The McCourts Divorce!

As mentioned in Monday's Rambling column, Frank McCourt, the owner of the Dodgers, is in the midst of a separation from his wife Jamie, who was also the CEO of the Dodgers. He fired her and now she's filed divorce papers. In his response he's accusing her of having an affair with her bodyguard. This keeps getting better and better. Go here for the complete story from MSNBC Sports: Frank and Jamie's Divorce. The Bodyguard, The Firing and Our Enjoyment!

As Marv Albert would say, "Yes"!

Bill

Update on "Slump Buster"

Well it's official. ESPN has fired Steve Phillips due to "misconduct" with Brooke Hundley and he's entered rehab. Here's the story from CBS Sportsline:

Steve Phillips Enters Rehab

Bill

Monday Morning Ramblings

I'm still having a hard time getting into the NFL season. Is it just me getting older and having less time to care about this stuff? I had multiple opportunities yesterday to watch some of the games, but opted to do other stuff. Much easier just to go to the NFL Network at night and see all the highlights. I'll leave the Peter Kings and John Claytons to dissect actual game stuff... Also the NBA starts tomorrow and while I had some great intentions about doing my pre season predictions, I've discovered my interest there is down also.

Instead I want to talk about a few different things going on in the sports world and then my world series prediction.

Here you go:

1) Dodgers Ownership - This is really getting interesting.... Frank McCourt (the owner) and his wife have split up. He claims the split (and any future possible divorce) won't affect his ownership status however some interesting parts to this story you may not have heard about. First off, his wife Jamie is, or at least was, the CEO of the team and surprise, surprise, Frank fired her last week once they were eliminated from the playoffs. What's the old saying about a woman scorned?? Apparently according to her attorney she's "disappointed and saddened by her termination" and will address these issues "in the courtroom". How much you want to bet she's also pissed off??? This will get ugly and being in LA, will be played out in the media. Should be fun!

2) UFC 104 - I didn't get a chance Saturday to watch the Machida / Rua fight but have read quite a few write ups and seen clips from the championship fight. All three judges scored it 48 - 47 for Machida allowing him to keep his title, however most people that watched the fight had Rua (pronounced Hu A) winning. Most thought Rua won at least one of the first 3 rounds and clearly won both the 4th and 5th. Dana White (President of the UFC) in the post fight conference said he thought Rua won and will immediately schedule a rematch. Two talented fighters at the top of their game. I'll be tuning in for the next one.

3) NFL in Los Angeles - Famed developer Ed Roski has completed his environmental studies and plans and for all intensive purposes has approval for a football stadium in LA. It will be in the City of Industry which is located about 30 minutes east of LA (depending upon traffic) where the 60 and 57 freeway meet. Still a few local hurdles to approve but by the looks of it, it's a done deal. He says he won't start digging until he has ownership in a team so that's the next step to bringing the NFL back to Los Angeles. The short list of teams frequently mentioned about relocating to LA are the Chargers, Jaguars, Rams and Vikings. As always with anything LA, you have to throw the Raiders in the mix. For more info here's a good write up on Roski's plans: NFL Stadium

4) Out of The Box - There's been considerable discussion about the "Wildcat" formation by people for and against it. Here's the thing I've been noticing. By far and large, "experts" that are against it are either 1) defensive players or 2) former NFL QB's (Dan Marino and Dan Fouts have roundly knocked the formation). Of course those QB's are against it, as in essence, it doesn't require some uber talented QB at the helm..... Don't be surprised to see this formation becoming more and more popular as teams that don't have that marquee superstar QB, can use "average" QB's in this formation and don't have to pay franchise money for him. Here's another "out of the box" question as it relates to baseball. Why do the small market clubs keep trying to compete with the large market teams for the same players? If you're the Kansas City Royals (or someone like that), instead of going out and spending a large portion of your payroll on one free agent like a Gil Meche, why not try something different like cornering the market on soft lefty pitchers or knuckle ball pitchers that you could pick up at a fraction of the cost. Why not try something different, because as it stands now, no way they can compete with the big spenders on guys that throw 97.......... Just a thought. How much worse could they do?

