Fifth Down

It’s been a busy few weeks at my real job so Top 10 Tuesday has taken a bit of hiatus but 5 for Friday lives on. Let’s get to this week in sports.

NBA Play in Tournament:

Did you know this was a thing? I’ll be honest, I didn’t understand how this worked until Tuesday this week. I was like why would you have the 7 seed play the 8? Then I realized that the loser of that game plays the winner of the 9 vs 10 game. I am guessing there are others of you reading this that didn’t know how this worked either. This is the dumbest, most pointless playoff addition in all of sports. The Hawks were the 8th best team but are now the 7 seed because they beat the Heat. Now the Heat, who were the 7th best team in the East have to beat the Bulls who beat the Raptors on Wednesday. If the Heat wins then they become the 8 seed. If they lose they don’t make the playoffs at all. What sense does that make? Also, so many teams already make the playoffs that this is highly unnecessary. Also, do we really think that any of the following teams, Hawks, Heat, Bulls, Raptors, are going to beat the Bucks or Celtics in a playoff series? This Play in tournament is so bad, I had to google it to see how it works. The 7 or 8 seed rarely win a series and I am sure the 9 or 10 seed has even less of a chance. Just eliminate this stupid thing already. Also, aren’t the NBA playoffs long enough? It is mid April and this thing still doesn’t end until sometime in June.

Washington gets a new owner:

First they changed their name and now they are changing their owner. Dan Snyder has to be one of the worst owners in sports of all time. Besides all the controversies, which were many, he also managed to run a once proud and successful organization into the ground. Growing up in the 80’s and early 90’s the then Redskins were one of the top teams in the league. They won 3 super bowls. But since Snyder got there, they slowly got worse and worse. And then you add in all the non football issues. It’s a complete mess. But this is the power of the NFL. It is a mess worth 6 Billion dollars. If any one took over a highly successful business and ran it into the ground and along the way did a bunch of shady things, the value of that business would crash and burn. But in the NFL, the value greatly increases despite Dan’s best efforts. How bad is Dan? Normally when a team gets sold, no ones outside of that fanbase cares. Dan is so bad, literally the whole country is celebrating this sale. So if you are ever feeling sorry for yourself because you feel like you aren’t well liked or popular, you can think of Dan and feel better about yourself.

OBJ gets paid to catch passes from Tyler Huntley:

The same team that doesn’t want to pay Lamar is willing to flop down 18 million for a receiver coming off an ACL injury who didn’t even play last year. The Ravens who have basically done nothing at receiver while Lamar has been at QB, all of the sudden decide to go all in now that Lamar is probably not going to play. And OBJ who said he wasn’t asking for 20 million but just didn’t want 4. Well, he is a lot closer to 20 than 4. I know there were some Chiefs fans out there that were hoping we would get OBJ but 18 for 1 year for a guy who hasn’t played a complete season in like 5 years is insane. But OBJ should have a good chance at staying healthy because the Ravens only throw the ball like 20% of the time.

Speaking of Chiefs receivers…:

Many seem to be worried about what the Chiefs are doing at receiver. They have made some news recently by signing Richie James from the Giants and today resigned Justin Watson. I know these aren’t the most exciting moves in the world, but we don’t actually need great receivers. We have Reid, Mahomes and Kelce, that is all we need. Not to mention, we have 4 tight ends we can use and we use our running backs a lot. I would like us to resign McKinnon but I am not worried about it. My brother is confident we are going to end up with Hopkins. I think this is unlikely but you never know. If we got him, I think you can go ahead and pencil us into the AFC championship game again. But even with the dudes we have now, even if we don’t draft anyone I am fine with who we have. Toney, Moore, MVS, Watson, James and one of the guys who’s last name is Ross is fine with me. That is how confident I am in Reid and Mahomes. I literally don’t think it matters who we have.

Teaching my son the ways of watching golf:

Easter Sunday was also the conclusion of the Masters. I don’t watch a lot of golf, but there is something about the Masters that draws me in. So I flipped it on. Walker was like, why are watching golf. Because it is the Masters. We watched a few holes and Walker said I am getting sleepy watching this. I said that is the beauty of golf. Don’t fight it, hit the pillow and lay on the couch and slowly drift away while Jim Nantz describes a putt. This is the other reason I watch golf. If I am stressed or tired, turn on golf, you will fall fast asleep and wake up with all of your worries gone. Walker was still not feeling it or so he said. But he stretched out on the couch anyway. I had to get up to help out with food preparations for a while. About 15 minutes later I hear Walker yell, “Dad, Rahm is up 2 on Koepka now.” That a boy, Walker, that a boy.

Even with the Madness over and NFL Free Agency dying down, there are still some things going on in the sports world. Here are 5 of them.

Cam is being Selective even though no one is selecting him:

Cam Newton has always been a polarizing figure from stealing computers or whatever at Florida to wearing flamboyant clothing and hats in present day. He had a great year in college at Auburn and had a few good years in the NFL including leading the Panthers to the Super Bowl. My wife is a big Broncos fan and a big hater of Cam. “He’s cocky, annoying, etc.” She claims that the Broncos broke Cam in the Super Bowl. And honestly I can’t disagree. He really has never been the same since that game. His play has deteriorated but he is still loud and cocky. He recently claimed that there wasn’t 32 other quarterbacks better than him. He said it less nicely. But it appears that the league disagrees. Now he is willing to be a back up but only in certain places. He has a list of places that he is willing to go. His list is odd and inconsistent but so is Cam. The problem for Cam is not that he is being selective it is that no one is selecting him. I had the same problem once. I was out on the play ground and they were picking teams for kickball and I was like I will either be shortstop behind Jason Jenks or JD Smither. And the team captains were like…I pick Shawn Benson. I then went and sat on the swings. So I feel you Cam, I really do. I am in a sports group on Facebook and they were saying Cam is way better than Brian Hoyer. But what you want in your back up quarterback is someone who is out of sight out of mind. He is the guy on your team you hope never plays and you sort of forget about. Chad Henne was great when he came in a couple of times but most of the time I forgot he was even on the team. That’s Brian Hoyer. That is not Cam. But don’t worry buddy, I got a seat on the swing set open for you.

10 year old Daughter wins Bracket Challenge:

We did a family bracket challenge this year. My 10 year old daughter won. She knows the following things about college basketball.

1. Dad loves Mizzou.
2. Mizzou is terrible in the tournament.
3. Uncle Asa loves Duke.

That’s it. And that worked to her advantage. While the rest of us thought it through and picked wisely, she just picked randomly with her heart. Danielle even went with the Luke Neal (Luke is a friend of ours) philosophy of picking all the higher seeds. Usually a strong strategy, it failed miserably this year. I finished second in our bracket with a whopping 53 points. To put this in perspective there was a total of 192 points possible. Savannah didn’t crush it by any means. She was towards the bottom for most of the tournament. But she did pick the champion. I was watching her make her picks and she said I like UConn. They are the Huskies. I like puppies. And off she went scoring 90 points with the only team out of all of us in the final four. So next year’s strategy…pick your favorite mascot and roll with it.

Royals start the season in the most Royal way ever:

After 7 games, all at home the Royals are a whopping 1-6. After a promising spring, we are right where I thought we would be. Terrible. All the young exciting bats have led us to lead the league in fewest runs scored with 17. It took 3 games to even score a run. We are basically already mathematically eliminated. The Royals either go one of two ways. Start out hot and then quickly crash in a few weeks giving us a slimmer of hope for a very short time. Or start out bad and then keep being bad until September and then tear it up for a month to give us false hope going into next year. So be ready for some exciting baseball once football season starts and you no longer care. Go Royals.

Tyreek is saying dumb things again and is plotting to take over the world:

I love Tyreek, I really do. But he is one crazy dude. I don’t know why you would talk smack on the Super Bowl Champions in the month of April, but that is how he rolls. Apparently we better watch out because he knows all our signs. I am sure it will be tough to change those if we haven’t already but thanks for the tip. He also said he hates to have to put up the peace sign on us but you know what for some reason I don’t believe him. I think he is real excited about putting up the peace sign. I am excited too because now that is a penalty. Chris Jones had the best response stating that the only time he is going to put up the peace sign is on his way to the bus. Classic. Speaking of Jones can we sign him to an extension already? Dude is amazing and loyal. He has said he will never play for another team. So let’s get this deal done. Did you know he is the only Chief in history to have multiple seasons with 15 or more sacks? Not even DT ever did that. So let’s make him a lifer already. Kelce, Mahomes, Bolton and Jones. Those 4 need to stay no matter the price.

Anyway, apparently Tyreek is also already planning his retirement and then is going to take over the world one video game company at a time or something. Tyreek was talking to Gehrig Dieter who is a long time practice squad guy who finally retired to become Tyreek’s wing man. This whole conversation between the two of them reminded me of Pinky and the Brain from Animaniacs. For those of you who don’t know, they are Pinky and the brain, one is a genius, the other is insane, they are labratory mice, who’s genes have been spliced, their dinky, their pinky and the brain, brain, brain, brain, brain. Now that I have got that song stuck in your head, I’ll let you decide which of Tyreek and Dieter are the genius and which one is insane. (Spoiler alert, I don’t think either one of them is a genius). Anyway, congrats to Tyreek on his near retirement.

Sports Depression Season:

Every year around this time, I get sort of grumpy and annoyed and moody. And every year, I think what is wrong with me. Danielle has to remind me it is your Sports Depression Season. Apparently I have 4 seasons of my life as well. While the world has Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, I have the following seasons: Football Season, Playoff Football Season, NFL Free Agency/March Madness Season, and now Sports Depression season. The depression really starts the day after the Super Bowl. Now if the Chiefs win it starts like 2 weeks after the super bowl because I spend about 2 weeks rewatching at least parts of the Super Bowl each night. It starts sooner if we don’t win the Super Bowl. But either way it actually starts sooner but it is sort of hidden by NFL Free Agency and then March Madness. But after the Madness it really sinks in. The Royals are terrible and baseball isn’t real exciting to watch on tv. My family bans me from watching the XFL or whatever other crap leagues are playing football which is fair because I am pretty obsessed during the NFL season. You remember that streak of terrible Thursday night football games that were so bad that Al Michaels was making fun of them? I watched all of those from beginning to end. The NBA is eh, I mean I don’t think they care too much so why should I? I think hockey might still be going on…I’m not sure. Really I am just moping around until football starts again. I am finding out that I am not the only one who suffers from Sports Depression Season. So here are a ten tips to help you through this difficult time.

