Are you ready for some football?  I know that the fans are, but I do not think that any of the NFL teams are ready.  The NFL staggered the start of training camps depending on when the first pre-season game is going to be played.  My favorite team, the Arizona Cardinals, was supposed to start last Wednesday, in actuality they are starting this morning, a full four days after their camp was supposed to have begun.  Have they signed any of their rookies?  No and this perplexes me, because I was under the assumption that the rookies had a salary cap depending on where they were drafted.  No negotiations, "Just sign here on the dotted line green pea".  The Cardinals situation is no different than any other team, it is a giant cluster f*ck throughout the NFL right now.   Do not think for a moment that NFL football as we know it is anywhere back to normal.

The Cardinals pulled off one of the major trades of the NFL so far; they traded Pro Bowl cornerback Dominique Rogers-Cromartie and a second round draft pick next season for quarterback Kevin Kolb.  The trade was necessary for the Arizona team, their quarterbacks (four of them) stunk last season following the retirement of future Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner.  The only problem is that Kolb is not allowed to practice with the team until August 4.  What is up with that?  This rule seems pretty ignorant to me. 

The major league baseball trading deadline is fast approaching, and so far I think that San Francisco and Philadelphia have just made great trades for their trades with Carlos Beltran going to the Giants and Hunter Pence going to the Phillies.  My team, the Diamondbacks, does not need any hitting as they lead the National League in home runs.  They could use a back of the rotation starting pitcher and a shut down reliever.  The trading deadline is Monday; we will see what else transpires with the contenders.

Meanwhile Tiger Woods is about to make his return to competitive golf and I, for one, hope that he can return to his former dominating self again.  Professional golf needs Tiger to start winning tournaments again, if only for the fans.  I would love to see him win his 19^th major at the PGA Championship this year.  Tiger is playing at Firestone Golf Course in my birthplace of Akron, Ohio this weekend, a place where he has won seven times.  We should be able to see if he has his game back together by watching him this weekend.  I know that many of you think that golf is a boring sport to watch.  I am not among you.

As for professional basketball and their strike, I leave you with the comment that I would love to see Kobe Bryant end his career by playing a few years in Turkey.  Like Kelly Pickler (who I do have a crush on),  I do not think that Kobe is the smartest tool in the shed.

I leave you with this tune which sums up my feelings on both Kobe and the NBA strike.  Thanks for your patronage and have a great week.

I admit it, I have been watching every minute of The 2011 British Open on ESPN.  I must be the only viewer that they have, considering that the telecast begins at 1 A.M. my time everyday and goes on until noon.  The times are quite natural, as it is being broadcast from the British Isles and there is a considerable time difference broadcasting back here to the United States.  So far the weather has been very un-British like, balmy weather in the low 70’s.   Usually the thrill of watching the Royal and Ancient proceedings is in the gale force winds and sheets of rain that pummel the golfers as they walk around courses that resemble the surface of the moon, pot marked with craters and undulating fairways.  It is quite a difference between this kind of golf and the game that we play here in America and, hopefully, the weather will take a nose dive. 

I must also be the only person who is also watching the World Series of Poker final Event, which is being broadcast at night on ESPN, and it is being broadcast live for the first time which adds to the excitement (sic).  I wonder which event is drawing more viewership, the poker or the golf.   I know that many of my readers profess to hating both viewing golf and also to watching poker players play for way too much money on television.  I think that this year’s Open winner will receive about $2.5 million U.S.  I know that this year’s WSOP winner will pocket $8.7 million.  Which event would you rather win?

While I am confessing to what I watch on television, let me please add Pawn Stars, Hardcore Pawn, Man vs. Food Nation, American Pickers, American Restoration, and countless other “reality” programs to my confessions, as if eating a dozen deep fried chicken wings dipped in ghost chili pepper extract (like a billion times hotter than jalapenos) in under 15 minutes has any notion of reality in it.  I just watched Mike and Frank from American Pickers deliver a 1957 Chevrolet 150 to Rick (who stars in Pawn Stars) and charge him a $1750 profit to bring it to him.  Rick then handed the piece-of-crap car to Rick (his name is also Rick and he stars in American Restoration) who in three weeks did a ground up restoration of it for a cost of $70,000.  Rick (the one from Pawn Stars) then presented the beautifully restored Chevy to his dad (the old Man) for dad’s 70^th birthday.  Rick paid $8000 for the car and another $70,000 restoring it.  What is unrealistic about all of this?  It has got to be bull shit.  The restored car is worth at the most $25,000, so viewers beware please.  Rick never pays more than 50 cents on the dollar for anything.

