Thursday Thoughts

No more Terry Stotts! Wooo!

Why am I so excited about this? Stotts has never been a good coach anywhere he goes. If you'll remember, this was not a Larry Harris hire. This was a Herb Kohl thing. Kohl was nuts about Stotts, but I think Harris pulled the trigger on the firing.

I mean, look at the team that Stotts had this year. It was deep. It was talented. Villanueva is good. Andrew Bogut is good, borderline great. We all know how good Michael Redd is. Sure there were injuries. Harris was still trying to get it done, picking up Earl Boykins to give the team a spark, and Stotts was giving them nothing. Absolutely nothing.

I'm interested to see what direction this team goes in. If Larry Krystkowiak doesn't work out, I think you have to dump Larry Harris, sorry to say. His personnel moves have been great (yes, I agree with the Magloire trade and the Simmons signing).

I need to come up with a name for Krystkowiak. Any takers?

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So, Pete Rose admits he bet every day, every game, 24/7. Congratulations for him. This is a big moment, I'm sure.

I know what he's trying to do. He's trying to say that he didn't affect the outcome of games because he was always betting that his boys would win. He thinks this makes him look better. It doesn't.

Especially after all the lies he's told, how can we believe this one? He's not making it into the Hall Of Fame, not now, not ever. Stay away from baseball, Pete.

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This is from cnn.com:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0703/gallery.mlb.postcards.camp.brewers/content.1.html

Take a look at the picture of Kevin Mench. Really encouraging there. Nothing like looking like a total ape for a photo shoot.

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That's it for today! Stay tuned tomorrow for my Friday Free Agency Frap-Up.

Metroid Prime Is Really Good

So I've finally found a game for the Gamecube that enjoy immensely. Metroid Prime is incredible.

I have always loved Metroid games. Something about them gets me every time. However, I hate first-person games on consoles, so I just picked this up for $5.99. I wasn't expecting much.

Boy, was I wrong. Intuitive controls, and a feeling like you're actually inside the suit makes this incredible. Like when you walk up to a flaming spout and condensation appears on your mask, making it difficult to see? Awesome.

When you stand really close to a wall and fire a shot and you see your eyes reflected in your visor? Incredible.

Who knows if my love affair will continue. It might, it might not. But boy, am I enjoying the ride.

Randy Moss: The Case For And Against

How do I feel about the Packers being interested in Randy Moss?

I'm torn. I really don't know what I feel. So in order to help organize my thoughts and come up with a decent opinion, I've broken it down into Pros and Cons. I'll start with the Cons first:

CON: The mooning incident.

This was inexcusable. It's what most people think of immediately when they think of Randy Moss. He says it was because the fans do it to opposing teams. Whatever. It was a boneheaded thing to do.

It's okay for a fan to moon an opposing player. They're not getting paid millions of dollars to be the representatives of a team. When Randy Moss "mooned" the Lambeau faithful, he did it not just as Randy Moss, but a representative of the Minnesota Vikings and the NFL.

CON: "I play when I want to play."

Now, my theory about this statement is that he was trying to appear tough and rebellious, so he shot his mouth off. Fair enough. Still a bad move, all the more so because it's true. Almost every player takes a down off here and there. When Moss does it, though, or more importantly, publicizes it, it just looks even worse.

CON: He's just not the Randy Moss of old.

Remember the guy who would stretch defenses and scare the crap out of people? The guy who was a home-run threat every time he touched the ball? Yeah, Randy Moss is 30 now. He just can't do that anymore. He's not a Jerry Rice workout freak, just a really talented reciever who lost a step or two.

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Those are some pretty daunting Cons. Is it worth bringing in a guy who's not the guy he once was, who could possibly destroy your team chemistry? Well, let's take a look at some pros.

PRO: Randy Moss has grown up.

He's 30 now. When was the last incident you heard of? During his last few years with the Raiders, even through coaches like Norv Turner and Art Shell, you heard nary a peep from him. He would complain about the bad coaching, and he was correct. He kept his nose relatively clean, though, which for Randy is pretty good.

PRO: Moss works better when he has strong teammates.

