Some good news: the site has moved on to greener pastures and can now be found at threeputtbogeys.com. You can still count on the hilarious commentary, baseless assumptions, and uninformed analysis that has made TPB infamous in the blogosphere. Chicago Sports Rundown, Lunch Break Boner, Tits Ass or Elbow, and the staples that you can't live without will all still be available for your viewing pleasure. This month we will be giving away some free shit and bringing the blogging pain on a day to day basis. Visit the new and improved blogging sensation:
Lockout talks - Multiple reports said late Thursday that a group of roughly 50 players might seek to decertify the players association, which likely would plunge the labor mess into the courts and possibly spell a death knell on the entire season. However, one source who had been briefed on the players' talks with an antitrust attorney said there isn't yet widespread support for the move.
As for the owners, the New York Times reported Friday that Bobcats majority owner Michael Jordan is leading a group of 10-to-14 hard-line owners who will oppose any deal offering more than a 50-50 split of income.
Jordan famously told late Wizards owner Abe Pollin "if you can't make a profit, you should sell your team" during the last lockout that claimed 32 games of the 1998-99 season. The owners will meet Saturday morning before negotiations begin with the union.
This is exactly why the players union is completely screwed. You've got the greatest player all time pretty much saying, "F*** you guys were not letting you play until you do what we tell you." How are the players going to be able to combat that? Right now, Billy Hunter is kinda doing whatever he feels like doing and JJ Redick and friends getting embarrassed by some D-2 college squad. The players are disorganized and are fragmenting off into different camps. Great move by MJ though, I love everything about it. As a guy who got everything he has now by working hard he's earned the right to tell the whining players to sit down and shut up. If MJ is saying there won't be anything less than a 50-50 split then you better believe there won't. Just goes to show you that what made MJ the G.O.A.T. would have made him successful in whatever he wanted to do. Imposing his will on whoever he wanted just to make sure he got what he needed. His addiction to winning and dominating whatever came between him and his goal is what defined him before, during, and after his playing career. He dominated basketball, tried to dominate baseball, delivers awesome hall of fame speeches, and now needs to dominate the pussy players union as an owner, which is whining about a drop in the bucket when there's $2billion on the table. The owners are going to stand pat and the players are going to blink first with MJ telling the owners to hold their ground. MJ...the best there ever was. The best there ever will be.
Manager hot stove! Red Sox, Cards, and of course the Cubs continue their searches. Cubs interview Mackanin and despite the sarcastic post from yesterday he really did know what he was talking about in his interviews and seemed like he could be a very solid manager. He has experience at different levels and could be exactly what Theo wants as he tries to integrate the various departments in the Cubs machine, whatever that means. I truly think Maddux will end up in Boston and don't think Epstein wants to ignite a media firestorm and hire Francona. Mackanin seemed very knowledgeable and I could get on board with that decision.
NBA
Lockout talks resume on Saturday and the players union mulling decertification, thus effectively ending the season. Still hope they can salvage a drastically shortened season and implement a sweet format as I stated before but it sounds like the situation gets worse and worse every day.
Alabama-LSU 8/7pm central on CBS
We all know the deal. Number 1 vs. Number 2. Nick Saban vs. Les Miles in the de facto SEC and/or National Championship. Trent Richardson and home field for Bama is the difference, the Crimson Tide squeak out a win and Les Miles eats 2 cubic feet of grass. Take the 5 or so points that LSU is getting.
#9 South Carolina at #7 Arkansas 7:15/6:15 central on ESPN
The undercard to LSU-Bama. With a USC loss, Georgia takes first place in the East division after their easy win, and sets up a potential SEC championship matchup between the winner of LSU-Bama.
Nothing of note in the B1G. Maybe Iowa over #15 Michigan at home, take the 3.5 points. Assuming Nebraska and MSU win (with Nebraska blowing out NU, 2:30pm Big10 Network) that leaves a tie between those two schools for first in the Legends divison, with Penn State dominating the leaders division.
NFL
1/12pm games
Two "back" remote button games:
Bucs at Saints - Fox
Bucs want a tie for the NFC south lead and the Saints look to take control of the division if the Falcons can't beat the Colts. The Colts are tied for first in the Andrew Luck division. Falcons are -7.5 and if you don't think they're covering you're a fool.
Jets at Bills - CBS
Bills look to ride last weeks momentum from shutting out the Skins and the Jets want to set up a potential three way tie if the Pats lose. Speaking of...
4/3pm central "back" remote button games:
Giants at Pats
Could be wrong but I believe this is the first time the Giants have gone to NE since Syracuse's own David Tyree won the Super Bowl and singlehandedly (headedly?) beat the undefeated Patriots. Giants want to increase their distance between the Eagles after Monday night's inevitable beatdown.