Meanwhile Adam Richman, who is the star of Man vs. Food finally wised up.  After gaining probably 60 pounds over three years eating all kinds of things like 6 pound burritos, 8 pounds of Don Shula steaks, 10 pounds of Chicago deep dish pizza, and a dozen egg omelets with 2 pounds of hash browns on the side, Adam finally came up with a better idea.  Now his show is Man vs. Food Nation, and he does not participate any more.  He just coaches other suckers into doing the eating contests.  Adam is starting to look svelte again.  Bully for him.

"Charl can keep the green jacket for now, I think this is much more sweeter"

Greetings from the Hoodwood, where we are celebrating the annual arrival of Princess Katie.

How bout dat kid?

I thought for sure for sure that after Rory McIlroy had his painful meltdown in the Masters last April that you would never hear from this kid again. Almost like how Jean Van De Velde had his epic meltdown on the 18^thin the 1999 British Open. Has anyone even heard from that Frenchman again? But McIlroy shot a 65 of Thursday to grab the lead at Congressional and would not be headed, guarding it like a personal fiefdom and destroying the field, like Tiger Woods used to do. His -16 set a US Open record breaking the record set by…Tiger Woods. His domination was so complete I was hearing grumbles by golf wonks about how easy the course was playing. Rory didn’t meltdown on Sunday as some were expecting (or hoping that he would do) instead playing a leisurely 3 under on Sunday and making the Fathers day finale his personal Sunday stroll. As gracious in victory as he was classy in defeat just two months earlier; McIlroy has seemed to shake off a loss that might have defined lesser golfers like the 99 British did Van De Velde and has stamped himself as one of the young guns to really keep an eye on going forward. It will be fun to see if there will be duels when a certain feline golfer gets healthy, heres hoping that happens and that right soon.

What is it about Boston?

I mean really, growing up all I ever heard was Boston always moaning about how their teams were cursed that they always got the shaft in big games. The Red Sox and the Bucker grounder, the Pats getting hammered in the Super Bowl, the Bruins always melting down when the weather got warmer. I always would say that it was a balancing act for the arrogant Celtics always winning. I mean hell, in 1986 the Pats lost the Super Bowl and the Red Sox lost the World Series but the Celtics won their 16^th  NBA championship in between. But to me it always seemed that Bostonians were always crying about their teams not winning the big games. Fast forward to 2002, when Adam Vinitieri’s 47 yard field goal split the uprights in Super Bowl 36, Boston has had an unbelievable run of titles. The Pats won 3 Super Bowls in 4 years, the Red Sox ended the so-called Bambino curse in 2004 rallying from 0-3 to beat their hated rival Yankees then sweeping the Cards in the Series; then winning the Series again in 2007 The Celtics even got in on the act winning a title in 2008. I couldn’t hate on the Celtics this time, I had developed a respect for the late Red Auerbach that I never had when he was alive and I felt for Kevin Garnett who never got a real chance to play for a title in Minnesota. So that left the Bruins who had never won a Stanley Cup title in my lifetime. They hadn’t even been to the finals since my senior year in high school. Did I mention that I went to my 20^thyear class reunion last November? I remember the Oilers sweeping away the Bruins like so much debris as Mark Messier was the captain of that team that beat the Bruins in five games. The Bruins had more or less been the red headed step-child of the Boston sports scene. Or at least the championship part of it till this spring. The Bruins looked like they were going to be the foil for a glorious return of the Stanley Cup back to Canada, the Canucks won their first two games and talk of a sweep was prevalent. Things looked even gloomier when the Bruins forward Nathan Horton was knocked out of Game 3 and the rest of the series by a late hit by Aaron Rome, but the hit woke the Bruins up. Rallying around their fallen teammate the Bruins strafed the Canucks in the 3 games in Boston and with a winner take all finale in Vancouver the Bruins came up aces and stoned the heretofore powerful Canucks attack 4-0. Tim Thomas has now ascended to the the Mt. Rushmore of Boston legends of the 21^stCentury, Joining Tom Brady, David Ortiz, Kevin Garnett. Its gotten so bad ESPN's Stephen A. Smith (a noisy New York Native) whined about how New York has fallen off so bad behind Boston

Cards and Dodgers McCourt in trouble?

