Daily Brew 8/19

Randy Moss said that he has smoked pot in the past, and he "may" still do it. The biggest surprise here is that, at least according to him, he doesn't regularly smoke pot anymore. Is this really news? How many of us didn't think Moss toked? Lets not forget he lost his scholarships from Notre Dame and Florida State for grades, pot and fighting. He nearly ran a cop over in Minnesota and it was discovered pot was in the car. He says he never did it during the season, but last I checked that Minnesota incident occured in like November or December (during the season) and he did have marijuana in the car. In the ash try in a bag, that doesn't sound like he wasn't intending to use it, so I'm not buying that "I don't do it during the regular" season excuse. I might do it every once in a blue moon is how he put it when asked if he still does. That is priceless. I'm betting a blue moon is days not begining with sun, mon or sat. I'm personally calling for the Moss "once in a blue moon" Raiders poster, better yet, he just found the name for his autobiography.

Listen, we all know guys who still light the pipe, and are way too old to be doing it. We all have that friend with the goofy nickname who's still living in a college apartment, works part time, wears sweatpants and watches cartoons all day, so I don't really think this is a big deal. Yes it's illegal, but all the guys who call for Moss or Ricky Williams to have huge fines or suspensions levied on them have all tried pot too, or know someone like those guys. Why should we expect athletes to be different that what we are? Some guys do it, some guys don't, and some are hooked on it. Same can be said for all of us. I don't want anyone to read that argument I made for those guys and think I'm with them and I'm a big fan of the marijuana myself, I'm not. But, why is it that Randy Moss and Ricky Williams are catching as much hell as Ray Lewis did when he "allegedly" was involved in a murder? Look around your office right now, I garuntee you at least 1 out of every 6 guys in your office still uses marijuana. Again does this make it alright, no it doesn't, but lets not go pointing our fingers at the "pot head" players before we take a look around our surroundings.

Dave Bliss is a candidate for a CBA job. That is a joke, people should be more enraged about this than the above story. Why isn't this getting any pub? This guy should never work again, not only in coaching, but in society as a hole. He is a sorry excuse for a human being and what he did was aboslutely dispicable. He slandered the character of a dead man, covered up many unseedly things, and causes the biggest college sports scandal in the history of the NCAA. He should be in prison.

On a lighter note, the Crew got after the Rocket last night to the tune of five runs and picked up a huge win over the Astros 5-2. Game 2 of the four game set is tonight with Doug Davis taking on Wandy Rodriguez. Memo to Ned Yost, Rickie Weeks is not a lead off hitter. Just because your teams only leadoff guy is injured doesn't mean you bump Rickie up one slot. Find someone who can get on base to lead off. Hell let Bill Hall or Damian Miller lead off, but not Ricky Weeks. The biggest misconception about a leadoff hitter is that he needs to be fast, he doesn't. He just needs to see pitches and get on base.

Apparently Zeke is not going to land Dsagna Diop afterall, but he is going after a guy named James Jones? Exactly, this just goes to show you he may not always make the biggest mistake possible, but he'll at least make a big mistake. God love him.

I'm beginning to start to believe the Robert Ferguson trade rumors. Antonio Chatman has believe or not been steady and a reliable target for Favre, and they really like the young guys Terrance Murphy, Craig Braig and Andrae Thurman, especially Murphy. Ferguson has been steady, and a guy I've grown to love, but he looks like he's not going to be anything more than a third reciever, and they're paying him to start. I don't buy for one minute the "Ferguson and a pick to the Eagles for Coery Simon" talk, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's gone.

UW-Stevens Point mens basketball coach Jack Bennett has announced his retirement. Bennett has coached for 33 seasons, 9 at Point, and compiled a record of 200-56 while coaching the Pointers and led them to back to back Championships. His .781 winning percentage at Point is the second highest among all active D3 coaches and third highest in WIAC history.

I liked Gaddis' "Oliver Stone" conspiracy theory about Kobe and Jerry Buss, however I don't think Eagle, I mean Kobe and Jelly Beane (his pops) are on the best of terms, so I don't really think he'd get Henry Bibby fired so his dad could coach.

