Unless you're a big NASCAR fan, you may not realize that one of the greatest streaks in sports history ended last Sunday. Tony Stewart just won his third Sprint Cup Championship, which means Johnson's 5-year reign as the Sprint Cup Champion is officially over. 

     I think a lot of times people tend to forget about past sports figures and think everyone or every moment they see if the best of all time.  Well in that spirit, I will go ahead and say Jimmie Johnson is the best driver in NASCAR history.  The obvious other top drivers would have to be Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, and Jeff Gordon.  Each of them had a reason why they were great, and I think Johnson has one reason why he separates himself from those three.

     Petty won 200 races and 7 championships, but when he won his races there was far less competition and they ran more races.  Earnhardt also won 7 championships, and much of that was because he revolutionized the sport by driving as aggressively as he did.  Many of the NASCAR drivers now try to drive like he did, but few have the respect from other drivers to make it as successful as he did.  Gordon was/is a great driver, but had the benefit of his race team revolutionizing the pit crew.  Gordon's "rainbow warriors" was the first pit crew made up of athletes from other sports.  That team was a huge advantage for Gordon which amplified his great driving.

     The reason I think Johnson stands alone as the best NASCAR driver of all time is how much the sport changed over his 5-year reign.  There was the Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff format, and then they changed how many people got in the Chase, and then they changed the qualifications to get in the Chase, and they changed the points system, and how many points a driver who wins gets, and most notably, they changed the cars.  The cars Johnson started in and continued his reign in were completely different.  What made Johnson so great is his adaptability.

     We may never see another team or individual with an absolute dominance in a sport like Jimmie Johnson, so while many NASCAR experts talk about how Tony Stewart is the current face of NASCAR, don't forget that we are lucky enough to witness the greatest driver in NASCAR history.

The NBA Lockout... A Whole Different Story

     I have never been a huge fan of the NBA.  It's just not the same as college basketball.  They don't play defense like college, and NBA teams let themselves get beat by superstars too easily.  How come LeBron never gets double teamed?  But I must admit, I am completely captivated by the NBA lockout, mostly because of how different it is from the NFL lockout.

     With the NFL, you kind of had the feeling that everything was going to be fine.  They got the deal done in time, and the teams had just enough time to still have a crazy quick off season.  I even heard some fans call in sports talk radio shows to say they preferred it this way, instead of having the trade and free agency season drag out all summer, all the moves happened one after another in about two weeks.  The NBA has already cancelled two weeks of the regular season, and there are players saying they are fully prepared to sit out the whole season.

     The NBA players have a huge negotiating chip that the NFL players did not have.  The NBA players have other options.  Dozens of players have already signed contracts to play overseas if the NBA lockout doesn't end.  These are no contracts to laugh at either, some of these guys are getting paid a million bucks to play for a month.  Another option that has come up recently is a group of NBA stars going on a 4-city international exhibition tour.  I think this would be pretty interesting.  You get the NBA superstars, presumably big ticket sales, everyone wins, except the NBA.  Football players couldn't have just decided they'd play a season for NFL Europe, it's not quite the same.  Also, you don't really have the risk of injury in the NBA like you do in the NFL.

    I don't have the numbers to prove this last point, but I think the NBA just isn't as popular as the NFL.  The NFL could have handled some games being cancelled I think.  The NBA really can't.  Like other sports with long seasons, the middle of the regular season can drag on.  The NFL is so short and sweet, that every week is a big deal, and the fans would come back through just about anything.  I just don't think the NBA has the fan base to support an extended lockout.  Plus, more basketball fans might take up watching college basketball during the lockout, and come to the conclusion that many sports fans already have:  The NBA doesn't come close to the entertainment of college basketball.

It's Been A Great Postseason So Far

     Sometimes I think it's hard to get interested in the MLB postseason when your team isn't in the playoffs, but I had no problem doing that this season.  Really, it started before the playoffs, in the last week of the regular season.  I'm not anti-Red Sox or anti-Braves (okay, truthfully, I don't much care for the Red Sox), and if you check my pre-season predictions I had the Sox and Braves in the World Series, so I was rooting for them as much as anyone.  But, to see the two wild card teams, the Rays and Cardinals, come back from huge deficits to barely make it into the playoffs was extremely entertaining.  Also, I'd always rather see the teams with the positive momentum get in the playoffs rather than the teams who barely hung on to their regular season lead.

     I had a feeling this postseason would be good, and the biggest reason for that was that I can't remember a year when I had less confidence in the two top seeds in each league.  The Phillies and Yankees ended the regular season on a whimper, both seemingly for different reasons.  The Yankees made it clear that they only had one motivation for the last week of the season; to make sure their starters were healthy for the playoffs.  They benched a lot of their regulars against Tampa Bay, and it didn't hurt that losing to the Rays would help keep the Red Sox out of the playoffs.  The Phillies manager Charlie Manuel however, let everyone know that they would be trying as hard as usual in the last week of the regular season, but they struggled as well.

     Sure enough, The Phillies and the Yankees both lost in the first round, leaving four hungry teams who aren't always playoffs fixtures, in the Cardinals, Brewers, Rangers, and Tigers.  I wanted to write on here and make playoffs predictions, but I honestly couldn't.  This year's playoffs were as unpredictable as possible, that is what made it so great.  The Rangers and Cardinals of course moved on in the League Championship Series' and are getting ready for the World Series.  I think this series will be as good as the rest of the playoffs has been.  I'm not at all confident in being able to predict how this will turn out, but I'll take the Rangers in 7.

Football Storylines So Far...

     Thank goodness football is back!  I have always been more of a baseball guy, but there is no denying that football delivers more nationally known storylines than any other sport, except maybe the Lebron-a-thon of 2010.  Here are some of my favorite football storylines of the college and pro football season so far:

SEC vs. the world

     The NCAA champion has come out of the SEC for something like 100 years in a row, give or take a few.  Is this the year a team from another conference takes over?  The SEC already has a few teams in the top of the national rankings in LSU, Alabama, South Carolina, and Arkansas.  Alabama and South Carolina might have the best two running backs in the country in Trent Richardson and Marcus Lattimore, and LSU looked surprisingly good against Oregon without their starting quarterback Jordan Jefferson.

     Some of the top contenders to break up the SEC-Natty streak are the current #1 team in the country Oklahoma, Florida State, Stanford, and this could always be the year the let the undefeated Boise State play in the National Championship, if they were to pull of that feat again, which looks likely based on their remainding schedule.

Kyle Orton vs. Tim Tebow

     Kyle Orton is the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos... for now.  It seems like all of the actual Broncos players and coaching staff are 100% behind Orton.  The problem is that it seems all of the Broncos fans are 100% behind Tim Tebow.  The biggest argument every analyst has used is that Kyle Orton is the better quarterback, and gives the Broncos the best chance to win.  I guess people are saying this because Kyle Orton looks more like an NFL quarterback, because in reality he hasn't won much, and the few games I saw Tim Tebow start last year he looked pretty good.  I think the Broncos might be worried that starting Tim Tebow might change their entire offensive scheme, but I think it worked pretty good for the Dolphins last year when they were the first team to use the Wildcat offense in the NFL.  Lastly, while I'm not ready to compare Tebow to Michael Vick, I can see the potential for Tebow to break off those 15 yard scrambles after an early-down penalty or sack to convert an improbable first down, just like Vick does.

