Some excitement in the sports world

Can't tell if I'm more excited about the pending World Series or the start of the new season for our hometown Washington Wizards.


WORLD SERIES


As a baseball fan, I'm very excited and intrigued by the Yankees-Phillies match up.  Traditionally, I root for the National League in the Series, and even though that means supporting a team I genuinely dislike in the Phillies having the Yankees represent the AL makes it a no-brainer.


A quick analysis of the Series - and especially the pitching - reveals two juicy pieces of info.


One, the Phillies have better starting pitching; I like having Pedro Martinez pitch game two and having Cliff Lee and Pedro start 4 or 5 games in a seven-game series.  I also have no faith in the Yankees' A.J. Burnett.


Two, that advantage is negated by left-hander CC Sabathia, who could start three times if the World Series goes seven games.


The Phils are very vulnerable to lefties, so starting pitching could be a wash when comparing the two teams.


The bullpen  match up is interesting too, but with the quality of starting pitching one wonders if anyone other than Mariano Rivera will come in for New York.  The middle relievers for the Yankees have looked unsteady in the post season while the Phillies' relievers - even Brad Lidge - have looked good.


Even though I want the Phillies to defeat the Yankees if CC Sabathia outpitches Cliff Lee - and controls Ryan Howard and company - in games 1 and 4 New York will likely win their 27th championship.  But I expect Pedro and Cole Hamels to outpitch Burnett and Andy Petite - so if Sabathia faulters the Phillies could become the first repeat National Champion since the Big Red Machine in the middle-70s.


Wizards Start 1-0


I got really excited watching the Wizards defeat Dallas last night.  Gilbert Arenas looked fantastic, with no-ill effects from his two knee surgeries.  He drove and dished, drove and finished, hit long range and mid range jumpers, and looked once again like one of the NBA's elite level talents.


But this entire squad is talented.  Randy Foye had a great game, hitting jump shots and taking it to the rack, and finished in double figures.  He and Mike Miller, who had 8 rebounds, are a significant infusion of talent for the Wizards; hard to believe Washington gave up stiffs like Etan Thomas and Darius Songaila in exchange for those two.  Third newcomer Fabricio Oberto had a great fourth quarter and helped the Wizards put the game away with two big offensive boards, a nice put-back, and some nifty give-and-goes with Arenas.


And I haven't even mentioned Andray Blatche, who hit a variety of shots - everything from dunks to 17-18 footers - and looked confident and focused on his way to 16 points off the bench.


Finally, my man Brendan Haywood finished with 7 (on only 3 of 10 shooting) and 10 boards.  Offensively, he carried the Zards for a stretch in the first half when Arenas was primarily dishing. Defensively, he was key on rotations and on the boards.  New coach Flip Sanders rewarded that effort by giving B-Hay 38 minutes.


It was only one game, but this team looks like it should be one of the elite teams, along with Boston, Cleveland and Orlando, in the Eastern Conference.  Go Wizards!

We're all Phillies Fans Now

Go Phillies!


You have to admire athletes like Jeter and Rivera, classy players who perform and carry themselves well.  But for every Jeter on the Yankees there's a A-Rod, for every Rivera there's a Steinbrenner, and the Yankees are still the swaggering corporation that you have to root against.  Go Phils!


Hoops


In his column today, Michael Wilbon riffs on a topic I blogged about a few weeks ago - the hoops oligarchy known as the NBA. 

Bad News for Wizards

Terrible news this morning regarding NBA All-sTar Heel Antawn Jamison. His shoulder injury is not expected to heal as quickly as originally expected, and 'Twan will likely miss a few games to star the season.

Though I hadn't blogged about them yet, I am looking forward to the start of the Wizards' season with Arenas, Jamison, favorite-NBA-player Brendan Haywood and Butler expected back on the floor. But this team seems incredibly snake bitten.

BTW - don't forget to vote for your favorite Wizards player, too.

Hard to remember that "just" three seasons ago, prior to Arenas' first injury, the 'Zards had the best record in the Eastern Conference.

Of course, I'm also excited about watching the '09 Heels play on the next level, especially Danny Green and Tyler Hansbrough. I hope to StubHub - have had great luck using StubHub to Wizards games - tickets when Cleveland and Indiana come to town. And I imagine I will be the only fan in the building (besides Evan) primarily there to watch the Cavaliers second most famous due, Danny Green and Jawad Williams.

