WBRS Sports Blog

I was born in 1986 and I grew up a 15 minute drive from Shea Stadium. Baseball was never a big sport for me, I mean I never even played little league. But I was always a Mets fan. As I've gotten older, something changed, something clicked, and I've truly grown to love baseball. I've grown to bleed blue and orange. And that is why today is just so absolutely devastating. I feel like a piece of me died. How can I ever look at this team the same way again?

I'm not even sure how I'm supposed to feel about this. I mean, I can be angry as hell at Tommy Glavine for not showing up in one of the biggest starts of his career. I can be mad at Jose Reyes for going into the tank in the second half of the year. I can be mad at the bullpen for blowing game after game (ironic though that they would pitch so well today). I can be mad at the offense for not hitting with runners in scoring position. But you know what, it wasn't just today, it wasn't just the last 17 games even. This has building for a while now.

Something about this club just wasn't right. They were in cruise control for way too long. I don't know why the Mets would think that they could just turn it on when they needed to and everything would be OK. They really weren't good enough to just coast, and now they got what they deserve. Willie couldn't get this team motivated, and I don't know why. But I do know that it should cost Willie his job, if for nothing else than to just change the dynamic of the team.

Yet, why, despite all that, why am I still so stunned at what transpired today? I want to be soo mad, but as much as anything I just feel crushed. Though I saw the writing on the wall, somewhere deep down I knew there was no way they could actually blow it. And then they did. I feel let down. The wounds are too raw to be angry. I'm more than disappointed, I'm embarrassed. I'm ashamed to say I root for the Mets. And that hurts more than anything.

There are plenty of changes that need to be made, and plenty of blame to go around. But today is not the day for that. Congrats Philadelphia, your players have heart, your players care, I wish I could say the same. In the end I know I'll be back next year, cause that's what a true fan does. I just hope the players I'm gonna devote six months to following care as much as their fans do - cause I don't know if I can go through this again.....

So who's better at picking NFL games against the spread, Mini Me or a random card that is flipped up in the air with one side representing the home team and the other the road team? We will see....

Records after Week 3:
Mini Me 25-20-3
Random Boy 23-22-3


Week 4 Picks

Oakland @ Miami (-4)
Mini Me: Miami
Random Boy:Oakland

Houston (-3) @ Atlanta
Mini Me:Houston
Random Boy:Houston

Baltimore (-4.5) @ Cleveland
Mini Me:Baltimore
Random Boy:Baltimore

Chicago (-3) @ Detroit
Mini Me:Detroit
Random Boy:Chicago

Green Bay (-2) @ Minnesota
Mini Me:Green Bay
Random Boy:Minnesota

St. Louis @ Dallas (-13)
Mini Me:St. Louis
Random Boy:Dallas

New York Jets (-3.5) @ Buffalo
Mini Me:New York
Random Boy:New York

Tampa Bay @ Carolina (-3)
Mini Me:Tampa Bay
Random Boy:Carolina

Seattle (-2) @ San Francisco
Mini Me:San Francisco
Random Boy:Seattle

Pittsburgh (-6) @ Arizona
Mini Me:Arizona
Random Boy:Pittsburgh

Kansas City @ San Diego (-12.5)
Mini Me:Kansas City
Random Boy:Kansas City

Denver @ Indianapolis (-9.5)
Mini Me:Denver
Random Boy:Denver

Philadelphia (-2.5) @ New York Giants
Mini Me:New York
Random Boy:Philadelphia

New England (-7.5) @ Cincinnati
Mini Me:Cincinnati
Random Boy:New England


Please leave your picks in the comments section if you would like to join this crazy competition. Whoever has the highest winning percentage at the end of the season will receive a bundle of prizes including a trip to the laboratory where Mini Me was created.

It's official, I'll be representing WBRS this Friday at Health Point for Celtics Media Day. Wow that's scary. So my question to you all is: What questions do you have for the Celtics players, coaches, and staff?

Leave anything in the comments, I'll choose the best ones and ask if I can. Remember, it's a good idea to have questions for less-popular players and less-significant people.

In case you missed this...





It's Red Sox rookie starter Daisuke Matsuzaka dressed up as a Teletubby. This is just hilarious.

Boy that Jenni Carlson took a beating. In case you didn't see the article, you can read it here.

Also, here's the clip of Oklahoma's coach.


