Category: MLB (Page 311 of 448)

      Worst Losing Streaks in Sports

      October 8, 2008 /

      Forbes.com spent a little time finding the worst losing streaks in sports.

      Pittsburgh Pirates
      Major League Baseball
      16 consecutive losing seasons (1993 to present)
      The Pirates used to be a powerhouse in the National League East. While they didn’t win a World Series in the 1990s, they were contenders for three straight years. Pittsburgh fans still had the memories of the 1979 world championship team, but then the team got rid of Barry Bonds and started a 16-year race to rock bottom. It’s the longest current losing streak in professional sports.

      Tampa Bay Buccaneers
      National Football League
      14 consecutive losing seasons (1983 to 1996)
      During the period between 1983 and 1996, the Buccaneers repeatedly put together abysmally bad seasons. They had three two-win seasons, one three-win season and one four-win season. The bright orange uniforms and the fact that they traded away future hall-of-famer Steve Young didn’t help.

      Chicago Blackhawks
      National Hockey League
      14 consecutive losing seasons (1946 to 1960)
      Something that must always be considered when ranking losing aptitude is circumstance. The Chicago Blackhawks are one of the NHL’s original six franchises and, for years, there simply weren’t that many teams in the nation’s hockey league. The team made a strong break break from its losing streak, however, by winning the Stanley Cup in 1961.

      Los Angeles Clippers
      National Basketball Association
      12 consecutive losing seasons (1993 to 2005)
      Staples Arena, in Los Angeles, is home to the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers. When you look into the rafters, you see countless yellow and purple Lakers banners celebrating championships and superstars like Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabar. There’s almost no red and silver in the rafters.

      How could you not feel for Pittsburgh Pirate fans? Not only do they continue to lose, but there’s not a lot of hope on the horizon either.

      MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL

      Red Sox have eclipsed Yankees as premier team

      October 8, 2008 /

      As Murray Chass on Baseball notes, the Boston Red Sox have supplanted the New York Yankees as the premier team to beat in the AL East.

      Jacoby EllsburyThat conclusion isn’t based strictly on the outcome of this year’s division race, though the season is symptomatic of developments in the lives of the Yankees and the Red Sox. In a more general way, the Red Sox have demonstrated that they are smarter and more adept than the Yankees in judging talent, in trading, in scouting, in player development and in strategic planning.

      The teams have similarities that are useful in judging the quality of their operations.
      The Red Sox went to Japan and signed Daisuke Matsuzaka. The Yankees went to Japan and signed Kei Igawa.

      The Red Sox have a young center fielder, Jacoby Ellsbury, who is instrumental in igniting their offense. The Yankees have a young center fielder, Melky Cabrera, whom they sent to the minor leagues in August.

      The Red Sox have a young second baseman, Dustin Pedroia, whose .326 batting average fell two hits short of winning the A.L. batting title and who led the league in runs scored, multi-hit games and doubles, tied for the lead in hits and was fourth in total bases. The Yankees have a young second baseman, Robinson Cano, who needed eight hits in the last three games to get his on-base percentage over .300.

      The Red Sox needed a starting pitcher and in mid-August traded for veteran Paul Byrd, who compiled a 4-2 record in eight starts. The Yankees needed a starting pitcher and in June yanked Joba Chamberlain out of the bullpen and put him in the starting rotation, where he suffered a shoulder ailment that cost him a month.

      The Red Sox needed to trade their best hitter, Manny Ramirez, and in a three-team deal that included Pittsburgh got Jason Bay, who batted .293 with a series of key hits that fueled critical Boston victories.

      The Yankees needed a hitter and, five days before the Bay trade, turned to the same team, the Pirates, and got Xavier Nady, whose batting average for the Yankees was 25 points less than Bay’s was for Boston and whose on-base percentage was 50 points and slugging percentage 53 points less.

      This is what people continue to miss about the Yankees and their spending. Just because they can spend more, doesn’t mean that they’re better off. Yes, there should be a cap in place so that all of the spending is even. But the Yankees continue to shoot themselves in the foot with all of their freewheeling contracts and trading, because they’re not developing young, marquee talent anymore like they once did with Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Bearnie Williams. They thought players like Melky Cabrera, Robinson Cano and Phillip Hughes would develop like the aforementioned names, but those three haven’t panned out yet, at least not how the club thought they would.

      The article is right – the Red Sox have been better at judging talent and making trades over the past couple years and it’s exactly why they’re playing in October right now while the Yankees are at home plodding ways to get CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Manny Ramirez.

      MLB

      Breaking News: Curt Schilling’s blog is in danger

      October 7, 2008 /

      Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling is pondering a comeback in 2009.