At least basketball season starts soon

For three quarters I was seduced into thinking that Carolina's football season could be salvaged. The Heels were up 18 points, FSU was stopping themselves with penalties and turnovers, and Carolina was driving.

But just like that, after a terrible decision by T.J. Yates turned into an FSU interception at the Carolina 2-yard line, the Heels imploded. On the next play the Noles scored on a 98-yard touchdown pass, and Carolina lost their confidence. It was as if after that score the Heels collectively thought - 'oh no, this is national power FSU we're playing - and we're a BASKETBALL school' forgetting that they were playing a mediocre Seminole team, a team the Heels should have put away.

Quarterback Yates had a terrible second half, but despite his interception on the Heels' ensuing possession they quickly marched down the field into the red zone. Carolina had efficiently gained large gobs of yardage by running outside. But as soon as they got into scoring position the Heels ran two inside running plays and one pass play that led to another Yates incompletion. So instead of getting seven the Heels had to settle for three points and a slight 4-point lead, one FSU quickly erased when Christian Ponder found a wide-open receiver in the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown.

It was a total meltdown by the Heels. The secondary gave up big plays (Ponder completed his last 16 passes), the defensive line had a good first quarter of pressure but took the last 3 quarters off, Yates was terrible in the second half, and the offensive play calling and decision making yo-yoed from aggressive and exciting to stupid and mystifying.

Just a terrible loss and a terrible second-half performance. But as bad as losing is, it was made worse by losing THAT particular game: a nationally-televised Thursday night contest, Lawrence Taylor's return to Chapel Hill after a 29-year absence, a win over a respected opponent to reenergize the team. All those factors made the second-half collapse all that much worse.

I hope this team can recover, but they next play at Virginia Tech before taking on Duke for homecoming on November 7th.

At least the Yankees lost last night. And the first basketball game is in 17 days, on November 6th!

Playoffs

Baseball Playoffs

Though long, as long as 5 hours in one case, the baseball playoffs have been pretty entertaining, full of clutch plays, miscues, good pitching and loads and loads of drama.

As much as I loathed the outcome, Saturday night’s Yankees win was a classic. And it was good to finally see the Angels break through tonight. I thought they were definitely toast this afternoon, especially after Bobby Abreu got thrown out by whom else – Derek Jeter – trying to stretch a leadoff double into a triple.

But Joe Girardi will be mercilessly second guessed for taking out Robertson and bringing in Aceves, with TWO outs and nobody on in the 11th. Aceves gave up back-to-back hits, a single and a long double, and gave the Angels life in the process.

One random note: I think Joe Buck and Tim McCarver are doing a great job announcing this series.

I know he can sound smug, but I think in general McCarver is a pretty fine analyst. He sure has some juju over Mariano Rivera. In 2001, he practically predicted that a blooper against Rivera could drop with the Yankees playing the infield in, and as folks know that is exactly what happened as the Diamondbacks defeated New York to win game 7. Today he mentioned that in that same 2001 World Series game Rivera made a throwing error on a bunt seconds before Rivera made ANOTHER error fielding a bunt.

Despite the pummeling the Dodgers received in game 3 I am still on the LA bandwagon. I thought the game was over tonight when Howard hit that 2-run blast in the first. But the Dodgers made a nice comeback to take the lead as I blog between innings, 4-3.

One other random note: Besides Carolina blue, of course, is there a finer, more beautiful color than Dodger Blue? That uni is a classic; ditto the LA hat.

Greece is in the playoffs, too

The Greek men’s football team will play Ukraine in a two-game playoff with the winner qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. Greece, Ukraine, and six other squads that came in the second in their groups are in the playoffs.

The first game, on November 14^th, is in Athens, and the second game is in Ukraine on November 18^th. Let me know if you want to cover over to watch that contest on Saturday the 14^th.

Greece has some history with Ukraine. One, we civilized them and they use the Cyrillic alphabet. And two, in 2006 the two nations played in the same group, with Ukraine qualifying while Greece, the 2005 European champs, finished a disappointing third.

This year, Ukraine came in second in their group - won by England - and even defeated the English squad 1-0 in London (though in fairness to the Knights of St. George they had already qualified and fielded a B-team in that contest).

Ukraine has some good players who are regulars in the English Premier League, but from a cultural stand point join Moldova, Latvia, and Luxembourg in Greece’s recent run of games versus utterly inconsequential countries.