In a new feature to this site, Gaddis and are are going to take your questions in a column called WWZD, or What Would Zeke Do? You name the player, and the current contract and we tell you if Zeke signs him (usually does) and for how much (usually at least double what he's making now) or if he would pull the trigger on any proposed trades. It doesn't have to be just Basketball either. Let's assume Zeke is running every franchise for every major professional sports league. Send in the querries, this should be fun.

That's about all I got, can't wait till 5:00.

Pancakes...

...Of the last two Days

So it's been a few days, but here is what's been happening and what is happening as we race toward the weekend:

Story: This really didn't come as a great shock to anyone, but Randy Moss admitted to having smoked marijuana since he entered the NFL. I haven't been this shocked since Larry Brown signed with the Knicks. Isn't there some way the NFL can punish this guy for admitting to drug use? I know it is against the rules of the NFL to use the drug, be aren't we forgetting it is also against the law? Forget the fine from the NFL, let's get these guys fined and ticketed for their use of drugs. Moss goes on to say in his interview for Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel that he doesn't want kids to hear this and think, "Oh man, Moss uses it and look at him". What?!? If you don't want kids to think that, don't say it. Randy Moss has incredible talent. Too much we look only at that and not what people do otherwise. If we weren't so impressed by athletic accomplishment to fork out the millions of dollars these people get every year, what percentage of them would be living under the poverty line? 30, 50, 70% of all professional athletes? It's sad to say, but it is probbably the latter.

What the...?: "Hey, Filzen, I thought you said that Tiger, Phil, Vijay, and Retief wouldn't be in a tournament together until maybe the Tour Championship? Aren't they all in this week's WGC NEC Invitational? What gives?" True that, true that, my bad (thumping chest) my bad. I forgot this is one of the most popular events on the Tour for these players other that the 4 Majors. In fact, as I sit here, eat my lunch and type this, the "Big Four" sit as follows:

1. Tiger -4
1. Singh -4
10. Phil -1
68. Goosen +7, so he's done.

Plus, check out some of the names in the top 13; Adam Scott, Kenny Perry, Colin Montgomerie, Luke Donald, Sergio, Davis Love III, and Chris DiMarco. This field is full of names and it has a $7 million purse, which by the way, is $750,000 more than the PGA Championship last week.

Just for the record, here are some of the most popular events for players and the fans:

The Buick Invitational in January- the first big event of the year
FBR Open is Scottsdale in February- probably the most popular event for the fans. This course holds the self-proclaimed "Most Exciting Hole in Golf" on the par 3, 16th, which slightly resembles a basketball arena. Seriously, the grandstands now pretty much surround the hole, the players walk underneath the stands to come to the tee box where they are greeted by thousands of raucous fans. I make sure I don't miss this event on Sunday every year.
Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February- all around great event
The Players Championship at Sawgrass in March- this is usually used as a final tune-up for the Master's by many of the top names.
The Memorial in May- Nicklaus' event and many of the top names appear here every year.
The Buick Open in August- Tiger is always on his game at this event.
American Express Championship in October- these WGC events always bring the top golfers in the world and the competition is excellent.
The Tour Championsip in November- let's see, the last event of the year, all of that season's winners in the field, yeah, it's a good tournament.

Link: I stole this right from the surfcitymeetswb blog by my friend John (you can link to it on our page, LA to the WB). It is a great link and you will laugh at many of the results. Anyway, check this one out http://www.playerappreciate.com/pimphandle.asp. From now on, you can just call me Papa N. Jazz.


Random Thought: Randy Moss and Ricky Williams should open an herbal remedies shop when their playing days are done.

Prediction: I will get my hopes up if the Cubs sweep the Rockies, but come crashing back to Earth next week when Atlanta and red-hot John Franceour and Andruw Jones come to town.

Quote: I only added this because the quote is so good. Calvin Broadus, or as some of the white kids call him, Snoop Dog makes this statement about why he is so intent on forming his own California youth football league,
"It's so easy for a kid to join a gang, to do drugs. We should make it that easy to be involved in football and academics." Excellent, and who better to lead the charge of getting kids out of gangs and drugs than the guy who was on trial for murder in 1995 and made his money from rapping about gangs and drugs? This is like having Kenneth Lay give a college graduation speech about business ethics.

-Until next time...

Daily Brew 8/17

Sorry there was no Daily Brew yesterday, it was a hectic day at Charter Media for this production coordinator. Now then, here's some things you may have missed in the last 48 hours.

