Hey look my blog isn't dead! Okay it's pretty close to being dead but decided to throw together a Draftback baseball entry before this upcoming week's MLB Draft.
1. Phillies - Pat Burrell, Third Baseman, Miami
Heavily scrutinized, but very productive player throughout his career outside a dreadful 2003 season.
2. Athletics - Mark Mulder, Pitcher, Michigan State
Rotator cuff problems have pretty much ruined a once promising career.
3. Cubs - Corey Patterson, Outfie
Okay this is the last of this to keep my sanity but I decided I might as well finish on a nice round number at 100. I'll be honest there are a few of my picks who I've never heard of the player as some selections have never produced a Pro Bowl player. So I went with guys who started a lot figuring they couldn't have sucked, plus getting a long term starter is very good value at this point in the draft. I had no idea the Dolphins drafted Joe Theismann.
61. Philadelphia – Brian Dawkins, S, Cl
I'm going to keep doing this until I start grasping at straws to find decent players to fill out every pick, which I had to do with at least one of the following picks. As I get further down the list the honorable mention picks become increasingly difficult. Again this is just since the merger and what the player did over the course of their career, not what they necessarily did for the team that drafted them which is plainly obvious with pick #33.
31. L.A. Rams – Nolan Cromwell, S, Kansas
If you haven't checked out Pro-Football-Reference.com lately you should as it isn't the completely useless site it used to be. This is a site that until recently didn't even have QB Ratings but now it has all kinds of neat features such as a searchable draft database. With the help of this I decided to do a quicky project for the blog by putting together an All-Time NFL Draft.
Now this isn't some all-time fantasy draft I'm doing but rather I'm selecting who in my opinion were the best play
I "reviewed" the draft from 20 years ago so might as well do the one from 10 years ago. Like the 1993 draft, this draft featured quarterbacks being selected #1 and #2 overall. Also like that draft the #1 pick (Drew Bledsoe) turned out to be much better than the #2 pick (Rick Mirer) but in 1998 it was by a much larger scale as we would have a future Hall of Famer at #1 and all-time bust at #2.
1. Indianapolis - Peyton Manning, QB, Tennessee
My WEST COAST BIAS~ convinced myself tha
NFL Draft is only three weeks away and this year it might actually go by at a relatively brisk pace with the shortened draft times. Since it is that time of year it's time for me to pick out a past NFL Draft and run down the first round from that year with little to no insight. I picked 1988 because it was 20 years ago, simple enough? 1988 featured several great wide receivers but little depth overall after the first two rounds. It's also the draft where there wasn't a single quarterback taken i
Can you believe that it will be 10 years since the McGwire/Sosa homerun chase and 10 years since the Yankees tore through the American League on their way to an 114 win season? I really have nothing to add to that and I am just posting one of my random lists, this time around every team's Opening Day/Night starter from the '98 season. I went to every A's Opening Night game from 1995-2002 and in '98 it was actually a fairly momentous occasion as they were playing the Red Sox in Pedro Martinez's f
My favorite baseball team, and favorite team in all sports, the Oakland Athletics are going to suck this year. For the first time since the the late 90's I'm going into a baseball season with no hope or optimism. So since my favorite team is going to suck, I hope all your favorite teams suck this year too. Time for a little free floating hostility as I run down the other 29 teams in MLB and why they suck.
(Disclaimer: Don't take any of this seriously)
Angels: John Lackey's arm is abou
The importance of the Ratings Percentage Index has been greatly devalued in the last two years by the tournament committee. Before 2006 not a single Top 30 school in the RPI had been left out the tournament but in the last two years three schools in the Top 30 have been sent to the NIT (Missouri State and Hofstra in 2006, Air Force in 2007). Nevertheless the RPI is still used to consider who gets into the tournament and I was curious to see which schools for each year since the creation of the R
Nothing like saying you're out of ideas by reposting an old blog entry but that's what I'm resorting to. Actually I probably would have come up with something over the weekend but I was near death (or at least felt like it) with the flu so putting together semi-coherent thoughts wasn't an option.
The weekend after next will be what I believe to be the best time of the sports year and that is the first two rounds of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. This week however is one of the worst time's
I’ve wanted to do another one these for a while now and to tie it in with the 1986 TSM Baseball Simulation League (only two spots left, sign up today!) so figured I should pick a team from 1986 which is about as much thought as I put into picking the ’86 Texas Rangers for this entry, although they had a very interesting, young outfield.
The Rangers were coming of a 99 loss season in 1985 and were fielding one of the younger teams in the league entering the ’86 season. They would spend a goo
Finally getting around to start watching the World Series sets I bought last year and starting with the bonus disk on the 1977 set which features Game 5 of the ALCS where the Yankees for the second straight year beat the Royals in the 9th inning of the deciding game.
1977 American League Championship Series Game 5 - Yankees 5, Royals 3 (boxscore and play account)
-The series was televised nationally by NBC but on this disk they have the Yankees local broadcast of the game and there
Since I'm on a bit of a 1986 trip right now I figured I'd take a look back at what was going on this week in 1986 in the world of sports with the help of PaperofRecord.com using their Sporting News archive which I did once before with 1994.
February 17, 1986
Cover Story: Baseball's Worst Ballpark. Gale-force winds gust through Candlestick Park by day and frigid temperatures set in by night. One Giants official calls it the weather "the worst in baseball in June, July, and August." Fans
Since 1995 I have played the computer version of Strat-O-Matic Baseball which might as well be Dungeons & Dragons for baseball geeks. I always order the updated version of the game online but they still send me the mail order form along with some little newsletter. I usually just glance at it and throw it away but something caught my eye this time. SportingNews.com in recent years has run some sort of fantasy baseball version of Strat-O-Matic but I've never been interested in it as it costs
Today is monumental day...it's My Two Year Blogoversary!