However, like Switzerland – who defeated Greece twice in the qualifying round - Ukraine also has a sordid history of Nazi collaboration. The Nazi occupiers found many willing collaborators in Ukraine, mainly nationalists who hated that Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union (those same folks really hated Jews, too).

All in all it’s a decent draw. Having the first game in Athens should help, and the Hellenic team should want to avenge having Ukraine keep them out of the previous World Cup.

A birth in the world’s most popular sporting event, revenge and pay back for being Nazi collaborators should make it an entertaining two-game playoff.

Football season is over

The home loss to Virginia hinted at it, but the kick-off of basketball practice last night confirms that football season in Chapel Hill is over. Mind you, I still plan on going to Chapel Hill for Homecoming on November 7th - it's my graduating class' 25th anniversary - but football will be a nice diversion as most Carolina-blue eyes now turn towards hoops.

This year Carolina celebrates 100 years of basketball. And though North Carolinians love to brag about how humble we are, this year it will be tough to keep from being too smug. I've blogged this before, but with the way Roy Williams has the program going one has to admit this is the golden age of Carolina basketball. ESPN has a nice interview and article about Roy's stamp on the program on their website.

Part of the smugness comes from two national championships in 5 years, 4 in the modern era which is the most in college basketball, and the fact that - unlike the highly entertaining and exhilarating 2006 team - the defending champs are returning a mix of proven and tantalizing talent in Deon Thompson, Ed Davis, Marcus Ginyard, Tyler Zeller, Larry Drew II and freshman like John Henson.

But some of that smugness comes from simply being that much more superior to other college basketball programs. Duke is run by a right-wing whiner and plays in front of a bunch of rich kids, Kentucky has sunk so low they hired a weasel like John Calipari to 'restore' their luster (he could not look more stupid here). Louisville is even worse - led by a whiner AND a weasel (which if you check out the details of Pitino's affair is an insult to weasels)! Indiana is still in tatters post-Bobby Knight. NC State has still not fully recovered from the Valvano flame out, etc. etc.

Ironically Kansas, along with Tom Izzo's Michigan, Ben Howland's UCLA and UConn (though Huskies fans must be nervous about Calhoun's health) appear to be the only programs that can hang with Carolina in terms of having good solid coaches, winning consistently, good fan bases full of good basketball fans who have at least a little perspective, and who recruit likable kids (I'm generalizing here, especially when you consider that the Kansas basketball team got into a fight with the KU football team last month).

But Carolina is the cream of the crop, and THE standard when it comes to college basketball.

World Cupdate

More football news to blog about.

Though Greece continued their winning streak against utterly inconsequential countries by defeating 'Luxembourg' 2-1 today in Athens, Ellas did not automatically qualify for the 2010 World Cup. Switzerland - hardly inconsequential due to inventing the cuckoo clock AND their compliance with the Nazis during World War II - won the group after tying Israel in a battle of nations with internationally-known flags.

The silver lining is Greece did finish second in their group (final tally: inventors of cuckoo clock, 21 pts.; inventors of democracy 20 pts.) and thus qualify for the European playoffs. Greece is one of four seeded teams, along with France, Russia, and Portugal, and will play one of the four unseeded teams - Ireland, Bosnia, Slovenia and Ukraine - in a home and home series on November 14th and 18th. The draw is Monday, October 19th.

The U.S. has already qualified but still played an exciting game tonight against Costa Rica here in DC. Team USA tied with Costa Rice 2-2, and scored the tying goal in the 4th minute of stoppage time on a dramatic header in the 95th minute. The win eliminated Costa Rica, the only nation in Central America without an army, and put Honduras into the World Cup playoffs versus Uruguay.

It was a dramatic goal, but the U.S. celebration seemed oddly over the top. It was tie, at home, and you would think by the celebration the U.S. had WON the World Cup. I like soccer more than I ever thought I would but some parts of the football culture, such as celebrating a tie, A TIE, is still odd and kind of stupid.

Finally, one day after I blogged about Rush Limbaugh buying his way into the socialist NFL the big-fat lier was dropped by his partners in the ownership group seeking to buy the St. Louis Rams.

The power of the Internet is strong.

Nationalized Football League

We live in an ironic age, or maybe we don't.

