Week 8 NFL Picks: One Sentence Summary Edition

Jacksonville at Houston
Except for maybe the Bears vs. Packers, there’s not a single NFL match-up with more historical significance than Jaguars-Texans.
Pick: Jacksonville

Detroit at Dallas
Dallas’ offense makes the Redskins look like the 2000 Rams, but lets not forget that these are still the Detroit Lions people.
Pick: Dallas

Arizona at Buffalo
Some guy outside of Rich Stadium (is it even called Rich Stadium anymore?) is going to make a killing selling “Whatchu’ Talkin’ Bout Willis?” t-shirts this Sunday.
Pick: Buffalo

Cincinnati at Tennessee
Champ Bailey said that he had a tough time covering Chad Johnson because he kept getting blinded from the glare off Johnson’s gold teeth.
Pick: Tennessee

Baltimore at Philadelphia
Somebody needs to get Terrell Owens one of those “Wrap It Up” signs from Chappelle’s Show.
Pick: Philadelphia

Green Bay at Washington
Since 1936, if the Redskins win their last home game before Election Day then the incumbent president or party wins on Election Day; but just like with the Red Sox, all streaks end some time.
Picks: Packers and Bush

New York Giants at Minnesota
Giants coach Tom Coughlin revealed that Tiki Barber helped curbed his excessive fumbling through practicing an exercise with Alex Rodriguez where Barber would have to hold onto the ball while A. Rod continually girlie-slapped him in the hands.
Pick: Minnesota

Indianapolis at Kansas City
Man, A. Rod is such a pansy.
Pick: Kansas City

Carolina at Seattle
Somebody has to win in this game, and it certainly won’t be the fans in attendance.
Pick: Seattle

Atlanta at Denver
Michael Vick meets Champ Bailey in the Overrated Bowl – too bad Jason Sehorn is out of the league.
Pick: Denver

Oakland at San Diego
LaDainian Tomlinson has run for less yards in his last three games than Clinton Portis did against the Bears.
Pick: San Diego

New England at Pittsburgh
Normally, I thank heavens that Plaxico Burress exists simply because his name is Plaxico, but this week I have two reasons: Sing it loud Plaxy.
Pick: New England

San Francisco at Chicago
I don’t even think The Wolfman will be watching this one.
Pick: San Francisco

BOSTON SWEEP PARTY!

As the Boston Red Sox were in the process of winning their first World Series since 1918, a lunar eclipse was taking place overhead.
Conspiracy theorists will contend that the eclipse was a sign that the “Curse of the Bambino” had finally been lifted.
Those people are morons.
There never was a curse and anybody who says otherwise probably believes in ghosts, goblins and that Elvis is still alive.
The concept of “The Curse of the Bambino” is a relatively new one. It wasn’t until Boston Globe writer and eternal pessimist Dan Shaughnessy published a book of the same name in 1990 that the idea of a curse on Boston’s baseball team really caught on. Before then the Red Sox were just another tough-luck franchise like the Cubs and White Sox.
And for the same reasons the Chicago teams haven’t won in over 85 years, the Red Sox hadn’t won a World Series since World War I simply because they never were the best team in baseball when it mattered the most.
With the exception of 1946, when the Sox had a better record than the Cardinals but were outpitched in the Series (sound familiar?), every time Boston made the playoffs they were beaten by a superior team.
For the 1967 “Impossible Dream” Red Sox the biggest accomplishment was winning the A.L. pennant. Losing to the Bob Gibson-led Cardinals was expected.
In 1975 the Sox of Yaz, Fisk and Carbo were beaten by the superior Big Red Machine. That the Series even went seven games was surprising.
The misfortunes of 1978 and 1986 are well documented, but the Yanks ended up winning the World Series after winning a one-game playoff with the Sox, while the ’86 Mets are still considered one of the best teams of all-time.
It wasn’t a curse that lifted Bucky Dent’s homerun over the Monster in that 1978 playoff or forced the ball through Bill Buckner’s legs. True, Dent had as much power as Pokey Reese, but he did start 123 games that season and also won the World Series MVP award, so he wasn’t exactly a slouch.
And that Buckner error? That didn’t lose the Series for the Sox. Calvin Schiraldi and Bob Stanley did that by allowing base hits in the bottom of the 9th in the same game.
People seem to think that if Buckner had made the play at first the Red Sox would have won the Series.
That’s what happens when 18 years passes and facts turn into legend.
If Buckner makes the play, the Sox wouldn’t have won, the game would have gone into the 11th inning and what would have happened next is anybody’s guess.
In their next five postseason appearances after the ’86 meltdown, superior teams knocked off the Sox.
Last year’s loss to the Yankees in seven games brought curse talk to epic proportions, but unless the ghost of Babe Ruth was whispering in Grady Little’s ear in the bottom of the 8th of the 7th game, it was simply poor managing that lost the ALCS for the Sox.
The 2004 Red Sox were built different than those other teams that came up short.
The team had a dominant pitching staff that ended up holding two of the most potent offenses in baseball in check for the final eight games of the season.
They had a manager who wasn’t afraid to give a green light on a 3-0 count or make pitching, defensive or pinch-hitting substitutions when necessary.
And the hitters on the 2004 Red Sox waited for their pitches and rarely missed when they got them.
Above all, the team played for one another.
The old saying in Boston used to be “25 players, 25 cabs”, which referred to the fractious personalities in the locker room.
This year, if the 25 guys on the Red Sox could have fit into a single cab, they would have.
These guys genuinely liked each other, something that’s difficult to accomplish when language and racial barriers divide most Major League clubhouses.
The fact that the players were friends helped create a team atmosphere that carried the Sox throughout the postseason.
Almost everybody on the postseason roster played a vital role in the playoffs, from stars like David Ortiz and Curt Schilling to role players such as Dave Roberts and Gabe Kapler.
Kevin Millar, the ringleader of the idiots, was forced to sit in games 3 and 4 because there is no designated hitter in National League parks. Instead of stewing on the bench like Nomar Garciaparra did earlier this year, Millar was on the top step cheering his teammates and doing the Harlem Shake with Pedro during the game.
David Ortiz and Trot Nixon could also have been upset at being replaced in the late innings of last night’s game. Instead, they realized their defensive replacements gave the team a better chance of winning and happily watched the games final outs from the dugout.
After Keith Foulke threw to Doug Mientkiewicz for the last out of the 2004 World Series, an out that closed the book on 86 years of Sox frustration, the Boston players piled on one another in between the pitchers mound and home plate to celebrate.
This happens every year and the sight has almost become ordinary.
Not this year though. The smiles of joy, relief, excitement and jubilation on the faces of the Red Sox could have made even the most ardent Yankees fan crack a smile.
The Sox were celebrating not only for themselves, but they were celebrating for their teammates, their coaches, their owners, their general manager and for all their fans who had waited so long for that elusive World Series championship.
As the celebration was continuing behind him, Curt Schilling was being interviewed by Peter Gammons. The former Boston Globe and current ESPN analyst asked Schilling how he was able to pitch on a severely injured ankle in the World Series. Schilling responded that any one of his 24 teammates would have done the same exact thing.
Most Major League players would use the same line as Schill, but only a guy on the Red Sox could say that and actually mean it.
There was genuine love between the players on the 2004 Boston Red Sox.
Some people would claim that stuff like chemistry and love have nothing to do with World Series victories. I choose to ignore those people; they probably believe in curses anyway.

Congratulations to Tim Wakefield, Jason Varitek, Derek Lowe, Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez, Gabe Kapler, David Ortiz, Bill Mueller, Kevin Millar, Johnny Damon, Mark Bellhorn, Pokey Reese, Dave Roberts, Trot Nixon, Doug Mirabelli, Orlando Cabrera, Terry Francona, Johnny Pesky, Bill Buckner, John McNamara, Calvin Schilardi, Bob Stanley, Carl Yazstremski, Grady Little, Theo Epstein, Curt Schilling, Keith Foulke, Derek Lowe, Alan Embree, Mike Timlin, Bronson Arroyo, Kevin Youkilis, Mike Myers, Curtis Leskanic, Doug Mientkiewicz, Jerry Remy, Don Orsillo, Dom DiMaggio, Bobby Doerr, Rico Petrocelli, Tony Conigliaro, Jim Rice, Dwight Evans, Nomar Garciaparra, Joe Cronin, Ted Williams and all the Boston Red Sox fans that have waited for a World Series championship during the past 86 years. Let's make it two in-a-row next season.



BOSTON RED SOX - 2004 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS

Check back later today for some thoughts on the Red Sox championship.

World Series Thoughts

- Last night Pedro Martinez was like 10:00 p.m. in jail: Lights out.
Pedro wasn’t as overpowering as he was during the 1999 ALDS when he came out of the bullpen in Game 5 and pitched six innings of no-hit ball. Nor did Petey have the control of his pitches the way he did in 2000, throwing a four-hit shutout in a duel against Roger Clemens at Yankee Stadium. No, the Pedro of last night wasn’t like the Pedro of old.
He was better.
In the most pivotal pitching performance in his career, Pedro Martinez showed that he can make the transition from a power pitcher to a finesse pitcher with success, all while putting the Boston Red Sox in a position to win their first World Series title since the Wilson administration.
Who’s your daddy, indeed.

- Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t the Red Sox, now up 3-0 in a best-of-seven series, down by a similar margin to the Yankees no more than ten days ago?
To listen to Red Sox fans talk about their 3-0 one would think it’s insurmountable and the city should start planning the victory celebration in Kenmore Square.
Let’s not forget that the Cardinals won 105 games this year, haven’t put together a solid inning of hitting since the NLCS and still have a guy named Albert Pujols.
Personally, I don’t think this series goes back to Boston. The Cardinals don’t seem to have that special something it takes to come back from 3-0 against a great team like the Red Sox.
I realized this in the seconds after Game 6 of the NLCS, after Jim Edmonds hit his game-winning homerun that extended the series to a decisive 7th game.
When Edmonds touched home plate, the Cards celebrated and patted him on the head and jumped around like all teams would do after a game-winning hit. But the celebration was lacking something. There was no love.
Before you laugh, think back to all the Red Sox celebrations this year. There was hugging, elaborate high-fives, head-rubbing and smiles all around. The guys on the team were genuinely happy, not just that their team won the game, but for each other.
When Mark Bellhorn hit his huge homerun in game 6 of the ALCS the reaction shot of the Sox dugout was quite telling. The players were thrilled that they had jumped out to an early lead on the Yankees, but you could sense that they were also happy that their teammate had broken out of his slump.
When the Red Sox celebrate, it’s like they’re happier for their teammates than they are for themselves. I got the opposite feeling from the Cardinals in their game 6.
They looked like they were almost relieved to have won and, subsequently, were happy for themselves but not for Edmonds.
Normally, this wouldn’t matter in a series. Lots of teams that haven’t liked each other or had great chemistry have won championships. But coming back from 3-0 requires something more than talented baseball players. It takes a team with the camaraderie of the Boston Red Sox.
I’m not saying that the series is over, because it certainly is not. But I will be very surprised if the Cards can even force a game 7.

- If you showed Tim McCarver a picture of a dog and asked him what animal it was, he'd probably tell you it was a cat and then proceed to explain how good Derek Jeter is at hitting fastballs low and away.

- More coming later. It's lunchtime now.

The Chaz Rankings: Week 7

1) Philadelphia Eagles (Last Week: 1) - The presence of Terrell Owens in Philly has freed up the other Eagle receivers to thrive against single coverage. This has led some to overrate the corps behind Owens. But remember this people: You can add Terrell Owens to your team, but you can’t take the Todd Pinkston out of Todd Pinkston.

2) New England Patriots (2) - For about the past four weeks there has been a constant question making the rounds in the sporting world: Are the New England Patriots underappreciated? And the answer, my friends, is a resounding “NO”. How can a team be underappreciated when everybody continuously asks if they’re underappreciated? The mere fact that the question is being asked means that the Pats are, in fact, not underappreciated. Do you think residents of Arles in 1888 were walking around asking if Van Gogh was underappreciated? No, they were too busy underappreciating him. It wasn’t until he died that people began to realize he was underappreciated. This all makes sense in my head, by the way.

3) Jacksonville Jaguars (10) - If Tom Brady were the quarterback of the Jaguars, I think they’d be worse than 5-2. I’m serious about this.

4) Indianapolis Colts (3) - Peyton Manning is tougher than I thought; he barely flinched when Reggie Wayne lightly shoved him in the chest. If Wayne had done that to Roy Jones Jr., the once proud boxer would have definitely been down for the count.

5) Minnesota Vikings (5) - You know you’re on a hot streak when a 24/30, 183 yard, 1 touchdown performance is considered an “off day”.

6) Pittsburgh Steelers (4) - They moved down two spots in the rankings on their bye week. I wish I could say this made sense, but sometimes life isn’t fair. If it were, then the Yankees wouldn’t be near locks to sign Carlos Beltran in about three weeks.

7) New York Jets (6) - Speaking of the Yankees, I hear that Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez got their minds off their crushing defeat by going out together to see Mario Cantone’s Laugh Whore on Broadway.

8) Detroit Lions (12) - Including the Lions, every team from here on out is just terrible. That’s right, there’s only seven good teams in the NFL. Honestly, would you be scared to see the Giants, Rams, Texans, Packers, Seahawks or Falcons right now? Of course you wouldn’t. With such parity in the league, every team in the NFC could still conceivably earn a playoff spot.
Come on now. The Lions are #8? This has to be a joke. Four weeks ago Joey Harrington could barely tie his own shoes, now he’s all of a sudden the next… wow. Have their been any good quarterbacks that have ever played in Detroit? Let’ see: Rodney Peete? No. Scott Mitchell? Please, I have a beverage here. Gary Danielson? I guess he’s OK in the booth with Brent Musburger. Looking back, only one Detroit quarterback in the past 45 years has made the Pro Bowl (Greg Landry in 1971, and his stats are pretty mediocre) and in their history, only Bobby Layne could ever be considered a “star”.
Boy, I sure got off on a tangent there. My original point was the NFC stinks. Only the Eagles and Vikings are good. Everybody else is an 8-8 record waiting to happen.

9) Kansas City Chiefs (23) - I know they’re 2-4. But can I really rank them behind the Giants?

10) New York Giants (7) - I mean, they just lost to the Lions for crap’s sake.

11) St. Louis Rams (9) - And don’t get me started on the Rams. I tried to move them as low as possible after their Dolphin Debacle, but couldn’t, in good conscience, move them below the Packers and Texans. This team just got demolished by an 0-6 team and only falls three spots in these rankings. If that doesn’t show how terrible most of the league is, then I don’t know what will.

12) San Diego Chargers (18) - Well, maybe the Chargers at #12.

13) Denver Broncos (8) - So, do we all still think Champ Bailey is a shutdown corner?

14) Houston Texans (14) - Thank goodness the Broncos lost, by the way. I was having so much trouble putting them in the Top 10 of the rankings because I’m not sold on them at all. Jake Plummer is actually making Bronco fans long for Brian Griese.

15) Green Bay Packers (20) - Straight from the mouth of The Wolfman: “Do you think Brett Favre just makes up injuries now after games so he can go home and pop his painkillers and stroke his 2 day stubble? I guess the razor hasn't made it to Kiln, Mississippi yet.”

16) Seattle Seahawks (11) - Jerry Rice takes his Career Degradation tour to Seattle after petulantly demanding a trade from the Raiders.
Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with Rice being unable to let his NFL career go. If he wants to play, that’s his deal. But Rice, who was traded for a conditional 7th round draft pick should know his role and accept that he’s a washed-up 42 year old without much speed and dreadlocks that only look slightly better than his Kid n’ Play flat top that he sported throughout the Clinton administration.
Also, #80 for the Seahawks is Steve Largent. Alright? The number is retired Jerry. Just because Largent said you could wear it, you should have respected the number and the organization and worn something else. You aren’t a Seahawk. What you did with the 49ers has no bearing in Seattle. You’re just a guy that was traded for a, say it with me now, conditional 7th round draft pick. Do you think when the Dolphins traded guard Scott McGarrahan to the Packers in return for a conditional 7th round pick last season McGarrahan insisted that the Packers unretire Ray Nitschke’s #66?

17) Atlanta Falcons (13) - I pretty much exhausted my thoughts on the Falcons yesterday, so I’ll use this space to congratulate Tyrone Willingham and Notre Dame on their stellar 5-3 record. I thought this guy was supposed to turn the football team around? This is Willingham’s third year in South Bend and now that he has his own players in there, shouldn’t the team be beating the BYU’s and Boston College’s of the world? I guess it could be worse. Notre Dame’s first choice for the job, George O’Leary is 0-7 in his first year at Central Florida.

18) Cleveland Browns (17) - Andra (Don’t Spell it Andre) Davis is a beast. I’ve watched two Ravens games and two Browns games this season. And I have been more impressed with Davis than I have been with Ray Lewis every time.

19) Baltimore Ravens (19) - Interceptions that are caused by a receiver bobbling the ball should be counted as fumbles. I feel quite strongly about this. Deion, I’m looking in your direction.

20) Arizona Cardinals (27) - I think the only reason the team changed their name from the “Phoenix Cardinals” to the “Arizona Cardinals” was so they’d be listed first in USA Today’s Team Reports. I don’t buy all this nonsense about “making the state feel like the team belongs to them”. The Anaheim Angels did the same thing a few years back and used the same excuse, only in reverse.

21) Tennessee Titans (15) - Maybe the Titans really are this bad.

22) New Orleans Saints (26) - I think if Jim Haslett were manager of the Yankees, they’d be battling with the Devil Rays every season to stay out the American League East cellar.

23) Oakland Raiders (21) - I guess it’s a good thing that the Raiders don’t play a home game on Halloween. What would the fans in the Black Hole dress up us? Normal people? (Shudder)

24) Washington Redskins (22) - Since the Redskins moved to Washington in 1937, the outcome of their last home game before the presidential election has determined the next president. Starting with the 1940 election, a Redskins win means the incumbent president (or party) stays in the White House while a Redskins loss means that the challenger will win the election. This predictor is 16-0 (something the Patriots won’t be this year.) So, the battle on the field in Landover between the Redskins and Packers on Sunday will have a little more at stake than usual.
And if they tie, does that mean Ralph Nader will win?

25) Cincinnati Bengals (29) - Had I had any real foresight, I would have seen the Bengals Monday night victory coming. A struggling team, playing on Monday night for the first time in over a decade facing an overrated 5-1 squad that hadn’t really been tested all season. This should have been a no-brainer, instead it was one of those “Slap Your Forehead” games. Well, at least Champ Bailey got lit up like the National Christmas tree.

