betterREDthandead

Because soccer is the only sport that the ENTIRE WORLD cares about. Hockey will never have participation from Ghana, Argentina, or Saudi Arabia - three countries considered dark horses to do some damage in this year's World Cup. Hockey in South America or Africa? Hockey's participation is limited to maybe 15 countries - if that - that are serious about the sport, and another 30 or so that play in the lower tiers of the IIHF. With soccer, there are about 150 countries that might have a realistic shot at playing in the World Cup.

I highly doubt that as many as four guys from that list will all be on the Wings' blueline. Too much happens in four years. Guys get traded, let go, the team will have chances to acquire other d-men in a trade or as a free agent. Of that list, guys who will probably be in the NHL by 2010 are Kronwall, Lebda, Quincey, and Kindl. Kolosov and Ericsson have a shot. Whether they will be in Wings' uniforms remains to be seen.

welcome back! surely you missed us?

Italy 13th?? How does FIFA figure these rankings? Italy can't really be that low, can they? The rankings can't mean that much if Italy is that far down and still expected to be the clear favorite in that group.

Joe D. said some changes would be coming. Wonder what he means. Losing in the conference finals is no reason to rip the club apart and start over.

See?? SEE?!? Right after I say Don't Let Shaq Throw Down, Ben takes my advice, the Pistons play the aggressive defense they made their name on, and the Heat wither. I still don't like being down 3-2. But Wade's crazy if he thinks there's no pressure on the Heat. Nothing would fire up the Palace crowd and most importantly, Rasheed, by going back to Detroit for The Big Game Seven with all the momentum.

Wonder what the odds are of seeing McGrath in a Wings' uniform in the last year of that contract? Probably getting a little ahead of myself, but I think he's a real find.

Next year, as long as it isn't top 5. We get nothing this year, and that's fine - all that guaranteed money to a draft pick would harm our ability to sign Ben. As for changes: NOTHING. If anything, maybe a little help down low on the bench - hell, maybe right now we ought to be seeing more of Kelvin Cato. He's not chopped liver. The Pistons have lost their attack mentality, both on offense and defense. Chauncey ought to be taking it to the hole far more than he is. As for defense, they need to realize that whether they sag off Wade or not, he will blow by them. They need to get up in his grill and harass him. And they need to swallow their pride and smack the everloving crap out of Shaq every time he goes in the air with the ball. Just go hard HARD HARD after the ball when he has it and not worry about whether or not you foul him. That's not Hack-A-Shaq, it's called Not Letting Shaq Get Any Easy Ones. Probably will need to see a healthy dose of Dale Davis and Cato, AKA 12 Free Fouls. The Pistons have let themselves believe that they will get out of any situation and forgot how they got out of situations in the first place.

Well, I'm definitely not saying A. Bonds is not stupid enough to do anything which might test him positive any more. I don't know what you're saying in B. Here's what I'm saying. From 1998 to sometime in 2005, Bonds took steroids. Had he not done so, his numbers likely would have remained as consistent as they were during the non-steroid portion of his career. He likely would have continued to hit 30-45 home runs per year, continued to bat .300-.310, and slug .650-.700. Probably would have continued to do so until age caught up with him. Take a look at the home run kings of ages past: Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, Harmon Killebrew, etc. They are consistent, generally through about age 34, where the numbers start to drop off. Even then they usually perform well above major-league level until some point, right around the late 30s or about 40, they hit a wall. They do not start outperforming themselves at such high levels after 34. Hank Aaron had arguably his best year in 1971 at age 37 - even then, his numbers (47 HR, .669 SLG) are consistent, not outlandishly better, than the rest of his career, where his HR numbers were 44, 40, 45, 44, 44, 39, 44, etc. Consistency. Bonds would have looked like that. Let me go further into the numbers. Rafael Palmeiro, a known user. He's the same age as Bonds, and his numbers pre-1998 look like this: 1 HR per 22.5 AB, .496 SLG. 1998 onwards: 1 HR per 14.7 AB, .540 SLG. Same as Bonds - about 7 at-bats gained per home run, and about an equal jump in slugging as well. And for comparison's sake, Hank Aaron. Before he was 34 (the age at which Bonds, and I would guess Palmeiro, starting juicing), he hit a home run once every 17.2 at bats, and slugged .565. Age 34 and beyond, it was a home run every 14.9 at bats and a SLG of .533. The slight improvement in home runs is easily attributed to the move from a pitcher's park to a stadium so well-known as a hitter's park it was called the Launching Pad. Playing at Milwaukee County Stadium for the Braves, Aaron went 1 HR/17.8 AB, and at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, it was one every 13.8 AB. Bonds' career path obviously is very similar to a known 'roider. Not at all similar to the Home Run King. Maybe you find all this number-crunching silly, but it's a far sight better than "He doesn't admit it and nobody saw him do it."

