Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
I Hear The Sound
Friday
February 19, 2004
The sports world has been surprisingly busy as of late, which is surprising giving that we're hitting the post Super Bowl lull period. There are some issues though that are worth addressing.
-I hate that Alex Rodriguez is now on the New York Yankees. From a business perspective it's great; Rodriguez is an incredible talent, a clutch performer coming off of a gold glove performance in 2003 and who never gave up despite being on pathetic Rangers teams the past few years. Plus, the Rangers are still paying for a third of his salary. From a business standpoint, win won for Brian Cashman, George Steinbrenner and company.
From a baseball fan perspective, it's yet another sign of the degeneration of the competitive level in the game. I've been a Yankees fan since I was 10 years old, so save me from any bandwagon comments. But it's just not right for the system to be designed where a team has such a financial advantage over others. It's behind only the college football BCS system as my most disliked aspect of contemporary major sports.
|  | | Don't mess with Freddie Jones. |
But the first time that A-Rod gets a game-winning hit to lead the Yankees to victory over the Red Sox... that will be some really good times.
-The fact that the Indiana Pacers' Freddie Jones won the NBA Slam Dunk contest over the weekend was hilarious to Scott Massey and I, who had a rather crude nickname for Jones (because of his listing as "F. Jones" in NBA Live 2003, and I give you one guess for what we came up with).
-I'm really excited about the NBA Playoffs this year. With the Lakers not quite being the third coming of the Dream Team (with asshole Karl Malone on the IR, hahahahaha, and Kobe Bryant dealing with his share of off-court distractions), and so much depth in the West, that could go to any number of teams. In the East, I still like the Pacers (though Scott disagrees with me on that). The Pistons are tougher now with today's addition of Rasheed Wallace (no relation to new teammate Ben Wallace). Scott told me he thinks the Knicks will be contending for the Eastern conference title. I think that might be akin to my pick of the Titans winning Super Bowl XXXVII (since Scott is a Knicks fan and all), but we'll see. As a Spurs fan, I'm pulling for them to repeat, but they face a very tough road. There are plenty of worthy competitors lining up for a crack at the title. And that should be great to watch. And hopefully the Celtics will fall out of the playoff race, if nothing else to eliminate the possibility of a Celtics/Pistons playoff matchup (those teams matched up in the post-season have been painful to watch -- 84-79 final scores, that sort of thing).
-The Tampa Bay Lightning are playing really, really well. They don't get the press coverage that they deserve, but maybe this will be their breakout year. I'm a big fan of Martin St. Louis, who is having a tremendous season.
-For some reason over on my DraftKing.com page, I've been getting a ton of e-mail concerning the Lions and Steelers' first round draft picks (at #6 and #11, respectively). Meanwhile, not one person has written me about Washington's pick at #5 (which is a real question mark at this point).
-I've already decided that I'm picking Mississippi State to win it all in my WSAZ tournament pool entry. Granted, I haven't worked there since April 2001, but I'll stick around in the pool as long as Rob Johnson keeps it going. One of these years I'll finally win it. I realize that Stanford is unbeaten (at least as of this writing), but I think they have paper tiger written all over them. St. Joseph's is intriguing and a great story, and I'd love to see them go all the way (if not Mississippi State). I had thought that MSU would probably be a #2 seed (which would potentially give me the chance to see them play in Orlando if they were placed there), but with #3 Duke losing back-to-back games, it could open the door for the Bulldogs to get a number one seed (especially if they win out, including the SEC Tournament and a potential rematch with their only loss of the season, a one point heartbreaker to Kentucky).
Expect to read more on here in the coming days about the FCC, how it has grown out of control and into a political monster (with Michael Powell in my opinion abusing his position to posture for a White House cabinet position in a second Bush term White House), and what you can do to help fight it (and what I'm doing to try to lead a battle against it).
ABC has brought back its "Phone In Game" content for people interested in getting on the new "Super Millionaire" game show (a souped-up version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire). If you're interested in trying to get on the show, and you're 18 or older, call 1-800-999-7878. It's worth a shot for a potential $10 million payday, don't you think?
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