I probably hate...my own teams in 2007!

So the world of sports in Baltimore and the state of Maryland has been pretty bad this year. 2007 started off with the Ravens getting a bye in the first round of the playoffs, only to lose in the next round to the eventual Super Bowl champion Colts, who everyone in Baltimore hates. So the only achievement from a 13-3 record is being AFC North Champions for 2006. My how the times would change...

The Orioles continued their losing ways, winning only 69 games in 2007 and being decimated by injuries. There were some bright spots thought, such as Cal Ripken Jr. being inducted into the Hall of Fame and Erik Bedard pitching like the first ace since Mike Mussina. Plus, we also had some great young pitchers show that they had good stuff. But the Orioles have also dealt with the fall out of the Mitchell Report, which named Brian Roberts and Miguel Tejada as steroid users (among several other one-time Orioles). Good thing we hired Andy MacPhail who traded Miggy the day before the Mitchell report. At least it looks like the Orioles have direction now...building towards the future rather than just signing washed up former stars to fill holes in the lineup. But don't forget about losing to Texas 30-3. And remember, the Orioles were winning that game 3-0 at one point...
In basketball, its really bad when a team goes on a 30-0 run...in BASEBALL, its called the most embarrassing loss in the modern area of the game.

Maryland's men's basketball team tore through the second half of the ACC schedule like a bat out of hell, earning a #4 seed but losing in the 2nd round of the NCAA tourney. What people wouldn't give to have DJ and Mike Jones back now...

Maryland's football team was up and down like you wouldn't believe. After being decimated by injuries and academics to the offensive line, Maryland was literally almost pulling people off the street to play. Maryland managed to lose to UNC but beat two top 10 teams in Rutgers and Boston College, posting a 6-6 record and earning a trip to the Emerald (nut) Bowl in San Fran. At least Maryland knows who their quarterback is, as Chris Turner has gone from third string to hero over the course of the season. The kid is good. Hopefully they can beat Oregon State and finish 7-6.

Back to a few teams previously mentioned. The Ravens have been terrible in the 2007 season, which might be the worst season in the franchise's history. So far, the team is 4-11, in the middle of a 9 game losing streak. Steve McNair looked more like Medicare McNair through the first part of the season, fumbling like Kyle Boller on speed. After suffering more injuries than I though possible (I believe pro bowlers on the Ravens missed over 160 games due to injuries), the Ravens are in the middle of a 9 game losing streak, the longest in franchise history. The last time the Ravens won was on October 14th against St. Louis. And the teams the Ravens did beat ( the Jets, Cardinals, 49ers and Rams, are a combined 18-42). The Ravens secondary is TERRIBLE without C-Mac and Samari Rolle and is also bad without a solid pass rush, which the ravens have really lacked all season (the loss of Pryce to injury and AD to free agency has killed the Ravens). But as bad as the Ravens are, Maryland's men's basketball team might be worse.

After opening the season 5-2 with loses to UCLA and Missouri, Maryland beat Illinois at home and then faced VCU in the BB&T Classic. The BB&T has been like kryptonite to Maryland, with this year being no exception. Maryland lost and people said "that's okay, they're young." Maryland than slipped by Morgan State, who was playing without a few of their guards and lost a close game to Boston College. Maryland now say at 6-4 going into games against Ohio University and American. Cupcake games for the Terps to regroup, right? WRONG. Maryland lost BOTH GAMES AT HOME. Tell me the last time Maryland has lost back to back non-conference games at home. It might be before Gary's time at Maryland. Maryland's 1 and 2 guards aren't fast. Vasquez and Hayes were outrun by American's guards and just drove right past them to the hoop. And James Gist, who should adopt Mike Jones' old nick name of "WHO?" since no one knows where he and his senior leadership have been, has played like a timid freshman. It doesn't get too much easier for Maryland as they have to play a very good Delaware team Friday, who has a transfer from Georgetown and from Nebraska on their roster and at Charlotte, which won't be an easy game on the road. The Terps also play Savannah State (who is 284 in the RPI...if we lose this, I'm done) at home , as well as Holy Cross. Holy Cross is actually a good team, currently 7-2 and 74th in the RPI.

Maryland basically needs to win out its non-conference schedule, making them 10-6 going into the start of ACC play. I'd say Maryland then has to go at LEAST 10-6 in the ACC if they want to get into the NCAA tournament, but at this point, they might be lucky to get into the NIT or the other new post season tournament that is starting this year.

I wouldn't bet on either of the above scenarios happening....I'd plan on suffering through what might be one of the worst seasons Maryland's men basketball team has had in a long time...

