Various Hoopla

2 hours to go in the day...

 

This is not a baseball related link, but I feel like I should lead off with it anyways.  You're Not Dunking On Me At My Camp.

For those of you not familiar with the story.  Xavier's Jordan Crawford at LeBron James Skill Academy threw down...on LeBron James.  The real story is not that a college Sophomore posterized LeBron with a two handed jam, it is that Nike apparently is not interested in letting anyone Witness (see what I did there) this event.  Of the few photographers there, Nike took their tapes and never gave it back...Maybe they are going to reenact the dunk with puppets instead.

 

On to the baseball...

 

Baseball exempt from Anti-Trust laws...but not poor economy. The picture is a bit of an anomaly.  Florida has, hands down, the worst fans in baseball.  Flaky, uneducated, and lazy.  I really have nothing nice to say about baseball fans in Florida and I think that having teams there is a shame because plenty of other cities would love to have a Major League team in their cities.  Overall, yeah, baseball has been hurt, and the price of games is a killer, but for me, it costs less to go see the Nationals than it does to see a movie...food included. 

 

More ASG Banter.  I love JoePo and Bill James-Statistics Guru, and I find their email conversations turned articles very enjoyable, this one ends up becoming a debate about serious competition (which the All-Star game should not be).  I would like to believe that many of today's players would play is the game for the love of the sport, but with contracts as large as they are, many would sit it out or their teams would make them.  In my opinion, the ASG should be what we all want it to be, an exhibition game that means crap.  I also want to see interleague play go away, which would make the All-Star Game more fun, but interleague play makes MLB too much money.  A side note: World Series home field advantage should go to the team with the best record in their respective league...unless the defending World Champion is in the series, in which case they get home field advantage.

 

The Meltdown Of The Week Part 1 The Meltdown Of The Week Part 2.  Chris 'Mad Dog' Russo is an entertaining figure.  I dont agree with him all the time and his shtick is a bit old, but he has a lot of bite so to speak.  The short version...he calls out every single person that he hired, fires his program director, and insults everyone who he has come in contact with since being at XM.  Awesome.

 

Half-Way There.  You know this is going to be an awesome bidding war. 21 year old Cuban pitcher who throws 100MPH.  All he needs to do now is establish a permanent residence outside the United States and voila!  This certainly brings into question one thing: Why can't American born players become free agents?  Ummm yeah, not going to tackle that one right away.  Maybe when Strasburg signs I will take this one on in all the economic glory needed to support the anti-free agent argument, but the simple answer is this- Baseball thrives on competitive balance and if the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Dodgers, and Cubs could sign every talented youngster the game will turn into a steaming pile of shit.