I don't have much to say about it other than the fact that reporters shouldn't expect coaches to their jobs for them, nor should they print anything without actually having facts.

Hey everybody, it's the Young Nucleus here on the WBRS Sports Blog. I'll be making posts every Tuesday, so keep coming back for that.

"The Office" makes its triumphant return to the airwaves this Thursday, so I decided that it was an opportune time to combine my love for Dunder-Mifflin with a breakdown of the MLB playoff contenders. Here's a look at each team, with their corresponding Office employee.


NEW YORK YANKEES: ANDY BERNARD

Andy has a pretty good handle on how to get what he wants, and so do the Yankees. They're both hell-bent on success. But Andy and the Yankees are one cellphone in the ceiling away from completely blowing up.



BOSTON RED SOX: JIM HALPERT

OK, so there's a lot of people out there who don't like the Red Sox. But Jim is a pretty likable guy, and if you really look at them, the Sox are a fun bunch themselves. Jim has a great chance at success, but he gets distracted by having fun; sounds like Manny Ramirez to me. Oh, and John Krasinski (who plays Jim) is a Massachusetts native.

CLEVELAND INDIANS: CREED BRATTON

Nobody is really sure what to make of Creed; he's dangerous, that's for sure. The Indians are the same way. Sure, they've got Sizemore, Hafner and Martinez, but does that make them a real contender, or just a borderline homeless guy who sleeps in the office four days a week?

LOS ANGELES ANGELS OF ANAHEIM: DWIGHT SCHRUTE
The Angels are like Dwight in three respects:

1. They are actually fairly potent when it comes down to it.
2. They are really annoying because of what they do. The "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim" thing is the baseball equivalent of Dwight's random facts about everything (especially beets).
3. I want to put all their possessions in Jell-O. (For the Angels, it's because of their stupid name.)
   

NEW YORK METS: MICHAEL SCOTT

Both of these are very talented, but they have a habit of screwing up at the worst moment possible. Where Michael puts his foot in his mouth, the Mets let the Phillies back into the NL East race. Whoops. Like Michael, the Mets can come through in a bad situation, but they don't always.


PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES: RYAN HOWARD

A young up-and-comer. Plus, you know, the obvious reason.



ATLANTA BRAVES: TOBY FLENDERSON

Toby used to have a good life; he had a wife and kids. Then he got divorced, and he just looks miserable now. Ladies and gentlemen, the Atlanta Braves! (For those of you who didn't get that, it's because they used to be great, but they look pretty bad now.)


CHICAGO CUBS: STANLEY HUDSON

The Cubs and Stanley are both miserable in their current situation; Stanley would have gladly given up working at Dunder-Mifflin for the severance pay, while the Cubs...well, if they won the World Series this year, I could see them just shutting down for next year. Both Stanley and the Cubs are fixated on one thing. For the Cubs, it's that elusive World Series title. For Stanley? Pretzel day.


ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS: KELLY KAPOOR

They're too young, nobody really likes them, and they're annoyingly energetic. This one was easy. Oh, you were expecting me to use Kelly for the Indians? You racist.




SAN DIEGO PADRES: ANGELA MARTIN

To be honest, the primary reason for this comparison is because Angela is hyper-religious, and the Padres have a religious overtone in their name. But both are more powerful than they seem at first glance, and a whole lot crazier than they should be. Both Angela and the Padres always seem one step away from going absolutely berserk and killing everyone.


COLORADO ROCKIES: KEVIN MALONE

They each do one thing well. The Rockies can hit; Kevin can shred things.

Well, I hope that cleared things up. I know it was a stretch for some of these, but I worked hard on it, so you better appreciate this. See you next Tuesday.

If you didn't know already, there are only two teams in baseball: The Yankees and the Red Sox. I happen to root for one of those teams (the Yankees) and lived amongst the opposition's fan-base for many years. There is nothing more I enjoy than seeing some part of the Red Sox fail: J.D. Drew signing, Schilling as the closer, etc. And I'm not going to stop perpetuating that notion so we'll really only talk about those two teams here...

But as I look at this picture (from the Boston Dirt Dogs website, by the way) and take in all the craziness surrounding the last two weeks of the regular season, I have but one very important and interesting question to ask...


Who cares?

