Strasburg Adds to the DC and Cleveland Sports Curse

After the latest news that Nat’s rookie phenom Stephen Strasburg tore a ligament in his arm and needs Tommy John surgery, taking him out of next season, I began to think DC sports is cursed, just like Cleveland. Cleveland has the longest title drought of cities with three teams, while DC is the longest with four teams. Well, which is worse?

Both cities main fan base is with football, so we’ll start there. The Browns won multiple titles in the 50’s and 60’s with Jim Brown and Otto Graham but have never been to a Super Bowl. The Redskins have won three Super Bowl titles, but none in the past 18 years. The Browns are infamous for Red Right 88, The Drive, The Fumble, and the move to Baltimore. Washington has Dan Snyder, Norv Turner, Gus Frerotte head butting a wall, and the reattempted fake field goal. Unfortunate Loser: Cleveland

Both cities have an NBA team of similar franchise lengths, with equally tortured pasts. The Cavaliers have never won a title and only appeared in their first final four years ago. The Wizards won a title back in 1978 as the Bullets, but have not made it past the 2nd round since 1982. Cleveland endured the Shot, numerous losses to Jordan in the 90’s, and now the Decision, numerous early playoff exits to the Celtics. DC has suffered through the Jordan/Kwame years and gun totting Gilbert Arenas. Unfortunate Loser: Cleveland

Since the Nationals have only been around five years, I cannot compare them to the Cleveland baseball team, so I’ll take a look at the Capitals’ failures in comparison to the Indians. The Tribe last won a World Series in 1948 and lost two World Series in the 90’s. The Capitals have never won a Stanley Cup in their 36 year history, failing in their only appearance in 1998. Cleveland is infamous for the baseball version of the Catch, the Major League movies, the Blown Save, The Stop Call, and countless players finding success after bolting. Meanwhile the Caps choked in the playoffs to Pittsburgh seemingly every year in the 90’s and 00’s and endured the Jagr blunder. Unfortunate Loser: Cleveland

That leaves us with the fourth and newest sports franchise in DC, the Natinals, err Nationals. After moving from Montreal, the Nationals have not had a winning season in six seasons, including this season, 20 games below .500. Including two 100 loss seasons, they are already on their third manager, second general manager, and couldn’t even sign their first round pick in 2008. The Strasburg injury is not the first costly one to the Nationals either, with Nick Johnson missing a year with a broken leg, and Jordan Zimmermann requiring Tommy John as well. Loser by Default: Washington

Unfortunately for Cleveland, not only do they appear more cursed, but Washington has more hope for the future with Ovechkin, Backstrom, John Wall, Ryan Zimmerman, Bryce Harper, a healthy Strasburg, and Redskins with an improved front office. Meanwhile, Cleveland has the remnants of the Lebron-less Cavs, lowly Indians with only Grady Sizemore, and the Browns whose only good young players are a left tackle and kick returner. Loser for being born in Cleveland and living in DC most my life and rooting for these teams: Me

The Real MVP of Sports: Dr. James Andrews

Before Brett Favre made his third return from retirement this week, he had to consult with a very significant person. No, not his wife Deanna, nor his children, nor his coach Brad Childress, not even his Viking teammates. The 40-year-old indestructible gunslinger needed the blessing of one of the most influential men in sports, 68-year-old orthopedic surgeon of the athlete superstars, Dr. James Andrews.

The renowned doctor started off in Alabama in the early ‘70s and after successfully operating on Roger Clemens’s torn labrum in the early ‘80s, both careers took off. On his way to 40,000 lifetime surgeries, including 2,500 Tommy John operations alone, Dr. Andrews has treated Bo Jackson’s broken hip, Michael Jordan’s shoulder and Peyton Manning’s knee. Similarly to Clemens, in 1991 Troy Aikman’s career began after going under Andrews’s skillful knife. More recently, the Saints should give the surgeon an honorary Super Bowl ring after repairing Drew Brees’s shoulder before he signed with New Orleans.

