Didn't call it.

Okay, so I guess I was wrong on the whole Zito thing. Actually, I think most of the sports media community was off on predicting where Barry Zito would end up.

San Francisco.

Huh, didn't see that one coming. New York, New York or even Texas but not the Giants. I'm pretty sure that even with this signing though, the Giants' off-season has been a waste. Yeah, congrats on Zito but way to let Jason Schmidt move to division rival Los Angeles Dodgers. And way to let one of the only offensive weapons - Moises Alou - leave for the Mets.

Well, at least the Giants now have one one Barry who isn't tainted. And when I say tainted here, I mean tainted like Chernobyl. I had hoped (prayed) that no one would sign Barry Bonds for the 2007 season. Collude, scheme, plot - whatever the owners could've done to kept the Sultan of Syringes out of the game would've been fine for me. Giants' owner Peter Magowan and GM Brian Sabean, despite talking about building a younger team and how they couldn't use Bonds to create a team. I guess that was just part of the negotiations with Bonds' agent? So much for youth.

Anyways, congrats on your $126 million, Zito, you've earned it. I just hope you don't mind suffering from Roger Clemens Syndrome. After posting a sub-3.00 ERA the past three years in Houston (including a 1.87 ERA in 2005), Clemens never received the run support needed to post wins. Looking at San Francisco's offense lineup, Zito's going to have a hard time collecting wins . . . something I'm sure Clemens won't have a problem with in New York in 2007.

Called it?

The current sports news is saying that the Yanks are beginning talks to trade former star pitcher Randy Johnson, possibly back to the Diamondbacks or to the Padres or Giants. This is just another step in GM Brian Cashman's purge of past-prime talent that the Yankees had collected over the past few years (Gary Sheffield, Jaret Wright).

If New York does manage to move Johnson, it's even more possible that they'd make a move for Barry Zito, says SI.com's Jon Heyman. Makes perfect sense. I'd love to see an aged pitcher moved out of New York, have young talent brought in in return for him and then top it all off with the addition of who's probably the best pitcher on the free agent market this season (Daisuke Matsuzaka not included since he's still a mystery.)

It would also be another way to counter the Red Sox's addition of Matsuzaka, something I brought up a few weeks ago. If the Yankees can swap out Randy Johnson for Barry Zito, here's what their rotation will look like: Mike Mussina, Chen-Ming Wang, Andy Pettitte, Barry Zito and Kei Igawa. I'm not including Carl Pavano since I'm just going to assume he'll be struck down by another phantom injury. That's beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. On top of that, just imagine if the Yanks win the Roger Clemens sweepstakes, I'm not even sure what'll happen. Igawa will most likely go to the pen. And I consider the Yanks to be the odds-on favorite to land Clemens too.

Merry Christmas

Here's wishing everyone a merry Christmas from Extra Innings.

I asked Santa for a few more wins for the Bills this season but he's obviously not a Buffalo fan. Next year, Santa, next year.

Double killers?

On tonight's Quite Frankly with Stephen A. Smith, Allen Iverson talked about his past in Philly and his future in Denver. When asked to describe himself as a player, Iverson used the word "killer." Smith then asked Iverson to describe new teammate Carmelo Anthony. Iverson once again chose "killer." Prompted to describe the partnership of Iverson and Anthony, the former Sixer called them "double killers."

Now, I understand this is all rhetoric and talk but with the recent "brawl" involving Carmelo and the image problems both Iverson and Carmelo suffer, was "killer" really the best choice?

Iverson's been in jail, had that rap CD a few years ago that stirred up trouble and threw his wife out of his house and then followed her to his cousin's house. Carmelo's didn't play like a teammate in the Olympics and appeared on the Stop Snitchin' video in 2004.

I'm rooting for Carmelo as he is the patron saint of Syracuse basketball after leading them to the 2003 NCAA Championship but he's going to have to be very careful around Iverson. While some players feed off of each other to excel, I'm afraid that Iverson may be a negative influence on Carmelo.

The Blackout Rules Continues to Haunt Us

As a part of my current crusade against the NFL black out rule (which has kept me from watching three of the last four Buffalo Bills games and is just generally unfair), I compiled some data based on the capacity of the 31 NFL stadiums (the Giants and Jets share Giants Stadium) and the metro populations of each NFL market.

Starting off, in terms of just stadium capacity, the Bills' Ralph Wilson Stadium ranks 6th out of 31 with 73,967 seats. In terms of metro population, Buffalo ranks 30th out of 31 with 1,254,066. Only the ultra-small market of Green Bay (226,778) ranks lower than Buffalo.

