The Positive Side of not having an NFL season

Increased productivity in America's workforce and increase in GDP. That's right. Every week, US Employers lose an average of $1.1 Billion dollars per week in worker productivity. And that's only assuming they spend 10 minutes a day on their team. On another note did you guys see Steve Breston's poem "A League Deferred"? Took me a bit to get through his twang, but as you can see some players are not greedy bastards and understand that it really is the fans that are losing out. The best line for me "I tell the kids to Play 60 when I might not play a minute." Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1tPoZLDE_w

The Case for Atlanta- America's Team...in the '90's

Did the 'ol type an entire post and then close out the windows on my computer before hitting "Send."  Yup...So I'll try again.

I started collecting baseball cards in 1991.  Fleer was my first pack.  Yellow cards, simple, yet right away the greatest possesion of my life.  I love seeing those yellow Fleer cards from that year.  Signifies everything that is baseball to me.  Opening a pack, looking at stats on the back of the card.  Reading the tiny two line bios on the players.  Hoping, wishing, dreaming that I'll get an insert in the pack.  Which back then an "insert" was just a cartoonish picture of the guys in black though.  Either way, finding one of those in a pack was like finding a $20 bill in your laundry as an adult.  Pure bliss. 

1991 meant a lot of things for baseball.  The Pittsburgh Pirates won 98 games behind Jim Leyland's team of Barry "Skinny Girl" Bonds, Andy Van Slyke, Bobby Bonilla, Orlando Merced, Jay Bell, Jeff King, Doug Drabek, Zane Smith and John Smiley's 20 Wins.  Remember those guys?  They were a force to be reckoned with the next year too but they were not the only team to start winning.

The Atlanta Braves were dead last in the NL West (yes...the NL West) in 1990.  They went on to win 94 games and beat the Dodgers to be the first team since 1890 to go from last to first the following year.  The 1991 Twins did it the same year oddly enough.  Puckett...Game 6.  Superhero.  Jack Morris=Great American Stud.

1991 was the beginning of a Dynasty for the Braves.  We were "forced" to watch them on TV because they were owned by Ted Turner who in turn owned TBS.  They were ALWAYS on like the Cubs on WGN or Yankees on YES or Red Sox on NESN.  You just watched them because they were on.  Well...Noah and I didn't because we only had CBS, ABC, and NBC but that was only in the winter and well..never mind.  We grew up in Vermont.  Everyone else in America had TBS and watched the Braves.  It's a big reason there are so many Braves fans to this day just like there being so many Yankee fans.  That and winning.  And the Braves won a lot of games in the '90's.

Unfortunately they did not win a lot of playoff games or at least the really big ones in the World Series when it really counted.  They went on to win in 1995 over the stud Indians (Kenny Lofton, Omar Visquel, Manny Rameriz, Albert Belle, Eddie Murray, Jim Thome, Paul Sorrento, Tony Pena, Carlos Baerga ring any bells???  100 win season.  First WS appearance since 1954.)  but would not win again despite so many amazing seasons throughout the decade.  For those that need a refresher here's a little take on their players over the years...

Otis Nixon, Jeff Blauser, Terry Pendelton (MVP), Ron Gant, David Justice (married Halle Berry...), Fred "Crime Dog" McGriff, Javy Lopez, Chipper Jones, Mark Lemke, Marquis Grissom.  Just a few but maybe one more?  Sid Bream.  Who can forget the slide at the plate to beat his former team, the Pittsburgh Pirates in '92 Game 7 NLCS.  Amazing.  Still to this day the slowest man alive. 

