Hello friends,

How are you and sorry for my absence the last few weeks. I notice this is my first blog in May and I apologize to you my readers. Anyway interleague baseball is starting again this weekend in baseball and as long as they're going to have it I think they should have some of the classic matchups more often since you never know until each October who will play in the World Series and since that is for the championship it isn't quite as fun in a relaxing enjoyable way as an interleague regular season series for bragging rights. Let me explain what I mean by this.

This weekend I am looking forward to a great matchup at Fenway Park between two of my favorite teams the Milwaukee Brewers and the Boston Red Sox. There will be several other great matchups to watch and some not so great, you can't have everything with the schedule. But what I want on a more regular basis is some of the classic baseball interleague matchups. Starting off with the most obvious matchup between the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs. I remember their weekend matchup at Wrigley Field in 2005 when the Cubs took two of three from the Red Sox, the games were fun and nostalgic to watch based on the teams histories and first meeting since the 1918 World Series and I remember ESPN broadcaster Jon Miller closing his broadcast by saying lets do this every year. Or other year. Why not? This year in fact the Cubs division the NL Central plays the Red Sox and Yankees division the AL East but none of those teams play each other and I ask again, Why Not?  I know the teams don't play every team in each division but for fan interest at its peak shouldn't we get some games between these teams at Fenway Park, Wrigley Field or the last year of Yankee Stadium. Or would you rather watch Diamondbacks vs Mariners or Rays vs Nationals?

Why cant we have more Cubs vs Red Sox or Yankees, Yankees vs Dodgers or many other ones where you could find some interest for everyone. True the schedule cant provide all sizzling matchups and while we have interleague it's good to have everyone play everyone once in a while, it is also good to bring out some classic interleague games as I've described for fan interest more often. I know the fans of the local cities want Yankees-Mets, Cubs-White Sox, Angels- Dodgers and Giants-A's but we also want more of the classics as well. Please work on this Commisioner Bud Selig and Baseball. You're doing a great job with interleague baseball already and as long as you're going to have it you might as well bring out the classic matchups more often. As I said also they're never guaranteed to meet in the World Series often and the regular season matchups without the championship pressure are more fun as well. Let me know what you think friends. Best wishes and have a great and productive day friends. Talk soon. fenfan

Hello dear friends and also my friends at fox funhouse,

Merry Christmas and I hope you and your families have a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy holiday season. It's been a busy week in sports as always but I guess the two biggest stories are Bill Parcells who has just sined a four year contract to go to Miami to become their new general manager and Roger Clemens and the HGH Scandal and the fallout from the Mitchell Report which came out last week.

First the Bill Parcells move to Miami less than a day after he was mentioned to be going to the same job in Atlanta. Both are rebuilding and difficult job situations for different reasons. Atlanta with Michael Vick and his impending prisonment for dogfighting and their former head coach Bobby Petrino quitting after only 13 games and a 3-10 record to take the head coaching position at Arkansas. In Miami they have made questionable player and coaching decisions over the last several years I guess highlighted the most by Ricky Williams who has been suspended several times for marajuana and drug charges and ther most recent head coach Nick Saban also left to go back to a college coaching position to become head coach at Alabama last year. And his successor Cam Cameron has been only 1-13 so far winning his first game last weekend. Enter Bill Parcells as general manager this time. I think he will be better suited in this role at this stage of his career and he kind of reminds me of what Ron Wolf was with Packers in the 1990s. Time will tell if Parcells has the same kind of success. I think coaching had burned him out especially in his last stop in Dallas with the whole Terrell Owens saga and everything and I think Parcells will be a better general manager and overseer than head coach at this point. Plus he is a better evaluator of talent and is an excellent analyst at ESPN so we'll see how it turns out for him in his new endeavors.