The Brewers, more importantly Victor Santos defeated the Rockies last night. Read that again. So Ben Sheets gets the loss and is socked to the count of 10 earned runs, and yet Vic picks up a W and only allows 3 to the same team? There are better odds of Sheets giving up 10 runs ANY team than Santos only allowing 3 at Coors. Ned Yost got tossed in the game in one of the funniest scenes I've ever seen at a baseball game. You could hear everything both men were saying to each other. It was great, and the Brewers TV team didn't appologize for it. As soon as he was tossed I knew the Crew was going to win, because Ned wouldn't be in there to get outmanaged in a tight game.

Speaking of the TV team, Daron Sutton was gone for a couple games this week, replaced by Craig Coshun. How is it possible that he even returned. When he was gone and replaced by a competant person, you're telling me that didn't get the wheels turning for the execs at FSN North? Hmm, so this is what a non-crappy announcer sounds like. Bill Schroeder even sounded better with Sutton gone. I can take one more sub .500 season if it means Sutton, Brainerd and possibly Schroeder (though I'm starting to believe that with the right partner he wouldn't be too bad.) Please FSN North, cut the cord on Sutton and Brainerd. I'll even contribute financially to the contract buyout.

Back to Yost for a minute, what's the Crew's record in games he's been tossed from? I'll betcha they're 4-2.

TO returned to camp today. Yippie. Seriously, how can anyone still defend this guy. Rodney Peete said it last night as well. He said when it first happened he had his side because of the whole player sticking up for a player thing, but he can't defend him anymore. Yet Michael Irvin and Drew Rosenhaus are the only ones to defend this guy. Rosenhaus even knows TO is wrong and this new contract thing is ludacris, but he also knows if he can get TO a new deal he will be the most powerful man in the NFL. Irvin is just a bitter old reciever forced to retire because of injury, sticking up for another wide reciever because "they're not paid as much as qb's." Shut up.

Barry Bonds is speaking of a September 1st return, as Nate said. Although I am a Bonds fan I have to admit, Filzen's quote of "Why September 1, do they stop testing for steroids on September 1?" was good. Damn you Nate Filzen.

Kyle Boller officially sucks on Madden 2006. I threw 5 picks with him the other night.

The Brewers had their first player busted for steroids. It was some minor leaguer in A Ball, whose name escapes me. Who cares he was playing in A ball.

Former big league manager (including the Brewers 63-65) Bobby Bragan became the oldest person to manage a baseball game last night when he skippered the Fort Worth Cats at the ripe old age of 87. The kicker, Bragan was tossed from the game in the third inning.

The NBA had their amnesty provision cuts the other day and get this, the Knicks used the "Allan Houston Rule" to cut Jerome Williams. This stuff is comedy gold, people wouldn't believe you if you made up half of these moves Isaiah does. What is David Stern thinking now? They need a New York team to do well, and Zeke is just running the Knicks into the gutter. Let's see cut Williams and save $19 in cap or cut Houston and save $40+ million. Obviously it Williams. Also don't forget Zeke threw big money at big disappointment Jerome James. I think James will be making more money in millions per season than he has averaged points in his career. Now he's going after even bigger lottery flop Dsagna Diop. This is awesome. Give this man a reality show now. Or better yet ESPN should do a new show like Teammates or Stump the Schwab and call it "What Contract Wouldn't Zeke Take On?" If you can find one, let me know. He'd resign Mike Utley if he was running the Lions. Okay that was low, sorry Mike.

Did you hear Ricky Williams petitioned the league to wear number 27 when he came back, and they turned him down because it would "cost too much" to reproduce Williams jerseys with the number 27. First of all do they realize while it would cost money, they'd also make a killing selling them to Dolphins fans and pot heads. And secondly, the reason why he wanted number 27 is such great stoner thought. He wanted it because 9 is the "perfect" number in the universe and 27 is 9 cubed. Whoa, that's like really deep brah.

The Real World picked up a little steam last night, but the show has still been disappointing since the first few episodes. It misses Danny, because more Danny means more Melinda and more Melinda means less Abe version 2.0 aka Wes.

Rambling like a School Girl

-The 99 worst things about sports needs to be read by everyone.

