MichaelLortz.com/JordiScrubbings.com

So I was thinking I could sneak by without doing a baseball preview. I know, I know, foolish of me. But I didn’t know where to start and with the Mets being actually good it’s hard for my own personal biases not to leak in and permeate my prognostications. However, like a good lemming, I guess I should make my predictions. Today you will get the National League, and tomorrow, the American League. Enjoy. And feel free to point out how horribly wrong I am come October. Honestly, a little crow doesn’t taste too bad with the right hot sauce.

NL East

New York Mets – (Major homer alert) – I’ve been waiting to predict the Mets as division winners for too long to resist now. Years of guessing how few games Anthony Young would win got old quick.

Philadelphia Phillies – They’ll stick around until September, but will fade away after the Mets get Pedro back. Will make the playoffs via the Wild Card, however. Pencil in Ryan Howard for another top three MVP finish, but who hits behind him? Games behind: 2-5.

Atlanta Braves – The Jason Voorhees of the NL East. No matter how much they “fall off” they still scare me. Games behind: 7-10.

Florida Marlins – I like this team, but they lack a centerfielder (Alejandro De Aza? Is that Spanish for Scott Pose?) and the Josh Johnson injury will hurt the staff. Look for them to float around .500 for most of the year until August or so. Games behind: 13-20.

Washington Nationals – Where do I start? This team is just not very good. Ryan Zimmerman and who? They will be the only team in baseball to lose over 100 this year. Games behind: 30+.

NL Central

Milwaukee Brewers – (Another major homer alert – Prince Fielder graduated from my high school) – This is my surprise pick. Everyone knows they have the hitting with Fielder and Bill Hall, but did you know they have four solid starters with Chris Capuano, Dave Bush, Jeff Suppan, and Ben Sheets (if healthy)? If guys like J.J Hardy, Richie Weeks, and Laynce Nix have solid seasons with the bat, this crew avoids injury, and Derrick Turnbow resumes closer beastiness, I’m predicting a surprise. And they have Craig Counsell, who wins wherever he goes (see FL, AZ).

Chicago Cubs – Money will buy some happiness, but not enough to win the division. Blame it on a goat, a Bartman, or the ghost of Leon Durham if you want, I just don’t think they have what it takes this year. Games behind: 2-3.

St. Louis Cardinals – A two-trick pony, although those tricks are the best in the league. The rest of their team is too old, too inexperienced, or too short. Games behind: 5-8.

Cincinnati Reds – Farney had to remind me about the Reds. I’m sorry, it’s just been a while since they were relevant and sometimes I forget the longest active major league team still exists. Could this be the year we start hearing Ken Griffey, Jr. trade rumors? My guess is to the Yankees if one of their outfielders gets hurt. Games behind: 8-12.

Houston Astros – Carlos Lee is overrated and this team is one Lance Berkman injury from being the worst team in the division. Yeah, I said it. Games behind: 12-16.

Pittsburgh Pirates – They are young. They have some decent young arms, Jason Bay, and Freddie Sanchez. Other than that, it will another long season as the Pittsburgh faithful wait in joyful anticipation for Steelers camp to open. Games behind: 18-25.

NL West

San Diego Padres – Although I think Jake Peavy is overrated, if the old men of the rotation (Wells, Maddux) can stay healthy, they have the pitching. They will win the division if they can muster the offense in caverous Petco Park.

Los Angeles Dodgers – The opposite of the Padres. They have the offense, but their pitching is sadly mediocre. Give them a true ace (Jason Schmidt doesn’t count) and they would run the division. Games behind: 1-2.

Arizona Diamondbacks – Good young players, led by former Florida State Seminole Stephen Drew (minor homer alert). Everyone’s chic pick to surprise but I think by the time the youngsters reach their potential, Randy Johnson will be in a rocking chair. Games behind: 5-8.

Colorado Rockies – Ummm… let’s dust off the usual Rockies prediction: great hitting, pitching questionable at best. Sounds about right for 2007. The big question, however, is if Rodrigo Lopez went 9-18 with a 5.91 ERA and allowed a .302 opponent’s batting average in Baltimore, are they even going to let him pitch in Coors Field? Games behind: 9-14.