Even this month, if you search his name under Google news, 1,000 article hits come up noting his procedures. Speaking of Google hits, in a testament to his influence, if you just Google his name, he gets 7.3 million hits, compared to 208k and 390k for the super-agents for his clients, Scott Boras and Tom Condon, as well as only 700k or less for three of the four commissioners of the sports he repairs. So next time your starting quarterback tears his ACL or ace pitcher blows out a shoulder, the following day you better hope to hear the familiar name of the man behind the curtain.

Further reading:

Much longer bio pieces from ESPN and FastCompany.

Slideshows of a team of future MLB Hall of Famers made up of his recovered players and twelve star QB patients.

FFL Decision 2010: Mathews, Best or Spiller?

After winning two Fantasy Football Bowl titles in three years and posting the longest winning streak in South Run Oaks FFL history in the other year, my team nosedived last year, finishing in last place. Peyton Manning was still his solid MVP self, but the rest of my team got old (Terrell Owens, Clinton Portis), injured (Anthony Gonzalez, Felix Jones), or forgot how to catch touchdowns (Greg Jennings, TJ Houshmandzadeh). Therefore, I now have the first pick in the draft coming up and am in desperate need of a young franchise runningback. Since we are in a 12-team, 8-player dynasty league, my options are limited to the rookies and three in particular. Ryan Mathews of San Diego should be the starter on the Chargers in week 1, while Jahvid Best of the Lions and CJ Spiller of the Bills are more talented prospects, but are on less talented teams. It’s a tough decision for a new face of the Syracuse Merlins franchise to return to glory. Therefore, I solicited some advice from some strangers, experts, friends and enemies.

Strangers (random users on ESPN’s FFL message boards):

· “I would go with Best”
· “Stick with Mathews”
· “Mathews....Best and CJ might be injury prone.”
· “Spiller is the best long term prospect, though he'll probably sign a four or five year deal with the Bills and that means he's not a better prospect than Mathews for a long time. You have to take Mathews, he's good enough to be the starter in SD for a long time, and that’s more valuable than being the starter in Buffalo”
· “I still think you gotta like Mathews best, even in that format. Who knows when (or if) the Lions or Bills be good enough for Best or Spiller to be fantasy studs? The Chargers are ready right now. Running back shelf life is so short that I'd really weight the current pretty heavily. Take Mathews.”
· “Best is defiantly a better rookie RB than Mathews spiller and Tate, no questions”
· “Best and Spiller won’t even be the guy. They still have Kevin Smith and Mo Morris, and Fred Jackson and Lynch. Mathews is easily better than any other rookie”

Experts (ESPN’s FFL writers):

· “Ryan Mathews is the clear preseason favorite to lead rookies in fantasy scoring, Mathews looks like an early-down starter right away, with Darren Sproles operating as a third-down back and all-around threat. He was the NCAA's leading rusher last year and is a good player, but his talent is not sublime. And Mathews is a guy coming off a 276-carry season his last year at Fresno State.”
· “Jahvid Best has had elbow, shoulder and hip surgeries, plus his collegiate career ended early after a concussion. But he's impressed his pro coaches so much this spring and summer, it looks like he'll be an every-down player, too, especially with Kevin Smith likely to begin the year on the PUP list. If he stays healthy, this kid could be a big-play threat on the order of Chris Johnson. His health and his offensive line are in question, but his quickness and speed aren't.”
· “C.J. Spiller was my favorite rookie going into the draft, but landing in Buffalo did him no favors. Fred Jackson is a very good player and may lead the team in between-the-tackles carries, and for now Marshawn Lynch is also around. But Spiller has home-run speed, and the Bills will line him up in several spots to get him in mismatches. Plus he's likely one Jackson injury away from a starting gig, albeit behind what might be the worst offensive line in the NFL.”

