New story

Or at least, it is a new story to the Clarion Content, we covered last year's Indiana Hoosiers college basketball season, trainwreck that it was, fairly closely. However, we did not realize just how badly coach Kelvin Sampson had let things get off the rails. (Pun intended.) Yesterday in an exclusive interview with Indianapolis Star former IU guard and last year's leading scorer Eric Gordon said that there was a major problem with drug use on the team, and that Coach Sampson knew about it. According to Gordon, Sampson, who has since, ironically, landed an assistant coaching job in the NBA on Scott "Busted for nose candy in college" Skiles staff, was too focused on winning to solve the problem. Oh really? We thought he was too focused on cheating to even notice.

Way to go Coach, we thought you had already brought as much dishonor to the Indiana program as you possible could, but there are new depths. The Clarion Content would like to add a special heartfelt, "Fuck you!!!" to all the trustees, alumni and faculty members who thought firing Coach Knight was a good idea. Yeah, yelling at the players sure was mean, good thing you ran Bobby out of there. Much better to have a coach that cheats and ignores the players' drug problems so long as the team is winning. Thank goodness the university cleaned house by firing athletic director Rick Greenspan.

Coach Sampson, there are reservations waiting in hell for you pal.

One more

We were noting for you earlier in the week here the dramatic decline in sports' corporate sponsorships and advertising dollars. We saw one more the other day. General Motors is canceling its contract to be the Yankees automotive sponsor next year. The Yankees, however, are not the Pirates and New York isn't Pittsburgh. They have replaced G.M. already, according to Yankees chief operating officer Lonn Trost in ESPN.com, "Toyota and Audi will take over as the club's auto sponsors." Interesting that they found two non-American car companies to work with.

Sports sponsorship

Some of the most visible signs of the economic downturn are occurring in sports sponsorships. Advertising is on the decline everywhere, as a non-essential cost that can be trimmed. If you know the Clarion Content's opinions about advertising, you will know we are not crushed.

It is the plethora of places we see it happening that keeps smacking us in the face. A few weeks back it was General Motors saying they couldn't keep sponsoring Tiger's bag. We heard from them again earlier this week when they cut ties with the Pittsburgh Pirates. (It took a cratering economy for them to make that move?) We have read of races losing sponsors from biking to NASCAR. A television industry ad sales exec told us this weekend, off the record, Washington better save the car companies, this is killing us. You know it is bad when they are having trouble selling the commercial time for the Super Bowl.

Ahhh, comeuppance.

Fortunately, there some sports where the money hardly matters, nature provides the playing field and the beat goes on.

NBA notes

A couple of quick NBA notes from the early season for your reading pleasure. The Clarion Content's staff, exclusively Knicks fans until our next hire, roots against the Nets, like all real Knicks fans. However, you have to respect Nets General Manager Rod Thorn and the work he has done. The Jason Kidd trade looks better and better ever game, as in "Here Dallas, take this always slow, and getting slower, aging veteran who has never won a thing off of our hands. Ok, I guess we can take that young, quick, scoring point guard Devin Harris in return. And two first round picks? If we must." (Thorn hangs up phone and cackles audibly.)

Is it too soon to call Greg Oden a bust? Despite what the Disney honchos think it is surely too soon for him to be doing commercials. For now, there is no doubt that Trail Blazers back-up center, eight year vet, the big polish-American kid from Minnesota, Joel Przybilla is totally outplaying him. What is Oden's ceiling as a player?

Can the Knicks please just cut Stephon Marbury already? They couldn't have handled this any worse. Their methodology is approaching their course in dealing with Anucha Browne Sanders in the levels of inaneness. Jimmy Dolan, you have got the money. You are going to have to pay Starbury, anyway. No come off of it, dumbass.

Finally, one note of warning from ESPN's Daily Dime to all the fans drinking the Lakers Kool-Aid. Phil Jackson, Kobe and the rest of the Lake Show have lost seven of their last eight games decided by a single point, including last night to the 12th place in the Eastern Conference, 7 up and 10 down, Indiana Pacers.

NFL tidbits, goodies and predictions

At the three quarter pole of the NFL regular season and the beginning of many folks fantasy playoffs the Clarion Content has a few NFL tidbits, goodies and predictions for you.

How cooked is Romeo Crennel's goose in Cleveland? Well it was surely done before last week's pathetic six point showing against the banged up Colts defense. But how about now that both of the Browns top two quarterbacks are out for the year? Brady Quinn had finger surgery and Derek Anderson tore up his knee, that means the Browns are heading into this week's match-up with 11 and 1 Tennessee starting Ken Dorsey from the U. Despite the fact that the last good quarterback to come out of the U, Bernie Kosar, enjoyed great success in Cleveland, Ken Dorsey has to make Browns fans a little anxious. The more interesting question is who will the Browns pull off the street as the back-up QB for the game. Doug Flutie? Jared Lorenzen? Tim Couch?

While hope has faded to black in Cleveland, this note from ESPN's NFL Power Rankings correspondent Kevin Seifert, may offer a glimmer to the winless Lions, "An 0-12 Lions team beat the Vikings at home in 2001. Guess who this week's opponent is?"

And how did we originally miss this? Raiders interim coach, Tom Cable, of University of Idaho fame, ran an option pitch play to 275 lb kicker Sebastian Janikowski as a running back on a fake field goal? So for the record, that's one running play for Janikowski this season and one missed 76 yard field goal attempt. And you wonder why the Clarion Content divorced the Raiders and Al Davis in approximately 1990.

Now for a few quick playoff predictions. The Dallas Cowboys will steal the last NFC Wild Card spot away from the amazingly resurgent Atlanta Falcons and rookie of the year to be Matt Ryan. (The Clarion Content completely underestimated Ryan. We never thought he would do what he has done.) Brett Farve and the New York Jets will not win the AFC East. Less heralded rookie QB, Joe Flacco, will lead the Baltimore Ravens to the playoffs. The eventual AFC West winner will be no more than 8-8, sorry Oakland you can't even get to 8 and 8. Check back in the coming weeks to see just how wrong we were.

The BCS, or why not to watch college football

bonus points if you can identify this helmet

Here at the Clarion Content we don't understand why they had Oklahoma play Oklahoma State on Saturday. Couldn't they just have gotten a few computers and a bunch of experts together and voted on who was better? After all according to the BCS (read: BS) isn't that the better way to decide which team is superior?

We have no love loss for Texas. Over the years we have come around to a point of view which would argue that college football is a useless joke. There is no reason to watch save for two things, rooting for a school one has personal loyalty to, and scouting who is going to be good in the NFL. (A league where the champion is decided on the field.)

That said, we are pulling for Missouri in the Big 12 championship game (strongly) and Florida in the SEC championship game (tepidly.) We are hoping for the maximum amount of chaos to expose the system for the fraud it is. Missouri and Florida victories would leave 8 teams with a legitimate claim to a spot in the national championship game.

in no particular order
1 loss Florida
1 loss USC
1 loss Texas Tech
1 loss Texas
1 loss Alabama
1 loss Penn State
undefeated Utah
undefeated Boise State

Excellent. In that scenario the voters and 'puters definitely take Florida and then it is the proverbial coin toss between Texas and USC. Incidentally, a coin toss seems an equally, or perhaps even more fair method to adjudicate things than the status quo. Rocheambeau anyone?