      Curt SchillingThe Boston Red Sox right-hander, who underwent season-ending shoulder surgery on June 23, said in an interview with Sporting News that he might try to pitch in 2009 under the right circumstances.
      “I won’t come back for a full season, that much I know. If I do decide to come back I would work to the point I was ready and somewhere around May 1 let the teams know I wanted to pitch the second half,” he said.

      “I’d obviously need to spend June in the minor leagues building it all back up and then hopefully come back and help a team in contention win a World Series. All of this is predicated with the fact that I am completely healthy and able to pitch like I did prior to breaking my shoulder early in 2007.”

      But if Curt came back to the mound, who would man his oh-so-insightful and always well-thought out blog “38 Pitches” while he was gone? I’m concerned…

      Fantasy Baseball, MLB

      Why does nobody care about the steroid problem in the NFL?

      October 7, 2008 /

      Allen Barra of The Wall Street Journal wrote a fantastic article about the steroid problem in the NFL and why fans ignore it while they crucify baseball for the very same issue.

      First, there’s the matter of statistics. The argument goes that baseball fans take stats very seriously and thus are spurred to action when performance-enhancing drugs taint the record books, while football fans are much less concerned about steroids and other such substances given that football has no identifiable statistical benchmarks such as Hank Aaron’s 755 career home runs or Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. Only a few players on a team of 22 starters in football really have any stats.

      Prof. Yesalis believes the statistical argument to be largely a creation of the media: “I think it’s sportswriters who care about records being broken. I don’t think the average fans really care all that much. They view sports mostly as entertainment.” But Bob Costas disagrees. “I don’t know about the average fan, but judging from the reaction to Barry Bonds’s surpassing Aaron’s home run record, a great many fans do care, and if they don’t think the competition is legitimate, they’re liable to seek their entertainment elsewhere.”

      Whether or not most fans care, the fact is that it’s only when players like Bonds achieve certain statistical milestones that the question of performance-enhancing drugs comes into focus; what statistics do we have for offensive linemen in football?

      For that matter, who notices offensive or defensive linemen at all? While experts have long acknowledged that linemen (whose average weight has increased by nearly 90 pounds over the past quarter century) are the primary users of bulk-up substances, most fans never get to see the faces of the players down in the trenches. Defensive linemen might not even get their names mentioned more than once or twice a game when they make a spectacular play like a quarterback sack, and offensive linemen almost never get their names announced on TV.

      Every baseball fan knew Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, and other star players who testified in congressional hearings, but if even the best-known linemen were to sit in front of the microphone, their staunchest fans might be getting a good look at their faces for the first time.

      Do yourself a favor and read the rest of the article, because it goes into how the NFL isn’t under the threat of losing its exemption from antitrust laws like MLB was.

      Constantly hammering baseball because of its steroid problem, but giving football a free pass for the same issue might be the most hypocritical thing we fans do right now. And I’m as guilty as anyone. I have no problem chastising Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens because they (supposedly) doped, but when it comes to football, I’ll check my fantasy stats 34 times before I dare look into something even semi-steroid related. And I think that’s because I’m like any red-blooded American – I want to believe that my beloved weekend football is on the up and up when it comes to players using performance-enhancing drugs. But it clearly is not.

      MLB, NFL

      Ten Most Infamous Sports Criminals

      October 7, 2008 /

      In the wake of O.J. Simpson being convicted for robbing a sports memorabilia dealer over the weekend, Real Clear Sports.com ranks the 10 most infamous sports criminals.

      O.J. Simpson#1 O.J. Simpson
      Was there any question about who would be number one on this list?

      His career was the most successful of anyone that earned this dubious distinction; his celebrity status the largest; and his crimes among the most heinous…

      #2 Tonya Harding
      Tonya Harding became infamous in the minds of America on January 6, 1994. It was on that day when fellow-skater and competitor Nancy Kerrigan was attacked following a practice section at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Kerrigan was struck in the knee with a metal baton by Shane Stant, who was hired by Harding’s ex-husband Jeff Gillooly and friend, Shawn Eckardt…

      #4 Michael Vick
      By 2007, after being linked to a marijuana distribution incident, carrying marijuana hidden in a water bottle through airport security, holding up both middle fingers to a home crowd in 2006 and taking on the unfortunate nickname of Ron Mexico, Michael Vick’s image as the most electrifying player in football was just starting to wane. But in 2007, the former number one overall pick in the NFL draft was indicted on charges that would change his public image, possibly forever…

      #8 Maurice Clarett
      At one time, Maurice Clarett was a promising freshmen running back at Ohio State who led his team to a surprising national championship victory over an “unbeatable” Miami team. Unfortunately, that would be the highlight of Clarett’s football career…

      It’s absolutely amazing how some athletes have so much and yet still find ways to commit the most brutal crimes. Just goes to show you that even though we think we do because we watch them on the field, ice or diamond, we have no idea who these athletes really are as people.

      College Football, General Sports, MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL

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