Friends (Friends who play FFL but are not in my league):

· “Go with Best”
· “I like Best, he is going to play, and Lions offense should get better. Spiller is on a terrible team so who knows what #'s he will put up. Matthews, I just don’t know about him, I am still trying to figure out why everyone is so high on him.”
· “I think the consensus is that Matthews is walking into the starting role where as they may be more competition for the other two.”
· “I think Mathews is your best bet, the Lions always have a crappy o-line. Then again, Spiller could wind up good too. But he plays for the Bills....Given LT's success in SD though, I'd go Mathews”

Enemies (Fellow owners in the SRO League):

· “Barring any big changes in camp, you have a tough choice between Best and Mathews. If the draft was today, Mathews is your man but after camp gets going things might show up - bad hands, bad blocker, so won't see field as much.”
· “I don’t think you can go wrong with Mathews or Best. The Lions aren’t very good but they are getting better and Best is more talented than Mathews. I think Mathews has the best chance for success early but I just think Best is a much more talented player, Spiller as well”

Now all I have is the month of August to decide.

Dog Days of Summer

With only one major sport going on and ESPN bored out of their mind during the lazy dog-dangling days of summer, here are some things to look forward to:

• 4 Days until the Indians trade Shin-Soo Choo, their leader in AVG, HR, RBI, and SB, for a bag of peanuts
• 12 Days until the NFL Hall of Fame Game, opening the preseason
• 37 Days until College Football kicks off
• 38 Days until Strasburg throws a no-hitter against the Pirates, the 10th in the majors this season
• 41 Days until I draft #1 overall in my Fantasy Football League, starting a 10 year dynasty
• 46 Days until UVA plays at USC
• 46 Days until UVA is no longer bowl eligible
• 47 Days until NFL Opening Sunday
• 47 Days until the Browns are out of playoff contention
• 54 Days until Albert Haynesworth goes to one knee faking an injury because he’s winded
• 57 Days until the NHL season begins
• 58 Days until the Caps clinch the Southeast division for the fourth straight year
• 62 Days until Skins fans start calling for McNabb to be benched
• 68 Days until Strasburg strikes out 16 Mets in a 1-0 loss giving the Nat’s 100 losses for the third year in a row
• 68 Days until Peyton Manning throws 6 TDs and 400 yards against the Jags, but my fantasy team still loses since I have no one else
• 75 Days until Albert Haynesworth needs to be carted off because of a knee injury because he’s winded
• 82 Days until Mike Holmgren comes down from the front office to coach the Browns to victory over the Steelers, improving their record to 1-5
• 92 Days until Bosh, Wade and Lebron all simultaneously tear their ACLs coming down off of a fun bunch style high-five during warm-ups of NBA’s opening day
• 93 Days until the Wizards lose their opener despite 20 assists from Wall and Arenas to each other, since they have no one else to pass to
• 111 Days until Albert Haynesworth demands to be traded because the new defensive scheme is too hard for him and is causing him to be winded too often
• 123 Days until UVA tries to end its 6 game losing streak to VT
• 123 Days until Ohio State tries to extend its 6 game winning streak over UMich
• 158 Days until the Winter Classic in which Crosby will complain it’s too cold outside and will force the Caps to play in the new igloo instead of Heinz Field

My World Cup Experiences in Spain

After we planned our trip to Europe back in March, we realized there was a real chance of being in Spain during an historic World Cup run. Luckily that came to fruition after their 1-0 defeat of Paraguay hours before our flight.

Semi Finals vs Germany: Wednesday night, 7/7

After several days of touring in Barcelona, we planned to watch the semi-final game in a big screen plaza setting. However, Barcelonans are fiercely proud of being Catalan and do not rally around the flag as much as we expected. Despite having many players on the national team playing for FC Barcelona, the locals complained it was a different jersey. Therefore, we had to find a random restaurant to watch the game.

After Spain outplayed Germany for most the game, Carlos Puyol finally put one through on an unmarked header during the 73^rd minute. Let the celebrations of tourists on Las Ramblas begin:

Finals vs Netherlands: Sunday night, 7/11

A couple days later in Pamplona, hours after the running with the bulls, we found the main plaza to watch the final.