As for Roger Clemens and the HGH scandal and fallout from the Mitchell Report last week in baseball. I'm disappointed but not surprised he denied it. Bonds and a lot of the superstars do and I heard there's even some legal reasoning why Clemens denied it,  but it's still there for us to see and judge and I wish it would all go away but it probably won't for a long time and it will always put a black mark on the game and the suspected players accomplishments in the so called steroid and HGH (Human Growth Hormones) era. I'm glad they are having stricter testing for performance enhancing drugs now and for the future, but we need to try to let the past go. We can't change it. It happened and some records have been tainted or altered because of it. All they can do is make notations of these altered records and say they happened in a steroid era similar in a different respect to when they tried to put an asterik by Roger Maris name for hitting 61 home runs in 162 games compared to Babe Ruth's 60 home runs in only a 154 game season. Life like baseball will never be perfect but we still have to live it and we still love the beautiful game as fans so lets go on and try to start a new future. I'm not naive enough to believe there will never be problems again. There will, they always are just as in life but I still think a lot of these players like Clemens, Bonds McGuire and Sosa and others can be Hall of Famers. We just have to begrugdgingly accept the fact that even though they came from this tainted era, no matter what they did or didn't do they are still great players and they did help to bring the game of baseball back from the last strike in the mid 1990's which ultimately canceled a World Series in 1994. So for all you moralists and purists out there remember that before you turn out baseball and the steroids and HGH era. If you don't like it stop watching baseball and go away. You aren't perfect either so let's not totally judge and reprehend these tainted athletes for their actions either. I think they've been through enough already. I'm not saying they don't deserve what they get, but also as I said don't make them out to be perfect because you aren't either. I just hope someday we can find a way to get back to the innocent and wonderful games we loved as children and why we became fans and love sports in the first place. Well best wishes friends and happy holidays. Have a great and productive day and talk soon friends. As always I welcome your comments and friendship. fenfan

Hello friends,

Well we've got another exciting postseason and a lot of good and interesting story topics that I want to touch on. First Manny Ramirez of the Boston Red Sox who are playing the Cleveland Indians in the ALCS opened his mouth with a comment that got a lot of publicity, but I don't think was that bad and I'm a Red Sox fan too. He said with the Red Sox down 3-1 and now 3-2 at this writing that it wouldn't be the end of the world to him if the Red Sox got beat in the ALCS. Now I think a lot of people might confuse this statement with his effort or love of the team and game which I think is wrong on both parts. Now you can say whether it was good judgement for Manny Ramirez to make his comments publicly especially during a heated playoff series, but Manny Ramirez has always been outspoken aka Manny being Manny and as long as he produces and does his best win or lose I'm not upset with his comments. We've all been tired of our job and other things in life especially when things aren't going well and we often blow off steam. Of course we don't have the media coverage and fan adulation that Manny Ramirez and the Boston Red Sox do, but I think his comments are ok with me. I know there's second guessing and criticism about a lot of things from referees and umpires call to managers and coaches decisions, but as long as it's done in the best interest of the game and there is no cheating or gambling then I am fine with the the actions and comments of those involved with sports. They have to make tough decisions and their actions are always scrutinized.

As for actions and speaking his mind how about Joe Torre turning down the Yankees 1 year offer to manage the Yankees. Now I think you can look at that a couple of ways. On one hand his performance of not winning the World Series which is most important especially in New York with the Yankees has not been great this young century since the Yankees last won the World Series in 2000. Remember New York doesn't know what it's like to have a drought like Boston had or the Chicago Cubs or Cleveland currently do. So in that sense a one year deal with incentives to win the World Series isn't bad. On the other hand the Yankees with the highest payroll in the majors over 220 million or so by far have made the postseason the last 13 years and Joe Torre led the Yankees to 4 World Series titles and six appearances. Impressive numbers although ask the Brewers, Pirates, Royals and Devil Rays what they could do with a salary cap and half that payroll to compete. Anyway I think it's fair to judge Joe Torre that he didn't win a championship with the biggest payroll the last 7 years but his overall body of work as I said included 4 World Titles in six apperances and 13 playoff appearances with no misses since he became manage even though the team did lose in the first round the last three years. Again ask the smaller market teams about that. But this is the New York Yankees and they are held to a higher standard under their passionate to win always owner George Steinbrenner. So in the end Joe Torre walked away from the one year deal he was offered to keep managing the Yankees and I respect that. He's done his best that he can and I don't think it will get any better for him win or lose. So he's moving on and we'll see what the next manager can do in what is the fishbowl atmosphere of the New York Yankees. Good luck.