26) Dallas Cowboys (16) - Bill Parcells’ plan to bring in Drew Henson was delayed last week when Parcells figured that the former Yankees farmhand would fold under pressure if the Cowboys ever kicked a field goal to get out to a 3-0 lead.

27) Tampa Bay Buccaneers (25) - At least John Gruden will get an extra hour sleep Saturday night before he is forced to coach his pitiful offense again.

28) Carolina Panthers (24) - Yeah, it’s still probably too early for Christmas references. I’m gonna have to wait until Halloween passes at the very least.

29) Buffalo Bills (28) - Do you think they have good Buffalo wings in Buffalo? Cause they sure as hell don’t have any around here. My friends go to Hooters to get wings because they say they’re “the best wings ever”, but those things taste like a cross between pork rinds and formaldehyde. Maybe I got spoiled going to college in North Carolina, the self-proclaimed “wing capital of the southern Mid-Atlantic”. I could really go for some Pig Pickens’ right now.

30) Miami Dolphins (32) - Buoyed by their victory over a team coached by a stupid, stubborn, silly man, the Dolphins climb out of the cellar for the first time since the Chaz Rankings began.

31) San Francisco 49ers (30) - There’s awful Sunday night games, then there’s this: Sunday, October 31, 8:30 p.m. EDT: San Francisco at Chicago.

32) Chicago Bears (31) - Well, at least the Cubs finished strong.

Monday Morning Cornerback

At 8:00 on Saturday night the World Series was tied 0-0 and nobody knew what the next two days would have in store.
How would Tim Wakefield’s knuckleball react to the brisk New England wind? Could Tony LaRussa’s team adapt to the designated hitter rule? Would the Red Sox have any gas left in the tank after their hard-fought, emotional win over the Yankees in the ALCS? Without Steve Kline, how would the Cards bullpen set-up before Jason Isringhausen? What about Curt Schilling’s ankle tendon? Would it hold up?
All those questions were answered in a span of 52 hours, as the Red Sox stormed ahead in the World Series, taking the first two games at Fenway.
That’s why baseball is the best major sport in America. In basketball it takes two weeks to play a five game series. In football, there are six days of hype leading up a three hour game. In hockey… well, hockey isn’t a major sport. But in baseball, the Red Sox only got two days rest after their ALCS (while the Cards got only one) to prepare for the World Series. Then, in a 52 hour span, two games were decided and the Series has a decidedly different feel.
On Saturday the Sox jumped out to an early lead after Senor Octobre launched a three-run homer that hooked around Pesky Pole in the first inning of the Fall Classic. Boston extended their lead to 7-2 before Tim Wakefield did his best “Wild Thing” Vaughn impersonation and walked four men en route to three-run 4th for the Cards. Two innings later the game was tied and it looked like a Boston collapse was imminent.
For all the nerves and tension I felt in the ALCS, I was remarkably calm as the Red Sox were throwing away their lead. At no point in Game 1 did I ever really think they were going to lose. I have no clue why I felt this way… I just did.
It was kind of the same feeling I get when watching a Wake Forest Football game, only then I expect my team to lose. Wake played Florida State tight this weekend, but the whole time I was watching I knew that Wake would give up a big play and then, late in the game, would call shotgunned draw plays on 3rd and short. It’s like clockwork. So with those games I never get too high or too low. I feel like I know the outcome before the game starts.
That’s what I felt in Game 1. It was the same feeling I had in Game 3 of the ALDS, only I was a lot more nervous when Vlad Guerrero hit that grand slam than I was when Manny booted those balls. But more on that later.
Why did I feel this way in Game 1? Maybe it was the fact that I was a few beers deep, maybe it was because they weren’t playing the Yankees, maybe it was because blowing a 7-2 lead didn’t seem to faze the Sox. Hell, Manny Ramirez probably never knew his team was up 7-2 in the first place. Why would he react differently when it was 7-7?
He didn’t. Manny came through with the go-ahead single in the 7th, which was followed by a hot-shot off the bat of Senor Octobre that Tony Womack couldn’t handle. The Sox extended their lead, and all seemed right in Boston.
Except that Manny had to go out and play the field and made not one, but two errors that tied the score once again.
Had those errors been made by anyone but Manny Ramirez, the fans at Fenway would have started a chant for their back-up (as they did in the ALCS, chanting “Pokey” every time Mark Bellhorn booted a ball or came to the plate… good thing Tito Francona stuck to his guns, eh?).
But with Manny, those kind of plays are almost expected. They’re part of the deal. Since Manny can’t DH with David Ortiz on the roster, he has to play left field. He’ll be the best hitter in the American League, as long as you understand that he’s going to make some boneheaded plays in left. Even after those two errors could have cost the Red Sox Game 1 of the World Series, I think all Red Sox fans would take Manny and all his fielding baggage every day of the week.
The errors didn’t faze the Sox, as Mark Bellhorn’s two-run foul-pole shot in the 8th gave the Sox the lead for good and a 1-0 Series lead.
Yesterday, Curt Schilling took the mound, sutures in his ankle and all. Curt didn’t have the same stuff he had in Game 6 of the ALCS, but was effective nonetheless, going six without giving up an earned run.
Game 2 was a whole lot easier for the Red Sox and now they’ll head to St. Louis up 2-0.
Winning the two at home were obviously huge. Now, all the Sox have to do in St. Louis is win one out of three.
Don’t think for a second that the Cardinals are going to roll over simply because they lost two at Fenway. The Cards haven’t lost at Busch Stadium this entire postseason and are 58-28 there this season (compared to a 46-40 road record for Boston).
After committing an unbelievable eight errors in two games, the Red Sox now will have to play David Ortiz at first-base, which might up that error count to Bad News Bears territory. Coupled with the loss of Kevin Millar’s bat, and the Red Sox are at a decided disadvantage in St. Louis.
The good news is that Pedro Martinez will face a guy that didn’t even make Boston’s postseason roster last year (Jeff Suppan) in Game 3 tomorrow night.
From the beginning of this series, the Cards weak starting pitching was the key to the series. Much like with Anaheim in the ALDS, all the analysts were saying that St. Louis had a slight edge in the Series because of their dominant bullpen. What everybody failed to mention is that it takes good starting pitching to make the bullpen relevant, and the Cardinals don’t have that. Woody Williams, Matt Morris, Jeff Suppan and Jason Marquis could start for the Brewers and nobody would bat an eye.
That doesn’t mean these guys aren’t capable of throwing together a few quality starts, but they hardly will make David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez nervous.
I’ve given up on predicting what will happen to the Red Sox. I never thought they’d lose three straight to the Yankees and am pleasantly surprised that they’ve followed that with a six-game winning streak.
I do know that getting excited about a 2-0 lead in the World Series is dangerous (the Sox were up by the same amount in the 1986 series, and they took those games at Shea Stadium.)
The Cardinals didn’t win 105 games and advance to the World Series because they got lucky. The Red Sox know this and won’t get too content with their 2-0 lead. They know how quickly big postseason leads can evaporate better than anybody. Well, better than anybody not on the Yankees that is.

Sunday Thoughts

- Reason #65 why Michael Vick continues to be overrated: During halftime of the 1:00 FOX game, James Brown was running through the highlights of the other contests going on. When the Chiefs-Falcons highlight was on, FOX showed all of Priest Holmes’ touchdowns and a nice 32 yard run by Vick. As the run was being broadcast, Terry Bradshaw was blabbering about Vick’s lightning-quick speed, while Howie Long commented, “this is why Vick is one of the best QB’s in the NFL.”
What they failed to mention verbally was that the Falcons were down 35-3 and Vick was 4-14 with 4 yards passing and 2 interceptions in the half.
FOX showed the one good play Vick made instead of the 20 or so that he didn’t.

- I don't know what was more surprising this weekend: Ashlee Simpson lip synching on Saturday Night Live or all the calls Tom Brady and the Patriots got from the officials. I swore that, for a second, Phil Simms voice sounded like Dick Vitale, Gillette Stadium looked like Cameron Indoor Stadium and Ed Hightower and Duke Edsell huddling at the 40.

- Hasn’t it seemed like the Patriots have played all their games at home this year? Every time the Pats have a big game, whether it be against the Colts, Seahawks or Jets, they’re playing in Foxborough. Of course, they’ll play the Jets at the Meadowlands later this season, but keep the Pats big-game-at-home streak in mind when evaluating their six straight wins.
Uh Chris… The Patriots have won 21 straight games.
No, italicized conscience. The Patriots have won six straight games. They won 15 in-a-row last season en route to the Super Bowl. That was quite impressive. This year, with a new running back, new defensive lineman and new special teams players, the Patriots have started the season without a loss. They’re winning streak is exactly the same as the Philadelphia Eagles.

