I'm so glad January is almost over.  Welcome to the tantrums, where you can consider this your own personal Hotel California - as in this could be Heaven or this could be Hell!  Speaking of Heaven, we’re heading into February, where Baseball talk heats up even more.  Speaking of hell, this past week was the first without football since September.  Guess I'll have to make do...

Rant of the Week – Skip Bayless.   ESPN might be enjoying the ratings that Bayless provides by making outrageous and purposely ignorant statements (along with that other winner Stephen A. Smith), but the athletes blowback has FINALLY started.  Terrell Suggs told him not to be a douche bag on national TV while everybodys favorite junkyard dog, Vikings Punter Chris Kluwe, let loose on the Skipper in a pretty cool twitter rant.  Skipper may get off on this shit, but the other folks who work hard on that show are being made to look like idiots and fools - they don’t deserve that classification.

MLB.   Jorge Posada retired this week.  You all know how I feel about the Yankees, but Posada deserves props.  He was the last of a dying breed, a Catcher that averaged .273 with 16 HR and 62 RBI’s per season – stats most catchers today can only dream of.  But what really impressed me was an athlete in the rotten apple who didn’t care about the spotlight.  This dude just came to work and got the timely hit when the Cranks needed it most.  

It's bad enough that the Oakland A's tank their team year after year and become an after-thought in the Bay Area.  They've already unloaded a lot of their "name" players earlier in the hot stove, but now they're open to signing Man-Ram?  Please tell me this is some sort of sick joke!  It might be time for the A's to move or be contracted.

Don't ask me why, but I seem to have an affinity for the Minnesota Twins.  So it did my heart good when I read about the Twinkies deciding to retire Tom Kelly's #10 on 9/8 at Target Field.  A very good Manager who deserves the honor.  He had 1,140 wins as the skip and of course won two World Series titles.  One question - what took so long to put his name up there with Puckett, Hrbek, Killebrew, Oliva, Carew and Blyleven?

NBA.  Sorry guys, I have to ask a question about the greedy little bastards since it's been a weak sports week.  Hey Jeff, what in Sam Hill is going on down in ole San Anton?  I hear that Pop benched his starters against Dallas the other day.

Music of the Week.  Man, the guitar music choices are getting good.  Beeze brought up a fair point, and I did a little more research, so let’s head down to SWEET HOME CHICAGO:

Thank you Mr. Buddy Guy.

NFL.   Guess I have to talk about the Super Bowl, eh?  I'll watch it because it's football but I don't have nearly the interest most will.  Let's hope that who ever sings the National Anthem can at least get the words right, although that might be too much to ask from musicians.  If they screw it up this time, I might have to call the whole lot of musicians "commies".

I’m watching the Peyton Manning vs. Indy Colts and I’m wondering are all the Mannings a bunch of crybabies?  Peyton, I think you’re a great quarterback, but allow me to let you in on a little secret – THE NFL IS A BUSINESS.  Their biggest investment, you, is injured to the point of it being unknown whether you’ll make it to another practice let alone another game – THEY HAVE TO MOVE FORWARD!!!  You’ve done wonders for Indy on and off the field and didn’t act like a diva your entire career – don’t go out like this!  Personally, I'd rather have you stay well and be a talking head with CBS or something rather that have to see you go through life in horrific shape.

Tampa, Tampa, Tampa.  I can't believe you haven't learned that College Football coaches almost never make it in the NFL.  Greg Schiano is a good college coach - hell anybody that can bring Rutgers back from the dead has to be, but your swimming against the tide here.  Yes, Jim Harbaugh did well this season, but that's one.  Nick Saban couldn't do it, neither could Butch Davis - and certainly Pete Carroll didn't do it in Seattle or his previous pro stops.  Lou Holtz couldn't do it with the Jets, and John McKay certainly couldn't do it with Tampa in the 70's.  Best of luck I guess...

College Football.   National Signing Day - Further proof that High School Football is corrupt.

College Basketball.  Damn if the refs didn’t cost West Virginia that game up in Syracuse.  Ole Bob Huggins must be mellowing because he didn’t go crazy like in the past.

Thought I’d take a look at the money conferences worst nightmare come March – the Colonial Athletic Association.  Bad news big boys – George Mason and VCU are sitting at 18-5, so it looks like they’re gonna get in.  Some middle of the row big conference teams are gonna get punked again come St. Patrick's Weekend.  Sorry Bandit, but it's happened too many times.

The good news for the "Big Boys"?  Butler is sitting at 12-11 way behind in the Horizon League.  The Dance won't be the same without the two time National Runner-up Bears!

It might be super early, but I’ll be curious to see the excuses if the Mountain West doesn’t get more than three teams into the dance.  UNLV is sitting at 20-3, San Diego State is 18-2, New Mexico is 17-4, Wyoming is 17-4, and Colorado State is 14-6.

Golf .  Uh oh, there’s been a Tiger Woods sighting, and no Gabbers don’t go running for the adult sites – it was actually on a Golf Course where apparently he’s doing well in the tune up tournaments overseas.  But here's a question, why wasn't Ron Jeremy version 2.0 playing with the big boys down in Torrey Pines (San Dawg)?  Gabbers, if I have a choice of playing 18 in either Abu Dhabi or Torrey Pines (I've been to both), I think I know where I'm going.  

Before I forget - Hey Golf Snob and TV Suit, there’s a great youth movement going on in the sport, stop putting all of your eggs in Tiger's basket and start pimping the revolution.  You need to pay attention or you’re gonna miss something special. 

MMA.  Just wondering Gabbers, did you watch the MMA on Fox?  What do you think?  I think that a sport running so hot and still putting a show together for free TV is brilliant!  It will only improve the interest, so long as it isn’t boring!  

Anyway, this week was boring for sports.  Best of luck to my Gabber Patriot fans and enjoy the game!