MLB - It's the MLB awards season. So far, Chris Coghlan and Drew Bailey won the ROYs, Zack Greinke and Tim Lincecum won the Cy Youngs, and Jim Tracy and Mike Scioscia won the Managers of the Year. Hard to argue with most of these choices. Your humble writer has had the privilege of seeing Greinke pitch in his high school days (he was stellar then, too) and was pretty saddened when Greinke had to leave baseball for Social Anxiety Disorder (by the way, what kind of coincidence and irony is it that the disorder can be abbreved SAD?). Seems like he's done well for himself. The only other award I truly had a slight quibble with was Coghlan over Andrew McCutcheon for NL ROY, but maybe that's because I owned McCutcheon as a fantasy player and that he was also a former UF signee.
NBA - Good God, are the Atlanta Hawks for serial? When was the last time you uttered that, or even thought that? I know that I personally have not believed that since the Hawks employed Dominique Wilkins and they had the Pac-Man esque logo. Seriously, I look at that thing now, and it's still unclear how it's a bird. I stare at the outline for hours and I st....OHHH. There it is. Took me long enough.
NFL - Speaking of legit, look at the Bengals! Sweeping the AFC North like they're a good franchise. What is really interesting, though, is this year they might have 3 teams make the playoffs. This isn't anything novel; hell, we saw it last year in the NFC South around this time (Tampa, Carolina, Atlanta), but it is something to keep an eye on. The Ravens look like they have the worst chance, but you can't really discount Flacco and Ray Rice just yet. Speaking of Ray Rice, I am pleasantly surprised with how well he has done in the NFL. I thought Rutgers ran those tires bald. Good for him. Stacy will send him his congratulatory fruit basket posthaste!
The NHL gets trumped this week.
FIFA - Some here at PLS really like soccer. I probably follow the usual American trend of getting really into it at the time of the World Cup and resolving to follow the EPL until the next day when I simply don't. Anyhow, much ado is being made about Thierry Henry's handball that saved the French yesterday. I can understand the Irish manager's (is that the proper term of art here?) reaction, but what was Henry supposed to do? This isn't golf, where Will Smith plays a stereotypical Southern black individual and reminds us that, in golf, we call the penalties on ourselves. It's vaguely reminiscent of Diego Maradona's infamous "Hand of God" that didn't get called, but it's really not Henry's job to call the penalty on himself. I think these two quotes, most of all, sum up the ridiculousness of the situation.
"Our minister of sport will write to FIFA...and look for a re-match."
- Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen
"Neither the French government nor the Irish government should interfere in the functioning of the international federation."
- French PM Francois Fillon
I'm nearly positive the world has bigger issues to work out than the hand of one very clean shaven footballer.
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