- I’m not trying to pick on the Falcons, except that really, I am. They’re just terrible. I’ve been quite vocal on this issue, and I won’t stop until everybody believes me. I think after yesterday the number of Falcons doubters skyrocketed like the price of oil. Topical humor. You get it all at Chris’s Sports Blog. Where was I. Oh right, the miserableness of Atlanta’s NFL franchise.
On all the NFL shows last night everybody made a point to mention that the Chiefs eight touchdown runs came against a Falcons defense that was ranked number-one against the run this season. The inference was, that the Falcons were a great defense and the fact that the Chiefs ran for eight touchdowns and over 250 yards was some sort of miracle.
But all you had to do was look a little deeper at the Falcons numbers to realize that the #1 ranking was about as solid as the government in East Timor.
Back to the horribleness of the Falcons. So yes, Jim Mora Jr.’s defense was ranked #1 against the run headed into their game with the Chiefs.
That ranking was “earned” based on six-games against: The pitiful 49ers, a throw-first team (the Rams) that views rushing like democrats view Subpart F of the International Tax Code (I apologize for all this political jargon, my TV is on CNN for some reason and the remote is on the other side of the room), a Cardinals team with a 93 year-old man in the backfield, a sorry Panthers offensive-line, Artose Freakin’ Pinner and LaDainian Tomlinson, who has run for under 64 yards in four of his last five games.
The Falcons are probably better than average against the run. But just because they haven’t given up lots of yards to teams with lackluster rushing attacks doesn’t mean they’re the best. Similarly, just because Atlanta is 5-2 against crappy teams doesn’t mean they’re any good. If the NFC South wasn’t so bad, I’d guarantee they wouldn’t make the playoffs. As it is, they still might, but I’ll stick with my pre-season pick: the Bucs. This way, I can negate my good pre-season calls on the Seahawks, Panthers and Falcons all being terrible in one fell swoop.

Superlatives

Best Game: Jaguars 27 – Colts 24
This one beats out the thriller in Cleveland because with the victory, Jacksonville vaults past Indy as the leader in the AFC North. Byron Leftwich continued his hot streak, torching the Colts for 300 yards and two touchdowns. It was Leftwich’s 25 yard TD pass to Jimmy Smith, along with a two-point conversion toss to Ernest Wilford, that put the Jags up by a touchdown late in the 4th. Peyton Manning found Marvin Harrison in the end-zone for the third time in the game with 3:52 left to tie. Leftwich then marched the Jags down the field, setting up rookie Josh Scobee’s 53 yard game-winner with under 45 seconds on the clock.

Upset of the Day: Dolphins 31- Rams 14
If Mike Martz is a genius, then that must mean Dave Wannstedt is up in Brian Billick’s IQ bracket.

Line of the Day: Neil Rackers - Cardinals K, 2 XP, 3 FG (54, 50, 55)
The Cardinals are 2-1 at home. The Packers are 1-3. If this bizarro-world NFL keeps rearing its quizzical head throughout the year, we might see Jim Hasslet win Coach of the Year, Jonathan Quinn pull a late ‘90s Kurt Warner, William Green not get arrested, Terrell Owens toss the ball to the ref after a touchdown, Marvin Lewis make a good decision and Tom Brady actually get hit without a roughing the passer penalty being called on the defense.

Ryan Leaf Line of the Day: Matt Hasselbeck - 14/41, 1 TD, 4 INT
My, how the wheels have fallen off in Seattle. They were a defensive stop or two away from 4-0 and now they sit at 3-3 following a pathetic loss to the Cardinals. Mike Holmgren is looking to bring an inspirational speaker in to talk to his players, hoping that they’ll avoid a monumental collapse. Word is he’s choosing between Alex Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield, and Ron Zook.

Best Fantasy Day (Faulk/Holmes Division): Priest Holmes - 22 car, 139 yds, 4 TD, 3 rec, 41 yds – 41 fantasy points
The award’s namesake stole the show in the first-half of the Chiefs-Falcons game, running for an NFL-record tying four touchdowns. Had he not gotten injured near the goaline in the third-quarter, Holmes might have made a run at Ernie Nevers record of six TDs in one game.

Worst Fantasy Day (George/Burress Division): Michael Vick – 7/21, 119 yd, 2 INT, 62 rsh yds
If he’s not careful, Michael Vick might knock Plaxico Burress off the marquee for this award. This season Vick has continually shown that he is not only the most overrated player in the NFL, but quite possibly the most overrated player in sports history. Vick has skills, don’t get me wrong. But he has yet to harness them and until he does, he’ll just be a guy with a cannon for an arm who is dangerous on the ground. The Falcons are 5-2 and headed towards 8-8 if Vick keeps this up.

Best Fantasy Day (Patten/Boldin Division): Derrick Blaylock – 19 car, 90 yds, 4 TD, 3 rec, 46 yds, 37 fantasy points
Blaylock took advantage of Priest’s injury and the fact that Larry Johnson is a former Penn State running back, to run for four touchdowns of his own against the league’s “best” run defense.
Yeah, if the Falcons run defense is the best in the league than Georgi Purvanov is as good a president as Zhelyu Zhelev.
Alright, I’m changing the channel now, I promise.

Predictions

Finished 9-4 on the day, which was especially good considering that I didn’t follow my six cardinal rules of NFL prognostication:
1) Always stick with your Team Du Anee - This one was tough to follow this week because that team, the Jags, was playing on the road against the team I predicted would win the Super Bowl.
2) Mike Holmgren coaching a team without Brett Favre is like Scottie Pippen playing on a team without Michael Jordan
3) The Seahawks are terrible on the road
4) Never bet on a team that starts Matt Hasslebeck at quarterback
5) Starbucks is based in Seattle. Surely they can’t be the only evil organization based in the town
6) The Cardinals always play teams tough at home - Those last five rules all went hand-in-hand this week. How could I have missed the signs?

The Chaz Rankings: Top Two

1) Philadelphia Eagles - The offense is firing on all cylinders, but Jim Johnson can’t be happy with the way his defense has looked in the last two games.
2) New England Patriots - Would have been interesting to see what would have happened if the refs hadn’t missed a pass interference call on the Pats and not handed them 15 yards on a roughing the passer call in the third quarter.

Monday Night Prediction

Monday Night Football live from Cincinnati? This is the worst idea the NFL has had since they made teams play in those throwback uniforms and the Lions’ had to wear flesh colored pants that left little to the imagination. I don’t know what will be worse, a shot of a ¾ full Paul Brown Stadium at night from the Goodyear Blimp or hearing John Madden breakdown the Kitna-Palmer quarterback controversy.
That was written on April 15 in CSB’s NFL Schedule Thoughts. In the same entry, I also mocked the November 14 match-up between the Lions and Jaguars. Well, one outta two ain’t bad.
Pick: Broncos 30 – Bengals 13

The Chaz Rankings/Week 7 Picks: Abridged

Game time is less than 45 minutes away, so some quick-hit picks for week 7. Updated Chaz Rankings in parenthesis.

St. Louis Rams (9) at Miami Dolphins (32)
Pick: St. Louis

Tennessee Titans (15) at Minnesota Vikings (5)
Pick: Minnesota

Detroit Lions (12) at New York Giants (7)
Pick: New York

Chicago Bears (31) at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (25)
Pick: Tampa Bay

San Diego Chargers (18) at Carolina Panthers (24)
Pick: San Diego

Buffalo Bills (28) at Baltimore Ravens (19)
Pick: Baltimore

Philadelphia Eagles (1) at Cleveland Browns (17)
Pick: Philadelphia

Jacksonville Jaguars (10) at Indianapolis Colts (3)
Pick: Indianapolis

Atlanta Falcons (13) at Kansas City Chiefs (23)
Pick: Kansas City

New York Jets (6) at New England Patriots (2)
Pick: New England

Seattle Seahawks (11) at Arizona Cardinals (27)
Pick: Seattle

Dallas Cowboys (16) at Green Bay Packers (20)
Pick: Green Bay

New Orleans Saints (26) at Oakland Raiders (21)
Pick: New Orleans

Teams not playing Sunday:
Bye Week: Pittsburgh Steelers (4), Houston Texans (14), Washington Redskins (22), San Francisco 49ers (30)
Monday Nights: Denver Broncos (8), Cincinnati Bengals (29)

Last Week: 8-6
Season to Date: 52-35

The Chaz Rankings
Philadelphia Eagles (1)
New England Patriots (2)
Indianapolis Colts (3)
Pittsburgh Steelers (4)
Minnesota Vikings (5)
New York Jets (6)
New York Giants (7)
Denver Broncos (8)
Jacksonville Jaguars (10)
Seattle Seahawks (11)
Detroit Lions (12)
Atlanta Falcons (13)
Houston Texans (14)
Tennessee Titans (15)
Dallas Cowboys (16)
Cleveland Browns (17)
San Diego Chargers (18)
Baltimore Ravens (19)
Green Bay Packers (20)
Oakland Raiders (21)
Washington Redskins (22)
Kansas City Chiefs (23)
Carolina Panthers (24)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (25)
New Orleans Saints (26)
Arizona Cardinals (27)
Buffalo Bills (28)
Cincinnati Bengals (29)
San Francisco 49ers (30)
Chicago Bears (31)
Miami Dolphins (32)

It was a lot easier to write the blog when :
a) The Red Sox weren't in the playoffs
b) I wasn't getting up at 7:45 and working until 4:00 a couple times a week.
But, don't fret; the Chaz Rankings/Week 7 picks will be up sometime later this evening or sometime early tomorrow morning. And by early, I mean not at all early.