Now don't all call me at once and find out what happened to me or see if I'm all right. But who really cares? It would be one thing if the loser of this race might fall out of the playoffs completely (see Mets/Phillies, Brewers/Cubs, and possibly the NL West). It would be yet another if home field advantage really meant something anymore and it would be yet another if being a wildcard was really, truly a disadvantage.

But none of them are true. The Sox are 7 up in the loss column on Detroit and could be up 8 in the loss column if the Mariners game holds. So the Sox miss the playoffs if they go 1-8...and if the Mariners/Tigers win every game the rest of the season. Yeah, right. Almost the same goes for the Yankees in that regard.

And for all those who advocate for the wild card to really be punished by this playoff system, maybe it's time to get a little louder. We had a string of wildcard teams winning the World Series. There is truly no home park that you can't win in anymore. The Red Sox won Game 7 in Yankee Stadium 2004 and the Marlins clinched on that same field. The opposition has had quite a bit of success in Fenway in October since 1998 as the Red Sox are only 11-8 (if I factored that correctly) at home.

And there is incentive to resting players, getting your pitching staff in order and auditioning guys for the last bullpen/bench spots on the postseason roster. The Red Sox got killed game 1 of the 2005 playoffs because they had Matt Clement start Game 1 and never recovered. The Yankees won 103 games in 2002 but their bullpen was never rested and got killed by the Angels.

But both teams are trying to win the division (even though the Red Sox would make it seem like they're not). The Yankees are certainly making no qualms about their task at hand, and while thou Red Sox dost protest much, they did try to bring in Papelbon for a 4 out save against the Jays and if you read some of the player quotes...they're worried...

So there's really only one motivation for winning the division: humiliation of the other team and their fan base. The Yankees would not be the Evil Empire, we're better than you always Yankees without the Red Sox and the Red Sox would never have had a curse or an attitude or be the Red Sox without the Yankees. Ditto for the fans. I was at Yankee Stadium last night and there were four things that got big cheers. Here they are in their order of volume:

1) Rivera getting the final out
2) The posting of the 6-1 score of the Red Sox game
3) Joba entering the game/striking out Mora
4) Hideki Matsui's monster blast

Who cares? The Tri-State area and New England...that's who...

Although I get the feeling that the Angels and the Indians are really the two best teams going into October, I think it would be fun to see Red Sox/Yankees again...it's been a while ;)

-Andrew "Cookie" Katz (for some reason my handle below shows up as my old work one no matter how much I try to change it...oh well)

PS. For those who hate Yanks/Sox, with Joba/Kennedy/Hughes/Wang vs. Papelbon/Beckett/Buchholz/Lester for the future, this ain't over this year or anytime soon

These particular statements are what irritate and frustrate sports fans across America. The absurd claim of racism amongst the media. Hey Donovan… shut up and play the game! I’m sick of hearing black athletes complain about racism where it does not exist. If you are going to make a horrific statement that sends shock waves throughout the media… how about some definitive evidence. Sure you have your Don Imus media types who cross the line, and I completely agree with his suspension because racism cannot be tolerated, but to claim that black quarterbacks are more criticized than white QB’s is absurd.

I guarantee that if Peyton Manning or Carson Palmer missed a wide open Kevin Curtis for a game-tying score they would have been condemned beyond belief. Donovan was a top-5 quarterback entering the season, and he has not been playing up to his potential. Donovan McNabb needs to improve his play, take the criticism like a man, and stop overshadowing his mediocre performances on suspected racism allegations. If you play poorly you will be criticized, no matter the color of your skin.

-- Mini Me's younger brother, Miniest Me

I was going to write a really long thing about the whole Patriots issue with the video tape and all that. Then I came across an article that really said everything I wanted. So read this and watch the video below.

The clip is from the video tape that was confiscated by the NFL at Giants Stadium in Week 1. Clearly, you can see that there really isn't much gained from 4 guys sending different signals, and only one of them is telling the truth at any given time.



And if you're wondering whether this is the actual tape or not, then go take a look at the headlines on ESPN and you will see that the NFL is conducting an investigation to find out how Fox got the tape.

A comment on the video, the Fox sports analyst is a complete moron. Coaches around the league and former players like WEEI's Fred Smerlas will tell you that there are always three guys giving signals and two of them are lying. The person giving the signals will change very often and it is almost impossible to figure out who is giving the correct signals. Now, if you were somehow able to figure that out, then this tape is EXTREMELY valuable. Also, the tape is useless for the current game.