Robert Griffin III

     Truthfully, I didn't know too much about this guy before this season started, and I heard from somewhere that he could have an outside shot at the Heisman trophy this season.  I made a point to watch Baylor play against TCU in the season opener so I could check this guy out.  I loved what I saw from Griffin that day, and I think he might already be a top quarterback, and a good potential pro.  I also like that we get to see Griffin play against other top Big 12 teams like Texas and Oklahoma this year, to see if his talent is good enough for Baylor to hang with the big boys in the conference.

Houston Texans

     I think the Texans are going to be a real fun team to watch this season, and that this is the year they crack the playoffs.  Sure, they are going to benefit from their division rivals the Indianapolis Colts losing Peyton Manning for an undetermined amount of time, which resulted in the Colts looking absolutely lost against Houston in week 1 of the NFL season.  Even without that, the Texans are bringing back one of the top RBs in the country in Arian Foster, who was out in week 1, but the Texans have some very capable backups until he returns.  Matt Schaub is also an under-rated quarterback, and happens to be throwing to the best wide receiver in the NFL, Andre Johnson.  Also, while I like Reggie Bush this year, that Mario Williams #1 pick a few years ago keeps looking better and better.

Russell Wilson

     This is by far my favorite college football story of the year.  In case you hadn't heard this one, Russell Wilson has been the very good starting quarterback for North Carolina State for the past three years.  Russell Wilson also just happens to be a top baseball prospect.  Wilson had been taking a while to decide whether he was going to play football this year or start his minor league baseball career full time.  NC State decided they weren't going to wait around for his decision, and declared that they would name Mike Glennon their starting quarterback for the upcoming season, whether Wilson was returning or not.  Well it turns out Russell Wilson did want to play college football season, but since NC State moved on without him, and since he already graduated, that he would attend grad school at a different college, and play his last college football season at Wisconsin.  News flash for NC State:  Russell Wilson is the type of player you wait around for.  Wilson is now shining as the quarterback for a top 10 team, and NC State has looked below average in their first two weeks.

Terps Uniforms

    I might be a Terps fan, but there is no doubt this was national news.  This was a top story for most sports talk shows the day after they debuted these uniforms against Miami on Labor Day evening.  Nevermind that this was an excellent game without the new uniforms.  Most people argue that these uniforms were awfuly, but I have to disagree, and I'll try to make this argument using my knowledge as a Terps fan, and also try to offer an unbiased view.

     There is no debate that these uniforms are far from traditional, but these uniforms are obviously not for traditionalists.  These uniforms are for high school kids deciding where to go to school, and like it or not, uniforms are a factor in where these kids go to school.  A few years ago I was watching Erin Henderson do a pre-draft interview on ESPNEWS, and they asked him these rapid fire questions, and one of the questions was what could the Maryland coaching staff do to improve the football program, and he immediately responded, to keep the talent in Maryland.  These uniforms were part of a larger scheme to start promoting Maryland within the state a lot more, and keep these high end football propsects from leaving town to play at Penn State, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, and Florida.  Some top level Maryland prospects have already commented on how they are excited about the changes Maryland has made so far.

     Like them or not, these uniforms did the job, and got Maryland on the national stage.  Furthermore, Maryland fans have been wanting the Maryland flag to be a bigger part of the logo and uniforms for a long time.  Maryland is really taking this Oregon of the east thing to a new level with Maryland being the flagship school of the Under Armour brand, and I would love to see what kind of crazy uniforms these teams would put together if they ever got to play a football game against each other.

American League vs. National League

     As I have written before, I'm not the type of guy to go out of my way to watch sporting events that don't affect my favorite teams in one way or another.  Since my favorite baseball team is in the American League, Interleague play gives me the chance to watch National League baseball rules that I don't normally get to.  The biggest difference in the American League and National League is that in the National League the pitchers have to bat for themselves, and in the American League an extra hitter is put in the lineup in place of the pitcher, called the Designated Hitter.  For years now, the American League has used the DH, and the National League has not.  Until fairly recently, the American League and National League never played against each other except for the World Series.  Now that there are set series between AL and NL teams, the rules apply to whichever team is playing at home.  So for an example, if the Yankees and Dodgers were playing in New York, they would play with the DH, but if they played in Los Angeles, they would not.

     I have watched interleague games in the past, but for whatever reason I have decided to take particular notice in the difference in games using the AL and NL rules.  My conclusion is that anyone who likes the National League better needs to be put in a straight jacket.  It's not nearly as fun to watch, and if you try to argue that it is, you're lying to yourself.  Now before you start, I already know the first argument for you NL loyalists.  The NL rules have more tradition.  My answer to that is, who cares?  Tradition in sports stinks.  If we worried about tradition all of the time instead of evolution of sports, there would still be no 3 point line in basketball, there would be no 2 point conversions in football, and there would still be 8 teams in the NCAA basketball tournament. 

     Having the pitchers hit ruins the flow of a baseball game.  When I am watching an AL game, and the 7th batter hits a line drive in the gap to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with two outs, then the next at-bat is very exciting.  If the batter gets a hit, then you are probably looking at a 2-run swing.  In this same scenario in the NL, they pitching team would just intentionally walk the 8th batter to get to the pitcher.  No pitchers can hit.  Even the pitchers tho can hit, can't hit.  The best hitting pitchers in the baseball have a batting average somewhere around the low 200s, which is not good, and a pitcher coming up to bat just ruins the momentum that a team created on offense.  The bottom line is it just makes the game less fun to watch.  In the AL, intentional walks are usually reserved for great hitters.  I watched a game last night where the Marlins intentionally walked Hank Conger, the rookie catcher and 8th batter for the Angels twice to get to the pitcher.  That's just not good for baseball.

     My next point is that there are plenty of DHs in baseball who are some of the most exciting players in the game.  Guys like Vladimir Guerrero, Jim Thome, Travis Hafner, and David Ortiz might not be in baseball anymore if not for the DH rule.  Those guys are fun to watch.  The bottom line is, if you are looking to watch an exciting baseball game to watch, who would you rather see hit, David Ortiz or Tim Wakefield?

     I have heard the argument a lot that you don't really use a lot of strategy in the AL.  In the NL there are a lot of pinch hitters, defensive substitutions, and double switches.  I agreed with this argument for a long time, until I heard someone else refute that argument, and off the top of my head I can't remember who it was, but it opened my eyes.  They said that it really doesn't take much strategy at all to manage in the NL, because most of the decisions are obvious.  It is not a difficult decision to pinch hit for the pitcher in the 7th inning in a close game.  Furthermore, it is not a difficult decision to turn that into a double switch so that the pitcher spot is further away in the lineup.  It is more difficult to make a decision to pinch hit, or bring in a new pitcher in the AL, where you don't have an obvious opportunity to do it.  After all, if all of these managers in the NL are making decisions based on avoiding the pitchers spot in the lineup, why not just make the rule for the DH in the first place like the AL.

