Lowering the Gauntlet... Challenge, Accepted!

Now kids, I'll admit, my NFL picks this year have been a dispicable debacle a little sub par this year.  However, imagine my surprise when I received the following email from one of my most loyalest-est readers:

Ya done even pissed off Mrs. Reno!

"Please, Spare me the torture of your picks.  Just have your lovely wife pick the games and you can clean out the roof gutters on Sunday.  Rumor has it that you threw last years NFL picks up on the roof near the chimney.  While you are up there, entertain your neighbors with the Michigan fight song."

What???  Oh, you know I have something to say about that...

Scatter Brained and the Week 7 Picks

When I'm too lazy to write a full post I can't quite come up with a coherent thought, I ramble.  And when I ramble, you get another edition of...

Completely random...

Random Thoughts!  Hooray!!!

The REAL Peyton v. Eli breakdown

Distraction.

You had to know that topic was coming, right? Luckily, Gisele managed to distract us from it for awhile because, if you just look at numbers, it’s no contest and it gave us time to give you the TRUE breakdown of the Peyton v. Eli debate, i.e., no stats, just the stuff that really matters.

Endorsements - Since money is all that really matters Remember the old Peyton Manning Mastercard commercials? What happened to those? Lost somewhere with the Bud Bowl? (where were you Sunday??? I had Bud Light -3.5!). Cut that meat, cut that meat!

Random Notes, Vol. 4

Too many topics to cover. You know what that means, loyal reader? Yep, Random Notes are back with a ven… nah, too early for clichés. And not to explain my own writing or anything, but I like to use clichés in ye old blog just because they are so overused in sports announcing and commentary. Letting you in on an inside joke that no one else but me knew about or would think is funny. Anyways, the fourth installment of Random Notes is brought to you unofficially by Titleist golf products. Think about it.

- Was going to do a midseason check on my NFL predictions as a full post, but we’ll do this quick hit style. “Airmailed it”: Cowboys to win the NFC East (ouch), My Beas to finish last and the Lions to tie for 2nd in the NFC North, Tampa Bay last in the NFC South, Pats to take a step back, Chiefs last in the AFC West; “Nailed it”: Packers good, Saints good, Redskins really bad (giving up 59 at home on Monday Night? Yikes…), NFC West all bad, Buffalo bad, Ravens good, Raiders mini-sleeper, and “Chiefs having any offensive or defensive line, I’d move them up” hits because, well, it turns out they do have a decent offensive and defensive line… which is contrary to what I thought… hmmmm… we’ll call this a push. Sticking with my Ravens over Colts, Saints over Packers, and Saints over Ravens Championship and Super Bowl picks, mostly out of principle and because all could still happen. Seriously, have you ever seen an NFL season where the “best teams” seem to change week to week?

- Can we get a memo out to all NFL announcers calling Jets games: MARK SANCHEZ IS NOT A GOOD QUARTERBACK. He was 27-44, 299 yds, and 2 TD against the Browns. Decent numbers, right? Considering that the last 40 or so plus a TD was the last, dumb luck play, they’re down to okay. Did anyone else notice that the Jets had 50 seconds, 2 timeouts, and about 40 yards to get into field goal range to win in regulation, and that the Jets chose to play for OT? What sort of confidence is that in your QB? The announcers were raving about how he won the game for them in OT… uh, yeah, okay, not even going to waste my fingers on that one. And last year’s playoff run (as well as them taking over in the 2nd half against Cleveland), was all about the defense and/or running game. He’s not horrible, don’t get me wrong, but the announcers make him sound like a top 10 QB. And he’s not. Let’s get over it, let the kid develop, and move on. Moving on. (LB Note – that was written before Sanchez engineered a pretty damn impressive final drive against the Texans. He will now be considered an average QB until further notice.)

- The wife read online somewhere that Time’s Person of the Year is down to the Chilean miners (worthy) and, and I’m not making this up, LeBron James. We spent a good 10 minutes trying to come up with just one reason why he should win it, and the best we came up with was his donation to the Boys and Girls Clubs during the infamous Decision show, one of the most arrogant and self-destructive things an athlete has done to his image in recent memory. If you can come up with another reason, I’m all ears, but if he wins this, I think it discredits anyone who’s won in the past or future.

- As I’m sure you remember from my baseball preview, I predicted that Roy Halladay would win the NL Cy Young and Felix Hernandez would take it home in the AL. Just as I correctly predicted LeBron to the Heat, both Halladay and King Felix were named Cy Young winners last week. Sometimes it’s difficult being this good. Oh, I made some predictions about the MVPs of each league, too, but all of the sudden I can’t find the old post. I’ll go back and check that out another time.