Finally we've got one great playoff series left this weekend with Game 6 and possibly Game 7 between the Indians and Red Sox in the ALCS, and we've got another great exciting young team waiting for them from the National League, the Colorado Rockies who have amazingly won either 21 of their last 22 or 22 of 23 to get to this point. Anyway we'll have a great conclusion to the American League championship series and then we'll see if the Rockies can continue their Mile High success in the World Series. As always we'll watch let me know what you think and we'll talk soon again friends. Best wishes and have a great a productive day. fenfan

Hello friends,

We'll we have a week or so to go in the baseball regular season and the race is getting tight for my two or three favorite teams. The Brewers are one game behind the Cubs as I write today and the Red Sox lead is down to a game and a half over the Yankees. First the Brewers. No matter what happens the rest of the season as they try to win the NL Central it's been an exciting and breakout season for the team and they'll finally having a winning record at the very least and I think there is hope for the future at last even though they are one of the smallest markets they have very good ownership management and a nucleus of young players led by Prince Fielder who could win MVP in the National League and has set the Brewers new nome run record already with at least 47 homers so far. And Ryan Braun for Rookie of the Year would be great as well. The one thing I am concerned about is the pitching both starting and relief. WE need more consistency and less reliablity on just Ben Sheets. Youvanni Galardo is an excitng young pitcher. As for the home runs and the nicknames I recently realized they need a nickname as they approach the all time single season record of the team 216 homers set by the 1982 pennant winners led by then manager Harvey Kuenn and his team of sluggers nicknamed HARVEYS WALL####ERS. Before that the team was led by manager George Bamberger and were nicknamed BAMBIS BOMBERS with much of the same bunch of players. So what should we call this team led by current  Brewers manager Ned Yost who also played on those 82 Brewers as a catcher and hit a big home run in the last week of the season at Boston. As for the current nickname how about Yost's YardSwingers or Yos't YardSticks. Or you could have Ned's Knockers or Bernie's Broomsticks after Bernie Brewer who slides down after every Brewer home run. Anyway this team needs a nickname and I'm asking you along with some friends I have in Milwaukee as well. I'ts just a fun thing to think about for an exciting young team. As for my big market Red Sox who once had a 14 1/2 game lead AGAIN over the Yankees only to see it almost go away. I want to see them win the division really bad even though there's a wild card because even with all the great success and long awaited World Series championship in 2004,  winning the division is still the one thing they haven't done in the highly successful era of the Yankees under manager Joe Torre which started in 1996. The Red Sox last division winner was in 1995 which was a strike shortened season as well. Two years ago the Red Sox led the division for most of the season before losing it in the final weekend to the Yankees and while they still had the wildcard they were then swept by the then to be World Series champion White Sox and that was defintely a let down . That's why I don't want to go in as the wildcard. Yes it worked for them in the past such as 2004 when the Red Sox won the World Series and beat the Yankees coming back from a 3-0 deficit in the playoffs. But I still wan't to win the division over the Yankees who have tortured and beaten the Red Sox so many times and that would make me happy no matter what. Anyway let me know what you think friends and we'll talk soon again. Best wishes and have a great and productive day. fenfan

Hello Friends,

How are you doing? Well it's another Red Sox Yankees weekend at Fenway Park and the only thing missing is Roger Clemens isn't pitching and the Yankees are 13 1/2 back. So what happens next?  Does Clemens resurect the Yankees season every 5 days? Does A-Rod have another embarrasing moment on or off the field or do the Red Sox just start putting the nail in the coffin and praying it's not another 1978 season. Dont worry Red Sox fans it shouldn't be. These aren't those Yankees but they are still the high priced and talented George Steinbrenner Joe Torre led Yankees so who knows and the Yankees are always interesting and worth a headline so we'll see.