Sox in the Series

On the final play of the ALCS, the one that put the Boston Red Sox in their first World Series since 1986, Alan Embree retired Ruben Sierra on a groundball that was fielded by Pokey Reese and put out by Doug Mientkiewicz.
It’s quite fitting that three role players closed out the greatest Red Sox victory in the team’s history.
All season long the Sox have relied on those types of players to make big plays and, as a result, have cultivated a true team atmosphere where a guy like Gabe Kapler is as important in the clubhouse as Manny Ramirez.
There are no prima donnas on the Boston Red Sox, no guys who think they are above the team.
That attitude has been particularly important this season, when Curt Schilling supplanted Pedro Martinez as the team’s ace, Nomar Garciaparra was brooding the dugout and subsequently traded, Derek Lowe and Tim Wakefield had to accept a demotion to the bullpen in the playoffs and players acquired in trades were used in different roles than they were used to.
Doug Mientkiewicz and Dave Roberts came to Boston in a mid-season trade, uprooted from starting roles on playoff contenders and relegated to late-inning replacement status in The Hub.
They never complained once, accepting their role and thriving in it.
Roberts steal of second might be the most underrated play of the ALCS. Everybody in Fenway Park knew Roberts was going to steal and even with a quick pitch by Mariano Rivera and great throw by Jorge Posada, Roberts still beat the tag and scored soon after on a hit by Bill Mueller.
Mientkiewicz’s role wasn’t as prominent, he usually comes in the game in the 7th or 8th inning to replace Kevin Millar at first base, but Mientky showed his defensive ability last night on a fantastic pick-up of a ball thrown by Bill Mueller.
The “whole team effort” was further demonstrated in games 6 and 7 when Mark Bellhorn and Johnny Damon, both of whom had been having a miserable ALCS, hit game-changing homers in the early innings.
In the first five games of the series, Bellhorn had been striking out like, well, Mark Bellhorn, and wasn’t even close on most of the pitches. Terry Francona moved him out of the two-spot in game five and dropped him down to last in the order.
Bellhorn’s teammates didn’t give up on him and repeatedly told him that he would break out of the slump. He did so in grand fashion on Tuesday, hitting a three-run homerun that put the Red Sox up for good.
While Bellhorn’s slump wasn’t too surprising, Johnny Damon’s was. Damon had been on fire in the second-half of the season and was the catalyst for the Red Sox run into the playoffs.
After looking sharp in the Anaheim series, Damon looked confused at the plate and looked less confident with every passing at-bat. Even when he would reach base, Johnny looked timid taking a lead, almost like he was afraid to make a play.
Once again, the Red Sox rallied around Damon. He was kept in his leadoff spot and responded with a hit in his first at-bat in game 7 and then had a grand-slam and a two-run homer in his next two.
On other teams, Damon might have been dropped to seventh or eighth in the order. Not on the Red Sox. This team doesn’t quit on anybody.
Understand, the Sox were dead on Saturday night. They had just gotten destroyed on their own field in a must-win game. All the “experts” were discussing why the Red Sox weren’t built for October and how the Yankees had their number. The series, in the eyes of most, was over. Red Sox fans, not normally the most optimistic bunch anyway, were looking at game 5 as more of a posterity game than anything. “Just don’t get swept” had replaced “Keep the faith” around the Fens.
The sinking feeling got deeper as the Red Sox went into the 9th inning three outs away from elimination. That Mariano Rivera was on the mound didn’t help matters much.
But after a Kevin Millar walk and Dave Roberts steal, the Sox tied the game and won it on a homerun by Senor Octobre.
Suddenly, the Sox had life.
On Monday morning the impossible suddenly seemed possible. Pedro was going in game 5 and Schilling was going in game 6. Assuming he was healthy, things didn’t look that bad.
All the talk of it being impossible to win four-straight against the Yankees was absurd. The Yanks had just won three straight against the Red Sox, why couldn’t Boston do the same.
The Red Sox players knew this. Kevin Millar repeatedly said on Sunday afternoon, “don’t give us game 4”. What he meant, of course, was that if the Sox won game 4, they knew they could win out.
They won game 4 and they won out.
It took a huge effort from the much-maligned Boston bullpen in both games 5 and 6 to do so. Without their sterling bullpen performances, the Yanks might have been headed to the World Series with five days rest.
On Monday night, Keith Foulke came in to get Matsui out with two men on-base in the eighth inning of Game 5 with the Red Sox down 4-2. That’s another underrated play of the series. If Foulke gives up a hit, the series would have been over. Instead, he got the out and allowed Big Papi to go yard in the bottom of the 9th, followed by a sac-fly from Jason Varitek to tie the game.
As the game stretched on into its fourth and fifth hours, Bronson Arroyo, Mike Meyers, Alan Embree and Tim Wakefield held the Yankees scoreless, while on offense, the Sox were squandering scoring opportunities.
Every inning it seemed that the Sox had blown their chance and their season was going to end in disappointment. But the bullpen held it together long enough for David Ortiz to get his second straight walk-off hit and send the series back to New York.
Once the series went back to the Bronx, anything was possible. The Red Sox didn’t have to win four-straight at that point, all they had to do was win two-straight.
I kept comparing the series to flipping a coin. If a coin comes up heads three times in-a-row, the chance of it coming up heads on the fourth flip is exactly the same. The odds don’t change because of the previous flips.
With every Red Sox win, all they needed to do was win the next game. What had happened yesterday didn’t matter. They had a 50% chance to win every game, and all they needed to do was win the game they were playing. The Sox could worry about tomorrow tomorrow.
Momentum in baseball is overrated anyway. If momentum really mattered, then the Yanks don’t lose game 4.
After Curt Schilling’s masterful performance in game 6 and A. Rod’s embarrassing coming-out party, Keith Foulke once again eked out a save for the Sox.
“Gotta keep it interesting” was Foulke’s remark after striking out Tony Clark in the bottom of the 9th of game 6. Clark had represented the winning-run and it seemed, for a moment, that his name might go alongside Bucky Dent and Aaron Boone in Red Sox ignominy.
Foulke didn’t let that happen and the series was extended to a deciding seventh game.
Red Sox Nation held its collective breath when Terry Francona named Derek Lowe the starter for that game, which Peter Gammons declared as the biggest in baseball history.
Sitting at a bar yesterday drinking some beers before the game, my buddy Ben asked what I wanted to see from D. Lowe in game 7. I replied “three or four innings, couple double-play balls, maybe a run or two.” He nodded cautiously.
Nobody knew what to expect from Lowe last night. But whatever everybody was expecting, they certainly didn’t expect what they saw.
D. Lowe had some of the best stuff of his career. The sinker was sinking, the change-up was fooling everybody and the only mistake he made was throwing anywhere near Miguel “Take Your Base” Cairo.
It was an amazing performance from a guy two weeks removed from being shipped out to the bullpen and, effectively, shipped out of Boston at the end of the season.
D. Lowe had every reason to be upset. A lot of guys can thrive on that, but Lowe, a documented head case, didn’t seem to be that kind of pitcher. Anytime a player made an error in the infield, Lowe would lose his composure and get shelled. Surely, the bullpen demotion was going to have a negative effect.
Instead, Lowe looked amazing and earned a spot in the World Series rotation, and probably, millions on the free agent market. But forget about that for a minute.
I wasn’t upset when Tito took Lowe out, despite the fact that he still looked strong after the 6th. After all, Lowe had thrown 89 pitches on Sunday.
Either way though, bringing in Pedro was stupid.
That’s the only word for it. Stupid.
I don’t care if it was his day to throw in the bullpen. If that was the case, he could have thrown in the bullpen. And if Francona was so worried about winning at that point, he should have kept Lowe in.
The Pedro move only could have backfired, and it did. Even if he had had a 1-2-3 inning, it still would have been the wrong move. The sight of Pedro fired up the Yankee crowd, and gave the Yankees hope when they should have had no such thing.
It ended up not being disastrous and has been forgotten about in the victory celebration, but Francona’s face after Bernie Williams nearly hit a homerun said it all. It was one of those “I wish I had a rewind button right about now” expressions. Tito made a stupid move.
But even a stupid move wasn’t enough to stop the Sox.
Mike Timlin and Alan Embree got the last six outs and the Red Sox celebrated their first pennant since the Reagan administration.
The Red Sox comeback was a team effort. The whole "team effort" thing is one of the biggest clichés in sports, but not when discussing the Red Sox. David Ortiz was the deserving MVP of the series, but nearly every player on the Boston roster made a contribution to the win.
In the World Series, expect more of the same. Manny and D.O. might be the stars, but plays (that seem little at the time) by pinch-runners and late-inning defensive replacements will also play a huge role.
The BoSox will now await the winner of game 7 of the NLCS. Whether the Cardinals or Astros win (either way, hope for a 16-inning, bullpen emptying marathon), the Sox will be favored in the World Series and a loss there would be just as devastating as their win against the Yankees was exhilarating.
For the moment though, the Boston players and their fans should kick back, crack open a beverage of choice and smile.
The team just capped the greatest comeback in the history of team sports, beat their arch-rival on their own field and ended all talk of a bogus curse.
Enjoy the moment. The World Series is still two days away.

Red Sox - Yankees Thoughts

Some quick thoughts on last night's Game 6 before I chow down some lunch and head to teach 3rd graders some math that I probably won't understand.

- No matter what happens tonight, Curt Schilling's performance last night tops Willis Reed's symbolic Game 7 appearance in the 1970 NBA Finals and takes it place atop the list of greatest injured performances in sports history alongside Michael Jordan's flu game and Emmitt Smith's 174 yard day against the Giants with a broken collarbone and Jack Youngblood in the 1979 NFC Championship game playing with a broken leg.

