I wonder what the problem seems to be with the sports writers who get to vote for MVP and Albert Pujols? There always seems to be some "High Profile" long ball hitter who gets the top vote every year.

Not to say that Pujols is not a high profile long ball hitter himself but don't you think that he's proven to be more than that? How many times have we opened the sports section and looked at the stats sheet to see him leading in just about all of the categories for batting statistics?

Last year I thought that he had shed that stigma know as *Bonds and finally got the recognition that he deserves. Even then there was the home run king from last year Andruw Jones right there a close second.

Now this year it's Ryan Howard who had a great year and is a rising star in his own right, but that's about it he hit 58 homeruns and 149 RBI's..........Which is amazing, but lets see did he do anything else? HHmm no post season stats available.

Year G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS OBP SLG OPS AVG

2006 159 581 104 182 25 1 58 149 108 181 0 0 .425 .659 1.084 .313

Year G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS OBP SLG OPS AVG

2006 143 535 119 177 33 1 49 137 92 50 7 2 .431 .671 1.102 .331

 Oh yeah he went to Japan and had a good showing hit 4 homeruns and came back and was showered with awards like the Hank Aaron Award and the Silver Slugger.

But why I wonder didn't he win the Gold Glove for his work at 1st. Base?

Ryan Howard is deserving of all of the awards that he has received this year except the MVP, but then again it is not even a popularity contest. Not a vote that comes from the fan nor the public. The Borda count might work for the public but it's just silly when applied to a small group.

Yes the Scarlet Knights are for real this year! This may be the biggest win in recent history, maybe ever, I only go back to the 1978 season so until now it has always been the season that everyone talks about. But this goes beyond just making a bowl bid they packed-in over 44,000 fans into Rutgers Stadium tonight!

That in it's self is a new record and now everyone is saying top ten for the Knights. I guess we will just have to watch the rest of the weekend to see how that one unfolds. Rutgers on top in the Big East 9-0 and next up Cincinnati.

Congratulations to the Scarlet Knights!!!

I can't speak about the NHL for this year because I don't follow it.

However it seems like every-other sport has had some kind of controversy surrounding it this year. Starting with the Superbowl in February, with the questionable calls and no-calls.

Then there was the NBA and the Mavericks, and every series that they played in during the play-offs. The officials were at the center of each and every incident and lets not forget the questionable calls and no-calls. Not to single them out but..........I can't remember anyone else having such a hard time of it.

Next we had the FIFI World Cup........now the whole world is getting in on the biggest whine-fest ever assembled. Yes this was what you could call World class whinning. I asked a South American friend: Why do they keep flopping on the ground as if their leg is broken, only to get up after a yellow card has been issued to the opponent. He said that's part of the game.........No need to say more!

And then there was the always controversial Tour De France. Now these guys don't mess around they take Bitching to a whole new level. They will actually go as far as to change the results if they don't get get what they want. What the hell they already disqualified the favorites before the race even got started.This is the one sport that should legalize performance enhancing drugs. With all of the corruption and bias it would actually level the field.

Now here we are in the World Series and I'm thinking how could you mess with BaseBall, yeah there are ways, but I hope that it is a nice clean win. That was on Saturday and now we have that Kenny Rogers guy standing on the mound with some kind of crap on his hand. And now there's Blaaa Blaaa Blaaa and nitting circles, gossup and what will happen next?

Can we have a champion without the sideshow??

A couple of weeks ago or so, someone standing behind me at the local convenience store made a remark........So you think the Cards are going to back-into the play-offs this year? After realizing that he was refering to my Cardinals hat while he was wearing a Mets cap. I replied they might, but it's a good thing that they're not in the same division as your Mets anymore!

Maybe it's just that this year has been different (to say the least) beings how the better part of the season has been like watching paint dry. If you  compare it to the 2005 and 2004 seasons.

2004 Record 105-57 and loss to the Red Sox in that World Series that was "what" a sweep and the curse of the Bambino......Yadda Yadda Yadda.

2005 Record 100-62 and a loss to the wild card Astros 89-73 with the Rocket on the mound in home town Houston.

2006 Record 83-78 and they backed-into the play-offs and proceeded to dispose of the Padres, then came the classic shoot-out with the Mets. It is definitely more entertaining to watch when you know your team has nothing to loose.

Especially after the 6th. inning thing with Endy Chavez's impression of Cleon Jones (well maybe not that good .....but it was still cool)

Then there was the 9th. inning and Molina's 2 run homer and I half expected to see Chavez climbing the wall for this one too. It was just that kind of season.

Now it's off to the World Series with Detroit 95-67 and I don't know what is going to happen......But I have a good idea.

You would think that NASCAR would have thought of a better system before putting it into place.
Me being a somewhat casual fan of NASCAR having grown up around a short track NASCAR was like the Major Leagues to me.
 After hearing about the new system a few years ago, my first thought was... "Now there's something that will never work" If you put together a Big league racing team and have success and do so well that you would have won the Nextel cup with lets say 10 races still left to race. Now you can't coast to a cup or bask in your success anymore, instead the system works against the better team and promotes the underdog.

Now being an underdog or cheering for one is not a bad thing at all, but in NASCAR under the old system, the gap between 1st. and 10th. would be huge ( at least most of the time) and to take away all of the points with 10 races remaining is just stupid.                                                                                                                                                                          And you can't fix stupid ( I just had to say that ) lol  :)

Being in the 11th. spot has to suck also, it must have been a complete lack of forethought. Wait now you have to go out for the next 10 weeks and race knowing that you will not have a chance to win the cup. What if .........."I know this has never been done but just humor me" the person in the #11 spot wins the last 10 races?

Getting to the point:     NASCAR shouldn't have a playoff system, the old system worked just fine and was used to crown champions for 30-40 years.