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Short post 4th of July blog [UPDATED]
Published 10:59am Tuesday, July 5, 2011 Updated 4:59pm Friday, July 8, 2011Wow, I was gone for quite sometime. I hate missing blogging. Free form of expression and I get to do a lot more opinion based material.
Now lets get to the good stuff.
I know that this may seem old news but I would like to thank the Dallas Mavericks for winning the NBA championship. This has renewed my faith in a league that has become 5 dominant teams and 20 something schedule fillers. LeBron James got in touch with his inner-millionaire and basically told all his doubters that he is Charlie Sheen (paraphrase “you can all go home to your ugly wife and your ugly kids and you lay in bed every night wishing you were me.”). That was actually what Sheen had said about his film producer but James seemed to be in the mood to tell everyone that although he did not capture the NBA title, he still lives a great life, unlike his doubters, who are obviously homeless and are unemployed.
Nowitski and the Mavs are just relishing in the fact that they have an NBA title, as they should. I love seeing Mark Cuban own a title. It gives the Old Guard in the NBA a chance to see what an enthusiastic owner can bring to the product.
This might be the way the NBA can become more fan friendly. With the CBA lockout, I question if their will even be sports next winter (OK, their will be hockey, but I don’t watch the Versus network).
Also, a big no-no on the part of the New Jersey Nets. The website, Deadspin.com, found how the NBA has been claiming they have lossed over $300 million this past season (here is the link to the article, http://deadspin.com/5816870/exclusive-how-and-why-an-nba-team-makes-a-7-million-profit-look-like-a-28-million-loss). If you don’t want to read the article, I will break it down for you like this. Let’s say Joe Mauer’s 2009 season yielded the Twin an extra $20 million in profit (selling of t-shirts, jerseys, sideburns, etc.) Now, Mauer produces a season like last year, where his homerun numbers were down and several people believed he was overpaid (I really don’t believe this. Check out the marketing value on fair weather fans. Most own Mauer jerseys and several different Mauer paraphernalia. Great marketing move by the Twins, also if he had left, you know we would have complained about not keeping him). Joe may have not put up statistical numbers like the year before but by no means does that mean he had a bad year. In the wonderful world of tax law, you can say that Joe only earned you $15 million from the previous year, so you are down $5 million. This is where you add his depreciation value and *kazaam* you now have lossed $5 million that you thought you would have earned. Fun wasn’t it.
With the light shown on this you wonder if it would hurt the NFL CBA as well (Imagine the depreciation value of Brett Favre!!). Good luck to the players, but I still believe that salaries in the NBA are ridiculous. NFL some are (Peyton Manning) but you also have to field more than 12 players, so your chances of winning by putting all your chips on one player is less likely in other sports.
Speaking of Charlie Sheen (check back earlier in this blog), my favorite celebrity quote fiend admitted that he used steroids while filming Major League. I love Major League and Charlie Sheen in Major League. I don’t believe that this is a big deal because Sheen is not considered a role model and he is not deceiving fans (Though he does have a great motto: WINNING!)
Some might argue that it is no different then when a professional athlete uses steroids. I beg to differ. I know that Charlie Sheen is not a major league pitcher, I also know that it is a movie, I also (the true key to the argument) cannot bet on outcome of a fictional event (I know you can but really, “Were you raised under powerlines as a kid?”). In professional sports, there is a billion dollar sports gambling market that relies on the fact that everything on the court is legit (hey I knew I could mention the NBA again).
Something interesting to note about Sheen is that he said he was able to raise his fastball from the high 70s to the mid 80s. My dad would argue that you “still have to hit the ball”, but this may help show to skeptics that pros who use do have an advantage by using ‘roids.
If you want a look at steroids in a documentary from a normal guy, check out BIGGER, FASTER, STRONGER : The side effects of Being American. I learned a lot I didn’t know about the issue and it is just a neat look at the drugs.
Congratulations to the Boston Bruins (sorry Vancouver). I do like seeing one of the famed NHL teams get back to prominence. I am not a huge hockey guy, but their is something to say about the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Wild made tons of moves in the off-season. Trading everything including the kitchen sink to improve for next season. I guess I am really excited to see what Danny Heatley can do for the boys on the ice.
The Twins have been in a upward swing (and then back down and then back up). I wish Ron Gardenhire would let me know if they are going to make the playoffs (or at very least make a run at it). The Twins are becoming more of a heart attack than the Minnesota Vikings.
Congratulations to Michael Cuddyer on being the lone Twin selected to play in the All-Star game. I am not a huge Cuddy fan (Many of my friends know this and brought it up to me when we went to a game and saw him hit for the cycle). Cuddyer is now the new Ron Coomer (a likable guy, playing for an organization that probably doesn’t deserve an all-star spot). I am a fan of allowing every team to have a representative (otherwise the Yankees would just play the National League/Phillies team). This allows a baseball fan to watch at least one of their team’s players play in a game that went from meaningless to almost meaningless (home field advantage is nice, but the American League had sole possession of home field advantage until last season and in those 8 World Series split with the National League in wins).
Joey Chestnut took home his fifth straight Nathan’s hot dog eating contest championship. Chestnut was able to consume 62 hot dogs in 10 minutes. I would like to get into one of these competitions but I would probably only eat 10 dogs since I would like to at least enjoy them on the way down. No Kobayashi for the second straight year. I don’t believe this taints Chestnut’s record, since he did beat Kobi the first 3 times, but it would have been nice to have the two juggernauts of eating going head to head again.
Sorry, I didn’t get to cover as much as I wanted to this time around. I hope to do better in the upcoming blogs. Shout outs this week go to Elliot and Sarah Johnson and Kara and Scott Barber for a great round of mini-golf (This maybe my next profession!).
Hit more of you folks up next time,
Zach