Just to add a little extra information, I got this from the Washington Times today, Dec. 28th. "They've suffered consecutive nonconference home losses for the first time since January 1989 and stumbled into Christmas with six losses for the first time since 1949-50"

Happy New Year and lets hope for a better 2008!

YOU shut up, Bill Simmons!

First of all, the Ravens have to play the Pats on Monday...and Tom Brady is good. If Phillip Rivers can beat the Ravens easily, I can't imagine what Tom Brady will do. People keep saying "the Defense could keep the Ravens in this game." Yeah right. Our defense this year isn't good like we're use to. One portion of our secondary sucks...*caugh* Samari Rolle *caugh*...which sucks, because C-Mac and Ed Reed are awesome. And its not like we can say "oh, our D will stop the run. You bet we can! Too bad New England doesn't run the ball! The Pats say "Yeah, we're passing, we'll tell you, but we can still kick your ass!.
But I’m tired of hearing about the Patriots. Which brings me to my next point...I’m also tired of hearing Bill Simmons crying all of the time. “WAH WAH WAH! Pity me! Pity me! I’m a Pats fan! And a Sox fan! And a Celtics fan!”
I was going to write about how funny it would be if the Pats went undefeated and then lost in their first playoff game. But, because of new found hatred for Bill Simmons, I shall write an open letter to him.

Dear Bill,

How did you get your job at ESPN? I would be so awesome if I could write and rant about the Ravens, Orioles, Wizards, Caps and University of Maryland sports, and get paid to do so writing for a national audience who could care less. How did you convince ESPN to let you write for them? I mean, you don’t even have to think out of the box, do you? You just write like a regular beat writer in a major city except you get paid as if you were a good national writer. That is amazing!

One complaint though, Bill. SHUT THE HELL UP ABOUT NEW ENGLAND SPORTS! NO ONE CARES! YOU CAN’T COMPLAIN FOR THE NEXT 10 YEARS ABOUT ANYTHING IN NEW ENGLAND! The Pats are 11-0, the Celtics are doing awesome, the Red Sox are World Champs and Boston College is even playing in the ACC title game tomorrow! DOESN’T GET MUCH BETTER THAN THAT!! So for the sanity of everyone who isn’t experiencing the same fortunes as you, SHUT THE HELL UP! It could be worse!

Love,

Everyone outside of New England.

p.s. - you're also ruining the name of people named Bill, such as that of Mr. Bill Nye.

R.I.P. Sean Taylor

Although readers of this blog know of my hatred for the Redskins, that doesn't mean I want bad things to happen to players on their team. I was sad to hear this morning that Redskins Safety Sean Taylor has passed away as a result of the gunshot wound he received yesterday. He was only 24 years old. May he rest in peace and my thoughts and prayers go out to his family, teammates, friends and fans.

The Ravens aren't the “Old Browns.”

To quote my friend Turtle, “If I hear someone talk about the “old Browns vs. the new Browns” on Sunday, I’ll destroy them.”

A few points for folks – The Ravens aren’t the “old Browns.” When Modell moved the team from Cleveland to Baltimore following the 1995 season, he didn’t take the team name, colors, and history. He simply took the players. Cleveland got to keep all of that. Those players started playing in Baltimore in 1996 under a new name, team, and identity.

That is a lot different from when the Colts left Baltimore in the middle of the night. They took the team name, colors, and history when that bastard Irsay moved the Colts to Indy. The only thing he didn’t take were the Colt band Uniforms, which were at the cleaners that night (which allowed the band to stay in Baltimore and continue playing, even though Baltimore no longer had an NFL team, until the Colts band was adopted by the Ravens to become Baltimore’s Marching Ravens).

I don’t think people call the Indy Colts “the Old Baltimore Colts” and I don’t think people said it was “The Old Colts vs. the New Colts” when Baltimore played Indy last year, even though it was two franchises with two different names and histories playing each other, much like in the Ravens vs. Browns game Sunday.
Just shows you how stupid announcers on TV are…

Dishing out the hatred to the Redskins and their idiotic fans

Dishing out the hatred to the Redskins and their idiotic fans

Hail to the morons, hail to misery...

First things first, you have to love a team who has a racist nickname, built a new stadium a few years back that isn’t even located in the city it represents, while also being a piece of shit that is now falling apart, and who has a fan base that thinks they’re living in 1991.

Dear Redskins fans,

Joe Gibbs isn’t the answer. Your team is bad. Probably as bad as the Ravens.

Love,

The rest of the world.

p.s. – Jason Campbell wishes he was half the quarterback that Kyle Boller is. Watch out for Boller this week to go 23/30, 3 TDs, 1 int. against the Browns.