-From the male part of a duo who celebrated their 30th anniversary today, "The Packers should trade Donald Driver to get a linebacker or safety for him. Ferguson is going to be better than Driver and Donald is small, short arms the ball occassionally, and will get hurt this year, trade him for someone who will help the defense." You know what? I am all for improving the porous defense of the Packers, but who would be the third wide receiver?

-I can't believe Lazer103 no longer exists. This absolutely shocked me when I heard about it yesterday. 18 years of rock in Milwaukee is gone and it has been replaced by The Hog, a station like The Brew, no deejays, almost constant music, and a lot of variety. Not sports news, but big news to radio listeners here in Milwaukee.

-I don't get Barry Bonds. First, he's on the shelf for the season, then he doesn't even know if he'll be back next year, then his rehab is going well, then he's still not returning this year, then he thinks he can, one more time he says he won't be back this year, and now he says he could be ready by September? Why then, does the steroid testing end on September 1st? Just shut up and play whenever you are healthy, quit changing your mind.

-Saw a preview for season 3 of The OC for the first time yesterday, let's all hope it is better than season 2. When I say better, I mean more unbelievable plot twists, more characters completely forgotten about, and even worse acting from Mischa Barton. By the way, my pick for character not returning for a 4th season, Summer Roberts.

-If Finley wants a ring, he will not go to the Nuggets. If all he wants is a ring, he will go to Miami, San Antonio, or Detroit and that's it.

-Will there be another tournament this year with Vijay, Phil, Retief, and Tiger all in the field? Maybe The Tour Championship, but that would be it and that's a shame. This is why the PGA should shorten its season. We don't need tournaments every week. If there were only 2-3 a month at most, people would be much more interested in each event because the top players in the world would play in a vast majority of them.

-Is ESPN Hollywood one of the 7 signs of the apocolypse?

-Has anyone seen Quite Frankly with Steven A. Smith, and if so can you let me know if I am missing anything other than him screaming at the camera?

-Another non-sport issue here, but it is something which really angers me. I was driving home from my parents' house tonight and saw a biker coming down the road. My problem with this is that he was driving in the lane of traffic going in the opposite direction he was. Read carefully, walkers and runners are supposed to go against traffic, bikers are supposed to ride WITH TRAFFIC! This is one of my great pet peeves and I can't stand when I see it. Don't people who ride their bike enough know how to ride on the street? Are there laws to prevent this? I know police officers don't have a lot of time to stop bikers who are riding on the wrong side of the road, but it is very dangerous and needs to be dealt with. I feel very strongly about this.

-Finally, if you want to watch men risking their lives (literally) for sport, check out The Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel. It's on Tuesday nights and is absolutely incredible to watch. What these men do for 3 days on the open ocean to catch crab is quite brave, dangerous, scary, and breathtaking. You may never want to eat crab again after watching this program, just so these guys don't have to do this for a living anymore.

-Until next time...

PGA Championship Finish and Other Things

There have been many stories written about the ending to the PGA Championship and how the PGA screwed up in having the tournament end on a Monday. I am one of those who was frustrated by the fact we (the fans) weren't able to see the ending of the tournament yesterday. After I found out what the forecast was for yesterday in New Jersey and that the PGA didn't even really consider moving the start times up, I was upset. Many of the fans of golf and enjoy watching the events (especially the majors) on television weren't able to watch the ending of what was an incredibly exciting golf tournament. Scores up and down all week, Tiger making a run on Sunday, Phil coming back to the field, '95 champion Steve Elkington taking a short lead, even Thomas Bjorn getting into the thick of it after tying a Major tournament record 63 on Saturday.

With the forecast calling for a chance of showers and thunderstorms in the late afternoon and hot and humid conditions all weekend, the PGA should have known the rain would come, and if not at least dark clouds would be rolling in to block out the sunlight. To learn they never even considered moving the times up was ridiculous. They took away from many fans the chance to watch Phil Mickelson (a fan favorite) win his second major after what read like a tremendous wedge shot on the 72nd hole. For those who were lucky enough to see what happened, I'm sure it was thrilling.

