Joe Torre should be fired

I know I'm in the minority here, but I am putting the blame for the Yankees woes this season squarely on the shoulders of Joe Torre. I realize he's won a whole bunch of World Series with the Yanks, but that was then, this is now. Back then, Torre did a lot with a little. Remember guys like Scott Brosius, Joe Girardi, and Jim Leyritz. They were all heroes back in the day for those great Yankee teams, and they are all bums other than that. And now for the past six seasons Torre has had a lot and done so very little. Yeah they make it to the playoffs every year, but they should with the amount of money they spend. Personally, I think this year's Yankee team had the talent to win the World Series. It's just that Torre didn't utilize the talent properly. Everyone can say how it was A-Rod's fault, but the bottom line is that A Rod felt way too much pressure in the fourth spot to succeed. Rodriguez is clearly the best player on the Yankees, no matter what anyone wants to say about Jeter. The bottom line is that when A Rod is rolling, the Yankees are too. I thought it was ridiculous how Torre moved A Rod down to sixth and then eighth in the order against the Tigers. That's how you reward your best hitter for batting .380 in September? In addition, there's Jaret Wright and Carl Pavano. Wright was a 16 game winner before he came to the Yanks from the Braves. Leo Mazzone clearly did something that worked, and Wright consistently pitched 5 strong innings a game. Yet, somehow he was always unsuccessful. As a manager, it is your job to put your players in the best situation to succeed. And with Wright and A Rod I felt like that never happened. Then there's Pavano, who clearly has been a huge bust. But you still don't call out a player like that to the media. Here's a guy who could be a solid pitcher for you next season, and now he's alienated from the rest of the clubhouse. Not to mention how Torre is notorious for decimating a bullpen. Farnsworth, Procter, Villone and Rivera all missed time over the course of the regular season due to being overworked by Torre.

But, when it came down to it I think this team was just totally mismanaged. This wasn't like thoe teams from the 90's where Torre was mister laid back and the veterans just did their business. From listening to the Yankees, I feel like this is a team that wanted to be challenged by their managers. Intense personalities like Giambi, Sheffield, Johnson and Jeter want to be challenged. They perform better that way. This team clearly had chinks in its armor judging from comments in that SI article a ways back. And by not addressing them directly, Torre let the problem fester. I think getting rid of Torre is the best direction for the Yankees to go in right now. The team they have right now is good enough to win the World Series in 2007. I would pick up Mussina's option, but only if he is willing to sign for 2-3 years. And I would let Sheff go. They have Andy Phillips in the system, who I think would do a lot for their chemistry at first base. This World Series drought has been due to so many different factors. So many players have come through that Yankee clubhouse, so many teams have ended their season, but one thing has remained the same: Joe Torre. In the words of the great Bret Hart, "Enough is enough and it's time for a change."

Tigers win game 2

Yesterday, as I watched the Yankees play the Tigers, I made my typical call that as soon as that Yanks lineup got their second ABs that the game would be over. And although Damon did have a huge jack, other than that they really didn't. The Yankees did exactly what they wanted to do in making Verlander throw a lot of pitches, and he was shelved early because of it. But when they got to the bullpen nothing happened. There's a lot to be said about that Tigers pen. Walker, Zumaya, and Jones were lockdown out there. I was thoroughly impressed. You gotta give credit where credit is due. The Yanks just don't look as invincible as they once did. But I do think they are gonna win game 3 tonight for two reasons. 1) Kenny 2) Rogers. As evidenced by Verlander and Zumaya, a lot of the Yankee hitters have trouble with power pitching. Notice that Sheffield, Giambi, ARod, and cano were held hitless in game 2. But Kenny Rogers is anything but a power pitcher. In order to hold down this Yankee lineup he better be perfect. Because if he misses any of his spots it's gonna be a long night. If I were a Tigers fan, I would much rather see Bonderman take the mound tonight. Power pitchers like Bonderman and Verlander can miss sometimes and still get away with it because they are throwing straight gas.

And the Yankees better hope this doesn't go to five games, although it would mean they could throw Wang back out there. And if I were the Tigers, I would tell Verlander right now that they need him to start game 5 on short rest. It was pretty obvious Robertson had no answer for the Yanks.

I'd also like to wish a happy 21st to Greg Goldring. He came, he saw, he hookahed.

Stealing music

Like I said, I'm gonna try and blog a little more, so I figured while I'm sitting here in the library stumped on this assignment that I would talk about how much fun it is to take music from other people's itunes. I've literally used this mytunes redux thing the past two days and added about 800 songs to my music library. The things you can get from people are amazing. For instance, I now have most of Saigon's (from Entourage) album. It's not too shabby, but I still haven't found the song from Queen's Boulevard. It's probably the only thing keeping me going what with this terrible Michigan weather. I don't know if I've ever seen it rain so many times in a one month span.

