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Blake Griffin Will Receive Season-Ending Knee Surgery

Blake Griffin, the overall number one pick in the 2009 NBA draft will have season-ending surgery on his broken left kneecap.  A lot of the media were excited when the preseason started but it seems that Blake Griffin just has not lived up to the built-up hype.  Much like most of the movies I get excited about, he played well when it didnt count and then choked once it did injuring himself in the preseason finale.  He has not played since.   What does this mean for Griffin?  Well, this means that his rookie season isnt officially until next season (which is great because this class is amazing).  With Griffin out this puts the Los Angeles Clippers at a huge disadvantage.  They were just 3 games out of the playoff picture in 11th position but they have lost two games in a row now.  Things looked up when Griffin came back from his previous problem (knee injury in the final game of the preseason) but it looks like the Clipper curse has struck again.  I dont know why they just cant pick in the draft very well, but I cannot remember a time they have picked someone who turned out half decent in the first round.  Blake Griffin could probably still be a superstar in the end, but at this point, I dont give him much of a chance.  By the time he gets back into the swing of things, he will be miles behind all those who came out of the draft with him.  Stephen Curry is looking better and better everyday averaging 12.4 points per game, nearly 5 assists per game, and is shooting 43% from three point land.  Its just a matter of time before my boy Curry takes off.  The video is of Blake Griffin’s first injury back in October.

Mark Mcgwire admits to using Steroids

Another one bites the dust.  A report came out today that Mark McGwire, who broke Roger Maris’ single-season home run record with 70 home runs back in 1998, admitted today that he used steroids through the 90’s while playing baseball.  This includes his record breaking season which hurts me because I really looked up to the guy back in the day.  While he was not my favorite player, he was one of them.  The day Greg Maddux comes out and says he has used steroids is the day that I stop watching baseball.  This comes at no surprise to most baseball fans as he dodged a lot of the questions in his testimony in front of the Senate.  Most of his fans are actually coming out in support and Bob Knight has even come out in support of the Mark McGwire legacy.  ”I wish I had never used steroids. It was foolish and it was a mistake.”  Those words make me think that maybe McGwire isn’t sleeping too well these days.  The media claims that its probably because he is taking a new job.  His family seems to be very understanding just giving him words of encouragement throughout this whole ordeal.  He was a baseball icon back in the 90’s with his grandiose physique and a swing that only a 12 year old dreaming of hitting that home run in the 9th inning of the World Series could appreciate.  With the swing came the fans barreling out of their cars three hours before the game even started just to see a glimpse of the home run machine that was Mark McGwire.  With this I can only say that in my mind Roger Maris is now the single season home run leader (Sammy Sosa and McGwire being the only two players to have statistically more home runs in a season).

Manu Ginobili Swats Bat in Middle of Game

I have seen a lot of weird things living in Central Texas but this happening during a game takes the cake so far in my life. Manu Ginobili of the San Antonio Spurs got tired of a bat interrupting their basketball game last week. In the video you will see him swat the bat (killing or stunning it, im not quite sure), pick it up off the court and walk it off the court to hand it to an official who then disposed of it somehow (I am strictly speculating of course because all I could see was the dude walk off the court and disappeared).  The best part about the entire game I think was that it was a Halloween game when this happened haha!  The San Antonio Spurs sure know how to put on a good show.

The New Tiger Woods

We all remember Tiger Woods from the 2008 U.S. Open when he beat the whole group of 60 other players all on one leg.  His left knee was killiing his game serious, but he stuck through it and finished strong in the final round (not to mention the fact that he played in an 18 hole playoff against Rocco Mediate).  Well he had the surgery April 15th, 2008 on his knee.  He got a double stress fracture on his left tibia during his rehab of the knee in which I can’t even understand the pain involved with that. Well he came back.  He walked back onto the golf course less than 11 months after having the surgery.  February 15th, 2009 at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Marana, Arizona, Tiger Woods walked onto the course to restart his career.  He finished when he lost the second round to Tim Clark who was only ranked 8th in the Bobby Jones bracket at the time.  Clearly it wasnt Tigers day that day.  Could it have been the knee?  Well, what happens next leads me to believe that it was not his knee.  He has now won 5 out of his first 12 tournaments which has got to be some kind of record for return-from-surgery players.  He has won the last two tournaments coming into the PGA Championship which means that this championship is actually now his to lose.  Its sad, but thats when he really turns the burners on.  I am excited to watch him this weekend as he dismantles the other players at the Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota. This is how Tiger has finished since he has come back:

