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Big Z

Are Kansas City Fans the Worst Fans in Sports?

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Obviously, it’s not fair to call out all Kansas City sports fans after one jackass broke out a laser pointer at a football game. That being said, “Are Boston Fans the Worst Fans in Sports?” would be the headline we’d all be seeing today had a fan in Gillette Stadium pointed a laser at Patrick Mahomes Sunday night. The NFL would investigate. The government shutdown would end so that a congressional investigation could be launched. ESPN would suspend regularly scheduled programming to endlessly cover it for two weeks up until the Super Bowl.

The sports media castigated Boston sports fans after a Chiefs player got beer thrown at him in October. Will we hear the same condemnation of Kansas City fans after a fan pointed a laser at Patriots players? A week after they threw snowballs at Indianapolis Colts players? Don’t hold your breath.

I’m not condoning what the Patriots fan did in October. Throwing objects at athletes is unacceptable. Fans who throw objects at athletes are morons and should get tossed. But pointing a laser at an athlete while on the field of play seems a bit more serious.

While I don’t want to see LASERGATE, I do hope the Chiefs and the NFL find the fan responsible for this incident and punish them accordingly. Spectators who point lasers should be punished at least as harshly as spectators who throw objects on the field. Neither is acceptable behavior at a sporting event.

A Patriots spokesman told the Boston Herald the team had no comment, but was aware of the news. Smart move. I hope the Patriots stiff arm this story and move on. There’s no need for them to get caught up in another bye-week sideshow. I only post it here in case the Worldwide Leader doesn’t get to it.

Is Yesterday’s Patriots Win a Dead Cat Bounce?

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The Dolphins beating the Patriots with a Miami Miracle in Week 14 was a dead cat bounce. The Steelers beating the Patriots 17-10 in Week 15 was a dead cat bounce. The Vikings beating the Lions in Detroit in Week 16 was a dead cat bounce. That was not what we witnessed in Foxboro yesterday afternoon.

Of all that was said, written and Tweeted about the Patriots in the last 24 hours, this might be the most ridiculous.

What we witnessed in Foxboro yesterday was the systematic dismantling of a very good football team. The Patriots absolutely manhandled the Chargers. Tom Brady completed 34 of 44 pass attempts for 343 yards. Sony Michel rushed the ball 24 times for 129 yards and three touchdowns. Julian Edelman looked the best he’s looked all season and caught nine balls for 151 yards. James White caught 15 balls for 97 yards.

The Patriots defense held Philip Rivers to 25 of 51 on pass attempts. He did throw for 331 yards and three touchdowns, but much of that damage was done late in the fourth quarter when the game was already out of reach.

This is not to say that the Patriots will beat Kansas City on Sunday. It will be a very tough game on the road against a team that has already demonstrated that it can handle playoff pressure in the elements. But don’t tell me that the Chiefs are going to run the Patriots out of the building. That’s not going to happen. This will not be a repeat of September 29, 2014.

The Patriots may be underdogs on Sunday, but they’ve got a chip and a chair. Time and again, they’ve shown us that’s all they need.

 

NFL Divisional Round Picks

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Many football fans will tell you that AFC/NFC Championship weekend is the best football weekend of the year, but the Divisional Round weekend is nothing to sneeze at. The best eight teams remain and there are four great games on the slate this weekend. And boy do I love professional football games on Saturday afternoons. The only way this weekend could be any better is if I were in Rhode Island. [I could’ve paid my rent betting against the Irish two weeks ago.]

With that said, here are The 300s staff picks for this weekend.

Papa Giorgio: I bet money line, so my picks are straight up.

Colts +165 The Chiefs haven’t won a home playoff game since January 8th, 1994. Enough said.
Cowboys +240 No LA team has home field advantage. Maybe the Raiders if they didn’t blow that whole scenario.
Pats -180 Never bet against the Pats, ever. A trick I learned over the years being the only anti-Pats staffer of The 300s is you bet the Pats. This way, if they win, you make money and if they lose, well, at least they’re out.
Eagles +270 Nick Foles the playoff legend.

Joey Ballgame: We have two action packed games per night over the course of the next 48 hours.

For the first time in a long time the AFC is an absolute crap shoot. Since 2001, save a year here or there, the AFC title game has been played by that year’s contender against the Patriots. This year it’s an honest to God four-team race. Possibly the most intriguing team out of the four is the Colts, who started out sluggish and now just seem to forget how to lose.

