Vick Cashes In

Boy, does it help to be a gifted football player. Just a few years removed from prison, dog killer Michael Vick was signed earlier today for six years and 100 million dollars, roughly 40 guaranteed, by the Philadelphia Eagles. This comes after a season in which Vick posted a 100.2 passer rating and was awarded the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year Award.

The average person with a criminal record struggles to find any work at all, but football can take someone a long way. Formerly bankrupt, Vick will have the cash to build a mansion similar to the one in Surry County, Virginia, the site of his dog-fighting ring, Bad Newz Kennels.

By signing Vick to such a lucrative deal, the Eagles have made the decision, or statement that Michael Vick is now their franchise. The struggling offensive line will have even more of a responsibility to protect him, as he is now 100 million dollar property.

His top receiver, DeSean Jackson, now has more reason to gripe. A top ten NFL receiver, he had all the right to hold out during training camp, as he is due just $650,000 this coming season. It is a possibility the Eagles tried to free up more cap space for Jackson by signing Vick to such a long-term deal, but it didn't do much, as the Eagles are only four million under it. This is not enough to give DeSean the money he wants. There is always the consideration that if the Eagles see enough in Steve Smith they might be willing to part with Jackson altogether and have Smith and Jeremy Maclin as the primary receivers, but that is an issue for next year.

Vick's reckless style of play makes such a large investment extremely risky; whether he will last past this season is yet to be seen. He throws his body around the way Philly fans love in the nature Allen Iverson did playing basketball, but the front office will surely frown upon it. And the way the offensive line has guarded him throughout the preseason has not been encouraging, as Vick has taken numerous hits.

Vick's quality of play in the future is up in the air as well. Toward the end of last season opposing defenses seemed to pick up on his tendencies, and he finished up the year a lot sloppier than he began it. He's made reckless decisions so far this preseason as well.

All of this aside, the Eagles see enough in Michael Vick to give him a hundred mil. They see enough in him to entrust him with the task of accomplishing the one thing his predecessor, Donovan McNabb, could not: bring the Lombardi Trophy to Philly.

Bankruptball: Has Billy Beane Lost His Touch?

Nine years ago, the Oakland Athletics were on top of the world. Orchestrated by general manager Billy Beane, the 2002 A's amassed an impressive 103 wins, the same as the defending American League Champion New York Yankees. And at what price? About one-third of the Yankees payroll. Beane's methods became the stuff of legend when author Michael Lewis chronicled the 2002 A's season in his best-selling book Moneyball.

Starring Hollywood heartthrob Brad Pitt as Beane, the movie Moneyball - based on Lewis' book - will hit theaters in a mere month. Meanwhile, many pundits wonder if legendary Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane had lost his edge.

On Wednesday August 24, the New York Times ran an article suggesting the very same thing. Even Beane is not entirely optimistic.

“There are a lot of smart guys running teams now, and a lot of the guys who are smart also have a lot of money,” Beane said. “That’s a pretty tough combination to go against. We’ve all started valuing the same things. - The New York Times.

Since the release of Lewis' best-seller, teams have utilized Bean's methods. They have placed more emphasis on on-base percentage and slugging percentage than ever before, both key statistics in Beane's methods to evaluate players. Players like Brett Gardner and Carlos Ruiz have been discovered and are revered for their ability to grind out at bats and tire pitchers. A .240 hitter is a sought-after commodity because his OBP is a stellar .385.

Teams have turned around. Theo Epstein, using Bill James's wisdoms and Bean's tactics reversed the curse in Boston, winning a World Series in 2004 and 2007.

But unlike Beane's Atheltics, other teams have money. And with money and genius, as Beane pointed out, other teams are tough competition for Oakland.

The Oakland A's have not made the playoffs since they captured the 2006 American League West flag, only to fall to the Detroit Tigers in the ALCS. In fact, they have not finished above .500 since their last playoff berth.

Though the A's may not be what they were a decade ago, Beane's work will never go unforgotten.

The 2001 A's won 102 games, seven more than the Yankees. In fact, the A's and the Yankees met in the American League Division Series that year. Oakland took the first two games of the series, putting the Yankees one game away from elimination. Alas, the Yankees mounted a tremendous series comeback, winning the next three games to stun the White Elephants and advance to the American League Championship Series and eventually the World Series. Regardless of Oakland's shortcomings, they were still just one win away from ousting baseball's richest team from the playoffs.