     We are in the age of needing sports to be exciting, or people will change the channel, and the NL rules are old-fashioned and boring.  It's time for the NL to get with the times and go with the DH.

     A while back, I wrote a post about changing the baseball divisions.  Suddenly this is a hot topic in baseball, and many experts are putting in their input.  Of all the ones I have seen, the one I like the most is from Jim Bowden, former MLB general manager, and current ESPN baseball expert.  Here is his article and although I would keep the DH instead of take away the DH, I would agree with everything else he wrote here.

http://espn.go.com/blog/the-gms-office/post/_/id/363/mlb-needs-geographic-realignment

The Dumbest Punishment Ever

     2004 seemed to be a great year for the University of Southern California football program.  After their great 2003 season, in which they were co-national champions, they returned their most important role players for the next season including quarterback Matt Leinart, and running backs Reggie Bush and Lendale White.  With their stellar returning roster, they were ranked #1 in the preseason polls, and did not disappoint, as they went on to go undefeated during the regular season to earn a spot in the BCS National Championship game against Oklahoma.  They beat the daylights out of Oklahoma in that game 55-19 to easily win their second consecutive national championship.     Now 7 years later, the BCS is telling us that game didn't count. 

     Over the past 7 years, we have learned some new things about that national champion USC team.  For one, Reggie Bush, the most talented player on that team was said to have received improper benefits as a student-athlete, making him an ineligible player during his last two years at USC.  Since then, USC has had all of their 2005 wins, and some of their 2004 wins vacated, and now today the BCS has announced that they are vacating their 2004 National Championship.  Recently, the USC football program has been banned from bowl games for two seasons, and has lost a significant amount of football scholarships. 

     I guess I understand the post-season ban, and the loss of scholarships, other than the fact that the ban is for the 2011 and 2012 seasons, which is punishing players that had nothing to do with these violations.  Even the coach Pete Carroll is now gone, and is the head football coach for the Seattle Seahawks.  But all that being said, that punishment makes a lot more sense to me than vacating wins and championships.  I watched USC pretty frequently those seasons, and now 6 and 7 years later someone is telling me those games really didn't happen?  I don't see the purpose of this, the games happened, I remember them so well.  So the National Championship in 2004, as well as Reggie Bush's Heisman Trophy Award are all vacated.  The only thing this seems to do is make it so when someone looks back through the list of National Champions and Heisman Trophy winners, in those two cases there will be a line that says vacant, and probably an asterisk and a sentence explaining this whole mess.

     The problem with this punishment is that it doesn't really punish the people that made the violations.  There is a black mark in the record books and everything, but that's it.  It's almost getting to the point where that is the case with every record.  Look at baseball, in what other sports would the all-time career leaders in some of the most important stats not be in the hall of fame, or really look like they are anywhere close to ever getting in, like Pete Rose, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, and Roger Clemens.

     In my actual job of school teacher, my principal often says to us teachers that it is okay to have a problem, as long as you also come with a solution.  This is the thing I struggle with most on punishing players who formerly violated eligibility rules.  While I don't care for the current punishments, I don't really have a good solution on what you can do.  You can't punish people who aren't there anymore, and it stinks to have to punish people who had nothing to do with the violations.  So until I hear something I haven't thought of yet, I'm just going to have to go on having a problem with no solution.

Richard Childress Gets a Slap on the Wrist

     In case you are not a huge NASCAR fan, let me walk you through this crazy incident, which I have never heard anything like in sports before now.  Kyle Busch is a NASCAR driver, who is not exactly known for being the most polite race car driver in the world.  He will do anything he has to do to win a race, and that includes knocking another driver out of the way if necessary.  This is not an uncommon trait among NASCAR drivers, although Busch may be one of the guys who gets himself in these situations more often than others.  In this situation, in a race in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Busch and another driver, Joey Coulter, happened to be racing each other pretty aggressively.  Again, this is not uncommon.  What happened after this however is very uncommon. 

     Coulter drives in the Truck Series for Richard Childress Racing, a top NASCAR team which once was the team Dale Earnhardt Sr., drove for.  Lately, Busch has gotten himself in these aggressive driving situations with RCR cars frequently, and the RCR drivers have been very public about their dislike for him and his driving style.  Apparently this time, Richard Childress had enough with Kyle Busch.  After the race, Childress went down to the garage area, and found Kyle Busch, took his watch off, and put Busch in a headlock and repeatedly punched him in the head.  If you need to have this image in your head, please revisit the Nolan Ryan/Robin Ventura fight below:

     While this is very amusing, and I would have loved to see video of this altercation, this incident breaks the barrier between players and owners that is inexcusable.  Richard Childress was fined $150,000 and placed on probation for the incident, and I don't think that's good enough.  When you let players in a sport patrol their own behavior like is done in one way or another in every sport, that is one thing, but when you have owners getting in physical confrontations with athletes, that is a line that can not be crossed.  First of all, if this had happened in any other sport, players would be suspended for a significant amount of time, so why was Richard Childress not suspended at all?  In fact not only was he not suspended, he was allowed at the track for the weekend's Sprint Cup race.  Can you imagine if George Steinbrenner or Jerry Jones were seen getting in a fight with athletes?  They would be kicked out of the sport.  I'm not sure what makes this any different for Richard Childress.  One of the reason this bothers me the most, is that Earnhardt Sr, RCR's most popular and most successful driver ever, was most famous for driving extremely aggressive, much more so than Kyle Busch. 

     If I were making this decision, I would suspend Richard Childress from all operations from his team and not allow him to be at any NASCAR races for the remainder of the season.  After all, crew chiefs are suspended for multiple races when something from a car doesn't meet the exact specifications set forth by NASCAR.  I think it's pretty clear that this is much worse of an offense than that.

New Sports For Me to Watch

     I already spend a ridiculous amount of time watching sports.  This is in addition to all the time I spend reading about sports, and the in-depth analysis of sports I watch as well.  So when I told Shannon I was now interested in another sport, she was not exactly pleased.  This is a down time for sports fans who don't really get into the NBA playoffs like me.  By down time, I mean really during the week it's just baseball (which is still about six nights a week), and on the weekend it's NASCAR and a few PGA major championships in the upcoming months.  So due to the reduction of major sports to watch, I found myself getting into sports that I never would have thought of before.

     The first sport I found myself getting into only more recently is soccer.  I don't mean like last week, I'm going back a year for this one during the 2010 World Cup.  Actually, let me go back a little further than that to the 2006 World Cup.  I remember this World Cup because at the time I happened to be at a small bachelor party weekend with about 4 other guys.  I claim to be a bigger sports fan than most people I know, but I was the only person at this gathering who was not getting into the World Cup.  I never really liked soccer all that much, but my friends gave me a pretty good argument about how I claim to be such a big sports fan, but refuse to watch the world's biggest sporting event.  That was all it took to convince me that at the very least I should give it a chance.  That World Cup was about over at the time, but I knew that the next time it came around, I was going to give it a good chance.  I decided to thoroughly follow the U.S. team for the 2010 World Cup and it was very exciting.  I don't think I could follow soccer year round, but watching the U.S. team try and play above their level, and advance through the tournament like they never have before as the underdog team was a lot of fun, and easy to get into.