- Always loving to throw in a little random sports pop quiz so here goes one for ya: At 2nd overall, Karl Malone has scored the most points in NBA history without winning an NBA title (eat it, 2004 Lakers). At 10th overall, who has the next highest total points scored in NBA history without winning an NBA title?

- I’m warming up to the idea that Michael Vick is being somewhat redeemed in the sports world, though contend that it’s only because he’s winning. Couldn’t resist this crack while watching the Eagles/Redskins blowout the other night: right after the Iggles kick returner fumbled the ball, though recovered, he was coming off the field and Vick called him out and yelled at him. I told the wife, “I think he just threatened to electrocute him.” The wife, who is now a Vick supporter (I think, I didn’t confirm that with her, but she’s calling me a Vick hater, so I’m guessing she’s on board), couldn’t resist a chuckle. Seriously, though, consider this… Vick grew up in the ghet-to, I mean, real ghetto, in Virginia, living a life of God-knows-what. He then becomes this superstar quarterback, maybe the most gifted football player in NCAA history to date. He goes on to make millions of dollars in the NFL, including an NFC title game appearance and, at the time, a record contract. He then gets caught up in this dogfighting/murdering scheme, does prison time, and is forced to file for bankruptcy, which he’s still in. He gets out, manages to sign with the Iggles of all teams, hangs out a year, trying to lay low (“trying,” i.e., nearly got his brother shot at his birthday party). Donovan McNabb, who lobbied the franchise hard to get him, ends up being traded so that his anointed successor, Kevin Kolb, can take over. Kolb proceeds to get hurt in the 2nd quarter of the first game of the year, Vick lights it up, and is now a frontrunner for the MVP. And he just turned 30 years old. Anyone smell a book deal in his future?

- NCAA hoops started up recently. Dick Vitale made an argument the other day that they shouldn’t start til after Thanksgiving cause it kinda gets lost, and you miss out on a lot of good early matchups. This is true, you do miss some great games because, unlike NCAA football, teams can actually schedule good competition and not be penalized for it because of some lame ass computer system that determines a national championship game. They actually get to decide things on the court. Novel concept. And yes, that was the obligatory shot at the BCS. Getting warmed up for this year’s “Most Ridiculous Bowl Games” post. And unless Boise and TCU both lose, and Oregon and Auburn win out, you can assume the BCS title game will be on the list.

- On a related note, the president of Ohio State recently came out and declared that Boise State and TCU were unworthy of playing in the BCS title game. Glad you feel that way. We all look forward to you scheduling both Boise and TCU for home-and-homes in the non-conference season starting in 2012. If you’re going to say stupid s**t, then man up, a**hole. Just another reason to hate that school.

- If anyone in the Vikings organization had any stones at all, Brett Favre would be benched the rest of the year. He had the 31st passer rating coming into that terrible outing against the Packers. He looks pathetic. Fake an injury and give it up already. No one cares anymore except for the poor announcers who have to try and make you relevant each week.

- One more Vick thing… would it be wrong if during an Eagles game the announcer said, “Vick is barking out signals”?

- The NHL season started up, and the Red Wings and Flyers are both out to strong starts. Did you notice? Thought not. I have a need to promote the NHL here as much as possible since, you know, they don’t do anything to promote themselves. Sigh…

- Looking forward to another Army/Navy game this December. Mojo and I will be ditching the women and children in the parking lot this year, meaning we can get drunker during the game. Love this game for many a reason, most notably the chance to see Mojo again, and hang out with his dad for a minute, but I always admire how much respect these rivals have for each other and how badly they want to win this game. In the parking lot beforehand, in the stadium, everywhere… there’s just this sense of the players and fans being a part of something bigger. And for those who play in that game, go to the schools, are alums, or whose family are alums, they are. It’s really an honor to be at that game, and if you ever get a chance to go, you gotta take it. Get it on your Sports Bucket List. Yeah, that’s a clichéd column, and yeah, I’ve kicked around writing it. King of Cliché’s over here. Oh, there’s another one!

- In similar news, Mojo texted at the end of the Army/Notre Dame debacle that Fah was “much classier than I would have been if we won.” As a quick follow up to the Week 11 picks, the ladies saw that we had posted (Mrs. Mojo got the email), but luckily didn’t read the post, so they were both surprised and delighted to find that Mojo had picked them up from their evening in his ranger panties. Also, Fah requested a name change on the blog. He is actually down 14 lbs., and working hard at it (sort of) and looking svelt (jeans were much looser, as he showed me). Mojo and I hesitated at first, then agreed that if he lost all the weight he was trying to, we would change his name to Craig, i.e., Jenny Craig. Fah T. then vowed he would stay within one pound of his weight goal to avoid that fate. Yes, we support good health here at Logical Betting, but apparently don’t like to incentivize reaching your goals.

