Please note that there are only 21 shopping days until Christmas.
The Dolphins are definitely still in the playoff hunt, as they are tied with the Baltimore Ravens for the final playoff spot. The Ravens do hold the tiebreak advantage, however. This week, the Fins travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers, who have won three out of their last four, losing a close one to the Ravens on Thanksgiving Day. Baltimore, meanwhile, will host the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.
Here is the remaining schedule for the Fins:
12/08 @ Pittsburgh 1:00 pm CBS
12/15 New England 1:00 pm CBS
12/22 @ Buffalo 1:00 pm CBS
12/29 NY Jets 1:00 pm CBS
Here’s more on the Dolphins:
More on the Dolphins from Armando Salguero:
Here are last week’s NFL results. GREAT week in my picks, as I finished 7-0, my first perfect week of the season. So far this year, I am 47-40-4 against the spread, and 54-37 straight up.
MONDAY NIGHT
Seattle 34 New Orleans 7
Russell Wilson threw for 310 yards and three touchdowns for Seattle, as the Seahawks improved to 11-1 after trouncing the Saints last night, and they are showing everyone that they are the best team in the NFC, if not the entire NFL. They are scary good, especially when playing at home.
THANKSGIVING
Detroit 40 Green Bay 10
Dallas 31 Oakland 24
Baltimore 22 Pittsburgh 21 (Pittsburgh +3 ½)
SUNDAY
Miami 23 NY Jets 3
Denver 35 Kansas City 28
NY Giants 24 Washington 17
Jacksonville 32 Cleveland 28
Indianapolis 22 Tennessee 14
New England 34 Houston 31
Minnesota 23 Chicago 20 OT
Philadelphia 24 Arizona 21
Carolina 27 Tampa Bay 6
Atlanta 34 Buffalo 31
San Francisco 23 St. Louis 13
Cincinnati 17 San Diego 10
Here are this week’s NFL games, along with the opening lines. I promise you that some of these lines will move during the week:
THURSDAY
Houston @ Jacksonville +3 8:30 pm NFL NETWORK
SUNDAY
Dolphins @ Pittsburgh -3 1:00 pm CBS
Indianapolis @ Cincinnati -6 1:00 pm CBS
Cleveland @ New England -12 1:00 pm CBS
Oakland @ NY Jets -3 1:00 pm CBS
Buffalo @ Tampa Bay -3 1:00 pm CBS
Kansas City @ Washington +4 1:00 pm CBS
Minnesota @ Baltimore -7 1:00 pm FOX
Atlanta @ Green Bay -7 1:00 pm FOX
Detroit @ Philadelphia -3 1:00 pm FOX
Tennessee @ Denver -11 4:05 pm CBS
St. Louis @ Arizona -7 4:25 pm FOX
NY Giants @ San Diego -3 4:25 pm FOX
Seattle @ San Francisco -3 4:25 pm FOX
Carolina @ New Orleans -5 8:30 pm NBC
MONDAY NIGHT
Dallas @ Chicago -2 8:30 pm ESPN
Here’s ESPN’s NFL Nation Blog, with more news from all around the league:
Of course, we can all continue to sleep at night, knowing full well that Aaron Hernandez remains in jail, where he belongs.
In baseball:
The Hall of Fame voting results will be announced on January 8th. The new nominees for the Hall of Fame include three pitchers who should make it. Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine should make it in on their first try, while Mike Mussina should get in, maybe not in his first year of eligibility. Frank Thomas is also eligible for the first time, as he joins other players from the so-called “steroid era”, such as Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Mark McGwire. It will be interesting to see if Jack Morris makes it in his last year of eligibility, as well as holdovers Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell, and Mike Piazza, who all got over 58% of the vote last time. Among the choices in the “committee ballot” are Bobby Cox, Tony LaRussa, Joe Torre, George Steinbrenner, and former union chief Marvin Miller. The Committee ballot results will be announced on December 9th at the MLB winter meetings in Lake Buena Vista.