8/6 – 8/9	World Golf Championships Bridgestone Invitational	1	68-70-65-65 – 268 (-12)	$1,400,000
7/30 – 8/2	Buick Open	1	71-63-65-69 – 268 (-20)	$918,000
7/16 – 7/19	British Open Championship	Missed Cut	71-74 – 145	N/A
7/2 – 7/5	AT&T National	1	64-66-70-67 – 267 (-13)	$1,080,000
6/18 – 6/22	U.S. Open Championship	6	74-69-68-69 – 280 (E)	$233,350
6/4 – 6/7	the Memorial Tournament	1	69-74-68-65 – 276 (-12)	$1,080,000
5/7 – 5/10	THE PLAYERS Championship	8	71-69-70-73 – 283 (-5)	$294,500
4/30 – 5/3	Quail Hollow Championship	4	65-72-70-72 – 279 (-9)	$312,000
4/9 – 4/12	The Masters	6	70-72-70-68 – 280 (-8)	$242,813
3/26 – 3/29	Arnold Palmer Invitational	1	68-69-71-67 – 275 (-5)	$1,080,000
3/12 – 3/15	World Golf Championships	9	71-70-68-68 – 277 (-11)	$142,500
2/25 – 3/1	WGC: Accenture Match	17	-	$95,000

Top 2009 Recruiting School – NCAA Mens Basketball

I have studied all the recruits going into this next season and I have decided finally on my Top 10 recruiting schools for mens basketball.  I know I am a little late on the picks but you should hear me out on this one.  I think you are going to see these schools getting just that much better by playing their top prospects their freshman season.  This in no way reflects my personal views and I basically watched film on the Top 150 players coming out of high school and where they are headed to.  I then tallied those players up and ordered them from top to bottom in my own personal opinion.  I then I averaged the numbers out and figured out how many top 150 athletes were going to each school and what the average number was.  This is what I came up with (and it would be sweet if its actually true):

1. North Carolina – (#6 John Henson)
2. Texas – (#1 Avery Bradley, #8 Jordan Hamilton)
3. Kentucky (#4 DeMarcus Cousins, #5 John Wall)
4. Villanova
5. Kansas (#3 Xavier Henry)
6. Georgia Tech (#2 Derrick Favors)
7. Oklahoma
8. Oklahoma State
9. Duke (#10 Mason Plumlee)
10. Connecticut

I know you are thinking, but Sidelineblog, youre a huge fan of both North Carolina and Texas…I cant help it that Texas is getting two players that are in my Top 10 (Avery Bradley and Jordan Hamilton).  Its not my fault they just happen to be amazing at recuiting.

North Carolina leaves the College World Series

Yes thats right, my boys in blue have been taken out of the College World Series today losing to Arizona State 12-5.  The Tarheels had the early 4-0 lead going into the bottom of the 5th inning.  Then Kole Calhoun stepped up to the plate with one out in the bottom of the 5th inning.  This Sun Devil reportedly couldnt explain what happened next.  He homered to the right center of the stands hitting a grand slam homerun tying the game up at four all.  He didnt stop there though.  In his next at bat in the bottom of the 7th inning he drove home the next two runs not knowing he had sealed the deal with his double into deep right center field.  One would think that the players would have caught onto the fact that he was hitting into right center field after his last at bat.  The rest, as they say, is history.  Arizona State moves on to play Texas tomorrow (Friday, June 19th) at 6:00 P.M. Central Standard Time on ESPN 2.  I hope you will watch it because in order for Arizona State to move on, they will have to beat Texas twice in a row.  Texas comes into the game 2-0 hoping to make it a short stay for the Sun Devils.  This means if Arizona State wins tomorrow, then they will have to play Texas again on Saturday.  Should be an interesting game with ASU playing their little hearts out…you should be watching this if you haven’t already planned to.  I am predicting that Texas will win 7-2 tomorrow sending Arizona State home.