1. Throw yourself into your work: If you work really hard now and hit a bunch of your goals then you won’t have as much to do during football season.
2. Fantasy Football Mock drafts: the system isn’t up yet but sometime after the draft, you’ll be able to waste hours upon hours mocking drafting with playa69 and other random people on the web who will talk smack about who you picked in round 8. If you really want to piss off complete strangers pick players from all one team or all one position.
3. Watch the second half of the super bowl over and over and over again: This is the cure for all depression really.
4. Google your favorite football team and read articles about them: It is so much fun to read the exact same article on 6 different outlets. Or even better read some commentary about who the Chiefs should draft writtin by some guy who is a whopping 5% more qualified to write that article then you are.
5. Read a book: Just kidding…no one wants to do that.
6. Go outside: Apparently there is a whole world out there with mountains and water and trees. At least that is what I see on commercials.
7. Spend lots of time with your kids: Fill up those relationship buckets now so that you can drain them dry from September through February when you are glued to the TV seeing which crap NFC south is going to win the divison.
8. Do that thing your spouse has been asking you to do with them for the last 6 months: That way when it is the middle of October and you are watching the Colts play the Texans on Thursday night and your spouse says “you care more about football than you do me!” You can fire back, “That’s not true! You remember that time we went downtown and had fondue back in May? That’s true love, baby!”
9. Write a Sports blog for your friends and family to read: But make sure we have different friends and family, I don’t need the competition.
10. Watch Friday Night Lights and Ted Lasso over and over again: It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

There you go, now you are all healed. Happy Good Friday and Happy Easter everyone!

MLB Baseball started, College Basketball is ending and the NBA playoffs are right around the corner. Here are reactions to that and more.

The True sports fans:

I grew up on baseball. I loved it. I would listen to games on the radio while playing dice baseball. Even though I gave up the sport at an early age (I once struck out in t-ball but that is a story for another day), I still loved watching and following it. I have many great memories of going to games with my dad. My buddies and I still travel to different stadiums although we do it less and less because we are all busy and have kids now. But I have been to 20 different MLB ballparks which is pretty strong. This gives me an idea for the top 10 next week. Anyway, I lost some interest after the strike in 94. The Royals went through a pretty dark 20 years of sucking from 94 to 2014 so that didn’t help my fandom. And now, I am honestly too busy to follow 162 games a year. But for those that do…you are the truest of the true sports fans. Being a die hard NFL fan is easy. You just have to watch on Sundays and the occasional Monday or Thursday. But I know people who check the box score of their favorite baseball team every day. Cardinal fans claim to be the best baseball fans which I highly dispute. The truest of the truest are those that check the box score of their terrible last place baseball team 162 days a year. You know who you are and we see you. We aren’t going to be you but we see you.

Opening day and the Royals are eliminated from the Playoffs:

Okay, not really but yesterdays performance was about as Royals as it gets. They had all this excitement. New Manager, bringing back the original powder blue uniforms, Salvy becomes the 4th captain in franchise history, Frank White throws out the first pitch and what do the Royals do? They lay and egg and lose 2-0. Classic Royals taking away your hope as quickly as possible. Maybe I am wrong. They had a pretty good spring but I think this team is still a long ways away from being good. 70-92 is my predicted record and we are basically already out of it before it started.

The Madness of March Madness:

The Final Four is tomorrow featuring FAU, San Diego State, UConn and Miami just like we all predicted. We did a family tournament challenge made up of myself, my wife, my two kids, my two siblings, my brother and sister in law and two of their kids. Out of 10 brackets, only my 10 year old daughter has a team in the final four with UConn. None of us are college basketball experts. My brother in law probably follows it the closest because he is a Duke fan. But just the odds of this happening are slim. Danielle picked all chalk and went 0-4 for her final four. In fact none of the top seeds even made it to the elite eight. This was the maddest of the march madness. I am sure things will be back to normal next year but what a crazy tournament. Savannah has UConn winning it all, so she still has a chance to have the champion. But she is the rarity. I am sure we are not alone but I don’t remember a more top to bottom tournament where no one, two or three seed made the final four.

NBA Playoffs are next:

The NBA Playoffs are right around the corner so there won’t be a shortage of meaningful basketball. However, have you noticed how many teams make the playoffs now? 20 freaking teams, that is how many. There are only 30 teams in the whole league. I mean if you don’t make the playoffs you really suck. The regular season is basically worthless. No wonder guys don’t play defense and sit out games. There is no reason to play until the playoffs. You have to play just enough to make it in the top 20? How hard is that. Anyway, in case you are like me, and don’t really have a team, here are 3 teams to cheer for in both the East and the West.

Milwaukee Bucks: My 14 year old son is a Bucks fan. Apparently he only cheers for teams in Wisconsin now. He is the moodiest of the moody teenagers lately. It would be nice for that mood swing to swing positively occasionally and the Bucks winning would help that. So for the sake of Danielle and I’s sanity, please cheer for the Bucks.

Atlanta Hawks: uh, win with Quin. Duh! Go Hawks!

Toronto Raptors: O.G. Anunoby plays for them. He is from Jefferson City. My buddy, Jordan was his coach. I occasionally played basketball with him at the Y. He was real good. I was really not. But it was fun and I can say I played ball against an NBA player. Anyway, O.G. is a good kid so cheer for the Raptors.

Denver Nuggets: The Chiefs have beaten the Broncos 15 times in a row. Come on, we can give them this.

Golden State Warriors: Everyone hates them. Join me on the dark side. Go against the grain. Plus when they are playing well they are really fun to watch. Also, speaking of the Warriors I don’t think I have ever seen a more bizarre home/away record. They are 31-8 at home and 9-29 on the road. Unbelievable. Unfortunately for the Warriors, not all the playoff games will be at home.

Los Angeles Lakers: Just kidding. Screw the Lakers, they always win and LeBron is lame.

Sacramento Kings: They used to be in Kansas City until I was like 5. They played at Kemper. Everyone loves Kemper. Plus they haven’t made the playoffs in 16 years. two thirds of the league make the playoffs and they couldn’t make the cut for 16 years. I can’t name a single player on their team but go Kings.

There you go…now you can care about the NBA. You’re welcome.

Lamar Jackson’s Problem:

Lamar wanted to get paid fairly and he is not. This is absolutely true. The Ravens say they want to keep him but don’t want to give him a ton of guaranteed money which also makes sense. There is lots of blame being thrown around. Some are blaming the Browns and Massage boy for having a deal that guarantees everything. Richard Sherman tried to blame Mahomes for signing such a team friendly deal so he can win a lot. But the real issue is something no one wants to talk about. Lamar is not that good and has a short shelf life. The way he plays leads to injuries. He can’t throw accurately down field. He is a unique talent but not a sustainable one. The Ravens basically built their whole offense around him. So the Ravens are hosed if he leaves. But no one else thinks they can just plug and play with Lamar in their offense. So Lamar is hosed as well. During his MVP year, everyone was saying that the Ravens were changing football forever. But instead, the Ravens haven’t accomplished much since and Lamar has been injury prone. I feel bad for Lamar, I really do. But the bottom line is that the Ravens are the best place for him and no one else wants him. The press is saying he is a top 10 quarterback but the press say a lot of dumb things like the Chiefs can’t win without Tyreek. The league has spoken. It’s time to work out a deal with the Ravens. Unfortunately now he is in real trouble. He has dug his heels in so to speak, demanded a trade and will probably sit out Deshaun Watson style minus all the creepy massages.

Tune in next week for the top 10 baseball stadiums I have visited.

I mentioned last Friday that I am a lefty and the effect that had on me writing things and my hand going over everything I just wrote and leaving a stain on my hand. Well that isn’t the only thing challenging about being a lefty. Try finding left handed scissors in the eighties. Everyone is used to teaching right handed people and so it was hard for coaches and teachers to teach me how to do things. It was a burden I had to overcome. The prejudice were many and the obstacles were plentiful. But I fought through it all and here I am, a somewhat functional adult. One of the challenges was finding sports heroes to connect with. I mean, you righties could go in the backyard and throw like Marino or Montana, pitch like Ryan and shoot like Jordan or Bird. But us lefties had to look a little harder to find players to imitate. So without further ado, here were my top 10 favorite left handed players from my childhood.

10. Boomer Esiason

You might be surprised to see a Bengal on the list but this was years before my hatred for the Bengals. I mean I have only hated the Bengals for 2 years so that isn’t really that hard. So why did I like Boomer? Well he was pretty much the only left handed show in town. Steve Young came along later but I was a Montana guy so I never embraced Young. Boomer was it. I was never a huge fan but he was pretty good and was left handed so that was enough for him to make the list. He’s the only football player to make the list because it really didn’t matter if a receiver, safety or running back were left handed.

9. Jim Abbott

If you don’t know who Jim Abbott is then stop reading and start googling. Abbott was a phenomenal athlete who overcame a lot to have a MLB career. Jim was forced to be a lefty because he was born without a right hand. So he literally had no choice. Abbott played every sport and was part of the 1988 baseball Olympic team that won a gold medal. He played most of his career for the Angels but bounced around a little as well. He threw a no hitter for the Yankees and just the fact that he was out there was impressive. Because he only had one hand, he would rest his glove on his right arm, pitch and then slide the glove onto his left hand to field. I may or may not have borrowed my brother’s glove occasionally to try it myself.

8. David Robinson

The Admiral was a great player and by all accounts a great guy. He served our country in the Navy and was part of the Dream Team. He is a hall of a famer and won a couple of championships. So why isn’t he higher on the list? Well he was a big guy and I wasn’t. I was your guard/small forward type. So it was hard for me to emulate playing like him.

7. Tom Glavine

Glavine was part of arguably one of the greatest pitching rotations in history joining John Smoltz, Greg Maddux and fellow lefty, Steve Avery. Glavine was phenomenal. And he helped a terrible Braves team be good. They were a great team to cheer for because they had been bad for so long. And they had a ton of left handed players, Sid Bream, David Justice, Deion was on the team. Former Royal and lefty, Charlie Leibrandt played for them for a bit. But of all the lefties, Glavine was the best.

6. Stacey Augmon

Augmon was never great but always a very solid NBA player. I became a fan before that though when he was playing for the UNLV Running Rebels. He was the only freshman to ever be on a US Olympic Basketball team in 1988. He was part of one of the greatest college basketball teams of all time joining Larry Johnson, Greg Anthony (another lefty) and Anderson Hunt. Augmon could score but was also a great defender. Augmon was drafted by the Hawks and joined Dominique Wilkins another one of my favorite players. He had a very solid career for the Hawks averaging double digits for about 5 years. He moved on after that and bounced around the league for several years without much success. But he was fun to imitate on the playground.

5. Danny Jackson

If you aren’t a Royals fan or maybe a Reds fan you might not even remember Danny. But if you were around in 1985, then you for sure remember him. He started 32 games for the boys in blue in 85 and went a 14-12. But it was the playoffs where he truly shined. Down 3 games to 1 in the first ever best of 7 series of the ALCS, Danny stepped up and pitched a complete game shutout. The Royals rallied to win the next two and make it to the playoffs. In the World Series against the Cardinals, Jackson again took the mound down 3 games to 1. Jackson actually started game 1 and pitched well giving up only 2 runs over 7 innings in the loss. In game 5, Jackson was awesome again and kept us in the series. He pitched another complete game only giving up 1 run. He also pitched the only immaculate inning in World Series history in the 7th striking out 3 batters on 9 pitches. In order to be nice to Cardinal fans on opening day, I’ll avoid talking about game 6 and game 7. Danny had trouble getting wins in 86 and 87 although his era wasn’t terrible. Unfortunately we shipped him off to the Reds after that for Kurt Stillwell and another player I think. Jackson responded in 88 by winning 23 games and 15 complete games. He threw more complete games in 88 than the entire league did last year. (this is a made up stat, I have no idea how many complete games there were last year, but it sounds right). Danny was always up and down, year to year, but he was part of the 1990 Reds that won the World Series and the Phillies team that made the World Series in 93. I wish he would have been a Royal longer. Saberhagen gets all the credit for our championship in 1985 and it is well deserved because he was great. But he only had an opportunity to be great because of Danny.