My first entry talked about the first ever live sporting event I ever went to, an A's/Red Sox game. Now that I finally have received the 1985 Chicago Bears boxset I can now do write up for the oldest sports memory I have, watching Super Bowl XX. This is the only reason I could ever have to re-watch this snuff film of a football game.
Here's the list of the 12 games that are in the set.
Week 1 vs. Tampa Bay
Week 3 at Minne
I've made it no secret I'm a junkie for original televised footage of classic sporting events. Back in the day when ESPN Classic actually showed classic games I would love watching classic games from the 70's and 80's. I was thrilled when two years ago MLB started releasing complete World Series boxsets of the 1975, 1979, and 1986 World Series which I promptly bought all three and did write ups of all three sets on the blog. Last year two more World Series sets were released, 1977 and 1987 but I
It's time for the Tecmo Super Bowl, uh Super Bowl, extravaganza! Here's recap of the playoffs.
San Francisco 49ers
Regular Season Results (13-3)
1: L – Giants 21-24 OT
2: W – Chargers 34-14
3: L – Vikings 24-27 OT
4: W – Rams 35-21
5: L – Raiders 14-21
6: Bye
7: W – Falcons 31-14
8: W – Lions 28-3
9: W – Eagles 27-9
10: W – Falcons 24-17
11: W – Saints 35-24
12: W – Cardinals 21-10
13: W – Rams 35-34
14: W – Saints 21-20
15: W – Seahawks 31-21
16:
AFC Championship: Houston Oilers vs. Los Angeles Raiders
Scoring Summary
HOU: White 4 Run
LA: Allen 7 Run
HOU: Dishman 12 Interception
LA: Jackson 46 Run
HOU: White 1 Run
LA: Horton 29 Pass from Schroeder
HOU: Hill 57 Pass from Moon
Chris Dishman had two huge interceptions as the Oilers advance to their first ever Super Bowl. With the game tied, on the last play of the first half and backed up on their own 9, the Raiders inexplicably chose to pass instea
AFC Divisional Playoff: Miami Dolphins vs. Los Angeles Raiders
Scoring Summary
LA: Allen 1 Run
Mia: Stoyanovich 20 FG
LA: Jaeger 58 FG
LA: Jackson 75 Run
Mia: Clayton 59 Pass from Marino
Mia: Stoyanovich 45 FG
Mia: Duper 28 Pass from Marino
LA: Horton 23 Pass from Beurlein
After squandering a couple of first half scoring opportunities the Dolphins appeared they would be on their way to another second half comeback playoff win but Steve Beurlein came of
Back in August when I was completely out of ideas for this blog I started simming a Tecmo Super Bowl season using an NES emulator I downloaded like five years ago and posted the results here. I got through the regular season but for the playoffs I'd decided I should sit and watch the computer play itself instead of just simming the games and I was Bored in a hurry. After two games I stopped and eventually forgot about the whole thing. But I'm currently out of ideas again so might as well finish
David Justice - Rightfielder
Atlanta Braves 1989-1996
Cleveland Indians 1997-2000
New York Yankees 2000-2001
Oakland Athletics 2002
Awards
1990 N.L. Rookie of the Year
1993 N.L. Silver Slugger - OF
1997 N.L. Silver Slugger - OF
2000 ALCS MVP
All-Star Selections: 3 (1993, 1994, 1997)
League Leader
None
Career Ranks
SLG%: 90th
OPS: 95th
HR/AB: 73rd
Best Performance
May 7, 1999 - Cleveland at Tampa Bay
Went 4 for 4 with two homeruns, four runs
Chuck Knoblauch - Second Baseman
Minnesota Twins 1991-1997
New York Yankees 1998-2001
Kansas City Royals 2002
Awards
1991 A.L. Rookie of the Year
1995 A.L. Silver Slugger - 2B
1997 A.L. Gold Glove - 2B
1997 A.L. Silver Slugger - 2B
All-Star Selections: 4 (1992, 1994, 1996, 1997)
League Leader
1994: Doubles
1996: Triples
Career Ranks
SB: 63rd
Best Performance
July 30, 1999 - New York at Boston
Went 5 for 6 with a double, homerun, and 4 RBI again
Brady Anderson - Outfielder
Boston Red Sox 1988
Baltimore Orioles 1988-2001
Cleveland Indians 2002
Awards
None
All-Star Selections: 3 (1992, 1996, 1997)
League Leader
1996: Extra Base Hits
Career Ranks
None of note
Best Performance
August 7, 1998 - Baltimore at Minnesota
Career high five hits which included two homeruns and two doubles.
Hall of Fame Stats
Gray Ink: Batting - 37 (643) (Average HOFer ≈ 144)
HOF Standards: Batting - 26.1 (376) (A
Chuck Finley - Starting Pitcher
California/Anaheim Angels 1986-1999
Cleveland Indians 2000-2002
St. Louis Cardinals 2002
Awards
None
All-Star Selections: 5 (1989, 1990, 1995, 1996, 2000)
League Leader
1993: Complete Games
1994: Innings
Career Ranks
K: 23rd
K/9: 55th
Best Performance
May 23, 1995 - New York at California
Matches his career high 15 strikeotus while two hitting the Yankees in Mariano Rivera's MLB debut.
Hall of Fame Stats
Black
