Pound for Pound Pussy

I don't care what any hardcore MMA fan says Fedor Emelianenko is not the best pound for pound fighter in the world. He may not even be the best heavyweight fighter in the world. He is however a huge pussy who would rather fight washed up fighters in the twilight of their careers than top ranked competitors in the UFC.

It was reported on various websites today that Fedor turned down the richest contract in MMA history, 5 fights for $30 million, to be the premiere fighter of a new promotion, which his manager is co-owner of, called M-1 Global. This rules out the argument that Fedor didn't want to come to the UFC due to financial reasons.

Which leaves me to believe that he knows that he would be dominated if he came to the UFC. To prove my point I need only point out his recent competition.

His last fight was against Andrei Arlovski a man who wasn't relevant in the UFC heavyweight division and hasn't beaten anyone of note since Fabricio Werdum in 2007. His previous fight before that was against Tim Sylvia who is just as irrelevant as Arlovski and is in the twilight of his career. The last fight I will mention, the fight before Sylvia, was against Hong-Man Choi who is best known for his recent fight against Jose Canseco.

These are the men Fedor is beating to merit being called the pound for pound best fighter in the world? Disgraceful. This would be like an NFL team winning the SuperBowl by beating a CFL or NFl Europe team.

Now I am not saying that Fedor isn't a good fighter. He is a great fighter and worthy of praise but he is not the best fighter in the world. The best fighters in the world fight in the UFC and he does not. Therefore he cannot be the best.

To make matters even worse for Fedor the UFC welcomed back Tito Ortiz to the organization on the same day that Fedor turned down his deal. When asked why he came back to the UFC after leaving the way he did Ortiz responded by saying, ""Who would I fight in Strikeforce? Babalu [Sobral]? I'd crush his face. Ken Shamrock? Then I'd be responsible for the first death in MMA. Fedor at catchweight? .... I need to be where the best competition in the world is."

Now people are obviously going to point the finger at Dana White for Fedor not coming to the UFC but in reality White did all that he could. When dealing with Fedor the UFC President did everything he could. He met everyone of his demands including, he offered to pay him more than he’s ever made. He agreed to allow Emelianenko to fight in combat sambo. He agreed to allow Emelianenko to advertise M-1 on his fight shorts, on the apparel he wore and on banners his cornermen brought with them to the cage.

The one roadblock in the negotiations was Fedor's manager Vadim Finkelchtein. Vadim proposed that if the UFC wanted to sign Fedor than they would have to make M-1 Global, Vadim's new organization, a full partner. This would basically mean that White and the UFC would have to give up 50% of their company to Vadim in order to sign Fedor. No fighter is worth that and so obviously White refused.

This does put some of the blame on Vadim but in the end if Fedor wanted to be in the UFC he would simply tell his manager and it would happen. However his actions today show that he has no desire to fight the best fighters in the world and is instead content to fight washed up bums and sideshow freaks.

All this is going to do is hurt Fedor's reputation. Gradually he will become less and less important in the world of MMA as he will not be in the premiere organization. His legacy will suffer and month after month he will continue to drop down the pound for pound rankings as Lesnar, GSP, Silva, Machida, and Penn continue to win fights against good opponents and cement their legitimacy.

This is why Fedor Emelianenko is a Pound for Pound Pussy.

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The List

In February it was revealed that Alex Rodriguez's name had been on a list of major league baseball players that had tested positive for steroids in 2003. The media had a field day with the information and A-rod was faced with a media circus. The list was supposed to be anonymous but someone had leaked his name to the press allowing everyone to find out what most had assumed.

Today 2 more names from that same list were revealed to the public: David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez.

Now I am of course a Red Sox fan and this revelation means that during the 2004 season in which the Sox won the World Series, led by Ortiz and Manny, key members of the team were on steroids.

Am I upset about this? No. Am I surprised by this? Not really. Does this taint their World Series victory? Not really.

Let's start with whether or not I am upset. The short answer is no. Does it bother me that players on my favorite team took drugs in order to be better? No. Then again I have never really had a problem with steroids. I have a problem with the lack of punishment for using steroids but not with idea of taking steroids.

For instance I have written in the past that I think Manny and A-rod should have gotten greater punishments for their crimes. I still stand by that. If you get caught cheating you should be suspended in a meaningful way. That means you sit out either the last 50 games of the season or the playoffs. You don't sit out the first 50 which often times can be meaningless and in reality only give players needed rest allowing them to return for the stretch run healthy and fresh.

So what I am trying to say is punish Ortiz. Hell for the first 50 games he was a corpse anyways and more of a burden. Now he is hitting again but still he deserves to be punished if he did in fact break the rules.