One other college football note, how's this for the difference between the Texas Tech Red Raiders two best players. Superb wideout Michael Crabtree sprained his ankle in the first quarter and returned to the sidelines of Tech's game against Baylor in his street clothes to watch. Heisman Trophy candidate, quarterback Graham Harrell, broke his left hand in nine places in the second quarter, at halftime he had the training staff "tape it up" and he returned to lead the second half comeback victory over the Baylor Bears. The next day Harrell had four hours of surgery and nine plates inserted in his hand. Crabtree took a couple of Tylenol (allegedly.)

Oregon State and the Rose Bowl

Oregon State University is playing the University of Oregon today for the right to compete in this year's Rose Bowl against the Big Ten champion, Penn State. It is a game that has traditionally been called "The Civil War." Oregon State has played in the Rose Bowl twice since Pearl Harbor, once in 1965 and once in 1942. The 1942 game was the only Rose Bowl ever held outside of California. It was played in Durham, NC. Despite the obvious tie-in there to the Clarion Content, it was not that portion of the story that caught our attention.

The 1942 Rose Bowl was played in Durham in part because of war-related concerns about holding the game in California. The Japanese government had declared war on the United States only months earlier. An article in the Los Angeles Times we spotted earlier this month told a tragically fascinating story about that 1942 Oregon State Rose Bowl team. Jack Yoshihara, a Japanese American was a sophomore reserve on Oregon State's football team, as well as a wrestler. According the story the LA Times recounts, one drizzly day during practice for the 1942 Rose Bowl, two FBI men in overcoats showed up at the Beavers practice field. They spoke with the coach and escorted Jack Yoshihara from the field.

Oregon State went on to upset Duke in the '42 Rose Bowl. Many of the players on both teams went on to serve in the war, Jack Yoshihara was denied the right to enlist in the Army and was sent to the Minidoka internment camp in Idaho. Oregon State awarded Yoshihara a Rose Bowl ring in 1985 and an honary degree last June. Yoshihara who lives in Edmonds, Washington after retiring from the refrigeration business he ran in Portland, Oregon is still a loyal Beavers supporter and fan. For years, he attended all their home games. According to the LA Times whatever the outcome of "The Civil War" this year, health concerns will prevent Yoshihara from attending the Rose Bowl. In 1942 Japanese-Americans were not permitted to travel more 35 miles from home, so he listed to that game on the radio, while German-American teammates were allowed to participate. He never played organized football again.

Amazingly, Jack Yoshihara's is not the only strange but true story from the 1942 Rose Bowl. The LA Times reports that, "During the Battle of the Bulge, Stan Czech, a tackle for that Beavers team, was sharing food and coffee with another soldier in a foxhole. After a few minutes of conversation, he realized it was Wallace Wade, the Duke coach. Charlie Haynes, Duke's backup quarterback, and Frank Parker, an Oregon State tackle, became platoon leaders in different companies. During the Arno Valley campaign in Italy, Parker came across a severely wounded Haynes and carried him to a farmhouse, where medics saved his life."

A reminder to all of us basking in the glow of Thanksgiving to be truly grateful. It is only a game, but the Clarion Content will be rooting for the Beavers from Oregon State to win and hopefully shine an even brighter light on Jack Yoshihara's story.

See ya P.J.

P.J. Carlesimo, coach of the NBA's Oklahoma City Franchise Thieves got canned today after a 1 win and 12 loss start to open the season. Sweet. The Clarion Content has disliked P.J. since his days at Seton Hall when some of our senior editorial staff was living in New Jersey. Carlesimo, who was a successful game coach at Seton Hall, was known far and wide as a sanctimonious jerk, who was despised by his players. As a fan of the young, dynamic Kevin Durant, the Clarion Content was dismayed when the Sonics brought Carlesimo on board. The NBA is tough enough; physical hard knocks, 82 games, money managing, road trips, et cetera, to have Durant start his career in the kind of hostile, negative atmosphere P.J. Carlesimo embodies, was the coup de grâce.

P.J. Carlesimo's style is braggadiccio and bombast. He was known for screaming at his players long before Latrell Sprewell decided to throttle him. This is the second time that Carlesimo, a Scranton, P.A. native, has been fired early in the season in his NBA career. He is not the guy you want around when things are going poorly, his attitude only makes it worse. His career record in the NBA now stands at 204-296 a .408 winning percentage.

The University of Buffalo Bulls

The Buffalo Bulls have not exactly been a football powerhouse in recent years. They came to the Clarion Content's attention recently because they are leading the Mid-American Conference's Eastern Division. The Bulls rise to prominence deserves special mention because they have been playing Division I-A football for less than ten years. As newcomers to the top division they have had to face scheduling difficulties and go on the road to play doormat to the powerhouses. Yet that hasn't deterred them, and this year the sweet smell of success is in the air. The Clarion Content originally wrote about U Buff football in effort to recognize their tremendous young head coach, Turner Gill, and to promote Coach Gill for the nearby and now open Syracuse University football coaching job.

This week the University of Buffalo Bulls have come to our attention for another, better reason. ESPN's show Outside the Lines is doing a program on the 1958 football team. This squad was the only team in 102 years of the Bulls program to be invited to a bowl game, the 13th annual Tangerine Bowl. The Bulls refused the bid, and therein as Paul Harvey would say lies the rest of the story. The Bulls of 1958 were a racial integrated squad in a still segregated America. The Tangerine Bowl was to be played in Orlando, Florida. The Orlando High School Athletic Association was at the time the Tangerine Bowl stadium's leaseholder. It strictly prohibited blacks and whites from playing together. The Bulls were told they would be allowed to participate only if their athletes of color, starting halfback Willie Evans and reserve defensive end Mike Wilson, did not play. Asked by their coach to vote on whether or not to participate the college kids who made up the 1958 University of Buffalo Bulls football team unanimously rejected the bowl bid.

Here is hoping they get their first chance since this year!!! From the Bull City we support the Bulls, read the full ESPN story here.

Michigan Mess

This just in, Rich Rodriguez is a jerk! All season the Clarion Content has been resisting the urge to mock Michigan football as they struggle to the worst year in their program's history. But no more, as Coach Rich Rodriguez gave loyal Michigan fans the metaphorical bird today for having the temerity to complain up the historical lows their program has sunk to under his leadership. Coach Rodriguez said that Michigan fans needed to, "Get a life," and worry about bigger things like the economy. Clarion Content to Coach Rodriguez, "A, hey there coach, news flash, people watch sports to take their minds off distressing, uncontrollable news, like the economy..."

What Michigan fans? You're surprised that a guy who did West Virgina like that, his home state school and his alma mater, would treat you like crap? Duh! Enjoy 3-8 and staying home for bowl season. At least the basketball coach you swiped from West Virginia might be able to get the crummy Wolverines to .500, but here at the Clarion Content we hope not.

Brad Lidge got jobbed

Albert Pujols please! The Philadelphia Phillies Brad Lidge got jobbed out of the National League Most Valuable Player Award yesterday. St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols had an excellent season. However, as is clearly written into the title of the award, it is for the Most Valuable Player!!! It is not for the "best offensive season," which Pujols may have had.

