Monday Rumblings

All World All Sports Blogs

-Digger's Daily-

The sports world has been churning plenty of headlines recently. Rumors, trades, scandals, awards, winners and losers. It's time for my two cents nitpicking the hub-bub.

Heisman Trophy Winner
Alabama RB Mark Ingram won the 2009 Heisman Trophy Award as the nations top college football player. Voting results were closest in the awards 75 year history. I guess playing for an undefeated #1 team helped. Personally, I didn't think Ingram's stats came close to the season dished out by Toby Gerhart of Stanford. I was left scratching my head when learning of the results. Final talley was Ingram (1,304), Gerhart (1,276), McCoy (1,145). Ingram was 4th on my list (Gerhart 1st, McCoy 2nd) ... good thing for him I don't cast an official ballot.

Tiger Woods Saga...
Tiger's women keep lining up to tell tales of swinging romances, lavish gifts and more. Why not? Our crazed media has hung on to and published nearly every word these loose women have to tell. Tiger's strumpets have hit gold selling their stories for 2 minutes of fame. Some might get much more than 2 minutes. Anything from rumored Tiger buy-offs for silence to story telling contracts to new jobs. Go figure.
The White House must have loved this story. Don't forget, various spokesman from Rahm Emanuel to Hillary Clinton to the President himself have previously declared "Never waste a good crisis." And, they haven't. This week alone, as media outlets of the world were looking into the Tiger Woods story, plenty of news was left uncovered. Senate closed door health care meetings. Raising of the debt ceilings. News of Iran's nuclear capacities dating back to 2007. "Climate-Gate" scandal. Mostly left without any type of "investigative" journalism. Tiger was the media's main prey. If only these drive by cheeerleaders would have covered news worth of importance. What ever happened to investigative journalism. Heck, Tiger's headlines and deep coverage into the past of nearly every woman he's been accused of cheating with greatly outweighs the depths journalists looked into anything coming out of Washington these days.

Baseball Trades & Free Agents
Baseball's winter meetings were relatively quiet. Plenty of free agents remain with very few stars being signed. However, there's been two blockbuster trades. A three team trade brings Curtis Granderson to the World Champion New York Yankees. Yanks gave up future star CF Austin Jackson (to Detroit), RP Cooke (Detroit) and left for dead Ian Kennedy (Arizona) who never lived up to NY hype. Arizona nabbed Edwin Jackson from Detroit. In addition to Cooke and Jackson (from NY), Detroit also acquired SP's Max Scherzer and Daniel Schlereth from Arizona. All 3 teams got what they wanted.

Another 3 team big name trade rumor surfaced 2 hours ago. Slim details have surfaced. It appears Halladay is going to Philadelphia from Toronto. Playoff star Cliff Lee heads to Seattle. Phils are nuts to part with Lee. Have they forgotten what he did for thim this past postseason? Halladay, Lee & Hamels would have made a great trio. Add emerging JA Happ plus powerful lineup and Phils could have a dynasty in the making. Lee (2008 Cy Young winner) and Halladay are almost a wash. Philly giving up it's top prospects in addition to Lee stymies the deal for me.

Red Sox signed John Lackey to a five year deal. Welcome to AL East baseball. I was hoping the Mets would sign him even though odds were slim at best. A great move for Boston. Lackey's a gamer.

Hideki Matsui seems destined for Angels territory. Mr Clutch will be missed here in NY. Looks like Vlad Guerrero needs a new home. Wonder if he's to be found on the Yanks radar? Yanks are starved for right handed bats and Vlad is a good fit if the price is right even though he's coming back from an off year due to multiple nagging injuries.

Pittsburgh Steelers
What in the world is happening to the Steelers? Five straight defeats including three to bottom dwellers. No offense continuity. A good matchup right now would be Pittsburgh vs Dallas.

Dallas Cowboys
December football is here. So are the same old Cowboys. 0-2 in December 2009. Next up, a trip to play 13-0 Saints. Brees at home will have his pick of 4 wide open receivers. Doomsday talk surrounds all facets of Dallas. Coach Phillips has been criticized. Offensive coordinator Garrett. Tony Romo still hears calls from commentators and former successful QB's to step up and "lead". 8-3 to missing the playoffs? A loss this weekend vs NFC's top team and these guys might as well start making vacation plans.

Martin Brodeur to set another NHL record...
Add another notch in Brodeur's NHL record belt. He's one game away from tying Patrick Roy's mark of 1,029 games played. That's an awful lot of hockey. Only the best can do it and Brodeur has certainly been one of the best ever to lace up in the NHL. Before this season ends, Brodeur will also set the record for most 30 win campaigns by goalies (13, tied with Roy 12). If he shuts out one more team in playoff action then he sets another record. One of my favorite players of all time.

NFL MVP?
I've been very surprised at the lack of MVP talk. It's been a great season so far. Early on I was leaning towards Favre. He's been great all year. However, there's a gang of players making plenty of noise. Here's my short list as of now:Peyton Manning (Ind), Brett Favre (Min), Chris Johnson (Ten), Philip Rivers (SD), Drew Brees (NO) & Thomas Jones (NYJ). I'm not sure which player ranks highest on my list. They're all having tremendous seasons. I'd bet 2009 voting results are closest in history.

(www.allworldallsports.com)