The Sports Note

I’ve got a case of the Monday’s. Ain’t really much to talk about in the world of sports it seems. I’ll admit, I’m struggling in trying to figure out what to write for today’s intro. The NBA’s over, the NFL is still a ways off and baseball is in the middle of a long season. I guess we’ll have to hope for some big baseball trades before the July 31st deadline, maybe we’ll even get luck and get a NBA trade. Seriously though, the intro to the Note isn’t that big a deal right? Who cares that there’s no big news to kick off the day with?

I thought about trying to do a Simmons rip off column, something like who on White Sox would be who in The Wedding Crashers but I have neither the energy nor the creative talent to pull something like that off. Plus there are a ton of Simmons wannabes out there and I’m hoping, as much as possible, to not fall into that trap. I’m on empty for this intro section, sorry. To make up for this lame, say nothing intro, here’s Sugar Shane Mosley knocking out Fernando Vargas.  Then read about how little MLS players get paid and a guy getting shot. dS124DzusaI

Site News
Over the weekend we did some upgrading of the site. You’ll notice on the right that we have a new poll feature that should be fun to play around with. We’ll try out daily poll questions for the moment, depending on response from the people. So check that out. Also we added more visible RSS feed thingies, so if you are using a RSS reader, and I highly recommend them, there on the right is the link to The Sports Note’s feeds.

Poll Question of the Day
Here it is, the Sports Note’s first ever poll question: Where will Alfonso Soriano be after the trade deadline? Answer over on your right and we’ll report back the answer’s tomorrow, assuming anyone besides us votes.

MLS players are broke as a joke
You’d think that in the MLS, a league which hopes to become on par with the MLB, NBA and NFL (not to mention the NHL) someday, the players could get by with just playing soccer. This isn’t the 50’s, when ball players worked second jobs in the offseason so they could support their families. But if you happen to play in the MLS, and you aren’t a big star, chances are you aren’t making jack.

Here’s a list of the top ten salaries in the MLS, including bonuses and such. Some guy named Juan Francisco Palencia who plays for Chivas USA is the only guy in the MLS making over a mil a year. Familiar name Landon Donovan, he of the epic World Cup no-show, is second $900,000. Think about that for a second. Yeah I know, people in sports make way to much money and teachers and police officers should get more, blah blah blah. But the worst player in the NBA makes more then most MLS stars. MLB rookies make more then 90% of the MLS players. Its good that the MLS is managing to keep costs down so that the sport doesn’t get out of control player salaries before establishing itself properly, but you wonder why all the good, young Americans leave the MLS and head to Europe? Its the money.

The WaPo actually had a story on Saturday about the DC United’s goalie Tony Perkins. The United are sick this year and Perkins has recently been named to the MLS All-Star team. Basically he’s at the top of the MLS game and he makes: $29,000 a year. He’s an All-Star goalie and he makes less then he would make as a waiter at TGI Friday’s.

Perkins, 24, has the lowest goals-against average in MLS. He has played every minute of every game for a United side in the midst of its best streak in franchise history. The previous afternoon, he had been named to his first MLS all-star team.

Now, he walks into his office at the First National Bank of Arizona, greets his co-workers, logs on to his computer and settles in for his initial task of the afternoon: an employment verification phone call.

"It’s very weird," admitted Sean Wathen, one of Perkins’s supervisors and a budding United fan. "You’re like the bad-ass starting goalie — it’s like being the quarterback for the best team in the NFL. Ask that guy to do a verification of employment, and he’d freaking shove it down my throat. But he has no arrogance about him at all."

To be sure, there are financial incentives behind the 20 to 25 hours a week Perkins spends creating customer files, verifying information about borrowers and collecting W-2 forms, bank statements and Social Security cards. Just two years removed from a developmental contract that paid him $850 a month, Perkins earns a base MLS salary of $29,400. Many of the Chelsea players Perkins will face in the All-Star Game next month earn more in a week.

Imagine Gilbert Arenas or Clinton Portis having a second job IN SEASON! That’s crazy. Alot of these MLS people are making 30 grand a year or less. The reserve team guys make only $11,700 a year. You see that and you wonder about that Ronaldo rumor that was out there a while ago, where the New York Red Bull offered him 120 mil over 10 years. $12 mil per year for Ronaldo? That would be more then all the rest of the players in the league make combined. Yeah you get the star power of a Ronaldo, even if he is past his prime, but the rest of the players wouldn’t stand for that kind of inbalance.

Here’s the list of every MLS player’s salary. Check it out. See that many of the stars make little more then the average American. In some ways that’s kinda cool, that in a sense they are just like you and me. On the other hand, if the salaries don’t get higher and the MLS continues to lose its best players to Europe, then MLS will never make the jump into the top tier of American sports.

Thanks to the Sports Frog for the links.

Cowboys safety shot…again
What ever you do, stay away from Dallas safety Keith Davis. It is not safe to be around the guy. Davis got shot three times in a drive by shooting over the weekend. This is after he got shot twice outside a strip club in 2003. Its offical; Keith Davis is a bullet magnet. Its good that it seems like Davis is going to be OK but if I were him I’d be worried about what Coach Parcells is going to do to him. Last time he got shot (and its weird to even write that) Parcells cut him a month later. I can see Parcells being pissed that Davis was hanging out at a strip club in 2003 but Parcells can’t be mad at the guy for getting shot in a drive by or attempted car jacking or whatever it was, can he? If any coach could get pissed at that it would be Parcells though, so good luck Davis, you’ll probably need it.

Odds and Ends
Interesting Page 2 piece on who in baseball is worth their salary, etc. Nothing to notable in the choices, though its always cool to see how little, relatively speaking, the young guys like David Wright and Miguel Cabrera make compared to A-Rod and Giambi. Got to say though, the writer is way to harsh on A-Rod as well as injured players. Of course if a guy who’s getting paid 15 mil a year gets hurt then he’s not worth his contract but no team signs a player knowing he’s going to get hurt.