Now on to whether or not I am surprised. Of course not. The past 10-15 years of baseball have been called the "steroid era" so obviously I am not surprised when two big time home run hitters, in the case of Ortiz a true out of nowhere story, test positive for steroids. I wasn't surprised when A-rod got caught and I am especially not surprised now.

I mean if you look at Ortiz's career it would be a bigger surprise if he was clean. Before he came to Boston his career high in home runs was 20. In his first 4 years with the Red Sox he hit 31, 41, 47, and 54 home runs.

It seems that no one in baseball is clean anymore and everyone is guilty until proven innocent. I include Ortiz in the column and as of right now he is guilty. I still love him though and he is still one of my favorite players.

Lastly do I think this taints the 2004 World Series victory? Once again I am going to say no. On the list that revealed Ortiz and Manny as cheaters there are over 100 other names. Now this more than likely means there is at least 1 player from each team on that list. I can only assume then that every team had some steroid users.

I might also use the defense that Ortiz and Manny didn't win every game on their own. Someone still had to pitch and play the other positions on the field. I know Ortiz had some clutch hits that kept the Sox alive against the Yankees but in the end there are 20 guys on that team that are probably clean that all helped to win that title. It would be wrong to take away the work others did because of the poor decisions of two members of the team.

One thing I did want to touch on was this list. This list of players that is coming back to haunt Bud Selig and MLB. For some reason Selig has decided that instead of releasing every name on the list and dealing with the situation in one sitting he would rather just let names be leaked out gradually bringing negative attention to baseball intermittently.

Maybe Selig doesn't have the list or doesn't know who is on it but I think he does. I mean he must right? The main thing to know is that the testing was supposed to be anonymous. The Players Association is already taking legal action as they are suing those who have broken the confidence of the testing.

The most interesting perspective on the whole situation came from Nomar Garciapara who played with Ortiz and Ramirez and was in Boston today as the Red Sox were playing the A's. Nomar said that he knows of many players who refused to be tested which would result in an automatic admission of guilt. He claims players did this because they wanted testing in baseball and they assumed the tests would remain anonymous. This is interesting because over 5% of players tested positive during this test period and MLB officials said that if over 5% tested positive they would implement mandatory random testing.

So Nomar is claiming that players wanted testing and felt that not subjecting themselves to this test, which would as stated above result in them being deemed guilty, would be the best way to go about getting testing.

Maybe Nomar is saying this because his name was on the list as well or maybe it is the truth. In either case this was not the route Manny or Ortiz took. In a statement he released today Ortiz said, "Based on the way I have lived my life, I am surprised to learn I tested positive." This obviously means that he didn't just refuse testing but allowed himself to be tested and was caught.

Either way this whole story is one that will allow the steroids and baseball talk to continue. As for the Red Sox or as Baby J has now dubbed them the "Roid Sox" they will go about business as usual. I'd come up for a clever steroid related nickname for the Blue Jays but they are so irrelevant it wouldn't be worth my time. The Sox will continue to win games and continue to be a threat in the AL. Whether they do it clean or on the juice I really don't care. I don't watch sports to learn about values and morals.

One last thing. If there is a God then Derek Jeter will be the next name revealed on this list.

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The Death of Moneyball?

Lately I have been reading a lot more. In the past month I've read Exile on Main St. by Robert Greenfield, Breaks of the Game by David Halberstam, Dynasty by Tony Massarotti, and my all-time favorite book Moneyball by Michael Lewis.

I actually finished Moneyball tonight only hours before the start of the Red Sox game where they were actually facing the Oakland A's.

As I watched Josh Beckett shut down the A's for 7 innings I of course started to wonder about how far the A's of today have come from the teams described by Lewis in Moneyball. I mean there isn't one good player on the entire A's team. There is no one in their line up that I was worried about hitting a homer, or even getting a hit for that matter, and at no point was I worried about getting into their bullpen.

To put it plainly the A's suck. Their best player was Matt Holiday who they just traded this week for a new load of prospects who will then be traded for better prospects who will eventually win a World Series in 7 years, or so A's GM Billy Beane and avid Moneyball fans would have you believe.

The fact of the matter is that the Oakland A's are not a competitive team and for all of the praise for Beane and his new way of doing things the A's as an organization haven't been very successful during his tenure.

Beane was hired in 1998 after serving the A's as an advanced scout for almost 10 years. Then 36 he was the youngest GM in baseball history. Not only did he bring youth to the job but he also brought about a new way of doing things. Beane and his new staff of "nerds" changed the way people analysed baseball players and introduced the world to sabermetrics. This is merely a fancy way of saying analysis of baseball through objective evidence.

Beane and the Oakland A's front office were determined to have a low pay roll but still be competitive.

Beane found almost instant success as for the first 8 seasons as GM the A's had a winning record and even won 100+ games in 2001 and 2002. The A's made the playoffs 4 years in a row from 2000-2003 and were the talk of baseball. However for all their success their was one problem: they hadn't won a single playoff series. They never made it out of the first round.

