Celtics Can Beat Miami, But The Heat Will Defeat Boston After All

AP Photo

I have been saying for a few weeks now that if there
was one team in the East that could take down the
Miami Heat, it was the Boston Celtics. Not the #1
seeded Chicago Bulls, not the unified, and injury
free Orlando Magic, but the veteran, and savvy Boston
Celtics. That same Celtics team that I said in the
beginning of the year was gonna be too old too compete
this far. The Celtic team that Bob Ryan of the Boston
Globe says is on the fifth year of a three year plan.
It is not to be however, the Celtics who have shown
all year that they would have no problem handling
LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and that other guy, are
starting to get tired, and the schedule is not going
to get any friendlier in the way of two days off in
between games as opposed to one.

I looked over at the Western conference finals to
see if the breakdown of games was any different, but
it wasn't. So as much as I'd love to sit here and
gripe about the NBA working for the Heat and against
Boston, I can't. Even if Doc Rivers and some of his
players are unhappy with the refs, it won't change
their age, and the fact that though I might admit that
right now the Heat is the better team, a rested, and
healthy Celtics squad would hand them their lunch.
That being said, if the Celts hadn't allowed the young
and fiery 76'ers to hang around until game seven, they
might have had a chance of resting a little beforehand,
and stealing this series away from the favored Heat,
no matter how much rest there would have been in between
games in the East finals. This of course in turn would
have started the LeBron James is a "choke artist loser"
headline mill. So maybe for LeBron, this works out
pretty well, and the Celtics really have no one else to
blame in the end but themselves. A Shame.

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Ranting With Rizzo Podcast For 5-26-12

The "Ranting with Rizzo" podcast is available now,
hope you had a GREAT & Safe Memorial Day Weekend.
Now enjoy the podcast:



Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Curt Schilling: You Sunk My Battleship !

Courtesy: Barry Petchesky

Yes, yes, I know, I know, Curt Schilling has nothing
to do with the game or movie "Battleship", but what
better a headline than that one for someone who is
still trying to remain relevant in the public eye,
and is falling woefully short success wise, just
like the recent movie bomb of the same name.

Make no mistake about what I'm about to say, but had
it not been for the "bloody sock" game, the legend
that is Curt Schilling may not be what it is today.
It certainly didn't hurt that Joe Torre refused to
take advantage of Curt and his injury by say, oh I
don't know, bunt against him and put some pressure
on him and his injury, but rather follow some bizarre
unwritten rule of honor and try and beat him straight
up. This of course in turn allowed him to pitch long
enough to beat his Yankees, and complete the biggest
collapse ever in baseball history.

The retirement years haven't been quite as kind to
Schilling, the man many of his teammates referred
to as "Red Light", because he always had a knack of
knowing when to turn towards the camera and mic in
order to get the most media exposure. Lately he
has made the quite a bit of news alright, but not
exactly the kind he would like to be known for.
His video game franchise laid off it's entire staff
on Thursday, the state of Rhode Island last week
wouldn't cash one of his loan repayment checks because
they knew it would bounce, and frankly as much as they
appreciate what he did for them, Red Sox fans have
grown tired of Schilling putting his two cents into
everything he feels needs his opinion as it relates to
the Sox. No one may have sunk Curt's "Battleship",
it seems he did a pretty good job doing that all on
his own by failing to produce many positives from the
$75 million dollar loan he was able to secure from R.I..

Like I said earlier make no mistake about what I'm about
to say, Curt Schilling had a wonderful career, and is a
two time champion. He was more than dominant at times
and thankfully there have been no whispers that I've
ever heard of that he cheated, but perhaps he needs to
turn that red light off for a while.

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END Is Near, New York Yankees For Sale

No matter what you heard prior to reading this, or what
you believe after it, what's your stake in it? If your
a fan, a diehard fan then it's purely emotional, other
than that, save your breath, no matter what you think,
this is NOT your team Yankee fans. YOU DON"T OWN IT !

Yankee fans seem to be ready to fight to the death upon
hearing that the Steinbrenner's might consider selling
the franchise, and yet it wasn't oh that long ago that
many a Yankee fan was more than willing to drive dearly
departed George Steinbrenner out of town at their own
expense. Hank and Hal, and anyone else involved will,
and have already denied any such notion of a sale, but
if it were your team, I mean really your team, would
you admit it? I mean do you want people knowing and
being in your business? Probably not. Chances are
that the Yankees saw that the LA Dodgers sold for a few
Billion dollars and thought, the heck with this garbage
let's get out of here. They have their rings, they have
their titles, what more can they hope to accomplish?