Things might be picking up on the baseball trading front. On the heels of Aubrey Huff’s move from the Devil Rays to the Astros we have a pretty big deal involving the Nationals and the Reds. It’s an eight player deal with RP Bill Bray, RP Gary Majewski, INF Brandon Harris, SP Daryl Thompson and SS Royce Clayton going to the Reds in exchange for OF Austin Kearns, SS Felipe Lopez and RP Ryan Madson. Now it’s better to judge trades after a few months or even years but at the moment this looks like a pretty big steal for the Nationals. Nats Jim Bowden gets ripped by a lot of people a lot of the time but this could be a big one for the Nats.

The Nationals now have their starting shortstop for the future in Lopez, who is only 26, and is a guy who just last year made the NL All-Star team. Lopez hasn’t done as well this year offensively and he’s one of the worst defensive shortstops in the game but you’d take him over Royce Clayton, a guy who’s something like 38 years old, and certainly over Cristian Guzman any day of the week and twice on Sunday’s. Clayton was nothing but a fill-in for the Nats, Lopez has a chance to be a fixture at short for the next 10 years.

Getting Austin Kearns also makes this deal a win for the Nationals. Kearns has always been one of those guys who under performs expectations but he too is only 26 years old and he’s playing better this year. Getting Kearns is a plus but it does raise some questions. Does this mean Soriano is definitly out the door? Or is Jose Gullian going? Or will the Nationals keep both and play Kearns in center? Our money is still on Soriano leaving but with Kearns now in the fold this give’s Bowden a lot more leverage in potential trades.

Now on to the Reds side of the deal. The Reds have one of the worst bullpens in the game, so clearly getting Majewski and Bray helps them in that department. Still giving up two starting position players, when they are only a few games out of the playoffs, seems like a steep price. Royce Clayton will probably give them equal production (or at least close) for the rest of the season but what about next year or the year after? Lopez will still be going strong and Clayton will be done. As for giving up Kearns, I would think the Reds should have gotten a starting pitcher in return for him; they should have done better then a relief pitcher. Harris and Thompson are decent prospects but nothing to write home about. Again, this is a strange deal for the Reds.

Enough of what we think about the deal, what does Thom Boswell, the distinguished WaPo columnist and baseball expert, think?

The fun and fascination of this trade for Washington is obvious. The Nats saw a chance to snap up two front-line regulars from a Reds franchise that is desperate to reward its long-suffering fans with a visit to the playoffs. Cincinnati’s bullpen absolutely reeks. Now, after trading for closer Eddie Guardado last week and adding their two ex-Nats, Cincinnati looks legit. Smooth old Royce Clayton will actually upgrade their defense.

For this radical improvement in pitching and defense, the Reds gave up the two players who lead their team in at-bats. How could Washington resist snapping up a shortstop with some offensive pop who may steal 30 bases, plus a 245-pound power-hitting outfielder who (any stat freak would attest) probably has another level of offensive improvement somewhere in his future.

and

However, both new Nats also have clear flaws. Lopez, who’ll bat No. 2 and add speed to the top of the attack, has made 31 errors the last two seasons compared to 22 for the steady Clayton. As for Kearns, in five seasons he’s averaged 99 RBI, 93 runs, 27 homers and 78 walks — per 600 at bats. The problem: He’s never even batted 400 times and has been on the disabled list once in each of the last four seasons. Like the Nats’ Nick Johnson, his frequent injuries are not chronic. But you worry. This trade has more spin than a tight slider. If Soriano is traded this month, the Nats’ offense will not be left utterly destitute with Lopez and Vidro at the top of the order, followed by Zimmerman, Johnson, Kearns and, perhaps, Guillen. If Soriano is dealt, he’d presumably fetch more in pitching talent than Bray and Majewski. So, netted out, the Nats would have, in a sense, traded for Kearns and Lopez while losing the 30-year-old Soriano — a player they could try to re-sign as a free agent.

So basically Boswell likes this deal for the Nats but recognizes there are some significant risks here for them. As Boswell points out, we should also applaud the new owners for being willing to take on some more payroll. Hats off to them on that front; that, more then newly painted seats, is a good way to build fan support.

Now lets look a bit around the blogosphere. MLBTradeRumors.com also wonders why the Reds would make such a deal. Perhaps the best overview of the trade we’ve seen so far is at Federal Baseball, a Nats fan site. You should definitly check it out. This guy thinks the Reds just put up the white flag for the 2006 season. While not a blogger, Ken Rosenthal looks at it from a "Reds overpaid" angle as well.

Who is Michael Strahan?
Lookie, lookie, we’ve got our first Sports Note tip, courtesy of FOTSN Senor Mexico. Apparently good guy Michael Strahan is a bit of a pervert. Lets go to the report as they say:

Giants defensive end Michael Strahan secretly installed a videotaping system in the bedroom of his Pennsylvania home in 1997 and recorded his future sister-in-law undressing, his wife testified in their divorce case yesterday.

"I had found video equipment in my bedroom," Jean Strahan said in Superior Court in Newark. "He had been taping my sister undressing."

Uh, yeah, not much we can add to that I guess. It should be noted that this divorce case has been the worst PR for Strahan that we’ve seen in a long time. Jean Strahan is tossing out heymakers left and right. See people, email us good tips and we’ll post them here and even credit you. Its fun for everyone!

Why would you pitch to Albert Pujols?
I don’t understand why anyone would want to pitch to Albert Pujols generally, so I really don’t understand why you would pitch to him in extra innings when the bases are empty and your playing in St. Louis. I mean, everyone in the world had to know the guy was going to hit a home run right? Vegas would have pulled the betting line, it’s easy money. So yeah, Pujols hit his 30th HR of the year last night, in the 14th inning, winning the game for the Cards over the Dodgers. I feel like we’ve seen this story before and, more then likely, we’ll see more then a few times in the future.