Who Cares about Steroids?

Seriously?  On the eve of Sammy Sosa being labeled as one of the 104 names on the list of players who failed drug screenings back in 2003.  First of all, are you really that suprised about it?  Sammy Sosa lied in open court about the use of the substances, but who didnt lie?  Did you expect him not to lie?  I am not saying that since everyone lies, it makes it alright, but this was back in 2003 (6 years ago) and I think its crazy to think that we are still talking about this and I know over the next few weeks there will be more and more names let out of the bag.  To be honest with you, if I were Sammy Sosa, I would be trying to figure out which law firm decided to leak this information out into the public because they were supposed to get rid of the document, destroy it, and never look at it again.  Obviously thats not whats going on here, someone has the list and is leaking it to the New York Times.  I think what makes me angry about the whole situation is that 10 years from now, this isnt going to be a big deal. In fact I am almost certain that Sammy Sosa, Mark McGuire, Roger Clemens and others will still be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and if that happens what was the point in even talking about it in the first place.  I understand that this baseball era (1980’s-Present) will be known as the “Steroid Era” and it looks like America’s Past Time has now reverted to Football, but that doesnt mean we have to freak out about everything considering I would be willing to bet that at least half of NFL players have taken some sort of performance enhancing drug.  I understand they test for illegal drugs which has gotten several players in trouble, but what about performance enhancing drugs?  I guess what I am trying to ask is does anyone really care about this issue or would you rather get mad at the football players who are getting wasted and killing people with their cars.  Dante Stallworth got sentenced to just 30 days in jail, his career is not ruined, and he will more than likely end up getting the same punishment from the commissioner of the NFL as Michael Vick.  What do you think about it?

Last Place in Salary is First Place in MLB

Thats right, the Florida Marlins are tied with the Atlanta Braves for first place not only in the Eastern Division of the National League, but all of Major League Baseball through the first two weeks.   They have scored 37 runs in their first 6 games which to me considering last year they were only 3-3 through the first 6 games only scoring 21 runs.  November 11th, 2008 is a day that the Florida Marlins will not forget for a while.  Its the day the Washington Nationals traded Emilio Jose Bonifacio (a pitcher from the minor leagues) to the Florida Marlins.  So far through the first 6 games he is batting .500 has a home run and 5 RBI’s.  Believe it or not that Fantasy baseball league has adopted this guy because over 80 percent of them own him on their baseball team.  So whats so great and amazing about Florida being on top of the world right now?  The fact that they pay their players the least amongst all MLB teams.  Their team salary right now is $22,650,000 whereas the New York Yankees pay their players the most with a team salary of $207,108,489.  So where is this near quarter billion dollar team at in the standings?  They started out 0-2 but have now jumped to 3-3 tied with the Rays for 3rd place in the American League East Division.  This is not surprising for me as the Yankees spent the bank in the off season picking up players left and right and paying them whatever they asked for.  If you have the money, great, but why don’t you go spend it on some of the local business that seem to be failing in New York?  All in all I expect big things for the Marlins and look for them in the wild card position by the end of the season.  I doubt the Yankees will even make the playoffs. You have heard it here on SidelineBlog.com, the Yankees will not make the playoffs.

Here is a list of all the team salaries as of right now.  If you take a look at their records vs. how much they pay their players, I think that you will find it pretty funny how it ends up working out in the end.  This table only represents how much the teams pay their players, not their staff or anyone else.