But nothing could be more ironic than Rush Limbaugh's interest in buying the St. Louis Rams. There is a the long list of American socialist programs, a list that includes the U.S. military, social security, Medicare, the National Parks and all federal public lands, the interstate highway system, and the postal service.

But those are government programs, and you expect that from modern states. The NFL, however, is perhaps the most vivid example of a socialized private enterprise. Instead of operating under free market rules the NFL famously equally distributes both revenue (via its national television contracts) and talent (via the draft and a salary cap).

What could be more socialistic and un-American than a salary cap? A federal salary cap for every American actually passed the House during the Depression but died in the Senate.

Frank DeFord editorialized on NPR about the nature of the NFL's socialism on September 16th. Here is an excerpt:

Indeed, the NFL's descent into dreaded socialism began more than 70 years ago, when the league instituted a player draft in order to equalize its society — to remove, shall we say, odious class distinctions.

But the hallmark of NFL collectivism is that franchises share equally in television money — billions in guaranteed rights fees. Largely because of that form of socialized medicine, every team has a healthy chance to win.

Socialism is so ingrained in the NFL that reportedly, when the league approves a new owner they great him or her as 'comrade.'

I assume Limbaugh knows about the sharing of revenue, an issue a few owners over the years have challenged - and lost that challenge each time. Why would Rush want to join with a bunch of Bolsheviks like Jerry Jones and Daniel Snyder?

And despite all the crass commercialism in NASCAR there is socialism there, too. Each car in NASCAR has to be basically the same so that driver skill and not technology decides who wins. According to my research, NASCAR rules ensure that each car is the same in terms of its "specific weight window" and "engine displacement." Apparently, details on how each car is built are very specific, as are rules for pit stops, inspections, and every other variable unrelated to the driver's skill.

So when making the grand list of American socialism add the NFL and NASCAR to that long and exalted roll call.

Cornucopia

It's a cornucopia blog this holiday Monday - lots of different sports topics to cover including a new one! I know, cornucopia is more of a Thanksgiving thing, but they both involve indigenous peoples so why not?

Baseball playoffs

The Twins did not deserve to win their series against the Yankees. The Twinkies had multiple chances to win games 2 and 3 and could not make a play, or plays, when needed. The Yankees did the opposite; even players like A-Rod stepped up. From Nick Punto to Joe Nathan to 17 left on base Minnesota had chances but simply did not capitalize.

Jonathan Papelbon caught some of what Joe Nathan had in giving up a two-run lead on Sunday as the BoSox were swept by the LAAofA. But unlike the Twins, who were in two of the three games they lost, you never got the sense that the Red Sox had a chance against Anaheim. The game one shut out by John Lackey seemed to sap the strength from the Sox, and their offense never recovered.

It should be an interesting ALCS. Petite and Sabathia will make the Yankees tough to beat. If those two start four of the seven games it will hard for the Angels to match up with New York.

In the NL, in sweeping St. Louis the Dodgers reminded everyone why they were the best team in the Senior Circuit for much of the summer. Andre Ethier, rejuvenated starting pitching, and timely relief pitching and hitting did in Tony LaRussa's squad.

Vicente Padilla's start, where he dominated the Cardinals in game 3, is making me believe that the AL may be that much better than the NL. In Texas, Padilla had an ERA of almost 5 (4.92 to be exact) before getting cut by the Rangers. With the Dodgers he went 4-0 with a 3.20 ERA, then pitched 8 innings of shut out baseball against Albert Pujols and company. In the playoffs. On the road.

Finally, the Phillies look like they will pay back the Rockies for the 2007 playoffs after winning game 3 last night. I still think the Phillies are the team to beat in the NL.

Change ups in Little League

Evan's Major League Little League team (majors is 10-12 year olds) lost a scrimmage game on Saturday 7-3. He went 1-3 but struck out in his final at bat. He was way ahead of the pitch he struck out on, and I thought he just was anxious or he simply struck out.

Then two batters later, one of his teammates struck out on the same pitch. I was coaching third base, near the other team's dugout, and asked one of the coaches if their pitcher was actually throwing change ups. The coach said yes, he was throwing change ups but only in certain situations. This is a 10-year old kid mixing up pitches and using a change up - in Little League - as his out pitch.