Barbaro on his last legs, hah- sorry.
Everyone’s favorite Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, who broke his right hind leg in the Preakness, has taken a turn for the worse. Apparently he’s been putting too much weight on his left hind leg and that has led to an infection of some sorts. Here’s an SI.com interview that explains it better then I would ever be able to:

SI.com: What is the latest on Barbaro?
Mark Beech: According to Dr. Dean Richardson at the New Bolton Center [at the University of Pennsylvania], Barbaro has developed a severe case of laminitis in the left hind hoof. Right now they’re not ready to discontinue treatment; he said doctors and everyone involved are willing to keep going as long as the horse is still comfortable. As soon as that is not the case or the laminitis develops in another foot, Dr. Richardson said he would end treatment. That would be the end for Barbaro. Up to now, no news has been good news with this horse. As soon as you start to hear news, then you start to have problems.

SI.com: What exactly is laminitis?
Beech: Laminitis has to do with blood flow in the foot. If anything interrupts the blood flow in that area around the foot, the horse’s hoof wall will begin to separate from the coffin bone, the bone inside the foot. It’s like getting your fingernail pulled out — it’ll have to grow back. The problem is that it is excruciatingly painful. People don’t understand that horses are extremely fragile, in a way; if blood flow is any way interrupted by putting more weight on a certain foot, than complications with that foot will then follow. And it is then likely that they would develop complications in the other feet as well [due to yet another redistribution of weight]. It’s why a horse can’t survive a broken leg. Horses are balanced on four legs, and the way Dr. Richardson explained it today, they basically stand on the nail of their middle finger, which is a fragile thing. Their bones are harder than people’s, but they can’t stand on three legs like a dog can, for example.

Odds and Ends
The Yankees are crazy if they think adding Sidney Ponson to their starting rotation is the answer to their problems. I can hardly imagine a worse fit for the New York scene then Sir Sid.

The Wizards are rewarding Eddie Jordan with a contract extension. He’s set to make $12.5 million over three years; not bad work if you can get it.

UVA’s Ahmad Brooks got taken in the 3rd round of the supplemental draft by the Bengals. He was actually the only one of the seven players in the draft taken, so good for him. The guy, when he first got to college, was expected to be a first round talent, so maybe the Bengals have something.

What up people? Ready for another edition of our baseball power rankings? You better be because we put some serious effort into making them. I guess no one had any problems with last weeks because no one tried to argue about where their teams were. We are just that good I guess.

Also we’ve been getting a ton of traffic from people looking for info about the Zidane headbutting thing, so don’t worry, we’ve got further updates after the rankings.

This week’s biggest move up: Padres, 11 spots to number 6
This week’s biggest move down: Brewers, 6 spots to number 18

OK, one more World Cup Fix
I guess I shouldn’t be predicting the "World Cup Fix" section will go away anytime soon, not with this headbutting stuff still out there. The wait is over people, Zidane has finally spoken.

Zinedine Zidane has apologised for his headbutt on Italian defender Marco Materazzi in Sunday’s World Cup final.But the French legend does not regret his actions, alleging on television that Materazzi provoked him by insulting both his mother and sister. "It was inexcusable. I apologise," said the 34-year-old Zidane. "But I can’t regret what I did because it would mean that he was right to say all that."

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"It was seen by two or three billion people on television and millions and millions of children were watching," he said. "It was an inexcusable gesture and to them, and the people in education whose job it is to show children what they should and shouldn’t do, I want to apologise." Asked what had caused to react so violently, he said Materazzi had directed some "very hard words" at him. "You hear them once and you try to move away. But then you hear them twice, and then a third time," said Zidane. "I am a man and some words are harder to hear than actions. I would rather have taken a blow to the face than hear that."

and

"We always talk about the reaction, and obviously it must be punished. But if there is no provocation, there is no need to react," said the former Real Madrid and Juventus player. "Above all it was a very serious provocation. It was an inexcusable gesture but the real culprit is the person who provoked it. "Do you imagine that in a World Cup final like that with just 10 minutes to go to the end of my career, I am going to do something like that because it gives me pleasure?"

Hmmm. I understand the desire to stand up for your family and I myself have lost my cool at times but to do so in the World Cup Final, I mean come on. Materazzi responded to Zidane:

"I didn’t mention anything about religion, politics or racism," said the Italian on Wednesday."I didn’t insult his mother. I lost my mother when I was 15 years old and still get emotional when I talk about it. "Naturally, I didn’t know that his mother was in hospital but I wish her all the best. "Zidane is my hero and I have always admired him a lot."

and

"I didn’t call Zidane a terrorist and certainly didn’t mention his mother. I did not bring up Zidane’s mother; for me a mother is sacred."

and

"I held his shirt, for only a few seconds. He turned towards me and scoffed at me, looking at me with super arrogance, up and down. "He said ‘if you really want my shirt, you can have it later’. It’s true, I shot back with an insult."

One wonders if the Italian lipreaders were right about what Materazzi said, despite his dirty reputation, the guy seems truely puzzeled about Zidane’s reaction. We’ll probably never get the real story.

To add insult to injury, FIFA is now considering taking away the Golden Ball awarded to Zidane as the tournaments best player. Let the guy keep the award, who cares at this point? The players who finished behind Zidane are Italians and they won the Cup, so they are happy. The guy’s one of the greatest players in history, he’s suffered enough already. By the way, apparently Zidane showed perfect form with his strike, he’s done self-defense experts proud.

On another note, the new FIFA world rankings have come out and they are a little more reflective of reality then the previous ones. Brazil is still number one while World Cup champion Italy moved up to number two. The U.S., previously ranked fifth overall, dropped 11 sports to number 16. That sounds about right, I think the World Cup showed we weren’t the fifth best team in the world, not by a long shot.

And finally, here’s a fun little website where you can enter your name and it will tell you what your Brazilian soccer nickname would be. Mine would be Kohlmiano, which isn’t bad.

Odds and Ends
Astros pick up Aubrey Huff for two minor leaguers. I guess Huff is a decent pickup but he’s not going to put Houston in the playoffs by himself. Shows you how bad the Astros offense is that Huff is an upgrade for them.

With J.J. Redick out, Kirk Hinrich finally gets added to the Team USA roster. Took them long enough.

