MLB Cheating is a Crying Shame - by Scott Goldberg

I guess there is no crying in baseball—however what the Astros did is a crying shame. They cheated and won and mostly got away with it.  Alex Cora took what he learned to the Red Sox and won there—he learned cheating pays. He is now out of a job as is the Astros manager and GM.  The punishments aren’t severe enough.

I believe sports mirror the society we live in.  I can’t help but see parallels to our current political climate.  How politicians have placed party above country. How being honorable and moral are less important than winning.  How the ends justify the means. Is it any wonder baseball players, managers and front offices have placed team ahead of the game.  There is no honor in what these teams accomplished nor should there have been any glory. Doing irreparable harm to the game you espouse to love in the name of competing is a disgrace.  MLB cannot deal too harsh a penalty. Whatever is done is not enough.

I must admit I haven’t followed this travesty closely.  It’s too disturbing. I haven’t delved into all the underlying numbers.  I do know the Astros (and I assume the Red Sox) hit exceedingly better at home than on the road.  I know Clayton Kershaw underperformed in his outing at Minute Maid Park and the narrative became more about his inability to dominate in the playoffs (i.e. he’s choking).  Pretty unfair when the other team knows what pitch is coming through no fault of his own.

All sports have some form of deceit.  Soccer and basketball players flop, football players will have mysterious injuries to stifle their opponent’s momentum, and of course there is legitimate sign stealing in baseball.  There is a line in all sports. Sometimes that line is blurry. What the Astros and presumably the Red Sox did obliterate any sense that a line even exists.

I don’t totally know what to make of it.  I think about my upcoming fantasy draft. Are players like Bregman, Altuve and Betts still worthy of first round picks?  I am so disgusted, I’m not sure I want to participate in fantasy baseball at all this year. A baseball boycott seems a reasonable response for fans whose trust in the integrity of the game has been stolen.

I have been a Cleveland Indians fan for my entire life.  World Series appearances can be counted on one hand; wins---nada and I was born in the same year as the Super Bowl.  There is nothing I want more in sports than for the Indians to win a World Series. I am not sure how I would feel if the Indians finally won only to discover they cheated to do so.  Euphoria to disgust. I am not sure I could forgive the game.  

I know to some my reaction may seem overblown.  I actually feel the opposite. Sometimes I feel like a hypocrite watching football when I see players heads getting smashed and I know they are risking significant brain injury.  I get it that they know the risks at this point, but if fans like me stop watching revenue goes down and thus the incentive to risk brain injury goes down as well. How do I go back to watching baseball and thereby implicitly forgive behavior I really have no interest in forgiving?  Frankie Lindor’s smile will suck me back in, but I am warning you Baseball you’ve got two strikes. 

The Worst Boxing Blog. Two Big Fights Coming Up - by Colin Gawel

The World’s Worst Boxing Blog - Dec 2019 - by Colin Gawel

We have been looking for a scribe to cover the fight game but until we fill that position I’ll be taking a small break from my duties as editor-in-chief to handle things myself. Honestly, the hardest part of this job is spelling Vasyl Lomanchenko consistently. Anyway, there are two fights in the month of December that deserve your attention.

Andy Ruiz Jr. vs Anthony Joshua for most of the heavyweight championship of the world. Saturday December 7th. ETA 4:30 EST on DAZN

Billed as the “Clash on the Dunes” because it is being held in Saudia Arabia, for a rumored site fee of 41 million dollars, Joshua will be trying to avenge his shocking loss to the “Mexican Homer Simpson” and reclaim his piece of the world title. Being a boxing fan, I subscribe to DAZN and have seen many good fights without having to fork over $80 for a pay per view. That is the model of this streaming service. For $10 a month you will get access to fights that would have cost much more.

Always a tough match up on Punch Out

When 9-1 underdog Ruiz got off the mat and knocked Joshua out last June, it looked like a disaster for the fledgling DAZN, as they were trying to secure Joshua v Wilder for the undisputed heavyweight championship sometime in 2020. However, when the overweight, Snickers-eating Ruiz crashed the party, DAZN suddenly had the biggest mainstream boxing story in years and exclusive rights to the rematch.