MLB Playoffs: Day One

So I'm pretty much having one of the busiest weeks school wise in a long time. Why I'm telling you this is because I didn't get to watch as much of the 1st day of the MLB playoffs as I would have liked. But here are just some general thoughts I had from seeing highlights/real live action:

1. The Twins, who I thought would fo sure beat the A's in the division series, are in a lot of trouble. They had the best home record in the majors this year and still lost in game 1 at the Metrodome. Not to mention that Johan Santana, who is key to their success, lost. Basically they needed two wins out of him in order to even think about the championship series. A's are going to win this one in 4 games.

2. Speaking of which, where the fuck did Frank Thomas come from? Quietly he had a sick year and then put the A's on his back today. That would be two times now where the Big hurt has re-incarnated himself from the dead. If you watch the A's any more this postseason, make sure to look at Thomas' head. It is seriously the biggest head I've ever laid eyes upon.

3. I don't care what happened in game 1 of St. Louis-San Diego, I'm still sticking with the Padres as my team to make it to the World Series. You know Boomer Wells is going to come out firing tomorrow. He's just a big game pitcher. And after Chris Carpenter the Cards literally have no arms. Fucking Jeff Weaver is going on the hill for game two tomorrow. The same Jeff Weaver who was cut from a non-playoff team (Angels) earlier this year.

4. By the way...memo to Mike Piazza: you are the worst fielding catcher ever.

5. The Tigers do not stand a chance against the Yankees. Every game is going to look like tonight's contest. The Tigers will breeze through the first three innings. I'd even say they might be able to grab an early lead in most of the games. But then, as soon as that Yankees lineup comes through a second time it will be demolition time. Just like tonight when in the third, Damon came to bat again. Instantly, he gets a single, gets moved to third on a nice hustle double by Jeter. Then Abreu drive them in with a bases clearing double. Boom...2-0. And after that Sheff comes up with a nice single and Abreu is in. And then (I love this) Giambi comes up and I turn to Pete and go "Giambi is gonna hit this one into the right field seats because Robertson is gonna throw him a fastball" and what do you know it happened. And there you go 5-0 Yanks...essentially game over.

6. Terrible decision by Joe Torre in taking Chien Ming Wang out with two outs in the sixth inning. The Tigers got a couple lucky runs because of it.

I realize I've been real inconsistent with these blogs so far this year. I'm hoping now that basketball season is upon us, I'll be around a computer more often due to my newspaper obligations. But something to look forward to is that I'm gonna try and blog a bunch at Big Ten Media Day in a couple weeks. It should be sweet.

Tigers, Twins Clinch

So it's crunch time in Major League Baseball these days. The American League is pretty much decided while the National League is just in shambles. Everyone but the Mets still needs to clinch a playoff spot. But I'm gonna stick to the AL in this post because I have a feeling I will be attending a bunch of AL playoff games (yeah Greg). With Liriano, the Twins had the best chance of getting to the World Series. The Yankees lineup is terrific, but with two nearly unhittable aces, the Twins would have been extremely tough to beat. That said, Liriano isn't going to pitch in the playoffs so they become a one pitcher team. And even though the Twins and Tigers have both clinched, there is still a lot to play for. Because whoever wins the AL central gets to face the A's (or maybe the Angels) rather than the Yankees. I've got my money on the A's pulling out the West (I've just got this hunch). And yes, the A's pitching staff is pretty formidable with Zito, Harden and Haren, I would much rather face them than the Yankees. That Yankee lineup is ridiculous. The Tigers NEED to win the central because there is zero chance they beat the Yankees in a series. Maybe they would take one game, but that's it. The Twins have been on such a tear that I really can't count them out aganist anyone, even if I think they don't have the pitching. The Tigers definitely have a shot against the A's considering Oakland always fizzles out come playoff time. But I just don't think the Tigers are going to be able to hold onto the division. As of today they were only up by one game, but they haven't played good baseball since the end of July. The Twins on the other hand have been by far the best team in baseball since the end of May. So, come October I think the matchups will look like this:


Twins v A's
Yanks vs Tigers

The Balco Investigation

I was greatly disturbed last night when I read on the internet that San Francisco Chronicle writers Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams were sentenced to up to 18 months in prison pending an appeal. These are the guys who wrote the book Game of Shadows, which uncovered many details about the Balco steroid investigation, including outting numerous athletes who used steroids. The fact that these two reporters are being put in jail for being members of the press disgusts me. As an aspiring journalist myself, I find it unsettling to think that the government no longer wants the press to be watchdogs on society. Don't you think it's kind of ridiculous that guys like Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi, who used steroids, got no jail time; Greg Anderson, who supplied steroids got 3 months in prison, while these writers are getting up to 18 months for doing their job. Without investigative journalism, crimes against the American people like Watergate would never be uncovered. All you would get is lame press releases from the government stating that everything is going okay. America's Constitution is about the checks and balances, and a free press is one of those checks and balances. These two journalists can't give up their sources because it would essentially end their journalism careers. Even the President of the United States commended these men when their book came out.