Eric Neel wonders about 10 questions for baseball’s second half.

And look, Dayn Perry has 10 questions too! So much fun!

It almost looked like the National League would finally beat the American in the All-Star game. Up 2-1 in the ninth with one of the game’s great closers, Trevor Hoffman, on the mound, things looked pretty good for the NL. For some reason though God has decided that the NL is not allowed to win any more All-Star games and so the AL pulled out the victory on Michael Young’s two-run triple. Home field advantage in the World Series goes to the AL; remember cus this game "counts" now. Whatever.

The baseball All-Star game is rapidly becoming pointless, despite Bud Selig’s feeble efforts. When the leading vote getter in the AL, Manny Ramirez, decides he doesn’t want to play because, well, he just doesn’t want to, you’ve entered Pro Bowl territory. Not only do the players not want to play in the game anymore, but we keep getting the same results. The AL hasn’t lost the game in 10 years. And I don’t really see why they trend wouldn’t continue next year and the years after. Stars dropping out plus the same result ever time equals boring as hell.

Dead Air
Baseball has a day off today so there’s basically nothing really going on in the sports world. Its kinda boring actually. Tomorrow we’ll have installment two of our power rankings and maybe something else interesting will happen in the sports world. Here’s hoping.

Probably the final World Cup Fix
Marco Materazzi, the Italian defender on the receiving end of Zidane’s headbutt, has broken his silence:

"I did insult him, it’s true," Materazzi said in Tuesday’s Gazzetta dello Sport. "But I categorically did not call him a terrorist. I’m not cultured and I don’t even know what an Islamic terrorist is."

I love that excuse. He’s saying ‘Yeah, I insulted him but I’m not smart enough to make him react like he did’. So we’ve heard his side of the story; now we wait and see if Zidane will tell us his side.

Barry Bonds won’t go away
Things apparently are going to get a lot worse for Barry, the poor bastard. Not only is Bonds having a bad year and basically he looks done, D-O-N-E, done but now sources are now saying he’s about to get indicted, mostly likely next week. Sucks to be him I guess.

While the players themselves tried to avoid any topic outside the gentle fairways of good news, the U.S. Attorney’s office in San Francisco is mulling over whether it will seek an indictment against Bonds, perhaps as soon as next week. Bonds is facing possible indictment for perjury and tax evasion, and the grand jury that has been hearing evidence against him is due to expire within the next couple of weeks.

Just what baseball needs; weeks after Bonds passes Babe Ruth on the career home run list the guy faces possible jail time. Hellooo PR nightmare. And all this after "Bonds on Bonds" got canceled too. The guy needs a break.

Wade’s a big copycat
Now look who’s trying to follow LeBron James: Dwyane Wade. Wade had previously agreed to his 5 year max extension with the Heat but after James’ little head fake where he signed the 3 year deal with a player option fourth year; Wade has decided he wants the same deal. Frankly this is move makes even more sense for Wade then it does James. In three years Shaq is going to be finished, Antoine Walker’s huge deal will still be on the books and the Heat could be in some trouble. Leaving himself an out in 3 years is a smart move for Wade considering the ages and contracts on that team. I wonder if Carmelo Anthony will follow James, and now Wades’, lead and sign the same deal with the Nuggets.

Garnett gets a sidekick
Give Kevin McHale credit: He’s stocking up the T-wolves backcourt. Yeah he’s one of the NBA’s worst GM but he’s at least trying this offseason. First he drafted Randy Foye, who a lot of people think is going to be the ROY, and now McHale has signed PG Mike James. James was one of the big names left out there in free agency and both Houston and Dallas were hot in pursuit. Minnesota was willing to give James the fourth year he wanted though and signed the guy to a four year, $25 million contract. James will start in a backcourt with Ricky Davis and Foye will probably come off the bench. Thats not a bad little setup there. Perhaps there is hope for Garnett yet.

Football is right around the corner
Its coming folks. Soon Madden 2007 will be out, preseason camps will open and the world will be complete again: the NFL is on it’s way. As a Redskins fan I’m expecting big things this year and, frankly speaking, I can not wait for the season to start. Don Banks is doing a little "round the NFL" type deal and this time he looks at the NFL East. Lookie, lookie: He thinks the Skins are going to win a minimum of 10 games this year. Sweetness. Dallas is overrated by the way, you heard it here first. T.O. is going to hate Drew Bledsoe. Oh and look out for Andre Carter, per Banks:

ANDRE CARTER, WASHINGTON
We haven’t heard much from Carter since his breakthrough 12.5-sack season of 2002 in San Francisco, but he’s a great athlete who should create havoc coming off the edge in Williams’ defense. Carter can play the 4-3 end position and handle a 3-4 outside linebacker slot when Williams decides to change up the Redskins’ look. If Carter plays like we think he will, the Redskins faithful will forget about Arrington by mid-October.

Odds and Ends
Ken Rosenthal gives out his midseason awards.

Jonah Freedman gives it the old college try and attempts to give 10 reasons why people who enjoyed the World Cup but aren’t really soccer fans should stick with the game. There are some compelling storylines to follow but soccer won’t attract the casual sports fan until the MLS is the best in the world, and we all know that isn’t going to happen anytime soon. Sorry Jonah, but I think your digging for fool’s gold.

OK something needs to change because the Home Run Derby sucked last night. The big names, the Pujols’, the Griffey’s, the Dunn’s, even the Bonds’ need to be there to add some star power because otherwise who cares? Troy Glaus is a good player, a guy who can hit home runs, but who besides his family turned on ESPN last night wanting to watch him hit? Not me. Jermaine Dye, a nice player and our dark horse pick here, isn’t even the second best home run hitter on his own team. I’d take Paul Konerko or Jim Thome over him. Miguel Cabrera is obviously a great player and he did alright last night but he’s only hit 15 home runs this year. David Wright made it all the way to the finals but he hits line drive home runs which help him in the competition but don’t excite people. I want to see moon shots and he wasn’t giving me any.

