What we have to look forward to in 2006:

January 1st: The New Orleans Saints win the #1 Pick in the 2006 NFL Draft

January 2nd: USC 45, Texas 27 in the Rose Bowl... I saw Vince Young against Texas A&M which makes me think his 2006 will not start off well.

January 7th/8th: Wildcard round of the NFL Playoffs, Pats and Steelers advance in the AFC, Redskins and Panthers in the AFC.

January 14th/15th: Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs, Pats win at Denver with more trickery, Colts over Steelers... Seahawks and Panthers move on in the NFC.

January 22nd: NFL Conference Championships, Colts over the Patriots to break Brady's 11-0 postseason mark in a game for the ages and Seahawks over Panthers.

February 1st: Boston College breaks Duke 20-0 start 76-71 at Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.  Sean Williams blocks seven shots.

February 5th: Super Bowl XL, Colts 37, Seahwawks 30.  Colts are up 27-21 through three quarters before Matt Hasslebeck is intercepted on consectutive drives to start the fourth quarter.

Early March: Duke, Connecticut, Illinois and Florida enter the NCAA Tournament as #1 seeds.

March:  Japan wins the first World Baseball Classic.  After the end of the WBC, a  Red Sox ownership group nervous about Manny being Manny sweetens the pot to the Orioles and land Miguel Tejada for Manny Ramirez, Bronson Arroyo and Kelly Shoppach.

April: Boston College, Villanova, Duke and Illinois advance to the Final Four.  Duke is crowned National Champion.

Mid-April: The Saints draft Reggie Bush #1 overall and trade Deuce McAllister and picks to the Jets for the #2 overall pick and draft Matt Leinart.  Following the draft the Saints announce they are moving to LA and hiring Pete Carroll.

May: Johnny Damon is booed after the Yankees start the season 18-23 and Damon's .321 OB% is the lowest among American League lead-off hitters.

June: The NBA saves a lacklusters eason with a huge Finals, San Antonio over Miani 4 games to 3 as Shaquille O'Neal misses two free throws with 1.2 seconds left and the score 91-90 Spurs in Game #7. Pat Reilly promptly retires.  The NHL playoffs are cancelled due to lack of fan interest.

July: The Dodgers Nomar Garciaparra hits a walk-off grand slam to win the All-Star game 11-9, for the National League.

August: Every starting quarterback is simultaneously injured and goes on IR in Week #3 of the preseason.  Except Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, of course.

September:  In the first true non-steroid year, it appears that Orlando Hudson's 13 home runs will lead major league baseball. The Yankees finish a dismal 75-87 as Randy Johnson and Mike Mussina combine for a 19-27 record.  American League Division winners are Boston, Chicago and Oakland with Cleveland winning the Wild Card and the National League has the Mets, St. Louis and Los Angeles with Atlanta winning the Wild Card.

October: The Red Sox and White Sox advance to the ALCS and the Mets and Cardinals to the NLCS with the Red Sox and Cardinals repeating the 2004 series with similar results... Except after this 4-1 win, the celebrating is at Fenway and the ball is promptly accounted for.

November: Since the Big East has no out of conference wins for any of their member teams, their BCS status is stripped in season.

December:  A now healthy Patriots squad enters the last week of the season 15-0... Coach Bill Belichick's head expodes over constant questions on whether or not to rest regulars.

Greg

As the calendar turns on another year, we should all take the time to take stock of our lives.  I, personally, have taken hours from my work days this week to write a blog that no one may ever read.  Popular culture is littered with people who must, based on subpar performance, have trouble looking themselves in the mirror.  But we all know attaining goals wouldn't be so exhilirating if reaching them wasn't so hard.  Unlike the dunken, naked Finnish guy in Norway, the following distinguished did not attain their New Year's resolutions for 2005 and should, in a just world, be searching for new employment in 2006:

- Matt Millen, General Manager Detroit Lions:  Too easy;

- Mark Schlereth, NFL Analyst - ESPN: Speaking of naked pictures, who does he have naked pictures of at ESPN that allows him to keep his job?  His analyses are horrendous, his predictions worse than throwing darts and his antecdotes crude and not entertaining (his Mike & Mike analyses of how he peed on Stan Humphries hands is a crowd pleaser at any Christmas Party)... he's bad enough at football, but it gets downright offensive when he starts butchering other sports... throw pretty boy adulterer Steve Phillips on that pile as well;

- Brian Cashman, General Manager New York Yankees:  $200 million payroll, no World Series championships since 2000 (Gene Michael's team back then, anyway)... what exactly was the criteria for his extension?