     Another sport I have started to get into more recently is college lacrosse.  Now this one is more because of personal interest for me, but I still think it was worth getting into.  Being a Maryland fan for other sports, I noticed Maryland was on ESPNU one day.  I know all too well that it can be difficult for some teams to get some national coverage, so I thought it was particularly special for a lacrosse team to be on national television.  I soon found out that the reason they were on national television was because it was the first round of the NCAA men's lacrosse tournament against North Carolina.  This was the first time I actually sat down and watched a full lacrosse game, and I loved it.  First of all, there is constant action going on.  The game is played in 4 15-minute quarters, and there are rarely any timeouts, so the game doesn't drag on at all.  Later on I got to see what would be thought of as one of the greatest sports plays of the year so far, when Maryland pulled off a "hidden ball" play, that would be shown on SportsCenter about a thousand times that week.  I got to watch Maryland advance through the tournament all the way to the championship game which they lost to UVA, but it was a great game, and a fun tournament to watch.  Barring any significant explosion in the Maryland baseball program, I think I found my college sport to watch in the Spring season.

     My last, and probably least exciting of new sports to watch was tennis.  There have been periods of time where I have gotten into tennis, so this isn't exactly a story as to why I have gotten into it recently, but I just happened to sit down and watch the Maria Sharapova and Li Na matchup at the French Open, and I couldn't turn away from it.  Tennis is one of those things for me that's easy to get into if there's anything special about the match.  Yesterday for example, it was because Sharapova has been out of the national limelight for tennis recently, so she was making a big comeback by making it to the semi-final round of the French Open.  This was also the only major tennis championship she has yet to win.  She didn't win the match but it was still fun to watch her play a competitive match as she tried to continue her quest for the career grand slam. 

     These three are the only sports I have started to grow more interest in than normal lately.  If you have any more ideas of new sports for me to watch, please don't tell me about them so I can give Shannon at least a little break from sports.

Ranking the Major Sports Playoffs Formats

     This is a good time of year for sports.  We are not that far removed from the Super Bowl and NCAA Football championship, and more recently, the NCAA basketball championship.  Currently, the NBA and NHL playoffs are just starting to get under way, and the Major League Baseball and NASCAR seasons are just beginning.  The two sports in playoff season right now gave me the idea to write this post on which sports have the better playoff formats.  There are some playoff formats that seem a lot more exciting than others, and I'm going to rank the major ones in the order that I like them.

7.  NBA Playoffs

     All playoff formats are exciting, and the NBA has some great moments just as the others do.  The problems with the NBA playoffs are that they drag on forever.  First of all, there are way too many teams in the playoffs.  There are 30 teams in the NBA, and the top 8 from each conference make the playoffs, which makes 16 total teams.  That means over half of the teams are in the playoffs.  This also means that more often than not, a team that lost more games than it won in the regular season makes the playoffs.  Just to compare this to the NFL, a team with a losing record made the playoffs in football this year for the first time, and people were furious about it.  With 16 teams in an elimination format, that gives 4 rounds of playoffs, and each round is a best of 7 series.  What makes this even worse, is that the series play 2 games at one team's location, then 2 at the other team's location, then 1 back at the first site, 1 back at the second site, and another game back at the first site, as long as no one has clinched the series yet.  All of these location changes make for several days in between each game, and each series can last as long as two weeks.  These playoffs drag on forever, and there are rarely any upsets, so it ends up being a lot of time spent on predictable results.

6.  NHL Playoffs

     The reasons I have the NHL playoffs ranked so low are similar to the NBA playoffs.  Just like the NBA playoffs, there are too many teams allowed in, and it drags on way too long.  I feel like it is more excusable for the long breaks in between NHL games however, because the physical toll is greater on hockey players than it is for basketball players.  This part could be in my head, but it feels to me like the hockey players are much more passionate about winning their playoff games than any other sport.  Hockey players also grow some pretty sweet playoff beards until they are eliminated, which is automatic bonus points.

5.  NASCAR Chase for the Cup

     I like the Chase for the Cup, mostly because this is a relatively new phenomenon, and formerly there was no playoff system.  The points for the regular season just continued through the whole year, and whoever had the most points at the end of the season was the champion.  This would be similar to just awarding the football team with the best record at the end of the year with the Super Bowl trophy.  While it is much better than before, the NASCAR playoff system still has its faults.  As the first two playoff formats, this one drags on too.  The NASCAR Chase for the Cup is 10 races, and the races are once a week.  This means the Chase is two and a half months long.  There are a lot of great parts of the 10 week long chase though.  The leaders seems to change often.  Not just week-to-week, but also within the race.  At any given moment, a wreck could happen and someone who was leading the points could be knocked down to 8th place.  In no other playoff system can your position in the standings can change so quickly.

4.  MLB Playoffs

     I think of all the professional sports, baseball has got the concept of playoffs down better than the rest of the sports.  There are 30 teams in baseball, and 8 teams total make the playoffs.  It is a big deal for any team to make the playoffs, even for teams who make the playoffs often.  There are only 3 rounds in the baseball playoffs, as opposed to 4 rounds in the other major sports.  Also, the first round is only a best of 5 series, so it is short and sweet.  They also switch locations a lot less in baseball, so that each series lasts shorter than other sports as well.

3.  NCAA Football BCS

     There are a lot of fans and media personalities who think the BCS is as bad as any other system.  I disagree with that for one simple reason.  While it may not necessarily be the most fair way to decide the championship, this is the only sport that can basically guarantee that the top two teams in the sport will play for the championship.  Also, when there is so much importance put on choosing who plays for the championship, it turns the whole regular season into a type of playoffs.  There is by far no more important regular season than college football.  It's the only sport where losing one game could eliminate you from being able to play for the championship.

2.  NFL Playoffs

     The NFL playoffs have a ton of good things going for them.  As previously mentioned, only once has a team with a losing record ever been in the playoffs, which was last year.  There are four rounds in these playoffs just like in the NBA and NHL, but each round is only one game.  This makes each game very intense.  Each game is a win or go home scenario.  Not to mention that the culmination of the NFL playoffs is the Super Bowl, the biggest sporting event in the world. 

1.  NCAA Basketball Tournament

     This one wasn't even close.  I know the Super Bowl is a big deal, but as far as the playoffs as a whole go, nothing is close to the NCAA tournament.  Even though there is a big playoff field, currently at 68 teams, and possibly still growing, there is still a hint of exclusivity with good teams being left out (just ask Virginia Tech fans).  Everyone fills out a tournament bracket, even people who haven't watched a game all year.  Once they have filled out brackets, people can't wait to watch and follow along with their brackets, anxiously hoping one of their 13 seeds beats a 4 seed in the first round.  I think the fan participation is what makes the NCAA tournament as popular as it is.  Some people play their office pools to try and win a little money.  I mostly fill mine out on ESPN just in case I hit it perfect, and I figure they'll have me on Mike and Mike the next morning.  My favorite story about tournament brackets is a few years ago when 3 people of all the millions of people who fill out a tournament bracket on ESPN, correctly picked George Mason to go to the final 4.  When they had the 3 guys on ESPN that morning, 2 of them said they picked Mason to go to the final 4 because they were graduates from George Mason.  The other guy picked George Mason on accident because he thought he was picking George Washington to go to the final 4. 