- Was anybody else reminded of Die Hard With a Vengeance when all those riot cops spilled out onto the field after the umpires correctly called A. Rod a cheater? There had to have been a rash of bank robberies in the greater Bronx area around 11:00 p.m. last night as it seemed that all the police in the borough were on the field at Yankee Stadium. And what were those riot cops doing during the first eight innings? Were they just sitting somewhere in the bowels of the stadium, chillin' in their riot gear eating off the buffet table and switching between the Yanks game and the OTB channel? And what do those guys do in the other 86 games at Yankee Stadium when they're not needed to protect the field? Is there where the tax money of New Yorkers is going? Couldn't they use this to rid the subway of the smell of urine?

- Say what you will about Yankee fans, but they sure are a classy bunch.

- If his girly, nine year old girl-esque slapping of the ball didn't prove that A. Rod is a pompous pansy, I don't know what will. Except maybe a video of him, Jeter and Posada's post-game rituals.

- I don't want to hear anything tonight about how no team has ever come back from an 0-3 deficit to win a playoff series in baseball history. No team had ever come back from 0-3 to force a Game 7, yet that's exactly what the Red Sox have done, so wouldn't it stand to reason that if one historical precedence can be overturned, can't another?

- There will be no Game 7 prediction made on this site. You know what I predicted at the beginning of the season (Houston over Boston in the World Series) and you know what I predicted before the playoffs (Boston over Houston in the World Series). Anything can happen tonight, with starting pitchers going on little rest, depleted bullpens and enormous pressure on both sides.
It promises to be a classic tonight in the Bronx. I don't know if my weak heart can take another night of this. Enjoy the game and most importantly, Go Sox.

The Greatest Game

Last night's 14-inning classic at Fenway Park was yet another reminder that baseball is the greatest sport ever invented.
In the past 30 years, the NFL has overtaken Major League Baseball as the national pastime, leading many to believe that football is the superior game.
While the NFL might be exciting and more television-friendly, baseball, with its pitch-by-pitch drama, strategy and unpredictability is the better sport.
If last night's Red Sox-Yankees game were a Patriots-Jets game, it would have ended on a field goal by Adam Vinatieri sometime in the middle of the first overtime.
All the pitch-by-pitch tension of the extra-inning affair, all the second guessing (from David Ortiz's steal attempt to Mark Bellhorn's bunt to Bernie Williams' decision not to throw home on the last play), all the strategy of when to pinch-run, when to get a reliever up in the bullpen and when to steal, hit-and-run, bring the infield in, push the outfield deep and throw a change-up would never have happened. Instead, there might have been a 4th-and-1 call that might be second-guessed today.
I started to write more reasons why baseball is better than football, but nearly all of my points had already been covered 17 years ago by Thomas Boswell is his seminal
Washington Post column "99 Reasons Why Baseball is Better Than Football".
I've included the best of the 99 below and adapted some to 2004.

• All 38 Super Bowls haven't produced as much drama as the last two games of the ALCS.
• Before a baseball game there's two hours of batting practice. Before a football game there's two hours of traffic jams.
• Alyssa Milano loved Carl Pavano. No woman of quality has ever preferred football to baseball.
• More good baseball books appear in a single year than have been written about football in the past 50 years.
• Baseball statistics open a world to us. Football statistics are virtually useless or, worse, misleading. For instance, the NFL quarterback rating systems is a joke.
• The entire NFL playoff system is a fraud. Go on, explain with a straight face why the Denver Broncos (10-6) made the playoffs last year while the Miami Dolphins (10-6) watched them on TV. There is no real reason. Miami was left out for convenience.
• Instant replays... nothing is real, everything is hypothetical.
• Football is impossible to watch. Admit it: the human head is at least two eyes shy for watching for forward pass. Do you watch the five eligible receivers ? Or the quarterback and the pass rush ? If you keep your eye on the ball, you never know who got open or how. If you watch the receivers ... well, nobody watches the receivers. On TV you don't even know how many receivers have gone out for a pass.
• The NFL keeps interchanging the most basic rules. Most blocking now would have been illegal use of hands in Jim Parker's time. How do we compare eras when the sport never stays the same ? Pretty soon, intentional grounding will be legalized to protect quarterbacks (Note: Boz was right.)
• The baseball Hall of Fame is in Cooperstown, New York, beside James Fenimore Cooper's Lake Glimmerglass, the football Hall of Fame is in Canton, Ohio, beside the freeway.
• Without baseball, there'd have been no Fenway Park. Without football, there'd have been no artificial turf and Michael Irvin.
• In baseball, fans catch foul balls. In football, they raise a net so you can't even catch an extra point.
• Football coaches walk across the field after the game and pretend to congratulate the opposing coach. Baseball managers head right for the beer.
• Football has two weeks of hype before the Super Bowl. Baseball takes about two days off before the World Series.
• Football, because of its self-importance, minimizes a sense of humor. Baseball cultivates one. Knowing you'll lose at least sixty games every season makes self-depreciation a survival tool. As Casey Stengel said to his barber, "don't cut my throat. I may want to do that myself later."
• Turning the car radio dial on a summer night.

I suppose the main reason that football is more popular is because it is a made-for-television sport; from the 60-minute game-clock to the two-minute warning to Sunday afternoon games. Baseball is a more leisurely game, with no clock, no TV timeouts and a 162-game schedule that spans from spring into fall.
Following baseball takes commitment, following football takes three hours every weekend.
Don't get me wrong, I love the NFL. But the hype for football's playoffs and the Super Bowl almost always are bigger than the game. Sure, last year's Super Bowl was exciting. But, unless you're a Patriots fan, can you remember anything about the game except that the Pats won on a field goal as time expired?
Now, try the same thing with both of last year's LCS. Ask anybody on the street and they'll be able to tell you about Steve Bartman, Grady Little, Pedro Martinez and Aaron Bleepin' Boone. Baseball creates drama, football manufactures it.
I'll enjoy the next two weeks of baseball, regardless of whether the Red Sox can come back and top the Yankees. And I'll enjoy the rest of the football season as well, regardless of whether the Redskins can come back and sneak above .500.
But on that cold night in February when Peyton Manning and the Colts win the Super Bowl in Jacksonville, I won't be sad that football season is over. After all, pitchers and catchers will be reporting to spring training in a few short days.

Monday Morning Cornerback

Forget about the NFL for a minute. (And believe me, with the Redskins finally getting their long-awaited second victory, it’s difficult to.)
The only question in the sports world today is: Can the Boston Red Sox come back from an 0-3 deficit to defeat the New York Yankees?
The odds are certainly stacked against the Sox, as you surely heard repeatedly last night on FOX. As Tim McCarver mentioned umpteenth times, no team in the history of baseball has been down 3-0 in a postseason series and ever come back to win.
That’s a nice little statistic, but isn’t very telling.
As the stat says, in World Series and LCS play, 25 teams have been up 3-0 in postseason series.
But of those 25, only five were able to salvage a win in Game 4 and only two (the 1998 Braves and 1999 Mets) managed to extend the series to a sixth game.
This afternoon, while the FOX broadcast team will undoubtedly mention the 25 team stat, they should also mention that teams winning game four were only 0-5, which is not much of a sample at all.
Sure it’s going to be tough for the Sox. But can they win?
Today, we’ll look at each of the five teams that won game four after being down 3-0 and try to figure that out.
The main question will be: Were any of those teams as good as the 2004 Boston Red Sox?
The first time a team won game four after being down 3-0 was in 1910, when the Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia A’s. The A’s had jumped to the big lead by tagging Hall of Fame pitcher Three Finger Brown in his first two starts of the 1910 Fall Classic.
Since I wasn’t around in 1910, I can’t say whether those Cubs were better than those Red Sox, but of the eight N.L. teams, the Cubs ranked highly in most of the major categories.
Since it was the deadball era and none of us saw those games and gambling was rampant in the early years of baseball, let’s eliminate the Cubs. Not very scientific, I know. But bear with me.
The next team to take the first three games and lose the next was the New York Yankees in 1937. That team had some guys you might know, including Lou Gherig, Tony Lazzeri, Red Ruffing, Lefty Gomez and that year’s homerun champion, a young outfielder named Joe DiMaggio.
The Yanks took the first three against the N.L. Champs, the New York Giants, outscoring their cross-town rivals 21-3.
On the strength of Hall of Famer Carl Hubbell, the Giants took game four easily, but lost the series the next day, due in part to a homerun by the Yankee Clipper.
The ’37 Yankees are considered one of the best teams in history. While the Giants were good in their own right, there probably wasn’t too many people that thought they could beat the Yankees. After all, the team from the Bronx had seven future Hall of Famers on its roster. The Giants had only two.
Compared to the present-day Yankees, the Red Sox are much closer to them than the ’37 Giants were to their Yankee counterparts.
Thirty-three years passed before the next team faced an 0-3 deficit in World Series play. This time, the pre-Big Red Machine Reds were the victim against the dominant 1970 Baltimore Orioles, a team that featured three 20-game winners.
The Reds won 102 games (against 108 for the O’s) due to their potent lineup (that included Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, Lee May and Pete Rose), not because of great pitching. As we all know, in the playoffs, great pitching beats great hitting, and that’s how the Orioles took the series in 5.
Mussina, Lieber and Brown are no Cueller, McNally and Palmer. And Martinez, Schilling and Arroyo are certainly better than Nolan, Cloninger and Merritt. Even with Schilling pitching on one ankle.
(By the way, if things get rough tonight for Pedro and the Sox, Tito Francona should send Curt Schilling to the bullpen to throw a few warm-up pitches. Even if they don’t plan on bringing him in, the sight of Schilling in the ‘pen would stir up Sox fans into a “Willis Reed at the Garden” frenzy. This would be amazing.)
The next two times a team went down 3-0 and won game four, only to lose later in the series was in back-to-back National League Championship Series in 1998 and 1999.
The perennially underachieving Atlanta Braves went down 3-0 to the surprising San Diego Padres in 1998, but stormed back to win games four and five (the first time that a team facing a 3-0 deficit had extended the series to a sixth game).
None of the Braves teams were as good as this year’s Red Sox, so forget about them.
Plus they can’t sell out a playoff game in Atlanta. What a sorry excuse for a city. They should have all their sports teams taken away because of that.
Next year, the Braves took the 3-0 lead, this time on the New York Mets. Just like the Braves in the previous year, the Mets took the fourth and fifth games, but succumbed in the sixth.
(You might remember game 5 of that series, the classic 15 inning marathon where Robin Ventura hit his infamous walk-off grand slam single.)
The Braves and the Mets were probably the most evenly-matched squads that ever were in one of the 3-0 situations. And indeed, the Mets had a chance to extend the series to a seventh game, when they took the lead headed into the bottom of the 10th. But, as he is wont to do, Armando Benitez blew a save opportunity and the Braves ended up winning in 11.
The 1999 New York Mets were two outs away from taking the series to seven, proving that it can be done, statistics be damned.
The 25 series were a team has been down 3-0 will be brought up a lot in the next few hours and days, particularly if the Red Sox can take the series back to New York.
In exactly 80% of those games, teams have been swept, partially because they weren’t as good as their opponents and partially because down 3-0, they simply rolled over in the fourth game.
In the other 20%, most of the teams weren’t evenly matched and faced a huge disadvantage in a certain aspect of the game, either offensively or due to pitching.
And in 100% of the 25 series, the team down 3-0 wasn’t the 2004 Boston Red Sox, a team with more heart and determination than any baseball team in recent memory.
The Sox were two feet away from taking a lead in game 1 after being down 8-0 and not getting a runner to first in six innings.
Facing their last three outs of the season, Boston once again got to the greatest closer of all-time, Mariano Rivera, to push the game to extra innings.
And then, once there, their relievers got one of the best postseason hitters in history to pop out with the bases loaded and then won the game on a line-drive blast by one of their best hitters.
It can be done.
Sixteen hours after celebrating on the field, the Red Sox will have to go back out and play flawless baseball if they want to hop on a plane and head to the Bronx for game 6.
Today, Boston has one of the best pitchers in history on the mound. If Pedro gets the win, will you really bet against the Sox, even if Schilling can’t pitch in the series?
I won’t. Nobody should be surprised if the Red Sox come back from 0-3. I’m not saying it will happen, but looking at the facts, it very well could.
Since April, everybody has assumed the 2004 Boston Red Sox would make history. After last night’s win, maybe they’ll prove everybody right.