MY TAKE: Could this be the year that we see the first-ever unanimous choice for the HOF? Don’t be shocked if Greg Maddux is the one.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Orestes “Minnie” Miñoso, Luis Tiant, Tony Oliva, and Miguel Cuellar are still NOT in the hall of fame. Also missing in Cooperstown are Jim Kaat, Tommy John, and Pete Rose, whose exclusion as a player continues to be a travesty and a total joke.
In hot-stove news,
The Yankees and Robinson Cano are anywhere between $80 and $100 million apart in their contract negotiations, depending of who you believe. Cano better hurry up and make a decision - are there really any teams out there who are going to be willing to go 10 years and close to $300 million?
MY TAKE: As much as I like Robinson Cano, MLB teams are beginning to figure out that they cannot pay “future money” for “past performance”. The Yankees are no exception, and I just don’t see the long-term value of getting into a long-term deal for a 31-year-old second baseman. The team has probably learned its lesson from the A-Rod deal and other long-term deals that did not live up to the expectations. Let me digress for just a second . . . Cano and his advisors are denying that they asked for a $300 million deal. PLEASE! The fact is that they requested a nine-year deal for $260 million, with a tenth-year option for another $30 million. My math tells me that it adds up to $290 million.
Back to the Bombers. The Yankees have other issues that they need to deal with. They have taken a huge step by signing catcher Brian McCann. They need to figure out how to replace Andy Pettitte, Phil Hughes, and, quite possibly Hiroki Kuroda. They need to figure out how to fix CC Sabathia. They need to do the impossible and fill the void left by the retirement of Mariano Rivera, both in the field and in the clubhouse. They also need to replace Curtis Granderson, Alex Rodriguez, and start the process of finding a replacement for Derek Jeter. This is also hoping and crossing your fingers that Mark Teixeira returns to his old self.
If you look at the entire Yankee picture, specifically as it pertains to Cano, it really doesn’t make a lot of sense to tie up those huge dollars for a player that will most probably not be as productive the next nine years as he was his first nine with the Yankees.
I hope that the Yankees don’t make the same mistake with Cano that they made when they basically outbid themselves when they resigned A-Roid to that exorbitant contract. They need to learn from their past transgressions, and maybe look no further than the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cards didn’t blink when Albert Pujols signed his 10-year, $240 million deal with the Angels. How’s that worked out? The Cards have managed to stay in the hunt after Pujols bolted. They lost in the NLCS to the Giants 4 games to 3 in 2012, and were back in the World Series this past season, losing to the Red Sox. Just look at the compensatory pick they got from the Angels . . Michael Wacha. The Angels, with Pujols, haven't even advanced to the post season. They finished in third place both seasons, 83-79 in 2012, and were an underwhelming 6 games under .500 in 2013.
Bottom line, the Yankees need to start looking at the bottom line. Building up their depleted minor league system and filling in holes with the right free agents (at the right price) makes a whole lot more sense at this stage of the game, at least to me. Remember: I’m not a major league GM, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express once or twice.
Wheeling and Dealing:
MY TAKE: Navarro signing with the Blue Jays means that Toronto catcher JP Arencibia is available, either via trade or the Jays may even release him. Arencibia is a Miami-product, and would probably be a positive acquisition for the Marlins to consider.
Speaking of the Marlins, the new MLB television deal kicks in this year, and estimates are that each team will receive around $54 million this season from that national TV deal. Shouldn’t that immediately open up more payroll dollars for the Marlins? Just saying . . . . .
The Marlins did not tender contracts to former rookie of the year Chris Coghlan and reliever Ryan Webb. They officially become free agents.
Expect some more wheeling and dealing from the baseball winter meetings, which will be from December 9th through December 12th.
More rumors:
In case you missed it, the Marlins announced that pitchers and catchers report February 16th, position players arrive February 20th, and the spring training games begin February 26th, when the Fish play the University of Miami Hurricanes. They will then play the FIU Panthers on the 27th. Both of those games will be in Jupiter. Here is the complete preseason schedule:
In college football, the University of Miami Hurricanes finished their season 9-3, defeating the University of Pittsburgh 41-31. They will wait for the bowl selection committees to make their decisions, which will be announced after the conference championship games this weekend. Kickoff is at 3:30 pm, and the game will be televised nationally by ABC, Channel 10 in South Florida.