In the NFC, it for me really comes to the Saints and Philly. I think New Orleans has enough on both sides of the ball to negate the late cancellation of  Nick Foles’ vacation two years in a row.

Mattes:

Indy +4.5 / Over 54
Dallas +7 / Over 49
LA Chargers +4 / Under 48
New Orleans -8 / Under 52

Red:

Indy vs KC Its going to be a cold night with the possibility of more snow coming down so who does that benefit more? I know the Colts have developed a strong running game behind Marlon Mack over the latter part of the year, but I just don’t have a lot of faith in a dome team going out and winning in a cold, sloppy Kansas City. The Chiefs have been a high powered passing game in particular, which is the kind of offense that doesn’t typically do well in poor weather. However KC has been more of a big play offense rather than a timing based offense and are the No. 1 seed coming off a bye so I have to go with the Chiefs winning and covering the 5 point spread on Saturday.

DAL vs LAR The Rams are the No. 2 seed in the NFC and got off to a blazing 8-0 start before finishing 13-3, including 2 losses in December. The 3 losses they had this year? Philadelphia, Chicago, and New Orleans; all playoff teams. I think we see a high scoring game, but the Cowboys will lean on Ezekiel Elliot (1,434 rushing yards and another 567 receiving yards on the season) to take advantage of the Rams’ porous run defense, which allowed 5.1 yards per carry during the regular season. The Cowboys will kick the trend of playoff flameouts over the past 20 years and give us the biggest upset of the NFL playoffs thus far.

NE vs LAC We discussed this at length on The 300s Podcast the other day, but I have the Patriots winning by a FG and continuing the trend of Philip Rivers unable to top Tom Brady. Patriots won’t cover, but they’ll advance to their EIGHTH straight AFC Championship game. 

PHI vs NO The Saints have been one of the consistently best teams in the NFL this year and as impressive as the defending champs have been with their backup QB, I think this is where the legend of Nick Foles finally dies. Philadelphia won’t be able to keep up with a well rested Saints team playing at home in the dome. (-8) is a big spread though so I have the Eagles covering with the Saints winning by a TD.

Big Z:

Indy +4.5 / Over 54 This Indy team looks like it’s a team on a run with a healthy Andrew Luck. KC is a good team but with a young QB they still might be a year or two away.

Dallas +7 / Under 49 I like the ‘boys and Zeke in a grind-it-out win.

LA Chargers +4 / Under 48 As I said on the podcast I think the Pats win but it’s a tight one. Call me crazy, but I have feeling Gostkowski misses bunny tomorrow too.

Philly +8 / Over 52 I have a hard time seeing a good team getting blow out at this time of year. Saints win but it’s not a laugher. Also, gotta like the over indoors.


Biz Markie Steals the Show at Target Center ’90s Night

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img_4444Friday night was ’90s night at Target Center for the Minnesota Timberwolves/Orlando Magic game. The Timberwolves wore their Kevin Garnett Classic Edition uniforms, the jumbotron went old school for the night and Christian Laettner made an appearance. The only thing missing was Roundball Rock.

[Side note – Roundball Rock is back! On Fox College Hoops.]

It was Biz Markie who stole the show on Friday night, though, with his halftime performance of Kevin Youkilis’s walkup song Just a Friend.

It was the first halftime show I’ve ever stayed in my seat to watch, and way better than the usual halftime show of a guy standing on a dozen stacked up chairs.

Just When I Thought the Patriots Were Out, They Pull Me Back In

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To paraphrase the great Vin Scully the Patriots are not only alive, they are well. As Dan Fouts said on the broadcast of yesterday’s game, reports of Brady’s (and the Patriots’) demise have been greatly exaggerated. While the 2018 Patriots team is not the steamroller that past teams have been, they still have a chip and chair. Looking around the table, there’s no one here they can’t beat.

That’s not to say the Patriots are the favorites. They’re not:

They’ll find out their divisional round opponent next week, and will host them on Sunday, January 13 at 1:05 PM. The Sunday game is a bit troubling, as the Patriots typically make better playoff runs when they open on a Saturday. Since 2001, the Patriots have always opened the playoffs at home and are 10-0 when opening the playoffs on a Saturday. They are 3-2 when opening the playoffs on a Sunday.

