The Gold Glove

This has probably been discussed a few too many times by now, but I had to bring it up. Outfielders and the gold glove just make no sense. Similar to the all start game, outfielders in the gold glove are bunched all together. Instead of being separated and judged on LF, CF, RF, they are judged simply as Out Fielder (OF). This isn't a fantasy league, playing each outfield position takes a different type of talent, and to play it the best is equally as difficult for any position. Last year in the NL Andruw Jones, Jim Edmonds and Bobby Abreu won the gold glove. 2 CF's and 1 RF. In fact, 9 out of the last 10 years, at least 2 CF's have won the award. Now I understand the argument, CF is the most important position in the outfield, in fact I have a whole nother rant about that one, but that doesn't mean you should reward the best two or three center fielders. You should award just one, and then award a best LF and best RF. This year, if we did it the way it should be, the winners could look something like this:

Left Field - Cliff Floyd (Yes I have a bias, but I can't think of any else that comes close. There are just some terrible left fielders in the NL right now, and floyd can go get it, even if he tends to run into things)

Center Field - Andruw Jones (Plays probably the shallowest center ever, and the best ever. The guy never looks like he is running hard, and yet if he doesn't catch it, everyone in the stadium knows it couldn't have possibly been caught. Its pretty much a given.)

Right Field - Bobby Abreu (except he's afraid of the wall, how do people not notice this? Still shocks me when I hear announcers say, the gold glove outfielder...Bobby Abreu.)


I'd get into the AL, but I think I pretty much made my point. Think about some corner outfielders that are quite good defensively, and see if they have actually won a Gold Glove. A few corner outfielders win a lot, like Larry Walker, Barry Bonds and Ichiro. But most times, at least one corner outfielder is left out, and not surprisingly lefto field is often left out. People think you can stick anyone in left, and get away with it, the same way teams try to hide bad fielders at first base. But to see Left Field played well is just as amazing to see any other position played well. Its a huge difference, and you see it within a few plays usually. How many fans of teams can honestly say they feel comfortable when a hard hit ball to left means their outfielder has a good chance to catch it going back.

Greatest Sports Nicknames

While many sports have their history of great nicknames, they are not nearly as prevalent as they used to be. Doesn't it feel like every player that played in the 50's 60's and 70's has a nickname. Even your fathers favorite weak hitting second basemen for one year had a nickname. Start going on about they called him "Squeaky" or something cause his locker was always clean. With all this in mind, I thought it might be nice to try to get a list of the better nicknames in professional sports right now.


Personally here are a few favorites:
Big Papi - It works in so many ways
Big Donkey - gotta love when they make fun of big guys speed
Flash - cmon, he's the fastest man alive (he beat superman more times) and you give it to a phenom like Wade...
Apollo Creed - The Count of Monte Fist-o. I said professional, I didn't say real...

500 vs. 300

500 Home Runs & 300 Wins, the two biggest benchmarks a hitter or pitcher can have in their career. I think they have a greater signifigance than the 3000 hit club, just simply because the hitters who get to 500 homeruns tend to have a greater impact all around, than the one's who are purely 3000 hit club guys. Don't get me wrong, 3000 hits is a definite ticket into the hall of fame, but 500 home runs is sexy, or is it? With so many current sluggers hitting so many home runs (BALCO aided or not) the nubmer isn't what it used to be. The same way 50 home runs isn't as shocking as it was a decade ago, 500 home runs has almost become insignificant. Is 600 the new 500? Probably, since for most player, to hit that extra 100 home runs, it would mean sustaining a high level of excellence until they are close to 40, as we have seen is doable, but not at the same rate (BALCO Bonds being the obvious exception). Recently, a close friend offered another solution, suggest that 2000 (HR + RBI) should be the key number, and I say why not? We love OPS, so why not start combining categories that make sense. What makes the 500 mark even more laughable as assurance into the hall of fame is two very recent players who came very close to 500 HR, have no business being in the hall of fame, and never will be - Jose Canseco & Fred McGriff. One of the Bash Brothers, and the Crime Dog had 462 & 493 homers respectively.

In contrast to the 500 Homers, 300 Wins may become that insurmountable number that only the very elite that come along once or twice a decade reach. With this generation of pitch counts, many more powerful lineups (and smaller parks) and the stress and importance of having a bullpen good pitchers in less, and seem to not last as long as they once did. We may see this generation of pitchers automatically considered with 200 wins. 250 wins could mean a 1st ballot hall of fame that leaves no doubt, and 300 being reserved for the elite. Of the 22 current players in the 300 win club, only 8 have been since 1982, and only 10 total since 1961. By the way, in case you were curious, three players with 300 wins are Pud Galvin, Kid Nichols and Old Hoss Radbourn. Gotta love the beginning of the 20th century baseball! Heck, even Mel Stottlemyre agrees with me:

"Pitching has become tougher and more demanding and it's harder to throw consistently for as long a period as it would take to win three-hundred (300) games. It would take a tremendous amount of dedication to do that." - Former Pitcher & New York Yankees Pitching Coach Mel Stottlemyre


So basically when Tom Glavine and maybe Randy Johnson get 300 wins in the next couple of years, savor it, cause you may only see it once or twice more in the next 10-15 years.

Sticky Fingaz kills Vampires

Throw your silver swords in the air? Ok this has got to be the weirdest casting ever. Maybe this came out a while ago, but really who was paying attention to the announcement of Blade the Series other than a bunch of people dressed in black (or secretly hoping to get bitten by a vampire). But now Spike may actually have a hit, and its starring maybe the craziest rapper this side of ODB, and they are giving him weapons! I like how they don't have a bio for him on the homepage, probably a good thing.


My mind, it's graphic, expresstic graphic
So kill the cop because it's kept all mastic
Directin' it, when y'all least expected it
and thought it was safe...

At least it will keep him from hurting any living things. Perhaps this could be an idea to calm the violence in hip hop? Give the really crazy rappers acting jobs where they get to kill people with tons of different weapons? Or let them get killed by weird things, like LL Cool J and the sharks. Maybe let Cassidy & R. Kelly make Bad Boys 3 and just blow tons of things up. Then again, DMX killing people in movies hasn't exactly stopped him...But how can you stop someone who just loves stealing cars more than a music career.