Sunday Thoughts

- It’s amazing what a little attitude can do to one’s NFL career.
Corey Dillon was a great player in Cincinnati. He was a workhorse in a miserable offense and, even though teams would often stuff eight men in the box to stop him, he still averaged over 4.3 yards per carry.
Then, word gets out that Dillon was unhappy in Cincinnati (and really, who isn’t?) and he becomes a sort of NFL pariah. That, coupled with the fact that Rudi Johnson performed well in the Bengal backfield, lowered Dillon’s stock so much that he was dealt to the Patriots for a second-round draft pick.
In essence, the Bengals traded their all-time leading rusher for Madieu Williams.
Corey Dillon went from marquee free-agent to trade-bait afterthought in a little less than six months, all because he didn’t want to play in Cincinnati.
Bill Belichick and Scott Pioli interviewed Dillon and assessed that he wasn’t the troublemaker the Bengals claimed him to be, and decided to take him in.
Now, with Rudi Johnson and the Bengals struggling mightily under Marvin Lewis, the Patriots must be kicking up their heels and laughing at their good fortune to have dealt with the dumbest franchise in professional sports.
The Dillon trade is just a reminder why the Patriots are 5-0 and defending Super Bowl champions and the Bengals haven’t had a winning season since 1990.

More Monday Morning Cornerback coming later today.

Week 6 NFL Picks

Washington at Chicago
On Sunday night I figured this game would be the first in NFL history to have a single-digit over/under. So imagine my surprise when I saw that the odds makers hadn’t even given this game the lowest point total of the week (33, three more than the Buffalo-Miami game). Thirty-three? Are they going to be playing by CFL rules?
Pick: Washington

Miami at Buffalo
I once had a professor in college who took four days off because his parakeet died.
Well, you try to come up with something clever to say about the Miami-Buffalo game. I’ve exhausted all my “Ricky Williams loves weed” jokes and there’s only so much one can say about how old Drew Bledsoe looks.
Pick: Buffalo

Houston at Tennessee
Q: What’s the difference between Ricky Williams and the Dolphins?
A: The Dolphins don’t inhale… they just suck.
OK, so I lied.
Pick: Tennessee

San Diego at Atlanta
When the Chargers traded the #1 pick of the 2000 draft to the Falcons, they were roundly criticized for passing up on the chance to select Michael Vick. Instead, San Diego moved down a few spots and acquired both LaDainian Tomlinson and Drew Brees.
Currently, Drew Brees has a 100.0 passer rating with 8 TD, 2 INT and 1 rushing TD, while Vick has a 77.7 rating with 2 TD, 3 INT and 0 rushing touchdowns. Oh, and Tomlinson is considered the best running back in the NFL. And the Chargers coach is not Jim Mora Jr. And if the Padres were in the NLDS they would be able to sell-out their games.
Pick: San Diego

Carolina at Philadelphia
In order to have a chance in this game, Panthers officials will go to the Eagles locker room at Lincoln Financial Field and change all the calendars to January.
Pick: Philadelphia

San Francisco at New York Jets
With cornerback Mike Rumph out for the season, 49ers defensive coordinator Willy Robinson briefly considered replacing the oft-beat Rumph with a cardboard cutout of Night Train Lane, figuring “it couldn’t do much worse”.
Pick: New York Jets

Seattle at New England
How can Sports Illustrated put the Patriots on the cover when they aren’t even the biggest story in their own hometown? Among the things more important this week in The Hub than the Pats winning streak: Curt Schilling’s ankle tendon, “Brandon” Arroyo, a rainy Friday forecast, Curt Schilling’s mechanics, Derek Lowe, Curt Schilling’s actual mechanic, Pedro’s paternal family tree, Nelson de la Rosa, Curt Schilling’s bicuspid molar, Johnny Damon’s hitless ALCS, Kevin Brown’s non-pitching hand, Dan Shaughnessy’s pessimism, Peter Gammons’ optimism, Curt Schilling’s postings on Sons of Sam Horn, the Red Sox inability to get runners on-base before 10 p.m., El Duque’s tired arm and Curt Schilling’s thoughts on the third presidential debate.
Hopefully the Sox will force a Game 5 and hopefully they’ll win, because if they get eliminated on Sunday night, eight hours after the Patriots lose their first game in a year, then things could get ugly in Boston. That’s right people, the winning streak ends Sunday.
Pick: Seattle

Kansas City at Jacksonville
One, is Chris’s Sports Blog Team du Anee. The other is Chris’s Sports Blog Team du They’re Really Not As Bad As Their 1-3 Record Would Seemingly Indicate. Oh - choices, choices.
Pick: Kansas City

Green Bay at Detroit
ESPN.com is picking Wake Forest to win the NCAA basketball championship this year. Luckily for Wake and all their fans, I think Sports Illustrated is still sticking with the Cubs.
Pick: Green Bay

Denver at Oakland
The Broncos are quietly 4-1, which makes sense considering the only team they’ve beat with a winning record has been the Chargers. The schedule doesn’t get any more difficult for Denver, as in the next 10 weeks they face only two teams with a winning record (San Diego (again) and Atlanta, who, as I have said, is the worst 4-1 team in history).
So let me get this straight… The Broncos offensive line is allowed to hold, chop block and play dirty without repercussions from the officials and they have the easiest schedule in football? Sounds about right.
Pick: Denver

Pittsburgh at Dallas
A little over two years ago, the Steelers were all set to sign reigning Super Bowl MVP Dexter Jackson to a mega-deal that would have made him one of the highest paid free safeties in the NFL. Jackson had all but accepted a $12.5 million contract with the Steelers, until the Cardinals swooped in at the last minute and signed the Buccaneer free agent to a deal worth nearly $3 million more. The Steelers were upset at the time, but should be counting their blessings today.
Earlier this week, the Cardinals cut Dexter Jackson, who was never all that good and has been battling injuries, and will owe him around $1.3 million this season and take a cap hit next year as well. The Steelers are probably quite happy that they never signed Jackson and maybe, finally, this incident will show teams that just because a player has a great game in the Super Bowl doesn’t make them deserving of a big-time contract.
If Dexter Jackson had picked off two balls in a mid-season game versus the Panthers would he have gotten a huge contract? Of course not. So why would teams overpay him by $8 million because he did that in the Super Bowl?
And why does this still happen? Does everybody forget about Larry Brown and Desmond Howard?
Pick: Dallas

Cincinnati at Cleveland
If the AFC North were a Beatle, they’d be Pete Best.
Pick: Cincinnati

