Padres Season Sabotaged!!!

So now the question is whose to blame: Milton Bradley or first-base umpire Mike Winters?

If you think I'm going to blame the disgruntled man who was named after a board game manufacturer, you haven't been reading this blog long enough.

First off, Bradley was upset and reacted to what he thought was a bad call on a 3rd strike. So why would an umpire at first base need to further any argument 3 innings later? I'm sure working under crew chief Bruce Froemming would help uphold the integrity of these umpires.. Yeah, okay....

According to Bradley, Winters called him a "Bleeping piece of Bleep". Wait, is that profanity? I think you're overreacting here Milton! But if the Padres first base coach Bobby Meachum (uh, the memories!) is siding with this guy, you would think the umpire said something out of line, contrary to Froemming's claim that Winters simply told Bradley to "knock it off".

The rest of the story is now the beginning of the end to Milton's season. Manager Bud Black restrained Bradley, giving him a season ending knee-injury in the process. If I had to guess, if it weren't for the injury, Bradley would have been thrown from the game and suspended a few games, during a playoff push, nonetheless.

But will anything come of Mike Winters and his prodding of a loose-cannon type player? I wouldn't hold my breath. Todd Helton, the first baseman of the opposing Colorado Rockies, would be the only impartial person who was there for the entire exchange. He should probably speak out, but I don't blame him for not doing so. He is on a team that is also in a playoff race and a distraction like this really doesn't benefit him or his team. The only hope is if Selig somehow questions Helton on the interaction. Again, I'm not holding my breath.

I've kind of been routing for the Padres this season, only because they were my pre-season favorite for the NL West. To be honest, I don't really care about the Padres at this point. Winning the wild card does not give my pre-season division winner picks any credibility. If the NL Wild Card race continues to go down to the wire, you'll hear a lot about this incident in weeks to come in Southern California. Milton Bradley was doing pretty well on an offensively lacking team.

Ahh, another day, another official abusing his power with zero consequences....

If there's any justice, the Padres will keep winning


Update 9/26 4:16 PM

Okay, is MLB reading my blog? Maybe I'm not paying close enough attention, but not even an hour after writing the initial entry to this post I see the headline "MLB suspends umpire over confrontation".

Hooray for something actually being done! MLB, I am impressed.

Floyd Landis found Guilty

Guilty Landis will lose 2006 Tour title

I'm sure most have heard of the the case, so I won't bother with linking too many stories from the past year. The news has been pretty quiet about it since the hearing a few months ago. But today the verdict was made public and the results will force Landis to give up his 2006 Tour de France title.

I'm personally shocked. When I followed the hearing, I really didn't see how the USADA had a leg to stand on considering the sloppy lab techniques and the fact that I don't think the French can swallow the idea of a 2nd American dominating their sport. Nearly half of the interviews from French officials simply referred to him as "The American". The French people are most likely happy with the ruling, but doesn't this really give the whole sport of cycling a big black eye?

Hopefully, Floyd will do all he can to appeal this, and I'm sure he will considering the time and effort put into this so far. I doubt he'd give up now. I'm shocked that the panel of arbitration for the hearing only consisted of 3 members and that a 2 to 1 ruling was enough to find him guilty.

NFL Could Have 1st Mess of the Season on their Hands

No, arrests have not been made. Apparently, the Patriots are cheaters. A New England Patriots employee had a video camera and tape confiscated from the sidelines of this Sunday's past game in the Meadowlands. (source) Even watching the game, the announcers pointed out several times where the Patriots had it 'played perfectly'.

Now I have no idea of what was recorded and if the Magnificent Mangini was being spied upon, but the fact that there was recording equipment on New England's sidelines is just ridiculous. Is there a good reason to have such equipment? Are the Patriots making home movies about their Summer coming to an end with a trip to the Meadowlands? Recording of the oppositions' signals is illegal, but shouldn't the mere fact that the camera was there to begin with be the problem?

What's worse, is how the league will handle this incident if it proves there was some rif-raf going on. Has anything happened like this in the past and what is the best way to prevent it from happening in the future?

Do you suspend the coach? Perhaps, but then how do we know whether or not the head coach is actually the one responsible? And does the NFL have an obligation to get to the root cause of the matter, or just to merely find out whether or not the camera was there for the purpose of cheating?

Do you schedule an "if-necessary" rematch and force the teams to play a whopping total of 17 games? (Still less than a 5th of what NBA and NHL teams have to deal with). Or do you disqualify the Patriots from the week 1 match up, giving the Jets the victory by a forced-forfeit. Just imagine the chaos this would cause in the gambling world, legal or not. And you know the NFL has this aspect considered so you can probably scratch any rematches or disqualifications from the list of possibilities.

The NFL has to be hoping the issue will prove to be meaningless.
Some sources say that possible future draft pick(s) may be taken away from Patriots. This may seem fair and reasonable, but this was a game that occurred during the 2007-08 season. Why should some bad decisions made by the 2007-08 Patriots personnel affect the 2008-09 or 2009-10 Patriots, who may be a totally different team by then. There's a good chance whoever turns out to be responsible may be fired by the organization by then. So they would be punished for hiring someone that wasn't trustworthy in the first place.

And how would the Jets be compensated for being cheated against? Being they are division rivals, the lost draft picks may help the Jets out directly. But what if the 2008-2010 Patriots are not the team to beat in the AFC east? (Hard to imagine, but it's possible) The Bills and Dolphins would benefit just as much as the Jets, unless of course, the revoked draft choices were awarded to the Jets.

I really don't have a solid answer on what should be done if these tapes prove wrongdoing by the Patriots. But what the NFL really needs to do is keep better track of who and what is on the field at all times. Football is a unique sport by the fact that the sidelines are littered with tons of reporters, TV crew, players, coaches, etc... Each team basically has their own travelling circus with them on their side of the field while the NBA, NFL and MLB pretty much have a relatively small, well-defined area. Interpreters aren't even allowed in baseball dugouts. I'm sure there are plenty of security measures in place by the NFL as to whom is allowed on each team's sidelines, but they probably should be doing a better job regarding what is allowed on each team's sidelines.

NFL Preview

So another long grueling 17 week season of NFL football is now upon us and referees must be as giddy as ever, so get those little yellow pieces of cloth ready and dust off those instant replay monitors!

To start the season off, I thought I'd start a new poll to see which major professional sport readers think is most affected by the in-game officiating. Please take a moment to cast your vote over on the left hand side of the page. Personally, I think NFL referees are the worst, but will give the league credit for the way they carry out the rules of instant replay.

I had a cousin, who like a lot of sports fans, enjoyed watching football in bars. He had somewhat of a conspiracy theory where the halftime of every NFL game was the time where all of the bookies across the country would make their phone calls in order to have the game's outcome work to their favor. "The fix is in!" he would then yell throughout the remainder of the game, while I'm sure he was mocked by others watching from the bar. A few months ago, this would be a pretty far-fetched allegation. Nowadays, not so much. I wonder if he still has the same opinion.