Can the flabby Ruiz stop the chiseled Brit again or is he Buster Douglas 2.0? Those questions will be answered Saturday December 7th with an estimated walk time of 4pm EST.  Click here to visit DAZN.

The following weekend on ESPN, Terrence “Bud” Crawford is going to demolish some tomato can to make his case for P4P champion of the world. However, the can’t miss fight is on the undercard when Richard Commey defends his IBF Lightweight title against 2018 prospect of the year Teofimo Lopez. Both these fighters love to mix it up and the winner has the inside track to a big time unification bout against Vasyyll Limoachunko in 2020.  That would be a banger.

A couple other fights of note to wrap up 2019 are:

Dec 20th: Daniel Jacobs vs Julio Ceasar Chavez Jr (DAZN).

Tony Harrison vs Jermell Charlo rematch for Harrison’s Jr. Middleweight title. (FOX)

My personal Top Ten Favorite Fighters to watch right now:

1) Andy Ruiz Jr 2) Vasylli Lumochunko 3) Nayou Inoue Watch This! 4) GGG 5) Artur Beterbiev 6) Canelo Alverez 7) Jose Ramirez 8) Shakur Stevenson 9) Gervonta Davis 10) Manny Pacquiao

If you want some actual boxing news check out the SI Boxing Podcast with Chris Mannix. It is posted every Friday and I listen religiously.

That’s it from Colin’s Coffee. Thanks for reading Pencilstorm. See you at the fights! - Colin Gawel

Uploaded by rob martin on 2019-01-19.

Relive a sensational round 3 of June 1's Heavyweight encounter between Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz in New York! Champion Ruiz and Challenger Joshua rematch on December 7 in Saudi Arabia!

Teofimo Lopez all career knockouts including Magdaleno fight.

Uploaded by Oscar Taylor on 2019-02-03.

NCP: Browns Need to Strut into Heinz Field Chris Jericho Style.

Follow on twitter @northcoastposse

Two weeks ago in honor of WWE coming to Fox, Miles Garrett and the Browns made a full heel turn against the Steelers. Should we go face this Sunday in Pittsburgh or just hire Paul Heyman to manage the team and give them a Brock Lesnar type beating?

Big$: I'm an AEW guy, so I suggest strutting into Heinz field, chests out Chris Jericho style. The team is on a hot streak and needs to start acting like winners and ditch the victim mentality.

Seriously, would you wear Browns colors in the stands this weekend?

Big $: By and large, NFL stadiums are packed with people drinking to forget they have to be at work in 12 or 13 hours. Common sense is not something you're going to find in abundance. If you really feel the need to show your colors on enemy soil, you should probably be ready to throw some hands.

Is this the biggest Browns game in the past 20 years and how do you see it playing out?

Big $: This team needs to win out for the post season, so every game carries more weight than the past 10-15 Decembers. With that said, they are facing a Duck Hodges led team that they already dominated 2 weeks ago, I foresee a similar outcome to the Starrcade '86 esque game in Cleveland. Browns 24 Steelers 10

OSU wins over UM - Some Favorites; The Poaching of UM Asst's; The Playoff Picture ....Colin-Baver Q&A: THE GAME week (Part 2 of 2)

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Colin: We have had so many sweet wins against Michigan since 2000. What are your personal top five favorites?

Baver: I’ll go ahead and exclude the 2002 win that sent OSU to the Nat’l Title Game and the 2006 battle between undefeated #1 vs undefeated #2....those two are too easy. Of the rest of the Buckeye wins, I took the most enjoyment from these...(listed pretty much in ascending order)

Ohio St 37 Michigan 21 (2004) – You want to talk about a “1-game season”....ask a Buckeye fan what they remember about the 2004 season, and you might get, “Isn’t that the year Ted Ginn had the punt return down the Michigan sideline for a touchdown?” Another fan might say, “That was the year Troy Smith had his coming out party against Michigan.” I think those two things come to mind first, as opposed to Ohio State having 3-consecutive losses at one point that year, on the way to a 4-loss season. This game trumped the 4 losses.