June is also time for the Finals in the NBA and the NHL Stanley Cup Finals as well. First the NBA. I'm happy to see the San Antonio Spurs in the Finals again. Kind of a boring team to watch but I love the way they play and win and I especially enjoy those parades down the Riverwalk the best championship celebration site in sports I think and after that Tony Parker gets to marry Desperate Housewives Eva Longoria sorry I don't have a picture of her but you can imagine her in France where they are getting married July 7. Anyway  back to basketball it would be nice to see Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobli my favorite player on the Spurs and Parker and the rest of the team win again for Spurs fans that is. It's an odd numbered year and the Spurs aren't going for a repeat so things could be in their favor this year. I think it would be fun to play Lebron James and the Cavaliers for NBA fans watching and I get tired of the Pistons boring defensive style even if they aren't quite the Bad Boys of the 1980's. As I always say we'll see.

As for the NHL for those hockey fans who are watching the Anaheim Ducks are dominating so far at 2-0 in the series but I'm looking forward to the series going back to Ottawa and the Canadian fans spirit. That's what I think makes the games exciting for those who watch and I hope Ottawa can bring back the Stanley Cup to Ottawa and Canada although it looks like Anahiem is the better team at this poiint.

Finally a couple of things what do you all think of Kobe Bryant wanting a trade out of Los Angeles and the Lakers and where should he go if he gets out of his contract? Also just in Billy Donavon has decided to leave the University of Florida Gators and two national championships to go down the road in Florida to the NBA and the Orlando Magic. I think that could hurt his legacy bacause great college coaches aren't  often great in the NBA or NFL ala Steve Spurrier and Billy Donavon's legacy will be hurt because he won't have the same control he did in college and those coaches are often disappointed. Meanwhile the one's who go to college coaching like USC's football coach Pete Carroll often have great success.So good luck Billy Donovan, but my opinion is you'll be back in college coaching again like your mentor Rick Pitino and also John Calapari. So we'll see what happens and let me know what you think as always friends.Best wishes and have great and productive days friends and talk soon again.

Hello friends,

Today I wanted to talk about a couple of things. The San Antonio Spurs my favorite NBA team are in a tough second round series with the Phoenix Suns and I'd like to talk about their chances for another championship. And the big news of the week in baseball is of course the Rocketman Roger Clemens returning to New York and his "beloved" Yankees.

First the Spurs who are once again involved in another tough playoff series this time with the very talented fast paced Phoenix Suns who if they score 100 points automatically win. Wrong at least Sunday the Spurs showed they could play with the Suns pace and beat them 111-106 in Game 1. Of course they had a little unfortunate help from the Suns when Suns guard Steve Nash collided in a nasty head butt with Spurs guard Tony Parker and Steve Nash got the worst of it with an ugly bloody nose gash, but amazingly his nose wasn't broken and he returned to the game and hit a key three pointer although he lost some valuable time on the clock being out with the nose gash which ultimately cost the Suns although remember the Spurs got 32 points from superstar player Tim Duncan so that helped too in the Spurs win. There's several games left in the series though so we'll see what happens.

As much as I respect the Suns and the rest of the NBA I like the Spurs chances. They have a veteran well balanced team who's been there before. The Dallas Mavericks should take note of that. They also have a couple of intangibles which we'll see if it works for them again this year. It's an odd numbered year 2007 and they won their previous three championships in odd years 2005, 2003 and 1999 so maybe that's in their favor. They're also not trying to repeat as champion this year which for some reason they have trouble doing. Anyway I'd love to see them win again for nothing else they have the coolest championship celebration riding the gondolas down the Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio one of the more picturesque places to celebrate.