The New York Daily news sites credible and trustworthy
sources, sources in the Yankee organization say that this
is false, and that there will be a a full investigation.
So What? Who cares? Get over it, it's a business, and
a multi BILLION dollar one at that. The Highlander/Yankee
organization has been owned by dozens, and will be long
after your gone. Enjoy the game, enjoy the players, and
then remember this, you have no say.

Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Live - 6PM EST - Mad Stork Sports on ScatterRadio

The New Jersey Devils face off with the suddenly
human LA Kings?, Baseball's more expensive payrolls
are sucking it up, and the Heat, Celtics, Spurs and
Thunder are all that remain in the NBA. Mad Stork
Sports on ScatterRadio is on at 6PM, join me for an
hour and let's discuss some of this. Call in and
make your voice heard. Find the show here on ScatterRadio


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Devils & Rangers Fans Battle Over Brodeur & Lundqvist

Fans of teams throwing venomous barbs at each other
during such playoff series as the one the Devils and
Rangers are in right now is pretty much par for the
course, especially in a rivalry as heated as there's,
but it gets funny when they take two tremendous stars
such as Marty Brodeur and Henrik Lundqvist and insist
that the other "sucks".

Ranger fans saying Brodeur isn't any good is as good
as Red Sox fans saying Derek Jeter isn't any good,
even they know better than to make a foolish statement
like that. Martin Brodeur is a Three time Stanley Cup
Champion, and has won many more awards than I care to
put on this page, it would truly give me writers cramp.

Henrik Lundqvist may only have a couple of Gold and a
couple of Silver medals to his name along with a few
other international nominations and achievements, but
for New Jersey Devils fans to say that he isn't worthy
of being mentioned in the same sentence as Brodeur is
all together ludicrous as well.

It's funny to see how fan(atic)s try to make there case
at times, but in this case, it's pretty useless to try.
The series is tied at 2, both Ranger wins are Lundqvist
shutouts, and Brodeur'S average in that span is 1.75 GPP
while Lundqvist is at 1.50GPP, all of these numbers are
GREAT! If either of these goalies aren't any good, then
I wanna start a new and make sure one of them is my 1st
pick, and I'll take my chances the rest of the way.

Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Ranting With Rizzo Podcast For 5-19-12

The "Ranting with Rizzo" podcast is available now,
so check out what there is to say about the NBA
Playoffs, MLB surprises and my beef with Ryan Braun.
Check it out here:



Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Disco Stars Dying, and So Are T.O.'s Chances

Courtesy SF Gate: (L to R) receiver Eddie McGee,
T.O., Raiders Darrius Heyward-Bey, QB Carson Palmer
working out in L.A.

In just the last ten days, those of us old enough to
remember them, lost Robin Gibb of the Bee Gee's and
the Queen of Disco Donna Summer, and in a bit of
related news Terrel Owens fired his agent, Drew
Rosenhaus. Why is there is any relation can either
be an easy guess or a stretch, that depends on your
mindset. For me the deaths of Gibb, and Summer are
in a way indicative of the true death of Disco, not
the imaginary one that rock fans had hoped for way
back when. Terrell Owens making news, any kind of
news this late in his "career", to me is indicative
of the death of his "NFL career".

First he made the mistake of firing Drew Rosenhaus,
and now he says he wants to play for the Raiders.
Can you say crash and burn? If this was 1979, maybe,
but even Al Davis in his later years admitted that
taking chances on troubled players was no longer
something he had interest in. The new regime lead
by GM Reggie McKenzie is definitely not interested,
even though he did work out with Carson Palmer this
off season, and the Raiders wide receivers.

T.O. is really not faring well in his dying (career)
days, so while he's at it he should consider staying
away from the daytime talk show circuit, unless they
are paying him, or it's part of some teams mandatory
obligation.

Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Mad Stork Sports on ScatterRadio Podcast For 5-16-12

Was Terry Collins right to pull David Wright against
the Brewers so he wouldn't get plunked? Is the MLB
drug policy a joke? We talk about that and the NBA
playoffs, the NHL playoffs, and some early season
surprises around Major League Baseball in this Mad
Stork Sports podcast, so here you go!



Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

NHL Dreams Of A Kings vs Rangers Final

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

My headline may very well be on the money as far as NHL
Execs are concerned, but if this does happen, it is
going to be a easy Stanley Cup conquest for the Kings.
Last night I was bold enough to predict that the Rangers
would sweep the Devils in the Eastern Conference Finals,
and this morning you can see that I'm wrong. Now that
doesn't mean that the Rangers won't this series, but if
they do, I am even more confident in saying that the
Kings will go on to sweep them just as they swept the
St. Louis Blues, and they are on their way to sweeping
the Phoenix Coyotes.

Hockey prognosticators are quick to tell you that this
wasn't supposed to be the year the Rangers won the Cup
anyway, and that's not in their defense, but rather the
plan the organization had. This year was supposed to be
another step, and then WHAM! next year they would break
out, and bring home the Cup. It's a good thing that's
the case, because I see no offensive FIRE power, nor do
I believe that these Rangers can take on the freight
train that is the LA Kings hockey team. They went to
seven games with an Ottowa team they should have beaten
in less, seven games with a Capitols team they should
have beaten in less, and after a 3-0 game one victory
in their own building against an inferior Devils team,
they once again lost game 2 as they did in the previous
two series. They don't they own building, and the Kings
seem to own everyone's building in these playoffs.
I hope I'm wrong, but as of right now, I don't see it.

Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Chris Bosh Less Heat "Extinguished" By The Pacers

Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images

I'm not sure the Miami Heat PA Announcer wants to use
the term extinguish to describe the Heats loss last
night at the hands of the Indiana Pacers as joyfully
as he did when describing the fouling out of Amar'e
Stoudemire last week, but that's pretty much what
the Pacers did last night.

I have been calling Miami's "BIG 3" the "Big 2.5" for
as long as they put that trio together, but I have to
admit that as soon as I heard that Chris Bosh got hurt
and would be out for the rest of the second round, I
knew Indiana caught a break. Last night was a perfect
example of this, and though I won't go as far as saying
that the Heat will lose this series, they just might.

Last week Nationals GM Mike Rizzo called the Phillies
Cole Hamels "fake tough" a term that I can only recall
hearing once before, and that was when Kevin Durant
used it to refer to Chris Bosh that way last year.
As I recall, I was fully on board with that assessment
of Bosh, but what I must admit if the Heat do drop this
series, or if it goes seven and they sweat it out, is
that Bosh is more important to Miami's Championship
aspirations than I care to admit.

Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Ranting With Rizzo Podcast For 5-12-12

The better late than never "Ranting with Rizzo" podcast
is available now, so check it out and see what topics
are on the agenda: Red Sox, NBA Playoffs, Josh Beckett,
etc.....Check it out here:



Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Roger Clemens And Brian McNamee Saga A Sad State Of Affairs

(Doug Mills/New York Times)

To me the Roger Clemens doping story was always about
whether Clemens cheated or not. It was never about
wives who wanted to look better, suspicious spouses
warning their husbands to protect themselves from
being the fall guy, or even whether a puppy faced
Andy Petitte would lie for his buddy and mentor, but
the more I read about the proceedings now into their
fifth week, the more I wonder how many more things
not mentioned at trial took place within the Roger
Clemens circle.

It is hard to make a clear decision as to whether the
government is wasting it's time or not, because even
though it's just baseball, and there are bigger fish
to fry in the world of crime, you still can't help
but say to yourself, "He broke the law". If we
only went after big criminals, then the next time
someone stole $100 out of your pocket, we would just
have to dismiss it. A crime is a crime. Here it
appears that many crimes have taken place, the lack
of loyalty, lack of integrity, and the absence of
sportsmanship. These things may not be published in
any law journal, but for many of us they are crimes
none the less.





Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

With Votto & Hamilton, Cincy Left To Wonder What If

Courtesy CBS Sports

After seeing the types of numbers that Joey Votto
and Josh Hamilton have put up recently, I can't
help but realize that I'm not the only one who
might be wondering what if. The Reds have to be
besides themselves knowing that they had both
Joey Votto and Josh Hamilton on the same team at
the same time, and now don't because they gave up
on Hamilton a tad too early. Of course the Tampa
Rays could be upset too having drafted Josh number
one overall, but how could they ever know that
Hamilton would eventually recover to some degree
from his demons of drug and alcohol addiction.