In 2002, Oakland won 20 consecutive games. In the draft, Beane took future Major League outfielder Nick Swisher, now with the Yankees, and the workhorse right-hander Joe Blanton, currently on the Philadelphia Phillies. Shortstop Miguel Tejada won the AL MVP Award, Barry Zito won the AL Cy Young Award, and closer Bill Koch won the AL Relief Man Award. The pitching was perhaps the best in the league as three hurlers dealt over 200 innings - Zito, Mark Mulder, and Tim Hudson. Mark Mulder had the highest ERA of the three - 3.47 - and won 19 games. Not too shabby. Again, the A's fell short of World Series glory as they bowed to the Minnesota Twins in 5 games in the ALDS.

The impact Beane had on the game at the turn of the century is astounding. Never before had a general manager tried to change the game so radically as Beane. Beane's shrewdness, perseverance, and the team's success in spite of a payroll ranking around the 3rd or 4th lowest in the league immortalized both Beane and the A's in the annals of baseball history.

Beane touched off a revolution in evaluating baseball players nearly a decade ago. He's busted conventional wisdoms, changed the way scouts and baseball officials think, and proved that it does not take a Yankee-sized payroll to contend. But thanks to Lewis, Beane's secrets are out and his edge is gone. Even so, Beane remains one the most respected general managers in the game.

2011: A September to Remember?

Take a glance at the MLB standings. There is currently just one, yes, one, race for the postseason going on right now with just over a week until the final month of the MLB season. It's not the Yankees and Red Sox; they are currently just half a game apart, but the runner-up is almost sure to win the wild card. Only the NL West has two teams vying for one spot at the moment, as the Diamondbacks are trying to stave off the defending champs, the Giants.

With the exception of those four teams, all of the other division's top two games are at least four games apart. Unless the Angels or Indians have one last run in them, the division races aren't going to be much of anything. The Indians don't seem like they have anything left to catch the Tigers. They just do not have the offensive firepower needed to put together a September run. The Angels are trailing defending AL pennant winner Texas, who is 7-3 in their last ten games. I don't see the Rangers collapsing, either. And in the NL, St. Louis has almost no shot to catch the surging Brewers, who have quickly built up a massive nine game cushion.

This is the first season I can remember with essentially no wild card races. It is basically set in stone that the Braves will get the final NL spot, and the Yankees/Red Sox will in the AL. The Braves are too far away to challenge the Phillies and too far ahead of the pack in the NL (eight games) to be challenged themselves.

For teams that find themselves up with a few weeks to go (the Phillies), September can be used to rest starters and give the call-ups a shot in the bigs. The same can be said for all of baseball's bottom dwellers. This season, there is an awful lot of them.

As a baseball fan, I hope the Indians and Angels can make the home stretch a contest like the Tigers and Twins did just a few years ago. Remember Game 163 that was played? It's what makes September the month full of nail-biting action that it is known to be. For the fun to happen this year, a few teams need to step it up.

Travels: The Culture of Minor League Baseball

It's been said before - there is nothing minor about Minor League Baseball.

For decades, MiLB triggered images of ratty old ballparks, long road trips, small paychecks, and large phone bills built up by long distance phone calls. And for what? Well, the grass is greener in Majors (perhaps literally too).

Though MiLB may not be as rustic as it once was, it still is not The Show. And yet, it manages to attract millions of fans each year. Where is the minor in that?

But what is the appeal of MiLB? Why do fans line up to get autographs of nobodies and has beens when they could be at a MLB game? Yes, it seems absurd. But MiLB has a certain charm that even the MLB just cannot seem to match.

Many MLB logos can be characterized by letters (sometimes interlocking) in cursive fonts; not the most exciting designs. But MiLB logos are an entirely different breed. Many are examples of superior creativity and means of representing and celebrating local culture.

The New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Manchester, NH) logo celebrates the fisher cat, a forest-dwelling weasel native to the state of New Hampshire. The logo features a gray fisher cat with red eyes ablaze peeking over the words "Fisher Cats" in script font.