As for Roger Clemens good luck and congratulations on your decision to return to the Yankees except when he pitches against the Red Sox of course. I think he made the right move for himself and might be a better fit for the Yankees rotation who might need him much more than the Red Sox would. I've "divorced  myself"  from ever thinking he'll come back with the Red Sox because New York is obviously where he wants to be. He's won championships there, he's friends with manager Joe Torre, pitcher Andy Pettite and shortstop Derek Jeter and he even gets along with the Boss George Steinbrenner so yes I think he should retire a Yankee and go into the Hall of Fame with a Yankee cap even though he spent the first 12 years of his career in Boston, had two 20 strikeout games and won 3 or 4 of his 7 Cy Young awards there. So good luck Roger the Red Sox will be just fine without you and by the way you're 45 not 25 years old no matter how good you are. I also enjoyed seeing him pitch in Houston last year so that was a thrill as well.

One last thing I'd like to mention is the media's bias towards wanting big market teams to win. While I understand it's a business and there are more people in the big cities like New York and Los Angeles, it is not fair to the fans in the smaller cities to not be able to equally compete and or get equal coverage in the media's eyes. Otherwise it should be a big market's league. Finally to New England quarterback Tom Brady, it's ok to wear a Yankees cap in New York even though he plays in Boston home of the Red Sox. You see players wearing caps or jerseys of teams they like in other sports all the time so what's the big deal. I've heard Curt Schilling of the Red Sox is a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, but I don't hear him being criticized or ridiculed. Well those are my rants and raves today. We'll talk soon friends and have great and productive days always.

Hello friends,

To follow up on my recent post April:Lets spring into sports I thought we would look at what the month of April has brought us in sports so far with one weekend to go which includes series #2 between the Yankees and Red Sox and the NFL Draft both ironically in New York this weekend.

Anyway the month got off  to a great start when the Florida Gators won their second national championship in a row in men's college basketball what an accomplishment. Then at the Masters relative unknown Zach Johnson pulled of####reat win although the weather and the changing of the course affected the higher scores there for the winner and it wasn't Tiger or Phil's weekend at the Masters. Maybe next time.

In baseball it's been an A Bomb for A Rod as Alex Rodriguez is off to his best start and month ever with 14 home runs at this writing. Isn't it ironic how some athletes always play better when they're looking to extend a contract or might leave. It's too bad the Yankees can't say the same thing about their pitching although I as a Red Sox fan know it's far from done when it comes to the Yankees despite their sweep last weekend the Red Sox still have some pitching problems at the bottom of their rotation themselves and is Dice K going to pitch a no hitter already or maybe he'll challenge Nolan Ryan's record 7 no hitters. Seriously though a good pitcher but a long way to go before we can make any definite opinions on him. I'm also excited to see the Milwaukee Brewers playing well and in first place in the NL Central, but a long way to go there and yesterday pitcher Ben Sheets got injured with a groin pull so we'll see how serious that is. We'll talk more about Barry Bonds home run record if we have to as it goes along about 15 home runs away from Hank Aaron's all time home run record of 755 and I don't care if Aaron is there for the accomplishment or not as he has been called a coward by a writer unfairly for his lack of excitement over Barry Bonds home run chase.

In NHL hockey the first round is over  and the playoffs are down to eight teams without my favorite team the Dallas Stars who played better along with goalie Marty Turco's three shutout wins but they still lost in seven games to the Vancouver Canucks who on short rest last night lost 5-1 in game 1 to the Anahiem Ducks in what is the Canucks-Ducks series. In other action the Buffalo Sabres lead the  New York Rangers 1-0 and should beat them in a short number of games. In the other series I like Ottawa's chances over New Jersey, but only if they can get beyond Martin Brodeur and that still annoying neutral zone trap which even with the new rules they still play shut down hockey with that trap. In the other series I like Detroit over San Jose I'll say in 6 games.