Minnesota at New Orleans
In order to boost ratings for this dismal Sunday night match-up, ESPN/ABC/Disney is requesting that the beleaguered Vikings defensive line be replaced with the cast of Desperate Housewives.
Pick: Minnesota

Last Week: 9-5
Season to Date: 44-29

The Chaz Rankings - Week Five

Ever since I made the preposterous claim that The Chaz Rankings would be the first NFL power rankings posted on the internet every week, I have published them later and later. Next week, look for the Week 6 Chaz Rankings to be put up around halftime of the Week 7 Sunday night game.
This week the rankings are up late because I was too upset last night with the Red Sox inability to hit breaking balls and all these queries about Pedro's paternal descent to write. And today I just got back from physical therapy, where I had the following thought nine times in my 45-minute session:
Physical Therapist: (Putting intense pressure on painful area of foot for 14th time in past 20 minutes) Does this hurt?
Me: (Punching Physical Therapist in face) Does this?
But I digress. Without further adieu, The Chaz Rankings:

1) Philadelphia Eagles (4-0, Last Week #1)
2) Indianapolis Colts (4-1, #3)
3) New England Patriots (4-0, #2)
4) New York Jets (4-0, #5)
I was more impressed with the Colts thrashing of the Raiders last weekend than I was with the Patriots way-too-close victory over the Dolphins. Had it not been for two ridiculous penalties against Miami (roughing the passer on the first touchdown drive and a phantom unnecessary roughness on their second), the Dolphins would have been up at halftime. The “best team in history” shouldn’t have to get help from the officials to beat a team without a quarterback, running back or receiver at home.
Thusly, the Colts move ahead of the Patriots and might find themselves at the top of the rankings in a few weeks.
The Jets aren’t really the fourth best team in the NFL, but I can’t decide where to rank them, so #4 seemed like a good spot.
5) Pittsburgh Steelers (4-1, #11)
6) New York Giants (4-1, #10)
7) Seattle Seahawks (3-1, #4)
8) Minnesota Vikings (3-1, #8)
The Seahawks are a better team than both the Steelers and Giants, but you can’t lose a 17-point lead at home and expect to keep afloat in these rankings.
It’s funny, going into the season everybody was worried about the Seahawks performance on the road. Nobody thought they’d collapse at home.
This was one of those game I warned you about when I predicted the Seahawks to go 9-7 and miss the playoffs. Of course, I picked Tampa Bay to win the NFC South, so I wouldn’t read too much into anything I say. I thought they were due! Did I just use an exclamation point? I apologize. As punishment I’ll force myself to browse through Len Pasquarelli’s column archives.
9) Denver Broncos (4-1, #9)
10) Tennessee Titans (2-3, #13)
11) Jacksonville Jaguars (3-2, #7)
12) Atlanta Falcons (4-1, #6)
Were the Falcons the worst 4-0 team of all-time? And now, after their pathetic home loss to a team that handed the ball off to Artose Pinner 23 times, are they the worst 4-1 team in history?
The west coast offense, or whatever Jim Mora Jr. is calling it these days is the worst conceivable system for Michael Vick. It’s like Dave Wannstedt continuing to implement a power offense in Miami, despite the fact that Leonard Henry is carrying the ball instead of Ricky Williams. You have to build your offense around players, not build players around your offense.
And, I know I’ve said this before… but, Jim Mora, Jr.? Really? In Mora’s five years as 49ers defensive coordinator his defenses ranked 28, 30, 12, 14 and 15 in the NFL. He managed to take them from awful to simply mediocre. That’s the kind of guy I want running my team. If he doesn’t do well, who is Arthur Blank going to hire next? Ray Handley III?
13) St. Louis Rams (3-2, #21)
14) Kansas City Chiefs (1-3, #14)
15) Detroit Lions (3-1, #18)
16) San Diego Chargers (3-2, #23)
The Rams and the Chiefs are two teams with old guys running explosive offenses while the Lions and Chargers are two teams with young guys trying to run explosive offenses.
I’ll still take the old guys… for this year at least.
Drew Brees better enjoy his next 11 games because he’s going to get Kitna-ized in the off-season. By the way, how’s that working out for you Marvin Lewis?
17) Dallas Cowboys (2-2, #11)
18) Houston Texans (2-3, #20)
19) Oakland Raiders (2-3, #19)
20) Baltimore Ravens (3-2, #15)
You know it’s gotten bad in Baltimore when the following statement doesn’t initiate unrestrained fits of laughter: Brian Billick really needs to think about promoting Kordell Stewart to starting quarterback.
One more thing about Baltimore: With Jason Sehorn out of the league, Mike Alstott and John Lynch showing their age and Donovan McNabb playing like an MVP candidate, Ray Lewis is quickly making a bid as the most overrated player in the NFL.
Ray-Ray has done nothing this season, except get credited for too many tackles and making the occasional big hit, which doesn’t seem to do much except get Stuart Scott and Michael Irvin all worked up on Monday Night Countdown.
On Sunday night the ESPN announcers were getting all excited over a hit Lewis made on Laveranues Coles, but failed to mention that the unnecessary pop cost Ray a chance at an easy interception.
Lewis is turning into a caricature of himself with his on-field antics also, as even his mic’d up segments are growing increasingly boring. Maybe he should lie about another murder to get his mojo back.
21) Carolina Panthers (1-3, #16)
22) Cleveland Browns (2-3, #24)
23) Green Bay Packers (1-4, #22)
24) New Orleans Saints (2-3, #17)
To think, the Packers were a 4th and 26 away from playing the Panthers in the NFC Championship Game only nine months ago. My, how times have changed… (cue Saved by the Bell dream sequence music.) Well, (stop music abruptly like they do when a fight is about to happen on Happy Days) neither team was all that good last year anyway.
With Kris Jenkins out for the year, Carolina’s front four becomes a big question mark. The Packers have lost their first three games at Lambeau for the first time since 1988 and with Ahman Green gaining only 33 yards against a good, but not great, Titans defense, (they allowed over 100 rushing yards to the Jaguars, Colts and Chargers earlier this year), there isn’t much reason for optimism in Green Bay.
And with the Phillies firing Larry Bowa earlier this month, Jim Haslett is now the owner of the “How Is He Still Employed?” award – professional sports edition. The overall “How Is He Still Employed?” title-holder is Juan, cashier at the Rockville, MD Taco Bell who routinely gives me a Mexican Pizza with tomatoes, even though I clearly ask for one sans the fruit often mistaken for a vegetable.
25) Washington Redskins (1-3, #25)
26) Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1-4, #26)
27) Cincinnati Bengals (1-3, #26)
28) San Francisco 49ers (1-4, #31)
Last week while writing my marketing strategy for Cliff’s Notes for Cliff’s Notes (which was soon erased by my hateful computer), I also managed to rip on Marvin Lewis for a few paragraphs. And I’m not talking about a normal rip-job, I’m talking about a Derek Jeter, Dick Vitale, Jay Williams rip-job. It was one for the books.
I don’t have the same vigor today, but I know I have it in me, so one day soon you’ll read my thoughts about why it’s ridiculous that Marvin Lewis is getting a free pass for regressing with the Bengals in his second season.
29) Arizona Cardinals (1-4, #27)
30) Buffalo Bills (0-4, #29)
31) Chicago Bears (1-3, #28)
32) Miami Dolphins (0-5, #32)
On Sunday, the Dolphins will start Sage Rosenfels at quarterback and Brock Forsey at running back against Buffalo, in a game that will come to be known as the “White Athlete Stereotype Affirmation Bowl”.

Subbing the Day Away

I'm substitute teaching today (in 1st grade) and haven't had time to update The Chaz Rankings, what with Frog and Toad, multiplication tables, stories about dad's stomach flu and a song about a disemboweled deer occupying my time.
Fear not, it will happen soon, perhaps even before Game 2 of the ALCS. Probably not though.
Quick Game 1 recap: Curt Schilling is clearly hurt, as his velocity was a good five to six miles off on his fastball. If that wasn't enough, Schill's pitches were way off-target, sometimes missing Jason Varitek's spot by a good 18 inches.
If Schill can't rebound from whatever is ailing him, the Sox will be in trouble.
Tonight, Petey Martinez takes the mound in a Game 2 role reversal. Last year the Yankees were in desperate need of a Game 2 win in the Bronx, while the Sox are in that spot this year.
Last month Pedro claimed the Yankees are "his daddy", a comment that Yankee fans won't let him forget tonight. Their chanting and taunting won't bother him, instead it should give him even more motivation to shut up 55,000 fans, which Schilling couldn't do last night.
As for the Yankees, George Steinbrenner has probably called 43 meetings with Brian Cashman today to ask him how Jon Leiber is possibly starting an ALCS game for the Yankees. The Bombers have a $240 million infield and they're throwing out Jon Leiber to start one of the biggest games of the season?
That's like listening to a Hall & Oates 8-Track on a $12,000 stereo system.
One more thing about last night: Mike Mussina shut the Sox down and Schilling got shelled in the early innings. But after the Sox got back in the game, home plate umpire Randy Marsh took over. The portly umpire refused to make equal calls, routinely giving the Yankees relivers inside and outside calls, while giving Tim Wakefield and company nothing.
Gary Sheffield struck out looking twice before he knocked his huge double and Red Sox players should have been up in counts late in the game instead of down 1-2.
The Sox lost this game early, but didn't get any help from Randy Marsh late.
Pedro Prediction: 6 1/3 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 7 K, 1 BB
Game Prediction: Red Sox 6 - Yankees 4