Randy's best and most stable years were with Cris Carter by his side. His last few years in Minnesota, though, he had Mike Tice as his coach, who is certainly not the strongest leader of men. He had Daunte "Boat Party" Culpepper a rogues' gallery of wide receivers alongside him, and no running backs to speak of to keep the defenses honest.

If Moss goes to Green Bay, he's going to have Donald Driver on the other side. He's going to have Brett Favre as his quarterback, at least for another year or so. Mike McCarthy is feeling his oats as a head coach. Ted Thompson won't put up with crap. He'll have a support system around him.

PRO: While Moss isn't as explosive anymore, he didn't really have much around him.

For Moss' last few years in Minnesota, there wasn't a real running back. He had Culpepper throwing to him, and he's been exposed as a fraud. He had random wideouts along from him, but no one who could take the defense away from him.

In Oakland, he had Kerry Collins and Aaron Brooks dishing him the ball, as well as enough other quarterbacks to start their own Arena League. I mean, Andrew Walter? Marques Tuiasosopo? Plus, he once again didn't have anyone across from him. Jerry Porter never played, and Ronald Curry just can't get it done.

In Green Bay, he'll have competent quarterbacks getting him the ball. He has not just one starting-quality receiver across from him in Donald Driver, but don't forget about Greg Jennings either. Whomever the Packers get as their running back will do okay because the line is starting to gell. He also has a red-zone threat in Bubba Franks alongside him.

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I can make more of a case FOR Randy Moss than AGAINST Randy Moss. I mean, this could go spectacularly bad or incredibly good. There really isn't an in-between. However, it seems more likely to end up good than bad in my book.

Pwned By Jerry Kramer, Plus Brewers Talk!

So, getting dissed by Jerry Kramer.

For a while, I worked in a nice-ish hotel, and we played host to a golf outing for several Packer Hall of Famers, including Don Majkowski, Bill Currie, and Jerry Kramer. First off, Majik was drunk practically the entire time. Him and Bret Bielema wouldn't stop smoking cigars in the lobby, and you try and remove two men who outweigh you by at least 100 pounds.

That wasn't the worst of it, though. I have read the book "Instant Replay," by Jerry Kramer and Dick Schaap, just about every year now. It's Jerry Kramer's diary of the 1967 season, starting when Paul Hornung goes to the Saints ending with Lombardi's retirement and Phil Bengston's hiring. It's an illuminating book, one that should be required reading for anyone doing sportswriting.

Suffice to say, this book is one of my all-time favorites. I was really excited to meet the man who wrote one of my favorite books and tell him what his book meant to me. It was horribly unprofessional, but you only have one chance to tell someone like that what you think about him.

Finally, Jerry came up to the desk. He had some questions, and myself and my other front desk mates were answering them. Before he was about to leave I said, "Oh, and Mr. Kramer..." He turned away and asked the other people a question. Then I piped up again, thinking, hey, maybe he didn't hear me. I tried again and he did it AGAIN. After the third time I tried, he thanked us and walked away from the desk.

So there it is. I was pwned by Jerry Kramer.

What does this have to do with the Brewers? Well, every year, you try and talk to national sportswriters about the Brewers, and they react in much the same way. They would rather talk about the Yankees or the Red Sox, or laugh at the Royals for a while, than talk about an up-and-coming team in the NL Central.

I mean, think about it. Last year, they were plagued with injuries. There was Ben Sheets at the beginning, then Tomo Ohka. Then J. J. Hardy got hurt, then Rickie Weeks went down, then the weird Derrick Turnbow meltdown happened. The Turnbow thing cost them two or three crucial games right at the All-Star break where they were finally starting to poke their heads above .500, which was devastating. They traded away Carlos Lee because of it. After the Lee trade, Prince Fielder was no longer protected in the lineup, so he looked mortal.

Out of the negatives, though, it's important to remember some positives. Bill Hall looked really good, and he'll be perfect in center field. Corey "Sunglasses At Night" Hart will play in right, and Ryan Braun' s bat looks amazing so far. They picked up Francisco Cordero in the Lee trade, and he was pretty decent. They'll be stable at closer until Turnbow returns to form, and their starting pitching should be decent.