However, a number of Manchester locals still long for when the Fisher Cats were the New Hampshire Primaries, a tribute to the first primary of the presidential election season. When the team moved from New Haven, CT to Manchester, it was first dubbed the Primaries, sparking a local furor and a desire to change the name to, well, just about anything else. The Primaries logo featured an elephant and a donkey standing back-to-back clad in Uncle Sam top hats with baseball bats resting on their shoulders with a red, white, and blue color palette.

Among other eye-popping logos is that of the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs (Allentown, PA). The Iron Pigs salute the Lehigh Valley's legacy as a major steel manufacturing region with its fierce iron-plated pig head logo.

Up for a little southern cooking? A biscuit topped with butter is a major part of the southern cuisine, and the Montgomery Biscuits (Montgomery, AL) certainly recognize that with their logo featuring a crispy biscuit with a butter tongue peeking out from behind a yellow "M."

And some MiLb teams pay homage to their MLB parent clubs by taking their nickname and fundamental concepts of their logo. Examples include the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees (Moosic, PA), the Pawtucket Red Sox (Pawtucket, RI), the Tuscon Padres (Tuscon, AZ), and the Iowa Cubs (Des Moines, IA). In fact, all but one of the Atlanta Braves' MiLB affiliates - the exception being the Lynchburg Hillcats (Lynchburg, VA) - are nicknamed "Braves."

The names and logos are worth checking out. Besides, MiLB teams have some of the best cap designs. Not to brag, but I am starting to put together a pretty nice collection of some MiLB hats.

Perhaps the best part of MiLB is how it connects with fans. MiLB atmospheres resemble carnivals - fun and carefree. Not to put down MLB atmospheres, but business comes first and it is obvious. Promotions and post-game fireworks are numerous across MiLB.

Recently, the Portland Sea Dogs (Portland, ME) celebrated L.L. Bean night. The team honored the Maine-based clothing company by rewarding fans who wore their pair of L.L. Bean's trademark product, Bean Boots, with a free ice cream sandwich.

The Charleston River Dogs (Charleston, SC) are notorious for coming up with fun and sometimes absurd promotional days. Among the most recent was Lewbowski Night. It was a "Salute to The Dude" - the film character portrayed by Jeff Bridges. Silent Night was an innovative albeit strange and possibly financially irresponsible promotion of Charleston's. It forbid fans from entering the ballpark for the first few innings of the game. Nothing but the sounds of baseball - and crickets.

MiLB also has a neat way of really bringing fans closer the game, and not just physically. Players are friendly, yet serious. They are eager and determined to make it to the majors, but certainly take time for autographs. But why would anyone want an autograph from a Minor Leaguer? Because when the players make it big, fans can say they saw them as nobodies.

But let's face it, we as fans want to be physically closer to the game as well. Stadiums are small and seats are close to the action. My personal favorite? The New Hampshire Fisher Cats' digging grounds, Northeast Delta Dental Stadium, features a Hilton Garden Inn hotel built into left-center field. I have many times enjoyed a meal on the hotel patio while overlooking the baseball field. I always try to book a room overlooking the baseball field, even if there is no game being played during my stay. But that's not all, players frequently park balls during batting practice, on the patio, making it easy to snag a souvenir or two.

With all the fun one can have at a Minor League Baseball game, there is truly nothing minor about it.

Friendship Games Anything But

Ugliness prevailed yesterday when the Georgetown Hoyas visited China's Bayi Rockets. The exhibition game never finished due to the brawl shown in the above video, which happened with nine and a half minutes remaining.

Not to sound biased, but this is likely the Chinese team's fault. Yes, the Hoyas ignored the diplomacy meetings they attended before the visit, but this probably was not mostly on them. There was an instance in the game during a timeout when a Chinese player yelled from a foot away at Georgetown coach John Thompson III as he was addressing his team. It also must be noted that this same group of Chinese players has been fined tens of thousands of dollars for previous unruly behavior during games.

The intentions of the U.S. State Department for this trip that Georgetown, Duke, and Hawaii universities are making to China is to strengthen the ties between the two countries through sports diplomacy. While this has been an overall positive trip, this was not an instance of diplomacy in any way.

The basketball game had been rough from the start. The refereeing had been unfair and the men in stripes had lost all control of the game early. They awarded 57 free throws to the Rockets and just 15 to Georgetown. Perhaps they were afraid of the wrath of the wild crowd. Nonetheless, the game ended in quite the unexpected fashion.