     I don't think any playoff system is perfect, but this is how I rank the playoff formats as they are right now.  I think the NASCAR and NCAA football systems are most likely to change unless any of the other leagues have an increase or decrease in teams.  Let me know what you think about my rankings, or share your own in the comments section.

Sports Things I Would Change

     I recently was watching Mike and Mike in the morning while I got ready for work, as I often do, and they were talking about what rules in sports they would change.  A friend suggested that I write here about what rules I will change when they put me in charge of the world some day.  Some of them are rules, some of them are other parts of sports I would change, all are excellent ideas.

     Change 1:  I would re-organize the divisions in Major League Baseball, and would include two expansion teams.  They say that on opening day, everyone has the same chance to win the World Series.  This is not true for two reasons.  The first reason is that different teams have different budgets for their payroll, and so some teams never really have a chance (read: Pittsburgh Pirates), but that is not the basis of my rule change.  The second reason, the rule changing reason, is that some teams have a better or worse chance to make the playoffs based on what division, or league they play in.  Each league in baseball gets four teams in the playoffs, but the National League has 16 teams, and the American League only has 14 teams.  Also, because the leagues have a different amount of teams, the division are off as well, where the NL Central has six teams, and the AL West only has four teams.  This gives teams in the AL West a 10% better chance to make the playoffs than the teams in the NL Central before a game is even played. 

     I would add two teams to the American League to make 16 teams in each league, and four divisions of four teams in each league.  I would add a team in North Carolina, because there are no teams in between the Nationals and the Braves, and in Tennessee, because I am now in charge and I want a team in Tennessee.  I like the idea of having a team in Las Vegas, but let's face it, no one is going to Vegas to watch a baseball game.  So with Carolina and Tennessee, here are my new updated divisions.

American League:

East:  NY Yankees, Boston, Baltimore, Toronto
North:  Minnesota, Chicago White Sox, Detroit, Cleveland
South:  Kansas City, Carolina, Tennessee, Tampa Bay
West:  LA Angels, Oakland, Seattle, Texas

National League:

East:  Atlanta, Philadelphia, NY Mets, Washington
North:  Chicago Cubs, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Cincinnati
South:  Florida, Pittsburgh, Arizona, Houston
West:  San Fransisco, Colorado, LA Dodgers, San Diego

     Before you say anything, I realize the geographical names of these divisions don't make sense in every case, but I felt like this was the best way to keep all the natural rivalries together.  With two wild card teams in each league, this would also make for an extra round of playoffs.  I would make it a best of 3 series, keeping it short and sweet.

     I have three rule changes about college basketball, and two of them are about the excruciating pain of watching the end of close games.  The reason I say college basketball instead of all basketball is because I don't watch many NBA games, so I'm not sure if the rules about game management translate exactly the same.  So, in a close college basketball game, the coaches call timeouts after almost every play near the end of the game.  They do this to make new plays, set new defenses, and decide things like whether or not to foul the other team on purpose to stop the clock.  Each team has five timeouts, four of which they can carry over from the first half to the second half.  Now you may notice that there are many timeouts during a college basketball game, but these timeouts most often are not called by the coaches, but rather they are TV timeouts.  In college basketball, there is a TV timeout for every four minutes of game clock, to make sure enough commercials are shown during the game.  This stops the clock so often, that coaches can save their own timeouts for the end of the game.  This often leads the last two minutes of a game to last up to twenty actual minutes.  I would keep the TV timeouts, but limit the teams to two timeouts per team for each game.

     The other college basketball rule I would change to stop the extremely long end of games, are to actually call intentional fouls when it is known that a team is fouling on purpose.  When a team has gotten to the point where it looks like they are about to lose a close game, they foul the other team on purpose, so the clock is stopped, and the team has to make two free throws.  This is a huge advantage the creates more plays, and allows a team more opportunities to catch up to the winning team.  The problem is, there is already a rule in place forbidding intentional fouls, except no one ever calls it.  I think if a team gets to the point where they have to resort to fouling on purpose, than they should have to deal with the penalties of intentionally fouling, which would never happen because when an intentional foul is called, the fouled team gets the ball back anyway.

     My last college basketball rule change idea is one I have had for a long time, and to this day no one has ever agreed with me about it.  I would like to ban the alley-oop which is perhaps the most exciting play in all of basketball.  The reason I don't like it is because it is nearly impossible to defend.  Even if a player is in position to intercept the soon-to-be-dunked basketball, they won't do it because it looks like a shot, and to defend a shot on its way down to the basket is also a penalty.  Any play that is impossible to defend should be illegal.
     I have two major rule changes about NASCAR.  One is short, sweet, and simple.  There should never be a line that a car is not allowed to cross to pass another car.  If a driver wants to go down on the grass in order to make a pass for the lead, then they should be able to try it.  It would almost never work, but would be a lot of fun to watch.  My second rule is also a simple one, and this is almost universally accepted as something that needs to happen in NASCAR.  Some races are just plain too long.  NASCAR races can last over five hours, and that's without any major delays in the race.  Due to new technology in the cars, there are some tracks where it is extremely difficult for cars to pass each other, and the cars spread out a lot, so basically it is five hours of cars riding in a single file line, with brief interruptions of actual racing.  Races should last about three hours, the same length as a regulation football range

     My last rule change is with college football and basketball.  There should be no rules on when an athlete is allowed to turn pro.  People should be able to make their own decisions on when to forfeit their amateur status and become a professional.  If they make a bad decision, then they have to deal with life like the rest of us and get a real job.  Also, if a player is good enough to be a pro, than the fact that they are only two years removed from high school should not prevent them from doing so. 

     These are my rules for what I am going to change when I am in charge.  Tell me what you think about mine, and also tell me any rule changes you have.  I'll let you know what I think if you have any!

Asking for Autographs as an Adult

     As stated in the title of my blog, I may not be an expert on all things sports, but there is one thing I  am absolutely an expert on, which is the embarrassment of getting autographs as an adult.  This is by far the most demeaning thing I willingly do.  While my wife was reading this post before I published this, she felt obligated to remind me that she has had to stand by my side while she shared the embarassment of these incidents with me.
    

     The worst, and most embarrassing thing about asking for autographs is when you are competing with children for the autographs.  There is nothing I hate more than standing next to a 5 year old kid trying to get an autograph at a baseball game.  Kid beats adult in this situation every time.  Not only do they have the  cute and emotional advantage, but they seem to be able to sneak themselves in between you and the athlete in any scenario to cut in line. 

