Two milestones reached!

About time A-Rod and Bonds hit their respective milestone homeruns.  Now, can we get on with life?

Bonds....

Bonds' record has more historical significance, but also a much bigger cloud of su####ion hanging over it.  The Giants stink this year, and for the most part, only the San Francisco fans can stand the guy (And they probably wouldn't had Bonds signed elsewhere this past offseason.

Bud Selig finally gave in and agreed to follow Bonds around like a lost puppy dog looking for a meal, even though everyone knew he didn't want to be there, especially Bonds himself.  Of course, Bonds did want Selig present, if for no other reason than to rub it in his face personally when he finally tied the record.

Can Bud get back to work now?  Or does he need to keep following Bonds until he breaks the record?  Assuming it doesn't happen tonight, it could be a while based on Bonds' recent lack of success at the plate.

 A-Rod...

Last year everybody hated him.  Naturally, if you aren't a Yankee fan, you didn't like him just for that reason.  But he was struggling last year (to the tune of 35 HR, 121 RBI, a .290 BA and  113 runs scored.   Looking at those numbers, it's hard to say the guy wasn't any good, but the reason for Yankee fans hating him so much was more due to situational hitting (hitting with RISP, and clutch performance, especially in the playoffs the last few years) and a severe case of the yips on defense.

 This year his defense is much better (7 errors compared to a total of 24 last year), and he's much more consistent at the plate.  Approaching the milestone of 500 career homeruns at a rapid pace hasn't hurt either.  Even a recent slump hasn't hurt him too much in the eyes of the fans.

 Rodriguez is the youngest player to reach the 500 HR plateau, and the general feeling is he'll eventually surpass whatever number Bonds is at when he decides to hang 'em up.  Of course, he'll have to stay healthy, stay motivated, and not let any steroid allegations get in his way.

 Now what?

 Well, Bonds still has to pass Hammerin' Hank to be the lone record holder, so we still have that to look forward to....Some of us more than others.

 Tomorrow could be another milestone day as Tom Glavine goes for win #300...again....against the Cubs at Chewing Gum Field, also known as Wrigley.

 After that, I'm not sure what milestones are attainable this season, or by which players.

 I'm sure Brett Favre has a few he's still pursuing, and could reach this season.

 The Royals must have some sort of milestone about number of players traded after the regular deadline.

 The popular TV series Law and Order must be ready to reach 8 billion episodes in the near future.

 George Clooney could get plastic surgery, and give situation comedy another try.  He must hold the record already for most sit-coms appeared in to fail miserably.

 The Minnesota Vikings could (most likely not this year) make it to yet another Super Bowl, and still not win one.

 Allen Iverson could become the all-time leader in practices missed.  After all, we just talkin' 'bout practice.

First off, I need to give credit to the inspirations for this post.  Credit to Socalsportsfan and his post asking what we will be doing should Barry Bonds break the career HR record, and to the NBA's advertising campaign, "Will You Be Watching When....?"

On to the big events.....

When Jose Canseco, confused by years of getting hit in the head by fly balls, mistakenly announces he has dirt on Jose Canseco?

I expect this to happen sooner rather than later.  Today, he says he has dirt on A_Rod, who just happens to be the one player right now who can compete with Bonds, not only in performance, but also in media attention.  If it happens on October 12th, what will you be doing?

When Brett Favre finally announces his retirement?

Unfortunately, some of us won't be alive that long (old age and death by natural causes have a way of sneaking up on you), but for those who make it that long, will it be important to you?  I say March 18th, 2014.

 A-Rod breaks Bonds' HR record (contingent on Canseco's dirt not getting him banned from the game)?

 40 HR per year means approximately 5 1/2 to 6 years til he breaks it.  I'll predict May 15th or 16th (his team could have an off day, too soon to know right now) of 2013.  Injuries and a slump here or there could factor in, but then again 40 HR per year might be a little low.  Will you be watching?  Will it depend on who he's playing for at that time?

 When Pete Rose gets reinstated by MLB, nominated and inducted into the Hall Of Fame?

 A week or so ago, I heard George W. Bush might be in line to replace Bud Selig as MLB commissioner after his days of being our clueless brainless fearless leader.  That would be the time for Rose and his backers to get him reinstated.  No doubt Bush could be bamboozled into thinking Pete is a standup guy by constantly referring to him as "Charlie Hustle" instead of by his real name.  Then the lawyers just have to put his real name in the fine print, and just like that he's back in the game.  Probably won't happen, but if Bush is the Commish, then I say October 12th, 2010.  That way, Bush will be even more distracted by the playoffs, and might just sign anything put in front of him.  Maybe throw in legislation on making bats and gloves color coded based on position, and he'll sign no matter what.  He won't have any line-item veto power as Commish.

 When Roger Clemens permanently retires?