Baseball purists were able to look at Moneyball and laugh as no matter how many games the A's won in the regular season they couldn't win in the playoffs.

That changed in 2006 when the A's swept the Minnesota Twins in the 1st round only to be swept themselves in the 2nd round by the Detroit Tigers.

Since that last defeat to the Tigers the A's have gone 192-229 and have failed to make the playoffs.

This season the A's are off to their worst start since Beane took over as they are 41-57 and currently sit 17.5 games back of the division leading LA Angels.

People are no longer referring to Beane as a genius and have simply written off the A's and the Moneyball strategy altogether and it is not hard to see why. Beyond the failings of Beane and the A's there is the evidence supporting the theory that large payrolls lead to World Series titles.

Since 1998, when Beane took over as GM of the A's, only the Florida Marlins and the Arizona Diamondbacks have won the World Series with a payroll ranking in the bottom 10 teams in baseball. This is in sharp contrast to teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox, Angels, and Cardinals who all have budgets greater than $100 million and have all won the World Series titles.

The facts are plain. Moneyball is proving to be an ineffective strategy over the long term. To prove this one need look no further than Beane and the A's. Since he took over the team in 1998 the A's have gone 976-804, made the playoffs 5 out of 11 years, won a total of 11 playoff games, won 1 playoff series, and have won 0 titles.

Many people will obviously debate this by pointing out the success of the Tampa Bay Rays last season and their minuscule payroll. To them I need only point out that the majority of players on that team were playing under rookie contracts which will inflate greatly over the next few seasons giving Tampa the opportunity to remain a small market team or join the rank of big budget contenders.

Moneyball as a strategy worked for Beane for a time because he was doing something that no one else knew about. His team valued stats like OBP and wanted different kinds of players than any other team. This allowed Beane and the A's to get the players they wanted with little opposition.

Now that Moneyball has been written every team in the majors have brought in stat guys and have begun to take from what Beane and the A's created. This does not mean that Moneyball has evolved but rather that sabermetrics have become more predominant in baseball and the teams with more money are able to outbid the A's.

Beane and his staff in Oakland created something ingenious that eventually would prove to be impossible to maintain. Once the winning formula was taken all that remains is yet another small market team that doesn't have the wallet to compete with the big boys.

Unfortunately for Beane because of this his legacy is being tarnished with every game Trevor Cahill pitches and every catch Eric Patterson fails to make. Every time he trades away a star for a group of players that no one has ever heard of he is second guessed.

The lack of new superstars currently playing for the A's have only served to hurt Beane and made people question whether his methods are successful or not. Common sense seems to be winning out over creativity. If you trade away your best players for players who one day may be good your product is going to suffer. If you continue to do this your product will continue to suffer.

Could it be that Beane has gone too far and has ruined the very creature he created? Or is that he is lulling everyone into a false sense of security so that the A's can drop another 100 win season on MLB and produce some more Rookies of the Year and Cy Young winners?

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Building a Winner

Just over a year ago I did an article where I built my own NHL dream team using actual player salaries and the actual NHL salary cap. Since the NHL season is quickly approaching I thought that I would do it again and see how much my team has changed/improved/worsened.

I got the salary info from http://www.nhlnumbers.com/.

After reviewing my team I challenge you to come up with a better one. Also try and justify or explain why you made certain choices instead of just copying and pasting a team.

Keep in mind that the salary cap for the upcoming year is $56.8 million and that you must have a full team. 12 forwards, 6 defense, and 2 goalies. Also for fun choose a coach.

Here is my team: the Las Vegas Hot Dice (in a tribute to the Roller Jam team)

Forwards

1st Line

C Evgeni Malkin – 9

LW Alexander Semin – 5

RW Martin St. Louis - 4

2nd Line

C Jonathan Toews - .850

LW Zach Parise – 3

RW Patrick Kane - .875

3rd Line

C Ryan Kesler – 1.75

LW Alex Burrows – 2

RW Bobby Ryan - .765

4th Line

C Darren Helm - .500

LW Milan Lucic - .685

RW Kyke Okposo - .850

Defense

Brooks Orpik – 3.75

Kris Letang - .685

Shea Webber – 4.5

Nicklas Lidstrom – 7.45 (Captain)

Niklas Kronwall – 3.25

Luke Schenn - .875

Goalies

Cam Ward – 3.5

Ty Conklin - 1.2

Total = $54.43 million

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So there is my team. I personally feel like they would dominate the league and I even left myself a little extra cap space in case I need to sign someone else. Now obviously I picked some guys whose contracts will expire at the end of the season but all in all I think it is a great team.