     One of my most upsetting autograph experiences was just a few years ago.  I went to a 3-game series when the Angels came to play the Washington Nationals, and was determined to get Torii Hunter's autograph in his first season with the Halos.  In the first two games there was never really a good opportunity, but in the third game I got myself in premium position right next to the visitor's dugout when Torii was coming over.  It was basically me and another guy using this strategy.  At some point, Torii acknowledged us, and gave the nod that he would be coming over shortly.  There was a kid, about 10-11 years old behind me, and an old man behind me, but I had good position on these two and did not anticipate a problem.  What I didn't know at the time was the guy positioned next to me was from Torii Hunter's hometown of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and had a Pine Bluff Little League baseball for Torii to sign.  I was obviously losing out to this guy, but still had good position for the next one.  This is when the old guy behind me asked me who was signing, and being the nice guy that I am, I turned around to tell him it was Torii Hunter.  When I turned around, the kid snuck in front of me somehow, and got autograph #2 on a Washington Nationals baseball.  Torii Hunter was not on the Washington Nationals, in fact he's never been on the Washington Nationals.  This kid did not care about Torii's autograph, it could have been the 3rd base coach and this kid would not have known the difference.  I guarantee this ball ended up in the sewer wherever this kid played baseball like the minor league autographs me and my brother used to get at Prince William Cannons games.  As I turned around to see this kid commit this unforgivable act, the old guy who I had to tell that Torii Hunter was signing autographs snuck around me on the other end to get the third and final autograph that Torii Hunter would be giving out this day.  I was inconsolable until about the 6th inning of that game.

Torii robbin' em, what he does best



     There are a lot of good opportunities for autographs if you pay enough attention.  Most teams have some kind of day celebrating the opening of the season, or some similar event where the players are signing autographs that day.  I went to the one last year at Maryland, called Maryland Day, which was a combination of the football Spring game, and where other parts of campus are open, and the Maryland basketball team also signs autographs.  This is the event where I got my picture with Gary Williams on the front page of this blog.  This was great for me because there were organized lines, so I did not have to compete with kids for autographs, and also the event was free.  Maryland also does not have a huge fan base, so I could get as many autographs as I wanted, and didn't have to wait in crazy lines.  Everything about the event was going smoothly until I came to one sad realization.  I was 26, and the autographs I was getting was from college students.  It was a sad moment once I realized I was going all crazy over 19 year olds signing a football for me.  Keep in mind though that I will be going again this year, so I wasn't too embarrassed about this.

Me and Jordan Williams at Maryland Day



     eBay however is not a good alternative to avoiding the shame of getting autographs with children.  First of all, even if you are really sure, you are never 100% convinced this is a real autograph you've paid for.  Also, even if you do feel really good about the authenticity of the autograph, the fact that you didn't get it signed yourself really ruins it for you.  When I see some of the autographs I have gotten, I remember the story of getting them, and when I see the few I have gotten from eBay, I don't have that same feeling.

     In summary, to truly enjoy your autograph, don't buy it on eBay, don't get suckered into compromising your position based on old people or kids, and do your best to live with the shame of obssessing over getting someone to sign their name on an object of your choosing.

My Thoughts on Tiger Woods

     It's Masters week, the greatest golf weekend of the year.  You could argue that the 2 open championship majors are better, but I'll take the Masters any day.  First of all, it's the first major of the year, so if a good golfer wins, you can start wondering what if he wins all four, which never happens but it's still okay to hope.  Secondly, Augusta has more history and pageantry than any other golf course in the world. 

     I thought since this was Masters week, it would be a good time to write about golf.  And if I am going to write about golf, who better to write about than Tiger Woods.  I am not real happy about the Tiger Woods situation that went down beginning on Thanksgiving Eve of 2009, but I think I probably feel like that for different reasons than most people.

     Tiger Woods is not a saint as it turns out.  I hope I'm not ruining your perception by saying this, but most athletes aren't.  Athletes cheating on their spouses is not unusual, partly due to their celebrity and money, but also due to the fact that they are constantly on the road.  I'm not saying this is an excuse, I'm just saying it happens.  A lot.  The reason it was as big of a deal as it was, is because it was Tiger Woods.

     My biggest problem is that all of these things he did to satisfy his own needs, ruined his golf game.  Taking the time off of golf ruined what was supposed to be the world watching the greatest golfer of all time.  Now it's gone.  Tiger Woods was not only the best golfer in the world, but what people who didn't watch him might not realize, is how feared he was by his competitors.  Great golfers used to fold just because they played in the same group as Tiger.  I don't have the stats behind this, but Sergio Garcia played his absolute worst golf whenever he played with Tiger. 

     The best of Tiger Woods was when people used to talk trash about him in the media.  Whenever anyone would say the slightest comment that could be thought of as negative in anyway, Tiger would take that out on the course and just dominate everyone.  Stephen Ames once said he doesn't know how Tiger Woods wins golf tournaments for how bad he hits the ball, not long before he was going to play him in a match play tournament.  For those who aren't familiar with golf, instead of playing against everyone like a normal tournament, in a match play tournament you are matched up against one person, and if you win more golf holes than the other golfer, you advance to the next round of the tournament, until there is only one golfer left.  When a golfer is leading in holes by more than the amount of holes left to play, the match is over.  So if a golfer wins a match 2&1, that means they are 2 holes up against their opponent, with only 1 hole left to play.  So Stephen Ames decided to make these comments about Tiger Woods right before he was matched up against Tiger.  Tiger then went out and beat him silly, winning 9&8.  If you're keeping up with the math, this means they only played 10 holes, and Tiger won 9 of them, and they tied 1.  This is as big of a beat down as you can give someone in match play golf.

    Golfers now talk trash to Tiger all of the time, and there's nothing he can do about it anymore.  Ian Poulter called him #2 soon after losing his #1 ranking in golf which he held for about 10 years during a dispute on a putting green.  Young golfers are talking about how beatable Tiger is, which would have been unheard of 3 years ago.  This was supposed to be about the time Tiger was beating Jack Nicklaus' record of 19 majors won, but instead he's reduced to being demeaned by a bunch of young guys who haven't even won anything yet.

     So I know most people are upset about what Tiger did, and they are certainly justified.  I am more upset because I feel robbed of what should be watching the greatest golfer in history.  I don't expect Tiger to do well in the Masters this weekend, because he just seems to be having too much trouble putting 4 good rounds in a row together, and is not putting well.  Golfers I am looking to do well this week are Phil Mickleson, Graeme McDowell, and Dustin Johnson.

The Mistake of Following College Sports Recruiting

     I'm a big sports fan, and as a big sports fan, I try to get any kind of information about any of my teams at the earliest possible time.  As technology continues to be a larger factor in sports information, reports and rumors from inside sources seem to be more available than ever.  These reports range from what player your NFL team is considering drafting, to in-race twitter reports form NASCAR race teams, to rumors websites about all the latest trade rumblings whispered about your favorite baseball team.