Problem is Pujols played for the fourth place St. Louis Cardinals, who finished 11.5 games out of first and only got there by surging to win their final six games of the season after they had been eliminated. Pujols did not lead the N.L. in runs batted in or home runs. Not since Andre Dawson in 1987 has a slugger or any player for such a non-contender won the M.V.P. The only way a player is supposed to win M.V.P. for a non-contending team is if his season is so sublime, so superior, it is impossible to ignore. When Dawson hit 49 homers for the mediocre 1987 Cubs, nobody had hit that many in the National League in ten years. We repeat Pujols didn't even lead the league this year. He was picked because voters wanted to reject the Phillies first baseman, Ryan Howard for striking out too much and hitting for too low a batting average. Reasonable objections to the Clarion Content. Furthermore, Howard had already won the award once. The Clarion Content is not lobbying for Howard from the World Champion Phillies, but rather his teammate Brad Lidge whose candidacy did not receive the serious consideration it deserved.

The reason Lidge did not get a fair hearing is because he is a pitcher. There is a certain faction of the folks who vote for baseball's post-season awards who prima facie refuse to consider pitchers for Most Valuable Player because, "they have their own award." This is a ridiculous argument. Yes, the Cy Young honors the best pitcher in the league each year, but that should have no bearing on whether or not a pitcher is the most valuable player in any given baseball season. Lidge who was 41 for 41 in save opportunities this year clearly was the most valuable player. If he alone had switched franchises and worked for the New York Metropolitans instead of the Philadelphia Phillies, the Mets would have won the N.L. East. The Phillies might have missed the playoffs instead of being the world champs. If the L.A. Dodgers had Lidge, they likely would have beaten the Phils in the N.L. playoffs.

Furthermore there is precedent for a relief pitcher winning the M.V.P., Willie Hernandez won for overpowering 1984 Tigers. Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers won three years earlier for the beer makers and Dennis Eckersley nearly ten years later for the Oakland A's "Bash Brothers' team. The 1984 Tigers who bolted out of the gate 35 wins and 5 losses and cruised to a World Series win, had Alan Trammel, Lou Whitaker and Kirk Gibson, but rather than pick the best slugger, the voters picked the most valuable player, the lower profile Hernandez. This year's Phillies were set up perfectly to follow the same scenario. Ace reliever Lidge was the essential difference between this year and last year's Phillies. The same Phillies who despite having three hitters in a row who had won the M.V.P., Howard, second sacker Chase Utley and shortstop Jimmy Rollins, couldn't get over the top until they got the closer, Brad Lidge. Brade Lidge got jobbed, he was the N.L. MVP this year.

The Red Sox diminutive second baseman Dustin Pedroia was a deserving, though not clear cut, winner in the American League.

Enough already!

Can we finally dispense with all this ridiculousness about Roger Federer being the greatest tennis player of all-time? Surely, this year has debunked that ludicrousness. It is only the hype-filled era that we live in that ever elevated Federer to that spot on the pantheon. It is the same media outlets who wanted to tell us that Marion Jones was the greatest female sprinter ever and that Michelle Wie was on her way to golf superstardom. The same self-promoting, fiscally incentivized folks who say things like, 'Roy Jones Jr. is greatest pound for pound fighter of all-time.' Pshaw! Don't believe the hype.

Roger Federer is the Ivan Lendl of his era, surely amongst the all-time greats, but with a fatal flaw. He was never able to win on clay because his game, though more than one dimensional, was built primarily around his huge serves. Federer has played in era which was a modern nadir for tennis. It has never been less popular or less highly regarded by youths entering sport. In the 1960's or 1980's Federer would have been a top five player who won a couple grand slam tournaments.

It was an epic game

Or so we hear anyway... Last night's classic AFC East battle between the New York Jets and the New England Patriots highlighted two of the NFL's biggest problems. For a league that is at least tied for the best operated professional sports league in North America, this may sound like nitpicking, but they were kind of major issues.

Issue one, we didn't see the game. The Durham, NC based Clarion Content offices do not get Direct TV. Our cable system Time Warner isn't getting on with the NFL Network folks who had the exclusive broadcast rights to last night's humdinger. Hence, we were left to listen to it on the radio. Long time Clarion fave Ian Eagle did a bang up job, admirably assisted by the just gruff enough, Denny Green. It was a delight to listen to, but for a game that big, it might have been nice to be able to see it, too.

Issue two, the game was decided by a coin flip! A freaking coin flip! How ludicrous. The NFL overtime rules have long been derided as based on luck. Unlike the college football overtime, there is no guarantee that both teams will see the ball. The Jets won the coin flip, went down the field and won the game with a field goal. Had the Patriots won the coin toss, odds are they win the game. They had just gone down the field at the end of regulation and scored a touchdown with one second left, in OT they would have only needed a field goal. Both teams were scoring at will. It was disappointing to have a game this good decided that arbitrarily.

For those of you who also did not see the game, NFL.com has the highlights here.

Going the other way

If you read our post earlier this week about the difficulties the Yankees are having selling luxury boxes and the highest priced of their exorbitant season tickets then the title of this post will make perfect sense. The Yankees who are moving into their new stadium next Spring are jacking the prices and screwing the little guy. Two franchises are going the other way in different manners.

The Boston Red Sox are holding the line on their ticket prices, albeit for the first time in 14 years. Still, the Red Sox chief sales and marketing officer, Sam Kennedy, sounds like he gets it. Here he is quoted in the Boston Globe, "We do not want to be the ballpark of the rich and famous." The Red Sox took this position despite 469 consecutive sellouts and a waiting list of over 7,000 for season tickets.

The other franchise, the hapless New Jersey Nets did them one better. In a plan that we could hardly like better if we had thought of it ourselves, the New Jersey Nets basketball team will give unemployed fans who submit their resumes to the Nets Job Bank up to four free tickets, plus access to a Nov. 22 career fair at their home arena and distribute applicants' resumes to the team's corporate sponsors. Brilliant! Now all they need to do is find Vince Carter a job. (Up to 1,500 total tickets will be available.) Fans that are seeking jobs can sign-up at www.njnets.com and should email their résumé, former employer, contact information, and career field of interest to the Nets Job Bank at jobbank@njnets.com.

Ha, ha

The greedy people operating the Yankees and abusing the public trust by moving to a publicly financed stadium, right across the street, which was built over a Bronx park, are getting a little bit of comeuppance. Word is the they are struggling to sell some of their luxury boxes and outrageously priced tickets during this tough economic climate. The New York Times reports, "Seven luxury boxes down the foul lines priced at $600,000 remain available for the 2009 season...the team still had seven available in August, too." A similar story is playing out for the $500 to $2,500 per game tickets in the first nine rows of the twenty-five sections closest home plate. Nearly 20% of those extortion rate tickets remain unsold. In the immortal words of Nelson Muntz, we can only say, "Ha, Ha!"

The Yankees held a presser today with news they would rather you concentrated on, they have wired the whole stadium with Cisco products. That's right the wealthiest will be able to use a customized Cisco system in their luxury box to order food or surf the internet. Also noted, 1,100 flat-panel, high-definition TV monitors will be installed in concession stands, the luxury suites, around the restaurants and bars, and in restrooms.

Korean golfers

Despite the xenophobic mindset of the LPGA, and their deplorable leadership, the women golfers of Korean origin on the Ladies Professional Golf Tour do not fit into one neat stereotypical box. Their personalities, backgrounds and even their English language skills run a wide gamut. Here is a link to an excellent article in the New York Times by Karen Crouse covering the range of differences and similarities. Here is a link to a somewhat older article in the Bay Area rag, Metroactive covering one Korean golfer, a multiple tournament winning, less than categorizeable, self described "hip-hop goth," Christina Kim. The Clarion Content was most heartened when the hue and cry of the public and the media helped force the LPGA to withdraw its draconian "English only" policy.

