Viva La Espana

Lets take a moment to congratulate Sergio "El Nino" Garcia for winning The Players Championship this afternoon.

On a lovely afternoon at the TPC Sawgrass in Florida Sergio won in a playoff agaisnt fellow Long Beach native Paul Goydos. In what has been a career in which "El Nino" has never won the big one or any of the 4 major tournaments in golf the kid got off the schnid and for that we applaud him. But lets get serious, the only way other golfers had a chance to win this week is that Tiger Woods is still recovering from surgery. So during the "Tiger Woods Era" we probably won't remember you winning this tournament in a month because the public only know Tiger. But this Spainard showed what happens when you focus and make your putts. The influx of Spanish athletes has really made us here in the States to take notice and not take siestas while they have the ball in their hands. Pau Gasol has demonstrated what happens when you move from Memphis to Los Angeles. Marc Gasol, I suggest you just stay in Spain. Jose Calderon has finally taken care of his passport issues and teaching those Canucks that Toronto is a basketball town. Juan Carlos Navarro and Rudy Fernandez are the bright future of Spanish basketball atheletes. On a day in which "El Nino" cashed in, we take a moment to congratualte Spain for making our sports a real fiesta.

Hold the Mayo

That 4 letter network reported today that the generally always up to no good former USC guard and future NBA lottery pick/millionaire O.J. Mayo (real name: Ovinton J'Anthony Mayo--I'm not making this up) was accepting cashmoney and free bottles at Teddy's while a student at the University of South Central. A big NCAA no no. This could potentially mean that USC would have to forfeit all games where OJ.participated. Doubtful that will happen. More likely are some additional restrictions on recruiting that they will no doubt violate. My question: wasn't this one obvious? At the time, USC had just spent millions of dollars in constructing the GAYlen Center (which I have to admit is actually pretty nice). To build a competitive/interesting to watch so that we can sell tickets and fill the arena team, they needed a blue chip recruit. Enter Mayo. A kid who has been hyped in the national media since 7th grade. From West Virginia/Ohio, willing to go to the highest bidder. USC (a school known for buying players) fit the bill. You would think that the boys from Troy would have learned their lesson on investing in degenerates named OJ. Guess not. This whole situation has the movie Blue Chips written all over it. Tim Floyd is Pete Bell. Seriously. (Speaking of Tim Floyd, my friend Loaf often refers to him as a used mattress salesman. I'd say that's pretty accurate). Of course, nothing will happen to Mustard...I mean Mayo. Just like in Blue Chips, where Neon and Butch (played by Shaq and Penny Hardaway respectively) went directly to the pros unscathed by the recruiting violations. As for the future of BBQ Sauce, I predict that he will go lottery in the draft and have an adequate statistical career (potentially a good short term pick-up in fantasy leagues) for a myriad of crappy teams . Think hybrid of Ricky Davis/Jamaal Tinsley. And, of course, he will rack up a slew of legal infractions ranging from substance abuse (DUI, possession of illegal substance, etc.), to assault to possession of an illegal firearm. Mark it down. You heard it here first on the Sports Toilet. By the way, why doesn't Vegas have odds on athletes and the likelihood of them getting arrested? I take the under on Horseradish getting arrested within a year.

Bow Down to Washington?

The University of Washington Huskies are holding an open competition to find a a new school song. Here are details from the school website. $1,000 for the winner. Not bad. And they even got that guy who composed the film score for Rocky to write the music. I guess you have to do anything to raise morale after the first losing season in both football and basketball in 25+ years. But hey, why not? I'm all for adding some modern flavor to the Dawgs anitquated fight song. As long as the new song includes the words "Jake Locker" and "future" in one or multiple lines. Administration should also bring back the old school logo. Or maybe hold a similar competition to design a new logo. The current Husky is too lifeless.

Vamos Vamos Argentina..