So then you might ask why the Patriots had someone on the field to begin with? It's obvious that Bellichick just wanted to piss off Mangini and get in the heads of the Jets coaches. The coaches would see the video camera and then they would start being more careful about their signal calls, possibly making the Jets players to misread the signals. Seriously, who is really dumb enough to put a cameraman behind the team bench against an opponent who was once your team's defensive coordinator. If the Patriots have really been doing this video taping thing to cheat for as long as everyone is assuming they have, then Mangini would have known about the practice, and of course, Billy isn't stupid enough to put a cameraman in plain site to actually try to cheat.

And of course, I'll also add that there seems to be some discontent with Mangini around the league. Just listen to Brian Billick.

Eric Gagne has just cost the Red Sox a 4th game in the standings. He has 3 blown saves in a Red Sox uniform and has given up at least one run in 7 of his last 15 appearances. I understand trotting Gagne out there last night in 8th because it's clear that Hideki Okajima needs rest. Gagne got two quick outs, and then ended up loading the bases and walking in the game tying run before giving up the game winning hit. The question is: Why the wasn't Jon Papelbon warming up as insurance? The answer: Terry Francona is not concerned with the division. Terry Francona is probably the best the manager Boston has seen in the last few decades, but he's been pretty terrible the last few weeks. The Red Sox must find a way to get their bullpen back on track if they plan on winning the AL East. But does Terry care?

I think not.

After everything seemed to be looking up for the Portland Trailblazers, things took a turn for the worse today when it will be announced that Greg Oden is going to have knee surgery and likely miss his rookie season. This is the same surgery that transformed Chris Webber from one of the league's best athletes and most versatile players to a slow, immobile big man who gets by on jump shooting and passing.

Now before Portland fans begin to panic, let's remember that Webber was much older when he had this surgery and a complete recovery is possible, just ask Amare Stoudemire. According to a report by ESPN.com, the damage is relatively minor and a full recovery is expected in six to twelve months. Nonetheless, this puts a damper on a team that many were looking forward to watching, with Oden joining Rookie of the Year Brandon Roy and a number of other talented young players.

If Oden is able to fully recover, this may not turn out so badly for the Blazers in the long run. There would have been tremendous pressure on this team to improve and it is debatable whether such a young team would have been able to play .500 basketball, let alone make a playoff run as some analysts had predicted. This will alleviate that pressure and free up playing time for LaMarcus Aldridge (who would have started anyway), Channing Frye, Josh McRoberts, and perhaps even Travis Outlaw, letting Portland find out what pieces they really have to place around Oden and Roy.

This will also likely leave the Blazers as a lottery team once more, giving them a chance at another high draft pick. With some luck, and without the consistent scoring that Zach Randolph provided, the Blazers could even land a top five pick. Who knows, the 2008-09 Blazers could feature Oden AND O.J. Mayo. Obviously the chances of this occurring are pretty slim, but the point is that the franchise is far from ruined.

Of course, if Oden is unable to regain the full range of athleticism he's displayed in high school and college, it's hard to know how good of a player he can be. With his offensive game still developing, Oden is primarily a defensive force right now. His greatest strength is his shot-blocking, which is attributed to his height and athleticism, as well as impeccable timing. He can still be an effective shot-blocker if he loses some athletic ability because of that timing, but he will not be the same player he was in college.

One has to wonder how the recovery process will impact Oden's game. When his right wrist was injured during the Ohio State season, it forced him to use his left hand, which ought to pay off dividends in the long run. Similarly, Oden may take some of his recovery time to improve other skills, such as shooting. It is hardly necessary for a player like Oden to be a strong jump-shooter, but it certainly couldn't hurt. Obviously there is no guarantee that he works on this skill and this is purely speculation, but it seems a safe bet that Oden will be doing something basketball-related during all this downtime.

Portland fans have much to fear, but Oden is in as good a position as anyone to make a full recovery from knee surgery and help the Blazers become serious contenders down the road.

We hope all of our readers like the new look! The page is finally integrated into the radio station's website. However, we are experiencing some technical difficulties with comments, so they will be down for a period of time.

We're also going through a change in writers since the blog's founder has graduated and has moved onto bigger and better things.

Stay tuned.