Don't typecast me

Florida State junior safety Myron Rolle is one of 15 semifinalists for the Bednarik Award, given each year to college football’s Defensive Player of the Year. He also happens to be a finalist for a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.

The accomplished and impressive Rolle, priorities in order, will miss FSU’s game with Maryland on November 22 to interview for the Rhodes Scholarship in Alabama that day.

"I thought about the fact this may come up a while ago," Rolle said of the scheduling conflict. "It didn’t crystallize in my mind until weeks ago when I learned I could be a finalist. It really hit me recently, but this is a priority for me and very special for my family."

His role model is Dr. Benjamin Carson, director of pediatric neurosurgery at John Hopkins Medical Institution. Carson who grew up poor in a tough Detroit neighborhood, in a single parent home, is the author of The Big Picture.

Fantasy Football has peaked

Like Starbuck's circa 2003, fantasy football has peaked. The Clarion Content's editorial board was first introduced to the game in New Jersey in 1986. There were no on-line sites to look up stats. Heck, the manual was a printed copy which had to be shared amongst participants. Drafts were conducted in person. When the Mile Square FFL league created Excel spreadsheets to assist in scoring, it was considered a tremendous advance. Even then, stats still had to be laboriously transcribed from the USA Today sports page into said spreadsheets.

The game has come light years from there. Drafts can be held virtually, on-line. There are not only numerous fantasy football magazines, but endless player rating websites. All scoring and even transactions can be processed for free by an outside service provider like ESPN, Yahoo, CBS Sportsline and their ilk. The central themes remain the same, a love of sports and competition with friends. But unfortunately, as with so many things, technology is squeezing the joy out of it. There is so much information on every game and every player available to everyone at this point, fantasy football has become overwhelming. Hours and hours can be wasted perusing not only box scores and injury reports, but scouting sites featuring minutia like average yards per carry, home and away, on turf and on grass, night and day, in cold or warm weather, ad infinitum, ad naseaum.

A brilliant description of the state of fantasy football now from Clarion fave, Bill Simmons, "Really, the fantasy football season isn't fun. Winning is OK; losing is agonizing. You constantly feel awful about your choices and your bad luck; it's the only exercise that causes arguments with friends you normally never would argue with; and you spend roughly a kazillion hours managing your team for the 10 percent chance that you might win your league. There's just not a ton of upside. It's almost like smoking cigarettes -- it started out with good intentions, and it's something to do, and it can be fun in the right moments, but ultimately, there are an inordinate amount of moments when you find yourself leaning out a window in 20-degree weather to puff out a quick cig as your nose gets frostbitten, or bumming a cig from a group of horrible girls and then feeling obligated to talk to them, or waking up in the morning and coughing up your right lung. Really, it's more harm than fun. And yet, we continue to do it. And love it. This entire paragraph made me want to smoke."

Latest LeBron speculation

Read ESPN basketball writer Mark Stein's latest analysis about how LeBron James's impending free agency is going to play out here. The Clarion Content has long said and continues to believe that there is no chance of LeBron being a Net. As veteran New York politics watchers, we knew Nets owner Bruce Ratner was never going to be able to get the development deal done in Brooklyn that he was claiming he could. Even before the global economic credit crunch, there was no chance. (Recall the NYC Olympic bid and the Jets West Side football stadium follies.)

This inability to move to Brooklyn means that the Jay-Z being a minority owner of the Nets shtick is cool, but not necessarily a game changer for LeBron's free agency decision. The Clarion Content would say now that Isaiah is no longer running the team, the Knicks have to be at least co-favorites for the LeBron free agency sweepstakes. The other favorite, has the opportunity to offer him the one thing the Knicks can't between now and then, a championship. If LeBron wins that title, he just might stay in Cleveland.

Stein's Daily Dime also has a list of the highest salaried NBA players this year, including such genius contracts as tied for the second highest paid player in the league at $21 million plus per annum Jason "Zero Titles" Kidd and Jermaine "North of the Border" O'Neal. Of course, no one really tops the non-playing, sixth highest paid player overall, Knicks bench warmer, Stephon Marbury.

Knicks hope

As Knicks fans we will continue to hold out hope for at least a few more weeks...

Texas Tech, epic

Here is a link to an excellent article about Texas Tech's stupendous win over the #1 Texas Longhorns last night. Texas Tech's euphoria may only last a week or two, highly ranked opponents Oklahoma State and Oklahoma lay ahead, but this game will be sewed into the tapestry of Lone Star state football. In a state that loves its football as much as anywhere in the nation, this was a game for the ages. It was the best game the Clarion Content has seen since Vince Young found away to propel the Longhorns to a national championship victory over mighty USC, a real humdinger!

Florida-Georgia

It is now fair to say that Georgia Coach Mark Richt's ridiculous and unsportsmanlike stunt last year won Georgia one game, but lost them one, too. Florida looked pretty motivated today.

For those who don't know the story: Coach Richt in the locker room before the big game in Jacksonville last year told his kids to "make sure" that they got an excessive celebration penalty after they scored their first touchdown in the game formerly known as 'The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.' He claims despite making this asinine recommendation that he didn't realize his entire team would storm the field to stomp on the Florida endzone. Whether he knew it or not to get the unsportsmanlike penalty was his suggestion, not the kids' spontaneous idea. It appeared to motivate Georgia last year, though Knowshon Moreno's 188 yard rushing day probably helped at least as much.

This year it surely motivated the Florida Gators as they were asked about it all week. Florida Coach Urban Meyer put a gag order on the team in regards to the incident, but it was all over the airwaves and the newspapers. Today Florida took Georgia out behind the woodshed. Leading 49 to 3 over the formerly one loss, 6th ranked Bulldogs, before beating them 49-10.

Singletary

The NFL has been buzzing about Hall of Fame linebacker and new San Francisco 49ers coach Mike Singletary. Not only did Singletary send a player to the locker room early, launch into a postgame press conference tirade, but apparently he dropped his trousers at half time to make a point to his team about how badly they were playing. The Clarion Content has no problem with it. Discipline at work for highly paid athletes, it is their job. They are likely playing in a stadium that was at least partially publicly financed. We are glad to hear that Singletary thinks they have an obligation to try to play their best. Hold them accountable, coach.

Knicks Undefeated

The New York Knickerbockers won their season opening game at Madison Square Garden last night. They defeated Dwayne Wade and the improving Miami Heat. The Clarion Content knows that this is likely going to be a long season for our beloved Knicks. We weren't a fan of the Mike D'Dantoni hire, nor the Danilo Gallinari pick. But for one night, all is well in the Garden.

Why D'Antoni wouldn't even let self-interested team killers and shirkers Stephon Marbury and Eddie Curry off of the bench. Hooray!

Three other quick NBA notes: one from the Knicks game, how about Heat rookie, Michael Beasly, a selfish, score first, cancer if we've ever seen one, who isn't fit to be compared to Alex English, let alone Dominique Wilkins managed a measly 9 points and 4 boards. He was outscored and outrebounded by rookie point guard Mario Chalmers!

Two: Can anyone believe Greg Oden? One game and he is out two to four weeks with a foot sprain? There is no way to avoid the Sam Bowie comparisons now.