The fans were not the only ones who were punished by the suspended play. The final 6 groups did not have to finish in the same conditions the rest of the field did. I'm sure Tiger's fans and he himself were disappointed the leaders didn't have to play 17 and 18 (the longest holes on the course) into the howling wind. As a player who was only 2 behind the leaders, if they play the rest of the round, we may have had a Tiger/Phil playoff. Although the playoff would have ended up being played on Monday anyway, so I still would have missed it. The players returning to the course today had drastically different weather to contend with, soft greens which held the balls, no wind, 20 degree cooler temperatures, longer/thicker rough, and less roll in the fairways. No matter if the conditions were better or worse, it wasn't fair to the rest of the field. Obviously every tournament isn't always going to be able to finish on Sunday, but every effort should be made to ensure Sunday finishes for the Majors. The Masters almost always has a rain delay, they play rounds early, and it is of course "a tradition unlike any other", so there you go.

The PGA is here for the players as well as the fans, but also for money. Unfortunately the latter won in the battle at Baltusrol.



I commented on this in Justin's post earlier today, but my pick of Sergio Garcia was a little premature. He finished the tournament tied for 23rd place after an even par 70 netted him a plus 3, 283 at the PGA. I mentioned that he is hurt by immature golf in Majors, which basically means that he tries to do too much and makes wrong choices on clubs and shot selection occassionally. He is only 25 years old right now and is only going to get better. He will eventually learn how to manage courses, play the shots he is able to play and not try to do more than that, and shape his game for certain courses. Like reader Mark says:

"garcia has all the talent that will eventually push him to the the top tier of golf's elite. plus, most golfers experience the best golf of their career in their 30's. heck, nickalaus won the masters in 1986 when he was 46!"

Very good point. Add to that the fact Vijay Singh didn't win his first Major unitl age 35 and Phil Mickelson didn't win his until he learned how to play in Majors at age 33. Sergio has a bright future ahead of him and will win a Major with in the next 3 years.


I was quite disturbed by the announcers on Saturday and their undying love for Tiger Woods. I realize he is the number 1 golfer in the world, won both the Masters and British Open this season and made the cut on Friday in typical Tiger fashion (birdieing his last hole with no problem), but the way they were talking about him on Saturday was a little frightening. The guys on TNT were absolutely enamored with him, and it didn't seem like it was just with his play. This is going to be a sad comparison for Packers fans, but the way these announcers were talking about him was like how John Madden, the ESPN Sunday Night Football announcers, and Terry Bradshaw talk about Brett Favre. It gets quite disgusting after a while. Tiger was the only big name on the course at the time, but we didn't need to see replays of every one of his shots.


All-in-all, a good tournament, I can't wait for the next Major season to begin in April. There is a lot of golf to be played yet this year, but with Tiger seemingly back, Phil resembling the player who won the Masters last season and 3 tournament early this season, and Ernie, Retief, Vijay, and a slew of new comers playing well, next year should be excellent. And I really can't wait until 2010 when the PGA Championship returns to Wisconsin at Whistling Straits.


For the record, athletes who fall under the category of "guys announcers have man crushes on":

Tiger Woods
Brett Favre
Derek Jeter
Lebron James (yes, already)
Alex Rodriguez
Matt Leinert

That's it for now, I don't know if Leinert should be included, since he's still in college, but feel free to add to the list.


Oh yeah, happy belated birthday Vin, hope it was a good one. See you at the draft!

-Until next time...

Daily Brew 8/15

The Brewers finally snapped their losing streak yesterday with their 8-3 win over the Reds. The skid had reached 5 games, funny how it started at the same time as the wild card talk. The Brewers announced some interesting moves before the game. They announced that they have transfered Jeff Cirillo from the 15 day to the 60 day DL. This move probably unofficially announces the end of Jeff Cirillo's career as a Brewer. They also moved Matt Wise and Julio Santana to the 15 day DL. Hmm, the guys that Ned didn't want to, but yet he still did overuse just got placed on the DL. To fill the roster spots the Brewers recalled Kane Davis (yes the same Kane Davis who came to the Brewers in the first Richie Sexson trade), Jose Capellan and Corey Hart. Hart started yesterdays game in centerfield. I like that idea. Hart is tall and lanky, but he is surprisingly fast. He led the PCL in steals with 31 prior to his call up, and he may just have a chance of being their everyday centerfielder soon. Oh yeah, he hit a 3-run homer yesterday in their 5 run 8th. I'm really pulling for this guy, but I just have one request. Wear sunglasses to the plate and use Corey Hart's "I wear my sunglasses at night" as your music. That would be so awesome.

