ever be suspended for receiving free tickets to an NBA game. I think the NCAA is too strict on what student-athletes can get as it is, and basketball tickets to one game isn’t that big of a deal.

So I don’t think O.J. Mayo should have been suspended for six games for taking tickets from Carmelo Anthony.

The NCAA did think so, however. At least until Tim Floyd told them it was his fault, then they changed their mind. From the LA Times:

USC Coach Tim Floyd’s admission of complicity in the acceptance of free Lakers tickets by O.J. Mayo appears to have spared the freshman guard a suspension of at least six games, according to information released by the NCAA on Saturday.

That bothers me, because I can’t find any report saying Tim Floyd was punished or reprimanded.

If the NCAA thought taking the tickets was a big enough deal to suspend a player for six games (over 20% of the season), then surely, a coach telling the player it’s OK is also a big deal, right? Why wasn’t Tim Floyd fined or suspended?

This sets up a dangerous precedent for the NCAA — it’s acceptable for college athletes to take free gifts, as long as their coaches sign off on it first, whether it’s against the rules or not. There’s also the possibility that coaches can just say afterwards they allowed it, whether the player checked with them or not.

Floyd issued contradictory statements about his involvement, at first saying he had no idea how Mayo obtained the tickets and then saying he had cleared Mayo to take the tickets from Anthony since the players were longtime friends.

It sounds like Floyd may have avoided a suspension to his star player by putting the blame on himself, even if it wasn’t warranted. A dangerous precedent indeed.

(Hat-tip to Bruins Nation.)

62 days’ til Opening Day

UPDATE: Video should work now. Sorry.

There’s 62 days left until that best day of the year, MLB Opening Day.

62 is also the number of RBI Troy Glaus had in 2007. That number is lower than usual because Glaus missed a lot of time due to injury, he still had an OPS+ of 120.

Of course, me and fellow Angel fans will always remember Glaus for his time as an Angel, including driving in the game-winning runs in that epic Game 6 of the 2002 World Series, where the Angels were down 5-0 heading to the bottom of the seventh and still won.

Glaus is on the St. Louis Cardinals now, recently traded there. Look for Glaus to hit pinatas in St. Louis backyards now instead of Toronto.

An NBA rain delay

I was at the Lakers-Cavaliers game on Sunday, and witnessed NBA history.

The game was delayed for 12 minutes because the Staples’ Center roof was leaking. The game was essentially delayed because of rain — a rain delay, just like baseball.

The game was delayed for 12 minutes late in the first quarter because of a small leak in the Staples Center roof. It resulted in a steady flow of drops falling under the north basket — out of bounds but less than a foot from the baseline.

Arena spokesman Michael Roth said a roofing company inspected the roof Sunday morning and when the inspectors were finished, they removed their rain gear and left it along with some equipment on a catwalk over the north basket. The leak came from the clothing and equipment through slats in the catwalk.

I can’t imagine there’s been too many rain delays in the history of the NBA (it is an indoor sport after all). It sounds like it was an internal leak, not an external leak, but don’t ruin my fun. It was a rain delay, dammit. The inspectors wouldn’t have been there without the rain, right?

I’ve been to dozens more baseball games than basketball games, but have never seen a baseball rain delay with the exception of winter ball in little league. This is Southern California after all — it doesn’t rain all that much. But to get a rain delay in an NBA game — that’s history.

Excellent work, inspection crew.

63 days ’til Opening Day

There’s 63 days left until that best day of the year, MLB Opening Day.

63 is also the number of runs scored by Frank Thomas in 2007. The Big Hurt had a solid year in Toronto, but since the Blue Jays don’t get all that much attention, this is what many people will remember about Thomas in Toronto in 2007:

I thought it was hilarious. But a lot of people thought it was controversial. Here’s what the president of the Television Bureau of Canada had to say:

Why isn’t the Super Bowl today?

I never understood why there is a two-week break in between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl. The only advantage I can think of from the NFL’s perspective is that there would be more hype surrounding the game.

But do you really think the TV ratings would be any lower if the Super Bowl was today instead of next week? If anything, the longer break might let some people forget about the big game.No football, on a Sunday? How is that acceptable before the end of the season?

64 days ’til Opening Day

There’s 64 days left until that best day of the year, MLB Opening Day.

64 is also the number of stolen bases Juan Pierre had in 2007.

The problem is, that’s the only thing Pierre does well. Pierre is often overhyped as a good, valuable contributor to a baseball team. But he’s horrible.

Leadoff men are supposed to get on base, right? His OBP of .331 was 55th out of 75 eligible batters in the National League. Pierre’s supporters will say he got nearly 200 hits, but he also had the third most outs in the league. And in slugging percentage, Pierre was 71st out of 75.

The bad news for Dodgers fans? He’s 30, and his speed is likely to start declining soon. And he has three years and $28.5 million left on his contract. Ouch.