Three: Isaiah Thomas. Whoa. Let us take pause and recognize that this is the world of sport. We wanted Isaiah out of the Knicks hierarchy as much as anyone, but let us hope the man is not so despondent as to hurt himself or anyone else. This is a trainwreck we have advance notice of, someone had better make sure the man is getting counseling. We hope his former coach and mentor Bob Knight has reached out to Isaiah. The Clarion Content sends get well wishes to Isaiah the human being.

Fools running baseball

The Bud Selig brigade of fools and losers was at it again last night. At least Gary Bettman is getting paid by David Stern and the NBA to destroy the NHL. Bud Selig and crew are attempting to kill Major League baseball simply to satisfy their monstrous egos and stuff their already fat wallets.

Last night's World Series game played in a driving rain for six innings was ridiculous. It should have never started. After Morons 'r Us let it start, it should have been stopped before it got to the official five innings. Instead, they played through a driving rain in 40 degree weather. The Clarion Content is sure that was fun for the home fans who shelled out hundreds of dollars a ticket to sit through that shit. Worse yet, the way MLB waited for the game to be tied, then immediately suspended it, gave all the feel that the fix was in. Our correspondent was sitting in a sports bar watching the game, everybody in the place knew as soon as the Rays tied it, they were going to stop the game. (Just as we knew once the fools let it go past the bottom of the 5th, they weren't going to stop it with the Phillies ahead.)

This all brought to you by the same idiots who let the All-Star game end in a tie. Then decided two wrongs can't possibly make us look more asinine and turned an exhibition game into the decider of home field advantage for the sports championship.

You don't play the sport's championship game under conditions that you never, ever play in during the regular season. If all of the players are used to games being delayed or canceled in a driving rain why play on? It was dangerous and ignorant. Oh wait, he knew better than the weatherman, all along according to the Philadelphia Daily News's Bill Conlin, "Selig said that as of 6:30 p.m. only a tenth of an inch of rain was forecast to fall between game time and midnight. About the same time that Bastardi (AccuWeather meteorologist) called for a cancellation."

Can someone, please, please, please send Bud Selig back to the used car lot???

If that's what it takes

The Clarion Content has long been a proponent of a college football playoff. The format we support would be an eight team playoff using the biggest of the bowls in a rotation system for the semifinals and finals. The teams included would be the champions of the six major conferences and two wild cards selected by a combination of the computers and the polls.

For years folks have been telling us that it would never ever happen. There are too many interested parties with too much cash at stake in the status quo. The Clarion heartily disagrees. The system it would appear to our eyes has been edging closer to a playoff for some time, the BCS as awful as it is, is significantly better than what college football had forty years ago. (Chaos and backroom chicanery.) However, to say the BCS is better is like saying, 'at least its only a small dent in your new car, as opposed to a large one.' It still sucks. The biggest obstacles to bagging the BCS for a real playoff system are the Big Ten and the PAC Ten. The mess that the end of this regular season foreshadows might just be enough to change minds, though we hope that every year.

The Clarion projects that Alabama, Florida, Texas and USC will all finish with one loss. Penn State will finish undefeated. What if somehow the computers and the pollsters still refused to put Penn State in the national championship game, not inconceivable given the putrid state of the Big Ten, and the long time that Penn State will spend out of the national spotlight while other teams are finishing strong in their conference championship games? If Penn State were left out under that scenario would the hue and cry be loud enough to get a playoff system? Even a four team playoff? The Clarion hopes so, if that's what it takes. Penn State has been there before under Joe Paterno, undefeated and screwed out of the national championship game. Surely the Big Ten would have to come around to supporting a playoff then?

Even if Penn State gets in, how to select the challenger out of the one loss teams? Thorny and arbitrary as that is, it still might not be enough to bring around the playoff holdouts. Though if Penn State loses in that scenario, say to a 1 loss USC and a 1 loss Florida whips Texas in the Fiesta Bowl? What then?

How many times?

The Clarion Content cannot believe how many times in the last two weeks we have had to address the failure of television providers to show viewers live sporting events. When we read yet another story of this kind of snafu, our reaction was along the lines of, "You have got to be kidding!?!"

But no, they weren't. Here is the story, monopolist and convicted bandwidth denier Comcast Cable, who controls the airwaves in the greater Philadelphia metropolitan area lost the Phillies telecast of Game Three. Comcast went down across the Philadelphia area, parts of central Pennsylvania and South Jersey for 20 minutes in the middle of the game. They lost coverage with spectacularly bad timing for Phillies fans, causing them to miss Chase Utley and Ryan Howard's back to back 6th inning homers.

Congratulations on a craptastic job, Comcast!

Odds on favorites

The Clarion Content vigorously disputed this notion last night, only to awake this morning dispatch our crack research staff and find out the readers had been right and the editor wrong.

According to everywhere we checked today the Los Angeles Lakers are the oddsmakers favorite to win the 2009 NBA title. Truly we can't believe it. The Celtics, though the second choice, are getting no respect! Did people not see the dismantling the Celtics put on the Lakers in the Finals? Andrew Bynum, who has never started sixty games in a season and never averaged more than the 13pts, 10 boards he put together last year, is supposed to make that big a difference? Coming off of knee surgery? How will he, Gasol, and Odom all play at once? Sure, Odom's gonna be happy coming off of the bench in a contract year, right. And Kobe's gonna share the ball and be a better person. You will have to forgive us if we don't believe the hype.

We believe the Pistons are a better second choice than the Lakers. Kobe just went over the 1,000 games played mark for his career. He played 106 regular season and playoff games last year, then without a break headed on to the Olympics. No Olympics for the leaders of the real favorites Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Rajan Rondo.

The oddsmakers in one book have Hornets as the third choice and the Pistons as the fourth. The Clarion has heavy respect for Chris Paul, David West and the boys. We could easily see them knocking off the Lake show in the playoffs. We will tell you that we are pretty darn confident that the Spurs every other year thing finally comes to end. If Duncan and Pop can somehow pull it off with a banged up Ginobili and the aging cast off spare parts, it will be an amazing feat. Don't sleep on the Pistons, as Bill Simmons warns in his NBA fantasy preview, they need an in-season trade to avoid becoming the Atlanta Braves II, but they have a great core.

The oddsmakers in another book have the Houston Rockets as the third choice, which just goes to prove P.T. Barnum's old line, "There's a sucker born every minute."

Celtics coach Doc Rivers had the best answer for the lack of respect the defending champs are getting, "We pick us. We picked us last year, too."

Rich Stadium power outage

Just a day after the Clarion Content blasted TBS and Major League Baseball for the snafu that prevented them from getting the first inning of Game 1 of the American League Championship Series on the air another sports power failure hit. This one felt rather more like bad luck than piss-poor planning.

Three small mylar balloons became entangled in wires across from the Buffalo Bills' Rich Stadium thirty minutes before game time. Power failed throughout the stadium. CBS was unable to broadcast the game. The Jumbotron did not work. Time was kept on the field, the play clock was signaled to the quarterbacks by hand. There were no television timeouts as the game was unable to be aired without power to the stadium. The crowd cheered without prompting as the usual electronic noise was not pumped through the stadium. The teams sat in darkened locker rooms before the game and at halftime.

Power was restored during the third quarter. Television coverage resumed shortly thereafter and the Bills won with a late goal-line stand and two turnovers by Chargers QB, Phillip Rivers.

