Happy Birthday Rondo!

You should be pretty pumped.

Sunday February 22 was Rajon Rondo's 23rd birthday. He scored 32 points, dished out 10 assists and grabbed 6 rebounds in a blowout of the Phoenix Suns. Those 32 points were a career high for Rondo. I hope this performance will get sports "experts" to realize that Rondo is an all-star. He may average under 12 points a game, but Rajon is in the top 5 in the league in both assists and steals. In addition, he is one of the best rebounding point guards and is a true leader on the floor. I guess it makes sense that he didn't go to the game based on scoring, but no one outside of the Boston area seems to take Rondo seriously. Hopefully, this game will change that. Did I mention Rondo got a triple double against the Dallas Mavericks before the All-star break?

A Chance for Varitek, Captain of the Red Sox, to show his quality.

Time to prove thyneself.

Jason Varitek has signed a deal with the Red Sox after much preseason drama concerning whether or not he would return. Now that he is back, he will face an interesting season. Jason is 36 and has struggled at the plate the last few years. If he can put up some decent offensive numbers this year, like hitting .280 with 20 home runs, I will be happy. If he hits .270, I'll still be happy. I am certain he will do his job defensively as always, and will be called on to catch Tim Wakefield. Ironically, Wakefield, the resident knuckleballer, has been Varitek's teammate longer than anyone else on the Red Sox, but since Mirabelli started catching him a few years back, Tek rarely catches a game for Wake. In fact, Varitek came up with the Red Sox in '97, and Wakefield has been with the team since '95, the last Boston teammate of Roger Clemens currently with the team. I have used that Tolkien madlib in the past whenever Varitek steps up to the plate, and now that he is certain to be here after his return was ambiguous, it fits better than ever. The Red Sox have most of their main team returning, so we won't see much that is new in the lineup. Future Hall-of-Famer John Smoltz and Brad Penny, veteran and all-star ace of the Dodgers for the past several years, will join the team. Penny formed a formidable tandem with former "sock" Derek Lowe, and Smoltz's history speaks for itself. He was injured last year and required surgery, so he will probably not be pitching for us for quite a while. But getting even 20% of John Smoltz's normal talent is a lift. Of course, Penny was injured much of last year and struggled. Hopefully he can return to form. We also got Josh Bard, a former Red Sox catcher who caught for Wakefield. So maybe Varitek won't catch for Wake much after all, though the NESN guys said he would. The Sox also signed Rocco Baldelli, a New England native and childhood Red Sox fan. Baldelli started a very promising career, even compared to Joe DiMaggio, but he has been hampered by injuries for the past few years. He won't start but should prove a productive fourth outfielder. In any case, it should be an interesting season. With MVP Dustin Pedroia and 100-RBI man Kevin Youkilis coming off career seasons, my hometown Sox look to be a contender again in the AL East.

though the Yankees did spend all that money signing C.C. and A.J... The Bankee$ are always tough because they can go out and do that and not worry about going bankrupt in an economic depression. The Rays are all young and homegrown, giving merit to the theory that the opposite of the Yankee technique is useful. Three 90-win teams in the east? :O

A-Roid

A man whose integrity is much in question.

Well I turned on SportsCenter this morning and what was the first thing I heard? There are new allegations that Alex Rodriguez has tested positive for steroids in the past. You might think I, a lifetime Red Sox fan and a person who has taken issue with A-Rod's past acts, would be having a field day with this and jumping all over A-Rod.

But my issue is with the way that this information is always presented-flimsily, with little or no evidence and always with the use of the term "allegations". Another issue I have is with the fans associating this word with "guilty".

This data is from a 2003 test that was supposed to be anonymous (so much for that...) and honestly I don't really care right now. 2003? That was SIX years ago. A lot has happened in baseball and the rest of the world since then. Barry Bonds, the current home run king, has seen people demand that an asterisk be put on his 762, as he broke Hank Aaron's all-time home run record of 755 the last time he was in a god damn baseball uniform and not standing trial. Since the mid 1990s, players have been under scrutiny for steroids. Bonds was the center of attention for a while, but former Red Sox, Yankees, Blue Jays, and Rockets ace Roger "The Rocket" Clemens has picked up the torch. Roger has also faced other scandals recently including some crap with a 15 year old girl back in like 1932...who cares... Anyway, I never really liked Barry Bonds. He always seemed like kind of a jerk and was rude to the media. But it was nice to see him give love to his fans when he was put on the all-time Giants team. I didn't really think much of Roger either. By the time I started watching baseball, he had left Boston and gone to the dark side. But the fact that he was on the last World Series team for the Red Sox before the 2004 season and that he essentially led them there himself makes me respect him somewhat.

Alex Rodriguez came into the league at the age of 18 and was an all-star at age 20. People have predicted that he will far eclipse Bonds' current homerun record of 762. Of course his records are tainted because this is the steroids era and everyone is already guilty. Next thing you know, they'll accuse the Big Unit of steroid use. Rodriguez played on terrific Mariner teams with household names Ken Griffey Jr and the Big Unit, Randy Johnson. You may also remember sluggers Jay Buhner and Edgar Martinez. He was then traded to the Texas Rangers and given a 10 year, 250 million dollar contract. The Yankees picked him up somewhere halfway through. Yankees fans don't appreciate anyone and they certainly haven't appreciated A-Rod. I doubt their opinion of him is higher now.

Back to my argument that the way this shit is presented is absolutely bogus. Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps got a DUI like 6 years ago and people talk about it like it's relevant. There was a photo of him released smoking weed out of a bong this past November. The people who take these photos are pussies and deserve torture worse than death. Just because your life sucks and you have no talent or future like Michael Phelps doesn't mean you can go ahead and ruin his life with gay tabloid bullcrap. Have fun with your fail life.

Reporters suck at presenting information that is relevant and up to date. All the steroid crap is "allegations, allegations, allegations". Until you can come up to me and say to my face that "So-and-so used fucking steroids," then your words are pure slander and libel. Or should I say utterly garbage, because although they may be technically correct, they offer no actual information to anyone. Because it's not a sure thing. Make DAMN sure you dumbasses do your job right and tell me that someone used steroids - grow some balls so that theirs may stop shrinking.

In any case, R.I.P. A-Rod's legacy.