Map of Baseball Caps

This awesome illustration maps the history of baseball cap logos from the 1950's forward, from the team with most, the A's, to the team with the fewest, the Yankees.

A grateful thank you to one of our Chicago readers, the Cleary Man, for sending this our way. Much obliged! View it full sized here.

NBA Draft talent

The Clarion Content can't comment on the Europeans leaguers and other global b-ballers who were drafted by NBA franchises the other night in what Bill Simmons says will be remembered as the "Foreigner Draft."



The Clarion Content does have some strong opinions on the players that got drafted, starting with Kyrie Irving. Word out of Duke is that he is a strong character kid, hope so, because it is very tough to get drafted number one overall by the franchise that lost LeBron when you have played less than twenty college basketball games and don't have the body of NFL defensive end. We think Irving becomes a successful pro, with a reasonable NBA career, never quite an all-star, but a nice blend of some of the skills of say Mo Cheeks and Vinny, "Microwave" Johnson. Good distributor, streaky hot shooter, small defender who has to play the point or is a sixth man, a 3rd guard.

We would rate him a the fourth best NBA career arc coming out of this draft. Number one we like Nolan Smith of Duke and now the Portland Trail Blazers. A leader with guts and heart, Smith is a tenacious battler who will win off the dribble and be able to get his own shot, even against much bigger players. He is unselfish to a fault and this will lead him to even greater heights in the NBA than he reached in college.

Number two we like, Derrick Williams. The guy can score. He can play the three or the four in today's NBA. He is the anti-Michael Beasley, who the Clarion Content warned about before he was drafted, Williams is level-headed and a diligent worker. Unfortunately, he got drafted by a team that is schizophrenic. They have Beasley, are run by Kahn, are dangling their coach Kurt Rambis from a meat hook, haven't integrated Ricky Rubio... etc. We do like Kevin Love.

We agree with the Spurs about Kawhi Leonard, whom we rate as the number three NBA career in this draft. Guys who have little help in college don't look as good as they are because of the focus the other team's defense and coaching put into stopping them individually. This same issue applies to another guy who will definitely have a long NBA career, Jimmer Fredette. Other teams keyed on him constantly, built their defensive game plans around stopping him, and the guy still scored with minimal quality help around him. These kind of guys succeed in the pros. Steph Curry anyone? The difficulty is identifying them.

We rate Leonard above Kyrie Irving, Fredette below. Time will tell how good our eyes was.

Top College Draft Prospects 20111

1) Nolan Smith, Duke
2) Derrick Williams, Arizona
3) Kawhi Leonard, San Diego State
4) Kyrie Irving, Duke


Kawhi Leonard

Johnny Damon, Hall of Famer?

Some regular readers accuse the Clarion Content of having a too expansive criterion for selection to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. It is a claim we vociferously dispute. Jim Rice, Tony Perez, Bert Blyleven and Andre Dawson were all deserving. We did not, however, support the candidacies of Dennis Eckersely or Kirby Puckett, simply to cite a few examples on both sides. The borderline cases, of course, produce the most debate.

It is with interest then that we read a note from the Associated Press this morning about an exclusive club Mr. Johnny Damon joined last night while batting for the gritty Tampa Bay Rays. Damon doubled down the leftfield line and became the 11th player in baseball history to have 500 doubles, 100 triples, 200 homers and 2,500 hits. All the others, a prestigious list including names like Musial, Gehrig, Ruth and Brett, are in the Hall of Fame.

Is Johnny Damon a Hall of Famer? It is a fascinating question to ponder for the next few years.

Nowiztki

Defending Dirk Nowiztki? It is a tough job both for opposing players and for the player's supporters. Undoubtedly Nowiztki has been great in these playoffs, and his numbers are those of a Hall of Fame career.

Also indisputably, in the biggest moment of this season's playoffs so far for Dallas, Nowiztki had the ball twice in the last thirty seconds of a tie game in a tied seriess. Sandwiched around a missed LeBron James three pointer, Nowiztki turned the ball over, throwing it out of bounds, and missed his signature step back sixteen footer.

Tough to defend a guy with a reputation as a shrinking violet when he does that...

The team that has won Game Three has won the last eleven NBA Finals, all of them since the league switched to the unbalanced 2-3-2 format.

Atlanta Hockey is no more

The Clarion Content has long derided the National Hockey League for its move into warm weather United States cities. Locally, the Carolina Hurricanes have been the exception to the rule. The exception proves the rule? Bringing the Clarion Content's northeastern Original Six hockey biases to the table, we have never bought into hockey in warm places. This is the national sport of Canada. This week the NHL agreed.

The Atlanta Thrashers were the weakest warm weather franchise this side of the Phoenix Coyotes (in bankruptcy and league receivership while sucking money out of the City of Glendale). True North Sports & Entertainment bought the Atlanta franchise and is moving it to Winnipeg, Manitoba. The underlying premise? Canada loves hockey. How much? Winnipeg sold out its 13,000 season ticket plans almost immediately.

Atlanta is lukewarm about all of its sports teams. The team was 28th in attendance in a 30 team league. Hockey doesn't play well in warm weather cities. Only one warm weather city is in the top half of the league in attendance, though to be fair San Jose, just outside the top half, plays to sellout crowds.

Bottom line, this was an obvious move for the league.

Next up what Canadian city takes the Phoenix Coyotes?