Now, I'm not crazy about the Suppan signing. I mean, he's just Jeff Suppan. Don't expect too much. I also don't understand the Johnny Estrada trade. You had CHEAP starting pitching, which is at such a premium in baseball these days, and you traded it to get a catcher. You already had two average to above-average catchers. Maybe they're planning on trading Mike Rivera or Damian Miller, considering how few good starting catchers there are.

However, this team is surprisingly free of holes. Sure, you have Geoffin Menchins starting in left field, but one of them has to hit the ball every once in a while. The infield is strong. The pitching, starting and relief, is actually solid. Considering the shoestring budget, this team is shockingly good.

So, there's no need to pull a Jerry Kramer on this team. If things go their way even slightly, we could be looking at a rising young team in the NL Central.

Nintendo: All The Right Moves

Let's just come out and say it: The Gamecube was a mistake.

The mistake wasn't so much in the system. It's as solid a piece of hardware as you can get. The controller is good. You wouldn't think it is, but it's intuitive, more than you would expect.

No, the mistake is in the games. Nintendo has made fantastic games, just not enough of them. They constantly changed formats when Sony was championing backwards compatibility. Microsoft went the way of multiplayer gaming, completely taking over in that sector.

So, Sony had variety, Microsoft had multiplayer, and Nintendo had...what again? Oh yeah, some good games every once in a while, and you could plug your Game Boy Advance into it, if you wanted.

However, to quote the movie Elizabethtown (just watched it, loved it): No true fiasco ever began as a quest for mere adequacy. Nintendo shot high, and missed.

Fortunately, with the Wii, they seem to be atoning for past wrongs. Consider: Nintendo realized that they need backwards compatibility. That's a huge jump for them. Nintendo has the most history of any company, save Sega. Sega didn't know how to leverage that history and they died. Nintendo was fast on its way. Now, with the Virtual Console and downwards compatibility with the Gamecube, they've started to repent of their sins in a big way.

Second, the wacky controller. I tried this controller a bit, and I can't really say I'm impressed. However, just because I'm not crazy about it doesn't mean it's a bad idea. Considering how many people love it, it's a fair statement to say they made the right decision by going in a completely unexpected direction.

The biggest reason, though, is Sony's total lack of competence regarding their own launch. How you screw up a launch that badly is beyond me. Chimpanzees might have made better work out of that launch, frankly. It was theirs to lose. When you consider what Sony had - momentum, brand recognition, and downward compatibility - there really should have been no ceiling. But the creepy launch commercials, the typical design problems, the lack of TRUE backwards compatibility, and the parroting of all the successful ideas from other systems was their downfall.

The thing that really made me laugh was Sony's attempt at downloadable games. They copied that idea from Microsoft. A good idea, worthy of copying. However, then they decided they would get Neo-Geo games, parroting Nintendo's Virtual Console. Then they added the motion sensing to their controller, once again parroting Nintendo, which also destroyed the vibration function that Dual Shock users are so used to.

Combined with the increasingly positive press from Nintendo, it signalled an end to Sony's domination, at least for one quarter. Does this signal the end for Sony? Ha. Ha ha.

Remember which company had arguably the worst launch last time around? That's right, Sony. Hardware failures, lack of must-have games...sound familiar? Sony has proven they can bounce back.

So, in other words, Nintendo had a great launch. A really, really great launch. Nintendo made all the right calls, and the right decisions, and figured out what their audience wants, and had just the right amount of luck.

Don't count Sony out, but Nintendo, to this point, has made all the right moves. The Wii deserves the accolades it's getting. Let's hope it continues.

I Pick Poorly, Plus Boo Gamecube

It was obvious, wasn't it?

Obvious that you should NEVER, EVER listen to my picks.

The Saints should have won that game. They gave it away over and over again.

The Patriots had nothing left in the tank at the end, but they were up at the half. I mean, come on!

So, now it's Colts versus the Bears in Super Bowl XLI (I know I said XL in my last column, but that was a lie), and I look like an idiot. That's okay, though.

More on this topic later this week.

In the meantime, I just borrowed my friend's Gamecube. It's passable. I mean, I'm not enthralled and wetting myself. I'll probably play some Metroid Prime, and Zelda: Wind Wanker looks okay, and I love Smash Brothers Melee, but I've got just as many games for my PS2 that are just as good. Plus, I have a ton more games that I want for it.