- George W. Bush, President of the United States: When we went into Iraq, I (as a Desert Storm vet) supported the war and said "Why would he make a weapons of mass destruction scenario when it is easily can be proven false if he's wrong?  No, he has to have positive human intellignce or why would he risk his presidency?  No one can be that stupid."  Well I definitely underestimated the level of dubya's stupidity.  That is why in mid-2004, I became the first and coined the term "dubyacrat;"  He should have been unelected in 2004 and would do us all a favor if he could give us grounds for impeachment in 2006.  For a very Christian man, he doesn't believe in protecting his flock;

- All NBA General Managers:  It's one thing to make a bad move (i.e. Edgar Renteria), it's another to know you are making a $50 million mistake while you are shaking the man/boy's hand.

- Herm Edwards, Head Coach New York Jets: Hate to put such a nice guy on here, but that's exactly the problem, he is too nice o####uy.  To be successful, NFL coaches have to be "glass half empty" guys, "glass half full guys" like while most of the head coaches without the last name Parcells in Jets history are doomed to failure.  But they have nice articles written by them on the way out of town;

- Billy Joel's Agent: Does he/she/they realize what all of his farewell tours have done to his reputation?  Well the annual DUI arrest in the Hamptons doesn't help, either;

- Dave Wannstedt, Head Football Coach Pittsburgh Panthers: A walking, talking sub-.500 season waiting to happen;

- Jim Bowden, General Manager Montreal Expos:  Were Alfonso Soriano's road statistics not made available to him?  And now he won't move to the outfield to boot;

- Jodi Rell, Governor - State of Connecticut: Have you tried putting a 60 pound four year-old back into a car seat?

- Norv Turner, Head Coach Oakland Raiders:  With the Raiders performance against the Jets last Sunday, he is lucky he isn't lynched;

- Donald Trump, Supposed business tycoon, expert at driving casinos into bankruptcy: Your 15 minutes are up, it's time you got fired!

Greg

·          When a baseball team has an overshift for a lefthanded hitter, they put three players on the right side of the infield and leave the third baseman on the left side.  Why don’t they leave the shortstop on the left side since the third baseman plays in the SS whole anyway and the shortstop has the best range of any of the infielders and move the third baseman to the “short field” position?  Except for the Yankees, of course, whose best shortstop is their third baseman.

·          Go to back to the good old days of the Olympics – western amateurs, eastern professionals and East German women swimmers with ####s?

·          I am not bringing this up as a Patriot fan and, therefore, must be a proponent of the tuck rule.  I have never read the tuck rule, all I know is that the rule was applied correctly and has been since upheld.  I actually thought before and since that the rule does not go far enough.  When the quarterback makes himself vulnerable because he is setting to pass (i.e. sets his feet and raises his hands from a ball carrying position to a ball throwing position) any loss of the ball, IMHO, that happens from there on out should be an incompletion.  What does everyone think is going to happen when a 200 lbs. QB holding the ball in one hand gets hit by a 350 lbs. lineman?

·          Only let only players with hall of fame credentials into the hall of fame (in all sports)?

·          Eliminate the kneel down play from football?  In the last two minutes of the game, any negative carry (probably would need technological help with the instant judgment needed for this) would force the clock to be stopped until the next snap (same as out of bounds).  It would force teams to play until the end and make the end of games much more exciting.

·          Put paid fans in the first rows of seats in baseball to make sure that balls aren’t legally or illegally interfered with to go against the home team?  (Yes, I mean you, Bartman!)  Sort of like "Seat Marshals."  By the way, to the Red Sox teenage brass, I am 6’3”, 300+ lbs. and can have a resume’ to you within the hour.

·          Even out the schedules to eliminate games in hand?  In (especially) the NHL and NBA, how do teams get two, three, four, even five games in hand?  Why don’t they just set up the schedule so as you reach certain milestones in the season, the teams all have an even numbers of games played?  Rain-outs?  I understand their maybe one or two game fluctuations here or there based on travel, but some of it is just out and out bizarre.

·          Create a baseball handbook “Double switching for dummies?”  Grady Little is going to need it.

·          Change the BCS to the Best Case Scenario?

·          If you were an NFL coach wouldn’t you get a 7-foot plus player and use him to try to block field goals, extra points and punts and for jump balls in a “popped up” onside kick?

·          Make Rent-A-Wreck pay the Red Sox the money he stole back?

Greg