TBS screws the pooch

Turner Broadcasting Systems or TBS screwed up big time last night. Somehow they managed to cut the power to both their router and their back-up router carrying the American League Championship Series Game 6. Well done, geniuses. This meant nowhere in the country were the first twenty minutes of the game available on television. Sports bars everywhere faced near riots, as TBS showed "The Steve Harvey Show," and ran a crawl on the bottom of the screen saying, "We are experiencing technical difficulties."

Of course, Bud Selig's force of used cars salesmen had their collective heads up their asses again, claiming that they were, "unaware there was a problem until the broadcast failed to come on the air." That is Major League Baseball's administration in a nutshell for you; clueless, helpless and oblivious. Good work nimrods!

Valiquette 2-0, shuts out Leafs

You'll remember about a week ago, when we called your attention to the hot start of the New York Rangers and their all world goalie, Henrik Lunqvist. After last night, back-up goalie, Steve Valiquette is 2 and 0 following a regulation shutout and a shootout win for the Blue shirts in the world's most famous arena.

The Toronto Maple Leafs, the ghost of an original six team, which hasn't won a Stanley cup since the Johnson administration, were the victims. Valiquette who had a strong year as the back-up last year, played nine of the ten games he started on the road. He was especially gratified to get the shutout at home. The crowd stood and chanted "Valee! Valee!" as he turned back five Toronto shots on a later 3rd period power play. He said later, "That gave me goosebumps. And now I know how Henrik feels."

The Rangers are off to a 6 and 1 start.

Syracuse coach

The Clarion wanted to weigh on the Syracuse football coaching job, which rumor has it, will be available at the end of this college football season. Greg Robinson has the Orangemen at a lowly 1 and 5 right now. The Clarion hopes they have a little bit more class than Clemson and wait until the end of the season before they break their coach off, that should be SOP. It is an ill-advised example to the young scholarship athletes to do anything else.

The Clarion was less than favorably predisposed to Robinson to begin with because we opposed the Paul Pasqualoni firing. We believed that Coach Pasqualoni, who had brought the program back to such renewed heights, was just going through a down cycle. Some alumni thought that they were a bigger deal than the reality. They thought that an USC guy could recruit to upstate New York.

We hope that they don't make the same kind of mistake again. We felt compelled to weigh in, even though Coach Robinson still has his job, just because we'd heard they might be heading down the same misbegotten road. One of the leading candidates is Florida, Assistant Head Coach and Offensive Line Coach, Steve Addazio. Now at least Addazio is from Connecticut rather than from a sunshine state, but we have no idea what makes folks think that just because he can recruit to warm weather Florida that he can recruit to Syracuse. He also has Notre Dame experience, but during one of the most unsuccessful stints in their history.

The Clarion strongly prefers renown motivator Turner Gill. The former star Nebraska quarterback and more recently Nebraska Quarterbacks Coach has resurrected nearby Buffalo's program from their status as, quite literally, the worst team in Division I-A to a MAC contender. They are coming off an overtime loss to 6 and 1 Western Michigan, but Gill has the program poised to turn around and is ready to make the leap to the next level.

Give the Phillies their due

We at the Clarion have to give the Phillies their due respect. Congratulations to the Phillies and their fans in the city of brotherly love!

Clearly, we were rooting for the Dodgers, but not out of any animosity for the Phils, rather we just wanted to see old Joe Torre make it to the World Series. We wanted Torre and Manny to give the jerks running the Yankees brain trust (Brian Cashman excepted) their comeuppance for so callously and arrogantly dismissing Torre's efforts. (Yes, we mean you, boot-licker, Randy Levine.)

But today is not the day to talk about the Dodgers or the Yanks. How about them Phillies!?! The Clarion loves and respects that they built from within, count'em three different N.L. MVPs have come up through their farm system to win the MVP with the big club, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. That is impressive. Moreover, several other Phillies players came from within, too, including starting pitchers Cole Hamels, (the N.L.C.S. MVP) and Brett Myers, as well as catcher Carlos Ruiz and outfielder Pat Burrell. It takes terrific scouting and tremendous patience to win this way, the Phils deserve credit. They built slowly and incrementally, the team has won 80 or more games for seven straight seasons. Last year they finally made the playoffs only to get swept by the scorching Colorado Rockies. This year they came back even more determined.

The guy who carried the series from their side, in the Clarion's view, was the flyin' Hawaiian, Shane Victorino. He made pivotal catches in game 2 and game 4 with runners on base to preserve the lead. In game 2 he added four RBIs. He had two more nice catches in center in game 5. He did not back down with the Dodgers threw one over his head in game 3, but he also wisely did not escalate so much as to get ejected or suspended. And finally he snuffed Dodger dreams with a huge game tying homer in game 4 without which the well traveled Matt Stairs never would have seen the plate to hit his dinger.

Good luck to the Phils and their fans in the World Series.

Philadelphia is starved for a championship. It has been 25 long years since Moses proclaimed, "Fo', fo' and fo'." And then led the Sixers to the promise land along side, Hall of Famer, the Doctor, Julius Erving and the underrated backcourt tandem of Mo Cheeks and Andrew Toney.

In the market for a pitcher?

If your favorite baseball team is in the market for a pitcher this off-season, you gotta figure a new franchise joined the fray this week after the way the Boston Red Sox pitching staff has labored in their American League Championship Series versus Tampa Bay.

"Dice K" Matsuzaka is the only Sox pitcher performing up to snuff. Their ace Josh Beckett got shelled again, after having been clobbered in the previous series against the Angels, too. They are being tight lipped, but he is clearly injured. Beyond that, John Lester is a back end of the rotation guy that has been covered by their prodigious offense. (Which is now missing not only Manny, but aging and injured World Series MVP Mike Lowell.) Further down the bench, knuckleballer Tim Wakefield is 42, and though his arm never gets tired, he looks like he couldn't throw it past Don Zimmer at this point. We can't imagine that Boston is counting on a comeback out of the nearly 50 year old Curt Schilling. So what does that mean?

Well, Indians, Yankees, Mets, Braves fans and any other pursuers of good starting pitching, beware Red Sox nation has entered the fray. Selling out Fenway over and over again has given them the revenue to chase C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, or reacquire Derek Lowe. They also have the prospects to compete in the Jake Peavy sweepstakes if the Padres are truly making him available.

Lundqvist 3 and 0

The New York Rangers are 3 and 0 for the first time since 1989. It must be a pleasure to play in front of the best goalie in the world. Despite being the gold medal winning goalie in the Olympics with his native Sweden, Henrik Lundqvist remains underrated. ESPN the magazine gave the cover, on the week of their hockey preview, to Washington's Capitals star left wing Alex Ovechkin. The New York area media continue to defer to the future Hall of Fame goalie playing in New Jersey, Martin Brodeur. Will this be the year the NHL wakes up and gives Lundqvist his props? The Clarion hopes so.

Rivera doing it right

No surprise, but the classy Mariano Rivera, the Yankees closer extraordinaire, has handled his shoulder surgery the way a professional should. Rather than, hemming and hawing, and waiting through half the off-season, Rivera got it taken care of right away. We are always reading about players who deliberated for months before finally electing to have surgery, only to miss substantial chunks of the following season. Not Rivera, he is scheduled to begin throwing in January and should be ready for spring training.

