Superstar of the Week: Matt Cain and Webb Simpson
San Francisco Giants right-handed pitcher Matt Cain threw the 22nd perfect game in Major League Baseball on June 13th in a 10-0 victory over the Houston Astros. It was the first perfect game in Giants history and first no-hitter for the Giants since 2009. Cain struck out 14 Astros, tying him for most strikeouts in a perfect game with Sandy Koufax’s 1965 perfect game.
Also in San Francisco, California, the 112th US Open golf tournament took place at the Olympic Club. North Carolina native Webb Simpson won his first major with a final round 68, making up the four shot deficit to third round leaders Jim Furyk and Graeme McDowell. While Simpson did nothing spectacular on the course to win the tournament, he was solid in a final round that saw McDowell struggle early and Furyk lose a three-stroke lead over the final six holes. However, Simpson’s spectacular moment at the 2012 US Open came in the victory celebration when a clown briefly interrupted him.
“Enjoy the jail cell, pal,” Simpson quipped as Bob Costas appeared to crap himself as a man wearing Union Jack colors stumbled into the shot and squawked like a bird. That image, more than any on the course, will be the lasting memory of the 2012 US Open. Congrats to Webb Simpson on that little bit of awesomeness. Congrats to the buffoon in the Union Jack colors too as he will forever live in sports crashing infamy.
Jerk of the Week: Shady Officials, Crooked Commissioners, and the Fans Too Blind / Naïve to See the Truth.
In the last week, I have found myself more disgusted than ever with the corrupt nature of sports. I have witnessed one of the most obvious screw-jobs in the history of professional boxing and a commissioner finally snap under the pressure of allegations that his league is fixed. Between the Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley fight on June 9th and David Stern’s unprofessional behavior during an interview with Jim Rome on June 13th, I have seen enough to lay judgment on both parties regardless of what their supporters think.
I watched the WBO Welterweight Championship fight between Timothy Bradley and Manny Pacquiao on June 9th from Las Vegas online. As I watched the fight, it was obvious from the beginning that Bradley was well out of his league. “Pac Man” Pacquiao dominated the fight. The commentators calling the fight spent the duration of the fight talking about the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather, Jr. dream fight because the Pacquiao-Bradley fight was out of hand after the fifth round. After the final bell rang in the 12th round, it was inevitable that Manny Pacquiao won the WBO Welterweight Championship. Most said Pacquiao won all 12 rounds while even the most generous of viewers and experts only gave Bradley two rounds in the fight. Pac Man won the fight. Then, Michael Buffer announced the decision. Judge Jerry Roth scored the fight 115-113 for Pacquiao while judges Duane Ford and CJ Ross scored the fight 115-113 in favor of Bradley. Timothy Bradley just stole a victory from Manny Pacquiao. The sporting world was shocked. Commentators were shocked. Analysts were shocked. Anybody with common sense who watched the fight was shocked. Manny Pacquiao was screwed in Las Vegas.
Moments after the announcement of the decision, rumors of a fix began to spread all over the sporting world. The fact that Timothy Bradley himself announced a rematch date during his victory interview added to the “fixed” speculations. Despite being blooded, beaten, and wheelchair-bound with a broken ankle, Timothy Bradley was the winner of this fight in two of the three judges’ eyes. Ford and Ross were the only two people who believed Bradley won. In my opinion, there was never a more obvious fix in the history of boxing. This fix finally killed interest in a sport dying a slow painful death since its heyday in the 1970s.
As boxing allowed corruption to kill it, another more popular sport battled speculations of corruption in its own right as the 2012 NBA postseason was in full swing. For years, one of the major criticisms of the NBA has been the preferential treatment superstars receive from officials. If you are LeBron James or Kobe Bryant for example, you will get calls in your favor the majority of the time. It appears to be an unwritten rule in the NBA. These observations have occurred since the days of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird though so they are a mute point in 2012. This is not going to change; it is just going to continue tarnishing the league’s integrity. Full of controversial calls and no calls involving superstars whom league Commissioner David Stern finds favor with because of the revenue they bring to the league, the 2012 postseason has been par for the course in terms of shady officiating. Frankly, I believe that as long as Stern runs the league, the corruption involving officiating will never change. We saw it with Tim Donaghy and his scandal. I believe it still exists in the league. However, that is not the focal point for the latest accusations of corruption in the NBA. The NBA opened a new series of speculation with the 2012 NBA Draft Lottery.
On May 30th, the New Orleans Hornets won the NBA Draft Lottery and first pick in the upcoming NBA Draft. Despite having the worst record in NBA history, the Charlotte Bobcats will pick number two in the draft because New Orleans won the lottery. Where is the controversy though in the Draft Lottery? Look at the background to the event.
The NBA owned the New Orleans Hornets for the 2011-12 season. When the Hornets attempted to trade their best player, guard Chris Paul, to the Los Angeles Lakers, Commissioner David Stern voided the trade because it would have hurt the Lakers. The trade would have sent two important role players (Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom) from Los Angeles to New Orleans for Paul. Odom ultimately went to the defending champion Dallas Mavericks and fizzled out while Gasol stayed on a Lakers team that made it to the second round of the playoffs. Stern allowed a trade that sent Paul to the Los Angeles Clippers instead. The Clippers saw Paul join league sensation Blake Griffin and have their best season in franchise history while the Hornets were the fourth-worst team in the league. New Orleans received nothing substantial in exchange for Paul. Knowing this was wrong, New Orleans got a bone from David Stern for destroying their chances last season in the form of the number one draft pick in a draft year when only one player, Kentucky center Anthony Davis, appears to be an impact player.
Nothing fishy about this at all though, right? It is all merely a coincidence, right? David Stern did not fix the Draft Lottery in 1985 so the New York Knicks could take Patrick Ewing despite video evidence living online that shows strong evidence of a fix. So, when Jim Rome asked Stern about this latest controversy in a radio interview on June 13th, David Stern’s reply was the response of a man innocent of all these allegations, right? Nothing says innocence quite like “Have you stopped beating your wife yet?” David Stern cracked under the pressure of another highly respected sports journalist asking him the million-dollar question: Was the Draft Lottery rigged? Taking the interview down an ugly road with a low blow, Stern did nothing to help clear the name of his league or the 2012 Draft Lottery with that response. It just made him appear guiltier with his defensive remark.
Of course, when Stern has sheep blindly following and protecting the NBA in spite of common sense telling them that things are wrong and fishy, Stern can continue to be defensive and continue to book the sport as he wants because nobody is really going to call him out on it. That is where the fans come in. No, fan is a great term. I am a fan. I am even a fan of the sports in question: boxing and basketball. Fans recognize these injustices and get angry by them. I am not talking about fans. I am talking about the sniveling, bottom-feeding, naïve sycophants who protect the logo at all costs. I’m talking about the people who have drank David Stern’s kool-aid to a point where they believe no sport is worthy of coverage but the almighty NBA and the NBA itself cannot possibly be fixed in any manner despite evidence to the contrary. These are the people more responsible for corruption ruining the NBA than anyone in the media or the league itself because these are the people still singing corruption’s praises while silencing the voice of the ones questioning the shady actions.
The worst people in the world this week are the shady officials ruining the events in the ring or on the court, the crooked commissioners pulling the strings and writing the scripts behind the scenes, and the naïve sycophants who allow this to go unpunished while blindly supporting these injustices.
Babe of the Week: Michelle Beadle
A Melancholy Happy Trails to…
- Rodney King, 47 - American police brutality victim (June 17th)
- Henry Hill, 69 - American mobster and inspiration for Goodfellas (June 12th)
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