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10/29/2007: "Sports Rant"

Spent most of the weekend sanding and painting, so sports brought a nice respite for my poor hands ...

- Well, that was quick. Remember when the Rockies had won 21 of 22 games? Well, they's still won 22 - only now it's of 26, as the Red Sox steamrolled them in 4 to take their second World Series title in 4 years. The games weren't even that interesting - sort of like watching a predator tear apart a bunny. Just an efficient dismantling of what was purported to be the best the National League had to offer. I note with a mixture of pride and disappointment that the MVP of the series was third baseman Mike Lowell, a cornerstone of the Marlins' 2003 championship team. Jettisoned in 2005 in the Josh Beckett trade, Lowell had his best season ever in 2007, which should raise his value on the free agent market significantly.

- Start the bidding: A-Rod's opted out of his contract. Not that's any surprise, considering his agent is A-Hole ... er, Scott Boras. Boras has made it clear that any player he represents will opt out at the earliest opportunity if the market warrants it. He's the one who drove J. D. Drew to do the same last year with the Dodgers, and that worked out pretty good. Scary to think what Rodriguez - who will likely pick up his third AL MVP award in a couple of weeks - will attract on the free agent market. The contract he's opting out of was that megadeal he signed with the Rangers - 10 years, $252 million. At the time, it was far beyond anything else out there, and has been pointed to as a key in the ruination of the sport. Now it's just chump change, and he'll probably pull down something on the far side of 30 mil a season in the new one. Yikes!!

- The NFL wants Europe to get on board with our style of football, and raised the stakes in that effort by playing a regular season game Sunday at Wembley Stadium in London. While it was sold out quickly (90,000 screaming fans!), I'd argue that if they really want to make an impact they should send a better game than the Giants and Dolphins. They did things right by having F1 mega-rookie Lewis Hamilton and English National Team (the real football) star John Terry as honorary captains. For all the hoopla, though, I'm told the most flashbulbs went off when the Dolphin cheerleaders took the field ...

- Well, USC's still in the BCS standing, but just barely. Underdogs for the first time in years, they lost over the weekend to the Oregon Ducks - the Ducks! - in Eugene. Everyone talks about how the results this year indicate the parity present in college football today, and I think there's some truth to that. But I think what it really points to is what an imprecise science it is to try and look at a bunch of high school juniors and try to predict how they'll play at the college level. USC has had the best rated recruiting class for the last few years, and clearly the pundits got it wrong. Then there's Notre Dame, and you don't even want to get me started there. Two things you don't want to bet on in sports - boxing and college football, cause they're both just too damned unpredictable.