The pitching though is what led this team to greatness.  Greg Maddux came on to the team in '92 and would go on to win 3 more Cy Youngs and four consecutively.  He joined Tom Glavine and John Smoltz and Steve Avery.  Later it would be Kevin Millwood and Denny Neagle filling in the last spot winning 15-20 games (Neagle won 20 games in '97 as the fourth starter...)  The Braves rotation pitched into the top 5 of nearly every pitching category every year.  Here's a little proof:

Dating back to 1990, the Braves rotations have produced five of the 10 best ERAs compiled by a club's starting pitchers during a specific season. They actually own the top three marks ('92, '97 and '98) within this span.
The 1995 bunch that celebrated Atlanta's lone World Series championship actually posted the highest ERA (3.25) among those five clubs.
Ironically, the best ERA compiled by an NL club's starters dating back to 1990 is the 2.98 mark posted by the '92 Braves, who were still a few months away from adding that Maddux guy to their quintet.
The 1992 Atlanta rotation was led by Glavine's second consecutive 20-win season and the 15-win campaigns posted by Smoltz and 35-year-old Charlie Leibrandt. The group's success was strengthened by the fact that Pete Smith managed to go 7-0 with a 2.10 ERA in 11 starts.
The 1998 Braves rotation combined for an NL-record 90 wins and posted a 3.06 ERA. Glavine (20-6, 2.47) won his second Cy Young Award while Maddux (18-9, 2.22) and Smoltz (17-3, 2.90) finished tied for fourth. Neagle's 16 wins ranked fifth, sitting just behind the 17 wins notched by Millwood.
As successful as the 1998 rotation was, there are some who will say the '97 Atlanta quintet, which posted a 3.05 ERA, might have actually been better. This group combined for 1,096 2/3 innings -- the most completed by any NL club dating back to '90, and third-most since '80.
Maddux ranked fourth on the '97 squad with 232 2/3 innings (a number that would have ranked third in the entire NL this past season) and Smoltz ranked fourth with his 3.02 ERA. Neagle went 20-5 with 2.97 ERA and still finished third in the NL Cy Young Award balloting behind winner Pedro Martinez and Maddux, who went 19-4 with a 2.20 ERA.
When the Braves returned to the World Series in 1999, they had a rotation that had posted a 3.67 ERA -- the highest mark compiled by their starters since the '90 season. Smoltz pitched with a torn ligament in his right elbow and both Glavine (14-11, 4.12) and Maddux (19-9, 3.57) encountered some rough patches.

This isn't even touching on the most magical part of baseball in all of the decade.

The Tomahawk Chop.

Nothing has matched it since and nothing probably ever will.  Watching those games with EVERY fan going absolutely nuts with the chop, the chant for every important and not important pitch made Brave's playoff games absolutely riviting, and mesmerizing.  The Braves came home to a team that supported them like no other and it was incredible to watch.  Sadly, I don't know that we'll ever get 50,000 Americans to pay attention to any one thing at the same time ever again to experience something like that. 

I'm sure some people will point to the Yankee's in the last half of the '90's as they were the ones that actually won World Series titles but let's face it, the best series the Yankees played was in 2001 which is a whole new decade therefore I'm not counting them.  The A's were a lot of fun to watch with the Bash Bro's and Dave Stewart staring people down before Eck came in to wash it up.  Twins were incredible with Puckett/Winfield/Morris stealing wins away from people.  Indians were super fun but for some reason I just never really got behind them. 

It also could be that I was a kid watching all these games.  Life was simpler.  Life was easy.  Life was baseball.  It was the day of baseball cards, wiffle ball bats off tennis balls, coming home at midnight to catch the Mariner's score and other West coast games, listening to Kay/Sterling on the radio while milking cows.  Life was different, not better, just different and watching the Braves all those years was some of the best baseball I remember seeing.  9 Straight Division Titles (would be 15 straight going into the 2000's).  You don't need WS Rings for that kind of dominance.  I'll leave you with this:

All Century Team??

Remember when this came out in 1999?  What would you change now, 12 years later?  Is Randy Johnson on here now?  Greg Maddux?  Alex Rodriguez?  Albert Pujols?  Is Bonds on there as a Starter?  It would be interesting to re-create this list again. 