We arrived an hour early and were treated to a live bear circus show

After the 0-0 first half, a storm rolled through

After a scoreless 2^nd half, a sprint to the bathroom and back, and 26 minutes of overtime…history:

(The goal is 5 seconds in, the final whistle is at 6:30)

After the happy group pic,

The aftermath.

Hours later we were off to the rest of our trip after enjoying a unique view of sporting history.

Spain in the Final and Lebron

I have plenty to discuss regarding LeDecision and Spain in the World Cup Final but I am in no position to discus without kickass video proof yet. (Which I cannot provide until much much later since I´m on borrowed time from the lobby computer in Barcelona with no USB cord.)

The Five Choke Special

After UVA baseball collapsed in the super regional last night, the spring of disappointment is now complete. That’s five #1 ranked teams, zero titles.

As noted in an earlier post, the Caps had their best regular season in team history, but bowed out in the first round. The Cleveland Cavaliers won 60 games again, but were upset by the Celtics in 6 games in the second round, and might have a bigger loss if Lebron leaves.

Meanwhile, UVA’s spring sports joined the choking list. The men’s tennis team continued their trend of going nearly perfect all year only to lose in the NCAA semi-finals, taking their three year record to 102-4 with no titles. A week later, the lacrosse team lost to eventual champ Duke in the final seconds, ended a season where the only losses all year were to the Blue Devils. To end the heartbreak spring playoff runs, UVA baseball hosted their first ever super-regional and were one win away from returning to the College World Series, only to lose back to back games for the first time all year, ending their season and this torturous spring playoff season with a 11-0 embarrassing beatdown.

Well, now its time to turn to the fall. Oh, great.

World Cup Fever

Usually the fanfare of the World Cup is met with yawns here in the US, but after our strong showing in the Confederation’s Cup last year and our matchup in the first game, there is more attention this time around.

On Saturday the United States takes on England in one of the most anticipated games in the history of American Soccer. The Three Lions are the heavy favorites, but we’ve heard that one before, see: 1776. ESPN has been rolling out the commercials for a while, and even the two ambassadors have been eloquently talking trash to each other. Luckily the other two teams in the group are not as tough (Algeria and Slovenia), so we should advance to the knockout round, unlike last time.

This is also the first time I’ve been in an office pool for the World Cup so I have even more invested in it. After a little research, I noticed some interesting trends. Only twice has a team defended their title, and that was almost 50 years ago, so Italy’s out. No Confederations Cup winner has won the World Cup the following year, so Brazil is out, except that they have won every other WC since ’94, which is an easy trend. Only one time in 12 has the Euro winner gone on to win the World Cup two years later, so Spain is out, despite more than half my pool picking them. Only Brazil in ’94 won as the top ranked FIFA team, which is more of a reactionary ranking to the winner’s of the WC, so more reason to doubt the Green and Yellow this year. This hilarious post helps relate American sports teams to the World Cup teams, which helped me pick some of the smaller teams.

Can you name all the teams in this year’s Cup in 5 min? (Only missed 3). How about all the winners? (Was kind of easy since there aren’t many options). And finally all the host countries? (Missed two).

If USA doesn’t pull off the huge upset and wins the whole thing, then hopefully Spain does because I will be here and watching this from a balcony during the final. Viva la Furia Roja!

Hopeful Days for the Nationals

June 7th and 8th are going to be two key dates for the future of the Washington Nationals franchise. Not only is Stephen Strasburg making his major league debut on Tuesday, but the Nats have the first pick in the draft on Monday.

This time a year ago, Strasburg was drafted first overall and eventually signed at the deadline to the highest rookie contract ever. After going 6-2, with 1.30 ERA in his 11 starts in the minors, “Baseball Jesus” is making his long awaited debut on Tuesday, or Strasmas. Once his starting date was announced last week the game was sold out before it had a chance to go on sale. Cities are even trying to change their names to him, and his last minor league start was nationally televised on Versus. With the Nats only a couple games under .500, only 6 games out of first, and have decent run support this year, Strasburg’s 100 mph arm will be needed on a possible wild card push this season.