Believe it!

Derek Lowe, a playoff veteran, pitched a solid game in a big spot for the Los Angeles Dodgers last night, and in the postgame locker room he referenced Jose Lima! Lowe, tongue-in-cheek, said he wants a statue erected for he and Lima.

If he keeps it up...

Manny kept it up, drawing a crucial walk after being down 0-2 in the count, two batters before James Loney had the big grand slam that won the game. Manny added his own dinger a couple innings later, golfing a ball that was shoelace height twenty rows deep into the left field bleachers at Wrigley.

Manny takes LA by storm

Dodgers closer Takashi Saito said of Manny, “He's a one-man, baseball-playing festival."

Golf Stars

Syracuse alum Mike Tirico made an interesting and we think accurate point on ESPN radio the other day when he said that the Ryder Cup, staged last week in Kentucky, did more to introduce the current crop of young American golf stars to the sporting public in a week than the Fed Ex Cup Playoffs has done in three years. The Clarion is a long standing opponent of faux playoffs in sports that never had them. (NASCAR are you listening?)

Golf is not a sport that should have a playoff. It is a frivolous and foolish attempt to raise 'excitement' (by which the powers that be mean dollars.) The golf calendar has been for some time and continues to be shaped by the four majors. The Player of the Year in golf is not the equivalent of the Most Valuable Player in other sports. Golf is an individual sport and in fact, the player of the year is more equivalent to the title holder or champion in team sports. Both start again from scratch, they have to prove it all over again next year. To Tirico's point, it is oh so obvious when comparing the effects of real, organically generated enthusiasm: the United States win in the Ryder Cup, and faux advertising dollar driven enthusiasm: the Fed Ex Cup Playoffs.


Side note: Says here that Sooner Anthony Kim (who kicked Sergio's lily-livered behind in the Ryder Cup singles last week) will be one of the top Tiger major championship foils in the years to come.

Baseball thoughts

A few quick baseball notes as another regular season comes to a close, perhaps the first regular season in what will come to be thought of as the post-steroid era. It was a wonderful and memorable regular season in many ways. The baseball regular season used to be the gem of American sports. The World Series was an interesting duel to the death after the climax for the real survivors. The '51 Giants won the pennant, not the World Series. The '64 Phils didn't have the Wild Card to bail them out and the legendary curses of the Cubs and Red Sox were built on their inability to even get to the post season for decades of futility.

This regular season hasn't been quite legendary, but it has been notable for a number of reasons: the Rays breaking through and making the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, the Cubs season long domination of the Central and their fans hopes of finally breaking the curse, the irony of the Dodgers rise in the West behind Manny Ramirez and Joe Torre. On the individual performance side, the remarkable future Hall of Famer, Ichiro Suziki had his 8th straight 200 hit season since coming to America. Despite the Mariners horrific train wreck season, Ichiro got his hits and now has 16 straight 200 hit seasons included his Japanese League experience. And how about the Twins Joe Mauer trying to win a second batting title as a catcher! He's already the only A.L. catcher to win a batting title in the last fifty years. The only other two time batting champion as a catcher is legendary Hall of Famer Ernie Lombardi, who caught Johnny Van Deer Meer's back-to-back no hitters, and led the Cincinnati Reds to the 1940 World Series title.

Finally, the Clarion is oh so glad to look at the list of home run leaders for the majors this year and only see one number over 40. Sanity and the glory of George Foster restored.

Poor Milwaukee

Don't worry Cubs fans, we'll get to you. Your heartbreak is still a few weeks away.

Right now, it is poor Milwaukee. The same old Brewers, darn if it isn't September, and the Brewers are fading fast, while Ben Sheets is sidelined with injuries. It is amazing to watch and sad for Brewers fans, they drew over 3 million this year. They get C.C. Sabbathia at the trading deadline, and he is phenomenal, dominant, so good, that people are talking about whether he can win the Cy Young Award in only half a season. But here it is, the stretch run and the Brewers are stumbling anyway, losing 13 of 17, firing their manager with 12 games to go. (The Clarion doesn't blame them for that move. They had to try something, and Ned Yost contributed mightily to the collapse last year by coming unglued down the stretch.) Yesterday's loss was the worst, up four runs with two out and nobody on in the 9th, they gave up four and lost to the Cubbies in twelve innings. Brutal. The Clarion has no sympathy for the franchise, which hasn't sniffed the playoffs since 1982. We loathe former Brewers head and evil commissioner Bud Selig for what he subjected the game to during his reign.

But for the pained Brewers fans to once again have it snatched from their grasp! At least Cubs fans know failure and defeat are their birth right. Milwaukee can't even claim to be the leader in that, Cleveland and Philadelphia have been deprived of major sports championships for longer stretches.

NFC North Preview

Technical complications and various other malfeasance kept the Clarion from keeping the promise we made to you two weeks regarding our NFL Preview and NFL picks. A loyal reader reminded the editor that we failed to complete our NFL picks on a timely basis last year, too. Then again, we had the Panthers in the Super Bowl last year and NY Giants missing the playoffs, so maybe making our picks late isn't enough to help the Clarion. Maybe if we would just wait a couple more weeks...




In the NFC North...

1st Place

Chicago Bears

We still can't bring ourselves to pick the Packers. Do we like Kyle Orton better than Aaron Rodgers? Forte better than Ryan Grant? It would be generous to give the Bears a push at those two skill positions. The argument starts with we like the Bears defense better. Furthermore, this is a typical post-parity NFL division where any team can beat any other on a given Sunday. We believe when it comes down to December Kyle Orton's experience during the Bears Super Bowl run two years ago will be the difference. The Bears will ask him to do less than the Packers ask Rodgers to do. At least 9 wins.

2nd Place

Green Bay Packers

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers has looked awfully good for the first two games. The Packers have won two divisional games, but somehow our gut feeling says there is struggle and strife ahead in Green Bay. We like their corners Charles Woodson and Al Harris a lot less than most of the experts. When we look closely at the Packers corners we are reminded of the legendary Elvis "Toast" Patterson, who made some glitzy plays, like Harris and Woodson, but earned his moniker more frequently. The Packers front seven on defense are tough, led by defensive end Aaron Kampman and linebackers Nick Barnett and A.J. Hawk. They could easily win this mediocre division, but it says here that a tough November-December stretch that includes games at New Orleans, Jacksonville and the Bears, plus home tilts with Carolina and Houston keeps the Pack on the outside of NFC playoffs looking in, at least 8 wins.

3rd Place

Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings are not as bad as the Lions, but on any given week as sketchy as their quarterback situation is, a casual observer could be easily fooled. Adrian Peterson cannot be expected to shoulder the load alone, remember he was considered injury prone at Oklahoma in college. Gus Frerotte is an unlikely savior. The Clarion has more confidence in the future success of 3rd string former USC'er John David Booty than we do either Frerotte or the overwhelmed Tavaris Jackson. The Vikings defense will get demoralized about halfway through the season as they realize just how one dimensional and putrid the offense is. At most 7 wins. (Which is not to say they won't beat the Panthers this weekend.)

4th Place

Detroit Lions

Jon Kitna is a decent quarterback, although in light of his Halloween costume last year, perhaps a bit of a nut job. Roy Williams, Calvin Johnson and Mike Furrey are good wide receivers. Unfortunately, beyond that, the cupboard is pretty bare. It is mind boggling that Lions President Matt Millen still has his job. His record to date is a staggering 31 up and 83 down. The Clarion keeps hearing Detroit is a good football town. Having lived through, first, the Barry Sanders era and now the Matt Millen era, we can honestly say the Lions have sucked for so long that we have no idea if that claim is true or not.