David Ortiz was the only guy who was really giving us anything to cheer about. That guy can hit some bombs and those people out in the kayaks got a number of balls to sell on eBay. Ryan Howard, the eventual champion over David Wright, didn’t really seem comfertable at first but he got the hang of it eventually. This was Howard’s first Derby and I bet in the future he’ll produce some memorable moments but this year he seemed to barely scratch out a victory over a weak field.

And now to the most important part of the Derby: Stop forcing Chris Berman on me. I can not, at all, stand that guy. Him and Stuart Scott drive me crazy. There isn’t enough room on the internet for me to detail how much I hate Scott but I’ll try to explain my disgust with Berman. That "back, back, back" call has to go. Right now. It’s dumb and he uses it on EVERY home run. Hey Chris, buddy, it’s a home run hitting contest. There’s going to be a number of home runs. It’s not like a regular game where maybe you break out the call once or maybe twice a game; every swing has a chance of going out. I know it’s your signature call or whatever but cut it out. It was driving me insane. Also you need glasses buddy, your depth preception is way off. You kept saying/acting like balls were leaving the stadium and they ended up in the first 10 rows. Then you would screw up the ones that actually did go far. In short Chris Berman, you suck. I know you are one of ESPN’s biggest names but you suck and they should stop ruining so-called big events by making you a part of them. That’s all I have to say about Berman, except to mention "Your with me leather!".

Oh and the All-Star game is tonight and I’m…so excited? Not really but there’s really nothing on so I’ll probably watch.

World Cup Fix
Ah soccer. Only in soccer can a legend who gets himself kicked out of the championship game of the World Cup, perhaps costing his country the title, be awarded the Golden Ball for best player. That’s right Zidane, he of the headbutting, got the Golden Boot. How the Italian goalie didn’t win is beyond me. There’s been some speculation by the way that Zidane was reacting to being called a "terrorist", perhaps also refering to Zidane’s Algerian parents, and then struck back using his head, literally. So far neither party involved has seen fit to give us the whole story. We’ll keep you updated as we learn more, if we ever do.
LATE UPDATE:
Ok we might be getting a better picture of the Zidane headbutting incident. Via Jason Kottke:

The Daily Mail, with corroboration from the Times, has some information on what Marco Materazzi said to Zinedine Zidane to provoke the latter’s career ending headbutt in the 2006 World Cup final (more info on that here). They both hired lip readers to decipher Materazzi’s dialogue before the incident and this is allegedly what he said (translated from the Italian):

Hold on, wait, that one’s not for a nigger like you.

We all know you are the son of a terrorist whore.

So just fuck off.

So it might be fair to say that Materazzi got what he deserved, as did Zidane when he got sent off. Not that two wrongs make a right. Even so, I agree with these thoughts from That’s How It Happened:

[Zidane's] willingness to headbutt Materazzi makes him more of a hero, not less. Admittedly, since France went on to lose, he’s something of a tragic hero, but a hero none-the-less. If someone insulted my race, or my religion (if I had one), I wish I’d be as ready to attack them, no matter what the circumstances. Zidane’s action highlights for the world the fact that the racial unity of France is more important than winning the World Cup.

If the lip reader is correct in what Materazzi said, I may like Zidane even more than I did before the match.

I guess I agree that I admire Zidane’s actions but still, it was the World Cup Final. Maybe Zidane could have gotten back at him better by burying his penalty shot in the shootout and winning the Cup? And then maybe headbutting the guy? Thats just me though.

The Espy’s are coming
I’ve never actually watched the Espy’s and I’m not sure I know anyone who has either. I do have Jim Valvano’s speech downloaded on to my iPod (one of the greatest sports, or really any genre, ever by the way) so I guess I appreciate what they do over there. The real story though is the sick (free) stuff the Espy awards presenters get. Deadspin got the full rundown. Among the swag: various stays at various high-priced resorts arudn the world; shoes with an MP3 player in them and matching headphones; a season pass for four to Six Flags; and a whole bunch of stuff you’d probably want but can’t afford. This is why people want to get famous: they get tons of free stuff all the time. Pisses me off really.

This is awkward
Reason #345,042 why a person should not marry their best friend’s sister: they might end up divorced. And even worse in the case of Jason Taylor and Zach Thomas, they not only are best friends but they also play defense for the Miami Dolphins. Katina Taylor, sister of Zach Thomas and soon to be ex-wife of Jason Taylor, has filed for divorce from Taylor. It should be noted by the way that while Zach Thomas is not a very attractive man, his sister is what some might call smoking hot from what I  can remember from pictures of her. Apparently there’s a chance they can work things out and for the sake of their three children, and the Dolphins, here’s hoping they do.

Odds and Ends
People love to give out awards and prizes and I guess Marc Stein is no different. He loves to give out awards so much he’s giving them out to people for their preformance in the Las Vegas Summer League. Simmer down Stein, Simmer down.

John Donovan gives us his power rankings but with a twist: we also get each team’s first half MVP! Awesome! Joel Zumaya as the Tigers’ MVP seems a little bit much though.

It is perhaps hard to know which is the bigger story coming out of the World Cup: Italy’s victory or Zidane’s bizarre head butting incident that got the French captain a red card in the second of the two overtime periods. For our money it’s the head butt. What in the world was Zidane thinking? I’ve watched the replay of the head butt something like 20 times now and I still don’t get it. Marco Materazzi, the Italian defender on the receiving end of Zidane’s blow, must have said something to provoke Zidane but I haven’t seen any physical act on Materazzi’s part that would cause Zidane to head butt him. And come on man, what happened to sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me and all that? Zidane has been around for ages now; you’ve got to think he’s heard every insult in the book. But some how or another the man lost his cool and got himself removed from the last game of soccer he’ll ever play. Go figure.

