On Barry Zito

I'm not sorry the Mets didn't trade Lastings Milledge for Barry Zito this summer. New York was the best squad in the final four of baseball and could have won the whole thing. If Barry Zito had been on the team, Oliver Perez would certainly not have pitched when he did and, as a lefty, might not have even been selected to the postseason roster. In fact, he probably would not have even been acquired by the Mets. And this cockeyed optimist still sees Cy Young talent in the 25-year-old Perez, and refuses to remove the "possibly" from in front of the title, "The Possibly Insane Oliver Perez." So hooray for not getting Barry last year.

However, after a discussion with my brother, I'm fully in support of the Mets investing in Zito's services via free agency. I believe he could be a rich man's Al Leiter for the next 6 to 8 years. Frankly, a big money free agent pitcher who is as low a risk as Zito is at this point in his career comes around only once a decade.

First of all, the guy has made virtually every start in his career. It's pretty amazing. Look at his game totals (from ESPN), starting in 2000, his first year up: 14, 35, 35, 35, 34, 35, 34. It's unbelievable. And he threw over 210 innings each of those years. I've read that he's obsessive not only about his physical condition but about his mechanics. His delivery is not high-stress.

His numbers, for the most part, have been pretty consistent. You could even characterize the season's he's had by tiers. Out of his 6 seasons, 4 of them have been second tier caliber: ERA in the mid to high 3's, 14+ W's. 1 of them was third tier caliber: 2004- 4.48 ERA, 11-11. And one of them was top tier caliber: 2002- 2.75ERA, 23-5.

Tossing out the high and the low outliers, you've got a second tier pitcher who never gets hurt and is only 28-years-old with only 6 and a half seasons on his arm. Barry's not an ace, but next year, if Pedro can come back healthy, he won't have to be. And after Pedro's contract is up in two years, the Mets will be in the market for an ace anyway. Plus, they've got some nice young arms in the system.

Bottom line: Barry may not be Latino, but Omar should still sign him.

Duke has nothing on Cal

Wow. This is a crazy (and very short) story about heckling gone way off the reservation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/magazine/10Section2b.t-6.html

Italian Soccer

Here is an interesting article on the state of Italian soccer, and it doesn't even mention the match fixing scandal.

I think that article could have been written 25 years ago about England, but it not longer applies here, as the author points out. I started thinking about how cool it would be if an English team hired that American firm that designed all the new baseball stadiums to come over and design a football stadium. Then I realized it wouldn't really work. The thing that's great about the baseball stadiums - the facilities, the placement in relation to the city, the fascinating quirks - all would get in the way of the singular purpose that English football stadiums need to fill. When the Brits go to a football game, they are there to watch the game only. No one gets up until halftime, when there is a mass exodus for the bathrooms and the concessions. Then everyone is back in their seats until the game is over. Then everyone leaves at once.

A football stadium needs only a few things:

• Good sightlines
• Getting the crowd as close to the field as possible
• Good entry and exit passages for crowd flow
• Toilets, decent seats, a few concession stands, a decent scoreboard

Orange All-Access

Say what you want about Frank Smith, of North Syracuse, but that dude has no action in the lane, if you know what I mean.

Mr. Smith, with all due respect, cannot shoot from a recliner.

Also - whoa! What the hell happened to Advanced Auto Parts? Syracuse no longer needs to get 40 rebounds in order for fans to get a free gallon of windshield washer fluid. Now it's 35. Never buying windshield wiper fluid again!

The brilliance of Gene Waldron

Three quotes from the first 4:05 of the second half versus Colgate:

On Josh Wright:
"When he plays under control, there's not many players thats better."

On Demitris Nichols:
"I tell you what, man. If he continues to play like that, man, it should be interesting to see."

On Syracuse:
"The second half is always something that has bothered them, so to speak."

Wonderful.

Adu, Klinsmann, Sven

Freddy Adu, America's great soccer hope, spent two weeks in November playing with Manchester United's reserve team. This single-source article from Soccernet suggests that the trial didn't go terribly well, and predicts that Adu will not be signed by ManU in January. OK. Bummer, I guess. Maybe some other European league? Who knows. I'm not convinced that the MLS wouldn't be best for another few years, anyway.

Klinsmann took his name out of the running for the United States' coaching job. I'm a little disappointed. I don't give him all the credit for Germany's solid run in the World Cup this summer — home field advantage means as much in international soccer as it does in any sport anywhere — but I was still hopeful he'd be able to offer valuable insight to guys who need it, like Landon, DeMarcus, Clint Dempsey and Adu.

I'm content with Ben Bradley, as very few other names excite me. Bradley is wearing the interim title, but I'm not sure who else I'd like. Maybe Gerrard Houiller. That would be pretty sweet. Lyon are fun to watch, and their wide-open style of play could suit our relatively small offensive players.