From just looking at these numbers, one can see that there's a huge divide between what the NFL is requiring the Bills to fill compared to what they have on hand to fill the stadium with. I wanted to further illustrate this discrepancy so I've decided to bring back the SSRI (Student to Seating Ratio Index) that I used a year ago to dissect college gym capacity. Of course in this case, we aren't dealing with students, we're dealing with population. It works the same. Here's how the SSRI pans out for NFL markets.

Green Bay 0.3216
Buffalo 0.0590
New Orleans 0.0524
Jacksonville 0.0498
Tennessee 0.0484
Carolina 0.0460
Kansas City 0.0408
Denver 0.0327
Cleveland 0.0325
Indianapolis 0.0311
Cincinnati 0.0310
Pittsburgh 0.0276
Baltimore 0.0266
Tampa Bay 0.0246
San Diego 0.0243
St. Louis 0.0237
Minnesota 0.0216
Seattle 0.0176
Arizona 0.0171
San Francisco 0.0169
Detroit 0.0145
Atlanta 0.0144
Miami 0.0139
Houston 0.0132
New England 0.0118
Philadelphia 0.0118
Washington 0.0114
Dallas 0.0113
Oakland 0.0090
Chicago 0.0064
New York 0.0036

So as you can see, the Bills rank second in SSRI. Unlike college gyms though, this means that the teams with high SSRIs have a much bigger gap to fill (and to not be blacked out) than the lower ranked teams do. In fact, the Bills have more than 16 times the work to do than either of the New York teams do.

With this big of a difference in the work teams have to do to sell their stadiums out, how does the NFL see the blackout rule as fair? It's obviously not.

Buffalo Charging

So the Buffalo Bills are now 14 games into the 2006 season and possess a 7-7 record. For a team that most people thought would be in rebuilding mode this season, 7-7 is respectable. But let's do a quick run through of their schedule so far and see what could have been.

Week 1: Lost to the New England Patriots 19-17. Man, they should've had this game. The Bills controlled this one but couldn't hold on. Now, I'm not going to say that the refs were biased toward the Patriots in this one but I'm going to say the refs were biased toward the Patriots in this one.

Week 3: Lost to the New York Jets 28-20. The Bills did play catchup most of this game but nonetheless a close one. Losman threw for 328 yards - wasted.

Week 6: Lost to the Detroit Lions 20-17. The Lions? C'mon, the Lions? Up until about a week ago, I had actually completely forgotten about this game - probably my mind doing me a favor. Only lost by a field goal.

Week 10: Lost to the Indianapolis Colts 17-16. The Bills were one missed field goal from upsetting the then undefeated Colts. Oh, Rian Lindell, why this one? Of all the times to miss, why this one? Good grief. Anyways, the Bills did all the work in Week 9 and all the Cowboys did the following week was take the lid off.

Week 13: Lost to the San Diego Chargers. Once again, another close game to an elite team. Just a field goal separated the Bills from the Super Chargers.

These five games, had they been wins, would put the Bills at a fearsome 12-2 and would have them atop the AFC, not the Chargers. That's how close this team has been this season to being great. Heck, wins against the Colts and Chargers would have the Bills on a seven game winning streak and undefeated since their bye week.

It kills me to wonder what could've been had a couple more points gone Buffalo's way. I have to say though, JP Losman has quickly won Bills fans over with his play of late. After falling to the Colts, the third year QB has posted the following stats:

Vs. Texans: 26/38 for 340 yards and 3 TDs (one being a thrilling last second gamewinner)
Vs. Jaguars: 21/28 for 169 yards
Vs. Chargers: 21/37 for 184 yards and 2 TDs
Vs. Jets: 10/15 for 157 yards and 2 TDs
Vs. Dolphins: 13/19 for 200 yards and 3 TDs

This isn't the same Losman that Bills fans have been emotionally battered with over the past year and a half. This isn't the same Losman that I almost killed myself when the Bills didn't draft Matt Leinart over. This is a Losman who has learned how to win and how to strike with a touchdown when needed.

Over the first seven games of the season, the Bills went 2-5. During this period, Losman threw six TDs. Over the second half of the season so far, Losman has eleven TDs. I chalk this up to a combination of an offensive line that was shuffled around during the bye with the fact that the kid really has learned. That was Mike Mularkey's problem last year - he didn't let Losman learn. If you're going to break in a new quarterback, you have to play him. That quarterback shuffle that Mularkey conducted last year was counterproductive. Oh well, this is the same Mularkey whose as Miami's offensive coordinator has only been able to muster six points in two games against Buffalo in 2006. Dick Jauron really has done a good job as of late making Bills fans forget the Gregg Williams-Mike Mularkey era.