Steelers, but mostly back to hating on the Red Sox

I hate that the Steelers game against the Ravens was basically their homecoming game, as they brought back all of the past Steelers to celebrate their 75th anniversary. What I hate even more is that the Ravens played like a team you schedule for homecoming. That was the worst performance by a football team I've ever seen. Oh, and Ray Lewis - stop dancing around and yelling in the 4th quarter when your Defense has given up 38 points! You look like an idiot and make the team look like one too.

Now onto my true love, hating the Red Sox...

This is why Red Sox fans are idiots

From a story on ESPN.com (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3099904)
“As their team was celebrating its second World Series championship in four years, Boston Red Sox fans in attendance in Denver had unsolicited advice for the club's executives.
They chanted "re-sign Lowell" and "don't sign A-Rod."
How stupid are you guys? I mean, I already hated most of you, but who in their right mind WOULDN’T want A-Rod? He’s only the best player in baseball and its not even close. Mike Lowell? Seriously? Mike Lowell shouldn’t even have the right to eat A-Rod’s crap, let alone be resigned rather than A-Rod. Now, I understand if you don’t want to sign A-Rod because you’d have to pay him $300 million dollars to do so, but that’s not why Red Sox Idiots (I’m referring to them as idiots, rather than fans for now on) don’t want their team to sign him. They don’t want them to sign him because he was a Yankee and god forbid they sign a player from the former evil empire (The Red Sox are not only the latest fashion-trend team to cheer for, they’re also the new and improved evil empire, taking over that crown from the Yankees).
But we all know how smart the Red Sox are when it comes to dealing with the best hitters in baseball history. Hopefully not signing A-Rod will start a new curse for Boston - the curse of the galactically stupid.

Gary Parrish, now it's your turn

Aside from thinking the ACC will be the 3rd best conference in the country this year, which is so stupid, as they'll be #1, Gary thought Duke was the second best team in the ACC this year in Men's basketball. Newsflash Gary - If Duke is #2, then the ACC is on par with the MAAC in terms of how good it is this year.

My email rant below.

Gary Gary Gary,

Why do you and so many other writers think that Duke is going to be good this year? This is a team that finished 8-8 in ACC play and for once was actually considered a bubble team! You take away McRoberts from that team and replace him with unproven freshman. What are you left with? A bad PG in Paulus and a horrible player in Shire. Nelson is the only good player on Duke's roster who played big minutes last year.
My biggest problem with your predictions is that you make the argument that Duke is returning 3 guys that started several games last year and that young talent will take them the rest of the way. Yet, Maryland is returning Vasquez, Gist and Hayes, all of which started or played most of the game last year and has several young kids coming in as well. Yet you argue that Maryland will be 7th in the conference because of this "unproven" young talent and you say Duke will rely on young, unproven talent, yet you rank then 2nd. You can't say MD could be good or bad based on their freshman and then turn around and say Duke will be good, even though they'll rely even MORE on their freshman!
Maryland also has Osby coming off the bench or starting(who scores more points per minutes played then the departed Obekwe) and Milbourne who is very athletic but was stuck playing behind Gist, Obekwe and Osby last year as a freshman.

Please Gary, tell me why Duke will be better than Maryland?
Remember, Duke lost TWICE to Maryland last year. I'd have no problem if you ranked Duke 6th and MD 7th, fine. But how do you justify a 5 place discrepancy between the two?
Yes, losing Jones and Strawberry will be a big loss, but I guarantee, having Vasquez and Hayes on the floor at the same time will allow Vasquez to be the shooting guard and by the end of the season, he'll be one of the leagues leading scores, right there with Gist.

How much does Duke pay you Gary? Are you the offspring of Dookie Vital?

Sincerely,
-Dave

Oh Jeff Goodman, how responsive you are?

I had to update this and give Jeff credit...he responded to my email and was very nice and explained his views to me regarding Paulus. I still don't agree with him and wish he would have said more of what he said in his article, but I'm not going to bash him in this post anymore.


Jeff Goodman recently wrote an article on the top college point guards in the nation. Much to my dissatisfaction, Greg Paulus of Duke was ranked 15th while Grevious Vasquez of Maryland was ranked 26th and Eric Hayes was unranked. Both of the latter had much better assist-to-turnover rations. I've copied my email rant to Mr. Goodman below for all of you to get a laugh.


Subject: Why is Greg Paulus ranked so high?

Seriously, he's not a good point guard! He'd be a much better shooting guard, I'd agree with that. Assists per game mean nothing when compared to assist to turnover ratio! You could average 10 assists per game yet if you turn the ball over 20 times, who cares?!?