Cue the uh oh…Cards pimp slugger Albert Pujols is headed to the DL with left forearm fracture, this bodes bad for both parties as the Cards are having a devil of a time in a three way joust for the NL Central lead with the defending champ Reds and young hungry Brewers. The Cards can ill afford their most feared bat being sidelined as both these teams could leave the Cards in the dust by the time Pujols is back in the swing of things. And a hurt Pujols means less of aq chance to put pressure on the Cards for the big money. You might not see Pujols in Cardinal Red next year…it’s a distinct possibilty. Meanwhile MLB rejected the deal between Fox and Dodgers owner Frank McCourt where Fox would be part of a $3 billion dollar deal and McCourt would get $385 million. What a fucking country, you nearly drive one of the most respected franchises in not just baseball but in sports and still can get some money. McCourt screams that he will sue but bully to MLB for seeing through this sham owner. Lets gets Mark Cuban as the owner here and bring prestige back to the Dodgers. I think Fay Vincent was dead wrong when he compared Cuban to the late George Steinbrenner. Cuban may be a bit obnoxious but hes never paid someone to dig up dirt on a player just so he didnt have to pay him, like Steinbrenner did. Vincent is a noisy wonk who wants people to pay attention to him, had it not been for the untimely passing of Bart Giamatti in 1989, Vincent would have been Giamatti's caddy for years

The Most Boring...ever???

The NBA draft used to be a time of high anticipation and sometimes it was just a formality. There were years where the #1 pick was a foregone conclusion. Shaq in '92, Ewing after the cold envelope in '85, LeBron in '03 but this year there is nothing...The Cavs got the number #1 pick but Kylie Irving hardly quickens my hearbeat and my favorite player Kemba "Ebo" Walker is a lottery pick but hardly a #1. There is talk that the Cavs might trade one or both of their top picks to garner a veteran player. Jimmer Fredette is almost a stone lock to warm the bench in Utah or Indiana but be the white bread loveable lug that will garner an NBA check for the next 15 or so years. But on the real, I took a look at the mock draft that was on ESPN and was like "Really, who the fuck are these guys?" This years draft is probably one the most forgettable in recent years, if not decades. Only the ill fated 1986 draft with the tragic Len Bias death, and the drug stunted  careers of Roy Tarpley, William Bedford and Chris Washburn may have been worse. No dis to Brad Daughtery, Mark Price, Ron Harper, John Salley and Dennis Rodman who were solid players that came out of that draft but by and large they were pretty unheralded themselves during that draft. This year I might just watch the draft to see the first pick and go back to working on my hotshots golf game.

Phat Dap/Head Slap

Phat Dap

Its rare when I give dap to a Dukie but Jay Bilas deserves it for his brutally honest opinion piece on ESPN.com about paying college athletes.(I'd provide the link but you have to be an Insider)  I am one that believes that you dont get many of the scandals that you have with boosters and over friendly "Friends of the Program" if you give player a small stipend and don't hand me this bullshit about kids getting a free ride and that room board and education is the only thing they need. I bet those that say that had plenty of money to hang out and get grub as well as go out on dates and have the things that most college kids that can get a job or have well to do family can get. Make the stipend a flat rate for all D-1 schools and you solve a weighty problem. 

Head Slap

To the ingnant (yes I spelled it like that) hooligans of Vancouver who senselessly rioted after the Canucks lost game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals to the Bruins. Someone tell me what turning over cars, breaking windows and looting had to do with a hockey game. And please don’t give me that mob mentality shit. People should have known better, you didn’t see any rioting going on in Miami after the Heat lost.

One more slap while Im at it, to the University of Kentucky. I dont give a shit that Princess Jazzie's Uncle Matt goes there. UK is never above patting itself on the back and when they honor fellow criminal...errrr Coach John Calipari on his 500th coaching win last season it seemed like a nice touch for a milestone. But the NCAA has stepped in and said that Calipari has a number of vacated wins from his criminal past....uhhhh coaching stints at UMass and Memphis...so his 500 wins are really only 458. But it ghets better, sore headed UK fans are now squawking that there are 38 coaches that should have wins vacated. UK is acting like the snitch that figures if they get busted they are gonna rat everyone else out. Is it me or does that Wildcat logo look more and more like a fuckin' rat???

That's the view from the Hoodwood...until next post fellow sports fans!

All right folks, this is a first for the Gab, at least for me. Back in the old days, as if someone at 34 can truly speak of the old day, I used to write a blog post over at Sporting News called “Ask Frag,” where the readers would submit questions about sports and I’d give my take on the subject. The idea of the post wasn’t to interject that I knew more about sports than others, but rather to trigger reader interaction and hopefully spur debate.