Back to how this kills me. Losman has just about doubled his TDs output over the second seven games. Just imagine if the Bills had that extra TD a game over the first seven games. Beat the Patriots 24-19? Check. One point loss to the Jets? Maybe they could've gone for the two-point conversation and sent the game to overtime. Beat the Lions 24-20? Done. The loss to the Bears and the second loss to the Patriots are beyond fixing. That's pretty impressive though. Out of the 14 games the Bills have played so far, only two were out of reach.

The Bills need to pick up wins against the Titans and the Ravens to have any chance of qualifying for a wild card spot. The Titans are red hot right now with Vince Young leading a resurgence of the franchise. The Ravens will probably have a first young bye wrapped up by the final week and should rest its players including the aching Steve McNair. Of course, this game shouldn't be taken for granted. The 2004 Bills, needing a final win to make the playoffs got stomped by a third string Steelers.

One final note: the Bills game was blacked out again in Western New York. Third home game in a row for the Bills. I'll have more on that later on.

Daisuke Matsuzaka, Not "D-Mat"

Interestingly enough, ESPN's Bill Simmons column today addressed the topic of the "D-Mat" nickname for Boston's Daisuke Matsuzaka, which I wrote about yesterday. I'd like to think that there are more people out there who don't want to see this "D-Mat" nickname catch on.

So, I've decided to do something about it. A petition. To nip this "D-Mat" fad in the bud before it becomes a full grown weed in baseball lingo.

Give Simmons' column a look. Then sign the petition. Save the world from another corporate nickname (A-Rod anyone?) and prevent having to tell your children about a player named "D-Mat."

D-Mat? C'mon.

Just a quick note.

Can we nip this "D-Mat" nickname for Daisuke Matsuzaka right now? Please. C'mon. Seriously.

I understand that Scott Boras created the A-Rod nickname for Alex Rodriguez which led to people calling Ivan Rodriguez "I-Rod." Ivan Rodriguez is not I-Rod. He's Pudge. Seriously.

Matsuzaka already has a nickname too. It's Kaibatsu. It means "Monster." Do we really have to demean him with D-Mat? Hey everyone, wipe your feet on the D-Mat before you come in. Yeah, that jerk? He's such a D-Mat. What's D-Mat-ter? Absolutely horrible.

Matsuzaka is already being underpaid by Boston (the posting fee doesn't count, the player doesn't get any of it), pay him the respect he deserves and use his real name.

Zito in NY?

Well, now that appears that the Red Sox have somehow wrapped up the Daisuke Matsuzaka deal, how do the Yanks counter? Yes, I love Pettitte and am thrilled that he's returned to New York, but in the world of Yankees-Red Sox, you have to match ace for ace.

So, I guess that means that Barry Zito will soon be coming to Yankee Stadium. Yes, I'm calling it here, on this blog, on Extra Innings. Yeah, you can read about Texas all you want but Zito will be pitching in pinstripes for 2007.

Let's start at the beginning. The New York Yankees bid something like $32 million for Matsuzaka. The Red Sox bid an insane $51.1 million. Okay, check. You won that one, Boston. But now, there are still are still chips on the table.

Scott Boras isn't stupid. Not by any means. He surely has to realize that he'll be able to play this Matsuzaka-envy onto the Bronx Bombers and create a need in New York for Zito.

And I'm completely fine with that. So far this offseason, the Yanks have shown great restrait. They've traded away Sheffield. They've traded away Jaret Wright. They've talked about moving Pavano. Things are looking good. Prospects are coming into the Bronx. Go ahead, Cashman, spluge a little. You've earned it. Let's bring Zito into New York.

In six years, we'll add Matsuzaka too.

The Matsu-clock-a is a tickin'

Leave it to the Red Sox to mess this one up.

With a bid of $51.1 million, you'd think Boston and Theo Epstein would've realized that they'd win the bidding for Daisuke Matsuzaka. I understand that this was probably all a power play to make sure the Yanks didn't get the Japanese phenom but this reflects pretty badly on baseball as a whole now.

I understand that the Red Sox already paid over 50 million just to have the rights to talk to Matsuzaka but that shouldn't be something held against him. In dealing with agent Scott Boras, a team has to know that the price of a player is going to be high. If Barry Zito is expected to get a $100 million deal, then why shouldn't his Japanese counterpart?

And there have also been rumors that Boston has tried to get Matsuzaka's team, the Seibu Lions, to allow them to reduce the bid or even pay for part of the World Baseball Classic MVP's MLB salary. Which is all strictly against baseball policy.