Lets not take anything away from Italy; it’s not like they didn’t deserve to win. They allowed only two goals the whole tournament and none during the regular course of play. They gave up an own goal to the U.S. (Wow, we tied the world champions, maybe we aren’t so bad. Yeah we are) and a some what questionable penalty kick goal to Zidane early in the Final. That is some pretty impressive defense folks. Still, you have to wonder if the shootout would have done a little differently with Zidane on the field. As my friend Stilz pointed out, the guy who replaced Zidane in the shootout was the guy who missed for France. You know Zidane wouldn’t have missed, he’s one of the world’s best at taking penalty kicks. Materazzi by the way, must be the Finals MVP. Not only did he score Italy’s lone goal in regulation to tie the game but he also got Zidane kicked out. That’s what I call a complete game.

I supposed I should be talking more about Italy but as someone who was rooting for France, both because I like them and because I had some bones riding on them, I wonder if the French coach regretted not having Henry or Riberry on the field for the shootout. I don’t know if either of those guys is good at penalty kicks but I do know they are two of France’s best players, with Henry being perhaps the best forward in the world. Might have been nice to have them on the field. Whatever, hats off to Italy on winning their fourth World Cup which is second only to Brazil’s five.

Also some credit must be given to the refree, Horacio Elizondo of Argentina. The refs took a lot of crap the whole Cup (and in the early going deservedly so) but the ref did well in giving Zidane the red card. Zidane deserved it but still, giving a living legend, playing in his last game, playing in the World Cup Final, with probably only minutes to go until penalty kicks, the boot in front of thousands in the stands and millions watching takes a large set of balls. Hats off to Mr. Elizondo.

And finally, continuing our multimedia efforts, we give you the whole video of the Zidane incident (and your damn right, that is the Chinese broadcast) Again, what was he thinking? He’s still the best in our eyes and we’re sad to see him go. Especially like this.zoADvPC7IvI

LeBron James is the smartest man alive
LeBron James, or perhaps his agent, is a smart, smart man. There had been a lot of speculation out there about why James hadn’t yet accepted the Cav’s contract extension offer like fellow draftmates Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade had done with their respective teams. Bill Simmons in particular was pushing this whole angle, anticipating a possible defection from James. Well that wasn’t to be as James did accept a contract extension. So whats the big deal you say, why is James the smartest man alive? Well because LeBron accepted a 3 year extension with a fourth year a player option. The other two guys took 5 year extensions.

Well, ok, so what? This is LeBron showing his cold-blooded side. He basically is saying to the Cav’s "I’m going to take less money (about 20 or so million less) and put you on notice that if things aren’t going right in 3 years, I’m gone". Think about it. Wade and Anthony have lockig themselves up for the next 5 years. LeBron can be a free agent in 3 years, when he’ll be just 24 years old. If the Cav’s aren’t championship contenders by then, James can go to LA or NY or where ever. LeBron’s leaving money on the table, knowing that he’ll easily make that up in endorsements, and taking increased flexibility instead. That’s a baller move on LeBron’s part.

Stephen A. Smith, the loudest man alive, got the scoop on this one and here’s how ESPN is reporting it:

Sources have told ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith that James has agreed to a four-year extension worth approximately $60 million, and he can opt out of the deal after three seasons. It had been widely reported that James would sign a five-year, $80 million maximum contract Wednesday. He could have very good reason to settle for less now.

With the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement set to expire at the end of the 2010-11 season, James could be positioning himself for an even bigger payday as a free agent when the cap goes up. Under a new agreement, James and other big stars could be in line for deals in the neighborhood of six years and up to $150 million.

Not only is the guy giving himself wiggle room in the future, he’s also put himself in position to make even more money later on. Watch out for LeBron man, that guy is sharp.

Home Run Derby tonight
Hey its the all-star break! Yeah I’m not that excited either. The Derby’s on tonight. Here’s a darkhorse candidate: Jermaine Dye. The guy’s on fire. Of course so is David Ortiz so who really knows?

Odds and Ends
Roger Federer beat Rafael Nadal to win Wimbledon. It’s Federer’s fourth straight Wimbledon title and 8th major title.

Ken Rosenthal floats some trade rumors including Bobby Abreu to the Red Sox and Soriano to the Tigers.

Some times things don’t work out the way you thought they would. German brothels, anticpating hoards of horny foreigners invading their country, were expecting to do tons of business during the World Cup but it hasn’t quite worked out that way. Artemis, the biggest brothel in Berlin, was expecting to draw 500 men a day to, uh, partake in their services. Thats right, 500 guys a day. Sadly for them they’ve only been getting 250 or so, which is still twice their norm. The World Cup games have been too interesting to ignore apparently.

"Football and beer go well together," said Burkhard Jahn, a police spokesman in Cologne, which showed no noticeable increase in prostitution despite hosting five matches. "Football and prostitution are apparently not as great a combination."

I’ve got my own theory about why not as many people are hitting up the brothels as expected: they aren’t needed. You’ve got some 2 million tourists flooding Germany, a country known for its beer. Its the World Cup with a huge party-like atmosphere. Why go to a brothel when you basically seem to be in one huge frat party? Everyone knows Europeans are more open-minded sexually (hence the 400,000 or so legal prostitutes in Germany), so maybe people figured out they didn’t need to pay for sex; they could find it on their own and for free.

So its been a bit of a bust if you are a German brothel owner:

"Most of the women went back home," said Peter Breitner, of the Munich police’s organized crime division. "Tourists and families from all around the world are traveling to Germany, but they’re not coming here to visit a bordello in Munich."

Though there have been reports of lines out the door at some Berlin brothels, others complain of scores of empty beds. The truth seems somewhere in between, said Ulrike Helwerth, of the National Council of German Women’s Organizations.

I really feel for them, I do but its the tourists themselves who are causing the problem. Have you seen some of the ladies who are at the World Cup? There are some real hotties here (see: Brazilians). In fact, for those of you who haven’t seen some of the ladies, here’s a helpful video, courtesy of YouTube (I know, we are so multimedia) to give you a taste of what those of us who aren’t in Germany have missed. God I wish I had gone. Brazil 2014, who’s with me? And no I’m not a pig. I just love the ladies.