Ohio St 25 Michigan 21 (2005) – With 7:49 remaining, UM kicked a field goal to go up 21-12....this after Ohio State had dominated early on, leading 9-0 in the 2nd quarter. I was sick to my stomach. I had watched the game at the Worthington Legion, and a friend of mine was so disgusted that he left at that point to leave early for a hunting trip. A little over a minute later, Troy hit Santonio Holmes for a TD. Not long after came the Gonzo Catch, and that set up the Antonio Pittman’s game-winning TD. 

Ohio St 26 Michigan 20 (2001) – In games I attended in Ann Arbor, Ohio St was 0-3 in prior to this one. This game backed up the comment Jim Tressel made the day he was hired (Jan 18, 2001), “I assure you that you will be proud of our young people, in the classroom, in the community, and most-especially in 310 days in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on the football field.” I ended up getting food poisoning having to stop on the way home several times to throw up. It was well worth it.

Ohio St 62 Michigan 39 (2018) – OSU came into this one a 4½-pt dog, having given up 51 pts the week before to a Maryland team that finished 5-7. It was finally time for the dominance to end, with Michigan having their best team since 2006 and a top-4 ranking. That kind of talk was music to Urban Meyer’s ears. This game was way worse than the score, and Ohio St figured out that they had a little-known weapon named Chris Olave. When the clock hit 0:00 “Revenge Tour” t-shirts hit the discount racks.

Ohio St 30 Michigan 27, 2OT (2016) – Watched this one with my old man. Come late 2nd quarter I had stopped yelling at the TV. Ohio State was only down a FG but they were getting physically dominated. It seemed like the day had finally come, and yelling wasn’t going to change things. But with a 3-0 lead and 4:10 to go in the half, on first down, Harbaugh chose to throw from his own 6 yd-line. Malik Hooker picked off Speight’s errant throw, returning it for six changing the complexion of the game. Then the last 5 minutes of regulation and the two overtimes were mind blowing. 

Colin: Ohio State poached two assistant coaches from the Michigan in the offseason. These two guys have obviously help transform this Buckeye defense from mediocrity to possibly the best defense in the country. Your thoughts on how their hires molded this Buckeye team, could their hires work against OSU tomorrow?

Baver: I’ll be honest, I wasn’t that excited to get Greg Mattison as defensive coordinator. At age 69, he was 4 years removed from his D-coordinator job at UM, having been downgraded to D-line coach in 2015. But this is why Ryan Day is paid millions, while I am making a wee bit less. The difference in this defense from last year to this is simply unreal. I was though happy at the time OSU landed Al Washington Jr. Washington was the best recruiting assistant UM had, and I had little doubt that he’d be an upgrade over Bill Davis as OSU’s LB coach. And the results he has gotten as LB coach have been HUGE.

I’m sure these hired give UM players & coaches more of a reason to want to beat Ohio St, but I don’t think this helps their chances tomorrow. After a couple of drives, emotions settle down, and the game usually comes down to: who is more talented, who wins the battle in the trenches, and whose coaches make the better calls. And I trust Ryan Day to ensure that his assistant’s tendencies don’t translate to UM advantages.

Colin: What does tomorrow’s game mean for OSU’s playoff chances and how do you see the entire playoff picture right now?

Baver: My thoughts...

--Ohio St: A win in the B10 Title game puts OSU in; a loss in that game leaves them out. OSU-UM game would only effect seeding if OSU is in.

--LSU: The Tigers are in if they simply win 1 of their last 2 gms.

--Clemson: May need to win both of their last 2 gms. A tight loss in one of the two of them makes it close to a 50/50 call as to the Clemson getting in.

--Georgia: Need to win out. A loss in either game, they are out.