 Here's another one that could depend on him being banned from the game.  My guess is it will actually be after this season, to avoid any further heat in the steroid investigation.  If he is somehow cleared, then it could get real interesting.  I'll say February 14th (yes, on V-Day), 2014.  Side wager on whether he beats Favre to the announcement.

 When the investigation into the steroid allegations actually uncovers something useful, and does something with it?

 Maybe they already have enough on Bonds, Clemens, Sheffield or whoever.  I don't know.  It's been a popular discussion between me and my friends whether anything will actually be done if and when something solid is found.  A lot of people believe Selig knew all about what was going on all along.  They also believe that's why he hired his buddy George Mitchell to lead the investigation, so he could conveniently get rid of any evidence that led back to him.

 Anyway, I don't think it will ever happn, and they'll announce the investigation is over because of a lack of cooperation.  I figure this will happen right after the World Series is over this fall, on November 15th.

 -Give an answer on any or all of the above questions.  Or, get all riled up because you have a man-crush on Barry Bonds, Brett Favre or Roger Clemens.  It's all good to me.

Lance Briggs

From the very moment the Bears slapped the franchise tag on him, he vowed to never play another snap in a Chicago uniform.

Upon realizing he couldn't become an unrestricted free agent next year unless he appeared in at least 6 games, he then said he'd only play the minimum number of games to equal a "full year of service" under league guidelines.

As the franchise player, he was guaranteed a salary this year of $7.2 million.  Any normal person would take that money and run.  But not Briggs, or most other professional athletes for that matter.  These guys want long-term security, and at least 1 dollar more than the next highest paid player at their position, if not the entire world of sports.

I get tired of hearing how athletes need all this money to feed their family, or to ensure that noone in their family for the next several generations will have to worry about working for a living.  If they'd just live a little more responsibly, the millions they already make would be plenty to keep dozens of people from going hungry or living in alleys.

The defense of these players is always "but what if he gets hurt and can never play again?"

 Here's an idea:  Get a real job like the rest of us.   And here's a question for you Mr. Richard F. Proathlete.....What happens if I get hurt at my hourly wage job?  Are you going to support me?  Because essentially what you're asking the fans to do is hand over their hard earned money to you, in advance of actually playing, and if you get hurt you still get paid some huge signing bonus already in the millions, possibly double digits.

 Another idea if you're so worried about getting hurt and not being able to work.  Take out an insurance policy on yourself, so that your wife, 8 kids, and mistress can make it through the tough times before a job opens up for you at one of the major sports networks, stumbling your way through a complete sentence as an expert analyst or color commentator.

 Anyway, it looks to me like Briggs lost his leverage somehow, or he just realized if he doesn't play all season, he could lose out by not performing well in those last 6 games.  Perhaps he's even considered the increased chance that he could get hurt coming back late in the year, going up against players with over half a season's worth of shaking the rust off.

 Bud Selig

 It's no secret Bud doesn't like Barry Bonds.  If it's just about the steroids thing, he should just keep his mouth shut, go to the games until Mr. Balco breaks the homerun record, stop the game, walk out to home plate (preferrably before Bonds makes it around 3rd base), and lick Barry's shoes for giving some fans a reason to come back to the ballparks accross the country.

 After the strike back in....'94 was it?.....I vowed to never watch or attend a game again.  I know I wasn't the only one.  Granted, I didn't come around because of the homerun chases by Bonds, McGwire and Sosa, but I'm sure plenty of others did.

 Let's not kid ourselves here either.  If Selig honestly had no clue what was going on all those years, he's dumber than most of us already thought.  Like it or not Mr. Selig, you were the captain of the ship, and if Bonds or anyone else goes down, you should go down with it.  Michael Vick has to be held accountable in some way for the dog fighting that went on at a property he owned, so you must be too, for all the alleged steroid use to go on in the game you were supposed to govern, police, and protect.

 The fact that you refused up until a couple days ago to not attend Bonds' games, then did a complete flip just as good ol' Barry was starting a nice homestand 2 shy of tying the record, means you realize that by not being there, you look worse than Bonds would if he is at some point found guilty of any wrongdoing.  Plus, like I said, you had to have some knowledge that guys were pumping performance enhancers into their bodies, or you're not even as smart as we give you credit for....and it's not very much credit to begin with.

 Craig Biggio

 Let me start by saying I have no knowledge of Biggio being in trouble, or anyone around him (at least on his team or in the 'Sto's front office) either.

 This is about his announcement yesterday that he'll retire at season's end.  While he's getting up there in years, he can still play relatively well.  I think the fork in the road for him is that, since collecting his 3,000th hit, Houston would prefer he take a reduced role to allow some of the younger guys to get more playing time.  It's not like they're going to have a miracle 2nd half and make the playoffs this year, so why not look to the future?

 The other part of it is, he's played his entire career with Houston, and feels a certain loyalty to them, so going to a different team next year just isn't a viable option.  I would have swore he played for Pittsburgh early in his career, but he didn't.