4. Barry Bonds

This might be controversial for some but remember this is from when I was a kid. I was an adult or at least legally an adult when the controversy came. I am not saying Bonds was on anything but before Bonds got huge, he was already arguably one of the greatest baseball players of all time. He was a consistent 20 and 20 guy (20 home runs and 20 stolen bases) and often a 30 and 30 guy. He could field, run the bases and obviously hit for power or contact. I know many baseball purist hate him, most of which are baseball writers that were drooling while writing stories about McGwire and Sosa and only later looked down on them all. There has always been cheating in baseball. The fact that this guy isn’t in the hall of fame is stupid. But then again, hall of fames are stupid. If you took away all his stats from 1998 on, he is still a shoe in. He is the all time leader in home runs, a career batting average of .298 and is the only guy in baseball history to have 500 homeruns and 500 stolen bases. And he never actually got caught doing anything illegal. We can assume what we want but he never was busted for anything. Anyway, as a kid he was great and fun to watch except when he was trying to throw out Sid Bream at home in the playoffs.

3. Chris Mullen

Mullen was actually a very good player. He was part of two Olympic gold medal winning teams in 84 and 92. The dude could flat out shoot. He played my position and of course was a lefty. I love the guy. From 88-94 which was prime kid fandom for me, he was one of the best players in the league. He was the reason I became a Warriors fan. He had some injury issues after that and ended up with the Pacers for a few years. But the guy could flat out shoot. He is a career 38 percent shooter from behind the arc before shooting 3 pointers was all the rage. He was the guy I pretended to be when I was at the playground by myself shooting around. He never won a championship, besides the gold medals of course. In 98 with the Pacers he got close as Indiana lost in 7 games to Jordan and the Bulls. Since retiring he has bounced around coaching a bit but to this day he is one of my top 10 favorite basketball players of all time and as a kid he was #1.

2. Tony Gwynn

I don’t know if there was ever a nicer guy in sports than Tony. He entered the league as an athletic right fielder. His rookie year he batted .289 in 1982. He would never bat under .300 again from 1983 to 2001. That is insane. He led the league in batting 8 times. In the hated strike year he was batting .394 when they shut things down. His inability to chase .400 because of the strike still angers me today…stupid baseball. The guy is a career .338 hitter. His career batting average is higher than most guys bat at any point in his career. In 20 years he struck out 434 times and never struck out more than 40 times. That is an average of 21.7 strikeouts a year. There are so many crazy stats around his batting career. He actually is also the all time assist leader for the basketball team at San Diego State. Over time, Tony got a little out of shape. And by a little, I mean a lot. But before that he won 5 gold gloves. He had some injury issues and later health issues, but one thing never changed. The dude could flat out hit. He was a 15 time all star and was voted into the hall of fame with 97.6% of the vote. The 2.4% that didn’t vote for him is what is wrong with the baseball hall of fame. Stupid Baseball writers. Tony passed away a few years back and he is greatly missed in the baseball world.

1. Ken Griffey Jr.

Does it get cooler than Ken Griffey Jr.? Dude was a young phenom. He wore his hat backwards. He smashed the ball all over the park. His swing was pure and beautiful. I was 10 years old when he entered the league and in full kid fandom mode. It is hard to put into words how fun it was to watch Griffey play. He was awesome. He could hit for average. He could hit for power. He could run the bases. He was phenomenal in centerfield. He could do it all. He is my all time favorite non royal. I have a booklet of Ken Griffey Baseball cards. If I could create my dream outfield of non Royals, He would be in center with Gwynn in right and Rock Raines in left. Speaking of which, my wife read my blog of top 10 expos and then got me a Tim Raines autographed card for my Birthday. It was an awesome gift. But now I am writing blogs to motivate her for future gifts. So I am fully expecting an autographed Ken Griffey Jr. card for Father’s Day.

Anyway, Griffey is the best and had so much fun doing it. He rarely made the playoffs because back then only 4 teams made it and the Mariners weren’t very good most of the time even though he was awesome. He even got to play with his dad for a little bit. How cool is that? He was the MVP in 97. He made 13 all star games. He won the homerun derby 3 times. He won 10 gold gloves. He had 630 home runs. He is top 20 all time in home runs, RBI’s and total bases. He was the hitting coach on the WBC team this year. He is even teasing a comeback because he can still hit. And my most recent finding is that he is in the top 5 paid players for the Reds this season because he signed a Bobby Bonilla deal and the money was deferred over a bunch of years. Genius move. Everybody loved Griffey but if you are lefty you love him a little bit more.

Don’t miss the top 5 for Friday tomorrow as I discuss the start of baseball, the final four, Lamar Jackson and more.

Lot’s happening in the world of sports this past week, NFL Free agency continues, the madness is in full effect and apparently there was some baseball world championship thingy. Let’s jump in.

Every Free Agent is signing with a Super Bowl Contender:

You may not follow the whole NFL free agency scene like I do, so you may miss some of the comments after a player signs. Every player that signs with another team has a glaring endorsement of how great the team is. Which makes sense. They can’t be like Morgan Freeman in Hard Rain and say “We just want the money!”. I have actually never seen Hard Rain. But for some reason I distinctly remember him yelling that in the preview that was on tv way too much. Anyway…of course players who leave for more money are going to say can’t wait to be a part of a great team, this is a championship caliber team, etc. But some are certainly more believable. Recently Juan Thornhill said that Cleveland had all the pieces or something to that effect. He could be right but Watson looked terrible last year, their offense is uninventive and the defense was sort of eh, unless they were playing Joe Burrow before the Bengals started playing well. Also, they are the Browns. They never win anything. Since 1995, they have two playoff appearances and 1 playoff win. To put that in perspective, I was 16 in 1995. I am not 16 now. The even funnier one in my opinion, was Adam Thielen. He is now a panther. When giving reasons for picking the Panthers one of the reasons was to win a championship. The Panthers have been a disaster for most of their time as an organization. They currently don’t have a quarterback on their roster. Oh wait, I think they signed Andy Dalton. Like I said, the don’t have a quarterback.

The Jet jets for the Jets:

Mecole Hardman is now a Jet. His nickname is the Jet so it is fitting. Hardman got mixed reviews from Chiefs fans. Many were critical that he never performed up to expectations. While others said he never got the opportunity. Last year was that opportunity and he was somewhat effective but then he had a weird abdominal injury that kept him out most of the season. Perhaps we will never know what Hardman could be. But while many probably don’t care that he is gone, I for one always liked him. He and Pat always seemed to be a little off though so they never reached their full potential together but Hardman was fast, resilient and great around the goal line. He had some huge plays in the playoffs and was definitely a weapon. You could argue that there isn’t much he can do that Toney can’t do. However, even though Hardman was hurt last year, Toney is always hurt. Hopefully we draft another fast guy to run jet sweeps. Can’t have enough of those. I wish Hardman the best of luck…although I am also sort of cheering against the Jets because of Rodgers shenanigans. Anyway, Hardman was a part of the greatest runs in Chiefs history. Thanks for the memories, Jet.

Who has a good Bracket?

You get a busted bracket! You get a busted bracket! You get a busted bracket! Everybody gets a busted bracket!!! This is what I imagined Oprah was screaming last weekend as teams like Purdue, Arizona, ku, and Duke went down. I texted my sister and said my bracket is a disaster. And she said everybody’s bracket is a disaster. On Sunday night I texted my brother and said, I don’t have anyone left in the East. He was like that is rough. About 10 minutes later, he texted me back and was like wait…I don’t have anybody in the East either. This is the madness part of March. Sometimes the better, higher ranked teams win and it is sort of boring minus a few games and other times you get total chaos like we have now. FAU is in the elite eight for goodness sakes. Princenton plays Creighton tonight. The Midwest region is really the only one that makes some sort of sense as 1 plays 5 tonight and 2 and 3 play each other. But this is what makes college basketball fun and different from other sports. But next on the list is what makes it not fun.

Worst Officiating…ever:

Basketball is a great sport. It was probably what I was best at in high school. It is fun and you can play pretty long into your life. My dad played into his 50’s. And no officiating is perfect. I get that. People complain about the officiating in all sports and talk about things being rigged. I am usually the first to defend them saying they are humans too. But here is my struggle. I have watched a ton of high school basketball in my life and the officiating for the most part is pretty good. I have watched quite a bit of NBA basketball and the officiating is mostly pretty bad. However, it is consistently bad. You know what you are going to get night in and night out. You know what is a foul and what isn’t.

College basketball officiating is awful and inconsistent on a level like nothing else in sports. It’s hard to know what is a foul and what isn’t a foul. Things like over the back seem to no longer exist. At the same time offensive fouls are rampant so much so that you are in more danger of getting a foul if you touch another player if you have the ball than if you don’t. But the worst part is the wild inconsistencies both from game to game to within the same game. On Saturday I was flipping back and forth between watching my favorite team and my least favorite team lose games. At one point with both games in the second half with a lot of time left, there had only been 4 fouls in the Mizzou game. 3 on Mizzou and 1 on Princeton. Meanwhile in the kansas vs Ar-Kansas game, they were both already in the double bonus. Now were there really that many more fouls in that game? Then in the last 5 minutes of the Mizzou game all of the sudden there were a ton of fouls. And I am not talking about the very end when Mizzou was fouling on purpose to drag out my misery as much as humanly possible. I am not making excuses here. I am not claiming this is why Mizzou lost. Mizzou lost because they got outplayed and it was the tournament and if you don’t know about Mizzou in the tournament go back and read about it from my blog on Tuesday. But it is why the sport is so hard to watch. I used to love it. But now I’ll watch the occasional Mizzou regular season game and then the tournament. That’s it. And even that is hard to watch sometimes. I don’t know if they will ever fix it at this point. It’s been bad for a better part of a decade. And it is damaging a great sport.