Well as discussed last week, I thought it would be a nice change of pace to try something similar here and see how it works. I won’t commit to that being my weekly post, but more as a change of pace thing once in a while. I like the idea of doing a live blog, but I also like to really dial down my subjects and saying my peace too.

So without further ado, I’ll get us started with a topic that I’m kicking around, but can’t commit a full piece to Tiger Woods’ latest injury and his withdrawal from the PGA Championship.

As most of you likely know, Woods was forced to withdraw from the PGA Championship after just nine holes due to knee and Achilles injuries. Woods was just returning to the tour after having sat out since the Masters due to an injury to the same knee. Woods has suffered from various injuries to his neck and knees over the past few years and has been ultimately ineffective when on the course.

There has been a lot of speculation to Woods’ ineffectiveness, from both the media and his fellow players. I’ve read numerous articles questioning if the injuries are becoming a fallback to mask poor play. However, I’m not here to talk about Tiger’s play. Rather, I want to discuss the injuries themselves.

Specifically, I want to ask you folks if you think they may be steroid related.

Think about it, Woods has had ties to Anthony Galea, the Canadian doctor accused of distributing Human Growth Hormone to athletes. He was questioned last year about his treatments by Galea, but ultimately was determined he did nothing illegal. But for the sake of argument, isn’t Woods showing some classic signs of bodily breakdown common among some of the athletes in baseball and football who were found to have engaged in steroid activity?

All right Gabitants, I put it to you. What do you make of Tiger’s injuries and his future in golf?

Also, remember that this is an open, live blog. We can change the topic at any time and move the discussion to any other item on your mind. Let’s have fun with it and see where it takes us!

Greetings from the Hoodwood, where no matter what team you root for, you won't get jumped

Defending the Indefensible Barry Bonds

In some respects I like Barry Bonds, between the lines he was one of the most feared hitters in major league baseball. He had the one of the most disciplined batting eyes in the game. No one player was pitched around more in baseball. He was at times an articulate player who respected the fundamentals of the game and its history, as a son of a gifted player knew the history and struggle of a black man in this game.

In some respects I detest Bonds, to put it succinctly he is an arrogant ass, someone who belittles teammates, ignores fans and acts like hes mad at everyone and that hed rather be somewhere else.

In some respects I feel sorry for Barry Bonds, a player that wants so desperately to be loved and respected as an icon like his godfather Willie Mays. A player that has been burdened with the high expectations of being the son of a major leaguer A player that was on talented but flawed Pirates and Giants team that only got to the World Series one time. For being a player that was five outs away from a long coveted title only to have it frittered away not of his own doing. A player that hit 73 homers in a season and 762 in his career and got yawned at when he broke both records. I saw him hit both 71 and 756 but most baseball fans ignored the feat or lambasted Bonds with taunts about steroid use.

Barry Bonds did steroids, lets just put that out there. Just compare the  pics up top  show a man who went from wiry and slim to the incredible hulk. I mean for petes sake look at the mans head. It went from a high top fade box to a pumpkinhead. I think he did steroids in a misguided attempt to cash in on the home run craze of the late 90s but it was his fate to not catch the love that was given to McGwire and Sosa. The public in general looked on with suspicion almost from the get-go and outside of the Bay Area was looked upon with scorn and derison. Bonds would have been a no doubt hall of famer even before the home run binge

His mistress gave damning testimony about how Bonds’ nuts shrank from its use. If that aint humiliating and a testament for NOT doing the juice I don’t know what is. Bonds does deserve to be in the hall of fame, I think he was a hall of famer based on his pre 1999 numbers, but the Hall of Fame voters are long to carry grudges, and players that have been given that scarlet letter of steroid use whether suspected in the cases of Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Bonds or proven like Rafael Palmiero the votes for induction into Cooperstown may be seriously lacking. As this column goes to press, the jury is still out on his perjury trial. This trial in itself is a pile of bullshit; the feds want someone, anyone to at least be the bad guy here. Why not the arrogant black man who no one likes in the first place. It seems that people were so quick to overlook the stammering McGwire or the "Speka no ingles" Sosa in front of Congress but see Bonds as the arrogant figure and face of steroids.