Here's a phrase I never thought I'd get a chance to say: Thank God for the Tigers.

You said '70s, so that's where I looked. But that's a nitpick. If you have to go to a guy so freakishly talented he was playing regular full seasons at the age of 52 to rationalize why Bonds could do what he's done, you're reaching. You're asking me to believe in the sheer coincidence that Bonds' stats inflated dramatically starting at the age of 34 and then hit the wall right now here at age 41. In other words, he got better and then right around the time steroids became an issue - to the point where it would definitely not do for him to get a positive test - he goes right back to exactly where he was before the juice. Remember how I said his AB/HR ratio was 16.2 before the juice? Guess what it is for 2006: 16.28. If Bonds is the Gordie Howe of baseball, why the sudden drop off and the return to exactly the pace he was at before? And, pitchers don't juice up. They can't. Adding all that bulk would destroy their mechanics and take all the jump, jive, 'n' wail off of any breaking pitch they care to throw. A curve that used to be thrown at 82, all of a sudden getting thrown at 88, will not curve, and will land in the cheap seats. Not to mention the fact that one big problem with steroids is that they allow you to strengthen your muscles, but because it's artificially done, and too quickly, your ligaments and tendons don't follow suit. Pitchers put far too much stress on their arm. A pitcher on the juice would be having a race to see which blows first - his rotator cuff or Tommy John ligament. Pitchers have a bad enough time when even the tiniest flaw pops up in their delivery - something as drastic as steroids would ruin them.

Yes there is. Steroids will turn cans of corn into doubles off the wall, they will turn routine grounders into sharp singles through the hole or doubles down the line, they will turn that warning track fly ball into a home run, and so on. And again, just because he had good numbers prior to juicing doesn't mean anything. You say his average didn't drop below .291 from 1990-1997? I say it didn't drop below .303 since (except for seasons where he was hurt - 1999, 2005). You might say he hit .336 in 1993. I would say that post-juice, he beat that - three times. Never quite got to .370, or .341, or .362 - his numbers from 2002-04. Or, since you want to take out '86-'89, when he was presumably still learning how to hit major league pitching, lets. His BA from '90-'97: .307. Again, from '98-'05: .323. Still inflated. Or his SLG: .691 pre-juice, .730 afterwards. From '01-'04, he slugged .863, .799, .749, .812 - levels he never reached before steroids. I'm not talking about an unusually good season. I'm talking about sustained superior performance far beyond the normal age range that an athlete can maintain it. Teemu Selanne was 22 in 1992. Roger Maris was 26 when he hit 61 homers. Career seasons don't happen at age 37. And Bonds isn't playing in AAA ball, which is an apt comparison to Gordie playing in the WHA.

