The NHL at 10%

Hockey is violent ballet; grace and guts. And yes, if you’re skating on the same thin ice I am, The Nutcracker would sell more tickets if we knew sometime during the Sugar Plum Fairy one of the dancers would get crosschecked.

Okay, we’re around the 10% mark of the season. No, there was not a 0% report as a) zero means no games have been played, and b) no one wants to be a zero. What you’re going to see here is a breakdown of each team so far by conference and who’s going to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup based upon the current standings. Let’s go East first.

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How I told Effexor XR goodbye… and its cypher to Kiss My Ass

I first wrote this a couple years ago, and have now decided to throw it out there. She, the warrior princess known as Effexor XR, draws circles in my head now and then, and with everything going on these days, it’s damn hard for the effects to entirely disappear, including my sometimes desire to slip back into the world of anti-depressants. However, I am not going to do it. Meditation, yoga, exercise and a semblance of a decent diet (I had an egg on avocado toast for breakfast yesterday… followed up with blueberry pie for breakfast today) seem to be keeping me on an even keel these days. That being said…

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The MLB Playoffs… and Joe Maddon is not Mike Ditka

I’m going to sprint through the baseball playoffs and sprinkle some ‘Maddon Moments’ in to explain, in my mind, what happened to Maddon and the Cubs, while using Ditka like he used Bears fans.

By the time you read this, the wild card games – October 1 and October 2 – may be over, or at least started. It doesn’t really matter much. Those four teams can douse themselves in all the champagne they want, but it’s pretty much a cheap victory. Put it this way, it’s the same kind of victory you get when you visit your elderly grandmother at her assisted living facility and win their corn hole tournament.

But before we dig into the wild card teams, let’s just take a look at the 2016-2019 Cubs vs the 1984-1987 Bears. If you look at their timelines, they are a tad similar. And you can argue both Maddon and Ditka can only deal with the hands they are dealt. True. Think of this like Texas Holdem. Ditka was holding the king and queen of hearts and staring at the ten, jack and ace of hearts face up on the table… and threw out the king ‘aka’ Wilbur Marshall. Maddon’s hand, while good, was an ace and a ten. Still a potentially winning hand, but could have been better. Cubs management bet high on a good, but ultimately bad hand.

OK, now let’s place a hand on the wild card teams – The Rays, the A’s, the Brewers, the Nats.

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The Clock is Your Friend, Soccer

I am a fan of the Premier League Football team Tottenham Hotspur. However, I am not necessarily a zealous fan of football/futbol/soccer for one particular reason – the clock. Fine, I can handle players falling like bowling pins every time they feel a breeze go by from an opposing player. I can handle them laying on the pitch for five minutes writhing in pain grabbing whatever body part they felt was injured… and then getting up and playing some more.

OK, I can barely handle that. That’s dumb. Drag them off the field and get on with it.

What vexes me as much as Wisconsin drivers using the left lane like it’s their Sunday drive is clock management… or lack of clock management. Time was created by man, so let’s use it, shall we? When a player is egregiously fouled by an opposing player by something as awful as a tap on the shoulder and falls into a fetal position onto the field as if someone took their blankie? The clock keeps ticking time off the regulation 45 minute half. Doesn’t seem fair right?

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MLB’s Cy Young Award Nominees and…

With only a tad over two weeks left in the regular season and the pitchers having two, maybe three, starts remaining for each of them, it’s time to take a look at who could drop the Cy Young Award onto their mantel.

First, a little bit about the man. Cy Young, adopted by poor Chinese immigrants and christened Egg Foo Young… hold on, wrong source. Let’s try that again. Cy Young, was born Denton True Young – seriously, his middle name was ‘True’ – in 1867. He threw the pill for the following teams:

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America’s Best Pastime: Position Players 2019

To start, baseball still is “America’s Best Pastime.” Football is “America’s Biggest Obsession.” Now that I have you sports fanatics all in a lather, especially those of you who prefer to crush heads over crushing baseballs, I’m going to drag you deep into the depths of my MVP opinions, ones that I hold as close to my person as a pitcher does his glove when he’s talking to his catcher.

I could’ve just written “MLB League MVPs” and be done with it, but the word ‘position’ will become key. I’m also going to run through this starting with the senior circuit, the National League. Continue reading “America’s Best Pastime: Position Players 2019”

Delicious Darkness of Delusion aka Math Hurts

“What are you going to do now? Hit me? Is that it? I don’t see your reasoning so now you’re going to hit me?”

“Why does it always come to that? Seriously, why? Hitting you would be… well it would be completely unfair because I know what’s coming. It’s not exactly like you’re going to pop me with a surprise left.” Continue reading “Delicious Darkness of Delusion aka Math Hurts”