Something was happening with Baseball:

So apparently, the US almost won something called the World Baseball Classic. Every once in a while, I would see a post about I hope the USA wins today. I thought maybe there was a gymnastics or swim meet going on I was unaware of. Or maybe we had gone to war with Russia and no one had told me. Nope, baseball stuff was going on. Which is fine. I don’t know why they picked the exact same time as March Madness to do it. But apparently there were some good games and stuff and we barely lost to Japan in the championship…I think. It might still be going on, I don’t know. This is how much I care about baseball. I loved baseball in the 80’s and 90’s prior to the strike. I would watch games, listen to games and even played a game called dice baseball that my dad taught me. I never had video games as a kid so I had to draw out a score sheet in a notebook and roll the dice to see if Tim Raines was going to get on base or be out. I would have lots marks on the side of my hand that only a left hander would understand. But post strike minus a few bits of time here are there, baseball hasn’t been my thing. So that is why I don’t know what was going on in this world classic thingy and I don’t think I was alone. But a big shout out to my 3 Facebook friends who were posting a lot about it. You are true baseball fans. I don’t know why you are true baseball fans but thanks for sharing and letting the rest of us know that this event was going on.

Enjoy the weekend everyone…and the madness. Check out the next top 10 on Tuesday of next week.

There are some certainties in life. Death and Taxes are the most common ones. But there are some sports related ones too. Andy Reid beating his division. Travis Kelce getting a thousand yards. The Raiders making terrible offseason decisions. The Royals being eliminated by the end of May. Cardinal fans complaining for the first 4 months of the season and then spending the rest of the season talking about how awesome they are as they make the playoffs. But there is nothing more certain than Mizzou losing in the tournament. The hardest part of this was finding 10 times we actually made the tournament in my lifetime. But finding brutally painful ways of losing was quite easy among the times we made it. Without further ado, here we go.

10. 1994 Mizzou loses to Arizona in the Elite Eight:

Okay, so this is sort of out of the ordinary which is why it is #10. I was a freshman in high school and this was a quality team although it didn’t start out well. Early on we lost to Arkansas 120-68. Watching this game, Paul O’Liney was watching the game and said to himself, they could use me so he joined the team. And he did help. But the Tigers found their rhythm. They went a perfect 14-0 in Big 8 play. The gained the #1 seed in the West and things were looking good. This was the first time in my lifetime we had made the Elite 8. Then we ran into Damon Stoudamire and the Arizona Wildcats who smoked us by 20. We finished 28-4 and had a great season. But this was probably our best shot of making it to the final four and we came up short so it makes the list.

9. 2003 Loss to in OT to Marquette:

This was another not so bad loss. After all, Marquette was the 3 seed and we were the 6. We battled all game and I specifically remember watching this with my friends Dave and Karen. Ricky Paulding specifically raised his game. After being down 10 at half we worked things back to a tie to send it to Over Time. Quin seemed like the real deal as he had led us to the elite 8 the year before and looked like he was going to make another run. But in OT they absolutely destroyed us, outscoring us 21-12. We played hard. We just couldn’t stop some guy named Dwayne Wade for some reason. Turns out he was pretty good. It was a tough loss but it is worse looking back due to what happened next. More on that in a bit.

8. 1983 Mizzou loses to Iowa in the round of 32:

It looks like we won a tournament game that year but we didn’t. The field expanded to 64 in 1985. I was too young to remember so this almost didn’t make the list but I have heard my dad complain enough about it that it feels like I was there. We had won the Big 8. We had a couple of guys on our team named Sundvold and Stipanovich. Apparently they were real good. We were the 2 seed and if we had won this game we would be playing at Kemper which would have basically given us home court advantage. Dad went ahead and bought tickets. Unfortunately, we lost to 7 seed Iowa and never made it to Kemper. If I was older, this would probably be higher on the list. But as my brother said this weekend, they still went to Kemper and got to see Houston and the five slamma jamma team. I reminded him that the coolest thing I saw at Kemper was the Blades. So it isn’t all bad.

7. 2013 9 Seed Mizzou loses to 8 Seed Colorado State:

I sort of forgot about this one because there is one the year before way worse but this fittingly popped up on my FB feed today as a past memory. This is what my post 10 years ago said:

“Thank you Colorado state for ending this embarrassing and disappointing season. It has been a miserable year of under achieving. I for one am glad I don’t have to watch pressey turn the ball over, Jabari brown shoot 1 for 67 from the field and haith stick to line ups that aren’t working. Time to cheer for who ever is playing Kansas.”

This pretty much sums it up and honestly sums up being a Mizzou basketball fan in general.

6. 2023 Losing to #15 Princeton:

It’s hard to be mad about Princeton. But man, losing to a 15 seed again? Also, hard to be mad as overall this team wildly overachieved and actually won a tournament game. Something we hadn’t done since 2010. 13 years. We went 13 years without winning a tournament game. That is how bad it is being a Tiger fan. It’s not like I overlooked Princeton as I felt there were a handful teams that we couldn’t beat if we played well and pretty much no one I thought we couldn’t lose to if we played poorly. But this was rough. Princeton being the smart guys that they are (it is Princeton after all) exposed all our weaknesses which we have many of, half court defense, running an offense for long period of times, defensive rebounding, offensive rebounding and settling for bad shots. They played lights out, shot lights out and this game was never really close. And let’s be honest when we didn’t have to play Arizona then you sort of assumed we would win this. After all, how often does the #15 seed win after beating the 2 seed? The odds go way up if that second game is against Mizzou. It wasn’t just that we lost. It was more because we got dominated by Princeton…a 15 seed. They looked like the better team. I think the overachieving season overshadows how bad this loss really is. But it was bad.

5. 1987 #3 loses to #14 Xavier and 1988 #6 Mizzou loses to #11 Rhode Island:

I’m lumping these two together because I sort of remember the games but remember the teams better. This stretch of Mizzou Basketball is full of lots of great talent and absurd underachievement. They had Derrick Chievous, Doug Smith, Lee Coward, Byron Irving, Nathan Buntin and Mike Sandbothe. This is when I really became a Mizzou fan. So much talent. Sure, some of it was there illegally but no one knew that at the time. We would pay for that later. In 87 we won the Big Eight and were a 3 seed. We somehow lost by a point to a freaking 14 seed in Xavier. I was 8 and I just remember being real disappointed. In 1988 it was more of the same. This team was stacked. Some how this team went 19-11. They should have done much better. Then we headed to the tournament and ran into an 11 seeded Rhode Island. I had just turned 9 so I don’t remember this game real well either, but I remember being pissed. A feeling I would feel again and again and again.

4. 2004 Didn’t even make the tourney:

Okay, maybe I am cheating here but this team was supposed to be a contender and instead fell apart. Most of the team that almost beat Dwayne Wade the year before was back. Arthur Johnson, Ricky Paulding, Travon Bryant and Jimmy McKinney were all back. And we added strong freshman in Thomas Gardner and Linas Klieza. We were ranked to start the season. And then day by day we became more of a mess. Turns out Quin Snyder was a mess. He was recruiting illegally, doing some things outside of his marriage he wasn’t supposed to do and I am pretty sure was doing mountains of cocaine. Or at least he looked like he was. Quin gave us so much hope. The two previous years he had done well in the tournament. Something Norm struggled to do. He was recruiting like crazy. But the dude just had problems. And if we are honest Mizzou Basketball hasn’t been the same since. Sure, we had a couple decent years here and there. But this was really the beginning of the end as the next year Quin would resign and our basketball future was grim for many years.

3. 1990 loss to Northern Freaking Iowa:

After two brutal defeats, the 89 team pulled it together and made a run before losing a close game to a higher ranked Syracuse team in the sweet 16. In 1990, we won the Big 8. We were led by Doug Smith and my all time favorite Tiger, Anthony Peeler. Another one of my favorites, Lee Coward was still on the team with Nathan Buntin and John McIntyre still around to round out the starting 5. Late in the season we were the #1 ranked team in the nation. We beat #1 ku twice both at home and in Lawrence. But then at the end of the year we lost to #10 Oklahoma, got blown out by Notre Dame and then lost in the first round of the Big 8 tournament to 8 seed, Colorado. That knocked us from being #1 in the country to a 3 seed in the tournament. We faced Northern Iowa who had never been in the tournament before. They went up 2-0 and never trailed. Doug Smith fouled out with like 7 minutes to go and Peeler only had 3 points. It was a fitting end to the underachieving of this insanely talented run of Tiger teams filled with NBA players from 86-90 that made the tournament every year but only got out of the first round once.

2. 1995 Somebody get in his way!!! (loss to UCLA):

If you want to make any Mizzou fan upset by saying one name, that name is Tyus Edney. If you google Tyus Edney the first thing that pops up is the play against Mizzou. This guy played in the NBA for like 10 years, won a national championship and is now a coach and this is still the first thing that came up.

The 90’s were full of almost for Mizzou sports. The 5th down, the fleakicker and Tyus Edney. Until Gary Pinkel, these were the most memorable Mizzou sports moments and if you are just a sports fan and not a Mizzou fan then these are still your top 3.

We really had no business being in this game. We had squeaked by 9 seed Indiana and were facing the 1 seed and the #1 ranked team in the country. Yet we had them on the ropes. Down by 1, we milked the clock as much as we could and then made a great play to dump it underneath for an easy bucket to take a 1 point lead. There was 4.8 seconds left. UCLA called a timeout. They came up with this amazing play where everyone just gets out the way and Edney dribbles all the way down the court. Our strategy apparently was to let him. Sutherland escorted him down the court and then Derrick Grimm stood right in front of him but even scooted back a little and didn’t jump as Edney laid it in over him. I am sure the discussion was to not foul but I was yelling the whole time, “somebody get in his way!” It was a brutal way to lose. UCLA went on to win the whole thing and we didn’t make the tourney again until 99. It took what should have been one of the greatest victories in Mizzou history and turned it into one of the most brutal losses in Mizzou history. If you would like to suffer all over again, you can watch the clip below.

1.The Loss: 2012 to #15 seed Norfolk State:

There is only one answer for #1 on this list and it is losing to Norfolk State. This was brutal. I don’t think I have ever been more mad about a basketball game in my life and that says a lot. Mike Anderson had left and Frank Haith had taken over. The cupboard was pretty bare but a rag tag group of players were left. Kim English, Marcus Denmon, the Pressey brothers, Michael Dixon, Ricardo Ratliffe and fan favorite Steve Moore. These guys felt like Anderson had quit on them so they rallied together and became quite the team. They won 30 games. They won the big 12 tournament. The finished second in the league but split games with ku. They were fun. They were likable. They were inspiring. The got a 2 seed and a matchup with little known Norfolk State. We played so well in the big 12 tourney it seemed like we were due to make a run. Instead, we absolutely could not stop Norfolk State all game. They out shot us, out rebounded us and out played us. We took two ill advised shots in the last minute and Norfolk shot 2-6 from the free throw line to give us a shot. We probably shouldn’t have called timeout after the last missed free throw as we might have caught them off guard and got an open shot. However, instead we took a timeout and gave them a chance to set up a defense. We inbounded to Phil Pressey who dribbled down the sideline and missed a highly contested 3 that went off the rim and we lost. It was brutal on every front. You wanted this team to win. And to lose again…in the first round was so painful. My wife can tell you for sure but I don’t think I talked to anybody the rest of the day…maybe the rest of the week. In fact, even after writing about it, I don’t want to talk to anyone anymore. There have been a lot of brutal losses but this is clearly #1. If you would like to punish yourself you can spend 10 plus minutes watching the last 50 seconds here just like I did. Now excuse me while I find a hole to crawl into after reliving all these depressing moments.