Ben Sheets pitches tonight at Coors field. Prediction, Sheets goes 7 scoreless and Corey Hart knocks out his second and third career home runs.

The Packers made an interesting move that really caught me by surprise yesterday. They cut Arturo Freeman. I was 110% sure he'd be one of their starting safties to open the year. The surprising thing isn't so much the fact that he's no longer on the team as much as it is they just let him go and didn't try to trade him. He signed with the Titans within four hours of his release, and his agent said 6-12 teams contacted him so there was obviously interest in him.

Seriously, why is Mark Roman still on the team? I'm going to start taking orders for the Mark Roman T-Shirt Jersey. The back will read:

Roman
20

The Front:

New Number
Same Bad Play

Just when you thought T.O. couldn't possibly tarnish his reputation anymore, he shows up to a Falcons game and sits four rows behind the bench. What a jackass. Here's a dose of reality for all the people who called him a hero for playing in the Super Bowl. Although it was gutsy, it has become painfully evident that he did it for more bargaining leverage and reasons other than winning a ring. Oh and by the way stop calling it heroic. Playing a game while 80% healthy is not a heroic effort, jackass.

Phil Mickelson just won the PGA Championship with a birdie on 18. Phil has been my favorite golfer for the last 5-6 years now, and the only thing that disappoints me about this win is that it came one year too late. Where was this last year when I was following you around your final round at the Straits Phil?

Filzen was just a bit off on his prediction of Sergio. Let's face it, he is never going to win anything and he and David Duvall will go down as the biggest disappointments of the Tiger Era.

NFL Network is carrying virtually every preseason game and replaying them for hours at a time. This is the greatest thign on tv since the OC. I literally killed an entire day watching it this weekend.

Wedding Crashers just wasn't as funny the second time around. I saw it again with someone who hadn't seen it yet, and I spent about 10 minutes talking it up. An hour into it I found myself thinking "huh, I remember this being a lot funnier." Still a good movie though.

Will Whitticker looks like he's going to open the season as the starting right guard for the Green Bay Packers. It is nothing short of amazing that the Packers found another 7th round linemen who might end up contributing in a big way (see Jim Ringo, Adam Timmerman, Mark Tauscher and possibly even Scott Wells). Whitticker is a big dude and it gets you salivating over close yardage sets where you'll have Whitticker, Tauscher and Barry all on the right side paving the way for Green. Matt O'Dwyer has remained hurt and I honestly don't see him making this team. Adrian Klemm looks like the starter on the left side at least for now, and according to Mike Sherman, he'll be backed by Scott Wells while Grey Ruegamer will move back to center behind Mike Flannigan.

Former Raider Barret Robbins was arrested on a marijuana possesion charge. Robbins you may remeber, is the Raider who went AWOL right before the Super Bowl and it turned out he spent the hours and nights leading up to the game in Mexico and San Diego Bars. Then came the incident in January where he was shot twice after allegedly fighting with Miami police who had reason to believe he was breaking and entering into someone's apartment. He was later found hiding in the Women's bathroom. He is still awaiting trial for attempted murder. This is just sad to see. Not the fact that a guy who had it all and was a professional athlete has made a mess of his life, but the fact that the guy has allowed his addictions to get the best of him. Robbins has bipolar disorder and stopped taking his medication. Football appears to be all the guy had and now he is in a sad state of depression. I can't say I'd be surprised if I read in a few months "former Raiders lineman found dead." For his sake I hope he can get the help he needs and stay clean and on his medication.

Remember last year when the Ravens were robbed of TO? A good analogy would be you buy a new Mustang, but within hours it's stolen and they guy who takes it totals the car. You get you're money back and decide "you know what, I'll just stick with the Ford Taurus." Well yeah, the Ravens lost him and only got I believe a fourth round pick out of this, but now they really could care less. I'll bet you right now, Ozzie Newsome would have taken a copy of Madden '06 for TO. God I love it. The only downside of him not going to Baltimore is missing the opportunity to see the inevitable "TO offends Ray Lews, and Ray Lewis kicks the crap out of him on the sidelines" spat. I would pay for NFL sunday ticket just to see that.

XBox live might be the single greatest video game invention of all time. I'll leave it at that.