Sports Agenda for Thursday (10/4/12)
Big Story:
The Marlins season is mercifully over. A former Marlins player becomes a triple crown winner. Why the Marlins still suck. Injury update on the Dolphins and my college football picks. All in the agenda today.
Quote of the Day:
"I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, 'Where's the self-help section?' She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose." – George Carlin
Marlins:
I did a full write up on the Marlins season which you can find here: http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/10/03/marlins-enter-offseason-in-shambles/
But, something else happened in Major League Baseball that proved without a shadow of a doubt the Marlins are the most short-sighted, cheapest, pitiful excuse for a major league team.
Miguel Cabrera…remember him…came up through the Marlins and debuted at 20 years old and was an instant star?
Sure you remember him.
He pulled off a feat last night that hadn't been turned in more than 40 years when he won the Triple Crown.
That means he led the league in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in.
That's one helluva feat and big time congratulations are due Cabrera as he is in the middle of a hall of fame career, yeah I said it.
But what this really shows is how poorly Marlins are run under Jeffrey "I'll steal money from other owners to make myself richer" Loria.
It was December 2007, the Marlins were going nowhere fast and instead of investing in their youth, Loria wanted to be the greedy owner that he is.
So he traded Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis for Cameron Maybin, Andrew Miller, Mike Rabelo, Eulogenio De La Cruz, Dallas Trahern, and Burke Badenhop.
Cabrera at the time was almost matching the number Alex Rodriguez put up through their first 720 games.
So basically, the Marlins traded a future Hall of Famer in Miguel Cabrera to the Tigers for a bag of peanuts and a cracker jack box to be named later.
And why would this happen you ask?
The petulant Jeffrey Loria wanted his new ball park and when he didn't get what he wanted, he decided to drive the team into the ground.
Oh, that's not the only reason though.
See, Loria knew he was getting revenue sharing to help increase salaries. Instead of doing that, he took the revenue sharing and put it in his pocket and continued to run the team into the ground. (Check out Deadspin's review of the team's financial reports for more on this)
MLB knew about this and only did something about it last year. So Loria spent money, but now that he didn't get what he wanted in the first year, it's time to shed salary and go young again.
Yknow, I understand doing this in football where the salary cap and good drafting can keep teams even.
But in baseball, it just doesn't work, especially when you have people like David Samson running the show or Larry Beinfest making the baseball decisions.
But they have a shiny new stadium thanks to commissioners who were bought and blackmailed into building the stadium.
The saddest thing about the Marlins, other than their play on the field, is that we can't force Loria to sell the team to someone who will take care of it properly.
Well, MLB could, but it would take a complete fan revolt to pull that off.
Maybe that's what is needed….fans to just say, until Loria, Samson, and company are gone, we will not come back.
Imagine, attendance dropping even further next year because it always does the second year of a new stadium, and lets face it, right now, the Marlins will not be contenders again next year.
It's funny how something like seeing Miguel Cabrera succeed so well outside of Miami and it makes you realize just how dysfunctional your team has become.
Thank God it's football and basketball season.
Miami Dolphins:
A couple of injury notes from yesterday – Richard Marshall and Nolan Carrolll didn't practice, which isn't good for an already thin secondary. Reggie Bush was also limited with a new hip injury. My guess is he will play this week.
Oh and the Dolphins are road dogs this week to the Bengals.
Yikes.
College Football:
Before we get to the picks…how about my top 5.
- Alabama
- Florida State
- Oregon
- South Carolina
- LSU
If you're wondering, I think South Carolina is the biggest sleeper team in the country. They are really, really good and I fully expect them to beat Georgia. Speaking of which, on to the picks!
Arkansas State over FIU
USC over Utah
Auburn over Arkansas
K-State over Kansas
South Florida over Temple
Miss. State over Kentucky
Va. Tech over N. Carolina
Stanford over Arizona
Duke over Virginia
Clemson over Georgia Tech
Wisconsin over Illinois
TCU over Iowa State
LSU over Florida
Texas Tech over Oklahoma
Michigan over Purdue
Oregon State over Washington state
South Carolina over Georgia
Texas A&M over Ole Miss
West Virginia over Texas
Nebraska over Ohio State
UCLA over Cal
Oregon over Washington
Right about here is where I make my Mizzou pick. They get Vanderbilt this week. I never thought I'd type this, but I'm honestly nervous about having to play Vanderbilt. That shows you the difference in quality of opponents from the Big XII where Mizzou was a top team, to the SEC where Mizzou is in the bottom middle of the pack. Nevertheless, here goes….
Mizzou over Vanderbilt (but…if Mizzou loses, I refuse to pick my graduate school alma mater for the rest of the season over anybody)
Finally, a team that no one is paying attention to right now but could be a BCS spoiler?
Louisiana Tech….look out for them later on in the year. Oh, and Ohio University…the Bobcats are undefeated and likely to finish that way under former Nebraska head coach Frank Solich.