It’s been a crazy week with NFL Free agency and the March Madness. Let’s dive in!

Hello, Darkness, My Old Friend:

Aaron Rodgers was up to his normal shenanigans on Wednesday. He went on the Pat McAfee show to detail his decision that apparently wasn’t a decision. He said he went into his Darkness retreat 90% going to retire and 10% not retiring. But he came out “different”. I got news for you Aaron, you were already different. He then announced he is committed to playing for the New York Jets. He then said it because the Packers said they didn’t want him anymore and he wished they would have told him earlier. Dude, you have been playing this game every year for like 4 offseasons now. Everyone is over it, even the Packers. They are also tired of him skipping OTA’s and then complaining about all the players not doing what he wants them to do. Hey, I didn’t show up for practice but you should know all the things I want you to do without me telling you. He then went on to talk about how he is probably the greatest Packer ever and how no one bled green and gold more than him. He’s absolutely ridiculous. He said that reporters were ridiculous for stating he was demanding certain players being added to the Jets. Even though it is pretty obvious. This guy is a hoot. He is going to hate the NY press. Also, since he is going to be on a new team is he going to practice? Or is he just going to wing it like last year? My guess is he does the latter. Bold prediction, Packers make the playoffs and the Jets don’t.

Tigers vs Tigers:

Guys! Mizzou won a tournament game! We had not won a tournament game since 2010. That’s right, it has been 13 years since we have won a game in the big dance. Last time we won, Mike Anderson was our coach and JT Tiller and Zaire Taylor were on the team to give it some perspective. That’s how long it has been. Unfortunately, I was at work so I did not watch the game. But apparently it was real close until the last 4 minutes and then we ran away with it. That sounds about right as that is about how every game we play in goes. To make the situation better, Princeton upset Arizona. Arizona has good big players and I was worried about that because we are terrible at rebounding and guarding big guys. Now I am in no way assuming we will beat Princeton. We are Mizzou, I never assume we would beat anyone. But it is a much better match up for us. We could make a little run though. Sweet 16 and Elite 8 aren’t out of the question. Anyway, it should be a fun Tiger vs Tiger game. I mean if you are going to lose, it is hard to be mad about losing to Princeton.

Bengals “steal away” Orlando Brown:

I have seen this headline a lot. They did not steal him away. We didn’t want to pay him whatever big amount of money he wanted and so we moved on. Then he went to free agency and according to Adam Schefter, the league saw him as a right tackle, not a left tackle. The Bengals signed him to a 4 year deal. He got the largest bonus in history for an OT. It was a whopping half a million more than what we offered him last year. Lots of people on line apparently think Brown is good. Brown through most of the year lead the league in pressures allowed. People point towards his playoff success, but he was the one who allowed the guy to get by in the Jags game who hurt Mahomes. In the Bengals game he allowed 7 pressures. In the Super Bowl, the field was a mess and the Eagles defensive ends were slipping everywhere. Look, I have nothing against Brown personally. But he is not nearly as good as he thinks he is. I am yet to see a Chiefs fan upset about his departure. Instead, most seem to be excited about our defensive ends matching up against him against the hated Bengals.

Bracket Busters Bring Us Together!:

The Madness is the best. So much fun. And it gets everyone involved. Anyone can fill out a bracket. We have a family one going much like we do with fantasy football. Last night, Danielle, Walker, Savannah and I were doing well so Danielle’s sister is claiming conspiracy. I can say I did not help any of them with their brackets besides getting them logged in. Last night we were all cheering for 16 seed Northern Kentucky to beat 1 seed Houston, except for Danielle. Danielle’s strategy was to pick the higher seeds throughout the entire bracket. It is working out for her so far but this is also why she was cheering for Houston. But typically this is the one time you cheer for the team you picked to lose. Because upsets are fun and are what make the Madness great. Savannah bravely picked ku to lose in the first round because she knows we cheer against them. Even my sister got into the act and was very proud of herself for picking the Furman upset. Although to be fair, we all should have picked Virginia to lose. They haven’t won a game in the dance since they won it all and they are even the only 1 seed ever to lose to a 16. Mental note for next year, pick Virginia to lose. I am looking forward to more Madness tonight and this weekend. For the record, my final four is Alabama, Purdue, Texas and Gonzaga with Bama beating Gonzaga in the championship. This of course assumes that Bama doesn’t have half their team arrested for murder.

Paper Champions:

NFL Free Agency is quickly followed by everyone thinking their team is going to be awesome and everyone else’s team being trash. The talk on the radio around here in Denver is already about what a great team Sean Payton is putting together. Bears fans are claiming they are back even though most of their new team came from the Panthers who were not good last year. The Packers are going to be terrible without Aaron Rodgers even though they have a pretty solid team and we don’t know if Jordan Love is good or not, but he looked alright in limited time last year. Every team is going to win their division because they signed some cornerback or wide receiver. It’s a great 6 months or so for a lot of teams. And then the season starts. It’s all down hill after that for about 15-20 fan bases. So I say soak it up. Enjoy the ride. Fill your little heart up with misplaced enthusiasm. Just be careful as Tina Turner said, who needs a heart when a heart can be broken. Anyway, let me join in on the fun. My bold and way, way to early Super Bowl prediction is Chiefs over Saints.

Normally, this is top 10 Tuesday but with so much going on and me missing Friday’s post, I figured this would be fitting. Don’t worry there will still be plenty to cover for 5 for Friday so you get a double dose this week. This is one of the better weeks of sports with March Madness and NFL free agency in the same week along with a few other sports shenanigans so lets dive in!

The good old Tampering period

The NFL cracks me up for many reasons but one of my favorite things is the 2 day “legal” tampering period. This is the one of the only times you see the words legal and tampering used together. The NFL is basically saying free agency doesn’t start until Wednesday, but go ahead and start signing people anyway. I mean we won’t really sign them until Wednesday…wink, wink. This is pretty much how the NFL does most of its financials. We have a salary cap that you must stay under…wink wink. We are going to pay a guy a bunch of money but most of it will never see it ways on the salary cap and a good portion will never see its way to the player either…wink, wink. Anyway, it is good fun for all of us. Also, if you are Aaron Rodgers you can tamper all you want apparently including telling the team you might be going to who to sign. More on that in a minute.

The Raiders moved on from Derek Carr to get a slightly lesser, more injury prone version of Derek Carr

In a classic Raider move, they ran off the guy who had been loyal to them for years (most of them bad) to get Jimmy G to come play quarterback for them. Jimmy G has a pretty outstanding win/loss record but that was due to a few games with the Patriots and the rest with the 49ers who for the last 4 years everyone has said has the best roster in the league…besides quarterback. Jimmy G is so good that the 49ers spent a ton of trade capital to go up and get Trey Lance. But Jimmy G is going to be reunited with Josh McDaniels who failed miserably in Denver and now is failing in Las Vegas. The Raiders are stuck with him because they don’t have any money and can’t buy him out because they are already paying a few other coaches they fired. So now they will have a lesser version of Derek Carr for 8-10 games next year before he gets injured.

Aaron Rodgers taking his weird to the big city

Reports have come out that Rodgers to the Jets is a done deal. Now that it has been leaked out, I am confident that Rodgers will drag this out as long as possible or even return to the Packers. He is even recruiting people to the Jets so it would be even funnier if they signed a bunch of players he wants and then he turns around and says…nah, I’m good. I’m gonna stay in Green Bay. Although, I think the Packers are over it. They are looking for their quarterback to put in a little more effort, like show up to practice and stuff like that. I know pretty demanding. I don’t think returning to the Packers is even an option at this point. So now it is go to the Jets or retire. Pretty much all the other teams are out. Dude is 39 years old. Also, he is high maintenance. He is weird. And he doesn’t win in the playoffs. The best part is he is following in Favre’s footsteps. Favre was debating retirement for several years until at age 39 he went to the Jets. Now Rodgers is doing the same thing. We should fully expect Rodgers to play for the Vikings in 2024. And then after retiring he will make awkward jean commercials and then several years later be a part of state welfare scandal. Just expect a lot more weird things in between all those things. Maybe Rodgers should go back to his darkness retreat and just stay in there.

The Chiefs have a new tackle

Jawaan Taylor is now a Chief. We couldn’t agree on a contract with Orlando Brown so we moved on…quickly. This is one of the things I love about Veach. We moved on from Frank Clark. We moved on from Eric Berry and Justin Houston. We moved on from Fisher and Schwartz and the honey badger. The list goes on and on. Now, they are saying they are going to move Taylor to left tackle which does concern me a little bit. He has never played left tackle. In four years with the Jags, he always played right tackle. He also only played right tackle in college. But hey, who am I to question Veach. Brown and Wylie didn’t give up any sacks in the Super Bowl. In case you missed it, they even put it on a t-shirt. Brown always makes the pro bowl. But statistically neither of these guys were very good. At one point in the middle of the season, they were 1 and 2 in pressures allowed. They did get better as the year went on. However, it isn’t like Mahomes went untouched in the Super Bowl. There are several reasons that Mahomes didn’t get sacked. Most of our plays were quick throws and runs. Mahomes is very good at avoiding pressure. And finally, the field was total crap and the Eagles defensive ends were falling every where. Brown and Wylie played pretty well but neither are great players. Taylor on the other hand, allowed the 3rd least pressures of any tackle in the league. Taylor is basically the opposite of Brown, better at pass blocking than at run blocking. Good news for us, we don’t really like to run anyway. This is at worst an even trade off. I am betting we will be happier with Taylor than we were with Brown.

Broncos spending money…again

The Broncos have made several moves and they have all been solid. But the funniest part is living here and hearing about how great the roster was for 4 or 5 years and they were just missing the quarterback. Last year they traded and paid a bunch of money for their missing piece and now all of the sudden none of the other pieces are any good. I have no doubt that Sean Payton will make them a functioning team again. And I am sure all offseason on my drive to work I’ll hear about how the Broncos are now just as good as the Chiefs. After all, it is the time for paper champions. At least they have some new material to talk about.

49ers Signing Sam Darnold

The 49ers signed another great defensive line player because that is what they do. They also are signing Sam Darnold as insurance since Trey Lance and Brock Purdy are both coming off of surgery. I fully expect Sam Darnold to trip and tear his ACL immediately after signing.

Bills, Bengals, Eagles are getting worse

It is early but arguably our 3 biggest competitors to a repeat have all gotten worse so far. They have all lost several defensive players and so they will have to rebuild that side of the ball. The good news is it can be done. We did it last year. The bad news is most teams can’t do it because they don’t draft that well and they don’t have Andy Reid and Pat Mahomes. All of this is good news for me.

March Madness is upon us!

