I’m taking a short hiatus from breaking down the Royals today, mostly because they seem dead-set on boring their fans to death before the season starts. Heck, such a ploy might work. After going through this offseason in which the club’s "big" pickups were
Jose Lima and a new pitching coach, another 100-loss season might not seem so bad. But I digress. Moving on …
Several bloggers have already encouraged their readers to do this, but in case you aren’t a reader of those blogs, please check out John Sickels’ new site. I wouldn’t exactly call myself the biggest Sickels fan in the world (I think Baseball America produces a much better handbook to prospects), but the guy got an old fashioned raw deal when his Down On The Farm column was booted from ESPN.com. John’s a heck of a nice guy by all accounts, so I’d encourage all of you to head on over to Minor League Ball and support his hard work.
Surprises were few and far between at the Grammy awards. Maroon 5 won as the best new artist, Green Day’s American Idiot won for best rock album, and Kanye West won for best rap album. For me, the only real surprise of the night was Ray Charles’ compilation CD Genius Loves Company sweeping all eight categories it was nominated for. I’ve bought the album and saw Jamie Foxx’s incredible performance in the biopic film about Ray’s life; both gave me a great appreciation for the impact Ray Charles had in the music industry. However, part of me has to wonder if Charles’ death gave him a few "sympathy votes" that he wouldn’t have received otherwise. GLC is great music and the eight Grammy awards are a fine tribute to a wonderfully talented man, but I don’t think the album was so good that it should’ve won in every single category.
During the weekend, I came across an ESPN.com poll that I found to be incredibly disturbing. This poll asked, "Who do you consider the single-season home run champion?" and listed four names: Roger Maris, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Barry Bonds. Not surprisingly, Sosa (4.2 percent) and McGwire (17.5 percent) have received the two lowest vote totals so far, but somehow, Maris is leading Bonds, garnering 47 percent of the vote while Bonds has only received 31.2 percent.
I know these polls ESPN puts on their web site are in no way scientific, but it’s pretty clear that fans just aren’t going to appreciate what Bonds has done because of alleged steroid use. Here’s the bottom line: anybody who voted Roger Maris as being the single-season home run king is just being stupid and bitter on the subject. Unless there is some way to conclusively prove that Bonds would’ve hit fewer than 61 home runs had he not used "The Cream" or any other type of performance enhancer, he HAS to be recognized as the record holder. It isn’t a subjective record. 73 is more than 61, even if if 73 was on ‘roids, drugs, caffeine, or otherwise. You may not like Bonds, but you have to give him credit where credit’s due.
The SMS Bears took care of business in both of their must-win games this week, beating Bradley 80-66 and Drake 85-78. The Bradley game was relatively uneventful, but the win over Drake got a little bit heated on the floor; coaches screaming at referees always makes for good theater. Additionally, Deven Mitchell came darned close to throwing down a thunderous one-handed tomahawk slam, but a Drake player fouled him exceptionally hard and made him earn the points at the free throw line. Let’s put it this way: if Deven had a free lane to the basket on that particular play, I don’t think the basket would’ve stood much of a chance of remaining in one piece.
This entry was posted
on Monday, February 14, 2005 at 2/14/2005 12:15:00 AM.
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