- Pop quiz answer: With 26,668 points scored, some of the craziest dunks on record, and legendary slam dunk competitions against Michael Jordan back when players really cared about beating each other and not playing on the same team, the Human Highlight Reel, Dominique Wilkins is 10th in NBA history and points scored and, sadly, 2nd overall in players who have not won a title.

Time to sign off, so comments on the blog, Facebook, or to my email. Suggestions for posts to my email. And if you dare challenge my near invincible locks, you can do that on email or Facebook, too. Until then, be well and good to each other. Hasta.

Random Notes, Vol. 3

Word to your mother. Since the recent birth of our newest cast of characters, my 2 week old daughter who will be known as Arg, not much time to hit any topic hard enough to tickle your stereotypical taste buds. Add in the mandatory NFL preview upcoming, my suicide pool to get going (be looking out for that email), and possibly commishing one of my fantasy football leagues (Editor’s Note: calm down, LB, your boy stepped up and is going to commish. Stop whining!), and you get yourself another dose of random notes. The third coming of random notes is brought to you without their permission by Amtrak, who is currently schleping a couple of friends of ours up and down the East Coast visiting friends. Here I come to save the day! (Reference???)

- Is it me, or are LeBron’s PR guys purposely trying to piss off Cleveland without reservation? Full page article in newspaper thanking Akron for all it’s done for him? Awesome. Never acknowledging Cleveland in the article? Stupid. Loved the guy who went to the Indians game with a LeBron Miami Heat jersey, too. He was on ESPN the next day claiming he didn’t mean to draw any attention to himself. Yeah, neither did that chick back in the 80s with the monster jugs who used to run onto baseball fields to kiss the players.

- In other “I didn’t think that would draw attention” news, Brett Favre is back annoying the football world, though I don’t think many people are paying attention outside of ESPN. Hilarious comment from him, though, and I paraphrase, “I didn’t think my waiting so long would draw so much attention.” Dude, where have you been the last three years of your bulls**t? I love how even the mention of it draws a million cameras everywhere. Personally, I hope he stays away, just to F Minnesota for catering to him for so long. Philly fans might be disappointed cause they could have gotten more from Minnesota than Washington for McNabb, but if you ask me, this is better for the Iggles cause Minnesota with Favre is clearly a better team than they are. Not that the Iggles are making the Super Bowl this year (but maybe, just maybe next year), but still.

- Extremely sad death in the world of sports recently, with the passing of James Gammon, aka, Lou Brown, the manager of your Cleveland Indians in Major League. This set off a chain of emails between my buddies with some awesome Major League quotes. Definitely a Top 5 sports movies of all time. Very disappointed that a YouTube search didn’t yield an English version of Rick Vaughn entering the game, though. If someone could post that, I would be much obliged.

- Random sports trivia, plucked from the pages of SI: Which Hall of Famer is the only player with the exact same number of hits both at home and on the road, with 1,815 each way. If you get this without Google or having read the SI article, many freaking props to you. But here’s something a little more gettable with a Google… Ty Cobb is the all time hits leader for my beloved Detroit Tigers. Who is #2? Answers at the end, my friends.

- Throwing its name in the “is it a sport?” debate, the federal courts in Connecticut ruled that, for the purpose of Title IX, cheerleading is not considered a sport, as Quinnipiac University attempted to eliminate women’s volleyball and keep cheerleading to stay in Title IX compliance. Per my definition, cheerleading is a fringe “not a sport,” though Fah’s wife disagrees. In his ruling, the judge described cheerleading as “too underdeveloped and undefined” to be a sport. For what it’s worth, the ACLU fought on behalf of volleyball, so I guess they think cheerleading isn’t a sport, either. So next time cheerleading is brought up in your “sport/not a sport” debate, feel free to use judicial precedent to argue against it.

- Can you believe NFL preseason starts next week? Me neither. Can’t wait. Well, I can’t wait for the real season, since NFL preseason is a big waste of time, but just thought I’d mention it. Real cute that the NFL charges season ticket holders the same amount for those games, by the way. Incidentally, can you imagine what would happen if the NFL locks out after this year? I am not kidding, I would not be shocked to see a small spike in the suicide rate and divorce rate in this country as drunk, angry males desperately seek ways to release rage upon the world. Iggles fans will just go tailgate and fight each other in the parking lot, so Philly is safe.

