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Archive for September, 2010

In July the Devils signed Ilya Kovalchuk to a 17 year 102 million dollar contract. The NHL decided to interfere by claiming the deal broke salary cap rules. It’s legal when the Capitals or Penguins give out insanely long contracts but when a team that’s been good for a long time tries to improve it isn’t allowed. The NHL overstepped its bounds, as usual, & as a result the Devils did everything they could to get their man.

On Saturday the Devils finally officially signed Kovalchuk to a deal. A 15 year deal worth 100 million dollars. In the end the difference between the two contracts is so miniscule it makes the NHL brass look like clowns, which unfortunately they’ve been making themselves look like for years.

At the end of the day the Devils give their fan base a great present, Kovalchuk gets a deal he wants & the NHL look like idiots.

If I told you Bill Lee pitched in the major leagues from 1969 to 1982 you’d probably think if I told you he pitched earlier this week that he had pitched in a Boston Red Sox Old Timer’s Game. You’d be dead wrong. Lee was looking forward to helping out a charity raise money but instead got talked into pitching for the Brockton Rox, an affiliate of the Boston Red Sox.

You’d assume a 63 year old man would pitch a few innings & be done. Not so fast. Lee actually pitched pretty well giving up only two runs in 5 1/3 innings & recording the victory. Lee continues to be involved in baseball any way he can.

And we salute Bill Lee for his efforts.

If I told you the Tampa Bay Rays were leading the wild card in September, you’d believe me. If I told you the Atlanta Braves were leading their division in September, you might scoff & realize it’s possible. If I told you the San Diego Padres were leading their division in September, you might be rolling around on the ground laughing. But each instance is true, for now.

Each team however has been slumping greatly of late. The Giants are quickly closing in on the Padres & the Phillies are creeping up on the Braves. Luckily for the Rays they are so far ahead in the wild card standings a bump in the road here & there will only help them long term.

The Rays have lost 3 in a row, the Padres had lost 10 in a row & the Braves seem to be losing whenever the Phillies are winning. Guess not every team can be the Rangers & already have a magic number in place to winning the division. While we assume the Braves & Rays will hang on to make the playoffs it is very unlikely with both the Giants & Rockies on the Padres tails that they will survive.

When ESPN College Football experts suggested Christian Ponder of Florida State would be in the discussion for winning the Heisman I must admit I laughed hysterically. Ponder has done next to nothing to make people think he should be in consideration for the Heisman trophy. But since he is a senior, the bias towards upperclassmen seem to have come out again. So I watched the Seminoles battle a mediocre team in Samford on Saturday.

I was surprised with what I saw. I saw poise & intelligence from Ponder. Was it Jumbo Fisher’s new offense? Was it merely a matter of the inferior competition?

Now I see why critics picked Ponder to win the Heisman. The team has only one game left on its schedule where they will play a team that isn’t better than them. That being NC State. Every other game they play will be a fight, where they will have to scrap to win.

In other words, most of these games will be the primetime game of the week, where the national voters will be watching. If Ponder performs well the traction will grow. If Ponder performs poorly people may be laughing, as I had done.

As a 49ers fan I have been able to watch Matt Leinart & TJ Houshmandzadeh with a keen eye. So it came as no surprise when their respective teams cut them over the weekend. It made sense as neither of them have any substantial ability, though they did in 2006.

The Ravens who had three far superior wide receivers in Anquan Boldin, Mark Clayton & Derrick Mason decided to sign Houshmandzadeh for some reason. Then the Ravens destroyed what they had built. They finally had a wide receiving core of more than two guys, then they traded Clayton to the Rams. So now they are back to having two good receivers. The Ravens will have released Houshmandzadeh by December & wondering why they incompetently signed him in the first place, not to mention why they sent away a wide receiver three times as talented to do so.

In the same regard the Houston Texans decided to sign Matt Leinart. They had just parted ways with a mediocre USC quarterback in John David Booty, but they decided to bring in another. The move only makes sense for one reason: Matt Schaub’s injury history. Last year was the first time Schaub stayed healthy for an entire season. The backup the Texans had for Schaub was the fellow who didn’t know where the back of the end zone was in 2008 when he played for the Lions. We’re guessing the coaches realized Leinart at least know where he is, sometimes.

Darrelle Revis is back with the New York Jets & not a moment too soon. The Jets were in desperate need of someone who could play cornerback at a high level at all times. News reports indicate Revis signed a 4 year, 46 million dollar contract, with 32 million guaranteed. These figures are no where near what media reports claimed Revis wanted (16 million dollars a year).

Darrelle Revis held out all of training camp & all of the preseason in order to get a contract he could “live with.” In a world of overpaid athletes Revis may very well deserve the money he has received. He makes the team from a 6-10 team to a 9-7 team.

It seemed for some time the new deal would never get done, as less talented Jets were handed hefty contracts for showing up to camp. While Revis claimed he be unsure as to how his teammates would react to him returning, he claims they welcomed him back with open arms.

Rex Ryan, trying to be funny as always, stated they may need to see Revis practice a few weeks before starting him in a game, before ultimately saying Revis will be out there on Monday Night Football to face the Ravens on Monday. Now let’s hope Revis lives up to the new contract, as he over performed on the last one.