Prior to this season, the Patriots received first-round byes in 12 of their 15 playoff appearances since 2001. They have opened the playoffs at home after a bye week on a Saturday in nine out those 12 playoff runs. The Patriots won all nine of those Saturday night games. With an extra day of rest, they also went on to win the AFC Championship in seven of those nine seasons. The Patriots are just 1-2 in Brady Era AFC Championship games that come after a Sunday victory in the divisional round.

Still, it wouldn’t be shocking to see this team make a run. Would a Chiefs, Chargers or Texans slip up surprise anyone? The Ravens are 6-1 with Lamar Jackson at QB, but does anyone expect the Ravens to make a run with a rookie QB? Are the Colts with Andrew Luck the team to look out for? It’s the Anything Can Happen AFC!

I’d be just as hard pressed to predict who will come out of the NFC, but if forced to make a pick I would pick the Saints. Who ever comes out of the NFC, though, I’d have a hard time picking the Patriots to beat them in the Super Bowl. While it’s technically a neutral-site game and not a road game, I have a hard time seeing the Patriots going into a hostile environment and keeping up with the Saints (or Rams).

Of course I’d rather the Patriots be a 14-2 juggernaut heading into January, but this could still be a fun run to watch. While they’re not underdogs, they’re not the favorite either. With Brady 41 years old and Gronk possibly playing in his last few games as a Patriot, this could be last call for the Patriots Dynasty. If they could cap it off with another championship this year it might be the most impressive one, and most fun to watch.

Yet.

Taking a Look at the 2019 Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot

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The National Baseball Hall of Fame released the 2019 Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot last month. While I don’t have a ballot to cast myself, I once again took a look at all of the names on the ballot to determine who I would vote for if I did have a ballot to cast. The 2019 ballot features 35 players, and voters are allowed to vote for up to 10 players.

After reviewing all 35 players on the ballot, I determined there would have been eight players on my ballot. They are:

Mariano Rivera
Barry Bonds
Roger Clemens
Sammy Sosa
Manny Ramirez
Curt Schilling
Billy Wagner
Roy Halladay

  • Mariano Rivera, the greatest relief pitcher of all time, is a no-brainer. The all-time saves leader was consistently excellent for 19 seasons. A 13-time all-star, Rivera posted a career ERA of 2.21.
  • As I’ve said before, I wouldn’t have any qualms about voting for suspected PED users. Baseball was the wild west during the Steroids Era. I don’t think we’ll ever know for sure who used, who didn’t, and who just dabbled. Rather than get into that, I’d rather just vote for the best players. That’s why I would vote for Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.Bonds won seven MVP awards, including FOUR in a row 2001-2004. Clemens won seven Cy Young Awards and won the award back-to-back on two occasions, a decade apart. They are undeniably the best hitter and pitcher of their generation.
  • Sammy Sosa was the 1998 NL MVP and is the only man in history with three 60+ home run seasons. Sosa played in the same era as Bonds so he is not the best player of his era, but few players were ever as dominant as Sosa was for six straight seasons, 1998-2003.
  • I’ve flipped on Manny Ramirez. I wrote last year that he never won an MVP award, regularly quit on his team and teammates, and actually flunked drug tests. But, if I am being consistent and just look at the numbers, he’s a Hall of Famer. 555 home runs. 1831 runs batted in.  A career .312 hitter with a .996 OPS. The guy made 11-straight all-star teams from 1998-2008.And while it is commonly accepted that he would quit on his team at times, he was never an impediment to winning. His teams won two World Series, four pennants, and Ramirez played in 111 playoff games from 1995-2009. He was the best right-handed hitter in the game in the early 2000s and one of the biggest and best free agent signings in the history of the game. For that reason, I’m in on Manny.