- Still a hot MLB season going on, with 5 of the 6 divisions all having races within 1-1.5 games between first and second place entering Saturday, 8/7 action. Good stuff. Potential sleeper World Series: Giants vs. Rangers. This would also be known as the “Fox’s Worst Nightmare” Series. More likely: Ys vs. Phillies, though don’t count them Giants out. When they score, they are darn near unbeatable.

- In another semi-MLB related rant, I was watching the Phils last night, and the announcer kept talking about how the umpire was “giving the pitchers the outside corner” that night. This is common speak in baseball announcing, but for whatever reason, this one is now bothering me… I mean, the corners are a part of the plate, the plate is part of the strike zone. Of course the umpire is giving them the corners! Can you see a postgame press conference with an umpire saying, “yeah, I didn’t feel like giving them the corners tonight.” I’m over it this morning, but for some reason, I spent a good five minutes thinking about that and telling the wife about it. She predictably could have cared less.

- Tim McCarver gave us a preview of his playoff announcing gems during the Red Sox/Ys game the other day. Jorge Posada stole a base, which they then looked up and discovered it was the 17th in his 16 year career. McCarver: “That’s just over one per year. It’s rare that we say Jorge Posada stole a base.” Sigh…

- Arg still hasn’t picked her fave sports teams, but she has a University of Michigan cheerleader bear sitting at the top of her changing spot downstairs, so she’s got that going for her. I think my mother-in-law hid her “little tiger” hat cause we couldn’t find it earlier for a trip to the park. Lucky for me, Arg was a big baby and eats like a horse, meaning she’ll be growing into those Tigers onesies real quick. Let’s take a quick pause while I go hide her Phillies onesie and bib…

- K, I’m back. By request from my dad, I now bring you the average salary of a first or third base coach in baseball: $175,000. At least, that’s the best I could find on Google, I have no idea if that’s accurate. He wanted me to do an entire post on that, by the way. I asked how he thought I could expand on that, his response, “you’re the blogger.” He’s now the first one to acknowledge me as such, so that made me feel pretty good. By comparison, US Senators and Reps make $174,000 (and are way overpaid), teachers make $40-45,000, executive chefs make $50,000, and carpenters make $36,000. So there you go.

- Tiger Woods is finally likely to lose his world’s #1 ranking this week, as he is darn near last wherever they are this weekend. PGA tournament is next weekend, and there is no way he can be the favorite. He is also at risk of not qualifying for the Ryder Cup, meaning they would have to use a captain’s pick on him. Anyone who thinks this guy is anywhere near what he used to be hasn’t been watching golf. And Tiger, spare us the “my personal life has nothing to do with it, it’s my swing” bull crap. He truly may be done. Which is sad in some way, cause we are missing out on seeing a historically great athlete in his prime and watching a record go down. All because he couldn’t resist “the life,” and couldn’t be happy with a Swedish model/nanny for a wife, billions of dollars, and two kids. If the rest of us can be happy living happy, normal lives, and you’re a rich person who loses what you had cause you were a d-bag, then you deserve what’s coming to you.

- Quiz answers: Stan “The Man” Musial is the player with exactly the same amount of hits at home and away. And the Detroit Tiger who is #2 all time in team history for total hits… Mr. Al Kaline.

Logical Betting will be on a brief hiatus while we work on our NFL preview, set up the Suicide Pool, and prep for fantasy football drafts. Keep on sending the suggestions along. Once the NFL season gets going, gonna try and get to one Reggie sent a few weeks back and finish off one from our man Jeremy. If I can track down my friend to podcast the sports loyalty, we’ll hit that, too. In the meantime, be well and remember, life is too short to drink cheap booze.

Random Notes, Vol. 2

What is up, people! Taking a break from all the unpacking after selling the old house, moving in with the in-laws for a week, and pretty much unpacking for the last five days. Also had a lot of fun with Verizon trying to get that installed... and by fun, I mean sitting on hold for a long time before getting hung up on, having them not come out because they "forgot to call," then having them mess up the install by not activating all the phone lines in the house. Already got one month taken off the bill, and we're sicking the wife on them next week when our account is officially activated. I'm afraid for them, no joke. Let's just say Verizon will never be an unofficial sponsor to the blog.

