Things I think
LeBron James was fouled, but the Cavs can't wait to take the last shot. Go for the throat! … Danica Patrick will win an IndyCar Series race but not this weekend's Indy 500. … The Indians, Tigers, Angels and Red Sox will be the playoff teams in the American League. … Charlie Frye will be the starting quarterback for the Browns, and Brady Quinn will sit unless Frye and Derek Anderson get hurt. … Jamal Lewis is an ancient 27 and will show it this season. … Kent State football will make a run at the MAC title game. … Jimmie Johnson will win the Coca-Cola 600 because he does just about every year. … Expect the David Beckham talk to pick up after the holiday. His arrival to MLS is two months away. … The Yankees are done, and Joe Torre will not survive the season.
Ottawa will beat Anaheim in six games to win the Stanley Cup. … David Stern had to cringe when his next two potential superstars ended up in the Northwest with the Trail Blazers and SuperSonics winning the draft lottery's top two spots. Greg Oden will go to the Blazers and Kevin Durant to the Sonics. … Will anybody see them play? … Despite all of the offseason moves, the Patriots will not win the Super Bowl. No team has bought the Super Bowl, like you can a World Series. … Barry Bonds won't break Aaron's mark until late July at the earliest. … C.C. Sabathia will sign with the Dodgers after next season for $140 million over seven seasons. … Travis Hafner will sign a contract with the Indians, something like $75 million for five years, maybe more. … USC despite having so many players back will not win the BCS title. … Tiger Woods will win the U.S. Open next month at Oakmont C.C., near Pittsburgh. … Wait until you all see the changes to that great course.
May 25th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Let C.C. go. If we can learn anything from the Yankees, it's that a $225-million payroll guarantees zilch. The Tribe can spend wisely and win the AL, and find a suitable hitter to replace Hafner for half the cost. He's done little this year, and yet they're winning. But please, no more washed up pitching retreads (Hernandez, Fultz, et al). Our farm arms are superior. Time to trust the in-house development; otherwise, why bother?
If Frye starts, Browns fans can expect another long, dull campaign.
May 25th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
Let C.C. go??? For NOTHING??????? And what does any of this have to do with the Yankees' payroll??? Zero, that's what.
Since it's a foregone conclusion he's gone, trade the guy NOW. Get some value for him.
Hey, I have a question here: Why does a sunglasses-wearing car racing broad receive the honor of being the first photo to appear in this blog?
Maybe if I actually attended a NASCAR race, I'd finally "get" the obsession so many people seem to have with it. Do they race in Ohio? How much are tickets? Would I need to bring my own Confederate flag, or do they sell them next to the cotton candy at the concession stand?
May 26th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
I think they're next to the Buckwheat t-shirts, Alan. I'd much rather see the Tribe try to sign C.C. than Hafner. Maybe they could trade one of the solid, mid-level types like Westbrook or Byrd, bring up Carmona for good and use that extra 8 mill or so for C.C.
May 26th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
Toronto signs B.J. Ryan for, what?…$11 mill. a year? NY signs Pavano for outrageous dollars. Yeah, even KC signs that stiff pitcher for $11-mill. a year. And where has it gotten ANY of them? LA signed Darren Dreifort for $11-mill. a year, and regretted it from the word go. EVERY SINGLE TEAM that signs ONE player to these insane contracts wants to DUMP them shortly thereafter (i.e. White Sox with Belle, Phils with Thome, Texas and NY w/ A-Rod, NY with Giambi, Red Sox w/ Manny…need I got on??) The enormous contracts are worthless; they are franchise-killers, payroll disrupters, and can set a team's progress back for years. How many playoff appearances did A-Rod's quarter-billion dollars get for Texas? It's time for the dilusional owners to wake up and put an end to this spending madness.
May 27th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Ryan, what in the world does any of what you just said have to do with Sabathia? Assorted hitters? A relief pitcher? Pavano? The Yankees?
