Chags and Zags

Chags and Zags
By John Chagaris, College AP
November 28, 2005

Thanksgiving, is a time when friends families get together to relax, eat, and get together for the first time in a long time. You eat, then relax and let the turkey put you to sleep, or is that the Lion's game? Oh and a log was finally put on the hot stove season.

A huge Chag goes out to the Boston Red Sox for being on of the first to make a move. One person who we cannot forget through is Theo, without him rebuilding the farm system then we wouldn't have had the players to make this trade. Lowell is a nice addition at third base because he is a gold glover, he won't give you the average that Mueller gave you but defense wins championships. Josh is a young starter who the Sox needed, instead of going older like Baked Potato with Feet aka David Wells the Sox finally decided to go younger. I was able to predict correctly that Wells would be injured by May first so I predict that Josh will be able to survive the blisters and go a full season for the Sox. And the sox also got a good quality reliever, something that was a problem at times this season for the Sox.

Now a huge Zag goes out to Manny Ramirez, but what else do we expect from a man who continues to let us know that he is just Manny being Manny. Every off season it is the same story, he wants to be traded and why should this off season have been any different. Manny asking to be traded is almost as big of a surprise as Michelle Wie going pro. Manny, be thankful that you are 10/5 and that I am not the general manager because I would love to send you to a team like the Tigers with a team that isn't that great and fans who do not fill the park up every night of the year like is done in Beantown.

Also a huge Chag goes out to General Managers by Committee is working out a lot better than the Sox failure a few years ago with Bullpen by committee or as Bob Ryan liked to call it bull$%^& by committee.

We now cruise over to the NBA where a Zag is coming the way of Ron Artest. During a recent game Ron actually shaved "Tru Warrior" into the back of his head, the name of his record label. Ron for the love of God, nobody cares about your record label and you should be happy that you were allowed back into the NBA> I can see the newest NBA Dress Code change, no carving names into back of head.

I now am going to do something that I have never done and hopefully will never do again, a Zag to the New England Patriots. First Tom Brady you have a quarterback rating of 42.5. But one of those INTs could have been reversed if Bill would have thrown a challenge flag. Bill let me teach you something, those red flags are used when a play happens with an incorrect call. Such as when a defender traps the ball and it is ruled an interception. We are now seeing how much Weis and Romeo ment to this team.

Staying with football I don't know if I can give this a Chag or a Zag so you guys have to decide for yourselves. Michael Irvin was arrested yesturday for an outstanding warrent for a speeding ticket but that isn't the issue. Police found a pipe in his back seas which Irvin claims is form a friend who he is trying to help sober up. If this is true then one of the biggest Chags needs to go his way but Godforbid this is false Michael you will get one of the biggest Zags plue ESPN should fire you.

And this story was just too funny not to post; from Ben Maller.com;

A sophomore member of Texas A&M University's Parsons Mounted Cavalry was charged Friday with throwing horse feces onto members of the University of Texas band before the A&M-UT football game, according to the BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION EAGLE.

John Richmond Sullivan, 20, was seen by a University Police Department lieutenant throwing a shovel full of horse feces onto band members at Kyle Field at about 10 a.m. Friday, according to an officer's affidavit.

UT band director Robert Carnochan told police that he and the band members did not want to press criminal charges, though they did want Texas A&M to discipline Sullivan, the court documents state.

Sullivan was arrested and charged with criminal mischief because the feces had to be removed by Texas A&M personnel, causing "substantial inconvenience and a pecuniary loss of $50 or more," according to the affidavit. He was released from the Brazos County Jail on Friday afternoon after posting $2,000 bail.

Finally a Zag goes to Giants kicker Jay Feely. Jay you went on ESPN's Cold Pizza to "attack" Skip Bayless because he said that kickers have no part in a football game, well he was right as you had three could them one, two, three chances to kick a game winning field goal against the Seahawks and you missed all three times. One would think that after Barber ran the ball on that final drive that the Giants were destined to win the game, well not if Jay had anything to do with it.


Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

DAMN BLOGGER

I had a nice long column with a Chag and Zags feel and it was deleted, if I have time tonight I'll redo it.

