I love Sunday mornings and the back-to-back "sports reporters" shows - one by a well informed ESPN crew, and the other led by Canada's own Dave Hodge. Both panels came un-hinged when challenged with the concept ofhow and why Roberto Alomar was elected with the third highest percentage of voters in the history of the process in voting players into the hall of fame.
It's not about math, or the fact there are more journalists being handed the privilege of voting in the first place. It comes down to one factor and this anomaly happens with regularity, because when the talent pool that is available on the ballot is compromised with less than stellar superstars, writers are still obliged to vote for someone.
Conversely, when legit sluggers like Jim Rice and Andre Dawson are forced to wait as long as 15 years for their admission to the vaunted hall of fame, it is due to the fact the ballots were flooded with better players who owned better career numbers.
The steroid era is fodder for another column, but it is not a coincidence folks like Palmeiro and McGwire were given the Bronx salute.
There used to be clearly defined stats that dictated a players worth in Cooperstown, but time changes all things, even your underwear if you find yourself with a new gal. Blasting 500 homers used to make players a shoe in, or 200 wins for a pitcher. Now the pundits who call the shots are forced to adapt to a new age of athlete. The bottom line is 99 per cent of the members of the hall belong there.
One of the so-called "experts" this week mocked the voters who sent Bert Blyleven into eternal fame. I guess his 287 wins and nearly 4,000 strikeouts were glossed over in what is typically an objective action.
Anyway, baseball previews are mere weeks away. Yahoo.
Watching the first two NFL wild card playoff games was rather unsettling - not because of my predictions being wrong, but exactly the opposite. I mentioned special teams and, if you take away a huge kickoff return by the Jets, and it fails to put them in field goal range, a victory would not have happened. Jets CB Darrelle Revis eliminated the Colts WR Reggie Wayne, and the fattest and mouthiest coach in NFL history got past an under-manned Manning. My comment on Jets RB LaDanian Tomlinson was entirely accurate - his post season numbers flat out stink, but he put together enough of a running game to disguise the shortcomings of QB Mark Sanchez.
As for Seattle and their shootout with last year's champs from New Orleans, it was a miracle. Brees threw for over 400 yards without a turnover and put 36 points on the board and still lost. That was largely due to an inspiring run by Seahawks' Marshawn Lynch and countless defensive breakdowns in coverage by the Saints. Their punter happens to be a friend of the Hamilton family and Jon Ryan not only had a killer regular season, but pooched a few inside the 20-yard line and boomed them when duty called for field position. He might be the best in the NFL - now he just needs a haircut.
What do ya lose when you give yourself away? Nothing -you just start again.
If Flacco keeps playing the way he has, Baltimore could go deep into the playoffs. They took Kansas City behind the woodshed and spanked them, even though spanking is illegal. I picked the Ravens, but didn't think they'd light up the scoreboard.Five KC turnovers didn't help.
Aaron Rodgers was my pre-season pick for the MVP until concussions partially de-railed his season. In frigid Philly, Rodgers was outplaying Vick and the Packers looked to be in full control until Vick's cat-like quickness and cannon arm started a valiant comeback. Sadly, two missed field goals and a late interception ended the season for what might have been a Cinderella story. I know a field goal kicker who is thinking dark thoughts.
This ends my wild card wrap and leaves me 2-2 in predictions - not the glory and huge payoffs you've all come to expect from me. The bottom line is that most of us men got to eat pizza and drink all day instead of shoveling snow because the playoffs were on. That's got to count for something. On top of that, a new episode of Family Guy left me laughing and weeping at the same time. Best show on TV, and Brian, everyone's favourite cartoon dog, lived to see another show.
Unless Vick takes the off-season poorly, we can look forward to many more Sunday Night antics from my favourite misfit family. I have been watching so much football lately that Peter Griffin and I are starting to look alike.