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  • Curt Schilling was the best big-game pitcher in the game for more than a decade. He went 11-2 with a 2.23 ERA in 19 postseason appearances and won a ring in Arizona before winning two in Boston. You can’t tell the story of baseball in the 2000s without him. I wouldn’t retweet him, but I would check the box for him.
  • I’d still vote for Billy Wagner this year out of principle. Trevor Hoffman got in last year but I believe Wagner was the better reliever. The only number Hoffman has on Wagner is saves. Hoffman saved 601 games in 18 years and Wagner saved 422 in 16 years. But Wagner had a better win-loss percentage, a substantially lower ERA, he struck out more batters in almost 200 fewer innings, had a lower WHIP and a better strikeout-to-walk ratio.
  • Roy Halladay only won 203 games, but he was a beast for a solid decade. He won Cy Young Awards in 2003 and 2010, and made eight all-star teams during his 16-year career. He threw 67 complete games and 20 shutouts in a time when not many other guys regularly went the distance. On October 6, 2010, in his first postseason appearance, he threw just the second postseason no-hitter in baseball history. When the Doc was on, he was exceptional, and that’s why he’d get my vote.

Regarding some notable candidates who I wouldn’t have voted for…

Edgar Martinez was a very good player for a long period of time but was never the best player on his own team (Griffey, A-Rod, Ichiro). I do not care that he was primarily a DH. If you contribute more to your team as a DH than a first baseman or third baseman, then you should DH. But while Martinez was a professional hitter for a long period of time, he was never the most feared bat in the league (or lineup).

Mike Mussina was perennial 1A starter in the AL East for 18 years. Mussina pitched for some very good teams, but never won a ring and he was never the most feared pitcher in the game. Mussina only pitched one full season with a sub-3.00 ERA.

Andy Pettitte was a perennial #2 starter for very good teams. He logged more than a full season’s worth of playoff starts (44) and innings (276.2), and has five rings to show for it. Still, he was never one of the best pitchers in the game.

 

Hit me up with your thoughts on Twitter @The300sBigZ

Secret Santa Gone Wrong

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Thank you, office secret Santa, or as you should be called, 'disappointment roulette.' #FallonTonight http://t.co/azFxNRRQur

FOX News – According to an anonymous post on Reddit, a mother allegedly reached out to her Secret Santa gifter to both say thank you for the presents, and ask for another one…

“So…I know this is kinda awkward…but the spending limit was $50 and I looked online and it seems that the blanket and chocolates only add up to about $30?” the woman’s text reads.

“do you think it’s possible you could get me something else? My kids have been spending me up the wazoo! LOL.”

You can read the entire text message exchange here. From this exchange, it’s clear that this Secret Santa handled it better than most people would. The recipient had the gall to look up the prices of the presents and ask for more, and the Secret Santa actually offered throw her a twenty! That’s saintlike!

I wouldn’t even have responded to the first text, never mind the text where she asked for a Samsung Galaxy Tab. What planet in this galaxy is she from? This Secret Santa deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for how he handled this situation.

Stories like this are the reason why I don’t participate in office Secret Santas or Yankee Swaps. I made the mistake of participating in an office Secret Santa my first year in cubicle life. The spending limit was a much more appropriate $15, so I bought a craft beer six pack for my recipient and threw in a nice bottle opener to get up to about $15. My Secret Santa got me a few cans of Corona Light, a candy bar, and a shamrock koozie.

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I didn’t care about getting something back for about $15. I was disappointed by the shameless lack of effort. My gift clearly came out of the vegetable drawer of their refrigerator and their junk drawer. At 7:30 AM that morning. I decided to sit out the Yankee Swap the next year and watched as the boss nabbed the best gift early on and no one else had the guts to steal it from him.

When I get invites to Secret Santas or Yankee Swaps now, I just buy myself another Red Sox hat and call it a day.

Baines and Smith Get the Call to the Hall

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Congratulations to Harold Baines and Lee Smith. They just received their game’s highest honor after long and distinguished careers. The National Baseball Hall of Fame is one of the most exclusive clubs in sports. Receiving the call to the Hall yesterday must have been an honor and a thrill. But if we’re being honest, it was probably also a bit of a surprise.

In his 22 seasons in Major League Baseball from 1980 to 2001, Baines led his league in an offensive category once. In 1984, Baines led the American League with a .541 slugging percentage. That’s it. He was a six-time all-star, and won a Silver Slugger award in 1989, but he never placed higher than ninth in MVP voting. He received MVP votes for only four seasons, 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1985. He never played in a World Series.

Baines certainly had an enviable career. He played in the big leagues for more than two decades and compiled some great numbers. He’s in the top 50 all time in hits (46th), total bases (43rd) and runs batted in (34th), though that’s due in large part to his longevity. He’s 20th in career games and 33rd in career at bats. Still a wildly successful career, but it’s hard to say that he was one of the all-time greats or even one of the best of his era.