 From what I heard today, Houston was looking at starting Biggio primarily only at home for the rest of the year, most likely to keep him fresh, and still be able to draw fans to watch their lousy team.  (Sounds similar to what the Giants have been doing with Bonds lately, doesn't it?)

 There was some discussion once Biggio collected his 3,000th hit if he was a Hall Of Famer or not.  Based on the 3,000 hits alone, I'd say borderline.  However, ESPN gave me reason to vote him in on the first ballot.  I wish I could remember the exact information, but it's something like this.....

 He's the only player (or maybe 1 of only 4) to have 3,000 hits, 600 doubles, 400 steals and 250 homeruns.

 Quite an accomplishment for a guy who I never really thought of as being so well-rounded.

 He wasn't bad defensively either.  He started as a catcher, and played 427 games there.  At 2B, he played 1949 games, 110 games in LF, 255 in CF, and 2 games in RF.  With the exception of a .933 fielding percentage in LF, he was very good with the glove, and it didn't matter if it was a catcher's mit, an infielder's glove or an outfielders glove.

 I doubt Biggio is retiring to save face, and I'm sure he struggled with the decision before opting to walk away from baseball after 20 years.  I just don't believe he could be comfortable as a part time player, utility man or occasional late inning pinch hitter or defensive replacement.  The desire to compete would make it too difficult to sit and watch so much baseball from the dugout.

I'm so confused, I think my head will explode....

His "people" blocked anyone and everyone from Milwaukee to scout him over in China.

They told the Bucks in no uncertain terms...."Do not draft him, he WILL NOT play for Milwaukee."

Milwaukee drafted him anyway.

He didn't look happy when the announcement was made, but didn't go off on a tangent when interviewed by Stuart "Walleye" Scott, although I don't comprehend whatever language that was he was speaking, so maybe he did.

The popular opinion was that his people wanted him in a city with a high number of Chinese/Asian people.

Then a report comes out that his coach/chief/something of his Chinese team (name which I cannot spell or pronounce, but would be BLEEPed by Fox anyway) would block any move to Milwaukee.

Along with this, it was said that Yi not wanting (or his people not wanting him....or whatever) to play in Milwaukee wasn't because of the lack of Chinese people, but rather because he wouldn't get a starting job (or enough playing time) with Andrew Bogut and Charlie Villanueva likely starting at Center and Power Forward. (This sort of paints a picture of Yi not being superstar-ready, doesn't it? I mean, if he/they don't think Yi can beat out CV, he can't be that good) When it comes right down to it, what's the real difference between starting and playing 15-20 minutes per game and coming off the bench and getting 15-20 minutes per game?

Less than 24 hours later, this report was found to be completely false.

A rumor a day or so ago said Yi was possibly looking to fire his agent. (You don't suppose he's figuring out this scheme isn't what's best for him do you?)

Meanwhile, the only constant in all this has been Milwaukee's stance. They've never hinted they have any intention of trading him, nor that they plan to any time in the next 5 years, or however long Yi refuses to join the club.

But, he can like, re-enter the draft next year, right?

As far as I know, absolutely not. Well, the only way he can is if he sits out the next full year of any organized basketball. That includes playing for his current Chinese team, or any other pro league, whether it be in China, Europe, Iraq, Canada, or the planet Neptune.

With Yi a main cog on the Chinese Olympic team, and the games being held in China, this is not going to happen. The Chinese want desperately to medal (I'm guessing Gold is what they really want) in the games, they won't let him sit in a corner and not play at all.

Yeah, but he has all the leverage. Milwaukee can't afford to draft him #6 overall and not get anything out of/for him, right?

Well, here we go again. Since Milwaukee hasn't budged an inch since drafting him, and the story from Yi's camp has changed more than I've changed my socks. One would think picking a stance and sticking with it for a while is the way to go, wouldn't one?

Also, this wouldn't be the first time Milwaukee drafted someone in the first round and got nothing for him. Remember Robert "Tractor" Traylor? He's the guy Milwaukee desperately wanted the same year Dirk was in the draft. Dallas wanted Dirk, but didn't think he was worthy of being picked so high (I think they were 5th, and Milwaukee was 8th). So, Don Nelson, who was with Dallas at the time, and formerly with Milwaukee, used his ties to Herb Kohl and company to work some magic. The Bucks wanted Traylor, but were afraid one of the other teams ahead of them would snag him. Milwaukee agreed to take Dirk for Dallas, plus send their other 1st round pick (who turned out to be Pat Garrity) to the Mavs for Traylor.

Milwaukee got nothing from Traylor, while Dirk is the MVP and Garrity is...well, that really isn't important for this story.

What is important is that Larry Harris and Herb Kohl aren't going to budge unless an absolute no-brainer trade offer comes their way.

Advantage: Milwaukee.....