Where do I begin? So much to talk about, and yet so little time to post. That is why I enjoy these weekly rants where I can vent all the frustrations for an entire week, or in my case the past month.
BCS: It looks like no one wants to be number two in the BCS. Certainly Kansas can control their destiny, but I think Missouri will beat them to win the Big 12 North, and then they will have to beat either Texas or Oklahoma to face LSU in the BCS final. Of course, that is assuming LSU wins the SEC Championship which is no easy task. They will have to face a Georgia team that is looking tougher with each passing game.
Kevin Garnett trade: Back when Danny Ainge pulled the trigger on Kevin Garnett, I was one of the few who said it was a brilliant move. People kept saying, "They can't win without a bench!" Well guess who is looking brilliant now? Yep, the Celtics are rolling and Minnesota is struggling. Jefferson is great, but without a supporting cast the Timberwolves are right where the Celts were last year, in last place. You need superstars in this league to win. The Celtics have three and are well on their way to winning the East.
Oden or Durant: Once again, it shows you why you don't sign a big man who only plays one injury ridden year of college. Big guys are prone to injuries, and Oden is no exception. When you are trying to make that number one pick, a big man is always the way to go, if he has proved himself in college. Big men like Shaquille Oneal played for three seasons and proved he could take the pounding. So did Patrick Ewing, Kareem, and Mourning, but not Oden. People made fun of Durant for not benching more than his weight, but Seattle is very happy Portland went big. Durant is strong enough to lift a basketball, shoot it in the air, and sink a 3 pointer when the game is on the line. That is strong enough for me.
Barry Bonds: Well it took the feds 4 years to bring an indictment, and I say it will take another 4 for anything to stick. Perjury is one of the hardest crimes to prosecute someone for. Not only do they have to prove you are lying, but they have to prove intent. Victor Conte has gone on record that Barry was not given steroids, as has his personal trainer Greg Anderson. Unless they have a smoking gun somewhere, and I don't mean that so called positive test, they will have to do a lot better. So far they have only had to try Barry in the court of public opinion, a place he will always lose, but in a real court where witnesses are cross examined it will be a different story. Let's see Kim Bell and a few others stand up and testify and we will see how they like being put on trial. Barry will never see any jail time nor will he be found guilty. The one thing this possibly accomplishes is keeping him from suiting it up next year.
Six figure, Oden will be injured more than he will play. Durant has the biggest upside, and you are right scorign 20 without any experience speaks volumes.
socal, Thanks for weighing in on Bonds. I've been waiting for yor opinion. Along with Ultra and Dusty, and Coach, i value your input, posting consistantly good points, outside the box, in Bonds rights as just another guy and a U.S citizen.
On the bright side, this whole Bonds mess will finally come to light in court. I'm hoping and believe Barry will prove himself innocent or at the least, not worthy of the big deal the Fed's are making of this travisty.
Last edited by backer on November 18th at 1:36 PM.
Socal, good stuff as usual. Socrates has baited me into one of his petulant blogs about Bonds and steroids (it currently has the most comments)... and the logician in me won't let me leave, because it is irritating, like an itch, that someone is so inept at rational thought.
What's sad is that a lot of the anti-Bonds crowd is using the indictment as an "aha, gotcha!" kind of thing. All an indictment means is that they are formally accusing Bonds of perjuring himself and obstructing justice. They still have to prove it, and as you mentioned Socal, it's likely they won't.
Bonds has been tested just as much as, if not more than every other MLB player, and he has only failed a drug test once for amphetamines, which Willie Mays and Mike Schmidt are also guilty of using. He's never tested positive for steroids.
If it is proven, though, that he used, I do think he should be punished even though the law is wrong, as the law is the law, like it or not.
Hi Ultra, i'm concerned with your last statement about if it's proven that he used, he should be punished. By the way, i'm a big fan of yours, even sent you a link about steroids on Hanks team, last year, remember?
Aparently, they're basing a major part of their case on a positive drug screen taken by balco in 2000 or so. If that test, which is highly suspect, holds up in court, then that would only prove that Bonds had something in his system that triggered the positive test, in 2000. Was MLB handing out penelties in 2000 or can they go retro, i don't think so.
Bonds can only be punished by jail or suspension if the Fed's prove that he knowingly used and therefore lied to to grand jury. See my point? if he used way back then, doesn't really matter. It's if he knowingly used and then later, lied to the grand jury, that and that alone the Fed's must prove to merit punishment by the Fed's or Selig.
Further point in Bonds defence, Where now are all the boneheads that have for years continually stated, like a skipping record, that Bonds admitted to the Grand Jury to using steroids. Haven't heard much of that or them lately huh? Imagin that!
Last edited by backer on November 19th at 6:45 PM.
Hi Ultra, glad to see you still come in and read my work from time to time. As for Bonds, Backer makes a great point. For the past two years everyone has said repeatedly that Barry admitted to using steroids, now they say he lied about it. Which one is it. I would think his attorneys will have a field day in court with this one. Bonds is not guilty, never will be convicted of it, and the feds know this. They are just trying to ruin the end of his career, which is petulent in my eyes.
even sent you a link about steroids on Hanks team, last year, remember?
I very vaguely remember that. Sorry. Was it on a blog of mine or someone else's?
Was MLB handing out penelties in 2000 or can they go retro, i don't think so.
Well, I'm pretty sure that, since MLB is a privately-owned business, they can essentially make up their own rules in terms of punishment, so it wouldn't surprise me if they can ignore ex post facto.
Bonds admitted to the Grand Jury to using steroids.
It's a common misconception among blockheads who get all their information from ESPN. If you read the actual article from the San Francisco Chronicle, you'll read:
To the prosecutors, the substances Bonds said he was using sounded like "the cream" and "the clear," two steroids designed to be undetectable in laboratory testing[...]
They basically assumed that what Bonds was talking about were steroids.
socal, always glad to read anything you write. I hope your prediction on Bonds outcome is correct. This whole mess is simply the most outragious case of sports injustice that i have known in my 50+ years.
Ultra, yes, you have a fan, lol. Well deserved i'd say. That link mentioned above was sent to likeastone on 5/23/07. Even though i had been enjoying reading you guys for some time, i hadn't yet started blogging. Thought maybe you were the guy that could put use to the contents in that reference. Anyway, though i know that i can't write for beans, i'm giving it a shot and chipping in my two cents.
