These immortal words from Mrs. Matt Millen. I am guessing the lots of eternal blessings she mentions must be the countless millions of dollars Matt Millen took from the Ford company. Remember, he signed for $5 million per year at the beginning and had an extension a few years back. Somewhere between $35 million and $50 million is what we can safely assume he earned. He could at least donate a few million or so to provide free mental health care for tortured Lions fans. Well, it's at least nice to see that Ford bring the same insight to running their football team as they do to their business. It's remarkable how closely Ford's decline has mirrored the Lions performance during the Millen era. Maybe these guys shouldn't be in charge of anything more complicated than a lemonade stand.
Hectic week and family obligations have boxed me in to writing this week's edition last minute. Which is unfortunate because there is so much to cover. Devil Rays division winners. They will always be the Devil Rays to me. I don't get the whole "Rays" thing. Is it still a sting ray? Or is it a ray of light? Their jerseys have a funky little sparkly thing. Who knows. Well, you know what they say, you can keep Ray away from the Devil, but you can't take the Devil out of the Rays. They do say that, really. In one of the more pathetic "we've never been here and don't know what the heck we're doing" moments, the Devil Rays pleaded for national assistance to come up with someone to throw out the first pitch. I can come up with five off the top of my head. Fred McGriff, Wade Boggs, the guy from the Dennis Quaid movie, Jon Gruden, Dexter Jackson, some guy from the Lightning Stanley Cup winning team. How bout gold medal star Dwayne Wade. Miami's close enough. What NBA team do we think Tampa Bay cheers for? Fine, go with Dwight Howard. I like Wade though. D-Wade. D-Rays. It works. D-Rays are out in 3 or 4 games. If you can't pick a first pitch thrower-outter, and you need to nationally cry about it, you don't belong there and you will prove so in the playoffs.
Manny is an NL MVP candidate with 53 games played. Not saying he's going to win, but he'll be in the top five in voting. Manny is far from blameless, but with his talent and production in LA, doesn't there have to be some tiny little part of the blame pie put on Terry and Theo? Not half, not even a third. But some tiny little slice? With three front line pitchers and Manny mashing, wouldn't the Sox have finished ahead of the Devil Rays and avoided the Angels in the first round? Wouldn't they be a sure fire World Series favorite, and not an underdog to the Angels who went 8-1 against them this year? Maybe nothing would have worked. But what they did, certainly didn't. Manny threw a fit practically every year around the all-star break. You just shake your head, laugh it off and know that Manny will forget it happened within a week and go back to mashing the ball. It happened time and time again. All I'm saying is this ownership group has been trying to get rid of Manny ever since they took over this team. They tried repeatedly. How can this fact not be part of the equation? You didn't want him, you never wanted him, he didn't fit in your neat little box of what a star player should be. It's a hell of a long shot, but if Manny's Dodgers beat the Sox in the Series, don't we have to point a finger at ownership/management for not being able to find a way to co-exist with Manny? Isn't it their job to "make it work" Tim Gunn style. I had originally written Peter Gunn, but my wife corrected me.
Just picks this week after last week's 6-9. Home teams in CAPS.
Broncos -9.5 over CHIEFS
Browns +3.5 over BENGALS
Texans +7 over JAGUARS
JETS -1 over Cardinals
SAINTS -5 over 49ers
Falcons +6.5 over PANTHERS
Vikings +3 over TITANS (this week's anti logic pick)
Packers -1 over BUCS
Bills -8 over RAMS
RAIDERS -7.5 over Chargers (see Vikings pick)
COWBOYS -11 over Redskins (too good too early, the Wade Phillips era)
Egales -3 over BEARS
Ravens +5.5 over STEELERS
13-16-1 on the season.
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