Seasoning The Fans

     The 2016-2017 sports season has been crazy good. The 2016 baseball ended so crazy, well get to that shortly. The 2016 football season ended just as crazy as the baseball season, if not crazier. Now we are in the midst of the playoffs for both basketball and hockey. You may be thinking, “Why not wait until the end of both playoff runs?” Easy, we all know that most likely paths to the championship rounds, especially the NBA(I am hoping we have someone other than LeBron in the Finals). Sports are as unpredictable as Donald Trump’s hair style.

    Let’s start off with baseball. We had the 2 best times playing on the last night of the season in November. The question would be: Which team would end it’s long drought? With the exception of the city of Cleveland, most people were routing for the Cubs. What a journey they had to the World Series. It was so motivational that Theo Epstein was named the most influential person in 2016. Game 7 was one of the better baseball games I have watched in recent history. Not only was Game 7 crazy, the Cubs were down 3-1 and came back to win. I can only imagine how crazy the city of Chicago was when the last out was recorded.

   Baseball and football are very similar in that when teams are down by a certain amount it is improbable for them to comeback. That’s what happened with the Patriots. Atlanta had a 25 point lead going into halftime. The defense was playing great enough to hold a lead. The only issue is that the Patriots had Tom Brady as your quarterback and Bill Bellichick as your coach. As Yoda said to Luke “Do not underestimate the power of the dark side.” No team had ever come back from such a large deficit in the Super Bowl. It couldn’t happen. My thought’s were “Is this really happening?” After Tom Brady had the game winning touchdown in overtime, I said “this just happened.” That’s when all the GOAT talk started(that’s a conversation for another time).

  If basketball and hockey can duplicate the finishes that baseball and football had to their seasons, then it would be a successful 2016-2017 season. If LeBron James does not make it to a 7^th straight finals, I would say that the basketball season would be a success with just that instance. Hockey has been set up for TV ratings and for early ratings. If they have a competitive Conference Finals and Stanley Cup finals, no matter who makes it, then the NHL will have a successful season.

Drifter Drafters

  When you hear about the "NFL Draft" what's the first thing that comes to mind?  Mock Draft? Mel Kiper and Tod McShay? Trade Up, Trade Down? There are so many things that come to mind when we think of the NFL Draft. This Thursday is the the 2017 NFL Draft in Philadelphia. There are alot of story lines coming into this years Draft. What will Cleveland do with the number 1 pick? Will they trade up with the Number 12 pick? Who will be the first quarterback taken and where? Many different situations during the draft.
    The first question is Cleveland and what they will do with that Number 1 pick. It's almost a consensus pick that they will pick Myles Garrett. He is the best talent in the draft and they need to build around that defense. That pick in the first round is not what is in question, its the number 12 overall pick that's in question. The question presented to everyone is whether they not they trade up high enough to ensure they pick a franchise changing quarterback. There are 2, maybe 3 quaterbacks in this draft that will be taken the first round. Is it really worth it to mortgage so much to move up for them? Cleveland has had so many quarterbacks since coming back to the league, you can't even count them on your toes and fingers. If I am Cleveland, I stay put with the number 12 pick. They rebuilt their O-Line through free agency, maybe they draft a running back, receiver, or more defense.
   After the Browns, we have the other 31 teams. There are many teams with needs. There are have been rumbles that the 49ers and Jets will be trading out of their respective 2 and 6 spots. If the 49ers are going to get someone like Kirk Cousins, that makes sense. They need to rebuild more than the Browns do. They don't even have 1 mainstay on their roster(check Joe Thomas for the Browns). Kirk Cousins is still young enough and building up momentum. With a rookie GM and Head Coach, they need to get creative. The way teams' front offices' are run today, they could both be out of jobs after 2 years.
   The Jets, on the other hand, have no idea what direction they want to run. With the exception of Bryce PITTY and Christian SLACKENBERG, they have appeared to be defense heavy in the past 4-6 Drafts. They have drafted Muhmmad Wilkerson and Sheldon Richardson to name a few. Honestly, they should either give Petty or Hacky a chance and draft lets say Leonard Fornette or Christian McCaffery, or OJ Howard. They should being taking advantage of the young offensive talent available, even if Todd Bowles is defensive minded, McCaggnian is money minded, and Woody Johnson being Trump minded. The best way to attack the other side of the chess board is to attack! 
    To be quite honest with you, most of the teams in the past 5-7 drafts have been really stupid and unlucky. The Giants got lucky with Odel Bechkham,, Junior, the Cowboys with Zac Martin and Dak Presscott, and the Patriots with Julian Edelman. The unluckiest and most unthoughtful team has been the Browns. They need to draft need and best available talent, it’s plain simple. It’s fair to say that any quaterbacks that are going to be drafted will go within the top 15 picks. The bottom 15 picks of the first and subsequent rounds all have cornerstone quaterbacks(Giants, Patriots, Packers, Cowboys, Lions, and the Steelers.) Granted someone  of the top 15 pick teams have quaterbacks(Panthers, Bills), they will worry about putting supporting teams around them.
   “With the first pick of the 2017 NFL Draft, the Cleveland Browns will pick Myles Garrett.” That is what we will first be hearing Thursday night. Let’s hope that these other teams actually do the same thing for their situations. Remember trading up, down, or staying the same is not always the smartest situation( RG3 for Washington(bad), Eli to the Giants(good)). That’s why football is a team sport, you don’t just work together on the field, but behind the scenes as well. Let’s see jf that actually works this year. 