That seems to be the opinion of the vast majority of the baseball writers, too. He appeared on the baseball writers’ ballot five times and never received more than 6.1% of the vote before falling off the ballot after 2011.

Lee Smith has a better Hall of Fame case. A seven-time all-star, Smith led his league in saves four times and retired as the all-time saves leader. He’s currently third on the all-time saves list behind Trevor Hoffman and Mariano Rivera. Good company. Smith finished in the top five in Cy Young Award voting three times in the early ’90s, and posted a career ERA of 3.03 in 1022 career games, 12th most by a pitcher.

In his 18-year career, though, Smith pitched in just four playoff games. He suited up for eight teams in 18 seasons. That’s not unusual for a relief pitched, but you wouldn’t expect an all-time great to bounce around like that.

The Hall of Fame Eras Committees, formerly the Veterans Committee, should be tasked with electing to the Hall of Fame players who may have been unfairly overlooked in their time. They should not look to push in borderline candidates like Baines, Smith and Jack Morris and Alan Trammell last year, players who already had their fair shot on the writers’ ballot.

The election process isn’t perfect, but it does seem to get it right more often than not. More inductees like this from the Eras Committees will water down the baseball Hall of Fame and turn it into the basketball Hall of Fame. And if that happens, you better believe I’ll be pushing hard for Johnny Damon the next time the Today’s Game Committee meets.

 

Friday Morning Randomness

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Man do I miss wasting entire Saturdays watching 1990s SNL reruns on Comedy Central. A great way to recap a great decade. Each episode was a nice little time capsule.

Obviously Dana Carvey’s George H. W. Bush impression was legendary, but don’t sleep on Phil Hartman’s Bill Clinton. Darrell Hammond was great on SNL for many years, but I always felt Hartman was a little better at capturing the essence of “Slick Willie.”

Airlines Behaving Badly

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WECT – Southwest Airlines has apologized after one of its employees reportedly name-shamed a 5-year-old girl.

Traci Redford said a gate agent at California’s John Wayne Airport made fun of her daughter’s name, Abcde Redford, according to KABC.

She pronounces her name “ab-city” and because she suffers from epilepsy, she and her mom always pre-board.

The Redfords were flying home to El Paso, TX, when the gate agent laughed at the name, pointed it out to coworkers and even went so far as to post a photo of Abcde’s boarding pass on social media so that others could join her in name shaming.

Clearly this airline employee acted inappropriately, to put it mildly. No surprise there. I’m never surprised by the incompetence or depravity of airlines. This is an industry that thinks it is acceptable to literally drag paying customers off of planes if they sell too many tickets for a flight.

In this case I don’t know whats worse, name shaming the child or thinking it was a good idea to share a picture of her boarding pass on social media. How do people this stupid get jobs? It would be bad enough if the airline employee did this to some random fat dude, but to a child who didn’t pick this name? Not a great look, Southwest.

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[And don’t even get me started on Southwest Airlines. I can’t stand Southwest Airlines. They are a bus company that operates planes. They don’t have assigned seats and the Wi Fi / in-flight entertainment never works. They’re so cheeky in their Wanna Get Away ads, advertising $49 fares. If you want to fly from Pittsburgh to Buffalo that is. Want to fly from Boston to LA? Have fun stopping once or twice. I once saw a flight from Minneapolis to Boston that stopped in Denver. No lie. But if you want to fly from Hartford to Cincinnati, they’re the airline for you.]

That being said, while I feel bad for Abcde, her mom can go pound sand. I hate that Traci is getting the attention she so obviously craves. When you name your child Abcde, you know exactly what you’re signing up for. Why should Traci get to play victim on social media? Abcde is the one that has live with the unpronounceable name. At least Prince was an adult and made the decision himself when he changed his name to Logo. Hollow circle above downward arrow crossed with a curlicued horn-shaped symbol and then a short bar in 1993.

George Costanza was better at baby names than Traci Redford.

At least Seven, or Soda, or Mug Costanza would have been easy to pronounce. Hell, Qwerty would have been a better choice than Abcde.

In conclusion, I hope Abcde can go by Abby when she gets to grade school if she wants and I wish her well. Traci and the Southwest employee can both go piss off.