Aaron Rodgers

Saw this interesting note in the USA Today, despite Aaron Rodgers' terrific start in his first two games as quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, and as the replacement for future Hall of Famer Brett Farve, all may not be roses yet.

According to USA Today football columnist, Jarrett Bell, Rodgers is the first Green Bay quarterback to start 2 and 0, other than Farve, since Scott Hunter in 1971. Who is Scott Hunter you ask. And why is this a sign that the future may not be oh so rosy in Green Bay? Scott Hunter replaced a Hall of Fame quarterback, too, this one was a multiple Super Bowl winner, you might have recognized his picture above, Bart Starr. Hunter was out of Green Bay within three years without ever having led them to the playoffs, let alone the Super Bowl.

Baseball notes

A couple of baseball quickies the Clarion heard or noticed in the last week; one we liked, one we loathed, and one that is transcendentally more important than our opinions.

The one we liked was Matt Holliday talking about playing in Fenway Park. Holliday felt like it was substantially better to play in Fenway than any road stadium of his career. He cited the difference between the Boston atmosphere and the atmosphere almost anywhere else with uncanny accuracy. As Peter Gammons related the story, Holliday said the key was in almost every other ballpark fans reacted to the action with their cheering and booing, whereas in Fenway fans anticipated the action with their sound. The comparison is hardly the same, the anticipation keeps the players on edge creating a playoff like atmosphere every game.

The one we loathed was Peter Gammons in the same radio interview waxing on about the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays knowing they were for real because of how good their run differential was. What? Talk about a meaningless stat!!! Run differential couldn't be less important, games count the same 1-0 or 15-1. It is our belief that Gammons was swayed by the fact that the Mothership started carrying run differential in their standings page. Come on Peter, you're better than that. Don't be fooled. (Just like last season in the NL where run differential signified little about who even made the playoffs, run differential is wrong again this year.)

The third one is a charitable cause, strikeoutsfortroops.org This is a charity started by the San Francisco Giants lefty pitcher, Barry Zito. It has given over a million dollars to wounded war veterans since its establishment. It is highly rated for its proper allocation of funds to the cause rather than overhead. It came to the Clarion's notice on September 11th when Zito was on the Jim Rome radio program discussing that USAA had agreed to make a $500 donation for every strikeout in the major leagues that day. The Clarion believes in the collective obligation of all American citizens to wounded war veterans.

Just desserts

For the first time in thirteen years, it has become apparent that the New York Yankees are going to miss the playoffs. The curse of the A-Rod continues.

Loyal readers know that the Clarion strongly opposed the re-signing of Alex Rodriguez and the firing of Joe Torre. It has long been our view that A-Rod is a me guy, who comes up big at the smallest moments and small at the biggest moments. His teams have never won. Clearly, the manager matters less than the every day clean-up hitter, but keeping A-Rod, and losing Torre were two huge mistakes. To complete the these things happen in threes short-sighted trifecta, the Yanks, fixing what wasn't broken, moved likely future ace closer, Joba Chamberlain, to the starting rotation, and from there, rapidly to the disabled list. Hopefully, they haven't irreparably injured his career. Surely, they have derailed his progress, while messing with his confidence and his state of mind.

The Clarion appreciates the irony of Joe Torre's surging Los Angeles Dodgers led by the inimitable Manny Ramirez making the playoffs while the the Yankees miss out. The Dodgers aren't there yet, but the Yanks are toast.

NFC East preview

It is hardly fair to call the tiny capsules we are going to do this year a preview, but we wanted to go on record with our NFL picks before the season started. The first game in recent years has been on a Thursday, this year is no different. It involves two NFC East foes, the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants and the Washington Redskins under first year coach Jim Zorn. The Giants were a shocking revelation to the Clarion last year. We predicted against them the whole way. This year brings nothing different. Without further adieu then, our NFC East picks.

1st place

Dallas Cowboys

We like Tony Romo. We are unconcerned about the so-called Jessica Simpson curse. T.O. is a super talent on the field. Besides Owens the receiver corps is thin, but the running back stable is full. Bruiser Marion Barber III is ably backed by the rookie phenom Felix Jones. Their superb defensive line is good enough to make their linebackers and secondary appear almost Pro Bowl caliber. Over 10 wins.

2nd place

Philadelphia Eagles

Here at the Clarion, we love Donovan McNabb and we don't really care what anyone thinks about it. If the Eagles had ever, ever gotten the guy any wide receivers, he'd of brought them a couple of Lombardi trophies by now. The one year they gave him T.O., the only legit number one, let alone Pro Bowler that McNabb has ever played with, Donovan got them all the way to the Super Bowl. Brian Westbrook is a terrific back, running and receiving. Andy Reid is good coach, the defense is solid. Over 9 wins.

3rd place

Washington Redskins

Jason Campbell, this is it. This is the year for Redskins QB, Jason Campbell to breakthrough. He quarterbacked an Auburn squad, on probation, through an undefeated SEC season, which was the last time that has been done. The Clarion has always believed in him as a leader. He has the savvy, the composure and the arm strength to be a good NFL starter. It helps to have Clinton Portis in the backfield and Santana Moss and Antwan Randle-El split wide. Folks are worried about first year coach Jim Zorn, but the ancient editors at the Clarion's desk have confidence in Zorn dating all the way back to the Steve Largent era Seahawks. Zorn is a sharp football mind, given time he'll be fine. If it all comes together on the defensive side of the ball, especially with the addition of defensive end Jason Taylor, the Skins could make it three NFC East playoff teams. The Clarion predicts at least 8 wins.

4th place

New York Giants

The Giants fans should delight in this prediction, if only because predictions of success by the Clarion are the kiss of death for sports franchises. Still it is hard to love the Giants when they lost both of their starting defensive ends from last year, Michael Strahan to retirement and Osi Umenyiora to injury. Worse they let underrated linebacker Kawika Mitchell depart via free agency. On the offensive side of the ball the Clarion has never been a fan of Eli Manning. (One David Tyree miracle catch from 0-1 in the Super Bowl.) Nor have we ever thought much of Plastic-o Burress, the Giants number one wideout. Amani Toomer is finishing a borderline Hall of Fame career, but he has to get old sometime. Says here that the Giants win around 7 games this year.

The rest of our NFL preview will be in the Clarion Sports section later this week.

Yankee ticket prices

In perhaps not the most well timed announcement, although as the inevitable becomes more and more clear, perhaps there really was no good time, the Yankees announced next season's ticket prices in the new ballpark yesterday.

They range from the scandalous, the first nine rows behind the home plate cost between $500 and $2,500, to the merely outrageous, "Field level seats" will go for from $75 to $325, the "main level" from $40 to $100 and the best seats in the front part of left and right field will be $75 to $100. There are a few seats in the barely palatable price range, "upper decks seats" from $20 to $65 and a few more in the best of luck category, nine sections of bleacher seats for $12.

At least these ticket prices will help the Yanks pay to keep A-Rod in town. If you're scoring at home, a pair of $2,500 seats behind home plate would be $405,000 for season tickets.

Special thanks to the New York Times for the assist on this one.