Random Thoughts on Sports

This my ramble of thoughts on current events in the world of sports….

The Dallas Cowboys and Terrell Owens are over-rated. The Patriots spanked them easily earlier in the year and they have had a fairly soft schedule. Owens is just not worth the price, the price being he always needs to be the center of attention instead of focusing on not dropping passes. Even when he is toned down, he is still detracting from the team, and still dropping passes.

Another over-rated receiver is Randy Moss. Well I guess he is the symbol of the modern athlete: Selfish – he only plays when he wants to or is winning, and sometimes not even then. His half-ass services go to the team that can pay him the most. Egotistical – his ego needs constant stroking so that he doesn’t lose interest and stop running his routes. He’ll play a couple more seasons before retiring to a life of luxery and in a few years after that he’ll be not even a minor footnote in NFL history.

What’s the deal with ESPN and their bias towards the Cowboys and Giants? I swear, it’s like there is non-stop coverage of everything Tony Romo, Owens, and Eli Manning do. So what,… the Cowboys won a few super bowls in the 90’s – get over it already. Everyone is sick of hearing about the Patriots supposedly, but they don’t get half the coverage the Cowboys get. Maybe it goes all the way back to the fact that the NFC was the original NFL and absorbed the lowly AFC so many years ago.

Does anyone seriously believe Roger Clemens didn’t use steroids? I am so sick of hearing supposed sports reporters playing lame duck and dodging the steroids issue and trying not to hurt anyone’s feelings. Compare the Clemens of the late 90’s with the version before that time. He’s at least 30% bulkier from the head, to the neck, chest and arms. And the look in his eyes?… he looks so on edge, so angry, so very full of testosterone. To ignore these facts is asking me to overlook basic common sense and the data my senses supply me with. 

The gradual increase of records and statistics over the course of decades is normal for sports. Looking at baseball statistics specifically from the 90’s to early this decade though, reveals a clear difference between these and normal variations of stats, and  is staggering proof of rampant drug abuse. These former players turned sports reporters would rather protect themselves and their buddies than try to send a new more positive message to young athletes.

The Boston Celtics lost a really close game this week to the Detroit Pistons and fell to 18-3. All of a sudden all the analysts are like what’s wrong with the Celtics?, how bad is it, and what is their problem? Again, I have to say, get over it people! Oh my God they lose one close game to a good team and it’s the end of the world? These dramatic editorialists really need to get a grip. Sports reporters these days are almost as bad as all the other paparazzi in the world.

Well that’s it for my thoughts on sports for now, thanks for reading.

Rumble Fighter: Great Free Online Fighting Game

Rumble Fighter, ( OGPlanet.com follow preceding link for info and downloads or banner below) is a free fun fighting game from Online Gaming Planet. It has just the right balance of moves, special powers, character versatility and style. Sleek, bright animation make it an enjoyment to play.

It’s free… well, there are optional items you can buy that help your character, but many similar items can be acquired free with ‘in-game’ money earned from fighting. Another idea that makes sense to me though, would be to offer a monthly subscription fee (players still have the completely free option also) that while you are subscribed, you have access to the items you would normally need actual cash to buy. The buying credits thing seems to be a trend among MMOG’s (massively multiplayer online games) though. But Whatever, it’s totally playable completely free so I’m not complaining.

While there are quite a few annoying young people that play the game, (don’t let them get to you with their trash talk) there is a growing number of adults who play has well. I know there are a ton of you old school Super Nintendo gamers out there who would enjoy a quick free fun online fighting game like Rumble Fighter. So download and play!

(update: I don’t play Rumblefighter very much anymore, there are too many smack talking rude little kids that play, but if you dig extreme rudeness check it out.)

The Mitchell Report Was Long Overdue

I think its cute the way each ESPN analyst (I guess you could call them that) today, one right after the other, were so quick to dismiss the Mitchell report. Inane useless analysts like Jayson Stark and Gene Wojciechowski,  and all the ones making spot appearances today to voice their opinion like David Cornwell. It’s the support of useless gutless opinions like theirs by ESPN that is the reason commentators with real guts like the Kansas City Star’s Jason Whitlock, are dismissed by ESPN has analysts. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve often thought of Whitlock’s editorials has tabloid trash, but at least he has the guts to tell the truth sometimes even if he’s wrong a lot of the time also.

The Report in question is the one by senator George Mitchell released this week, the one commissioner Bud Selig asked to be done, the one that is based on 2 years of investigation, more than 700 witnesses, and eye-witness testimony. To all baseball fans though it comes has no surprise, a quick look at baseball statistics over the last 20 years or so gives an almost exact reveal of when the drug abuse started and then began to decline. Or if you want to believe players like Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds are Gods whose body’s suddenly rejuvenate in their mid to late 30’s then I’m sure you will go on believing that, also I have some land I would like to sell you.

So yes the ESPN analysts are right, the report is no big surprise, but they are wrong when they say it wasn’t necessary and that’s where reality and fact differentiate, because the fact is the report was not only necessary but long overdue. Also long overdue is the firing of Donald Fehr as the player’s union representative, and if the players had any leadership or sense at all, they would fire him immediately. To stand there at a press conference and act innocent like steroids never existed, to act like the players are the victim, is calling baseball fans stupid. Then again, fans continue to give these greedy overpaid players and owners their hard earned cash despite the obviousness of steroid use now and in the past two decades.

Fehr did say the report was right about calling for immediate and better oversight of many things involving the use of steroids in baseball, saying in hindsight it seems obvious. Well no shit Sherlock! If everybody is right and this report was unnecessary THEN WHY HASN’T ANYONE DONE ANYTHING!! ooohh…. Baseball started random steroid tests during the season a couple years ago,…. wow, that was really something. It’s such hypocrisy, everyone is a victim and this is all unnecessary, that kind of attitude is so stupidly redundant and useless.

So baseball fans, especially ones with kids, wake up and boycott baseball events and merchandise until a widespread intense overhaul of steroid use in baseball is implemented. Well I guess if you want to watch 40 year old players fry their brain and create a culture of drug use which will dominate sports until who knows when and get paid $20 million a year to do it, I guess that’s up to you.

A Look Into Ed’s Sketchbook: Red and Blue Circles

Red & Blue Circles, by Ed Tajchman.

A small painting by Ed Tajchman.
This is from my sketchbook, one from a number of years ago. It’s an image that sticks out in my mind and one I have gotten good feedback from. A red circle in the center with 2 figures swirling into it kind of, a blue circle seems to be bouncing on the outside on a background of red. This a style that I am doing more work more in; abstract shapes and textures with some figurative elements.

Number One, A Watercolor Painting by Ed Tajchman

Number One, 18 x 24″ watercolor by Ed Tajchman.

18 x 24″ watercolor by Ed Tajchman (me).
This is the first in a long series of ongoing nonrepresentational, abstract, watercolor paintings. This one was done a number of years ago and kind of pre-defines the rest of the work in the series; bold colors, sharp contrasted outlines, shape and form based pure abstraction. Wassily Kandinsky is an obvious influence here, but I dare say I have a lot more detail in my paintings.