There seems to be a lack of respect on the Red Sox's part here. The Yanks have respected Hideki Matsui and paid him his due. Shouldn't Boston be able to do the same?

I think the Sox may have finally found themselves outside of their league on this one. It was funny and it was cute to bid $51,111,111.11 but how about signing the guy? You realize that this chance doesn't come around every season. If the Sox screw this one up, they're going to have a hard time wooing another Japanese star down the road. And if they don't sign Matsuzaka this season and expect to get the rights for the same price next season, they're sadly mistaken. What was $51.1 million this year will turn into $80 million next season. The Yanks bid somewhere around $30 million for Matsuzaka this season, thinking that it would be enough based on past posting bids. I'm pretty sure that if they get a second wack at the gyroballer, they'll get him. Posting fees don't count toward the luxury tax and I'm pretty sure the combo of Matsui and Matsuzaka'll sell pretty nicely - especially in that brand new Yankee Stadium.

Congratulations, Boston Red Sox. A couple years ago, you bought out entire hotels in hopes of keeping the Yanks from negotiating with Jose Contreras. But you've outdone yourselves on this one.

Fisher football falls to Mount Union

With a score of 26-14, the Cardinals lost to the Purple Raiders today in the Division III semifinals. While the score seems kind of far apart, from watching the game, things were a lot closer than that score let's on.

I guess, like last week, it just took Mount Union a couple quarters to get moving. Fisher never led but managed to keep it close for most of the game. If it wasn't for an errant snap in the second, the game would've been tied 7-7 for the most part.

The Fisher defense seemed to play solid, coming up with some big stops and even forced a Mount Union fumble. The offense came up empty handed a couple of times and missed a field goal.

All in all though, this had to be the best season in the history of Fisher football. A 12-2 final record, a trip to the NCAA playoffs, and showdown against Mount Union. Not too shabby. Not too shabby at all.

After taking a step back last year, this program took a giant leap forward this season. I honestly cannot wait to see where we're ranked in the D3football.com poll to start the 2007 season. A Final Four appearance should rocket the Cardinals into the top 10, possibly top five. To be one of four teams left in the Division III program is quite an accomplishment especially to be amongst the company of a Mount Union.

But take heed, Mount Union. We've seen each other now. A little bit earlier than expected but we're familiar now. And in 2008, we're coming for you.

Pettitte returns home

Well, in what I'm considering one of the greatest Yankee signings ever, Andy Pettitte signed with New York for the 2007 season. Yeah, it was for $16 million but I really don't care. Best $16 million ever spent by the Yankees.

See, here's the thing: Andy Pettitte is a Yankee. There have been certain players that are Yankees. Scott Brosius was a Yankee. Paul O'Neill was a Yankee. Tino Martinez was a Yankee. Even Chuck Knoblauch was a Yankee. Derek Jeter is, was, and forever shall be a Yankee.

When Pettitte left the Yankees to sign with the Astros, it was probably the first time I ever felt bad about a player leaving the Yankees. Pettitte was our go-to guy, the guy who could always win in the postseason when we need it. And Steinbrenner and the rest of the Yankees brass let him go.

Well, hopefully that's been fixed now.

Welcome home, Andy Pettitte. Welcome home.

UPDATE: Oh yeah, last time Pettitte moved to another team, guess which former teammate followed him there. Yeah . . . Roger Clemens. Jackpot.

Fisher travels to Mount Union this weekend

If this column doesn't sell out, you can't read it

In the world of sports, fans are confronted almost everyday with the ridiculous. From Terrell Owens writing children books to Latrell Sprewell thinking that ten million dollars isn’t enough to feed his family, from Garth Brooks playing baseball to Barry Bonds . . . well, to Barry Bonds doing anything, there’s always something that just doesn’t seem right.

For the past two weekends, Western New Yorkers have been rudely exposed to the pinnacle of sports absurdity: the NFL black out rule. According to the all-mighty NFL, if a game doesn’t sell out within a certain amount of time before gameday, then the team’s television market doesn’t get to watch. Basically, football fans need to pray that their neighbors are paying the hundreds of dollars needed to see a game in person just so they can watch it from the comfort of their home.

What doesn’t make sense about all of this is the blatant fact that most NFL stadiums – heck, most stadiums in any sport – are funded with public money. That’s taxpayer dollars going to build palaces for the emperors of the gridiron. If a game gets blacked out, you’re not allowed to watch a game that’s being played in a building you paid for, your parents paid for.