Interesting statement today from Sven-Goran Eriksson, who suggests that the strength of the Premiership hurts England's chances. Odd. American commentators blame the weakness of the MLS for our struggles. Diversity of playing styles, Eriksson suggests, helps international teams succeed.

Champions League: To the Knockout

Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Man U, and Celtic all move on.

For the first time ever, five British teams have advanced to the knockout phase of the Champions League. That's 5 out of 16. Almost 1/3. Incredible. And four of those are Premiership teams. The next best leagues, Spain and Italy, advanced three.

No league is as strong at the top as the Premiership. But EVERY league is top heavy. "Parity" is not in the discussion over here.

Just to clarify, the top teams in all the leagues in Europe make the Champions League. Even the top Estonian club team gets a home-and-home in the qualifying stage (before the bigger clubs jump into the fray). The Premiership sends it's top 3 teams automatically ahead into the round of 32 (that's what was completed tonight), while the 4th-place team goes to the qualifying stage.

There is virtually no turnover from year to year in that elite field. Consider this: what do the following leagues all have in common?
English
Spanish
Italian
Scottish
Portuguese
French
Dutch

Answer: The team currently leading all of those leagues is also in the final 16 of the Champions League. The only major league not making that cut is Germany, because Werder Bremen were in a group with Chelsea and Barcelona.

The fact is, the Champions League is incentive NOT to have parity. Why would you water down your best clubs with a salary cap and revenue sharing when they have to face teams from leagues that don't have those things.

I'm not complaining. It's an exciting format. Everton may never be the biggest club in Liverpool, but every few years it is the best. I'll take it.

Loss Two: Oklahoma State

I watched yesterday's game from a Monroe, Wash., dive bar with some alcoholic named Raleigh. Raleigh's favorite word was "shit" and his second favorite word was "fucking."

With about 4 minutes left to go in the game, after Syracuse went scoreless for 3.5 minutes, falling 13 points behind, and I finally dropped my head into my hand, Raleigh told me not to worry about "this fucking shit." I loved him very briefly. Alcoholics. So dependable. Except for Eddie Sutton, who used to look like hell, but who now looks incredible. He is no longer coaching and it's treating him well. He looks 30 years younger. It was crazy seeing him on TV looking alive and everything. Good work, Mr. Sutton, and good health.

Syracuse bounced back, though, just as it did against Wichita State, and made a game of it. Throughout the game, actually, we looked good. Except for an 8 or 9 minute stretch in the second half, we looked very solid. But, of course, we lost. Again. The lesson seems to be that Syracuse needs to be leading as the game winds down, Annie told me last night on the phone. We play exciting but ineffective catch-up. Fair enough.

Let's do boxscores:

1. Nichols: 26 points, 9-16 FG, 40 min.
2. Josh Wright: 7 points, 4 assists, 5 TOs, 38 min.
3. T.Roberts: 14 points, 7 rebounds, 6-9 FG, 36 min.
4. Harris: 11 points, 5 boards, 3 assists, 6 TOs, 29 min.
5. Devendorf: 0 points, 0-2 FG, 9 min.

We missed Devendorf, who is still sick. Devendorf, unlike anybody else on the team, can create his own perimeter shot. Nichols cannot and it showed, as he hoisted a number of cringe-worthy efforts. Nichols has a ridiculous level of confidence now. He went from excessive caution to caution-be-damned. I wonder if Gerry intimidated him. Josh and P.Harris were reckless. 11 turnovers from our two primary ball handlers is way, way too many. Very solid effort from T.Rob, who had two "dominant" type plays. Need more, though. Always more, Roberts!

Seahawks Football

If the Seahawks win at Arizona this week, and the 49ers lose at home to the Green Bay Packers, the Hawks will clinch a berth in the 2006 NFL Playoffs. This despite losing both NFL MVP Shaun Alexander and Pro Bowl quarterback Matt Hasselbeck for over a month.

Each of the previous five Super Bowl runners-up have failed to make the playoffs the following year.

The Pittsburgh Steelers, champions of last year's Super Bowl, are 5-7. If Baltimore wins this week at Kansas City, Pittsburgh will be essentially eliminated from playoff contention, as five teams are ahead of them in the wild card chase.

Let's ask again: Who won the Super Bowl?

Holding penalties that reversed a touchdown and stopped a drive, the phantom 15-yard call against Matt Hasselbeck on the INT return, 70 yards in penalties in full, and all this against what had been the league's least penalized team.

Screw you, refs.

Loss Number One: Wichita State

I watched the second half of Syracuse's 64-61 home loss Saturday to Wichita State. Annie, April, Rachael and I watched the ESPN U broadcast from a local sports bar with some Syracuse townie.

After being down as many as 23 in the first half, Syracuse closed the gap to 14 points at half time. The third quarter (if you will) was a sort of holding pattern, and Syracuse was down 16 points with 10 minutes to go.