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World Cup Fix
Grant Wahl, SI’s soccer expert, gives us his Best XI of the Cup. Presenting:

Goalkeeper: Gianluigi Buffon, Italy
Right back: Gianluca Zambrotta, Italy
Center back: Fabio Cannavaro, Italy
Center back: Lilian Thuram, France
Left back: Philipp Lahm, Germany
Defensive midfielder: Michael Essien, Ghana
Attacking central midfielder: Zinédine Zidane, France
Right midfielder: Franck Ribery, France
Left midfielder: Joe Cole, England
Forward: Miroslav Klose, Germany
Forward: Hernán Crespo, Argentina
Coach: Guus Hiddink, Australia

Hmmm. Not many Americans on that list. Interesting. Its hard to argue you with most of these names because they are all from teams that advanced or did well. I wonder about having no Ronaldo though; I know he was lazy in the first games but he did score, what, three goals? Wahl does have him as an alternate but still Grant, show the all-time World Cup scorer some more love. And it wasn’t his fault they lost. I thought Ronaldino was much more disappointing to be perfectly honest.

And selecting Michael Essien of Ghana over Patrick Veira of France is criminal Grant. Veira won France at least two games by himself in this Cup, the man’s been playing out of his mind and scoring goals. Also, I’m not that up to date on my international soccer but that French guy, Ribery? He never stops running and the guy’s really fast. He’s like an Allen Iverson of soccer. Without all the tattoos and the being black part. And speaking of France, Grant makes a snide reference to how many times Henry has been offsides but its true. He’s always offsides. We had a guy on my high school team like that. I guess its part of the forwards mentality, to be a cherrypicker of sorts.

The Golden Ball nominees have been released (so exciting!). The Golden Ball, of course, is given the the tournaments most valuable player. I believe there is actually also a Golden Boot but thats given to the high goal scorer. Anyway your nominees are: Zinedine Zidane of France, Fabio Cannavaro of Italy, Germany captain Michael Ballack and striker Miroslav Klose, Maniche from Portugal, and Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira from France. There are three others but who cares about them, Zidane and Cannavaro are the frontrunners at this point. Who ever wins the final probably gets the Ball.

The fans make their choices
Congrats A.J. Pierzynski and Nomar Garciaparra, the fans have spoken and you guys are going to the All-Star game in Pittsburgh. Nomar was a deserving candidate but I’m not sure I’d send Pierzynski over the Twins Francisco Liriano. In fact, there’s no way I would. The White Sox though came up with a pretty smart advertising campaign for their catcher though, "Punch A.J." a funny little reference to the fight with the Cubs’ Michael Barrett. Now there’s even more White Sox on the AL squad and once again the Tigers got screwed. Oh well. There could be two more potential additions to the squads as Manny Ramirez and Pedro Martinez have both said they won’t be playing due to injuries.

Gagne’s troubles continue
Remember when Eric Gagne won the Cy Young? Seems like forever ago. He’s had elbow problems for the last two years which have caused him to miss a ton of games. Now comes word that he’s having back problems. He was in enough pain to be admitted into the hospital, where he currently remains. Apparently the guy has two herniated disks that are pressing on a nerve. When this guy was pitching he was unhittable; he was Jonathan Papelbon before there was a Jonathan Papelbon. Here’s wishing him a speedy recovery.

Odds and Ends
The Reds got Everyday Eddie Guardado from the Mariners. I know the Reds need bullpen help but I mean, come on. This isn’t really help.

We’re going to try something a little new here at the Sports Note; doing our own MLB power rankings. Everybody does power rankings, for all the sports, so we thought "Why not us?". Why not us indeed. Now normally these kind of rankings come out on Monday’s or Friday’s but this idea occured to us today, so whatever, ours will come out on Thursdays. We’ll be ahead of the curve. Now keep in mind these rankings are poorly our own opinons, we aren’t using any fancy formulas or anything here. As Stephen Colbert would say, we’re going from the gut and ignoring the facts. Also we aren’t claiming to be very original or suprising; you won’t see the Marlins in our top ten or anything like that. Feel free to disagree in the comments or in emails. Without further ado, here they are.

So there you have it. What do you think? Nothing too out of order.  Thoughts/comments are always appreciated.

World Cup Fix
Now we know who the Italians will be facing on Sunday in Berlin: France. The French advance by beating Portugal 1-0 on a Zidane penalty kick. This is a pretty good sports story actually, as Zidane has said he will retire both from club and international play after this World Cup. He already came out of international retirement to play in this World Cup and he’s playing like he did in 1998 when he led France to their one and only World Cup championship. The guy is completely dominating the play and really seems inspired. As I’ve said before, he’s my favorite guy to play with in FIFA and I said France was going all the way; so obviously we’ll be rooting for France on Sunday.

More NBA player movement
Lots of trades going on all over the NBA. Like we told you yesterday, the rumored Tyson Chandler for P.J. Brown and J.R. Smith deal has reportedly been agreed to by both the Hornets and the Bulls. The Hornets now have a young, explosive big man and the Bulls are now clearly gearing up for a championship run. I’d say this is a pretty even trade, with maybe the Bulls having a slight edge depending on whether or not J.R. Smith can finally live up to his potential.

Another interesting move, Marquis Daniels got sent to the Pacers in exchange for Austin Croshere. This is a steal for the Pacers. Daniels fell out of Mavs coach Avery Johnson’s rotation but he’s still very young and very skilled. I’m not sure if the Pacers seem him as their PG or if they plan to play him off the ball but the guy is 6-6, with a nice handle and explosive jumping ability. Croshere is a 6-11 guy who can make 3’s and seems to be going to the Mavs to replace their white guy, Keith Van Horn, who probably will be leaving via free agency. This is a smart, smart move by the Pacers.

And finally Derek Fisher got sent to the Jazz in exchange for Devin Brown, Keith McLeod, and Andre Owens, all going to the Warriors. I’ll be honest, this trade makes no sense to me. The Jazz already have Deron Williams and they just drafted Dee Brown, what do they need with another PG? And the Warriors are getting pennies on the dollar for a PG who still has some value. I don’t get it.