Paulus had 124 assists last year and 101 turnovers! a 1.23 assist to turnover ratio is not good!

Compare his stats to Vasquez of Maryland, 1.71 assist-to-turnover ratio, averaged 9.8 pts and 3.3 rebounds / game or Eric Hayes who averaged a 1.83 assist-to-turnover ratio.

You say Paulus's assists need to go up this year, as he averaged 11.8 pts. and 3.8 assists. SMART GUY, Vasquez averaged almost as many points and did a WAY better job then Paulus! Why have someone ranked 11 spots below him who was statically better then him in most categories, doing all of this as a FRESHMAN, and without starting part of the season.

Oh, and check the final records for Duke and Maryland last season....not how Maryland finished 10-6 in the ACC and Duke was 8-8 and lost to Maryland twice.

Duke sucks, Red Sox, Red Sox Red Sox, World Series, Sox sweep

Taking some advice from my friend C-Stone, I just put Red Sox in the title a lot to get people to read this, as it will get picked up by search engines.

Most of my hatred lately has been focused on Red Sox Nation and naturally that is justifiable. Just imagine what Fair-weather Sox Nation is going to be like if they win another title. That dooms day scenario is actually highlighted in my friend C-Stone’s blog (http://beltwaysports.blogspot.com/). Check him out if you like Baltimore/Washington area sports. Also check him out at dcsportsbox.com.

But I digress…


I write to you today, my loyal readers who love to see/read my sports rage, about college basketball. With the season starting in a few weeks, today marks the release of the ESPN/USA Today Poll. A quick breakdown of the Top 10, and then some ranting about one of my most hated teams, Duke.

1. North Carolina (10) 0-0 739
UNC was the unanimous pick to win the ACC; they’re returning a lot of good players, especially Tyler Hansbrough. If I had to do my own top 10, they’d probably be #1.

2. UCLA (12) 0-0 734
Another good team, no problem with them starting #2. Actually got more 1st place votes then UNC.

3. Memphis (8) 0-0 731
Remember when people didn’t want to rank Memphis high because they played in a mid-major conference? Those days are long gone…going gaga over mid-majors is the college basketball equivalent of rooting for the Red Sox…it’s the latest popular trend.

4. Kansas (1) 0-0 669
Had a great year last year, finishing 14-2 in Big 12 play. Look for more of the same this year.

5. Georgetown 0-0 625
I hate Georgetown and their fans (especially if they’re members of Late Night Shots – more on all of that in a future post). I think it will be hard for Georgetown to repeat the run they had last year, especially with some of the players they lost, but when you have a go to center like 7’ 2” Roy Hibbert, you’re going to be a good team. Probably a top 15 team when all is said and done and starting off rated a little high.

6. Louisville 0-0 620
Not too sure why Louisville is rated so high. They have 3 seniors this year, all of which averaged less than 10 ppg last season. They only have a few players who averaged over 10 ppg at all, so I worry who their “leader, take over the game” person is going to be. They also play in the overrated Big East, so expect these guys to fall, maybe an early loss at UNLV or in January at Kentucky.

7. Tennessee 0-0 598
How far will Chris Lofton and JaJuan Smith carry this team? Can they repeat their excellent season from last year?

8. Michigan State 0-0 503 9.
A very young team guided by Drew Neitzel. Can he get others around him to play the same way? They have a big test early against NC State who is picked to finish 3rd in the much more competitive ACC. Very overrated in my opinion. Only finished 8-8 in conference play last year in the Big 10.

9. Indiana 0-0 479
I don’t know how folks see this team starting as a top ten team. D.J. White is the only good player on this team. I’m very much against people rating teams high based on new recruits from high school. NEWS FLASH MEDIA – these kids haven’t proven shit at the College Level yet, so don’t rank them high until they prove they can handle it.

10. Washington State 0-0 464
Could be a good team this year. This group could actually play like a “team” with different people stepping up at different times. Derrick Low and Kyle Weaver are both good guards.


So there you go. My top 10 reviews. I wasn’t really mad with any of the top 10 teams (well, maybe Michigan State). I did however flip off the handle when I saw who was ranked #11.

YOU GUESSED IT, from Durham, North Carolina, a team that people love to overrate, the Duke Blue Devils. ARE YOU SERIOUS? ARE YOU SERIOUS? I’m not just saying this as a Maryland fan who hates Duke; I’m saying this as a fan of College Basketball – HOW IS DUKE #11?