San Francisco Giants – I was not as up on Zito as everyone else was, although he would have been better served going to the Mets. He will finish .500 on a struggling Giants team that can’t create runs. Why can’t they create runs? Because after Bonds ties Aaron pitchers around the league will either walk him or bean him. Games behind: 10-15.

NLCS:
Mets – Phillies

NL Champ:
(if Pedro is healthy) Mets
(if Pedro is not healthy) Phillies

Stay tuned. Tomorrow, before the Mets-Cardinals game, I’ll serve up my American League predictions as well as wrap up my Tour de Grapefruit League.

- Jordi

This post originally appeared on Yaysports.

(The Cavalier is on an extended leave of absence. The following was not written by him, although he did return my rough draft covered in red ink.)

Look at this picture. What do you see? Yes, indeed, it’s Wang ZhiZhi!

Don’t remember Wang ZhiZhi? Drafted by the Mavericks in 1999, Wang ZhiZhi was the NBA’s first player from China, beating Yao Ming to the U.S. of A. by three years. After several years of being “The Man” in China, Wang was a bust in the NBA, averaging only 4.4 points and 1.7 rebounds during his seven year career.

Having returned to China in 2006, Wang ZhiZhi has resumed his beastliness, and yesterday led his Bayi Rockets to the Chinese Basketball Association Championship. In what could only be described as an epic battle, Wang ZhiZhi “counteracted” the tremendous skills of NBA-hopeful Yi Jianlian. Thanks to Wang ZhiZhi, all was well again in the Land of the Bayi Rockets.

In bigger news however, take another look at the picture. See anything familiar? (Besides Wang ZhiZhi.) Is that an Orange Roundie? It sure looks like an Orange Roundie.

Could the Orange Roundie, like Wang ZhiZhi, have sought a brighter tomorrow overseas? Has anyone heard from the Orange Roundie since his hopes and dreams were shattered by the diabolical David Stern and his American basketball league? Perhaps through Wang ZhiZhi the Orange Roundie will come to rule all things basketball in China. First China, then the world …

This post originally appeared on Yaysports.

(The Cavalier is on an extended leave of absence. The following was not written by him, although he will return after these commercial messages.)

So The Cavalier is really on sabbatical and left a few of the inmates to run the asylum. Well then, call me the Randall McMurphy of this here looney bin.

Actually, the name is Scrubbings, Jordi Scrubbings. You might know me better as one of the stars of the 1999 cinematic splendor Flash vs. The Aliens, or more recently, as the writer, editor, publisher, illustrator, treasurer, CEO, CIO, COO, CFO, chief, cook, and bottle-washer of The Serious Tip. I’ve been selected to man the ones and twos here at YAYsports! NBA every Thursday until The Cavalier returns. Ole!

Before getting into tonight’s news and notes, I would like to quickly mention my credentials as an NBA blogger. I am a long-time Knicks fan who hasn’t watched his favorite team in nearly two years. No, I did not break my television in frustration, I am boycotting Isiah Thomas. I think my dedication to denounce my team no matter how good they may end up validates my loyalty in a sick, twisted way. Not to say I haven’t watched other teams, however. Living in Florida, I’ve grown particularly fond of Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic.

Enough about me though, here are a few of last night’s happenings:

Deutscher Basketballspieler twists ankle as Mavericks first to sechzig victories – Remember when Dallas only won 11 games all season back in 1993? They are a lot better now. Nowitzki’s ankle could be their Achillies Heel in their quest for all-time greatness, however. (Get it? Twisted ankle, Achillies Heel?)

It’s Raining Big Men, or rather, Big Men Make It Rain – Both Tim Duncan and Elton Brand sank three-pointers last night for different teams in different games on different courts in different cities with different results. It was Duncan’s first three of the season and the first of Brand’s career. As one might expect, the Spurs won and the Clippers didn’t.

Tanks, or No Tanks? – So are the Celtics trying to lose or not? One week, they blatantly blow a game like they really really really want the number one pick, then the next week they play their collective keysters off to win a double-overtime game. Should be tough to win from here on out, however. There is talk Paul Pierce Brian Scalabrine is done for the rest of the season.

