He may have gone crazy...

Picture of the Day…I will have no further comment, just enjoy it…


Daniels leads the way in win over Toronto …


Take away 4 of the best 6 players from any team, and you should be happy to beat anyone, anywhere. Surely, that is the case as the Mavericks defeat Toronto last night without Dirk, Fin, Damp, or Stack (how do you like my use of Mavs nicknames?). A couple notes courtesy of the Mavs media department:

For the first time, Howard and Daniels both scored 20+ points in the same game. Howard has scored 20 or more points eight times this season after not topping 19 in 2003-04.

Keith Van Horn scored 15 of his 19 points in the first-half. Those 15 first-half points were already the most points he had in a game since 12/1 at Boston as a member of the Bucks.

Dallas had 57 points at the half. The Mavericks had just 55 points after three quarters of play yesterday at Houston.

Now, they can take a few days off leading up to the game Thursday versus the Lakers, and it appears Finley and Dirk will be back. Let’s hope so, because they owe the Lakers a knuckle sandwich.




Above, Rafer “Skip to My Lou” Alston shows his handle. Why would I write about a spare point guard for the Toronto Raptors? Because, Rafer (or, Reefer as he was called after links to the weed) was one of NYC’s All-time playground legends. If you ever watched Streetball or just read about his play back in the day, you cannot watch him run around the NBA courts and not remember his hype early on. Ask any baller from Rucker Park, and I suspect they will give you the word about Alston…

Story about Skip …

Update on Hicks Spending

Thanks to a cool Rangers blog I found, Here I have found another Hicks half truth.

Check this out!

The Hicks item is from this article by T.R. Sullivan in the S-T last January:

Jan 14, 2004 article ...

"We gambled a few years ago and lost," said Hicks, who has unswervingly accepted blame for those decisions that often has been directed at Hart. "We took the payroll to a level that was too high, and it didn't work. We're back to where we ought to be. We can win a championship with a payroll in the [$70-80 million range], and that's where we are."

Did you see that? Last year, Hicks admits that $70-80 million is where the payroll should be. Then why is it only at $52 million in 2005?????

Random Old-School Football Card of the Week



1966 Topps Otis Taylor (above)

Otis Taylor is one of the many players around the league that belongs in the Hall of Fame if you ask people who watched him every Sunday. The Wide Receiver might be more famous for how he was signed by the Kansas City Chiefs than his superb career.

The story goes that he was being secured in a hotel room by the NFL so that they could sign him, only to have Lamar Hunt and the AFL sneak him out a window, fly him to Kansas City, and sign him away before the NFL knew he was gone. At a time where these signings were what made the war between the leagues such that the result was a merger to keep each side from spending itself to death, this signing was legendary. Hunt secured Taylor, and then saw Otis make big plays in Super Bowl IV to beat Minnesota and lead the AFL to its 2nd straight World Championship.

When people carry on about Michael Irvin not being voted in on the first ballot, they should remember the legends from the glory days like Taylor and Bullet Bob Hayes who have yet to get in, some 30 years after they have retired. Irvin was great, but Hayes and Taylor were great, too.

This from Football Project.com …

Taylor is in the Chiefs Hall of Fame, and probably the best receiver in that team's history. He was one of the great deep threats of his era. Unfortunately, his career numbers don't match up well with receivers who have already been inducted. He ranks about 110th in career receptions, 75th in yards, and 50th in touchdown catches. It's not that he wasn't good, but he played in a different era. There are other worthy receivers from the 60s and 70s that haven't received much consideration for Canton either -- players such as Bob Hayes, Cliff Branch, and Lionel Taylor.

Links:



I may need to add another show to my Season Pass list, because MTV’s Punk’d is back and hilarious again (Halle Berry is punk'd, above). The premier, which is running now, featured Salma Hayek, Eva Longoria, and some dude named Mario that I am sure is famous to someone. Anyway, this is the finest prank show ever put together, and it appears to still be rolling strong. This season they have promised pranks on Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) and Dirk Nowitzki (The Dunking Duetch-man) soon, so I am in for both of those…


Peter King’s MMQB praises the Cowboys …

King on the signing of Anthony Henry:

It was Bowles who made the Cowboys believe that he was more valuable in this market than Samari Rolle, than Gary Baxter. Bowles told the Dallas braintrust Henry was everything they'd want in a player, he'd play special teams willingly, he'd practice hard, he'd run the scout team if necessary, and he'd do it all quietly, without ego. And he had no personal issues, no off-field stuff. Then I remembered seeing Henry cover Terrell Owens aggressively in a game in Cleveland last year. Dallas needed a corner to take some of the heat off Terrence Newman, who struggled mightily last year.

I see why they did it. I still think the guaranteed money is too high, but if he's an egoless guy who shows up for work every week, in the end, they're paying him $5 million a year, to cover some of the game's best wideouts. If he plays with the same verve he's played with previously, he'll probably be worth it.

Another guy loves the Cowboys moves …

Click Here to enjoy the live performance of “Hey Dil” From Dan McDowell and all of your wildest dreams will come true…



How about some email feedback?

First, a Rangers fan annoyed at Tom Hicks:

Hey guys,

I was listening today ( I do most of the time because I am unemployed) and heard your interesting discussion about Tom Hicks talking about profits instead of winning. It makes me very mad. One, he can't even lie!!!! At least lie, Tom! What an idiot! Also, if you dissect it you can come to the conclusion that he is setting himself up to sell the team in the near future. The reason is he has to cut expenses and make a profit in order to sell at a greater price to someone. If he were to continue to lose money (yeah right!) the team wouldn't be as attractive and he wouldn't be able to sell it for as much in comparison to making money and turning a profit and then selling. Another reason I think he is ready to sell in the near future is that he is going to the press and telling them about the team finances. He is letting people know what his money situation is like. He is just using his investment background. Build up a team (profitability) and then sell at a high price and make a substantial profit.

Thanks guys. You guys are terrific!


Sam Trueblood

Next, A Rangers fan defending Tom Hicks:

Bob

I enjoy your blog posts.

Be careful with your Hicks arguments. The team he owned last year won. He changed managers. He changed GM directions. He got rid of ARod. It's not like he did nothing over last couple of years.

Now I don't know why the Rangers were better last year specifically. Just generally they played better as a team. I know they didn't win the division or go to playoffs. But it was progress. Bottom line for fans as always is W's/L's, not net profit. A good fan doesn't care about owner's bottom line if we win. A good fan doesn't care if owner says "win" as long as he does.

Give room to salve your itch to denigrate his motives if the Rangers win again and especially more. Your theory of "spend more to win" may be correct, but notwithstanding the Red Sox, usually you must wear pinstripes for that to ring true.

One last note about the fans. It seems very short-sighted to assume the fans are being cheated by asking them to show increased support for a team that dramatically improved its performance over the previous year.

And a note about Jerry and his profits. Don't forget about his hard cap. He knows where the end of the line is for his expenditures and he also captains the ship of the most popular of the most popular. Not exactly a fair playing field for Hicks.

By the way, I do not like Hicks in the least.

Dr. Joe

Follow up from the Bill Guerin Pennsylvania Piranha story:

Bob,

I have sad news for the show and Dallas area hockey fans. Bill Guerin
is no longer the all time leading scorer for the Pennsylvania Piranha.
He has been passed by Scott Niedermayer. Pass this along to Dan for
me for his next interview with Bill.

Click Here for Stats …

Bad in the afternoon,
Andrew