Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Sports updates galore, thoughts on 3.5 years of blogging. (In progress.)

Hello,

As I count down to blog #1000, welcome to themusicaddict blog #979. Who would have thought that I would have kept up with this for 3.5 years? I started the blog due to suggestions from my sister-in-law and now ex-wife. It was something for me to do as at the time I was in between jobs. A lot of things have changed since my first blog that I wrote about "Chinese Democracy". Since that time I've gotten divorced and no serious relationships since. Thank goodness as I'm still in the process of healing. Also I've found a job that's nearly perfect for me. I wish I was paid a bit more, but don't we all? This job has given me a lot of extra time to work on my blog and spend more time with my kids than most divorced dads can.

Anyway now on to much more interesting things. Tampa Bay was able to beat the Colts 24-17 last night. This game was much closer than I thought it would be. Although Peyton Manning was at the game, he was sitting up in the booth with some coaches. I predict he's played his last game for the Colts. Curtis Painter actually played fairly well in his first regular season start. With them 0-4, the Colts need to release Kerry Collins and let him go back to retirement. Give Curtis Painter a chance to grow and see if he could be the quarterback of the future for the Colts. That future could start as soon as next season.

Anyway my two 3-1 teams play each other in San Francisco Sunday afternoon. Whoever wins that battle will be 4-1. With the 49ers in the pathetic NFC West, that should give them more than enough cushion to win that division. Quite likely they'll be the only team to finish above .500 in that division. The loser will fall to 3-2, still a respectable record. Meanwhile Dallas will remain at 2-2 as the Cowboys have a bye, that is unless Tony Romo can find a way to lose a bye. I wouldn't put it past him.

Basketball update: Yesterday was suppose to be media day for most, if not all, NBA teams. Obviously it didn't happen with both sides negotiating for several hours yesterday. Some people are calling today's negotiations as make or break. Let's hope that negotiations break down and there is no NBA season. I think that would be a nice wake up call for everyone involved. And NBA player agents are getting involved, as they would be affected very much as well.

According to espn.com's Ric Bucher, agents for NBA players sent a memo. Bucher writes "Concerned that leaders of the NBA players union continue to negotiate with owners about a new collective bargaining agreement that contains massive concessions by only the players, six of the most powerful player agencies jointly composed a warning letter over the weekend and sent it Monday to their clients, sources say.

The letter advises the players not to ratify any deal that includes a reduction in basketball-related income beyond the 57 percent or any other systematic changes from the last collective bargaining agreement, which expired July 1."

NBA fans, I have an alternate thing for you to do in place of the NBA. My Detroit Red Wings kick off their NHL season on October 7th against the Senators. This season's team will look dramatically different than last year. Brian Rafalski, has retired, he's the reason I started cheering for the Red Wings in the first place. Besides Rafalski they also lost some other key veterans. However Detroit still brings back the high scoring duo of Pavel "The Magician" Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg. Goalie Jimmy Howard now has some experience as Red Wings goalie. He acquitted himself well both in the regular season and the postseason. The Red Wings were able to convince the 41 year old Nicklas Lidstrom to come back for one more season at least. Finally the Red Wings gained valuable playoff experience for their younger players by reaching the second round of last year's playoffs. They had a stirring, hard fought series with the Sharks.

Back to the NBA's contentious labor negotiations. As with the NFL negotiations, and how the upcoming MLB labor negotiations will probably be, greed is the #1 motivating factor. Just a few days ago David Stern was threatening to cancel the whole season. Now he seems to be waffling that a partial season would be okay. NBA OWNERS PLEASE PUT THE PLAYERS ON LOCKOUT!

Fashion police arrest that man. Did anyone see Carmelo Anthony dressed in that bright yellow shirt? Please someone tell him it's too early to dress up for Halloween. And maybe save Bumblebee for the kids Carmelo. If you are going to be doing any transforming, I'm sure the Knicks would you to transform into a defender and rebounder.

Also it's time to let Pete Rose back into baseball. He's one of the greatest hitters of all time and one of the most passionate advocates for the game of baseball. He's more than paid the price for betting on baseball.

MLB Playoffs update: Again I've been following these very little. With me not having any rooting interest, I haven't cared much about the playoffs. However I saw something hilarious today that I wanted to comment on. Tonight is the Yankees-Tigers Game 4. Detroit leads this series 2-1 and game 4 is in Detroit. With the Yankees season on the brink, who'll be the Yankees starting pitcher today? Mr. A.J. Burnett, New York's version of Jon Lackey. (Can we start calling him No Way A.J. yet?) Burnett was 11-11 and had a 5.15 ERA in the regular season. He has yet to pitch in the playoffs this season and I predict his first outing won't last long. Good news, bad news for Yankees fans about Burnett pitching today. He led the MLB in an individual stat, unfortunately it was wild pitches. He had 25 wild pitches, 10 more than anyone else. (Thanks to espn.com.)

Just like the Red Sox, the Yankees spend all that money and what do they have to show for it? That doesn't mean I'm going to start cheering for the Tigers though. My Detroit team is the Red Wings.

themusicaddict

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