OK so now on to the justification. When building this team I started with the goalies and then worked my way forward. Cam Ward was an easy choice for goalie seeing that is young (25), experienced (won a Stanley Cup), and can single handedly win games. Ty Conklin was an easy choice at back up as well as all he does is win games (in his NHL career he is 73-43).

Moving on to the defense. I feel like there is a good mix of offense and defense here with the whole unit being anchored by arguably the best defenseman of my generation in Nicklas Lidstrom. Now I know I always bag on the Leafs and give Bryan "Red Rings of Death" Cruse about Luke Schenn but in the end his contract was too good to ignore. Add to the fact that he will be able to learn from quality defensemen and I think he would develop from a pylon into a player.

Do I really need to justify my forwards? NHL point leader (78 of those were assists so he knows how to share the puck) Evgeni Malkin playing alongside play maker Martin St. Louis and notorious tough guy Alexander Semin is a winning combination. The 3rd line is pure shut down and smack talk as you know Burrows and Kesler will cause problems for opposing teams while still lighting the lamp. Throw Bobby Ryan in there, even though he isn't a 3rd line player, and you are rolling 4 lines of talent so good not even the Net Detective could stop them.

Lastly I need to pick a coach. Since Scotty Bowman is out of the game I will have to go with the next best guy and pick Mike Babcock. I was contemplating Ted Nolan but I felt he might try and sleep with all the player's wives which would cause some problems. The guy is a proven winner, 282-139 coaching record, and has won the Stanley Cup. He also knows how to handle big egos which this team is full of.

So there is the Las Vegas Hot Dice and their Head Coach. Now it's your turn. Use the site I used and build your own team and copy and paste it into the comments section. Just know that every team posted will be fighting for 2nd place.

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Athletes and Rape

I am going to start this article out by saying that I despise Ben Roethlisberger. In an older entry in which I covered the 5 athletes I would like to punch in the face Roethlisberger came in at #3. I hate everything about him, from his stupid face to the way he is over rated by the media as being somehow comparable to Tom Brady. The point is I do not like him.

Having said all that I am 100% supporting Big Ben as he tries to defend himself from allegations of rape from a Lake Tahoe woman.

It was reported over the weekend that Roethlisberger had been accused of rape by a 31 year old Hotel hostess. Roethlisberger spoke to the media for the first time today and said that the allegations were "reckless and false."

The woman claims that Roethlisberger lured her to his hotel room by claiming that the TV was broken. Once she entered the room she claims that he forced himself on her and proceeded to rape her.

BS!

I don't care if she gets hooked up to a lie detector test and passes it didn't happen. Did they have sex? More than likely yes. Did he rape her? No way in hell. Big Ben may look like a complete idiot but he is a smart guy. Add the fact that right now he is the biggest NFL star on the planet and you realise that he doesn't need to rape women to get laid.

Yea I said it! So what? You know it is true.

The man is a multi-millionaire who just won his 2nd SuperBowl in less than 4 years and you think he is going to rape some hotel hostess? Not likely. The woman is just in it for the money. The best way to prove I am right is by pointing out the fact that she hasn't filed criminal charges against Roethlisberger. To me this shows she only wants the money. If she had truly been raped don't you think she would want the man that raped her in jail? Think on that.

All that happened in that hotel room was that Roethlisberger stopped thinking logically. Being a world famous athlete he should know that the last thing you ever want to do is be in a room alone with a random woman and have sex. Did he learn nothing from Kobe?

Athletes everywhere should have learned from the mistake Kobe Bryant made. To all of you who think Kobe is guilty simply click this link http://www.collegecharlie.com/katelyn_faber_globe1.jpeg. That is the girl that Kobe apparently raped. You're telling me that one of the biggest athletes on the planet is going to jeopardize his career, marriage, and life to have sex with her? Come on now be smart.

Now I am not saying that every athlete who gets accused of rape is innocent but for the most part the women are usually lying. A prime example is the Duke Lacrosse case in which a young woman claimed she had been raped by 20 members of the team. She later claimed it was only 3 and then even later revealed that if never actually happened.

This is such a critical issue for athletes that is was covered in the show Prime U. Prime U was a show on the NFL Network where Deion Sanders brought in perspective NFL players and got them ready for not only the NFL Combine but also for life in the NFL. In one of the episodes he had a supermodel come in and talk to the young men about the dangers women can provide and how they need to be careful.

Deion went on to tell stories of former teammates who had been accused of rape or of fathering children that weren't actually theirs. He said many of them paid off these women to avoid media attention. Sanders himself was falsely accused of fathering a child and chose to take the legal road to prove his innocence.

Whether Roethlisberger raped this woman or not his name and reputation have now been dragged through the mud. He has been called a rapist which is one, if not the worst, things to be called. Is he a rapist? No. He is just a 26 year old man who wasn't thinking clearly and allowed himself to be put into this position.

Stay strong Ben *raises right fist in the air as a sign of solidarity*

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