Packers at Chargers
Watching Aaron Rodgers has become appointment viewing. Unquestionably the best quarterback in the league on the best team in the league. Dude's a machine.
Sunday Night
Ravens at Steelers - 8/7pm central on Sunday
Great comeback by the Ravens last week at home vs. AZ (AZ?), but you can trust Joe Flacco about as far as you can throw him and the dude weighs 245 lbs. Steelers for sure to cover the three point spread.
The guy known as the most inept Commissioner in sports might be able to grow his league due to the extenuating circumstances in other major sports leagues.
So watching the Blackhawks tonight got me thinking. Now for those of you who don't know, the Blackhawks are a Chicago based hockey team that plays in the NHL, or National Hockey League. Hockey is a sport played on ice with skates and sticks and a round rubber puck that you shoot into a small goal.
You may be aware that the NFL has recently cracked down hard on what the league thinks are dangerous hits in an effort to prevent or avoid head injuries. To contrast that, MMA leagues, which promote violence as its primary selling point, have reached a very high level of popularity in an astronomically short amount of time. You may also be aware that the NBA has locked out its players for four months now and no one can guess when the lockout will be lifted or a CBA will be reached.
Now Gary Bettman, who has been ripped to shreds during his tenure for mishandling the NHL and overexpanding into markets that shouldn't have hockey teams to begin with, has an opportunity to capitalize on the aforementioned circumstances.
The NFL, far and away America's most profitable sports league, has started removing the ruthlessness that defined it in previous decades and has started to penalize players for hits like this:
Meanwhile, NBA arenas look like this:
And UFC and similar leagues are getting rich off of this:
I'm not trying to go into a sociological introspective or get behind the psyche of the typical American sports fan. The trend is that violence sells in sports. MMA is getting more popular. ESPN ran its Jacked Up segment until the NFL complained and more and more evidence came out that these hits had long term effects that would go unseen for years. The NHL offers an outlet on a day to day basis for the hard hits and violence that the NFL offers.
The 82 game format is the same format used in the NBA and the games are played about as frequently. Not to mention, you can actually take off your gloves and fight like a couple of bar room pugilists during prohibition at any point during the game or whenever the situation calls for it.
The NBA has the most to lose right now obviously. Players are missing paychecks and owners are losing revenue. Business that thrived off of the business of the NBA like bars and restaurants are taking massive hits. Meanwhile the NHL has the most to gain, which is a broader audience who may begin to pay more attention to hockey with the absence of professional basketball. And for that Gary Bettman has an opportunity to capitalize on other leagues' radically changing landscape, and to try to lure in sports fans looking to get their fix. If I'm him I'm using the next few weeks to market the shit out of my product in any way I can.
Hawks 3-2 in a shootout. Kane goes five hole on the last shot of the shootout and wins it. Definitely one of the more entertaining overtimes this season (already up to 5 OT games). I was all ready to go back to the this team can't make a shootout penalty shot routine but he bails them out after the late goal. Just dirty. For every 9 incredible passes he makes he gets too cute with one pass, but god damn. Kid is just smooth as peanut butter. The smooth variety.
"YES! ALIVE! SAFE! FUCK! ALIVE! SAFE! EAGLE!" (only need to watch first two minutes)
Let me preface this by telling you that I am scared shitless of heights. Like I get nauseous when I'm sitting on a couch surfin the net and I see one of those wide angle lens shots from like the top of a skyscraper looking straight down. There's a reason people don't have wings and this is exactly why. Eagle sees this guy cruising around on the thermals and stakes his claim to the skies. I'm all about the adrenaline rush but personally I think you can get your thrills at the blackjack table with a whiskey rocks in your hand just as much as you can get them jumping out of a fucking plane.
When I waited tables we would get all these Eastern Europeans to come in and work and it sounded exactly like this when they talked but no one knew what they were saying. I guess now I know that they were just saying fuck you to each other and calling each other bitches as loud as they could which I'm sure is like the Bosnian version of the Penis game.
Despite all my rage Ryne Sandberg still isn't gonna be the new manager.
So the head smashing Pumpkins guy says Ryno got a raw deal by not at least getting an interview for the gig, and despite somewhat agreeing with him I can't believe this got a write up on the Tribune website. I understand that he's a huuuuuuuge Cubs fan like a million other people are. Not really sure how that makes his opinion news worthy. What was the editor thinking? Bruce Levine's opinion...check. Jayson Stark...check. Tim Kirkjian or whatever...check. I guess Billy Corgan is the logical next step on that list. Seriously dude you look like Jack Skellington if he were a person.
