On our podcast last week, Jeff and I stated our predictions for the upcoming baseball season.  If you haven’t downloaded it yet, below is a recap for each of us:

Jeff’s 2011 MLB Predictions:

AL East: Red Sox

AL Central: Twins

AL West: Rangers

Wild Card: Yankees

ALCS: Red Sox vs. Rangers

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NL East: Phillies

NL Central: Reds

NL West: Dodgers

Wild Card: Braves

NLCS: Braves vs. Phillies

World Series: Red Sox vs. Phillies – - – RED SOX WORLD CHAMPS

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Scott’s 2011 MLB Predictions:

AL East: Red Sox

AL Central: White Sox

AL West: Angels

Wild Card: Yankees

ALCS: Red Sox vs. White Sox 

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NL East: Braves

NL Central: Reds

NL West: Rockies

Wild Card: Brewers

NLCS: Braves vs. Rockies

World Series: Rockies vs. White Sox - – - WHITE SOX WORLD CHAMPS

As a Mets fan I easily could write about the Mets letting the season slip away without making any moves and how us Mets fans wish our ownership and management would do something about it (which they should have been sellers, and traded off Beltran and/or others). But I’m going to take a different angle and talk about the kind of owner we wish we had. With the recent passing of George Steinbrenner, all of us Mets fans have concurred and said pretty loudly that we all wish we could have had an owner of our team that was as passionate and willing to go to the lengths that George did for his team.
George stretched the boundaries of the rules and sometimes felt the consequences. But as fans, when owners make those mistakes in an effort of trying to make their team better, we welcome that and appreciate that our owner will go to any lengths to put a winning team on the field. Just like in football, when coaches yell at the players, “If you’re going to make a mistake, make it going 100 mph and giving 100%”. We fans feel the same way about our owners.

George didn’t always make the right moves, he was suspended and got in arguments with some of his key players and managers. But a lot of that was intentional. And why; to take the heat off his team, for his team to use him as the bad guy and for them to unite in the clubhouse…again doing whatever it takes to win. George brought 7 championships to the Yankees and should definitely be elected to the Hall of Fame. And if you want to judge how good of an owner he was financially, well how does 33,000% return on your investment sound. Him and a group buying the Yankees for $10 million and returning them to greatness; where they’re now worth $1.6 billion ($3.4 billion with YES network and things). And many people consider Steinbrenner the greatest owner in the history of sports.

But as successful as George was, there is another owner in sports that used George as inspiration, a mentor and eventually a partner; and in my opinion will one day be considered the greatest owner ever. Jerry Jones has strangely mirrored Steinbrenner by buying a struggling iconic franchise and winning championships within a short period of time. And many of times their respective fan base criticized each owner for being too involved and not going about it the right way. But both demonstrate that they will do anything to win trophies. They both won championships relatively early after taking ownership then went through some tough times before being competitive again. Not only do us fans make this observation of their similarities; both Steinbrenner and Jones realized this themselves and entered into a partnership together a couple of years ago to form Legends Hospitality & Management.

Now Jones only has 3 Superbowl titles to Steinbrenner’s 7 titles. But George owned the Yanks for 37 years and Jones has owned the Cowboys for 21 years; not to mention the Jones having to operate in a much more stringent NFL and not the wide open MLB.
Jones bought the Cowboys for $70 million and it’s now worth $1.65 billion (2nd most valuable franchise in the world to Manchester United). And thanks to Bill Parcells, the Cowboys are back on track and have a lot of talent and could be poise for another run in the near future that could challenge Steinbrenner for championships.

I know there are arguments to be made for other owners, but both Jerry and George have demonstrated how differently they accomplish championships and raise the value of their franchises, combining competiveness and business savvy to satisfy the fans and increase their investment.
And I believe Jones will lead the Cowboys to be the first team to play in their own stadium for the Superbowl this year and start towards dethroning Steinbrenner as the greatest owner in sports history…he has 16 years to prove me right.

LBJ

The harsh reality for the Knicks is about ready to be revealed. For the past 2 or 3 years the Knicks have been clearing cap space in hopes of signing LeBron James in this most anticipated NBA free agent summer. That dream is about to come to a screeching hault. LeBron has given all indications that he has no intention what-so-ever on signing with the Knicks.
To make matters even worse, none of the other big free agents are leaning the Knicks way either. The biggest free agent that they were rumored to have a good shot at was Joe Johnson. But his home team, the Atlanta Hawks, are now said to have offered a max contract and likely to re-sign him.
So where do the Knicks go from here? I believe they should concentrate on slightly less expensive players, but younger; like Rudy Gay. A player like that is a player that is still improving everyday and he would not command max dollars. They could even sign some role players to surround him with support, i.e. Ray Allen. Ray would be ideal because he is relatively low salary but still lethal from 3 point range. And maybe with those two players signed you’d be able to convince Carlos Boozer to sign on. That would be a pretty good core four; Rudy Gay, Ray Allen, Carlos Boozer and Danilo Gallinari. And even better, the Knicks can sign another max free agent next year when Eddy Curry’s contract expires and have free agents like Carmelo Anthony, Yao Ming, TJ Ford, Tony Parker and Kevin Durant being available…AND they will finally have a first round pick in next years draft (granted it should be a late pick if they have a core four like that).
So Knick fans, it’s not the end of the world if they don’t sign LeBron, Wade, Bosh or Johnson. They can still build for the future and start winning next year. So this may not be what we expected or wanted, but things will be okay in Knick world.

The Mick

Last night on the Wingman Show we discussed a topic in honor of Father’s Day; granted a day after the holiday, but still….
The question was asked, what great athlete did you not get a chance to watch, but heard from your father (or anyone else of that generation) on how great a certain player was. For me, my father used to always talk about Mickey Mantle the most. And still says to this day that he was one of the greatest baseball players ever, and he wishes we would of had a chance to watch how great he was. He also says similarly about Jim Brown and Mohammad Ali.
Anytime someone debates who the greatest NFL runningbacks are, he says without question its Jim Brown.
Then another question arose; what player from our time will we be telling out kids, “I wish you could have seen this guy, he was the greatest ever”? Is it going to be Michael Jordan, Jerry Rice, Bo Jackson or Wayne Gretzky. Or maybe like myself, if you don’t have kids yet, maybe its a player who’s just starting out like Stephen Strasburg.
There is no clear answer and everybody may have different thought opinions, which makes it an intriguing topic.
If and when I ever have kids, I believe the athlete I will be telling them stories about will be Michael Jordan. I always love to witness “the greatest” and history, and I believe I did that while growing up and watching Michael Jordan.

Joe Mauer signed an extension with the Minnesota Twins, 8 years $184 million.
He is a Minnesota home grown ball player and everyone was saying that it was imperative for the Twins to re-sign him and not let some of the big market teams bid for his services.
The Twins have long been considered one of the best managed teams in baseball, both on and off the field. They very rarely over paid for players, even if it meant getting rid of one of the best players in their prime (see Johan Santana). They would consistently find hidden gems in their minor league system and trade for other teams minor league players that were to be thought to be washed up; and then turn them into an all-star.
Now with the Twins giving so much money to one player, does this change the way that the Twins do business? Will giving so much money to one player prohibit them from signing opther players, thus having to go with more minor leaguers?
I don’t think that this will effect the Twins in the near future, but I do feel this will effect the Twins 2, 3 or 4 years from now. I think you may see the Twins trying to trade Mauer around year 5 of this contract.