All Century Team Official Starting Line-Up (1999)
Position	Name	Final Rank
Pitchers	Nolan Ryan	1.
	Sandy Koufax	2.
	Cy Young	3.
	Roger Clemens	4.
	Bob Gibson	5.
	Walter Johnson	6.
	Warren Spahn	10.
	Christy Mathewson	14.
	Lefty Grove	18.
Catchers	Johnny Bench	1.
	Yogi Berra	2.
First Basemen	Lou Gehrig	1.
	Mark McGwire	2.
Second Basemen	Jackie Robinson	1.
	Rogers Hornsby	2.
Third Basemen	Mike Schmidt	1.
	Brooks Robinson	2.
Shortstops	Cal Ripken, Jr.	1.
	Ernie Banks	2.
	Honus Wagner	4.
Outfielders	Babe Ruth	1.
	Hank Aaron	2.
	Ted Williams	3.
	Willie Mays	4.
	Joe DiMaggio	5.
	Mickey Mantle	6.
	Ty Cobb	7.
	Ken Griffey, Jr.	8.
	Pete Rose	9.
	Stan Musial	11.
All Century Team Official Starting Line-Up

All Century Team Voting Analysis The 100 Greatest Players (1999)
Rank	Pitchers	Fan Ballots	Notes
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26.	Nolan Ryan Sandy Koufax Cy Young Roger Clemens Bob Gibson Walter Johnson Greg Maddux Steve Carlton Satchel Paige Warren Spahn Tom Seaver Whitey Ford Bob Feller Christy Mathewson Jim Palmer Grover Alexander Dennis Eckersley Lefty Grove Dizzy Dean Juan Marichal Rollie Fingers Carl Hubbell Mordecai Brown Robin Roberts Eddie Plank Ed Walsh	992,040 970,434 867,523 601,244 582,031 479,279 431,751 405,365 399,657 337,215 330,219 253,120 252,115 249,747 158,266 151,255 143,710 142,169 130,389 122,366 106,416 54,618 31,342 23,366 13,195 12,687	All-Century Starter All-Century Starter All-Century Starter All-Century Starter All-Century Starter All-Century Starter Special Panel Selection Special Panel Selection Special Panel Selection
Rank	Catchers	Fan Ballots	Notes
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.	Johnny Bench Yogi Berra Carlton Fisk Roy Campanella Josh Gibson Mickey Cochrane Bill Dickey Gabby Hartnett	1,010,403 704,208 322,384 247,909 233,288 75,344 74,295 24,196	All-Century Starter All-Century Starter Negro League All-Star
Rank	First Basemen	Fan Ballots	Notes
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.	Lou Gehrig Mark McGwire Jimmie Foxx Harmon Killebrew Eddie Murray Hank Greenberg Willie McCovey George Sisler Buck Leonard Bill Terry	1,207,992 517,181 351,488 185,622 161,564 114,317 106,717 28,378 20,091 12,976	All-Century Starter All-Century Starter Negro League All-Star
Rank	Second Basemen	Fan Ballots	Notes
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.	Jackie Robinson Rogers Hornsby Joe Morgan Rod Carew Nap Lajoie Eddie Collins Charlie Gehringer Frankie Frisch	788,116 630,761 608,660 430,267 90,402 58,836 45,663 27,527	All-Century Starter All-Century Starter
Rank	Third Basemen	Fan Ballots	Notes
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.	Mike Schmidt Brooks Robinson George Brett Eddie Mathews Paul Molitor Pie Traynor	855,654 761,700 656,511 174,529 160,271 96,699	All-Century Starter All-Century Starter
Rank	Shortstops	Fan Ballots	Notes
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.	Cal Ripken, Jr. Ernie Banks Ozzie Smith Honus Wagner Robin Yount Luis Aparicio Luke Appling Joe Cronin	669,033 598,168 589,025 526,740 134,655 129,328 28,877 27,789	All-Century Starter All-Century Starter Special Panel Selection
Rank	Outfielders	Fan Ballots	Notes
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34.	Babe Ruth Hank Aaron Ted Williams Willie Mays Joe DiMaggio Mickey Mantle Ty Cobb Ken Griffey, Jr. Pete Rose Roberto Clemente Stan Musial Joe Jackson Reggie Jackson Tony Gwynn Carl Yastrzemski Frank Robinson Rickey Henderson Barry Bonds Lou Brock Billy Williams Tris Speaker Willie Stargell Al Kaline Duke Snider Cool Papa Bell Mel Ott Ralph Kiner Al Simmons Paul Waner Oscar Charleston Joe Medwick Wee Willie Keller Goose Goslin Harry Heilmann	1,158,044 1,156,782 1,125,583 1,115,896 1,054,423 988,168 777,056 645,389 629,742 582,937 571,279 326,415 296,039 232,476 222,082 220,226 180,940 173,279 131,361 97,911 84,461 71,585 67,719 63,410 59,189 51,748 32,302 15,930 15,057 13,893 11,238 10,553 9,475 9,415	All-Century Starter All-Century Starter All-Century Starter All-Century Starter All-Century Starter All-Century Starter All-Century Starter All-Century Starter All-Century Starter Special Panel Selection Negro League All-Star Negro League All-Star