MY TAKE ON MIAMI’s BOWL APPEARANCE: Yesterday, I posted some of the different options for the University of Miami’s bowl game. I was asked to narrow it down further and include the opponent. OK, here is my fearless prediction . . . . . it will be Miami vs Louisville in the Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando on December 28th. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it (at least until we know for sure).
Manny Navarro and Susan Miller Degnan have more from Coral Gables:
The FIU Panthers’ miserable season came to an end last Friday, as they fell to crosstown-rival FAU 21-6. The Panthers finished a woeful 1-11, with their lone win coming against another bottom-of-the-barrel contestant, Southern Mississippi, a team that also finished 1-11. BTW, Southern Mississippi’s win came in their last game of the year, a 62-24 blowout of UAB. UAB beat FIU this season, 27-24.
FIU can go nowhere but up, according to David J. Neal:
In case you missed it, here is my commentary on the state of affairs at FIU:
There are a lot of problems at the university of Westchester. We all know that. The biggest challenge facing FIU is not just that this team is horribly bad . . . the football program itself has become totally irrelevant, immaterial, unimportant, disjointed, unessential, trivial, insipid, worthless, and inconsequential. The students couldn’t care less, the alumni don’t pay any attention to them, and the university’s athletic and marketing departments have done absolutely nothing to try and improve their standing in the community. For example, I have been asked many times why the football games and the basketball games are not broadcast on the radio. The only answer I have is that the athletic department has chosen to put their money in other things. Right or wrong, that is their prerogative, and it is not for me to comment on.
I will say this, however. The FIU Athletic Department has seemingly been on a mission to alienate the alumni, the students, former players, and the South Florida community as a whole. Perception is the mother of reality, and that is how the situation at FIU looks to the community in general.
My heart is too close to this. I was there when the program was born, and it is very sad for me to see it now on life support. It is time for the FIU President, Dr. Mark Rosenberg, to grab this bull by the horns and get this out-of-control train back on track and in a positive direction.
Here’s the latest from Tallahassee and #1-ranked FSU, who made it back to the top after pummeling Florida and the incredible Auburn victory over Alabama:
From Gainesville and the University of Florida:
Here are the NCAA Football rankings for this week:
Here is the complete schedule in College Football for week 15, including Conference Championship match ups and TV listings:
TODAY’S TRIVIA QUESTION: This is the sixteenth year of the BCS Championship game. How many times has a team from the state of Florida played for the NCAA Championship Trophy? The answer comes later, alligator.
Moving to the hardwood:
The Miami Heat host the Detroit Pistons tonight at the AAA. Game time is 7:30 pm, and you can watch the game on Sun Sports on your cable or satellite system. The Heat have won 14 of the last 17 games against the Pistons.
The Heat’s schedule this week:
Detroit @ Heat TONIGHT 7:30 pm Sun Sports
Heat @ Chicago Thu 12/4 9:30 pm TNT
Heat @ Minnesota Sat 12/7 8:00 pm Sun Sports
Heat @ Detroit Sun 12/8 6:00 pm Sun Sports
More Heat coverage:
Here is the Heat’s complete regular season schedule:
On the NHL ice, the Panthers return to the ice tonight as they host the Ottawa Senators here at the BB&T Center. The Winnipeg Jets will be here on Thursday night. Both games will be televised by Fox Sports Florida.
In boxing news,
Here is Santos Perez’ weekly boxing spotlight column from the Miami Herald:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I’m selling three lots totaling a little over five acres in the beautiful North Carolina mountains, overlooking the New River, a quick 35-minute drive from Boone and Blowing Rock. Click here to see some photos and feel free to contact me if you have any questions:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
THE ANSWER TO TODAY’S TRIVIA QUESTION: This is the sixteenth year of the BCS Championship game. How many times has a team from the state of Florida played for the NCAA Championship Trophy?
If everything goes as it should, and #1 Florida State advances to the BCS Championship game in January, it will be the eighth time that a team from the state of Florida plays for the trophy.
Florida State 1998, 1999, 2000 (1-2)
Florida 2006, 2008 (2-0)
Miami 2001, 2002 (1-1)
No comments:
Post a Comment