Meanwhile on Monday, Washington will be making another #1 overall pick, due to back to back 100 loss seasons. The runaway favorite choice for the Nationals is 17 year old power slugging catcher Bryce Harper, who took the GED early in order to play sooner. He has been highly touted since SI dubbed him the Lebron of baseball last year, but comes with some baggage of being an immature teenager. DC already has the polite face of the franchise and a silent hurler, so a cocky slugger might be needed.

Hopefully Harper will be catching the first pitch from Strasburg in a World Series in a couple seasons.

Hoos Going to Finish First?

After my earlier post about UVA spring sports, I felt it was a good opportunity to catch up on the winning teams headed into their NCAA championship stretches. Let’s all hope that these teams do not meet the same fates as my favorite professional spring teams and my playoff beards.

The #1 Cavaliers lacrosse team is 15-1 and is already in the second round of the NCAA playoffs. Their only loss was to Duke a month ago, which they avenged a week later in route to an ACC title. The Hoos take on Stony Brook this Sunday at 2:30 on ESPNU. Even if they get past #8 Stony Brook (for some reason the game was chosen to be in Stony Brook, NY before the season started), Virginia will have to face either #5 Duke for the third time this year or #4 UNC for the second time. #2 seeded Syracuse already fell to Army leaving the door open for #3 Maryland and a possible third matchup against the Terrapins in the title game; as if a possible three ACC team final four on Memorial Day wasn’t enough.

Meanwhile #1 UVA baseball is cruising along at 43-9, with a 14 game winning streak and three straight ACC series sweeps. Who even needs Ryan Zimmerman or Mark Reynolds? The Hoos head south to face Miami this weekend to wrap up the regular season before the ACC tournament begins during Memorial Day weekend on FoxSports/Comcast. They will most certainly host a regional June 4^th- 7^th and hopefully a super regional June 11^th-14^thon ESPN/ESPNU.

The red headed step child of the group is the #1 tennis team, which is 37-1 and has not lost since February 6^th, 33 straight games ago. They already dispatched Navy and Wake Forest in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament to make the round of 16 this weekend. In fact, the entire rest of the tournament is played between Friday and next Tuesday and UVa starts off by facing Duke for the third time this year. The finals will be on ESPNU on Tuesday.

Hopefully, if the Caps and Cleveland Cavs have taught me anything, it is to not get my hopes up for the top team in the league come playoff time, and maybe I’ll keep it to a playoff goatee this time around. At least UVA’s football team didn’t lose the spring game.

Building a New “Wall” in Washington

“Mr. Prokhorov, you can’t tear down this wall”

There is a new era in Washington as the Wizards won the draft lottery for only the second time in franchise history in DC. Even though they had the sixth best chance of earning the top spot, they lucked out over several teams to draft first overall in June 24ths’s draft. The New Jersey Nets had the best chance, who, with new Russian billionaire owner Mikhail Prokhorov at the helm, were trying to entice Lebron James to come to Brooklyn with the #1 pick and Jay-Z.

The consensus best player in the draft is Kentucky freshman point guard John Wall, followed by Ohio State’s Evan Turner. Luckily this gives the Wizards the perfect opportunity to part ways with Gilbert Arenas and usher in a new era for the franchise. After jettisoning Jamison, Butler and Haywood, Washington can now ship out the gun-toting Arenas and the rest of his $100 million contract to make room for Wall.

Another part of the new era of the franchise is the arrival of new owner Ted Leonsis, taking over for the late Abe Pollin. Hopefully he follows his model with the Capitals, which includes drafting Ovechkin, Backstrom, Green, Semin and Varlamov, and not the Wizards’ formula. The Wizards either draft well, but trade the players before they reach their potential, like Devin Harris, Steve Blake, Richard Hamilton, and Rasheed Wallace, or makes a colossal bust. At least Jordan isn’t around anymore to work out the players before hand and botch the only other time they had a #1 overall pick with Kwame Brown.