Keep Hope Alive – I might face the scorn of The Cavalier for this, but after the Knicks spent their pre-game warm-up listening to Jesse Jackson’s inspirational speeches, they put the kibosh on The Cavalier’s Cavaliers 97-93, keeping the Knickerbockers’ miniscule playoff hopes aflicker. Not that I care anyway. (See aforementioned Isiah boycott.) (Ed. Note: Although the Knicks did win, I have no idea if Jesse Jackson speeches were involved in any way, shape, or form.)

Ok, that’s all for now. Hopefully, I’ll be able to post once during my work day (8-4pm Eastern), and then sporadically throughout the evening. Peace.

Oh yeah, before I forget, if you want, desire, wish, or need to say hi, drop me a line, spread some gossip, complain, gibber-jabber, or give kudos, the e-mail is theserioustip@yahoo.com.

Dear Loyal Reader,

As I previously mentioned, starting this Thursday and continuing every Thursday until the end of April, I will be guest-blogging on the YaySports! NBA page. This is a great opportunity and I want to again thank The Cavalier for allowing me one of his coveted slots.

Well to anyone who followed my links from YaySports! to here, welcome. This is The Serious Tip and I am Jordi Scrubbings.

What is The Serious Tip?

Well, it is my corner of the Internet to babble about anything I want, mostly sports-related. Take a look around. I’ve written about a whole bunch of stuff.

About me: I am an award-winning writer who pledges allegiance to Florida State University, lives and dies by the New York Mets, reminisces about better days of New York Knicks basketball, and am slowly starting to warm up to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. I’ve been linked to by Deadspin, The Big Lead, TrueHoop, MetsBlog, and Kissing Suzy Kolber, among others. You can expect hearty servings of obscure sports knowledge, movie references, hip-hop lingo, personal narratives, in-depth analysis, sarcastic humor, and biased opinion. I try not to be too negative on teams that are not my own, however, as I know behind every loss there are suffering fans. Many long-suffering.

Here is a small sample of my beliefs:

I believe ESPN has too much power over the average fan.

I believe Jemele Hill was wrong based on one simple fact: Jordan scored over 50 against the Knicks three times, Kobe never has.

I don’t believe NASCAR is a sport. Neither is golf, bowling, or poker. Dominoes and Spades, however, should be Olympic competitions.

I believe in order to call yourself a true fan you need to have suffered through at least one season in which your team’s winning percentage was .400 or less. Yes, that’s a .400 winning percentage, or 40% victories.

I believe pro-wrestling is wrongly associated with Southern stereotypes. The WWE started in the northeast and is headquartered in Stamford, CT.

I believe there will never be another Shaquille O’Neal. Or Rickey Henderson.

I believe baseball has the best opening day and all-star game, but the NHL and NBA have better playoffs.

I believe sports both brings us together yet polarizes us from others. I am not sure if that’s a good thing or not.

Hope you enjoy The Serious Tip. It is undoubtedly a labor of love. Well, see you over at YaySports! NBA. The Orange Roundie is calling me.

- Jordi

On Monday night the Sundance Channel presented a documentary entitled “The Year of the Yao“. This film was one of the channel’s regularly scheduled Monday documentaries and was followed by the often-aired Hoop Dreams. (It must have been basketball night at the Sundance Broadcasting Network.) “The Year of the Yao” chronicled Yao Ming’s rise to NBA superstardom during his first season. Featuring exclusive interviews with everyone from former Yao teammate Steve Francis, Yao’s American translator, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, to, of course, Yao himself, “The Year of Yao” showed Yao being Yao everywhere from Bejing to Best Buy.

Although I missed the first hour of the hour and a half broadcast, what I did see was really good. I tuned in right as Yao was squaring off against Shaq and the Lakers for the first time. Then I watched as Yao made his first all-star game, experienced his first playoff run, missed the playoffs, and headed back to China for the off-season. Hopefully I get to see the documentary in its entirety soon.

I find it hard to believe Yao Ming’s rookie season was 2002-03. That long ago. Sometime in the very near future, after Shaq calls it a career, Yao will be the premier big man in the league. The torch will be passed to Yao, Dwight Howard, and possibly, just maybe, Greg Oden. But Oden is too much of a question mark at this point, and Howard is a power forward/center, not a true center. That leaves Yao.

