Why I Was Rooting for Japan on Sunday...

I was probably one of the few Americans who was sincerely rooting for the Japanese women’s soccer team to upset the U.S. women’s national team in the championship match of the women’s World Cup on Sunday. Why? Because I knew that a win for Japan would mean more for that nation than it ever possibly could for the U.S. Japan has had such a truly devastating and horrifying year with the tragedy of the earthquake, tsunami and fear of radiation from damaged nuclear reactors earlier this year that killed thousands and effected almost everybody in that country in some way. I knew that a Japanese win would help to put a smile on the faces of many in that country and would go a long way in helping the Japanese people in the healing process. I know that some people who were following along with my tweets on Twitter and my statuses on Facebook on Sunday afternoon were bothered or maybe even slightly offended by my obvious rooting for the Japanese team. To those people I have to say that sporting events aren’t about patriotism. Just because I’m an American and an American team was playing doesn’t mean that I’m obligated to root for the American team. I chose to side with the Japanese team on Sunday because I’m a caring American who understands that sports can have a positive effect on people when they’re at their weakest. The Japanese team’s win on Sunday put a smile on my face not because I wanted them to win, not because I’m some sort of anti-American, but because I know it put smiles on a lot of grieving people’s faces. That’s what’s most important anyway.

Time to Stop Ridiculous Hating on Jeter

Over the years I’ve heard a lot of hatred thrown Derek Jeter’s way saying that he’s the most overrated baseball player in the game, some even say ever. Well, Jeter went 5 for 5 against the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday to become the 28^th player in baseball history to achieve 3,000 career hits. Only the 28^th and 3,000 is one of the most iconic, if not the most iconic, stats in the game. Now that Jeter has joined this class of all time greats that includes Hank Aaron, Ty Cobb, Stan Musial and others people should drop the “overrated” bit and see that Jeter is an all time great. It’s always amazed me when people tried to claim that Jeter was something less than a legend before, now if they do it I’ll know for sure that they are indeed highly ignorant. Give Jeter his due as a baseball legend and get over your asinine hatred for the man.

Bochy Makes Egregious Homer Picks

It seems almost every year the manager of the NL all star team does something either stupid or controversial. A few years ago it was Tony La Russa opting not to use his guy Albert Pujols in a pinch hit situation in the last inning of a very close game, instead using Nationals 1B Dmitri freakin’ Young. Last year it was Charlie Manuel’s controversial decision to name utilityman extraordinaire Omar Infante to the All Star team ... well, this year it's Bruce Bochy putting two of his own guys Tim Lincecum & Ryan Vogelsong on the roster, even though there are about 3-4 others more deserving candidates. This is the most egregious of the recent bad decisions by the NL All Star manager, in my opinion. Vogelsong is a close pick. He’s 6-1 with a 2.13 ERA, which would rank second in the NL, if he had the eligible innings pitched … but he doesn’t have the eligible innings pitched, so he’s taking up a spot of guys who’ve had almost as good ERAs in more games. Vogelsong’s ERA could easily be worse than those guys had he pitched the same amount of games. Tim Lincecum is an all star with a losing record. Sure, his 3.14 ERA is all star worthy, but a pitcher with a losing record, Lincecum is 6-7, should never be an all star. Bochy is giving his guys a break here, when more worthy guys (and there are plenty of ‘em) like Tommy Hanson, Kyle Lohse & Ian Kennedy are snubbed. That’s a joke.

Kasey Kahne Needs to Man Up

Late in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup road course race in Sonoma, California Juan Pablo Montoya spun out Kasey Kahne and naturally Kahne was irritated by it. However, it’s what Kahne said about Montoya in a postrace interview that really bothered me. Kahne said: “last year when his cars were good he still couldn’t win a race; shows about what he can do in NASCAR.” Well, I know Kahne was talking in anger, but in the real world Montoya has been more successful than Kahne since the start of the 2010 season. Montoya, in fact, did win a race last year at Watkins Glen, which is one more race than Kahne’s won in the last year & a half. Montoya also had a higher points finish and more top 10s than Kahne last year. In fact, since Montoya has come into the sport in 2007 Kahne has only had 2 more wins, 2 more top fives and 5 more top 10s than Montoya (who took a few years to get acclimated to stock cars), and Montoya who finished 8th in the points in 2009 has a higher points finish than Kahne in any of the last 4 ½ years. Kahne is basically still living off the one really good season he had in 2006, when he won 6 races. He continues to be an overrated driver and continues acting like the princess he really is. Kasey Kahne you need to seriously man up.

Reliving Marlins Owner's Horrible Decision to Can Girardi

In 2006 the Florida Marlins hired Joe Girardi as their manager after previous manager Jack McKeon retired. It was Girardi’s first managerial job and he nearly turned the Marlins completely around and had a struggling team from the year before in wild card contention late in the ’06 season. He was liked by fans, liked by his players, but he and Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria didn’t get along. After the season Girardi was named the National League’s Manager of the Year, but he was also fired by Loria, becoming the first manager in history to win that honor and be fired in the same season. Well, as you know Girardi was soon after hired by the New York Yankees and led them to a World Series title in just his second season with the team. The Marlins are on their third manager in just the four and a half years since Girardi’s firing, and oh by the way that manager is once again Jack McKeon. Loria made a horrible baseball decision back in 2006 simply because he couldn’t get along with Girardi and I hope he thinks about that every day during the Marlins recent skid toward the bottom of the NL East.

Stupid IndyCar Draw Could Ruin Franchitti's Season

For the first time in 30 years last Saturday night the IndyCar Series held two races on one night. The first race at Texas Motor Speedway was set by the normal qualifying session and three-time Indy champ Dario Franchitti went on to win the race. That’s when the stupidity and big problem set in. You see the starting order would for the second race of the night would be selected by a random draw, meaning the drivers could be lucky enough to select the pole position and could be just as unlucky and draw the 30^th and final position. Franchitti drew position 28. Current points leader Will Power, who is in a tight championship battle with Franchitti drew the third starting spot. Power’s spot, 25 positions ahead of Franchitti, allowed him to cruise to an easy win in the second race and even more importantly allowed him to open up a bigger lead in the championship standings. Thus, something as asinine as a random draw could wind up affecting the entire season and ruin Franchitti’s chances at a third consecutive and fourth overall championship. If the IndyCar Series decides to do another double race night next season they had better figure out a more fair way to set the field for the second race.