Ode to Greatness - Nolan Ryan

Ode to Greatness:  Nolan Ryan

Quick Wiki overview:

Lynn Nolan Ryan, Jr. (born on January 31, 1947), nicknamed "The Ryan Express", is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. He is currently part-owner, CEO, and team president of the Texas Rangers.
During a major league record 27-year baseball career, he pitched in 1966 and from 1968–1993 for four different teams: the New York Mets, California Angels, Houston Astros, and Texas Rangers. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.^[1]
Ryan, a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher, threw pitches that were regularly recorded above 100 miles per hour (160.93 km/h), even past the age of 40.
While his lifetime winning percentage was a relatively pedestrian .526, Ryan was an eight-time MLB All-Star, and his 5,714 career strikeouts rank first in baseball history by a significant margin.^[1] He leads the runner-up, Randy Johnson, by 839 strikeouts. Similarly, Ryan's 2,795 bases on balls lead second-place Steve Carlton by 962—walking over 50% more hitters than any other pitcher in Major League history. He is currently the only major league baseball player to have his number retired by 3 different teams: the Angels, Astros, and Rangers (other than Jackie Robinson whose number was retired by the entire MLB).
Ryan is the all-time leader in no-hitters with seven, three more than any other pitcher. He is tied with Bob Feller for most one-hitters, with 12. Ryan also pitched 18 two-hitters. Despite the seven no-hitters, he never threw a perfect game, nor did he ever win a Cy Young Award. Ryan is one of only 29 players in baseball history to date to have appeared in Major League baseball games in four decades.

Ok...but here is where it gets CRAZY.  Did you happen to see the 12 one hitters???  Or maybe his 5,714 total K's?  Yeah, he walked some guys...ok, a LOT of guys but he also threw more innings than most guys.  Retired his number on THREE of his teams? 

Check out these stats:

Struck out over 300 batters:  SIX times.  329,383,367,327,341,301.  The last one was with an eleven year gap when he struck out 301 in 1989.

Only won 20 games twice.  How sad is that?  Looking at his ERA, hits vs. IP and k's it is quite apparent his teams were horrible all those years.  This also explains why he never won a Cy Young award.  Yes, that's correct, he never won a Cy Young award.  Baffeling really when you have years like this:  1973 with the California Angels  21-16, 2.87 ERA, 26 Complete Games with 4 Shutouts, 326 Innings Pitched (not a typo), 238 hits for only a 6.9 H/9IP, and 383 K's.  That is the all time single season record over Sandy Koufax's 381.  Came in second for the Cy Young that year.  He had a lot of years like that, huge IP, CG, K's, and didn't win a lot of games or lost a lot because of the team he was playing for.  In that sense his career in a lot of ways paralled Hank Aarons.  Hank never hit more than 44 homers in one season yet is/was the All Time Homerun king.  Every season he consistently put up stellar numbers, if not the best of the year, and over the course of his long career he put up All Time Great numbers.  Just like Nolan Ryan and his 27 seasons, all 27 where he was throwing 100 mph including after he hit 40 years old.  Steroid Free. 