I definitely see an MVP or two at some point in Yao’s career, and maybe even a part on a championship team. Not bad for a guy Tony Kornheiser orginally said would just be a “stick man”.

(By the way, I know The Tar Heel posted a Yao-centric post on YaySports! today as well, but mine is about his movie, not his Arabic.)

- Jordi

Before I discuss what I’ve been up to and what’s been floating through my melon of late, I have to apologize for my lack of posts. No excuses. Also to my loyal readers who are fans of the Blue Jays, Twins, Marlins, and Red Sox, I have failed you. I did not attend any spring training games this weekend. I was occupied with other interests, specifically laying out by the pool at the local Hard Rock Casino on Saturday and going to see Public Enemy in concert on Friday night (more on this later).

(By the way, could there be a cooler place to hang out when the Super Bowl returns to Tampa than the local Hard Rock Casino? I am making it a priority in 2009. Think of the VIP sighting potential. Joey Porter? Maybe. Michael Jordan and Charles Oakley? Possibly. Charles Barkley? Probably. Bill Simmons? Definitely.)

First, and I know I am crazy late with this, but I have to comment on James Dolan’s vote of confidence in Isiah Thomas two weeks ago. From what I can tell, Knicks’ fans seem divided 50/50 on this. Some look at Isiah’s draft picks, the youngness of the team, the team’s record, and their potential to make the playoffs as evidence enough Isiah is doing a decent, if not good, job. Others, myself included, disagree. Yes, Isiah has a great eye for talent. Every team he has been with as an executive has drafted well and been able to accumulate quality young talent. Sometimes this talent is good enough to win games. But that doesn’t make Isiah a good coach. At least not in the NBA. You know where his eye for talent may be better suited? As a college coach. And don’t get me started on the payroll. Meanwhile, the Isiah Boycott will continue …

On the subject of votes of confidence, the Cincinnati Reds released veteran pitcher Paul Wilson last Thursday. Why is this a big deal here at The Serious Tip? Because Wilson, a former Seminole pitcher, had the potential and the hype to be one of The Serious Tip’s all-time favorites when he was drafted as the first overall pick in the 1994 draft by the Mets. He was the Mets’ first number one pick since 1984 and remains the highest drafted Seminole in any sport. Two great tastes that should have been great together, like peanut butter and chocolate, strawberries and bananas, lamb and tuna fish. Instead, Wilson, like fellow Met busts Jason Isringhausen and Bill Pulsipher, hurt his arm and was eventually traded to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for spare parts Bubba Trammell and Rick White. So much for predictions of the “next Roger Clemens”. Speaking of bad predictions …

With Kansas losing to UCLA Saturday night, my boy Zheke Snow’s bracket officially bit the dust. Glad I didn’t bet the house on that. Add this to the fact that my own NIT bracket was busted, dusted, broken, battered, shattered, destroyed, and basically unsalvagable after the Noles lost, and you can see why I usually don’t bother filling out brackets. Like I said, between FSU and Drexel, why did I believe the hype? Of course, speaking of “Don’t Believe the Hype” …

I had the great and honorable pleasure of seeing Public Enemy in concert in St. Pete Saturday night. I have always wanted to see them and they didn’t disappoint one iota. Very impressive. They did at least one song off of every album in their catalog, which after 20 years, is a lot of songs. Of course, Flavor Flav received the most applause due to his Flavor of Love show. As a true P.E. fan, that still bugs me. I like the group because of Chuck D and his lyrics, not because Flavor screams “Flavor Flaaaav” on VH1. And finally, in other news about appearances on major media …

I, your humble writer, will be guest-writing for YaySports! NBA starting this Thursday. I have been chosen as part of the YaySports! NBA Substitute Teacher Program beginning this Monday and lasting until April 30th. Every Thursday during this time I’ll be commenting and perusing about all things NBA. Should be fun. I want to give a big shout out to The Cavalier for his vote of confidence.

Until next time,

Welcome to the first installment of “Flip the Script Friday”. Although The Serious Tip has been primarily a sports-related blog since its inception, on any given Friday from now on I will “flip the script” and blog about whatever I so desire. Don’t worry though, The Serious Tip will never discuss politics, religion, war, or relationships. I’ll leave that to the other 36 million whiners complainers bloggers out there. So sit back and enjoy as I flip the script and drop a few nuggets of random science.