This will be the fourth #1 overall pick since 2004 for DC area sports teams, which isn’t surprising for the city with the longest 4-team title drought. While Strasburg has yet to pitch a game, and the Nats have not even drafted their #1 pick this year yet, the Wizards can only hope that Wall will pan out as well as Ovechkin has for the Caps. They could easily trade down and draft more players to fit their many needs, but the Wizards desperately need a new face of the franchise.

Cavs and Caps Epic Playoff Fail

Well that was a disastrous spring. My sweet playoff beard for the Caps and Cavs lasted all of two rounds, barely a month. They both had the best records in the league, Presidents Cup, MVP, all for nothing. Now the future of both teams are cloudy. Obviously Lebron can leave after July 1, but the Cavs need to retool to keep him here. Shaq is too old and slow, Jamison is too soft, Mo Williams is too inconsistent, but there are many promising free agents to be Lebron’s Pippen if he wants to stay. Meanwhile, the Caps need to resign Backstrom, who is the key to the offense, as well as find a shutdown defenseman who is not looking to score first, like Green. At least the Nats are going on a World Series run and have their own savior.

Win the Trophies that Matter

Now that Lebron has won his second MVP trophy, the Cavaliers are now seeking a more important one, a NBA title. However, setting records and getting multiple shiny trophies is obviously secondary to team success. My favorite NBA, NHL, and NFL players are now the two-time reigning MVP’s but have had no team success to show for it at the end of those seasons, with only this year’s Cavs left. After winning his third and forth MVP the past two seasons, Peyton Manning’s Colts failed to claim the Lombardi Trophy. Alex Ovechkin’s MVP seasons ended in first and second round defeats for the Caps. This year even though OV is a finalist for another Hart Trophy, Washington was bounced early from the playoffs yet again. Last year, after winning Cleveland sports’ first MVP since Brian Sipe 30 years ago, the Cavs fell to the Magic before reaching the Finals to meet Kobe and his Lakers. In fact, when Peyton did win his only Super Bowl in 2006, Tomlinson was the MVP. While the most valuable player not winning the title is nothing new, the stats are interesting.

If Lebron doesn’t deliver Cleveland a championship, he’ll be the seventh straight MVP in the NBA to fail to bring home the Larry O’Brien trophy. Tim Duncan was the last to accomplish both, in 2002-03, part of a 37% correlation since 1956. However, of the 20 instances out of 54, 8 were just two players, Jordan and Russell.

In the NFL, only 26% of MVP’s won the title, with Kurt Warner in 1999 being the most recent. Strangely enough, between 1993 and 1999 seasons 5 of 7 MVP’s accomplished the feat as well as 4 straight in from 1959-1962.

Even though the Hart Trophy has been around in the NHL for 82 years, only 15 or 18% of those winners took home the Stanley Cup. Even when the Great One rattled off eight straight MVPs, the Oilers only won three championships. The last instance was Martin St. Louis and the Lightning in 2003-04.

The MLB is a little different since there are two MVP’s and less teams in the playoffs. The correlation that one of the MVP’s wins the World Series is higher than the other sports at 47%. From 1939 to 1948, all ten champion teams had the MVP on their roster. However, only one MVP has won the Commissioners Trophy in the past 25 seasons, and that was Kirk Gibson…on one leg.

When looking at one of the most prestigious individual awards in team sports, the Heisman, there is a small correlation as well at 14%. Even though the Heisman sometimes is just the best player on the best team that season, like this year with Alabama’s Ingram, the numbers for the BCS trophy are still low.

While winning the MVP is by no means a curse, like Madden cover or Sports Illustrated cover, it is no guarantee of team success as well. Here is the sporcle with the full list of MVP and Title winners.

Note: I used the AP Poll for the NCAA Football title, and I’m well aware that my favorite NFL player should be a Cleveland Brown. But come on, how could any of these QB’s, RB’s, or WR’s be a fan favorite? Hopefully Josh Cribbs does not have a letdown after his contract year last year.