5) Employee #8 - I'd heard Antoine Walker was having some money issues and had bounced some checks at Harrah's in Tahoe (which led to him being arrested and booked last month), however I've been reading some articles and apparently it's more than a little trouble....... He made roughly $110 million in his basketball career (figure $55 million take home after taxes) yet he's blown most of it. Here's an article from the Boston Globe detailing his financial situation - Antoine Walker's Troubles

6) UCLA - Only fair I was talking about them when they started 3-0, now the losing streak is at 4 and I'm still on the bandwagon. They lost this past Saturday to Arizona 27-13. They still haven't had a QB step forward and their defense continues to under perform. It's gut check time for the Bruins. Will they battle through this and finish the year on an uptick or will they pack it in and chaos will rule.... It'll be interesting to follow.

7) World Series - I hate the Yankee's. No getting around that. And the thing is, I like the Phillies. However Philly won it last year and I don't like them enough to be hearing that they're some dominate team (because I don't think they are), so for multiple reasons I'm picking and (this kills me to say) rooting for the Yankee's.......... Let's face it, all year long, the Yankee's have been good. They should be good. They have a $200+ million dollar payroll.... My prediction is Yankee's in 5.

Bill

Slump Buster

Happy hump day everyone. Apparently Steve Phillips is taking that expression a little too far..... Steve, the former Mets GM and ESPN analyst has apparently gotten caught cheating on the wife and it's turned into a fatal attraction. After he broke it up with her, she contacted the wife and his son.

Some more details - She's a 22 year old production assistant for ESPN and seems to be a very handsome broad....... This write up (and photo's) from the WEEI website was very comical and got my day off to a good start, I highly encourage you to check it out!

http://theproducers.weei.com/sports/boston/dennis-and-callahan/will-people-ever-learn/

Go Navy, Beat Army!

Bill

Monday Morning Ramblings

Great weekend of baseball and football.

1) Yankee's / Angels - What a great game to watch on Saturday. However, could the Angels play any worse? I heard a stat yesterday that in 2 games, the Angels had committed 6 errors. The Yankee's, Phillies and Dodgers combined have committed 7. Winning games comes down to pitching and defense and so far, defense is missing for the Angels. Must win game this afternoon for the Angels. We'll see what happens.

2) Cliff Lee - I said at the trade deadline, he was a better pickup for the Phillies than "Doc" Halladay would have been. Lee's been nothing but a stud since they picked him up and they basically gave up nothing for him.... On top of it, he's under contract for next year at minimum price (compared to his value on the open market). He was lights out again last night against the Dodgers.

3) Tom Brady - Heard a comment from Rodney Harrison last week that it took him 6 games back to feel comfortable after his knee surgery. Well that was Brady's 6th game back yesterday. Not a bad outing...... Hopefully this will cure a lot of problems with the offense and give them confidence here on out. Where are all the Jets fans now?? They were bragging non stop after week 2 and here we are a month later and the Patriots have sole possession of 1st place in the AFC East. It's a long season, filled with injuries, come see me at week 17 and see where every ones at.

4) N.O. Saints - Along with the Vikings and Colts, they look to be the real deal. The Saints are playing great defense right now to go along with their potent offense. What a great hire Gregg Williams was in the off season. He's helped bring a new mentality to the team and barring some major injuries, I can see them there in the NFC Championship game.

5) UCLA - Well the wheels have officially come off after their 3rd straight loss, this one an embarrassing beat down at the hands of the Cal Bears. My disappointment with them hasn't been so much on the offensive side as the defense. This "could" be one of the better defenses in the country but they certainly haven't played like it. We knew the offense was young and going to go through growing pains, but the defense has a lot of top level players on it and a couple high future draft picks. No way they should be surrendering 45 points to anyone.

6) Jim Zorn - Dead man walking. What's the over / under on the week he gets fired? If they lose big this week against Philadelphia, I'm saying week 8 during the bye week. Gives the new head guy a couple weeks to prepare. I wish Vegas took bets on stuff like this.

7) Jaspar Howard - RIP. The UConn cornerback was stabbed to death Saturday night during a school dance. The incident took place about 12:30am after a fire alarm was set off and everyone evacuated. A fight broke out and Howard was stabbed. What's the old saying, "nothing good ever happens after midnight"? To make things worse, he is/was an impending father.

8) Heisman Trophy - After Colt McCoy's lackluster performance Saturday in the win over Oklahoma, you can remove him from the list (along with injured Sam Bradford). Have we had a Heisman race in recent years where no one really stood out? Tebow hasn't been lighting it up, Clausen was decent against Southern Cal, but, in my opinion they needed to win the game. Tony Pike from Cincinnati is still being mentioned as the Bearcats are undefeated. A long shot may be running back Mark Ingram from Alabama, but the Tide needs to run the table and he has to have a couple monster games. As of now, you can start engraving "TEBOW" on the hardware.

