Johnny Manziel Repents & A Quick Look at The 6-4-3 DP
Welcome to Saturday! It's so nice to see, and not a minute too soon. You feel like a summertime shady place, a warm embrace and...well that is about as far as I can get it. Finding your missing shoe lace? In times of need, seeing a friendly face? Wait, that last one wasn't that bad...put that one at the end. Ok, so Saturdays are about to ramp up - NCAA Football (Rutgers' first season in the BIG14, it's dumb to call it the BIG10 there are 14 teams in it) and the beginning of the Barclay's English Premier League (EPL) season. Soccer doesn't end with the World Cup, it only gets feistier because everyone is playing for lands, titles and money. (bad Braveheart reference). Let;s dive into it and see what's going on in the world of sports this Saturday.
1. "Johnny Football" Johnny Manziel has been a naughty boy (again) and was photographed rolling up a $20 bill in a bathroom in Las Vegas. I assume it was to make it fit as efficiently as possible into the bathroom attendant's pocket. More space equals more money, and Johnny can avoid to slip the bathroom attendant a crispy Andrew Jackson (is it ever all about the Jacksons? Maybe that one time they had that E! True Hollywood story about Tito and Jermaine). BUT the Cleveland Browns organization, who drafted him this past April, did not think he was being a good tipper and a model newly minted millionaire...oh no! They took this photo to mean that he was crushing copious amounts of cocaine into his face with this rolled up twenty dollar bill. As far as I know, there is no evidence either way (should have been a lawyer), it's just all about how you look at it. The old adage is that a picture is worth a thousand words. Maybe I am wrong here and probably so...Johnny has reportedly apologized for "rookie mistakes". Is he already paving the way for when he reads the defense wrong and fires a sick pass into the waiting arms of the free safety for a pick 6? I hope not! Come on Johnny - Cleveland needs you...a lot.
2. 6-4-3 Double Play - for those of you who do not know what this means, it is when a batter in baseball hits a ground ball in the infield (with a runner on first) that is then fielded by the shortstop (6), thrown to the second baseman (4) who gets a force out at second and then fires the ball over to the first baseman (3) to get the batter out at first. When executed properly it is majestic, the perfect combination executing what you practice and finely honed individual skills. One of the best things about this play is that more often than not the most grateful player after the aforementioned play is over is the pitcher (1). He may have walked the player on first or given up a sharply hit ball up the middle and feels like garbage about either play. He is relieved to have the bases cleaned up and loves his infielders for it. On the other hand, the manager of the other team is far from happy and doesn't give a damn about how flawlessly the second baseman turned on a dime and fired a strike to the first baseman. He just fired his chaw at the batboy and headed into the clubhouse for a breather.
What am I getting at? Good question - The board who oversees the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame has announced that they will reduce the number of years of ballot eligibility from 15 to 10. While this seems to the casual follower of baseball to be not a big deal...that whole do your business in the pot or get off thing, what it really means is that players who enjoyed the Steroid Era or JUICE BALL, now have less time to politic and rework their image in the public's eye (I'm looking at you Mr. McGwire and your batting coach gig). The thing is 10 years is a ton of time to get inducted into the Hall of Fame anyway. It shouldn't take the Baseball Writer's Association of America 10 years to figure out if you are "Hall-worthy" or not. Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Roger Clemens you have been put on notice and it doesn't look good. Not to belabor the point, but the Hall of Fame inductee with the highest voter approval rating...not Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron or Cal Ripken Jr...nope Tom "Tom Terrific" Seaver. Yep, you got it. Deal with it.
Moving along as this is getting quite long winded, let's wrap up what's new in the 'hood.
Mets - win 3-2 over Brew Crew. Yanks - win 6-4 over Bluebirds. Both play today at 7PM and 1PM respectively. Jake Peavy to the Giants (making that playoff push I guess). Red Bulls play Arsenal FC tonight at 5PM in Harrison New Jersey - Get out there if you can! See the RBs and some of the EPL's greats. Outside of that, enjoy the summer Saturday and keep it real.
Happy Watching!
-Shaun
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