The madness is here! I have to admit I love the tournament although it is arguably the dumbest way to determine a champion. I mean why does the 3rd best team from the Mountain West even get a shot at winning it all? But it is what it is. So just as Free agency slows down, basketball picks up. And to make it even better, Mizzou doesn’t suck and is in the tourney. I think we have a great shot to win at least one game. In all seriousness, I think we could make a little run. We don’t quit and we can shoot the 3. If we are on we can beat just about anyone. Unfortunately our weakness is rebounding and playing against good big men. Hopefully there aren’t any of those in the tourney this year. I don’t pay that much attention to college basketball but I will be tuned in this weekend. If Mizzou loses, I’ll be cheering for the field against any teams that have k and u in them. (You know who you are, kansas and Kentucky).

Tiger Woods teaches us all a new way to break up

In other news, Tiger Woods broke up with his girlfriend. That isn’t really all that newsworthy and it happened a while ago. But what we didn’t know was how he broke up with her. Apparently his staff tricked her into thinking she was going on a big vacation. Once they got her out of the house they permanently locked her out. Now different reports are saying that they had already broken up but they had a deal that she could live there for a certain duration. Either way this is crazy and hilarious. I mean not for her. But for you and me it is pretty funny. I guess this is what happens when you don’t take a hint. I’m no relationship expert but if someone breaks up with you, they typically don’t want to keep living with you. And I guess if they really won’t take the hint, you lock them out of your house. But talk about your highs and lows. Hey I’m going on a sweet vacation! Oh, wait, I’m locked out of my house and not going on vacation. That is a quick turn around of emotions. One thing is for sure, if my wife says she is surprising me with a vacation, I’ll be skeptical from now on.

NBA Players upset about having to show up to work

For several years now, players have been taking games off to rest up and in theory be better overall and late in the season. But it keeps getting worse. Charles Barkley called them all out recently and now the league is even considering implementing rules that make players play a certain percentage of games. I don’t go to or watch NBA games. But if I paid top dollar for tickets and then showed up only to find out that all the best players weren’t playing, I’d be pretty upset. I guess we are sort of used to it in baseball, but they play 162 games a year, not 82. Also, you play a game for a living. Most of us have to go to jobs we think are “eh” most of the time. We don’t do the one thing we dreamed of doing as little kids. And we have to show up 5 days a week. Granted, some of us might not work very hard at those jobs but we still have to show up. Anyway, I don’t know who’s fault this trend is but I’ll just go ahead and blame LeBron.

Tune in on Friday for the 5 for Friday as I’ll have more thoughts from NFL free agency, the tourney and we will see if Aaron Rodgers can make a decision and if Tiger Woods has locked any other girlfriends out of his house.

1. Travis exceeded my expectations. I thought Travis would be fun but didn’t know exactly how well he would actually do. But you could tell that although he had fun, he took it serious. Even in his monologue he got a little emotional talking about how big of a deal it was to stand where Ferrell, Farley and Sandler had stood before. He worked hard and it paid off. He is no Timberlake or Steve Martin but he held his own and performed admirably.
2. The Monologue was the best part. After the opening scene making fun of Fox news that surprised no one, we got to the monologue. I didn’t know what they would do here but it was excellent and the best part of the whole show. From the get go, he said that hosting SNL was better than winning the Super Bowl and then quickly said he was lying. He followed it by making fun of himself on the sidelines and then imitating Mahomes. Jason Kelce was in the audience and that was great. They played it well. Then he made fun of his dating show, “Catching Kelce”, it is like the bachelor except no one watched. He said that technically it should be on the streaming service Peacock but they were like “nah, were good. It was strong from beginning to end and kicked the show off right.
3. SNL writers are weird. Even though I thought Travis was great, the writers didn’t give him a lot to work with. It seemed like every sketch got weirder and weirder as the night went on. It was like what awkward scenario can we put Kelce in next. And almost every sketch had to do with sex in one way or another. It wasn’t that creative and sort of redundant which leads to reaction #4.
4. SNL still sucks. While it was entertaining because it was Kelce, there was nothing about the show that inspired me to tune back in anytime soon. It bashed conservatives a little less than I remember but still wasn’t that funny. In a lot of ways it was just the same jokes over and over again with a couple of good skits in between.
5. Weekend Update isn’t good either. Weekend Update used to sort of be the climax of the show. Everything before was good, update was awesome and then it was down hill after that. Now everything before Update is okay, update isn’t good and everything after update is weird and/or dumb. Whether it was Dennis Miller, Kevin Nealon, Norm McDonald, Tina Fey and Fallon, Fey and Poehler, Poehler and Seth Myers and finally Myers by himself, it was always funny with good people who came on as well. But this thing was a disaster. Besides a few decent laughs, the jokes weren’t funny. The only thing worse than normal update was the guests. First was a guy dressed like Dilbert. The jokes were so bad that literally no one laughed after anything he said. Then they rolled out some woman with a brightly colored desk and clothes that tried to make Colin Jost look bad or feel awkward. The thing that was bad and awkward was the sketch. You used to be bummed when Weekend Update ended because you know the show was downhill from there. Now when Weekend Update ends, you are bummed because it is hard to imagine the show getting worse from what you just saw.
6. Kelce makes awkward work. Despite the writer’s attempt to make this an awful show, Kelce saved several sketches starting with the first one. The first sketch he was in was awkward but at least funny. It involved him going to an American Girl Cafe with just 2 dolls. Kelce played the role perfectly with enough creep to be funny but not so much that it was cringeworthy. He attempted to do the same thing in several other skits where he was dating an old black woman who had died, was sleeping with a married woman who’s husband knew about it and were explaining it to their adult kids while he played video games and finally in bed with a girl who stood up another guy who shows up at the house. The creep factor was in full effect. I thought Kelce saved all but the last sketch despite the writers attempt to make the show awful.
7. Straight Male Friend was the best. By far the best sketch was about a gay man who has lots of straight girl friends who can be high maintenance and exhausting. The idea is that these friends are great but you need a straight male friend sometimes. It then cuts to Kelce playing video games, eating wings and having little conversation. To point out how little the commitment is the gay man tells Kelce he might be moving to Europe for 7 years. Kelce responds, “Go, just hit me up when you get back.” The drama comes during a frustrating video game where Travis throws the controller and utters the words I hear my 14 year old son say all the time, “This game is stupid!”. Then Travis says, you want to go get some wings. The skit is spot on and hilarious.
8. Jason Kelce appearance was a win. Jason showed up twice. First during the monologue when Travis mentioned his family and talked about beating his brother in the Super Bowl which was awkward especially since they had to ride home together in their Mom’s minivan. Jason showed up again during a skit as Travis was at a bar with his fiancée. He runs into a past “girlfriend” who is very upset and cries dramatically with tears/water going every where. It is pretty funny. It turns out they only went on one date and the girl is a little nutty. But then her new boyfriend shows up and it is no other than Jason Kelce. This makes Travis cry like the girl although I don’t think he could get the tear tools to work correctly. But these two brothers are something else. It was great that we got to see Jason a couple of times.
9. Travis as a self defense trainer was pretty funny. The skit starts with the writers not being respected by interns so they go to a personal protection/training class hosted by Travis. First of all his name is Kurt Lightning which is awesome. He then shows that his t-shirt says You’re worth it. He then brings one of the writers up and talks him up before knocking him out. The next writer comes up and Travis says why are you afraid and he answers, because you knocked out my friend and I’m concerned he might be dead. The whole thing escalates from there including beating up an old lady and the interns throwing coffee on the writers. Kelce is solid in it and after the monologue and the straight male friend skit, it is probably the funniest thing on the show.
10. The only way I will watch SNL again is if another Chief hosts. I thought Travis was great and it was fun watching it because he was on it. I laughed quite a bit but mostly because Kelce was on there. But if this is an example of the overall writing of the show, then there is no reason for me to watch. To many skits involving sexual innuendos and non funny political stuff. Why would I watch SNL when I can watch something that is actually funny on Netflix or some other streaming network. Even if I want to watch Travis be funny, I can simply check out the New Heights podcast. In short, the show successfully got me to watch SNL once but did not succeed in bringing me back to watch again. I’m guessing I am not alone.

I said I wouldn’t get a 5 for Friday in because I am traveling but a lot has happened this week in sports so I will see if I can fit it in. Either way, have a great rest of your week.

It’s been another interesting week in sports. Here are 5 reactions to all the happenings of the week.

Win with Quin!

You remember when Quin Snyder was the coach of the Mizzou basketball team? He was actually pretty good before the recruiting allegations, drugs and rumored relationships with female students. Sure we interviewed Bill Self and John Calipari and chose Snyder over them. But hey, he gave us 4 pretty good years plus another 2 and half bad years. After that he bounced around in the NBA minor leagues before getting a job with the Jazz. He left last year after issues with the ownership, etc. But to everyone’s delight…he is back in the league. For whatever reason, I have always rooted for Quin. He is sort of like the kid in high school who made a bunch of dumb mistakes and has crazy hair but you know deep down he is pretty talented and likable so you are cheering for him. To make it even better he is coaching the Hawks. Growing up in KC where the Kings left when I was 6 years old, I never really had an NBA team. I wouldn’t say I was a bandwagon fan although I certainly cheered for the Pistons and Bulls during their runs especially in the NBA finals. But my two favorite teams were probably the Warriors because Chris Mullen was left handed like me and the Hawks because I liked Dominique Wilkins. So this is a great fit for me. Go Hawks! I will now be cheering for 3 NBA teams. The Nuggets because I live here in Denver, I guess. The Warriors because I like to cheer for the team everyone else hates. And now the Hawks. I still won’t watch any of these teams play until the playoffs but now that will be more fun because I have a team in the East. Now to just figure out who is actually playing for the Hawks these days.

AJ vs JuJu:

JuJu is an interesting character. I don’t know if he will be back with the Chiefs next year. But I do know he knows how to get under AJ Brown’s skin. It all started on Valentine’s day when everyone was creating the little valentine’s cards with football player’s faces on them with funny comments. JuJu tweeted one with Bradberry’s face that said “I’ ‘ll hold you when it matters most.” I am not saying this is something I would do. But I must admit that this was hilarious. AJ Brown took offense and stood up for his teammate. He ripped JuJu for not being a good receiver, being on tik tok too much and a few other things. JuJu again responded by brilliantly just stating that he was happy AJ could finally get things off his chest. I thought this would be the end of it but then JuJu made some tik tok video that honestly doesn’t make any sense to me. But it got AJ upset and he again tweeted and sent JuJu a private message that AJ took a pic of and also tweeted. AJ basically said stop putting me in your tik toks or whatever or you are going to get beat up. AJ later deleted the tweets. Wide Receiver beef is the best sort of beef. JuJu is literally just poking at him for fun now. And AJ is very upset about it. It will be interesting to see where this goes next.