What in the world are you talking about with respect to being "franchise-killers" and "payroll distrupters" and and "can set a team's progress back for years?" Unless you're talking about Danny Ferry in his roles as both player and general manager, WHAT???????
There's no salary cap in baseball. Players and bad contracts can always be dumped, and there's no need for franchises to have their own salary cap gurus with both a Chinese abacus and a NASA supercomputer trying to figure out terms of deals.
Sabathia is a top-quality starter that, if baseball pitching history is any indication, has not even reached the prime of his career. Dynamite starting pitching is incredibly, incredibly hard to find. Don't believe me? Then why was Jeremy Sowers, last season's lefty golden prodigy being nurtured for numbers of innings pitched, one game away from being sent back down to the minors?
The Indians' braintrust knows, or should know, what they have in Sabathia. Either give his agent whatever he wants right here and right now, or obtain value for him without delay, even if they're just "prospects." The longer they wait, the less they can get. To let Sabathia walk away for absolutely nothing would be absolutely criminal.
And I'm still waiting to read the answer as to why What's-Her-Face was deemed worthy of photo recognition in this blog.
May 27th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Dear Ron,
Need anyone say anything more? Your blog has been hijacked and ruined by the rantings of an insane person. Please fix the A.T. problem, if you expect others to come here and comment on YOUR takes.
May 27th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
O.K., then I'm commenting strictly on Ron's take as opposed to your cerebral musings.
A premium lefty starter is a rarity and is incredibly valuable to every single MLB franchise. There is a way to stop Ron's crystal ball from permitting yet another sports star from taking the first bus out of the U.S. Census Bureau's poorest city in America.
I disagree that the Yankees are done and that Torre is done. So long as there's a wild card, they're not done and he's not done.
I agree that David Stern cringed when Oden and Durant were selected to go to the Pacific Northwest. I think this now absolutely guarantees that James is three years away from New York, if it's the very last thing Stern does over his dead body.
I agree that Hafner will re-up with Cleveland for competitive money.
I neither agree nor disagree with the Ottawa-Anaheim series prediction… Paul Stanley of KISS has a Cup? Sorry, I don't get the connection.
I agree that Woods will win the U.S. Open.
It is irrelevant that James was fouled. Hughes ended up with a wide-open six-foot shot. James would have clanged one of two from the line. Hughes had two sure points that a blindfolded Paul Mokeski could have made from his knees.
I disagree that Quinn spends the season on the bench, regardless if neither Frye nor Anderson get hurt. Quinn might not start the season, but he'll most definitely finish it.
I agree that Jamal Lewis' best days are already behind him.
I neither agree nor disagree that Kent State will challenge for the MAC title…Kent State has a football team? Much like LeBron's decision not to sign Newble's petition, I require more information.
I disagree that USC will not win the BCS, with the proviso allowing me to withdraw my prediction if the NCAA deflates USC by putting the hammer down on USC for turning a blind eye to Chris Webber's…uh, I mean Reggie Bush's shenanigans.
I might agree that Danica Patrick will win an IndyCar Series race, but I don't know what an IndyCar Series race is.
Along the same lines, I might agree that Jimmie Johnson will win the Coca-Cola 600, but I don't know why a former football coach is competing to see who can drink 600 soft drinks at one sitting, like that Asian guy that's always winning those hot dog eating contests. I would think Johnson has more productive things to do with his time.
I agree that the David Beckham talk will pick up after the holiday, and will only serve to prove once and for all that soccer in this country will never be more than a soccer mom's game.
I disagree that the Patriots will not win the Super Bowl, with the proviso allowing me to withdraw my prediction if they have serious injuries.
I agree that Bonds won't break the record until late July, at earliest.
I disagree that the Indians will be one of the American League playoff teams.
I neither agree nor disagree I will see great changes in the golf course outside Pittsburgh, as I think watching somebody else play golf is boring. Although, I did get two free passes to the Memorial. So if somebody that's reading this blog wants to stalk Tiger, let me know. They're yours.
October 29th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
eric…
Definitely, the most sensible thing i have seen in a long time….