 End of the ManRam Legend

In that same vein, I note the abrubt retirement of Manny Ramirez. The talented yet mercurial slugger who decided to retire instead of taking a 100 game suspension for his second violation of the banned substances policy. Ramirez was without question on of the most feared right handed hitters of our generation. I felt a bit of kinship with Ramirez because we are just a few months apart in age, and I followed his career from being a young talented slugger with the Indians to his big free agent move to the Red Sox in 2000 where he was World Series MVP in their breakthrough series win in 2004. ManRam was an oddball to be sure, his uneven play in the field and tendency to wander off mentally at times was laughed off at times and chided in others. He wore out his welcome in Boston, but made a splash in LA where he fueled a late Dodgers run to the NLCS. But his 50 game suspension for PEDs use last year darkened his career. It lends people to wonder how many of his 555 homers were PEDs enhanced. His second impending suspension makes people wonder what was he thinking to try the MLB drug policy a second time. We may never know, thus is a bizzare coda to a mysterious yet talented player who like Bonds may never get a sniff at Cooperstown.

Rory’s stunning fall

I admit that Im a Sunday golf watcher, I know just enough about the game to appreciate it. Short of playing on the PS3, Im no player. Chasing a little white ball around in the hot sun, is not my idea of a fun relaxing game. That said, I can appreciate that golfers are athletes and have to stay in decent shape to walk a golf course. I do admit that Im one that makes fun of Phil Mickleson, calling him hefty but he’s probably in much better shape than I could ever claim to be. I did take in the Masters over a pair of basketball games on a sun-splashed day and watched a scrum of sorts for the coveted green jacket for the Masters winner. Rory Mcilroy looked like the clear cut favorite after being 4 shots ahead of the field starting Sunday and the media wonks were already touting him as the next big thing in golf. I told my golf playing and watching friends, lets see how he plays the back nine on Sunday if he still has the lead or if someone makes a charge at him. Tiger Woods made such a charge, steaming through the front nine with a 31, a host of others like a pair of Aussies in Jason Day and Adam Scott, former Masters Champ Angel Cabrera and the redoubtable KJ Choi all picked up steam and closed the gap hard on the 21 year old. But instead of parrying the charge and standing tall, Mcilroy seemed to suddenly realize that he was on golf biggest stage and that he was out of his league. McIlroy came apart and fast, painfully fast. A triple bogey on 10, a bogey on 11, a double bogey on 12. He was starting to look like Greg Norman and his classic yet expected Sunday collapses at Augusta. But the nightmare continued, he found the woods on 13 and bogeyed 15. He dropped faster down the leaderboard than when Happy Gilmore was being mercilessly taunted by the “Jackass heckler” I even wondered aloud if someone was taunting him as he made the turn. He even looked spooked, McIlory fell from 4 up to 10 behind the winner Charl Swartzel of South Africa who’s steady play and closing rush of four birdies gave him his first tour win and he coveted green jacket. McIlroy shot an 80 for the final round, the worst final round ever for a 54 hole leader. His 43 on the back nine was testament to an epic collapse. But instead of slinking away and blaming everyone and everything else, McIlroy stood tall, accepted responsibility for his poor play and came out a sympathetic figure, he received many a warm ovation as he headed for the locker room. I felt for the kid myself, golf is a cruel game you can think that you’ve got the game licked and it rises up to slap you. I know that just from playing it on a video game. McIlroy learned it in a most humbling way on the most public of stages. But you can book that he will be a better player for it and he will be holding a claret jug or getting a jacket slipped on him before too long.

All in all, the final round of the Masters was all that it was cracked up to be: Full of drama and intense play. I was hoping that this would be the return of Tiger to prominence but instead the win by the low-key South African

Phat Dap/Head Slap

Phat Dap

To the (real) fans of the Dodgers who have rallied behind the family of Bryan Stow the Giants fan that was senselessly beaten by so-called Dodgers fans in LA on opening day. Over 50 grand has been raised in the LA area for Stow. The Giants and Dodgers showed unity on the field as they pleaded with fans to act civily. The Dodgers/Giants is one of the fiercest in sports but its good to see that the more sane and rational fans are stepping up and showing that they are all not savages. And heres hoping that they catch the assholes who did this. They weren’t baseball fans

Head Slap

To Ian Poulter, who before the Masters was sharp in his comments that he thought that Tiger Woods was overrated and “would not make the top five in the Masters”. Woods finished tied for fourth and was among the leaders till the very end. Poulter should have been more concerned about his own game rather than predicting where Woods would finish as he shot 1-under for the tourney 13 shots off the lead and 9 behind Woods. He was never in contention finishing tied for 27^th. Those with no game should not shot call, but really who the fuck was Ian Poulter and why should anyone have even cared what this chowderhead thought anyway?

Thats the view from the hoodwood, I'll holla at ya next week. I just gotta get these kids to stop playing my newly installed bluegrass..."Hey you damn kids you get off my lawwwwwn!"

Until next post fellow Sports Fans!