Quick Soccer Update

The U.S. went on the road to defeat Honduras on Saturday to clinch a spot in the 2010 World Cup. Any road win in Latin America is big. Not only was it a road win, but it was a come-from-behind road win. I'd write more, but the game was not shown on cable or free TV so I only saw highlights. The U.S. TV rights were held by a company that only offered the game via pay-per-view ( a la boxing and ultimate fighting).

Similarly, Greece dominated Latvia in the second half in a 5-2 comeback win. Fanis Gekas, the 2007 Bundesliga scoring champ who has been a non-entity in European soccer ever since, netted four goals for the Hellenes. Greece trails Switzerland by 3 points as both teams head into their final qualifying matches. Press reports say Greece can win their group outright if Ellas wins (at home versus Luxembourg) and Switzerland loses (at home to a surging Israel team). That would leave each team with 20 points. However, Greece lost to Switzerland twice so I can't see why Greece would advance unless the tie-breaker is goal differential and not head-to-head competition.

FYI, Greece's game over an obscure team and nation like Latvia sent me to the Internet. I could only find one Latvian restaurant listed in the entire U.S., the 'King of Latvia Deli' appropriately located in the great American melting pot of Brooklyn. And wikipedia lists Buddy Ebsen as the most famous Latvian-American of all time. That's right, Jedd Clampett/Barnaby Jones's mom was Latvian.

BOXING in the blog!

Great article on Sugar Ray Robinson in Sunday's Post. It's a mini-boxing boomlet here, as in addition to the Sugar Ray article I watched the Mike Tyson documentary over the weekend.

I've always found Tyson fascinating. He's very introspective and unsentimental about his failures in the movie. And only 20 minutes into the film he starts to cry when discussing his former manager Cus D'Amato, who discovered Tyson in a state juvenile facility when he was 14-years old.

Sad to see what has happened to boxing, how a simple and elemental sport can become so vulgar and grotesque and buffoonish. How can a sport turn fighters - serious, skilled, sober men - into cartoons? Is it Muhammad Ali's fault, who acted more clown than sober champ after regaining the title from Joe Frazier? Most of the blame rests with promoters like Don King, who shunned free TV in favor of pay-per-view, and multiple governing bodies and the alphabet soup of associations handing out titles.

Boxing, along with baseball and horse racing, used to rule the roost in the U.S., and being heavyweight champ was like being the king of the world. Boxing used to be great and the Sugar Robinson article, excerpted from the book "Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson" by Wil Haywood captures both the era and the tactics and challenges that were the reasons boxing used to be called the 'sweet science.'

Happy Indigenous Peoples Day Weekend!

A good weekend of baseball is pending if the games of the last 4 days are any indication of things to come.

I didn't enjoy watching the Yankees win tonight, but that was a fun and frustrating game to watch. The Twins had multiple chances - 17 left on base including the bases loaded in the 11th - plus Joe Nathan pitching with a two-run lead. That game was theirs to win and they blew it.

Not sure what was worse, watching A-Rod get the big hit or watching the umpire miss Mauer's double in the 11th, a play that was right in front of the guys face. How do you a blow a call like that? Not only did the ball clearly land in fair territory, he had to see it nick Cabrera's glove, too. The umpire blew that call TWICE!

The Yankees comeback mimicked the Dodgers' win from the night before. I've never liked Matt Holiday, and conversely I've always loved me some Ronnie Belliard. It was good to see an ex-Nat excel, and I am firmly on the Dodgers Bandwagon.

As exciting as this round of baseball has been I still have misgivings about the wild card and the extra round of playoffs, something Boswell covered in his column today. I'd still vote to get rid of the wild card and go back to two divisions, east and west, and only have 4 teams make the playoffs.

FOOTBALL UPDATE

Greece tries to salvage their 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign when they host the 'Fighting Baltics' from Latvia tomorrow. Ellas needs to win its last two games and hope that Switzerland stumbles against Israel and/or Luxembourg to win their group and qualify. But it looks more likely that Greece will have to win a playoff among other European teams that finish second in their group.

However, they have to finish second. If Greece loses tomorrow at home versus Latvia finishing second is impossible.

Carolina plays another Division I-AA squad tomorrow in Chapel Hill when they host Georgia Southern. It's an important chance for the offense and especially the offensive line to get their act together and salvage the season. After GS, the Tar Heels play back-to-back Thursday night games, at home versus FSU and at Virginia Tech. Winning those two games - a split is more likely - would definitely turn things around and erase the memory of the horrible loss to Virginia last Saturday.