The NFL Combine:

The NFL combine is this week. It is the NFL version of a dating app. The players run as fast as they can, jump as high as they can, and see how many times they can bench press 225. Spoiler alert, I can bench press 225 zero times. 20 years ago when I was these guys age, I could throw that up 10 times though, so take that. Anyway, while the guys do all the jumping and the ever important life skill of the shuttle run, the NFL scouts, coaches and gm’s look on to decide if they want to pick them or not. I hear dating apps are similar these days as you can just swipe and swipe until you find someone you like. Now not everyone participates. The last couple of years the Rams have not gone and the media makes a big deal about it. But guess what and I know this is going to shock you…the Rams never have any draft picks so there is no reason for them to go anyway. This is also why they don’t have depth and if they have any injuries they are terrible. But hey, Matt Stafford told his wife that they were going to beat the Chiefs in the Super Bowl next year at Sean McVay’s super bowl party. So look out world. Anyway, the combine is sort of fun and gives us a little NFL fix in the offseason so that is nice. So feel free to tune in today, tomorrow and Sunday to watch a bunch of guys who are way more athletic than me have their own little field day minus the ribbons, sack lunches and the embarrassment of not being able to climb the rope in the gym. (Did that happen to you? Or was that just me?)

2 Strikes and 8 seconds and you are out!

There are several new rules within the MLB that you may not be aware of because a lot of us don’t pay that much attention to baseball. Among them are rules taking away the shift, bigger bases and a timer when batters are at the plate. You can read the entire new rules here:

https://www.mlb.com/rule-changes-2023?mlbkw=ds-g-p75171614941&gclid=Cj0KCQiA0oagBhDHARIsAI-BbgcVYsEiNNzqnouZfMqBSkw-85UqKe25c3khOsO0PXA8s3eGJrD686gaAh0NEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

All these rules are designed to make the game go faster and be more entertaining. Here is the problem. All sports are taking longer but the other sports aren’t losing popularity. But Baseball has been losing fans for decades. And so people have to answer why they are not a fan. But I think we are over complicating things. I have some friends and family members who have communicated that they think the NFL games are too long and the officiating is so bad that it is ruining the game and making it unwatchable. All these people have one thing in common. Their team sucks. But every year they come back at the beginning of the season and seem excited. It is only at the middle to end of the season that they start to complain about these things. You know who isn’t complaining? Chiefs fans. Sure there is the occasional complaint about the officiating from winning teams fans. But no one states that they aren’t going to watch anymore. Look I get it. As adults we only have so many hours in the day. We don’t want to waste it watching our favorite team getting their butt kicked week in and week out. But if our team is winning we will suffer through just about anything. I would argue that there is no officiating in the world worse than college basketball. But guess what, now that Mizzou is decent, I tune in as much as I can to their games. The Royals have been pretty awful for years now. Do I check the box score every day, sure. Am I looking for a local bar in Colorado where the Royals game is showing or figuring out how to stream it on my computer? Nope. But from 2013 to around 2017 or 2018 I tuned in regularly. Why? Because my team didn’t completely suck. The problem with baseball is that more teams suck than don’t suck and because there is no salary cap you have no hope most years. Sure a smaller market might build up their minor league system and make a run for 3-5 years. But mostly we all know it is going to be the national league teams in California versus Boston, NY or Houston. The other problem is baseball just isn’t as fun to watch on TV. I have always enjoyed going to the ball park and having a below average hot dog and an overpriced beer. Whenever I am at the game, I never think this is taking too long or I wish the bases were bigger. But on tv it just doesn’t play as well. Hockey is a better experience in person too and is another sport I seldom watch on tv. It’s just how it is. There is only one thing that will make me watch more baseball. The Royals not sucking. Besides, I can already watch baseball with more offense before the rule change because I live in Colorado. Whoever the road team is always comes to town and scores lots of runs. But these new rules are great for making the baseball purists and traditionalists throw fits and that is for sure the most entertaining part.

NFLPA Survey and Rankings

For the first time ever they NFL Players Union did a survey of players where they could unanimously give a grade to their team in the following categories: treatment of families, nutrition, weight room, strength staff, training room, training staff, locker room and travel. The top 3 teams were the Vikings, Dolphins and Raiders. The bottom 3 were the Chargers, Cardinals and to no one’s surprise based upon ownership, the Commanders. Interestingly enough, the Chiefs finished just above the bottom 3 at 29. Of course they didn’t ask questions about treatment by coaches, relationships with teammates or my favorite category that makes players happy…winning. There were some funny issues though that came up.

The Jaguars had the best complaint, rats. Apparently they had a rat infestation in the laundry room and locker room. This is valid. If I came to work and there were rats, I’d complain too. The Bengals who also were down low like the Chiefs have plumbing and electrical issues as their showers and toilets often don’t work and they don’t have plug ins to charge their phones. This is basic stuff here. The bathrooms on our floor at work didn’t work for a few days and it was super annoying. For the first time in the last few years, I sympathize with the Bengals. Maybe we aren’t too different after all. Nah, I still hate you.

The Ravens are down on their strength coaches, which isn’t surprising. They are like the 49ers of the AFC and always have a ton of injuries. Most happen in the preseason or first 4-6 weeks but many are season ending. This is why the Ravens always start out hot and fade away quickly.

To no one’s surprise the Cardinals are cheap. They charge their players for their food if they take it home or get food during off season work outs. And of course the Commanders players pretty much hate absolutely everything about being a Commander player.

The Chiefs players complaints were a lot about the practice facilities and the trainers. They would like chairs instead of stools by their lockers so they can lean back. That in theory should be a pretty easy to fix. They also do not like the main trainer Rick Burkholder. They like his staff but not him. Apparently they felt like they couldn’t come to him with injuries and couldn’t speak up about getting better care. Well guess what the Chiefs were one of the healthiest teams all year and just won a Super Bowl. I don’t know what will happen with everything else but I am guessing nothing changes here.

My favorite complaint though was about travel. Apparently the younger players have to room together at hotels on the road trips. This is hilarious and embarrassing. In my mid 20’s to around 30 I worked for financial companies. I had to go to lots of trainings and conferences. Every where I went I got a nice hotel room and everything was paid for. Around 31 I switched gears and started working for a non profit. I was signing up for my first training and one of the questions was “who do you want to be your roommate?” Easy answer…no one. I am a 31 year old man. I don’t want a roommate. Over the 9 years I worked for the organization, I got used to it but never felt great about it. At times I got to room with my brother who also worked for the organization, so that was fun for old times sake. We used to stay in hotel rooms with our parents and sister when were kids. Ruth would get the cot because she was a girl and the boys got to sleep in a bed together. This bothered Justin way more than it did me. I moved around a lot in my sleep as a little kid. Apparently a 12 year old boy didn’t want to cuddle with 5 year old me at 4 AM. Anyway, while I didn’t like the set up, I understood. We were a non-profit after all so the name of the game was save money.

But the Chiefs are not a non profit. They are worth billions of dollars and just won a Super Bowl. The idea of Trent McDuffie having to room with Jaylen Watson is pretty ridiculous. But also pretty funny. I wonder if they had to take turns on who has to give the hotel a card for incidentals. Anyway, this should be an easy fix as well.

However, if I am Clark Hunt I would be like we just won the Super Bowl so if I make these changes we are still going to win stuff…right? While this survey is fine and maybe helpful, you don’t hear a lot of players from winning teams complain about anything. Winning solves everything even having to awkwardly decide who is going to take a shower first at the Best Western.

I have a work trip the end of next week so no 5 for Friday but tune in on Tuesday for the top 10 takeaways from Travis Kelce’s SNL hosting job. This will be the first time I have watched SNL in like at least a half a decade so that should be fun.

I have always been a die hard Royals fan and always will be despite a lot of really bad seasons. But as a little kid you like to cheer for multiple teams. Or at least I did. A lot of times you are drawn to teams for random reasons, a favorite player, a mascot, the teams colors. Thus was the case with my national league team for many years. Red, White and Blue seemed like the way to go. Ironically, all though they wore America’s colors, they were actually in another country. Oh Canada rang before there games as my national league team was none other than the Montreal Expos. Of course the Expos no longer exist which is a sad story in itself. The Expos like the Royals suffered a lot of rough years. But in 1994 things were good for both teams and I was into baseball as much as ever. The Royals were 64-51 and 3 games out of first place. One of my favorite players, Tony Gwynn was batting .390 and chasing the elusive .400. My other favorite player, Ken Griffey Jr. was sitting on 40 homeruns chasing after the home run record. It wouldn’t be unheard of for Griffey to hit 22 more in the last 50 games and a guy named Matt Williams was already 3 ahead of him. And to top it all off, guess who had the best record in Baseball? None other than the Montreal Expos. But then the season abruptly ended as the players went on strike and it was not only the end arguably of the Expos greatest season, it was pretty much the end of the Expos. So with that sadness in mind, and with Spring training now in full swing, I thought it would be a great time to honor the team that is no more. Here are who I consider the 10 Greatest Expos of all time!

10. Larry Walker

Here is a guy who only played for the Expos for 6 years. There is a bunch of them…if they made it that long. Larry was great where ever he played. He won two gold gloves with the Expos and hit .322 his last year with the Expos which happened to be the same year of the strike. He was part of an incredible outfield of Walker in Right, Marquis Grissom in Center and Moises Alou in Left. Grissom also left after 94 and immediately won a world series with the Braves. Alou left two years later and immediately won a world series with the Marlins. Walker spent many years with the Rockies so he of course never won anything. But he did hit a lot of balls and became a hall of famer.

9. Pedro Martinez

A lot of really great players started their careers in Montreal including several that didn’t make this list because the barely played there before becoming stars elsewhere. Randy Johnson for instance didn’t make the list after only spending a year and half in Montreal. He turned out alright. Pedro just made the cut playing only 4 years in Montreal. Pedro went 55-33 and was part of their success in 94. 3 years later in 97 he won the Cy Young going 17-8 with a 1.90 ERA and 13 complete games. He of course ran off to make all the money in Boston. That worked out alright for him…but not so much for the Expos.

8. Jeff Reardon

Reardon was one of many closers to find or start having success in Montreal. But Reardon had the most success. Although he was only there for 6 years, he is the all time save leader with over 150 saves. He led the league in saves in 85 and was an all star in 85 and 86. Like all former Expos he left and found immediate success winning a World Series with the Twins in 87. But hey you can’t be mad at Reardon. Not when he is rocking that awesome beard. He wore a beard before beards were cool.

7. Dennis Martinez

When I think of the Expos and pitching, I think of Denny Martinez. By the time Martinez got to Montreal he had already had a long career in Baltimore. But from 86-93 he was the most consistent pitcher for the Expos. While guys like Reardon, Johnson, Pedro and Ken Hill came and went, Martinez was the stability on the mound for the Expos when I was a kid. He had 6 winning seasons which is hard to do in Montreal. He was an all star from 90-92 and should have been one in 93 as well. In 91 he led the league in ERA, complete games and shutouts at age 37, which is younger than me now but seemed real old at the time. From 88-93 he started 30 or more games each year and is the all time Expo leader for lowest ERA. And he was a pretty funny and entertaining person as well.

