All World All Sports

-Digger's Daily-

2009 NFL pre-season is approaching quickly. Team GM's are getting down and dirty trying get player contracts finalized. Coaches are busy fine tuning game plans and drilling players hard during mini-camps. Many personnel changes will be made between now and opening day ranging from trades to cuts. I thought I'd hit prediction road early this year. Pre-season picking vs detailed end of camp predictions. Here's how I see NFL teams finishing in '09 based on current rosters:

AFC
East
New England Patriots
Miami Dolphins
Buffalo Bills
New York Jets

North
Pittsburgh Steelers
Baltimore Ravens
Cincinnati Bengals
Cleveland Browns

South
Indianapolis Colts
Tennessee Titans
Houston Texans
Jacksonville Jaguars

West
San Diego Chargers
Denver Broncos
Kansas City Chiefs
Oakland Raiders

NFC
East
New York Giants
Philadelphia Eagles
Dallas Cowboys
Washington Redskins

North
Chicago Bears
Green Bay Packers
Minnesota Vikings
Detroit Lions

South
Carolina Panthers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Atlanta Falcons
New Orleans Saints

West
San Francisco 49ers
Arizona Cardinals
Seattle Seahawks
St Louis Rams

Super Bowl: Steelers vs Panthers

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All World All Sports

-Digger's Daily-

Add Sammy Sosa's name to baseball's Performance Enhancing Drug (PED) users. Baseball conducted anonymous random tests in 2003. Test records were never destroyed by the players union and names of alleged users have been leaked publicly over the past few weeks. Is anyone surprised to see Sammy's name? Doubt it!

Sosa spent years denying using steroids. On many occasions Chicago area sports columnists questioned Sosa's truthfulness by challenging him to be tested voluntarily (he refused). It was obvious to most of the country baseball players were juicing when players like McGwire, Bonds & Sosa showed up to spring training with swollen heads and bulging bodies back in the late 90's and early 00's. As I've argued many times, baseball was not blind to players artificially bulking up. MLB turned away from the growing problem allowing it to fester. Why? Dollars and greed.

Sosa carried his bag of denials up to Capital Hill. His carefully worded testimony before Congress was laughable. Sammy often worked out with banned trainer Angel Presinal who was known for distributing steroid-like substances to major leaguers. "I have not broken the laws of the United States or the laws of the Dominican Republic. I have been tested as recently as 2004, and I am clean." (steroids are not illegal in the Dominican Republic).

Baseball's record books are forever tainted by substance abusing players. Baseball's single season home run record was once a sacred title held by Roger Maris (61). Currently, the top six home run totals now belong to PED players. MLB rallied around and promoted Sosa, McGwire & Bonds to the hilt milking every single dollar out of their performances. Sportswriters were all over these guys. Promoting their feats while quetioning baseball's integrity.

I'm a bit stunned listening to sports tv recently. With every new name pubicly implicated... reporters seem to soften when discussing potential Hall of Fame votes. In my book, users shouldn't even be allowed to enter Cooperstown as visitors!

PED's domino effect is staggering. Usage led to shattered records, millions in new revenues, taxpayer sponsored billion dollar stadiums, multi-million dollar player contracts and endorsement deals, tremendous surge in ticket prices (up to $2500/seat at new Yankee Stadium) and record television contracts. It's only a tip of the iceberg. There's no doubt in my mind MLB colluded with MLBPA and players by refusing to tackle the growing problem before the games newest scandal spiraled out of control. Living in denial was too profitable. From top to bottom, everyone cashed in on their piece of the pie.

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-Digger's Daily-

Every baseball season brings new surprises. Boston Red Sox of 2004, St Louis Cardinals of 2006, Colorado Rockies of 2007 and Tampa Bay Rays of 2008 are four recent examples of anything can happen in baseball. Sometimes we're treated to career type years from unsuspecting players. On the flip side, plenty of disappointing moments from the games biggest names rattle fans too.

Here's a few standouts, high's and low's, in our 2009 baseball season...

New York's New Stadiums: New York was buzzing for two years anticipating new stadium masterpieces. So far, critics have completely panned new Yankee Stadium and CitiField. Both stadiums have their headaches. In the Bronx, Yankee Stadium is giving up homeruns at alarming rates. In Flushing, fans and former players feeling disrespected due to lack of any recognizable recognition shown towards "New York Mets" teams and patrons.

Alex Rodriguez: Plenty of pre-season buzz surrounding scandal ridden ARod. Steroid usage to book allegations ranging from personal insecurities to extramarital affairs. Lack of meaningful contribution so far plus continuous terrible performances vs arch rival Boston can't sit well with the Steinbrenner clan.

San Francisco Giants: These guys are on a roll. One of MLB's early surprise teams. They began '09 2-7 before going on a 30-21 run. Not bad for a team scoring the fewest runs in National League play. They do the little things well from manufacturing runs for their powerless lineup... to smart defense... and very solid pitching. Hardly anyone seems to be noticing SF's recent rise which affords these guys to play pressure free baseball (at least for now). Personally, I had these guys pegged for dead last. Imagine where they'd be with production from 1B/3B?

Boston Red Sox vs New York Yankees: American Leagues most prolific rivalry has been completely one sided this year. Boston has dominated New York. Eight games... eight wins. Boston brings out the worst in New York. Yankees play terrible defense, bullpen implodes, hitters fail in clutch situations and baserunning embarrassingly poor.

Zack Grienke: Kansas City Royals starting pitcher began the year on fire. In his first six games he allowed just 3 runs. He was 6-0, 0.40. Grienke's first loss was by 1-0.

Washington Nationals: Does this team want to win? Ever? Only a few very good players (Zimmerman, Dunn, Johnson). It's amazing this franchise was handed money to build a new stadium without first building a respectable team. Not much future help in minors. From top to bottom, nothing good on the horizon.

Manny Ramirez: Idiot of the Year Award. How can anyone, especially someone of his calibur, get busted for PED's after all of negative attention surrounding baseball's cheaters? MLB suspended him 50 games.

What happened to these guys in '09? (low's): David Ortiz .204, Jimmy Rollins .217, Garrett Atkings .193, Brian Giles .201, Ken Griffey, Jr .211, Chien-Ming Wang 14.34

Steinbrenner's: Hal and Hank remain very quiet cheerleaders. How long would Boss George have kept quiet after 8 consecutive losses to Boston?

Texas Rangers: AL West, 35-25, 1st. Old Rangers fans expecting team to wilt in 100 degree summer months. New fans have hope. Watch out, Angels are getting healthy in rear view mirror.

Florida State University: Ok, so they're not a pro team. But, a 37-6 playoff slaughter deserves an encore.

Los Angeles Dodgers: Baseball's best record 41-22. This team can play with or without Manny. Very well balanced top to bottom. My bets are riding on either LA or Philly to represent NL in Series.

All Star Game Voting: Talk about stuffing ballot boxes. MLB.com allows up to 25 votes per email address. National League hasn't won a game since 1996. Maybe it's time for fans to pick better players.

Quiet Rumor: No more 'roids. So, does this mean baseball's are juiced again? There was a quasi-quiet rumbling early on suggesting baseball's were flying out of parks. Were owners or league officials nervous of home run production slipping with steroids swept under the rug? When Major League pitchers complain of baseball's not feeling just right, something's probably up. This rumor floated around with greater attention only a few short years ago. High scoring games attract larger crowds. I'd like to think there's nothing to this rumor. Then again, it's not as though baseball is above unscrupulous activities.

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