Bill

FIU Update

Being as how we're 3 weeks away from our favorite college basketball team starting up, I thought I'd give a quick update and "hand out" the schedule.

Excitement is high on the Golden Panther campus as "Zeke" has brought a level of anticipation which they haven't had in years. Although year one will be a struggle to improve on last years record, the pieces are starting to fall in place with a lot of talented recruits now considering FIU which they've haven't had in their recent past. To ease the difficult transition this year, the team will rely heavily on their fans and cheerleaders like Vanessa Marrero (pictured above)......

As has been mentioned in this blog before, the Golden Panthers start off on November 9th against national defending champion, North Carolina in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic being held in the Dean Dome at Chapel Hill. Please don't base your opinion on the team from the outcome of that game, as NC should blow out FIU.

Here is the schedule:

Date Opponent Location Time (EST) Results Media Tickets Mon, Nov 09 North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC 7:00 p.m. ESPNU Fri, Nov 13 Monmouth at West Long Branch, NJ 7:00 p.m. Sun, Nov 15 Tulsa at Tulsa, OK 3:00 p.m. Tue, Nov 17 Florida Memorial US Century Bank Arena 8:00 p.m. 2k Sports Classic Benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer Fri, Nov 20 James Madison vs. Murray State US Century Bank Arena 4:00 p.m. Fri, Nov 20 Noth Carolina Central US Century Bank Arena 7:00 p.m. Sun, Nov 22 James Madison US Century Bank Arena 6:00 p.m. Sun, Nov 22 Murray State vs North Carolina Central US Century Bank Arena 8:00 p.m. Mon, Nov 23 Noth Carolina Central vs James Madison US Century Bank Arena 4:00 p.m. Mon, Nov 23 Murray State US Century Bank Arena 7:00 p.m. Sat, Nov 28 Eastern Kentucky at Richmond, KY 7:00 p.m. Mon, Nov 30 Bowling Green at Bowling Green, OH 7:00 p.m. Thu, Dec 03 Florida A&M at Tallahassee, FL 7:30 p.m. Sun, Dec 06 Florida State at Tallahassee, FL 1:00 p.m. Sat, Dec 12 Florida Gulf Coast at Fort Myers, FL 7:30 p.m. Thu, Dec 17 Denver * at Denver, CO 9:00 p.m. Sun, Dec 20 North Texas * at Denton, TX 4:00 p.m. Tue, Dec 22 Sam Houston State at Huntsville, TX 8:00 p.m. Thu, Dec 31 South Alabama * US Century Bank Arena 12:00 p.m. Sat, Jan 02 New Orleans * at New Orleans, LA 5:30 p.m. Thu, Jan 07 ULM * US Century Bank Arena 8:00 p.m. Sat, Jan 09 Troy * US Century Bank Arena 8:00 p.m. Thu, Jan 14 Middle Tennessee * at Murfreesboro, TN 8:00 p.m. Sat, Jan 16 WKU * at Bowling Green, KY TBA Thu, Jan 21 Arkansas State * US Century Bank Arena 8:00 p.m. Sat, Jan 23 Arkansas-Little Rock * US Century Bank Arena 8:00 p.m. Sat, Jan 30 Florida Atlantic * at Boca Raton, FL 7:00 p.m. Thu, Feb 04 Louisiana-Lafayette * at Lafayette, LA 8:05 p.m. Sat, Feb 06 North Texas * US Century Bank Arena 2:00 p.m. Thu, Feb 11 South Alabama * at Mobile, AL 8:05 p.m. Sat, Feb 13 Troy * at Troy, AL 8:30 p.m. Thu, Feb 18 Florida Atlantic * US Century Bank Arena 8:00 p.m. Thu, Feb 25 Middle Tennessee * US Century Bank Arena 8:00 p.m. Sat, Feb 27 WKU * US Century Bank Arena 8:00 p.m. Sun Belt Conference Tournament Sat, Mar 06 - Tue, Mar 09 First Round at Hot Springs, AR TBA

* Conference Games

My record prediction for the year is 14 and 14 (assuming I counted their number of games correctly). We'll see what happens.... Should be fun either way to follow this young, building program.

fyi............ For those that have read this whole write up, I have a confession. I did all this just so I could post that photo of Vanessa.... Wow.......... For more of her go to the link below and click on her photo gallery (courtesy of Sports Illustrated):

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/extramustard/10/15/cheerleader-of-the-week/index.html

Enjoy,

Bill