--Alabama: Need a win & a couple upsets to get in, but one of the upsets CANNOT be Ga over LSU. 

--Utah and Oklahoma: If one team wins out and the other doesn’t, the team wining out is likely in.

--Baylor: Need to win both the next two, do so impressively, and need help.

—Brent Baver and Colin Gawel

Breaking News! Big $ Files Browns Story From Unnamed Bar / Tailgate on North Coast.

The North Coast Posse are considered a top five Browns follow by the actual Cleveland Browns. Follow on Twitter @northcoastposse

Browns finally got a home win versus the Bills. Did you see any signs of improvement? What is still concerning?

In a vacuum where progressive commercials and SI covers do not exist, I would say a simple eye test points to improvement from 2018-2019. Last year in Oct/Nov, teams like the Chargers, Chiefs , Steelers, and Texans were flat out curb stomping Baker and the Browns. The Browns have clearly been more competitive this year against winning teams (even if the score doesn't always reflect it.. With that said....

What is concerning is that these "moral victories" could of been actual wins if the coaching and strategy matched the jump in roster talent. Freddie continues to coach on the fly, both in terms of weekly prep and in game situations. If he doesn't commit to a heavy run first philosophy against Pittsburgh, it will be abundantly clear that his naivety + stubborn nature make him an awful fit for NFL head coach.

It’s a short week coming into a “rivalry” game with the Steelers Thursday. Is this an advantage to either team and how important is it that the Browns win this game against a Steeler team with no Big Ben, AB or Levon Bell?

Piggybacking on the last answer, having less time for Fred to install nonsense is a complete advantage to the Browns. Here is to hoping that the super short week neuters his ego so that he will be forced to rely on the teams strengths and talents (ie run first, down hill football)

If you’d like to add my prediction, I’m staying positive and hoping the Browns ride the victory wave. The CH-unt combo pays big dividends: Browns 28 Steelers 14

If the Browns Lose to Denver Should Freddie Be Fired? NCP Has the Answer.

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There is only one question this week but it's a big one. Based on what we have seen so far, if the Browns lose to the Broncos this week, should Freddy Kitchens be fired?

Big $: My answer is short and sweet. The earliest I believe that firing Freddie could of been considered was halftime against the Titans. The latest it SHOULD of happened was immediately following the Titans debacle. The team was lost and looking for guidance and the coach was even more confused. This nonsense led to the team quitting and the filth and muck that attached itself to the season has yet to be shook. I believe we’ve reached manziel-ian levels of incompetence and the more it lingers the harder it’s going to be to right the ship. Freddie must go.

The Ice Cube: The answer is “yes, but ….”  I freely admit that the former used car salesman had me sold at the beginning of the year.  Given the way he had the offense clicking in the second half of last year and the “us-versus-the-world” rhetoric that flowed in his Southern drawl, I believed Freddy was the right guy to lead this team back to relevance.  I now have a severe case of buyer’s remorse.  I have had enough of the platitudes and excuses that now fill the post-loss pressers.  If he “doesn’t coach penalties,” then why the hell are the Browns still getting flagged a dozen times per game at the season’s halfway point.  If Freddy doesn’t coach them, he sure as shit doesn’t coach his players how to stop committing them, either.  It is abundantly clear that Freddy is not ready for his role.  He may be a proficient coordinator, but he ain’t head coach material, at least not yet.  It was maddening that the Browns still had multiple opportunities to make a game out of last week’s loss against the bulletproof Patriots.  But, like in too many instances throughout this season, Cleveland keeps pulling a Plaxico Burress and shooting itself in the leg with mindless penalties, unbelievable turnovers, baffling play-calling, and ridiculous replay challenges.  Should Freddy be fired if the Browns lose to Denver: Absolutely.  He has earned that fate, but Jimmy Haslam cannot pull the trigger now.  Who is going to take Freddy’s place, especially mid-season?  The first step is for Freddy to give up play-calling duties, so he can focus on his role CEO.  Maybe then he can finally start to show some growth himself.