Get Your Baseball Here

   Baseball season has officially started! There are so many story lines, I do not know where to start. We started the season with some of the obvious. Do the Cubs have enough to repeat? Can the Indians be the next to break a streak? Will the Angels have enough to propel Mike Trout to the playoffs? How will the Yankees youth movement develop? These are just some of the few questions going into the 2017 season.
   First, we have the Cubs. After that World Series, wow. That's all I have to say about that. If the Cubs don't look up Jake Arrieta(which I think they will), then this is their to repeat. They have a great young core of position players. Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, and Javier Baez form a great middle of the lineup. Jon Lester is a lefty, so it feels like he can go forever. Kyle Hendricks is young and coming. They just need to look it up on the back end of the bullpen. The Cubs are going to be great for years to come. I foresee a few more championships in the future, but the question is will 2017 be their year again?
  The one team I see blocking the Cubs repeat chances is the team they beat last year, the Cleveland Indians. Last year, it was unexpected, but not surprising, that they won the pennant. If they would have had their full rotation at health, then they probably would have prolonged the Cubs drought by another year. They have a great bullpen with Miller, great position players let by Francisco Lindor and Michael Brantley, and a great rotation led by Corey Kluber, Danny Salazar and Trevor Bauer. If everyone stays healthy and is on their game, the Indians have a great chance to break their own drought. Cleveland is probably the best bet to dethrone the Cubs this year.
   Another team that intrigues me is the Angels. Why may I say that? They easily have the best player in the game in Mike Trout. In each of his first 5 seasons, he has finished first or second in the MVP voting in each of those 5 years. He's on pace with many of the all time greats statistically. The issue is that the Angels are failing to put a supporting team around him. They have the change to a decent pitching staff if healthy. Granted Albert Pujols is not playing horribly, he is not the player he was when he was with St. Louis. The Angels need to build a better team around Trout or else he'll be gone when he becomes a free agent.
   Now we also have the Yankees. What's weird with them is that they are in rebuild mode, but semi contention mode as well. They have already brought in a plethora of youth to the Major League level, whether it be Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Greg Bird, or Luis Severino. At the the same time, they have veterans like Masihiro Tanaka, Aroldis Chapman, Brett Gardner and Chase Headley. They will probably hover around 82-85 wins this season. There are still many players in the minors knocking on the door, like Gleyber Torres, Clint Frazier, and Justus Sheffield.
  Whatever may happen this season, there will certainly be a whole lot of drama to follow. Baseball always has intriguing story lines. If teams do things the right way, MLB doesn't screw up the game, and players stay healthy, we will see a lot of fun this season. Lets hope we only have positive baseball to come.

How Mad Are You?

   When the month of March approaches, you think of spring training, NBA postseason and of course, March Madness. There has been so much madness over the years. You can never take anything for granted. We have seen Davidson, George Mason, Villanova beating Georgtown in 1985 to name a few instances. Could we really have expected anything different this year? We had the likes of Xavier, Michigan, South Carolina and on the Women’s side, UConn losing!! What more can we ask for with this tournament.

    Coming into this tournament, Gonzaga was the overwhelming favorite by many to win the National Championship. They only had 1 lose and played extremely well this season. There were so many other storylines throughout this tournament. How far will Duke go? Will Lonzo Ball carry his team to the finals? Which 12 seed beats a 5 seed? Which 11 seed will beat a 6 seed? Will a number 1 seed to a 16 seed? The NCAA Tournament will never start without any questions

    This tournament started out with how the officiating was horrible. There were so many calls that were so bad, it made me think that the ref’s need to go back to elementary school. That didn’t stop teams the likes of Michigan, Xavier, and South Carolina going to at least the Sweet 16(In South Carolina’s case Final Four). Teams play with such motivation to go so far, it’s like they have the madness in order to create the madness.  It made for so many stories.

   For the men’s Final Four, we had 2 first time Final Four participants(Gonzaga, South Carolina) and record setting participant(North Carolina) and someone who hadn’t been to a Final Four in almost 80 years(Oregon). Out of the Final Four, we have a Finals matchup that were the most expected of the 4  to make it to the Finals. Gonzaga was the best the team this year, UNC is, well, UNC. It will be a fun matchup.  UNC has made it to back to back Championship Games and Gonzaga made it to its first.

  Speaking of consecutive Finals appearances, UConn ladies team were looking to get to its  5^th consecutive Finals appearance and to have a 113 game winning streak. Mississippi State had different plans. They had plans to make it to the championship, and guess what, they did!! Not only did they make it to the Finals, they did it in dramatic buzzer beater fashion.

  With the Champioship game looming tonight, many people are not giving Gonzaga a chance, but why? Many people say they did not play any quality teams. The don’t call it the Tournament of 68 for nothing!! They are the best 68 teams in the nation out of over 200 teams! Why does UNC get a chance? Because they are UNC and they have history. I believe it will be a close and good game, but the way Gonzaga has been playing this season, I don’t doubt that they will win their championship. Until March 2018, lets cherish it.