They've got the beat and in a Knick of time

Celtic Beat
By John Chagaris, College AP
November 3, 2005

When hearing a score of 114-100 one would instantly believe this game could not have possibly gone into overtime, well the Celtics and Knicks did, do the anger of Coach Brown.

Midway through the second quarter trouble started for the Celtics, they went down by 8 midway though the quarter and Paul Pierce could not hit a free throw to save his life; twice in the game going 0-2, but that was a minor hickup as Pierce picked it up going 18-24 in the game from the Charity Stripe.

The story of the night was not that Paul had 30 points because that is expected of the Celtic guard; the true story was Ricky Davis, now starting and not having to play 6-man, scored 27 points. I'll let that sink in for a minute; yes the same Ricky Davis who only averaged 32.9 minutes a game last year and only averaged 16 points played for 45 minutes yesturday and was lights out.

But even that wasn't the main story of the night; that goes to Delonte West; who missed a majority of the 2004-2005 season with a broken right hand, did I mention that he is a southpaw. Delante was huge playing 41 minutes last night, having 9 assists, 4 blocks, 3 steals and 14 points.

"That's what makes Delonte a good player," Celtics coach Rivers said. "He does make a lot of little plays, the blocked shots, the loose balls, getting the deflections."

Doc, Delante wasn't good last night, he was great. Not being like Walker or Pierce and when he had the ball in overtime passed it to Ricky Davis who nailed a 3-pointer in a 9-0 Celtics overtime run. Ricky Davis scored 9 of his 27 points in that extra period.

"I guess it was good recognition on my part," West said after the game. "But it was an even better shot by Ricky."

No West, it was a heads up play by you, hopefully one of many more to come. The Celtics are now first place in the Atlantice with a 1-0 record a game up on Toronto, New Jersey, New York and 1.5 up on the 0-2 Philadelphia 76ers. Boston is tied for second in the Eastern conference with Washington, Indiana, Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland and Miami. The Celtics next play on Friday at 7:30 when they host the Eastern Champion Detroit Pistons.



Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

The NBA is back; but really who cares

No Basketball Ability League
By John Chagaris, College AP
November 2, 2005

I know what you're thinking, here we go another long rant, but there is something that most people do not understand, more people were talking about the return of Hockey than the season debut of basketball. The difference; every team played opening night of hockey compaired to only eight teams. Dallas v. Phoenix was a great double overtime thriller that left fans on the edge of their seats, Milwaukee and Phily was a game that was a pretty good game, except for the overtime part when Milwaukee just rolled. New Orleans v. Sacramento was a throwaway game; really having the Kings on opening night when you only have a few games on, what were the schedule makers thinking? And finally San Antonio v. Denver; a high scoring game, but I want a good game not a high scoring fest.

Dallas v. Phoenix was a game that you had to watch to believe; I turned off the game when Dallas was down 83-66 with just over seven minutes to play; never would I have expected a frantic IM from a reader telling me that Dallas just caught up and has forced the game into overtime. I start to watch overtime but then Phoenix goes up by 5 with less than half a minute to go so I shut off the game; by now you know how this story is going...an incredible game that everybody should be talking about yet where's the buzz?

The NFL has been called the No Fun League; well it isn't and I can't wait for Blitz the league to come out; speaking of Blitz the league they're one of our sponcers for Bobcat Blitz, shameless plug.

Now for a quick ZAG to Yahoo, the NBA, whoever told Yahoo to call the Hornets the New Orleans/Okla City Hornets needs to be fired. After all the crap that has happened to the city of New Orleans, the hurricane, now probably going to lose their football team and now you go ahead and rename the team the New Orleans/Okla City Hornets; somebody needs to lose their job over that.

And one last Zag towards MLB; why would they allow a player who tested positive for steroids to play in the playoffs, that just doesn't make sense to anybody covering the sports, a fan of the sport, or just a sports fan in general, to allow an athlete who tested positive for 'roids to continue to play baseball is insane and not to even publically announce that this is going on is another black mark on the MLB Players Association and I now back 300% Congress for going ahead to try to pass the Steroids bill again, if MLB can't clean up it's act and allow something like this to happen it's time for our government to take action.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.