Lots of good sports topics out there right now, and by the time I get to all of them, I think they'll be old, so we're dishing out the second installment of random notes. Before that, here are some LB random notes: the last post is actually dated 5/6/10, the day I started it. Blame blogspot on that one, I thought it would date the day I posted it. And Mojo may be making his way through South Jersey again this weekend, wife in tow, and if he does, we could get ourselves another podcast, topic TBD. With that, we are unofficially sponsored by Panasonic, maker of the new 50 inch plasma screen I'm watching the Stanley Cup Finals on. It almost makes me want to forgive Verizon... almost.

- Instant blog request from our newest character, My Hero (he and the guys I play fantasy baseball with know who he is). "Call for the death of Jim Joyce." Armando Gallaraga of my beloved Tigers was one out from a perfect game, and Jim Joyce, the first base umpire, blew a call at first that would have been the last out. He has already come out and admitted he missed the call. Sure makes it tough for baseball to argue they don't need to expand replay any further, doesn't it? One minute under the booth corrects that error. I'm all for replay, for the record, you can keep the whole historical nostalgia of baseball for the old white haired white guys and have replay, too. If anything, it ensures the purity of the game. Unlike the steroid testing program, which doesn't do crap.

- Stanley Cup Finals, still one of the greatest events in sports. I'm watching it as we speak. Loved Chicago in this series, which is easy to say in retrospect, but if you check my last post, I told ZWR I liked them, so take that. Philly blew their chance to win this in Game 1. The wife, JB's wife, and I were mocking all the people who hate hockey during that game, "there's not enough scoring, blah blah blah." Boo freaking hoo. Hockey has the most non-stop action of any of the major sports, and that's not a debate, it's a fact. Almost nothing better than OT hockey in the playoffs. That's a fact, too. I'm not in the mood for debates tonight, sorry. In fact, I'm declaring everything I say from this point on in the post a fact. Even if the wife disagrees... well, maybe not then. She is 8 months pregnant and I have to live with her.

- I just saw a commercial with Taco Bell offering three item deals for $2. The catch, you ask? Two of the items are a bag of Doritos and a medium drink. Dude, that's less than a dollar at WaWa or 7-11. Goes to show you how dumb the general public is though, since I bet 90% of the people watching that were like, "wow, great deal!" Sorry, digressing.

- LeBron. Something tells me this will still be a topic when I get around to writing longer topics, but just a quick prediction: He's not going back to Cleveland. I'm leaning against New York (they suck, he wants to win, and even if Bosh went with him, they still aren't good enough to win soon) and Chicago (Jordan's shadow, he'd hate the comparisons). How about a darkhorse pick? Goes to Miami in a sign and trade to play with Dwyane Wade. Okay, so that's not a fact... actually, yest it is. It's a fact that's my prediction. O'Doyle rules. By the way, on that whole "free agent summit" that looks like it's going to happen between what is arguably the greatest free agent class in the history of sports, I saw somewhere there is over one billion dollars in salary going to be dished out just to the top 10 or so free agents. Wow, can I get a loan?

- Big Ten expansion. Rumor has it that Rutgers is a near definite to join the Big Ten, and if they do, the wife and I will be the first to sign up for season tickets. Please, God, make this happen. I really could care less about the whole conference title game, but I love the idea of seeing all the Big Ten schools every year an hour from my house.

- 4 minutes to go in the 3rd, tie game. Looking like OT in Game 3. I love the Stanley Cup.

- Speaking of terribly run sports, how about the NBA sticking with its TV schedule and making everyone wait for the Finals to start. Nothing like killing momentum and ripping your sport from the headlines for a week. Do you really think ESPN/ABC/TNT wouldn't be willing to adjust their schedules to accomodate the NBA? Please. I am so sick of L.A. and Boston, too. This is one of those series where I am rooting for enough players to get hurt so they can't finish the series, and we get no champion. Not bad injuries, just a bunch of sprained ankles, you know, non-career threatening. Can't mess with karma, ya know?

- My cat says, "purrrr" and miubvygfvrtdaexed.

- For the last three weeks, I've been trying to figure out what's with all the no-hitters, perfect games, and near no-nos/perfect games this year in baseball. I seriously have no explanation for this at all. My only thought is maybe, MAYBE there is a water-down effect going on with the offenses, but that really doesn't make any sense, since the pitchers should be watered down, too. Maybe the batters stopped juicing. Maybe I'm going to win Mega Millions and Powerball this weekend. Either way, this is eerily strange and we're only in June. Over/under on number of no-hitters the rest of the way: 1.5. Bet the under.

- OT it is. I can either end this now, or keep babbling while I wait for the game to start again. Or I can say good night and get another beer without re-reading for editing and adding that ending paragraph I don't think I need to write anymore.

Good night.