Grandma’s Vomit and Other Melodious Metal Monikers

Although far from a stereotypical metalhead, I am a fan of various types of music and music cultures to include many hard rock and mainstream metal bands. My interest in this type of music has led me to be fascinated by the names, images, and descriptions of the denizens of hard, fast, heavy, often unintelligible metal. Earlier this week, I found a web site that not only piqued my interest, but actually took from time normally spent at work perusing sports blogs.

Encyclopaedia Metallum is the wikipedia of metal bands, relying on user entries to become the one-stop-shop for all persons metal. The web site divides its entries in three distinct categories: bands by letter, bands by country, and bands by genre. Of course, it has all the mainstream performers such as Metallica, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple, and the usual categories such as heavy/traditional and speed metal. But it is the depths of triviality that makes the Encyclopedia Metallum so enthralling. Did you know there are metal bands that specialize in German Viking mythology? What about bands who write songs about animals killing people or dentistry?

So in honor of the weird, odd, and demented throughout the Encyclopedia Metallum, here are my personal five favorite entries.

1) Carnivorous Vagina – Scary name. Puts the fear of God in every hetro male. Biggest problem with Carnivorous Vagina, however, is their lack of musical ability, according to an album review.

2) Nembrionic Hammerdeath – Although they have changed their name to just “Nembrionic”, Nembrionic Hammerdeath are still banging out the tunes. According to their web site, “after years of being in the underground, Nembrionic still has no ambition to get rich, famous and more of this bullshit … In 1998 Nembrionic has proven to be on the top of the death metal list with their new opus ‘Incomplete’; pure brilliance, which leaves no doubt about their musicianship and songwriting qualties. Their one of the best around.” Still tough to figure what a nembrionic hammerdeath is though.

3) Abwhore – No, it is not a person that only works abdominals at the gym. Abwhore is a “blackened gothic metal band” from Atlanta. By the way, how can a band be blackened? Are they fish or chicken? Dumb name, dumb description.

4) Godwaffle – Most metal bands that have “God” in their name are usually something demonic or evil sounding like GodDead or GodKills or NoGod or something like that. Godwaffle? Are you kidding? According to the band’s myspace page, they are the Chuck Norris of metal, with such tidbits of insight such as “Godwaffle kidnap babies to raise for the ultimate battle between Heaven and Godwaffle” and “Godwaffle shot Hemmingway in the f**king face”. The web site gets weirder, claiming Godwaffle’s drummer was murdered by the lead singer and the guitarist, who then framed the bassist for the crime. While the bassist serves life in prison, the two actual culprits are rumored to be successful daycare owners hiding somewhere near Idaho. Ummm, I really don’t know what else to say … moving on …

5) My personal favorite: Grandma’s Vomit – These guys don’t look half as serious as the other bands. Maybe that is to their advantage. Grandma’s Vomit doesn’t sound that imposing. After all, isn’t tossing Grandma’s cookies only a step away from eating Grandma’s cookies, and who doesn’t love those?

Well, that wraps up the inaugural “Flip the Script Friday”. Hope you enjoyed. I know there was a lot of basketball played last night that you probably want to read about somewhere. Go ahead. The Seminoles are done for the season, and college basketball-wise, so am I. That’s why you got a heaping of Godwaffles and Grandma’s Vomit for your Carnivorous Vagina.

- Jordi

The Mississippi State Bulldogs put an end to Al Thornton’s college career and Florida State’s NIT championship aspirations by defeating the Noles 86-71 Tuesday night.

Because it’s late I am going to do a wrap-up in bullet form, giving Tomahawk Ups to the positives and Tomahawk Downs to the negatives.

Tomahawk Ups

To Isaiah Swann, who scored 31, including 9 of 13 from three-point land. He was flat-out unstoppable.

To Al Thornton, who although he didn’t score his usual 20, filled his line with 16 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 blocked shots.

To Toney Douglas, who had 12 points and 5 assists.

Outside of these three however, nobody else did anything. Leading me to my Tomahawk Downs.