How this has been allowed to go on for years is beyond me. To me, the whole notion of the black out rule is extortion, blackmail, and theft. The NFL is forcing you to not only pay for their stadiums but then of course, they want you to pay to see the games. I can deal with that. That’s just the way the universe works. We pay taxes that go to sports teams and then are expected to fork over an exorbitant amount of money to see the games. Fine . . . fine, I understand that.No other league tries to pull off this joke of a business practice. MLB airs hundreds of games a year and I’m pretty sure they don’t all sell out. The NBA is the same. Hockey – well, hockey begs you to watch, so they definitely aren’t going to penalize you for not selling out their games.

Not to play the part of Chicken Little here but the black out rule combined with the fact that most fans can’t watch NFL Network games plays into the logical evolution of more and more games being put on cable. Cable that fans have to once again pay for. Eventually, who knows? A pay-per-view Super Bowl?

When the NFL punishes these already taxpaying fans though for not paying to see games is when we need to put our collective foot down.

Let’s say fans were to turn the table on the NFL in terms of the black out rule. I propose that from now on, when teams aren’t performing up to our expectations, we lock them out of the stadiums we’re paying for. San Francisco, Houston, Oakland – you didn’t have a winning record within 72 hours of game time, so we’re not allowing you into the park this week. Go win on the road since we don’t really feel like paying to see you lose in our stadium.

How do you like them apples, NFL? Not so much, huh?

Let me watch my Bills on Sundays. Yeah, NFL fans are a pretty devoted bunch. Just look at Browns fans – their team left town in the middle of the night and all they got was Drew Carey for a couple years. I swear though, tick us off enough. Push this parity thing in our faces enough and make us watch 8-8 teams make the playoffs. Make us pay for seat licenses and luxury seats.

Or just let me ignore the fact that the NFL doesn’t get the public scrutiny on steroids that MLB suffers, that the Bengals are made up of criminals, and that Bill Belichick shouldn’t be allowed to wear cut-off sweatshirts and just let me watch the Bills on TV.

- Originally published in the Cardinal Courier (Volume 6-Issue 6; December 6, 2006)

Cardinals Advance to D3 Semifinals!

In a dominating win, Fisher knocked off Rowan to advance in the playoffs. In the Final 4, the Cards may face Mount Union, up 17-7 at the moment.

More to come later on.

David Stern shoots . . . he misses!

So I'm scrolling through the headlines at ESPN.com (no, I'm not going to hyperlink it - I'm still mad at them about Insider) and I come across an article about the players' union filing a lawsuit against the league over the current wave of technical fouls and the much maligned new ball.

Well, I say to myself, this is interesting. I just saw Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban on PTI earlier tonight talking about his (disfunctional) relationship with Commissioner David Stern and he made no mention of this lawsuit. So technically, since the suit is against the NBA itself, Cuban would know if his players were suing him.

So, I'm not really sure how I feel about this whole players suing the league thing. As a baseball fan, I'm use to the players' union almost always getting its way. This whole "strong commissioner" thing isn't really something you see in baseball nowaday. Cough, steroids, cough, Bonds, cough, Palmeiro, cough, BALCO, cough, the All-Star game a few years ago, cough, contraction, cough, why the hell haven't the Yankees won a World Series in the past six years? I do have to commend Stern for trying to take control of his league here. The NBA has over the past years gained the image of being the league of rappers, of gangstas, and of general disarray. I don't think this is the fairest of generalizations but it works. Yeah, an NFL player can get suspended for steroid use but no one cares. I understand that each league is held to its own standard.

I really don't want to address the whole technical fouls thing right now, so let's tackle this ball issue. And what an issue it is.

Already, top names like Shaq and LeBron have spoken out against the new ball. It doesn't bounce right, it holds moisture, it doesn't shoot right, etc., etc., etc. C'mon, Sterny, a new ball? Was that really necessary? This would be like baseball switching to aluminum bats all of a sudden. Yeah, the college kids use them but no one really cares. It's one thing to market a new fad basketball to the kids but to force it upon seasoned veterans who grew up using the old ball? Seriously, not smart.

So now the NBA has a near-insurrection on its hands. League hates the way the players act. Players hate the way the league acts. Mark Cuban hates the way David Stern acts. This really isn't the Brady Bunch of sports leagues anymore.

To concede defeat and admit that the new ball was a horrible experiment would be a severe blow to Stern. But maybe he's finally crossed the breaking point on this one. You can create dress codes and tell kids they have to play an arbitrary year of college hoops but you can't change the one constant of the whole game. Firetruck, David Stern, firetruck.