I'm glad I got the Gamecube bug out of my system, though. I might have otherwise wasted money getting one otherwise. Not that it's a bad system by any means, but there is so little that I have any desire to play, and there's only a few games for it that I can't get for my PS2, like Metroid, Mario, and Zelda.

Now, of those games, I don't like Zelda games, the newer Mario games do nothing for me, Killer 7 and Eternal Darkness don't tickle my fancy, and as far as games like Chrystal Chronicles, I've played approximately 300 action RPGs, and Dawn of Mana is on it's way for the PS2, so why should I bother? It's light on RPGs, my personal favorite genre, all that it has for platformers is Mario and a few other scattered games, I mean, why should I bother?

To illustrate, let's say you're going to go out to eat. You can either get a really good steak, or the buffet that has steak as well. Maybe not as good, but it's still steak. Plus, if you pick the buffet, you get mashed potatoes, green beans, unlimited drinks, and dessert, not to mention the other buffet items, like pizza, chicken, macaroni and cheese, and whatever all else they put in buffets nowadays. What will you pick?

The Gamecube is really good steak. It's good when you're playing it, but you're not getting any more. No variety. The PS2 is the buffet. You're getting a whole lot more choice, and most of it is just as good, if not better.

I'll keep my PS2, and take the buffet, thank you very much.

Obviousness in the NFL Playoffs

Can you honestly say you were surprised?

I am, of course, referring to last weekend's playoff games. Can you say you were surprised that Indianapolis beat Baltimore? Or that New England beat San Diego? Or the Saints beating the Eagles? Everyone and their mother knew that Seattle would lose to Chicago.

For instance, we got really caught up in San Diego's all-around talent that we forgot several key factors:

1) Marty Schottenheimer's playoff performance
2) Marty Schottenheimer's playoff performance
3) Marty Schottenheimer's playoff performance

Once the game was over, it was obvious that this would be the outcome. The Patriots always step it up a notch in the playoffs, and Schottenheimer-coached teams regress. It's a pattern.

On Indianapolis' "stifling" defense, let's get a few things straight. The Chiefs have no quarterback. Larry Johnson is a man without an offensive line. Tony Gonzales is not what he once was, and Eddie Kennison and Sammie Parker do not a receiving corps make. It was obvious that they would look good in that round, and the Ravens kept up the charge.

A quick perusal notes that the Ravens offensive line is not as good as everyone says, what with Jonathan Ogden having more problems that he used to. Steve McNair needs an oxygen canister to stand up, and Jamal Lewis is still having chafing problems from his time in the clink. It's not an overpowering offensive team, and Brian Billick is not an overpowering offensive coach, as much as he likes to think he is. Thus, the game was practically gift-wrapped and handed to the Colts. Obvious.

This brings us to this weekend. What are the obvious points? New England and Tom Brady is great in the playoffs. Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning struggle, historically speaking. The Colts weakness has been rushing. The Patriots have two very talented backs in Corey Dillon and Laurence Maroney. The Colts front four is good, but the Patriots' offensive line is better, and so on and so forth.

Everyone wants to believe that this is the year for the Colts, but it isn't. Defense wins championships, and the Colts haven't faced any offense that put it to the test. The Patriots win this game. Throw out the home-field advantage, because it doesn't matter.

In the NFC, no one was surprised by the outcome of the two divisional games. Chicago and New Orleans were expected to win, and win they did. However, everyone is now talking about Rex Grossman is Getting It Together and can Lead His Team To Victory.

I call shenanigans. Seattle played without three starting cornerbacks. Grossman had it easy. The Saints are old and a little slow in the secondary, but they're fundmentally sound, and healthy to boot. Obvious.

Next, people rattle on about the Bears' defense. A broken-fingered Matt Hasselbeck and a banged-up Shawn Alexander dented the vaunted Bears' behind a line that is no longer one of the best in the NFL. They have a few receivers, but nothing terrifying.

However, the Saints have a healthy, sound QB in Brees, a few rookies who are feeling their oats, and, oh yeah, Deuce McAllister. Forget about him? He's the glue for this team, and he's been their rock all season long.

The Bears may boast and brag about their amazing defense, but the Saints match up very well against them, and will keep them running all game long, en route to trip to Super Bowl XL.

It's obvious.