The rest of this post is devoted to how STUPID this poll is and why Duke got this ranking for no reason whatsoever. Any decent team needs a few things, most importantly a GOOD point guard to run the offense. Duke does not have a good point guard. Greg Paulus is terrible! And don’t give me any of this “he was just a sophomore” crap. Maryland had 2 freshmen who both played point guard and could run circles around this clown. Paulus is not a good point guard. Period. His assists to turnover ratio went DOWN from his freshman year to his sophomore year, as did his assists per game! You only have a few people who are capable of scoring. Paulus can do that, but is extremely streaky (see Mike Jones). The only senior on the team is DeMarcus Nelson and he is also their best player. Jon Scheyer can score, between crying fits when Duke is doing bad.
Duke has only 2 proven players and has no business being even in the top 25. They went 8-8 in ACC play last year, were knocked out of the NCAA tourney in the first round, and have NO PROVEN PLAYERS!
THIS my friends is why Duke sucks. I don’t know how they get the pollsters to vote like this for them every year, but some how they do. I predict that Duke will finish, at BEST, 9-7 in the ACC this year. Mark my words…

And for my first post...I'll take Red Sox for $500

Ah, the first posting for my new blog....I'm so pumped. I've decided to focus my energy for this inaugural blog on my most hated team of the moment, the Boston Red Sox. The inspiration for this blog was sparked by a recent posting on a friends blog, "Scotch & Politics" (http://scotchandpolitics.com/) in a post titled "Boston, City of Villains." Although the majority of the post revolves around the Pats, there is some good Red Sox bashing as well, which reminded me of how much I loved to rant about things, specifically sports, hence this blog was born.

Why do I (we) hate the Red Sox so much? Maybe its because so many people got behind them in 2004 because of the media circus surrounding the "curse." A quick side note on the "curse" - in my first visit to Yankee Stadium to see the Yankees eventually lose to the Indians in the ALDS, I did see a shirt that was selling outside of the stadium that made me laugh..."Red Sox fans...there was no curse....your teams just sucked." One of the few times I'll ever give props to anything that is Yankee. Back to my Red Sox bashing...

The media went nuts with the Red Sox in 2004...they were taking on the evil Yankees of New York, the last time they won the world series Woodrow Wilson was President, the Red Sox didn't buy their team like the Yankees, feel sorry for poor Boston....blah blah blah. Now, thanks to the media, there is a "Red Sox Nation," a red plague that is second only to the former USSR, and one that many Americans equally hate.

I for one NEVER wanted the Red Sox to win the A.L. Pennant, yet alone the World Series. Red Sox fans were obnoxious enough, and before 2004 at least when they pissed you off you could just say "1918" and they'd shut up. Oh, how times have changed.

Now the "feel good" Red Sox are just as bad as the Yankees, having the second highest payroll in the majors at $143,526,214. If a Red Sox fan tries to tell you the Yankees are the "Evil Empire", just calmly remind them that they're the New England version of the Evil Empire - same empire taste, but with an annoying accent to boot!

Has God ever created a more obnoxious fan then a Red Sox fan? I hate going to Oriole Park now when the O's are playing the Sox...not so much because it annoys me that 65% of the stadium are fair-weather Red Sox fans, who act like rooting for the Red Sox is the latest fashion trend, but because when you see a Red Sox fan, you'd think they'd won the past 100 World Series titles based on the way they talk and act. At least a Yankee fan can be obnoxious and back it up with 26 World Series titles...here are a few stats for you Sox Fans -

Since the Orioles became a team in Baltimore in 1954, they've won 6 A.L. Pennants and 3 World Series Titles.
Since 1918, an additional 36 years, the Sox only have 1 World Series title (2004) and 6 A.L. titles. The moral of the story is, even including World Series titles throughout your entire history (6 since 1903), your team averages 1 World Series title every 17.33 years. The Orioles currently average one title every 17.66 years. Ah, but you forget that when the Red Sox won the majority of their titles, there we half as many teams in baseball, making it that much easier to win!
Take out titles before 1918 and you're averaging 1 title every 89 years....something to be proud of Sox Fans! And if you look from 1954 onward, The Orioles are much better than the Sox, having 6 A.L titles to your 4, and 3 World Series titles to your 1. Clearly we're 3 x's better than you, but why is it you don't hear anything about those "obnoxious Orioles fans." And don't pull this 10 straight losing seasons for the Orioles card. Even when we were good back in 1996-1997, people still didn't complain.

Red Sox fans think they live in the greatest city on earth (which is wrong, because according to Baltimore's motto, Baltimore is "The Greatest City in America." All jokes aside, Red Sox fans need to learn that your team history isn't that great. Maybe if you win this year and again in the 2000s, you can start throwing your weight around.

Until then, do us all a favor - stop acting like you're the best sports team to ever walk the face of the earth.