Charley Rosen looks at everything that’s happened in the NBA off season so far. He’s actually a lot more down on some of the moves then others I’ve seen. He thinks the Wallace signing only makes the Bulls a second round team, for instance. In fact, to be quite honest, Rosen’s not to hot on anything thats happened so far, panning the Ford trade, the Radmanovic and Thomas signings and the Telfair trade. The guy’s kinda negative. Oh well. He does actually like the Shane Battier pickup by Houston.

Home Run Derby
And we have the guys who’ll be hitting the long ball in Pittsburgh. From the AL we have David Ortiz, Troy Glaus and Jermaine Dye. From the NL Lance Berkman, Ryan Howard and David Wright. These aren’t really A-list home run names, in terms of distance at least. There’s no Griffey Jr or Bonds, no Pujols either.  What about Adam Dunn, he hits absolute bombs. Howard hits moon shots (like that one into the third deck in Philly) but the others mostly just hit your run of the mill home runs. Of course they hit 30 to 40 of them a year but thats not really the point of the Derby. Griffey and Bonds should have special exemptions to be in every Derby, regardless if they make the All-star rosters. I’d like Dunn to be there too.

Odds and Ends
The Angels solved their Jeff Weaver problem, shipping him to the Cardinals for a minor league outfielder and some cash. Smart gamble on the Cards part, if anyone get anything out of Weaver (who has a ton of talent) Dave Duncan can. Viva El Birdos would be the place to go for discussion.

Hope everyone had a lovely holiday weekend. The big news of the day happened on Monday: Ben Wallace leaving the Pistons for the Bulls. Wallace is reportedly getting $60 mil over 4 years from Chicago which was somewhere between 10 and 12 million more then the Pistons were offering. The Bulls, already a top defensive team, just got better, if that was even possible. Rumor has it that the Bulls aren’t done making moves (see below) but their current starting five is pretty sick. Here’s how I think it stands right now:

C Ben Wallace
PF Tyson Chandler
SF Luol Deng
SG Ben Gordon
PG Kirk Hinrich

Add Chris Duhon, Andres Nocioni and 2006 draftee Tyrus Thomas off the bench and you’ve got something going on. Thats a damn good defensive team and its pretty athletic too. Having to pay Big Ben $15 mil a year in the final year of this deal, when Ben is 36, might come back to haunt the Bulls but you have to do that to get the next 2-3 great years. In my mind its worth it. I’m not sure how high you move the Bulls up in the East, and you can’t really know until all the moves are over, but this has to put them in the top three or so, certainly in contention to win the division and the conference. No one is going to be able to score against these guys. No one. For more reactions check out Bulls fan site Blog-a-Bull.

Even better for Chicago, this is a serious blow to the Pistons, their division rivals. The Pistons moved quickly to nab Nazr Mohammed to fill their center spot but obviously Mohammed is no Wallace. The Pistons already had depth issues and this isn’t going to help. I could see Antonio McDyess moving into the starting lineup at the PF and Rasheed Wallace moving to the 5. In the East Rasheed at the 5 is pretty darn good but not having McDyess providing a spark off the bench is crippling. One thing that should hearten Pistons fans though is that they’ve got one of the best in the business in Joe Dumars running the team. He’ll figure something out but he can’t replace Big Ben.

Marty Burns’ take is here. Mike Kahn talks about how this will effect the Pistons.

In other NBA news
So a lot of stuff has happened in the NBA and we’re only four days into free agency. Here’s a little breakdown to bring people up to date.

Signed with New Team:
Ben Wallace: Chicago Bulls 4 years/$52 million
Nazr Mohammed: Detroit Pistons 5 years/25 million
Peja Stojakovic: New Orleans Hornets 5 years/$64 million
Vladimir Radmanovic: Los Angeles Lakers 5 years/$30 million
Tim Thomas: Los Angeles Clippers 4 years/$24 million
Bobby Jackson: New Orleans Hornets: 3 years/15 million
Speedy Claxton: Atlanta Hawks 4 years/$25 million
Eric Piatowski: Phoenix Suns 2 years/$2.4 million

Signed with Current Team:
Joel Przybilla: Portland Trail Blazers 5 years/$30 million
Sam Cassell: Los Angeles Clippers 2 years/$13 million
Jason Terry: Dallas Mavericks 6 years/$50 million
Nene: Denver Nuggets: 6 years/$60 million
Matt Harpring: Utah Jazz: 4 years/$25 million

And now your caught up on the player movement through free agency. You are very welcome, thats what we are here for at the Note. There’s some big rumors floating out there on the trade market though. The most repeated one, and the one most people think is going to happen, is Tyson Chandler going from the Bulls to the Hornets in exchange for P.J. Brown and J.R. Smith. Seems this one is almost a lock to happen. It gives the Bulls some more front court depth and experience with Brown and a young athletic guy in Smith. The Hornets would get a young, big man to add to their new core of Chris Paul and Peja.

There’s actually another rumor out there involving, yet again, the Bulls, and Kevin Garnett. Yeah its a big one. Paul Ladewski, a staff writer with the Daily Southtown, is pushing a a rumor about a Chicago offer of Tyrus Thomas, Tyson Chandler and Luol Deng for Garnett. Now that would be a trade. Of course I’ve seen no other place where this rumor is being reported so take it with a fairly huge grain of salt. In fact all the national people I’ve read have said there’s basically no chance Garnett is moved. Either way its fun to speculate.

World Cup Fix
So we’ve got one Cup final team; hello Italy. Today at three we’ll see who will be joing them, France or Portugal. Yesterday’s game was kinda crazy, scoreless through regulation time and 29 minutes of the 30 minute overtime before Italy struck for two quick goals. I said Monday I like France to win it all and I’m sticking with that but Italy looks pretty good. In other Cup news, here’s some speculation, with bios and everything, about who the next US coach will be.

No Note today folks as it is a holiday. We’ll be back tomorrow and more then likely we’ll be talking about Ben Wallace going to Chicago, among other things. Enjoy the holiday.