These two writers did a better job of uncovering the truth than the actual government and now they are being punished. Think about how much we've actually learned from this Balco grand jury bullshit. We know that Balco existed and that's it. Victor Conte, Greg Anderson, Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and the other numerous athletes who took steroids were outted by good journalism. Hopefully this decision will be reversed upon appeal, and the bill currently sitting in Congress that will put federal protection on journalists' sources will pass soon. It's the right thing for Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams and it's the right thing for this country of ours.

MIchigan Football

Well as everyone is probably pretty aware of right now, Michigan football got a huge win on Saturday over Notre Dame. It was the first time in a long time that a Lloyd Carr coached team beat a team of equal and maybe better talent. And although there was little chance Lloyd was going to get fired any time soon, this game pretty much cemented his status as a coach who can coach as long as he wants. And I have to eat some of my own words because I have been railing on Carr for almost a year now. He finally got the troops ready for an early season road test. The new coordinators seem to be working out, especialy Ron English, whose defense looks damn good. The running game is solid and Mike Hart is able to grind out good chunks of yardage.

But I am curious to see how the Wolverines come out on Saturday at the Big House against Wisco. Wisco is also undefeated, although their schedule has been weak so far. I think it's almost impossible for the team not to come out with a hangover feeling. If they storm out to an early lead and put the badgers away early, it will tell me that Lloyd is doing great things. A win against Ohio State this season is not a reasonable way to judge his performance this year. The Buckeyes are loaded and the game is at Ohio Stadium. But if the team comes out motivated on Saturday and gives the Badgers a good whoopin, then it will show me something.

Joe Dumars

I know this is gonna sound kind of redundant, considering I just posted about Chipper awhile back, and because Bill Simmons actually just wrote a column about this. But I am just so sick and tired of hearing all this pro-Joe Dumars in the Hall of Fame bullshit in the Metro Detroit area. To begin, no Joe Dumars does not deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. He wasn't even the best player on his team during any given season. Whether it be his prime, when Isaiah Thomas led the way for the Pistons, or the twilight when Grant Hill first came to pre-eminence, there is never a period of time in which Dumars was even the go to guy on his team. Not to mention that during those championship years there were times when he was sat in crunch time because he was an offensive liability. He made just one All NBA team during his career, which meant he was only one of the top players in the NBA for one season. I'm sorry, but the Hall of Fame is for great players, not good role players. Because in essence that is what Joe was.

It's good to have football back

Had a little mixer at Touchdown's last night, but it took a lot for me to actually show up for it. My face was glued to the Steelers-Dolphins game which was the kickoff for the 2006 season. I think the NFL is the only league in which I could watch any regular season game and be interested, even if it isn't the Redskins. And at TDs I continued to keep an eye on the game. And I also looked at my good friend Dan watching the same game. He happens to be from Pittsburgh and is a legit Steelers fan. And as he watched the Pittsburgh defense bring the Steelers back and eventually take the lead for good, this kid was going nuts. Steeler Dan was yelling, fistpumping, jumping around, and just in general going insane. But that's what makes the NFL and college football what they are. The fans are so passionate, that it's unbelievable. I know my friends from home can talk about how insane I used to look at Battey's house just a few falls ago. You don't see this type of tenacity for, say the Pirates, or the Devil Rays, or the Tigers. I cannot wait for Monday night when the Skins take the field (w/o CPort and Springs) and try to annihilate the Vikes. I'll be sporting my Cooley jersey for opening night. We'll see how it goes because last year when the Skins went on their six-game win streak at the end of the year, I was rockin the Lavar jersey. But I just felt that was totally inappropriate considering he's been lambasting our organization lately. Let's hope the Cooley thing works out.

Welcome Week '06

Clearly I realize that it has been way too long since I've blogged...but I have a legitimate excuse. Those deuchebag alumni don't actually have the internet working here at SAE quite yet. Luckily, I'm stealing some wireless from some random GDIs nearby. I don't know if I'm being stereotypical or not but the wireless name is tsunami so I'm thinking I'm stealing from some Asians. Onto welcome week.

As expected, it has been pretty wild. I mean, what can you expect from a college student who is given a week and a half with nothing to do but get wasted. But it's just good to be back in the college atmosphere, especially during welcome week when even the most nerdy of GDIs go out almost every night. Myself and Peter's room has come along nicely. But, I think the higlight of this gloriousness was the pregame for football. It was the first time since I had been at Michigan that we did it at SAE, rather than at a senior house. And I must say, that it was something to behold. Beer pong tables littered throughout the Mudbowl, girls, beer, liquor, three story beer bong...the list could keep going. Today, I was at a Buddhist Temple's yard sale (which surprisingly had nothing remotely Buddhist for sale) and picked up a cheap slip n slide for next week. Next week is a special pregame, because it will be the last pregame where I will be able to think about Michigan having a shot at the national title. Those dreams will end come week 3 when we travel to South Bend. Tonight brings a rager of epic proportions, as my junior year welcome week comes to a close.

Why can't every week be welcome week?