Baseball Predictions

As much as I love hockey and as excited as I am about the upcoming NHL playoffs, I am equally excited about the start of the 2006 Major League Baseball season. Baseball has always been my first love when it comes to the major sports and I am very excited about the upcoming season.

While the forecast is calling for more dark clouds ahead for my Cubbies, my other two teams- the Indians and Blue Jays- both have a lot of sunshine coming their way this summer.

So, without further adieu, here are my predictions for the upcoming season.

American League

East- Yankees, Jays, Red Sox, Rays, Orioles
Central- Indians, Twins, White Sox, Tigers, Royals
West- Rangers, A's, Angels, Mariners

Playoffs- Yankees over Rangers; Indians over Jays
ALDS- Indians over Yankees

American League Hardware:
MVP- Alex Rodriguez- Mark Texeira and Travis Hafner close seconds
CY Young- Roy Halladay
Rookie- Francisco Liriano

National League
East- Braves, Mets, Phillies, Marlins, Nationals
Central- Cardinals, Brewers, Astros, Pirates, Cubs, Reds
West- Padres, D'backs, Dodgers, Giants, Rockies

Playoffs- Braves over Padres; Mets over Cardinals
NLDS- Braves over Mets

National League Hardware:
MVP- Albert Pujols
CY Young- Tim Hudson
Rookie- Stephen Drew

World Series- Indians over Braves
World Series MVP- Grady Sizemore

If you've read Tom Verducci's recent predictions on SI.com you'll notice that I couldn't differ from ol' Tom's predictions much more than I already do. Verducci seems to have been caught up in the great White Sox hype, but I'm not buying. If anything, I think the White Sox are destined to be this year's biggest disappointment (a complete 180 from last year when they were the year's biggest surprise). I dare Ozzie Guillen and Co. to prove me wrong.

Howie Mandel is cool?

Wait a second, didn't I just see this guy trying really hard to be funny (but not succeeding in the least) in a Boston Pizza commercial? Isn't he the creepy guy that keeps sitting down for dinner with a family he doesn't know and mooching food off the plates off of kids who really don't seem too comfortable with Howie touching their food?

And now he's the host of the most popular prime time game show to come along since Regis first debuted Millionaire?

And not only that, but my 3 1/2 year old absolutely loves his show!

Yes indeedy, it appears as though Howie Mandel is cool once again (or perhaps this is for the first time?).

For the first time tonight I sat down and watched Howie's new show, "Deal or No Deal" on NBC. Unfortunately, I'm now hooked. Not only that, but Carter is also hooked.

From Carter's perspective, he absolutely loves anything to do with numbers so for him, this game is right up his alley. Picture this if you can. Here's a 3 1/2 year old kid, sitting on the couch in his hockey jammies, sippy cup in one hand and he's yelling at the TV telling the contestant which number to pick. Of course he has no idea what the show is all about but to him, just picking the numbers and seeing the other numbers that come up in the brief case is all the fun. By the end of the show this kid was bouncing on the couch he was so fired up! Commercial breaks were absolutely painful for him.

I will admit that, for something that has such a simple concept, the game itself is quite intriguing. I sometimes find the contestants, and Howie for that matter, to be a little bit cheesy, but I can get past that.

The two contestant's tonight followed two very different paths. The first guy accepted on offer (on the advice of his pre-teen daughter- come on guy, what are you thinking?) of $94,000 and could have gone on to win $300,000 +. Oh well, $94,000 for doing pretty much nothing is nothing to cry about either.

The second girl had an offer from the bank for $130,000 and turned it down, only to settle 10 minutes later for a paltry $21,000. Now that's good TV. But again, $21,000 for doing nothing is nothing to be upset about.

Deal or No Deal is fast paced, it's exciting and I'll give Howie Mandel his props (that's right, I said "props"), I think I like him more than Regis.
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I checked out the Rick Mercer Report website tonight and found some great laugh's there. If you haven't checked it out before I encourage you to do so. You can go to it here: http://www.cbc.ca/mercerreport/index.php.

I can't say I'm a huge fan of his political bits but the time he spends travelling around the country and meeting/interviewing Canadian's provide for some pretty priceless bits. He also has some video clips on there that are hysterical. You've got to watch the "Knee in my package" video.

Blog, blog, blog

It's been a while since I last posted and, while there's been many times when I've sat down to do some writing, I just haven't had the consistent time to be able to do anything solid.

It's funny, as someone who considers himself to be "a writer" (meaning I love to write and, if given the opportunity, would love to write for a living), I often sit down to post a new blog and find, after a few minutes, that I really have nothing to write about. I don't want to just simply sit down and post for the sake of posting. I don't pretend to think that my life is exciting enough to share my day-to-day goings on with the rest of the world (or the 3 people who check this blog once every 6 months).

So many potential blogs can be summed up in a Seinfeldian (nice word, eh) way- "Today I was wrestling with my kids and then yada yada yada, I got a knee in the groin."

But blogs aren't meant for "yada yada yada's". This isn't a place for "sum ups". This is a place to expound. To share those pearls of wisdom that are just begging to be released from your inner conscience. To expunge on ideas and random thoughts too goofy to share with people face to face. Blogs provide the opportunity to make your inner conscience an "outy".

Anyways, all that to say I think it's important for me to start taking advantage of the opportunities that maintaining a blog provides.

And so, yada yada yada, I'll check in again soon.

A new beginning for the Raptors. . .

Yesterday the Toronto Raptors announced the signing of new President and GM Bryan Colangelo. Colangelo, the mastermind behind the rebuilding of the Phoenix Suns and last year's NBA Executive of the Year is another brilliant move in a line of what has been nothing but brilliant moves ove rthe past two months for the Dino's. It's no coincidence it all started with the firing of Rob Babcock.

There's no doubt that this franchise was in desperate need of some stability.With the Glen Grunwald firing, a couple coaching changes, the Vince Carter trade, the Rob Babcock hiring and firing, and 4 straight years without a playoff appearance, this team has been on a serious roller coaster ride.

As an NBA fan, and as a Raptor's fan, I truly am shocked that Colangelo took on this post. This seems too good to be true. This is a sure-fire NBA guy. He's got great roots, a great track record, and he's a known guy around the league. Anyone in Raptor's land who disputes the significance of this move is crazier than Barry Bonds in drag.

This addition gives me great hope that signing Chris Bosh to a long-term deal this summer is more of a formality now than an actual question mark.

Of course now, Canadian basketball fans from coast to coast will be wondering if Colangelo will somehow figure out a way to get Steve Nash into a Raptor's uniform before Nash's career begins to wind down.

On another note, spring training has started with all major league players reporting to their respective teams camps now. The next few weeks is one of my favorite times of the year. I don't know that there is a better time of year for sports fans.

You have baseball starting up, the NHL is full of meaningful games with playoff implications, as is the NBA, and the NCAA tournament is only a couple weeks away as well. Awesome time of year.

Sometime soon I hope to sit down and write out a post with my predictions for the upcoming baseball season.