Welcome to the WILDCARD EDITION, of the MLB pennant report. The regular season has wrapped with some exciting division chases, such as the Texas Rangers coming out of nowhere to claim the American League Western Division title from the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. In the National League, the Washington Nationals, at one time […]
Are some sports mascots racist?
I have already written my other article about the NFL’s Washington football franchise. Here though we will give an honest appraisal of other professional sports teams in the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, and NCAA teams, taking into account that although we are in a very diverse country, our sports teams seem to predominately prefer to nearly exclusively use Indigenous Americans as mascots for […]
MLB Chicago Cubs are ROARING
While I have marveled at additions by the, MLB’s, Toronto Blue Jays and New York Mets, I must credit the Chicago Cubs organization for the “less is more” approach, by their top executive, Theo Epstein. In other words they didn’t give up future talent to grab a veteran and take on salary. The Cubs have stuck with the calm […]
MLB Pennant Race Report
Opening Image is courtesy of (pic.twitter.com/IQvsLuHWfY) #Mets First, I admit I was WRONG on the American League of the MLB, to count the playoff teams before they hatch in October. The Toronto Blue Jays have come into Yankee stadium and they are smacking the cover off the ball. The Toronto Blue Jays have been scorching since the trade […]
MLB Trade Deadline Winners & Losers
(feature image via: Peter Llewellyn/USA TODAY Sports) The non-waiver trade deadline has come and gone and the balance of power has certainly shifted, especially in the American League. We will see more moves before the end of August, but it is highly unlikely that any will be as big as what we saw last week. Some […]
MLB Trade Deadline Update
(Image Courtesy of Harry How/Getty Images) A couple of big trades went down since my preview article for the upcoming trade deadline when Johnny Cueto was sent to Kansas City and Troy Tulowitzki was surprisingly sent to Toronto. Those won’t be the last big name players to change uniforms this week, nor will it be the […]
MLB Trade Deadline Special
The first of the bigger names officially came off the market when the Astros acquired pitcher Scott Kazmir from the A’s this week. It was a classic trade deadline deal where the A’s knew Kazmir would not return to Oakland next season when he is a free agent, so they wanted to get something in […]
MLB Pennant Race report
(Top image is courtesy of Anthony Gruppuso-USA Today Sports ) I know there is a lot of baseball to still be played, but let’s not kid ourselves, in the American League, there are very few contenders left. Some years a bunch of teams are still in it, but this year it feels like the standings could likely […]
Rob’s Rants & Raves: Vol. 3 “Summertime”
Summer, summer, summertime. Suns out guns out, ice cold drinks, Fresh Prince & Jazzy Jeff on the boom box blastin’…lemonade stands going up? I ran out of summer analogies. Point is it’s summer, mid July, and it’s time for me to rant and rave about stuff. NBA season has come to an end. MLB is […]
MLB Preview Revisited
(Image coutesy of Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports) Here we are at the All Star Break, so this seems like a good time to take a look around the Majors to see who is doing better than expected, worse than expected and as expected. Before the season started, I wrote a series of in depth articles on […]
Cardinals Astros cyber hacking scandal, Aaron Sorkin, and the greatest sports movie ever made
Top Image courtesy of (www.livingpuyallup.com) Dear Aaron Sorkin, please make the Astros Cardinals cyber-hacking scandal into the greatest sports movie of all time, pleaseeeeeeeeeeee. It’s odd to me that nobody’s discussing the most fascinating sports scandal of the summer (I’m a Cubs fan so maybe I’m biased). It broke in late June that the St. […]
Poor Officiating Sports Rankings Part 2
Above Image (courtesy of www.amishbabymachine.com) As I mentioned back in April, at OTBR we are going to chart through the year the performance of major sports in the world (mostly North American) to see who will win the 2015 brass whistle for poor officiating. After all, sometimes the REFS -DO MAKE YOUR TEAM LOSE. If you are not […]
Bay area sports are the Best
Why the Bay Area is the best place to be a fan right now Let me preface this article with a disclaimer: I’m a loyal fan of most of the teams in the Bay Area. My blood bleeds black and orange with the San Francisco Giants, I grew up watching Joe Montana and then Steve Young throw […]
Sports Thoughts 6-5-15
(Featured image courtesy of Reuters) A whole lot happening in the sport’s world and that makes people like us happy. ************************************************************************** WOMEN’S WORLD CUP SOCCER 2015 The last few times our ladies (Team USA) have fallen short, but something tells me this time, we won’t let the cup slip away. This time, Alex Morgan, Sydney Leroux, […]
Show A-Rod the Money
(Image courtesy of Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports) Yankees versus Alex Rodriguez. What are the chances that we actually get to see a player sue his team, WHILE he is still on the team?? A-Rod could be the first in my memory. Let’s set the stage: A-Rod juices just like everybody else when the league looks the […]