6. Tim Wallach

Wallach spent an incredible 12 years with the Expos playing mostly 3rd base. Most good players didn’t last half that long before leaving for greener pasture. But that was the beauty of Wallach. He was good but not good enough to get paid elsewhere. He eventually left for the Dodgers but his glory years were definitely with the Expos. Tim made the all star game 5 times and collected 3 gold gloves. 1987 was probably his best season when he batted .298 and hit 26 home runs. 26 home runs doesn’t seem like a lot but in 1987 that was pretty good. And in the midst of many of my favorite expo players leaving, I could always count on old Timmy to be there for me. He is the all time Expo leader in hits, doubles, and RBI’s.

5. Steve Rogers

Steve was the one Expo who never left, playing his entire 13 year career in Montreal. In fact he is literally the only player to play his whole career in Montreal. That alone should get him on the list. I only caught the tale end of his career as he played from 73-85. He was a 5 time all star and is the all time Expo leader in wins, strikeouts and shut outs. His best year he went 19-8 and led the league with a 2.40 ERA in 1982. Steve also has the same name as Captain America. And to top things off, he was born in Jefferson City where I lived for 9 years. One of the managers, Dick Williams, didn’t like Rogers and said he was only good when it didn’t matter and didn’t come through in big games. Williams was fired during the 1981 strike season. That year they split the season in halves. With Williams gone, the Expos won their division in the second half and the Expos made their one and only playoff appearance. They beat the Phillies and then lost to the Dodgers. During that playoff run, Rogers went 3-1 with a .97 ERA. That seems pretty clutch to me.

4. Gary Carter

From 1974 to 1984 Carter was behind the plate for the Expos. He was an 8 time all star including 7 in a row from 79-84. I was pretty little when he played for the Expos but I remember wearing my plastic Expos helmet backwards like Gary. Carter was a heck of a player and now is in the hall of fame and was easily the best catcher in Expos history. In fact, I dare you to name another Expo catcher. After the 1984 season, Gary wanted too much money. And the one thing the Expos were great at was being cheap. So they traded Carter to their divisional rival, the New York Mets for Hubie Brooks and some other guys who barely ever played. Besides saving money, this trade did not work out for the Expos. Meanwhile, Carter went on to make the All-Star game the next 4 years. After 12 years and making it to the playoffs only one time in the strike season, Carter helped the Mets win the world series in 1986. But to this day, it is hard to picture the Expos without picturing Gary Carter.

3. Andre Dawson

The Hawk would probably be higher on most people’s list but I am still bitter about him leaving to go to the Cubs during my prime baseball youth fandom, especially after talking smack on Gary Carter after he left. But Dawson was the real deal. He played only a few games in 1976 but then for about a decade, he was mister expo. In 77 he was rookie of the year. He was a great player who routinely hit 20 home runs and stole 20 bases. He was an all star from 81-83 and really probably should have got the nod more. In his time with the Expos he hit 225 home runs, stole 253 bases and hit .280. He was also on This week in Baseball a lot. If you did not grow up watching This Week in Baseball, I feel sorry for you. The 80’s were the best.

2. Vladimir Guerrero

Vladi was the last great Expo. After playing a few games in 1996 he really got going in 1997 and left the Expos shortly before the Expos left themselves. He never hit below .300 and is the all time leader with 234 home runs as well as batting average at .323. He also had a cannon for an arm. He left the Expos but of all of the players that left, I blame him the least as the writing was on the wall that the Expos were going to be no more. Guerrero was a freak athlete. In 2002 he led the league in hits with 206 and hit 39 home runs and stole 40 bases. This was back to back years of 30 plus home runs and 30 plus stolen bases. Watching Vladi play is my last good memory of the Expos.

1.Tim “Rock” Raines

Raines was phenomenal. He was an all star from his rookie year in 81 through 1987. From 81-86 he never had less than 70 stolen bases and led the league 4 years straight from 81-84 until Vince Coleman showed up and stole 100. Raines often slid face first. My brother once told me that it was because he had cocaine in his back pockets. I have no idea if that was true but it does make me question his nickname “rock”. It could be true as doing cocaine and playing major league baseball in the 80s went hand in hand. But around the same time, my brother also told me that I was adopted. So he wasn’t the greatest source of accurate information. What I do know is that Raines stole 635 bases in Montreal, had 1,622 hits and batted .301. He is 5th all time in MLB history in stolen bases and is in the Hall of Fame. In 86 he led the league in batting average and on base percentage. The Rock was awesome and my all time favorite Expo.

Honorable Mention:

Ken Hill, Delino DeShields, Marquis Grissom, Tim Burke and Andres Galarraga also known as the Big Cat. He almost got on the list based upon his nickname alone.

Check out next week for the next Top 10 list and don’t miss the 5 for Friday covering hot topics in Sports from the week.

Here are 5 reactions from things that happened or are happening in sports.

My Sad Time:

Its amazing how quickly I can go from absolute jubilation to depression in such a short period of time. There is nothing better than the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl but it also means that football season is over which means I enter into what Danielle calls my “sad state”. I do love all sports but to be honest as I have gotten older and have more responsibilities it gets harder to follow everything. The last few years I have mostly focused on football, specifically the NFL. While this makes for a great 20-25 weeks or so, it also means that I don’t have any sports to be super passionate about the other 30 or so weeks a year. (Yes, I know there are 52 weeks in a year and the math isn’t perfect). I know that there are a lot of other sports options out there but here is my issue with embracing them besides the time and effort.

NBA: Why should I care about this before the playoffs if the players don’t?

NHL: Until I can understand icing, I am not watching.

College Basketball: The officiating is soooooo bad! I know all officiating is bad but College Basketball is the worst. At least in the NBA it is bad but consistently bad. In College one thing can be called 3 different types of fouls in the same game. I just can’t do it.

Baseball: What’s less exciting than regular season baseball…spring baseball. Plus I am a Royals fan and the Royals suck.

Golf: Always good…if I want to take a nap.

XFL: This I could get on board with but the women in my life (my wife and 10 year old daughter) have given this a hard no. Especially the 10 year old.

So there you have it. Depression has set in. I do have the Super Bowl recorded so I will probably just watch that a couple of hundred times before next season starts.

EB to the Commanders:

I like Eric Bieniemy. I do not understand why he can’t get hired to be a head coach. He has interviewed with 16 teams over the last few years and each year has gotten less interviews. He only interviewed for one head coaching job this year. In fact the two coordinators of the losing Super Bowl team got jobs the next day. Arizona didn’t even interview EB. None of this makes sense to me. I understand he is in Andy’s shadow but so was Doug Pederson, Matt Nagy and others. So why does it matter with EB. I have heard he is a bad interviewer. This I can sort of see. But at the end of the day, a proven tract record of success should count for something. Look at some of the yahoos who have gotten opportunities instead of him. Nathanial Hackett, Kliff Kingsbury, Jeff Saturday, John Gannon (who EB just worked over in the Super Bowl) and many others. Now there has been one critic, and that is LeSean McCoy. Shady says that EB doesn’t do anything but he quickly got blasted by none other than Tyreek Hill that said he is just bitter because EB told him to stop fumbling. Regardless, EB now has a chance to prove the critics wrong. All he has to do is win in Washington which is sort of a big ask. But they do have a lot of weapons so if Sam Howell can just not completely suck, he might be alright. Anyway thanks for all your hard work, EB and good luck.

Other Coaching moves:

Jonathan Gannon got hired as the Arizona Cardinals head coach after giving up 38 points in the Super Bowl. Sometimes you can just tell when something is going to be a disaster and this relationship is one of those times. You have a coach who I believe is in way over his head. You have a quarterback who is injured and apparently would rather play video games than study film. And the rest of the team isn’t very good. You are probably going to try to trade your best receiver, which will be difficult because he is so expensive. This is going to be a dumpster fire. Mark it down.

Speaking of dumpster fires, Vance Joseph is coming back to Denver. After failing there after two years as the head coach, Joseph left to be an average defensive coordinator at Arizona. Before coming to Denver he was an average defensive coordinator at Miami. He really doesn’t have anything great on his resume. But hey, he knows the area of Denver so there is that. And he will already know all the media guys so that’s good too. At first I was excited about the Sean Payton hire for my Denver fan family members. But this isn’t looking nearly as good as he slowly puts this staff together. Payton was only 25-23 his first 3 years in New Orleans and after some great success he had another stretch from 2014-16 where he finished 7-9 three years in a row. But I guess this would be a great result for the Broncos compared to what they have suffered lately. Oh and they also hired Davis Webb to be their Quarterback coach. In case you don’t know who Davis Webb is, he was a back up quarterback for the Giants last year and this will be his first coaching job. Hey our 34 year old quarterback was terrible last year. How are we going to fix him? I know, lets bring in a 28 year old who couldn’t make it in the NFL and has never coached a day in his life. Hey, Sean, I think Jeff Saturday is available for your offensive coordinator position. In fact, I am also available for the offensive coordinator position. Except I don’t like to work weekends. Of course, it didn’t look like Saturday did either. Anyway things are really starting to come together here in Denver.

Also, I don’t know if you caught this, but the Chargers defensive coordinator left the Chargers to go be the defensive passing coordinator at Miami under Vic Fangio. That is how bad things are for the Chargers. Guys are taking demotions just to get out.

Mizzou Basketball doesn’t suck:

I know I said I wasn’t going to watch college basketball but I do suffer through bad officiating at times to watch Mizzou play. Although, they seem to play better when I don’t watch. If you would have told me this team was going to win 20 games I would have laughed at you. Barring a complete melt down, we should make the tournament which is a huge accomplishment for this squad. And if we shoot the ball well, we could be dangerous. However, when we don’t shoot the ball well, we lose real bad. We can’t really rebound or play half court defense so those are pretty big weaknesses. But the fact that we are even relevant is pretty cool. But since I am a Mizzou fan I am clearly preparing myself for a first round exit out of March Madness.

It’s cut and restructure season:

In case you haven’t noticed, teams are starting to cut veterans and reorganize contracts in order to make cap space. The Salary Cap in the NFL is pretty funny, easy to manipulate and darn right confusing. But anyway teams are starting to get rid of people. Bobby Wagner who was the highest graded linebacker by Pro Football Focus last year got released by the Rams. The Titans cut several people including wide receiver Robert Woods who had a classic one word tweet in response, “Free!” That tells you everything you need to know about playing receiver for the Titans.

Expect the Chiefs to part ways with Frank Clark soon. Maybe they restructure instead but if we hang on to Clark, it is 28 million hit to the cap. If we release him it is a 7 million hit to the cap. This decision is not hard. I do love playoff Frank but regular season Frank is definitely not worth 28 million. I say we release him and then resign him around week 14 so that we have him for the playoffs. This is best case scenario. Looking forward to a fun NFL offseason of cuts, trades, signings and speculations. People are already picking the Chargers to win the West and a guy on the local radio said the Broncos were going to go 12-5. Paper Champion season has already begun!

Tune in on Tuesday for another top 10 list! In honor of the start of baseball season, I am going to break down the top 10 best players of all time for my second favorite baseball team. See you then!