     One of the more popular sports insider information web sites is subscription sites that offer inside information on the athletes deciding where to play in college.  These sites charge a monthly fee to access a message board, run by a moderator whose job is to follow and report on any high school athlete being recruited by a particular school.  Following college recruiting is something I regret starting, because now that I started it, I can't stop.  College recruiting can be fun if your team consistently signs top caliber athletes such as Duke, Kentucky, and North Carolina in basketball, or Ohio State, Alabama, and Texas football.  If your team does not happen to one of those top end schools, recruiting can be very frustrating.  Athletes are ranked on a 5-star system, where 1 star is the lowest level prospect, and 5-star prospects are the top high school athletes in the country.  Top end schools get so many 5-star recruits, that some of them don't even start.  This leaves some of the second tier schools to fight over 3 and 4-star recruits.

     Something that's difficult to remember sometimes, is that these athletes being recruited are just kids.  The beginning of the recruiting process for the majority of high school athletes starts in their sophomore year of high school.  That means these kids are about 15 years old at the beginning of this process.  It is not a good moment when you realize you are getting all bent out of shape over where 15 and 16 year olds decide to go to college.  Like most teenagers, these teenagers tend to change their minds often.  It is not uncommon for a high school recruit to have a big ceremony to announce what school they have chosen to go to, and then days later announce that they have changed their mind and are going to a different school.

    Recruits do not automatically guarantee success however.  VCU and Butler just advanced to the Final 4 of the NCAA basketball tournament, and each team had one 4-star recruit, and two 3-star recruits as their highest rated players coming out of high school.  This can be especially difficult for teams who don't get many highly rated recruits to begin with, to have one end up being a bust when it comes time to perform on the field.

     It is also generally accepted that college recruiting is a very dirty business.  Some of the top coaches of the top programs in the country have been caught breaking the rules about providing recruits with some kind of monetary or other types of benefits, which is illegal for amateur athletes.  This kind of thing can ruin a program.  Just ask Southern Methodist University, whose football program was one of the tops in the country, until repeated recruiting violations sent them into years of recruiting sanctions, which lead to the demise of the program.  These violations were highlighted in the recent ESPN 30 for 30 documentary "Pony Excess".

     Because of these reasons, and because it's too late for me, if I were you I would just enjoy the players you get once they get to your school, rather than agonize over the college recruits that never end up coming to your school.

MLB Monday: 2011 Season Predictions

     It's almost time for meaningful baseball!  My last MLB Monday leading up to the regular season will be about my predictions for the season this year.  I feel like this is a good time to remind everyone that I am in no way, shape, or form, an expert, and these predictions are sure to be terrible.  But I do invite everyone to make your predictions in my comments section.  So here goes nothing...

AL division winners

Boston Red Sox
Detroit Tigers
Los Angeles Angels

NL Division Winners

Philadelphia Phillies
Cinncinnatti Reds
San Fransisco Giants

Wild Card Teams

New York Yankees
Atlanta Braves

First Round Playoffs

Boston def. Los Angeles
Detroit def. New York
San Fransisco def. Philadelphia
Atlanta def. Cincinnatti

Second Round Playoffs

Boston def. Detroit
Atlanta def. San Fransisco

World Series

Boston def. Atlanta

American League Awards

MVP- Robinson Cano
Cy Young- Jon Lester
Batting Champion- Robinson Cano
HR Champion- Jose Bautista
Comeback Player of the Year- Mark Reynolds

National League Awards

MVP- Troy Tulowitzki
Cy Young- Cliff Lee
Batting Champion- Troy Tulowitzki
HR Champion- Albert Pujols
Comeback Player of the Year- Carlos Beltran

Surprise Teams of the Year

AL- Baltimore Orioles
NL- Milwaukee Brewers

     There are my picks, let me know yours!

My Favorite Players Who Aren't On My Favorite Teams

     When you watch a lot of SportsCenter, you start to see a lot of players who you normally wouldn't see from just watching your own team.  Sometimes, you see these players do so well, you want them to be on your team.  During baseball seasons, I always used to have a running list of 3 or 4 players who I used to follow who weren't on my favorite team.  The first player I was really like this for was Torii Hunter, then of the Twins, and I was lucky enough to see him sign a 5-year contract with my favorite team a few years ago.  I started taking this concept to other sports too, and eventually I started to have quite a few players I followed across several sports who I liked to keep track of.  Here are some of my current favorite players not on my favorite team, and a brief description on why I like them.

Jason Heyward, OF, Atlanta Braves:

Associated Press



     These days, baseball prospects are a dime a dozen.  Every team seems to think they have the next great baseball player.  Most of them don't.  Jason Heyward had a huge amount of hype on him last year in his rookie year.  I made a point to watch the Braves opening game so I could see him.  The baseball world was anxiously waiting his debut, and for most people that pressure would be a lot to handle.  So what did Heyward do in his first at-bat?  Hammered a pitch over the right field fence.  It may have just been one pitch, but it was enough for me to know I liked this guy, and was ready to see more.  He had a decent rookie year batting .272 with 18 HR and 72 RBI, but he is poised to be a 30 HR and 100 RBI type of guy every season.

DeMarcus Ware, LB, Dallas Cowboys:

Greg Nelson/SI



     I'm a Redskins fan, so I'm not supposed to like DeMarcus Ware, but he seems to be the ideal kind of football player to like.  He's a physical beast, he plays through injuries, and he plays harder than any player in the NFL.  He's also good for at least 10 sacks every year, and is one of the most dominant defensive players in football.  From all the reports I've heard, he's also an incredible person too.  Unfortunately, it seems more rare than ever than an athlete is a good person too.  So I hope the best for DeMarcus Ware, just not against the Redskins.

Rick Ankiel, OF, Washington Nationals:

     Rick Ankiel came up through the minor leagues in the St. Louis Cardinals organization.  Except he came up as a pitcher.  He was a top pitching prospect too, and a pretty solid starter for a couple of seasons for the Cardinals.  Ankiel developed a control problem, to the point where he started setting Major League records for the amount of wild pitches he threw.  It started getting in his head, and he never could fix his control issues.  So once he got to the point where it was clear he would not be a major league pitcher, he talked the organization about back down to the minor leagues about being an outfielder.  It took him 3 years to return from his last season pitching to a major league outfielder.  For those who aren't very familiar with pitchers in baseball, they can't hit at all.  Even the ones who can hit, can't really hit.  So for Ankiel to make the majors as a pitcher, and then again as an outfielder was amazing to me.  Also, I really am holding out hope his team gets into an emergency situation where they run out of pitchers, and they bring him in from the outfield to pitch.

Tim Tebow, QB, Denver Broncos:

     I like Tim Tebow for a couple of reasons, but the first is a reason most people like a player not on their team.  This reason is of course, he's on my fantasy football team.  So mostly I like him because I want to win the caysh, but also I hate when a player does great in college football, and all of the expert analysts say they cant cut it in the NFL.  I had the same thoughts when they said Charlie Ward, the Heisman trophy winning QB from Florida State couldn't cut it because he was too short, or Eric Crouch, the Heisman trophy winning QB from Nebraska, couldn't cut it because he ran the option offense in college.  Tim Tebow got to play a little toward the end of this season, and he looked exactly as good as he did in college.  Playing quarterback by running and throwing the ball, and taking big hits in the process.  Tim Tebow being successful in the NFL could be huge for the sport, and maybe some of these college-style quarterbacks will start looking better to NFL scouts.