PRESIDENTIAL NEWS

Greece elected another Papandreou last weekend when the socialist PASOK party swept election there. I like the new PM, who like me was born in the United States and speaks Greek with an American accent.

And I now consider myself a candidate for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, since both Barack Obama and I have solved the same number of international crises. But I'm happy for Obama, who I assume won due to multiple reasons: fixing America's international image, NOT being George Bush, reenergizing the world's most important democracy and attracting new voters, announcing his intention to close Guantanemo and getting us out of Iraq (and ignoring the ratcheting up in Afghanistan). I also wonder if the Nobel Committee wanted to stick their finger in the eye of the International Olympic Committee.

It's also funny to see the Rs go nuts complaining. As Bill Maher said on tonight's show, giving Obama the peace prize is the trifecta for the right wing since they hate black people, foreigners, and peace.

Great start to the postseason

What a great game today/tonight between the Twins and the Tigers. That game had everything - big hits, great catches, plays at the plate, bone headed plays, and extra innings.

Let's hope the Twins' roll continues tomorrow against the Yankees. That kind of momentum can take a team a long way. The Rockies rode a great September, and a one-game playoff win, all the way to the 2007 World Series.

The 2009 playoffs look wide open. The Dodgers will likely dispatch the Cardinals, but the Phillies could either win it all or lose to the once-again hot Rockies. I see both the Dodgers and Phils advancing, with the Phillies repeating as NL champs.

In the AL, I'll stick with the Twins to upset the Yankees and the Angels to top the Sox, with the Angels stopping the Twins' run.

If that happens baseball will have something it has rarely had since the demise of the recent Yankees Jeter-Torre-Williams-Posada-Rivera-Petitite dynasty - a repeat champion. If the Phillies or Angels go to the Series one team will join the 2004 and 2007 Red Sox as the only squad with more than one championship since 2001.

In that regard baseball has had much more parity than the other major sports; seven different teams have won the last eight World Series.

Compare that to the NBA, where six teams (Lakers, Spurs, Celtics, Bulls, Pistons, Rockets) have won 24 of the last 25 championships. That league is an oligarchy.

The NFL is like the NBA, with two teams (Pats and Steelers) winning five of the last eight Super Bowls. However, to the Super Bowl's credit some odd teams such as the Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks have played for a championship recently,

From First to Worst

But enough about championship teams, let's revisit our hometown Nats. The Nationals finished the 2009 season as the only team to start the season with a seven-losing streak and end it with a seven-game winning streak. They also had an eight-game win streak in there too.

In fact, if you look at the standings at the end of that eight-game streak the Nats were in last place with a 40-72 record. The other last place teams were: Pittsburgh (45-66); San Diego (47-66); Baltimore (46-66); Kansas City (43-68) and Oakland (50-62). A few things worth noting:

• At that point the Nats were only 3 games back of the Royals and 5 of the Pirates, and for a while Evan and I hoped we would catch one of those teams and not finish with the worst record in the majors. That did hot happen;
• It didn't happen because the Nats finished the season by going 19-31;
• However, if you add the eight-game winning streak it's an almost respectable 27-31 record;
• The only teams to win fewer games than the Nats after August 11th were the Orioles with 17 and the PIrates with 17;
• Of the six teams in last place on August 11th, five finished in last place. The only team to move up in the standings were the Padres, who went 27-20 after August 2nd to pass the Diamondbacks (18-30 after the 2nd).

For the record, here are the standings for the last place teams AFTER August 11th:

San Diego 27-20

Oakland 25-24

Kansas City 22-28

Washington 19-31

Arizona 18-31

Pittsburgh 17-32

Baltimore 17-32

So compared to our last place colleagues, the Nats didn't do so bad (except compared to those show offs in California).

Finally, it will be interesting to see what the Nats' front office does in the off season. In today's Post GM Mike Rizzo stated 'we are not going to bring back the same team that won only 58 games.' It seems safe to assume that the core of good (ZImmerman, Dunn, Lannan), hurt and/or promising (Morgan, Flores, Dukes, Detwiler, Mock, Staman, Desmond) and decent (MacDougal, Martin) players will return but after than who knows?

Carolina Football

I still cannot believe how badly Carolina played - in Chapel Hill! - in their loss to previously winless Virginia. The young offensive line has been exposed, and as a result the 2009 football season is practically over for the Heels.