Monday Night Thoughts

Let's take a look at the happening of this Monday....

- It was a bad day to be a NFL coach as Miami's Tony Sparano and Kansas City's Todd Haley were shown the door. There are so many high-profile coaches sitting on the sidelines right now, both teams need to make some calls. However, Haley didn't deserve his fate since basically all of the good Chiefs players got hurt and ended up on injured reserve. He will turn up next I see as the new Bears offensive coordinator in 2012.
- This business with Chris Paul continues to drag on as a trade to the Clippers were knocked down today but reports tonight are saying that there is a new push to get a trade done with the Staples Center's other team. Get it done and over with already! In the meantime, the Clippers claimed Chauncey Billups off waivers. I guess that's the backup plan.
- Now, a classic example of pay attention to what your spouse is saying. Albert Pujols' wife Diedre went on St. Louis radio today to explain how Pujols would have stayed with the Cardinals for less money but the Cards only offered a five-year deal to begin negotiations. I don't know how much I believe of this but if it is true, that is definitely a key development. A 5-year deal in my opinion would be enough but Pujols I figure wanted one long deal to end his career and that is what he got with the Angels.
- Elsewhere in the NL Central, the Brewers have signed former Cubs 3B Aramis Ramirez. This figures to fill the void offensively with Prince Fielder likely out of town and could be headed to Chicago. I think a lot of Cubs fans would trade a Fielder-for-Ramirez deal. In Milwaukee though, Ramirez will probably need to carry the load for the first 2 months with Ryan Braun on suspension more than likely. This is not one of the best qualities of Ramirez though, will be interesting to see what happens.
- With Ramirez now in the fold, the Brewers traded Casey McGehee to the Pirates. If McGehee can get back his 2010 form, Pittsburgh may get to the .500 mark in 2012. The talent level on that team with Andrew McCutchen, Pedro Alvarez and Neil Walker is way up there and better than a lot of young groups. McGehee will probably play first base for the Pirates and spell Alvarez at third.

That's tonight's opinions, things are always breaking so more in the morning......

Saturday Night Fever

A lot of things have broke in the last hour or so, recapping...

- Congrats to Baylor QB Robert Griffin III on winning the Heisman Trophy. A lot of experts would have predicted Stanford's Andrew Luck would get the honor but Luck finished second. He won't finish second in the NFL draft but that's for another day. Griffin probably had the best season of all the finishers anyway so he deserved to win.
- ESPN is reporting Brewers OF Ryan Braun has tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. If this is true and we will wait to see on that, it is a huge blow to the Brewers with the 50-game suspension along with the probable loss of Prince Fielder but also would be a huge black eye on MLB. The MVP being suspended is not good for business.
- A big day in college basketball was topped by Indiana upsetting No. 1 Kentucky in Bloomington. The doormats of the Big Ten in recent years, Tom Crean has done a great job of turning the program around and getting it back to the way it was for many, many years. The Hoosiers will be a major player in the conference this season the way they are going.
- Let's not forget No. 2 Ohio State losing at No. 13 Kansas so we will have a new No. 1 team next week. Probably Syracuse after their win Saturday.
- Hopefully you sat down for a few and watched the Army/Navy game today. You had everything you could want from a game like that, the President helped with the coin toss and seeing all of the soldiers in uniform in the stands was breathtaking. Only happens once a year, got to enjoy it.

NFL Week 14 Predictions coming in the morning.....

Friday thoughts

As we approach the weekend, a quick group of observations...

- Edwin Jackson looks really good in a White Sox uniform after a 13-strikeout game in a 5-1 win over the Rays
- Nice to see the Pirates fans supporting their team after a hot start, over 39,000 at PNC Park Thursday
- Nothing like a ton of day baseball, the way it should be. I guess more for summer time when the kids are out school but more day ball please
- Dear Red Sox, win a game sometime before June
- Expect something strange to happen this weekend between the Cubs and Brewers in Milwaukee. Something we haven't seen in a long time, don't know exactly what though
- Note to Tsuyoshi Nishioka, while you are out with your broken leg, try to find a way to get stronger. I hate to tell you but you are going to get hurt more if you don't and learn to play the American game

Now back to watch more tape....