"The thing is," I said when we were still down double digits, "Darryl and Terrance just have not gotten any better since they were sophomores."

Then, suddenly, just as I said that, Darryl pulled down a huge rebound, released the ball, and Josh hit a transition three. Almost that quickly, Roberts and Watkins both started playing well. Watkins had a number of vicious blocks down the stretch. He ended up with 7. They both pulled down a number of Man-Amongst-Boys rebounds. The two-headed Roberts/Watkins monster finished with 23 points, 24 boards and only 6 fouls. Impressive.

But we lost.

Paul Harris was fantastic. He scored 14 second-half points, mostly on hard drives directly to the hole. Demitris Nichols, even while 2-14 on the game, had supreme confidence, which seems good.

But we lost.

Now, a few days later, I'm tempted to believe that those last 10 minutes might bode well for the rest of the season. If Darryl and Terrance can finally keep it stuck in drive, and if Paul Harris is always this good, and Nichols actually hits a shot or two, this team could be Deep Into March good. My heart believes this. But, I mean, we lost at home to Wichita State. That cannot be good.

I'm optimistic. I'm not dissuaded. But, uh, well, there's a chink in my armor. We gots to win at home, boys.

More from Simmons

The Sports Guy, in the same article Fyall mentions below, named his favorite football announcing teams today. I thought it was pretty solid. I was most pleased with his inclusion of Gus Johnson. Massively underrated. The only thing better than hearing him call and NFL game is hearing him call an NCAA tournament game. The day that CBS replaces Jim Nantz and Billy Packer with Gus Johnson and some great complementary color guy for the Final Four will be a happy day indeed. While we're at it, can we get Gus on the 18th at the Masters?

Chemistry is so important. I was trying to think of a good color guy to go with Johnson, but the best color man currently working is Bill Raferty, and his personality would clash with Johnson's enthusiasm. Ditto for my favorite, the controversial Dick Vitale. Johnson needs to work with a calmer voice, perhaps Bob Valvano, who randomly calls small games for ESPN. Vitale is perfectly partnered with Mike Patrick, who does a good job of meshing with him.

Speaking of Patrick, I would include him 2nd to Gus Johnson for my favorite football crews. I know the Sports Guy and my brother would completely disagree. Patrick is the reason why I DIDN'T hate the old Patrick-Theisman-McGuire trio. For some reason, his voice gets me excited about football just like Gus Johnson's does. I just connect it with football at night on ESPN, and probably always will. And really, it's his voice that I like the best. When I called football games on the Internet, I imitated him more than anyone. I like Patrick better for football than basketball, but he's good for both.

Some of my other favorite announcers:
David Feherty - The absolute best guy-who-follows-one-pairing-all-day in golf.
Dan Shulman - Solid at college basketball, now even better doing MLB on ESPNRadio
Gary Thorne - I don't watch hockey, but if I did, he'd be the one I'd want to be calling the game.
Sean McDonough - SU alum is excellent at college basketball, and I wish I could hear him call Red Sox games.
Dr. Jerry Punch - Great sideline reporter for college football

That's just a sample, really. I'm sure I'm leaving plenty out.

If you said I needed to get a life...

You'd be absolutely right. But, seriously, this is the sort of thing that gets me jazzed:

From Bill Simmon's column today:
"We decided that Seattle can't be considered an underrated city because everyone always talks about how underrated it is, so now it's properly rated. But can you think of another city other than New York or Los Angeles that had a bigger cultural impact on this country over the past 16 years? Grunge music, Starbucks, microbrews, Microsoft, Amazon.com and even ESPN.com all started there. What other city can come up with six things to compare to those?"

Alright. So it's not Sports, but it's definitely Sauna worthy.

I love this city. Seattle!

Oh. Also, there's this story about a possible Sonic's stadium, which indicates that the OKC people have hired architects to dream up possible designs, and have narrowed possible stadium sites to three. That's good, I guess.

Quickly, this sad story: my friend April offered me courtside Sonics seats to Wednesday's game against the Orlando Magic. My very first thought was "(Screw) the Sonics." My first thought! I'm that pissed about the stadium. My second thought: I have work. Third: I guess I want to go. Took me three thoughts before anything positive happened.

I think I hate the NBA now.

Except for Melo. And Hakim, who's been fantastic.

Shawne Merriman Coverage

With Merriman now back on the field, the ESPN ombudsman feels that ESPN didn't cover the Merriman-steriod story enough:

"Should ESPN have done more coverage and reporting on the four-game suspension of San Diego Chargers star linebacker Shawne Merriman for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy? I think so."

And that's all he says. Should George Solomon have given more explanation on why he thinks ESPN should have done more coverage? I think so.

Oh well. I agree with him, anyway.