Tomahawk Downs

To Uche Echefu and Ryan Reid, who each had 5 turnovers and played as if the ball was covered in butter. Remember when I said these two needed to “play big down low“? Well, that didn’t happen. Mississippi State big man Charles Rhodes scored 14 points and pulled down 6 boards. Between Echefu and Reid’s offensive ineptitude and lack of defensive presence, it almost seemed as if the Noles were playing a man down the entire game. Speaking of playing shorthanded …

To Al Thornton. Yes, he scored. Yes, he played well. When he was on the floor. Thornton couldn’t avoid the foul bug against the Bulldogs. After quickly getting two in the first five minutes, Thornton was forced to ride the bench as the Bulldogs slowly piled on the points. Then, to make things worse, Thornton got two more fouls in the first few minutes of the second half. After fouling out of the game against North Carolina, Thornton should been ready for opponents to come after him like that. Which allows a smooth North Carolina-related segue to …

To whomever was supposed to be guarding Ben Hansbrough. Apparently, the Hansbrough family has a vendetta against Florida State as Little Hansbrough followed in his brother Tyler’s victorious footsteps, lighting the Noles up for 12 points and 7 rebounds. 7 rebounds! From a 6’3″ backup guard! Someone needed to box out and keep Little Hansbrough off the boards. No excuses.

To the bench. Ralph Mims, Casaan Breeden, Jerrel Allen, and Ryan Reid scored a whopping total of five points. Add in the zero Uche Echefu scored, and that is an average of one point per player for nearly half the team. Amazingly inept.

Anyway, that’s all for Seminole Basketball 2006-07. Not a bad ride. A bit disappointing, but one does what one can with what one has. With the season over, odds are the next time I write a Seminole Basketball post will be the day we find out what NBA jersey Al Thornton will be wearing next year. A Knicks’ one, perhaps?

Welcome back to The Serious Tip’s Tour de Grapefruit League 2007. This past Sunday I ventured to beautiful Sarasota, Florida, to see the Atlanta Braves take on the Cincinnati Reds. Actually, it was a Braves split squad team versus the Reds, but I didn’t care to see Chipper, Andruw, or any of the good Braves anyway. I’m a Mets fan, remember? One with deep-seated angst towards the Braves organization since Lonnie Smith hit a Sid Fernandez pitch out for a game-winning home run on July 14, 1989. Yeah, I hold grudges.

Anyway, back to Sunday at sunny Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota. Yet again, I arrived in the middle of the first inning. This time however, it wasn’t my fault. Everyone in west Florida decided to come out to the ballpark Sunday, pushing attendance to, no lie, standing room only. Standing room only. For a Braves-Reds game. In spring training. You would think the Braves had Hank Aaron and Johnny Bench was in the Reds lineup.

Although not quite of the caliber of Aaron and Bench, today’s lineups consisted of Jeff Francoeur, Pete Orr, and a bunch of guys I never heard for the Braves and for the Reds, pretty much everyone except for Ken Griffey Jr., who was probably hurt. In Junior’s place in the outfield was everyone’s favorite feel good story of the spring, former first round pick and recovering drug addict, Josh Hamilton.

Pitching for the Reds was underrated superstar Aaron Harang. Did you know Harang led the National League in wins and strikeouts last year? Me neither. After watching him, however, he reminds me of a modern-day Andy Benes. Definitely a workhorse pitcher who will give his team a lot of innings and strikeouts, but I don’t think he will ever be dominating. Especially from what I saw Sunday.

The Braves struck early and often on Harang. Although he managed to strike out nine in five innings, the Braves hit two home runs off of Harang, including one by Francoeur. After five, it was 3-0 Braves.

In the bottom of the fifth I went on a tour of Ed Smith Stadium. Honestly, there is not much to be said about Ed Smith Stadium other than it used to be the White Sox spring home and will cease to exist in a few years, when the City of Sarasota builds a new park across the street. On the positive side, Ed Smith is currently home to an interesting Mr. Met rip-off. This is a bad trend, folks. We can’t have every team with a baseball-head mascot. It’s just wrong. What kind of example are we sending to the rest of the free world when all our mascots look the same?