3.19 Career ERA.  324 wins and 294 losses.  Say's a lot right there about the offense he had behind him all those years.  1987 he led MLB with a 2.76 yet had a 8-16 record...

222 Complete Games.  For comparison here's the list of Active Leaders today....

1. Roy Halladay - 63

2. Liván Hernández - 50

3. Jamie Moyer - 33

4. Tim Wakefield - 32

5. CC Sabathia - 30

Pretty sure they won't ever even reach that.  Although to put Ryan's number into perspective Cy Young himself leads all time with 749 Career Complete Games. 

Couple interesting items about Nolan Ryan. 

He once pitched over 200 pitches in a 13 inning game in 1974.  That may help back up his current disregard for pitch counts with his Texas Ranger pitchers. 

By the time Ryan got to high school, he threw extremely hard, but was very wild, and he remembers one game in particular.

"The first guy I hit in the arm and broke his arm," he remembers. "The next guy I hit in the head and split his helmet, and the third guy went down to the third base coach and begged not to hit and I don't blame him. That was a reflection of how wild I was."

Umm...yeah. 

Also, he's been married to his High School girlfriend for over 35 years.  Great American.

Lastly, doesn't Nolan Ryan make you think of a cowboy that would single handedly break up a cattle rustling group with his fists and guns, just smash some drunks face off the bar and then slam a shot of whiskey before riding off into the sunset with some hot brod?  Me too.  I love him. 

Ode to Greatness- Steve Prefontaine

Steve Prefontaine- "Pre"

I am a runner so naturally I hold Pre very high in my regards of athletes.  In fact, I consider Prefontaine one of the greatest American athletes of all time.  All Time.  He ran with no regard for his own body. He ran to win. Winning was all that mattered.  He held every record at nearly every distance from 2,000 to 10,000 meters at the time he died.

He died young (24) and that in itself was a tragedy as he never was able to fully show his greatness on the world stage.  He was incredible in every race, absolutely dominating the entire country for four years at the University of Oregon only losing 3 mile distance races.  He won, he crushed people and he shattered records.  I cannot watch a single second of this video from the '72 Olympics without getting chills and wanting to go outside and run full speed until my body gives out.  I don't know of another athlete that every has made me want to stop what I'm doing to go push myself.  Watch the video, watch him run this race and although he doesn't come out on top (and ultimately falls apart) you can see he gave every single ounce of energy in the name of America and winning.  Given what happened at the '72 Olympics it's even more impressive.

Over his career, he won 120 of the 153 races he ran (78 percent), and never lost a collegiate (NCAA) race at the University of Oregon. Prefontaine liked to say, "To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift."

In my eyes, he's a Legend in the likes of any "mainstream" athlete like the Jordan's, Griffey's, and Gretzky's.  He took over the country and boomed an entire industry with is coach, Bill Bowerman, who went on to create Nike.  If you haven't seen the movie "Pre" about his life and running career it's incredible.  You might just be calling me to go do sprints on a track.

Here are some amazing quotes Pre said during his years.  I love every one of them. 

A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more.
Steve Prefontaine

How does a kid from Coos Bay, with one leg longer than the other win races?
Steve Prefontaine

I run to see who has the most guts.
Steve Prefontaine

I'm going to work so that it's a pure guts race at the end, and if it is, I am the only one who can win it.
Steve Prefontaine

Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it.
Steve Prefontaine

Something inside of me just said 'Hey, wait a minute, I want to beat him,' and I just took off.
Steve Prefontaine

To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.
Steve Prefontaine

What I want is to be number one.
Steve Prefontaine

You have to wonder at times what you're doing out there. Over the years, I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement.
Steve Prefontaine

"Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great."

"How does a kid from Coos Bay, with one leg longer than the other win races? All my life people have been telling me, 'You're too small Pre', 'You're not fast enough Pre', 'Give up your foolish dream Steve'. But they forgot something, I HAVE TO WIN."