In the NBA playoffs which I probably follow the least the Mavericks and Spurs my favorite teams to watch won last night after both dropping their opening games to the Golden State Warriors for the Mavericks and the Denver Nuggets for the Spurs. If they can get through those matchups and past the second round which could feature teams like the Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets. If they get beyond all that then maybe the Spurs and Mavericks could meet in the Western Conference Finals revisting their classic seven game series matchup last year won by the Mavericks in overtime of the seventh game at San Antonio. As a Spurs fan first I'd like to see a little revenge especially with Dallas great record this year and prospects where the Mavericks are trying to return to the NBA Finals and win their first NBA championship.

And we haven't even talked about the NFL draft yet and I'm not goiing to try to guess who the first pick is between quarterbacks Demarcus Russell and Brady Quinn, wide receiver Calvin Johnson or running back Adrian Petersen, maybe throw in offensive lineman Joe Thomas for the top 5. We'll see and talk about thet next week. In the meantime, have a great weekend, enjoy your sports action and have a great and productive day always friends.Best wishes.    

Hey Sports Friends,

I saw an interesting roundtable discussion on ESPN last night where the experts of all the sports got together to argue and debate the best rivalries in sports and I thought I'd add my opinions and see what you think as well. The discussion started in part because North Carolina was playing at Duke which is one of college basketball's best rivalries because the schools are only eight miles apart and are both national college basketball powers. While there are several different rivalries both in proximity to where the teams are located and where they are in the league and conference standing I thought I would try to pick some of the best rivalries both based on their current intensity and also their long range status.

Now I just mentioned North Carolina Duke as one of the great rivalries in college basketball and when you talk about college football Ohio State Michigan comes to mind. Currently they played a 42-39 game with Ohio State winning and both teams were in the national picture to the end. Long term Bo Schembecler vs Woody Hayes who were two legendary coaches who had a Ten Year War which was the way their intense coaching rivalry was described from 1969-1978.

Baseball's best and most traditional rivalry has been the Yankees and the Red Sox. Recently the Red Sox ended their 86 year old so called Curse of the Bambino when they came back from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Yankees in the playoffs in 2004 and then defeating the Cardinals to win their first World Series since 1918. Long term there were all the memorable disappointments for the Red Sox against the Yankees since the famous sale of Babe Ruth like Bucky Dent's home run in 1978, Bill Buckners error in the World Seies in 1986 and Aaron Boone's pennant clinching home run in 2003 as well as the great fights between 1970s catchers Thurman Munson of the Yankees and Carlton Fisk of the Red Sox.

In pro basketball my favorite current rivalry is the San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks. First both teams are in Texas along with the Houston Rockets as well. San Antonio has won three NBA titles, Houston has won two titles and the Mavericks lost in the NBA Finals last  year trying to win their first title and beat the Spurs in an exciting 7 game playoff series as well. When you throw in the Mavericks flamboyant and outspoken owner Mark Cuban it makes for an exciting current rivalry. Some of the older more traditional rivalries like the Lakers vs Celtics have lost their current luster especially with the Celtics losing 16 in a row like they currently have.

Hockey has had exciting rivalries traditional rivalries in Canada such as the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames who both made Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Finals the last few years and call their rivalry the Battle of Alberta. Some great American rivalries the last few years include the Detroit Red Wings vs Colorado Avalanche and a current one between the Buffalo Sabres and Carolina Hurricanes seems to be starting as well.

Finally pro football, the NFL which has become America's most popular game based on the Super Bowl rating which was the second highest television show of all time to be watched behind another Super Bowl and the final MASH show as well. Anyways the best current rivalry is the Indianapolis Colts vs the New England Patriots. Tom Brady three Super Bowl rings. Peyton Manning now has a Super Bowl ring and it  was a great game with Colts winning 38-34 in the just completed AFC championship game which sent the Colts to the Super Bowl after traling 21-3 in that game. Anyways long term there are rivalries like Packers-Bears, Steelers Browns, Cowboys Redskins and Giants-Eagles are all traditional rivalries which makes the NFL the great league that it is.

So there is a wide variety of different rivalries and I'd be interested to hear what you think, and what are your favorite rivalries and memories as well. As always I thank you for you comments and look forward to hearing from you . Take care, best wishes and have great and productive days always friends.