Any former Maryland football and basketball player:

     I realize this one isn't quite the same as the other ones, because at one point they were on my favorite college team.  I like to follow the guys through their pro careers though, because good players from a school only does good things for the program, and also because I rooted for these players very heavily in college, and I'm in general just not ready to stop rooting for them. 

Honorable Mention Favorite Players:

Cliff Lee, SP, Philadelphia Phillies
Travis Hafner, Cleveland Indians
Manning brothers, QBs, Indianapolis Colts and New York Giants
Nick Markakis, OF, Baltimore Orioles
Josh Hamilton, OF, Texas Rangers
Brian Vickers, #83 Red Bull Toyota driver
Drew Brees, QB, New Orleans Saints
John Wall, PG, Washington Wizards

     If you have any players you like who aren't on your favorite team, write about them in the comments!

MLB Monday: AL Central race

     The division race I am most excited about watching this season is the AL Central.  The general consensus is that the Minnesota Twins will win the division again from what I have seen so far, but I think some other teams will be just as good this year.

     The Twins have the best catcher in baseball Joe Mauer.  The Minnesota native is virtually a lock to contend for the highest batting average every season.  When healthy the Twins first basemen Justin Morneau also is one of the best players in baseball.  Morneau is coming off a season where he missed more than half of the year from a nasty concussion, and apparently was still feeling the effects recently.  The Twins have a relatively unkown infield other than Morneau, but the Twins seem to be one of those teams that play well no matter who they put in the lineup.

     The Detroit Tigers are the team I think will have the best chance of knocking off the two-time defending division champion Twins.  The Tigers have proven veterans and power hitters in outfielder Magglio Ordonez, first basemen Miguel Cabrera, and catcher/DH Victor Martinez.  They also have two young up-and-coming superstars in outfielder Austin Jackson, and flamethrowing starting pitcher Max Scherzer.  With their offense and strong bullpen, I think the Tigers could end up being the team to beat in the Central.

Robin Buckson / The Detroit News

    The Chicago White Sox could be the darkhorse team to watch in this divison this year.  The addition of Adam Dunn will bring some power to the lineup that already includes homerun hitters Paul Konerko and Carlos Quentin, and could be dangerous to opposing pitchers.  Like the Tigers, the White Sox also have a budding superstar in second basemen Gordon Beckham.  The problem with the White Sox is their starting rotation is pretty shaky with potential injury prone pitchers.  If the pitchers stay healthy though, they could be one of the best in baseball.

     These three teams will make the AL Central a fun division to watch this year.  What division races are you excited about watching this season?  Share in the comments.

Going to the game vs. Staying at home

     Through high school and most of college, I would have never thought about this discussion.  I would have said going to the game wins every time.  Nothing beats the game day experience right?  Then I had a friend in college whose father was the former Chief of Police in Washington, DC.  First of all, sports aside, this was great.  He had all sorts of great stories from that time in his career, and most were hilarious.  He was a Redskins fan also, and one day he told me about all the free tickets he was offered when he was Chief.  He told me he thinks he was offered free tickets to every single Redskins home game during his entire time as the Chief of Police.  He then told me he never went to one game.  I didn't understand this, and when I asked him about it he basically told me, going to the game would be nice and everything, but he liked that he didn't have to deal with the parking, the lines everywhere, the traffic in and out of the stadium, and most importantly, he liked that when the game was ready to start he turned the TV on, and when it was over, he turned it off, and he was done with it.  I still credit this line with ruining going to sports games for me, because he was right.  When you go to a game, it is a full day's event.

     Going to games is still fun for me, but I think I am more picky about when to go to games and when not to now.  First of all, if they were free tickets, I would have been at those games, because that's half the battle as far as I'm concerned.  It's hard for me to justify paying for the tickets, gas, parking, and food at a game, when I could watch the same game at home for free (and by free, I of course mean enjoy the sports on the programming I've already paid way too much for).

     Another thing I've found is that with all the new technology in televised games, I miss out on a lot being in person.  I usually like the commentators for games, and I like when an announcer points out something I didn't see.  I have mentioned in a previous post that I saw Navy football play a game using the triple option offense, and most of the time I didn't know who had the ball.  With the cameramen and announcers, I know exactly what is going on.  I also like knowing what is going to happen when a play is under instant replay review.  I could swear, being at a game with an important replay call under review, sometimes it feels like those calls take up to 10 minutes to figure out.  I like pausing games and taking a bathroom break, and fast-forwarding through commercials.  I like checking in on other games/fantasy football players if my game isn't going as well as planned.

     There are other games/events where I feel like television doesn't do it justice.  I have season tickets to Maryland football games.  It makes it easier for me to have season tickets to Maryland football, because they don't sell out games, so it's cheaper for me then it would be for a Virginia Tech fan.  I feel like college football games are an exception to this rule because it's more to me than the game.  Being on campus, and being around the college-aged students makes me feel like a college student again.  Granted, I was a college student longer than most people already anyway, but that's not the point.  Tailgaiting at a college game is a lot of fun for me, because you're surrounded by everyone rooting for the same team as you waiting to get in the gates and take in the college football atmosphere.  I understand you could make the same argument for tailgaiting at pro games, but for some reason the college atmosphere feels different for me.

     My other event that is only better in person is the NASCAR Nationwide Series.  For those unfamiliar with the Nationwide Series, it is one step below the top level Sprint Cup Series, but has many of the same drivers, and usually is the night before the Cup race.  In general, I don't really care who wins the Nationwide race.  I have my rooting interests, but since it's not the Cup Series, it's not a big deal if it doesn't work out.  The reason I feel like I have to be at this race, is because you get all the fun of tailgaiting at a Cup race, but don't have to get too worried about the actual outcome.  I feel like I have to be in front of a TV for the Cup race, because I want to see where my drivers are, hear the analysis from the commentators, and see anything I would miss by not having experts explain it to me.  Let me tell you though, you have not experienced tailgaiting until you have been to a NASCAR race.  You see things which would never be acceptable at a normal sports event.  I have seen people bring garbage bags full of beer into the track (only for me to spend the whole race sneaking them out of their bag).  I have seen people walk around with a beer funnel they pass around for anyone to use.  I have seen my friends partake in this, and my advice to you would be to avoid that all costs.  Bottom line is, if you haven't tailgated at a NASCAR race yet, do it soon.

     I think overall, my opinion is that if I am watching a game because I truly care about the outcome, I'd rather be watching it on TV.  I'd rather sulk by myself if we lose, rather than be surrounded by opposing fans yelling some sort of chant in my face, and I'd rather know all of the information about the event as possible, which just is not happening when you are at a game in person.  If a game is more important for the experience, then I'd obviously rather go.  If you have any thoughts on game vs. home, share them under the comments.