Anyway, before heading back to my seat, I decided to partake in one of those speed gun measure-how-fast-you-can-throw booths. Bad, bad, bad idea. These booths are kryptonite to the adult male psyche. Many moons ago, I liked to think I was a quality little league pitcher. Then reality hit and I failed to make my high school team. What better time than now then to prove my old high school wrong and impress major league fans with what my old left arm can do? Eagerly I bought three throws for a dollar and commenced to fire away.

First throw came in at a scorching 63 mph. Ok, just a warm-up.

Second throw, a blazing 68.

You would think I would at least break 70, right? Wrong. The third throw was a mind-melting 67 miles per hour. Not even fast enough to get pulled over on the highway.

Adding to the embarrassment, the vendor though I was parentally responsible for the pack of little kids behind me and kept calling me dad. “Let’s see what Dad can do. Oh, Dad’s arm is going to be hurting tomorrow.” Totally threw me off my game. I was an emotional mess. The sliver of hope I had to become the next Jim Morris was officially decimated.

With my wounded psyche and broken self-esteem, I found my way back to my seat to see the Reds in the middle of a comeback. In the bottom of the 7th they scored two to make it 5-3 Braves.

The Braves would post one more run and make the score 6-3 heading into bottom of the ninth. Attempting to close the game for Atlanta was minor league pitching prospect Will Startup. Startup reminded me of a young Mike Stanton, with his herky-jerky motion and over-emphatic leg kick. He also reminded me of Stanton in that he made the game interesting in the ninth. A few Reds hits and a few walks quickly made it 6-5 before Startup found his groove and shut the door, saving the game for the Braves. Being, of course, an old pitcher myself, I admired the unconventional herky-jerkyness of Startup’s motion. However, if Startup pitches like he did Sunday there might soon be another adult male lefthander trying to reclaim past pitching glory at a random speed gun booth. And he might even be mistaken for a random kid’s Dad.

- Jordi

There is a really good post over at TrueHoop.com by the always insightful Henry Abbott discussing the “loss of innocence” in college basketball. Go check it out. Since I am a little late on this, I figured I would just make a post here instead of trying to opine in his comment section.

There is no doubt the innocence of major program college athletics is gone. I don’t need to rehash the obvious. Everyone makes money through the tournaments, the bowl games, and other assorted college competitions – the television networks, the universities, the booster programs. Like Henry, when I was in school I was convinced we, my fellow students and I, were in this together. They were my classmates who doubled as athletes, and didn’t mind sacrificing their free time to represent my university, which they did, of course, for the love of the game. Playing at the next level was a bonus, a reward for greatness at the amateur level.

Having left college for a few years I realize now that there are a few cases where this is true. There are the third string senior linebackers and the walk-on 12th man on the end of the basketball bench who may play for the love, the camaraderie, or the accolades, but overall, the innocence of big time college sports is the second largest myth endorsed by universities. (The first being that you will change the world upon graduation – good luck with that.)

There is a reason, for example, Florida State University starts its most recent booster email with a story about Spring Football Practice and barely mentions the ongoing men’s basketball season. Football draws more money. The type of money that can buy out old coaches, hire new coaches, and swing recruits, who in turn hopefully elevate the team to national championship prominence. Which, of course, leads to more television time, more donations, and more boosting, which leads to better players, and better coaches, which leads to a better team. Lather, rinse, repeat. Lather, rinse, repeat.

However, with all the money circulated through the big time programs, and only the most naive still believing college athletics is a baston of innocence, why are people still so quick to point the finger at athletes when they make decisions based on finances? Is it because their team is worse off, or because their boosting program’s meal ticket is leaving? This weekend, for example, I heard renowned sports journalist Mike Lupica derogatorily list many of the NBA stars who would be playing in this year’s NCAA tournament had they chosen to go to or stay in school. Lupica listed players such as LeBron James, Dwight Howard, and Amare Stoudamire. Interesting, yes. Relevant, no. What right does he have to criticize people for following the dollar when everyone around them has been getting paid? Had Mr. Lupica been writing for no pay for his college newspaper as the paper posted massive profits, and then during his sophomore year was offered the writing job of his dreams, I sure he wouldn’t have turned it down.

College is a great experience for those who wish to make the most of it. For those who don’t, and would rather forgo academic sense for financial dollars, I say more power to them. There is a lot of money out there to be made. Just ask the corporations, the networks, and the university booster programs.

- Jordi