The numbers of these two are staggeringly similar
if you're willing to give a little. Since 2010
Votto has an RBI edge of 240 to 216 over Hamilton,
but Josh leads in HR's 75 to 71, as well as batting
avg .337 to .315, and with that you still have to
give Josh the edge in all three when you consider
that he has played in 58 less games and in turn had
127 less at bats. I could churn numbers all day,
and it sill won't define a clear cut winner with
these two, at least not until the end of their
careers. The Texas rangers are a scary lineup,
and Josh Hamilton is a big reason for that, and yet,
how do you thin pitchers would feel if they had to
face Votto and Hamilton in the same lineup every
night? Scared, probably, and the Reds too are left
to wonder, what if.

Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Mad Stork Sports on ScatterRadio Podcast For 5-9-12

Is Josh Hamilton for real? Do Orioles fans appreciate
their teams early success? NBA Playoffs, and Cole
Hamels are just some of the topics covered in this
Mad Stork Sports podcast, so here you go!



Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Cole Hamels And Mike Rizzo, Who's Wrong?

AP Photo

I can completely understand when Nationals GM
Mike Rizzo decided to call Philadelphia Phillies
pitcher Cole Hamels "Fake Tough", it's a term that
can be applied to many a pro athlete "tough guy",
and even though I have no opinion on Cole Hamels
regarding that matter, I do disagree with the rest
of Rizzo's opinion on Cole Hamels deciding to hit
Nationals young star phenom Bryce Harper.

Rizzo was outraged that Hamels decided to throw at
the Nationals prize, and then admitted to it when
asked about it. This was Rizzo's reaction: "I've
never seen a more classless, gutless chicken *$%@
act in my 30 years in baseball", "It was a gutless
chicken *$%@ *$%@*$%@ act. That was a fake-tough
act. No one has ever accused Cole Hamels of being
old school." Now some of this may be true, BUT
I do disagree that this wasn't old school, it
most certainly was. Not only was it old school,
I also agree with Hamels when he said that "some
people (pitchers) have moved away from it (the
brushback pitch)" He hit a player, a star player,
and he not only admitted it, but also admitted
the he was NOT trying to injure him. He is RIGHT,
pitchers have moved away from it, and not only
should he have done it, but it should be done more
often. DON'T head hunt, DON'T intend to injure,
and if your gonna do it, then make sure that you
can ensure the first two DON'T happen.

Rizzo is clearly over reacting, trying to defend
his player, and without a doubt is the owner of
a very short temper. If it had been one of his
pitchers doing it to a Phillies star player I'm
sure that he would have either waxed poetic about
how his team is trying to compete and establish
themselves or how traditional it is or he would
have kept silent, but either way, he wouldn't be
calling any of his own pitchers chicken $%$@*

Think I'm wrong, and defending the wrong guy?
Well consider this, if someone had brushed back
Josh Hamilton the other night in Baltimore when
he had 4 HR's & a double, do you think he still
would have had the same type of night? I don't
think so, and if Cole Hamels had done that to
Josh Hamilton, I can assure you that an old
school guy like Buck Showalter would have been
proud of his pitcher, but I'm sure that like
Charlie Manual, he wishes Cole woulda kept his
mouth shut about it, probably Hamels only error.
Sorry Mike Rizzo, you're WRONG.

Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Mad Stork Sports on ScatterRadio - Live 6PM EST

What do you want to chat about today? The New York
Knicks?, Baseball, and Josh Hamilton? Mad Stork
Sports on Scatteradio is here for you, so join me
for an hour of talk, and call in to make your
voice heard. Find the show here on ScatterRadio


Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Guillermo Mota Gets 100 Games But System Still A Failure

Gack Sports

When you can fail, with all due respect, a nobody,
and let the "MVP' steal the trophy, then you have
failed in a grand and epic way. We will hear how
there are kinks in every system, and that things
just need to be ironed out, but when one player,
who no one will even know is gone gets suspended
because of what he claims is an ingredient in baby
cough medicine, and the other, a "Star" gets off
because of "language" in the handling of the sample,
even though it was very evident that he is guilty
as sin, once again the system has failed.

Face it kids the MLB Players union runs the show,
and though Bud Selig will go to his grave trying
to wrestle away a drop of power away from them,
Ryan Braun will still have walked away with Matt
Kemp's MVP. Ryan Braun will eventually fade away
into obscurity, and inevitably be caught again,
all the while denying, denying, denying he ever
cheated. What a sham.

Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Mad Stork Sports on ScatterRadio Podcast For 5-2-12

The sad news of the loss of Junior Seau is one
of the main topics of the show, while we also
discuss the the Saints suspensions, MLB baseball
and the Eric LaGrande story. Here you go!



Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Holy Roller Andy Petitte Just Another Hopeless Sinner

It has gotten to the point were you really can't
trust ANYONE, or a word that comes out of their
mouth. If anyone proved that to me this week
then it's Andy Petitte. You know that guy all
Yankee fans are so happy is back, and is so well
regarded around baseball circles for being such
a straight up guy. You know the guy who didn't
know what he was taking was a banned substance
and the moment he was asked about it, had to do
the right thing and come clean, because it was
the "right" thing to do. The guy who answered
honestly when questioned about his knowledge of
whether or not Roger Clemens was taking any sort
or performance enhancing drugs, yeah, that guy.

Well throw all of that out the window, because
Mr.(Bible in Hand)Petitte, thinks he may have
misheard, misremembered, or misunderstood Roger
Clemens. I don't know about you, but it's a
little too convenient to me, and sounds quite
a bit like buyers remorse after a long time to
think this over. Maybe he thinks it's ok to
misremember because it's "the man" go after
his one time friend and brother, or maybe he
has other reasons, but whatever the reasons
are, a lie, is a lie, is a lie.

He is certainly entitled to change his mind,
and since he is not harboring a murderer I
can feel a bit better about it, but we need
to put him on the same level that we are all
on, human. Take him off the pedestal, stop
telling me about how the revelation to come
back to baseball came to you after you came
home from Church one night, and just play
baseball. This week you did do one thing
very well though. You taught us all a very
valuable lesson, you no better than we are,
or Roger Clemens for that matter.

Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Raiders And New GM McKenzie Pick Where They're Supposed To

Photo Lee Kirby / US Presswire

I know that Raider fans wants to make a tremendous
amount of Reggie McKenzie's eye for talent and how
upset they were that they didn't have a 1st or 2nd
round pick in this years draft, but I contend that
drafting their first pick in the 3rd round is right
where they and their new GM belong.

For starters, their 1st round pick is Carson Palmer,
and love him or hate him, I'll take an established
player over a potential one in the draft any day of
the week. With Palmer. good, bad, or otherwise you
know what you have, and since he's your starting QB,
that's has to be pretty good. I won't list the
number of picks that have gone in the top 10 of past
drafts that have failed to produce anything, but if
I did, you could fill a nobody's nobody list of no-
stars that would require much more writing than you
may be willing to read or even recognize.

Secondly, as a life long Raider fan, and even more
so, a life long Al Davis fan I feel comfortable in
saying that his shoes will not only be hard to fill,
but even harder to try on. Davis won FOUR titles in
fifty years (1 AFL Championship, and 3 Super Bowls),
though it wouldn't be fair to McKenzie to hold him
up to those standards, he has won nothing as a head
man. You wanna make the case that he has TWO rings
as a member of the Packers front office, great.
He wasn't the GM for the first(Ron Wolfe), and was
not for the second(Ted Thompson) either. Yes it's
a team, but it's like giving Dan Pastorini credit
for the Super XV title, a bit of an exaggeration, I
know, but you get the idea.

Reggie McKenzie should make a fine GM, but he has
never truly been one before, so it remains to be
seen. Any Raider fan reading this article knows
that winning in the NFL isn't easy, that's why the
Raiders haven't done it for a while. More teams,
more competition, more cheating (See the Saints &
Patriots), and a constantly changing landscape to
any system you think figured it out for you.
The case was always made that Al meddled too much,
well if he had the last time they went to the Super
Bowl, they might have won, but Bill Callahan didn't
have the luxury of Al's meddling or he would have
realized that the former head coach was on the other
sideline with the opponent for that title game.

There are very, very few that can stand shoulder to
shoulder with AL Davis career wise, and Reggie will
be hard pressed to do that. Starting his draft off
in the 3rd round this year, and the 2nd next year,
is probably the best way to gently walk in the shoes
of a man who not only wore them, but designed, and
made them. If Reggie McKenzie truly has an eye for
talent, then he can find it anywhere, NFL history is
littered with late round draft choices from rounds
that don't even exist anymore. So why should today
be any different? Any Raider fan who has a long
history with Al Davis will want to see him earn his
stripes, I do.

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