No concrete evidence, but it'd be like finding Bonds holding a hot smoking gun, standing over a dead Victor Conte with a bullet hole in his head (we can all wish), right after taking out billboard ads all over the city that said "I'm Barry Bonds and I will kill Victor Conte by shooting him through the head." So whether or not there are witnesses, there's more than enough circumstantial evidence to get past the "reasonable doubt" standard. Bonds juices. Or he juiced. Probably not stupid enough to any more. Look at the numbers. He supposedly started juicing for the 1998 season. From 1986-1997, he batted .288, slugged .551, and hit a home run every 16.2 at-bats. From 1998-2005, he batted .323, slugged .730, and hit a home run every 9.2 at-bats. You don't just start cranking up the numbers at age 32. And you don't juice without knowing it. You can't tell me that for 8 years he just took a different brand of painkiller. Aleve is great for the ol' arthritis, but not THAT great. You need a major, major cocktail of stuff to get that kind of numbers boost, not just an accidental diet supplement. Yes, he posted significant power numbers before the juicing. Yes, he won a few MVPs. I'd say the numbers were quite a bit more significant afterwards. No, it wasn't against the rules. It was still cheating - otherwise, it wouldn't be banned now.

Congratulations to the 2006 NCAA men's lacrosse champs: the Virginia Cavaliers!!! WAHOOWA!!!

Wrong and wrong: 15 of 16

3.5 game lead.

flashback to second grade! this popped into my head the other day.....no idea why. anyone remember it? Miss Suzy had a steamboat, the steamboat had a bell Miss Suzy went to heaven, the steamboat went to HELLO operator, please give me number nine And if you disconnect me, I'll kick you right BEHIND the 'fridgerator, there was a piece of glass Miss Suzy fell upon it and broke her little ASK me no more questions, I'll tell you no more lies Miss Suzy told me all of this right before she DYED her hair all purple, she dyed her hair all pink, She dyed her hair all polka-dot and washed it down the SINK me in the ocean, sink me in the sea Sink me in the toilet but please don't pee on me!

Tigers move 2.5 games ahead of the White Sox last night. The altar at the High Church of Leyland is nearly complete and I am hoping St. Justin will make an appearance tonight to consecrate it.

I like this too. Ericsson is still filling out his frame. I can see him putting on another 10 pounds. Wings uni in '08-'09 after two years in GR? He'll be 24 then. Could be a pretty good guy as a 4th or 5th defenseman. Not bad for the last overall pick in the '02 draft. There's always a place in the NHL for big-ass defensemen who can skate and unleash a cannon from the blueline, no matter how much of a project their puck-control skills are.

Nice job on Shaq yesterday....Ben made him get the ball a half to a full step further from the basket than he's used to, and it caused him to be short on quite a few of those baby hooks. Refereeing: Ugly. Shaq takes a charge despite having an entire foot inside the half-circle. Shaq delivers a headbutt to Ben - no call. Payton mauls Chauncey on an inbounds pass at the end - no foul. And the lame-o excuse for missing the time-out call...."the crowd was too loud." The Heat are basically Cleveland plus Shaq. Posey, Walker, Haslem, Williams, etc. are just as useless as their Cavalier counterparts. The Pistons just have to abuse those four (and Mourning) like we know they can, and make sure Shaq and Wade are ineffective for two out of four quarters.

Is it too soon to start the ROY campaign for Justin Verlander? Or do we have to wait until Papelbon blows a few more saves?

Uh, wow. Just wow. Another new way to win instead of another new way to lose. Every time I watch the Tigers win, I see the old Tigers in the opponent. Little things like falling just short of making the great catch, giving up RBI doubles on 0-2 counts, throwing the ball nearly into the stands on a routine bunt, and not-so-little things like blowing huge leads. I remember listening to the Tigers play the Twins a couple years ago on Internet radio, and they scored like 7 runs in the top of the 5th, and proceeded to allow 8 in the bottom half. Old Tigers. New version is so much more fun.

Weird lineup: Lindsey, Rip, Delfino, Dice, Dale Davis. And it's the first quarter.

ready to hate me like Claude Lemieux?

Back in first outright with the Sox losing to the Cubbies today. And what was this, the 7th or 8th shutout of the year? Who knew the pitching would turn out like this? The ol' Rollercoaster broke Mike Henneman's Tigers' saves record, too, with his 155th.