Team	Payroll (US$)
1. NY Yankees	207,108,489
2. NY Mets	137,391,376
3. Detroit	137,290,196
4. Boston	133,220,112
5. Chicago Sox	121,189,332
6. LA Angels	118,825,333
7. LA Dodgers	118,188,536
8. Chicago Cubs	117,954,333
9. Seattle	116,876,482
10. Atlanta	102,849,666
11. St. Louis	99,624,449
12. Toronto	97,001,500
13. Philadelphia	95,479,880
14. Houston	88,930,414
15. Cleveland	78,970,066
16. San Francisco	76,194,000
17. Milwaukee	74,687,499
18. Cincinnati	74,117,695
19. San Diego	72,626,616
20. Colorado	68,655,500
21. Baltimore	66,806,249
22. Texas	66,312,326
23. Arizona	66,202,712
24. Kansas City	57,855,500
25. Minnesota	56,932,766
26. Washington	54,166,000
27. Pittsburgh	48,689,783
28. Oakland	47,167,126
29. Tampa Bay	43,422,997
30. Florida	22,650,000

Just goes to show you a lot about money. Not only doesn’t it buy you happiness, but also a winning baseball team.

Major League 2009 Picks

I have not been blogging for a while with this blog, but I have decided that I want to start it up again in honor of my Mother Barbara Janette Sherrill.  She died September 25th, 2008 and I kind of lost touch with everything after that.  I realize now that sports has really gotten me through a lot of the hard times and I want to give back to the sports world by talking about it.  Anyways, here are my picks for the 2009 MLB season:

American League

East – Boston Red Sox
Central – Cleveland Indians
West – LA Angels

National League

East – Atlanta Braves
Central – Chicago Cubs
West – LA Dodgers

I know that some of you are going to think I am crazy for making those pics, but I really do believe that these teams are playing the best RIGHT NOW.  I cannot help if it players decide to hurt themselves…lets just hope CC Sabathia doesnt decide to shoot himself in the leg.

NCAA Mens Top 50 – Week 6

Lots of teams drop in the polls this week as there have been some pretty big upsets.  Cleveland State, I believe, is one of the most underrated teams in the nation this season which is why I have them hiding down there at #50. Even though they are 9-4, they have played some pretty hardcore teams in which they lost by 2 points to Butler, and 10 points to Kansas State and West Virginia.  They are playing some pretty big named schools for a school that I had never heard of.  I think its possible that they could take the Horizon League this season unless Butler just gets it from them.  Come to think of it, Butlers has played well in the tournament in years past, which makes me think that the Horizon League is a little underrated.

1. North Carolina (71) 11-0 1,775
2. Connecticut 10-0 1,693
3. Pittsburgh 12-0 1,618
4. Oklahoma 11-0 1,580
5. Duke 10-1 1,486
6. Wake Forest 10-0 1,294
7. Gonzaga 8-2 1,154
8. Notre Dame 8-2 1,116
9. Texas 9-2 1,108
10. Purdue 9-2 1,083
11. Michigan State 8-2 907
12. Georgetown 8-1 880
13. UCLA 8-2 873
14. Xavier 9-1 861
15. Ohio State 8-0 766
16. Tennessee 8-2 758
17. Syracuse 11-1 742
18. Villanova 10-1 594
19. Louisville 7-2 521
20. Arizona State 9-1 477
21. Baylor 9-1 466
22. Clemson 12-0 462
23. Minnesota 10-0 198
24. Michigan 8-2 183
25. Missouri 9-1 71
26. Memphis 70
27. Marquette 69
28. Davidson 66
29. Butler 40
30. Dayton 25
31. Saint Mary’s 25
32. Illinois 20
33. Brigham Young 18
34. Maryland 16
35. Texas A&M 11
36. Kansas 10
37. Florida 8
38. Florida State 8
39. Stanford 8
40. Miami (FL) 6
41. Wisconsin 5
42. UNLV 1
43. West Virginia 1
44. Western Kentucky 1
45. George Mason 1
46. LSU
47. Illinois State
48. Arizona
49. Nebraska
50. Cleveland State

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