For yet another devirginization @ sportstoilet.com I wanted to introduce our followers to the wonderful world of Futbol. To begin I thought we should start with a friendly overlook of the top national soccer teams. I headed to the internationally recognized fifa rankings where I was delighted to see my beloved Argentine team ranked number one in the world. A team overflowing with talent at every position heads the list followed by the Brazilians, Italians, and Spain. – The U.S. is 21st and surprisingly the Mexicans are ranked slightly higher at 17th.
The Argentines are loaded with young talent that will only get better with age. Led by the young Lionel Messi who is already considered one of the greatest players in the world at age twenty one, and is the only untradeable player for Barcelona. Just watch some of the footage I found, here. Another prominent talent is striker Sergio "Kún" Agüero, age twenty, who currently plays for Atletico Madrid but has been rumored to be a highly coveted player of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich. A man known for assembling teams of international “all-stars.” Lets not forget about Carlitos Tevez who helped clinch another title for Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United. The Argentines are ranked number one in the world and seem destined to stay atop of the rankings for years to come. Especially while they are anchored in the middle by the man, the myth, the legend: Juan Roman Riquelme. One of the most talented players of all time.
On the club level we would like to congratulate once again Manchester United for winning the Premiere League title. In the Italian league there is one more match left with Inter leading in the overall rankings by one point over a Totti-less Roma. The Italian Marco Materazzi, more known for getting head-butted by Zidane in the World Cup, missed a penalty kick which would have clinched the Serie A Title for Inter; instead they must get a win next weekend or at the very least get a Roma defeat. Lastly, La Liga in Spain was won by Real Madrid.

Where is the Love?

Stop giving Lebron James all the credit for the success of the Cleveland Cavaliers. You wanna know who really is the Shit? I think it’s about time we began to recognize Zydrunas Ilgauskas. The man is 7 foot 3 inches tall. Shoots over fifty percent from the field in the playoffs, is a great rebounder, can deliver superb passes off of the double team. The list goes on and on. Big Z has a high basketball I.Q. and in my opinion his greatness is often not shown in the box score at the end of games. He’s like an elder, much wiser version of Pau Gasol. He easily draws the opponents big man outside because they have to respect his shot; so on high screen picks you either allow him an “easy” fifteen footer or he is very conscious of the whereabouts of his teammates and due to that often creates an easy bucket for the Cavaliers. On defense he puts his stamp on the game by pulling down the rebounds and with his blocking capabilities, deters the opponents from driving into the lane.
Now couple that with the fact that Lebron James is a ball-hog. He suffers from a similar dilemma that one of my buddies does. It has to do with how James and my friend understand and follow the whole theory of “they don’t have to try and score every point” however (and this is a big however,) they have one of those clauses that stipulates something like “if and only if I can at the very least get an assist out of it.” This causes the game to be completely centered on one guy (James obviously,) and incredibly handicaps a teams overall offensive capabilities. This kind of game play by Lebron further limits the ability of the big Lithuanian to produce more on the stat sheets; instead he chooses to quietly set high screens, dominate the boards, and of course hit jumpers from fifteen out while also scoring on beautiful hook shots. So yeah, with that said I think the Cavaliers have a great chance of escaping out of the east to meet my beloved Lakers in a NBA Final series. I don’t think the Celtics can beat Lebron and Big Z. Neither can the Pistons; especially with Chauncey “Bi Bi” Billups on one leg after his hamstring injury. If the Cavs come out of the East they would of course end their playoff hopes against the Lakers who will win this years NBA championship and give the black mamba a Finals MVP award as well.

Lakers in Five.

After a close loss in Game 3 at Utah, the Los Angeles Lakers are looking to get their third win of the series on Sunday. With the game falling on the Holy Day, the stellar home court advantage that helped the Jazz roll to a 37 – 4 regular season record at home will take a toll due to the fact that several of the Mormon fans, including their owner Mr. Miller will not be in attendance. Thank you, Stern.
Pau Gasol reminded us in his last game why the Grizzlies never got anywhere. Way to stink it up hombre. Clearly the leader in Spain is Calderon, he didn’t even need Pau in the finals of the last FIBA world championships to win it all. Every single time the Spaniard got the ball he ended up turning the ball over. I never expect much defense from the guy, however six rebounds in over forty minutes of play?!? Are you kidding me? No shots from the line? Step it up Pau. Step it up. Thank God we got Kobe. That being said, I’m sure the Zenmaster will fix this problem. That’s what the guy does. Straight up fixes things. Maybe I’m over reacting we did only lose by five and committed an uncharacteristically high number of turnovers.
Regardless, Gasol has to play better in Game four. The Machine and Jordan Farmar will not shoot 0-9 from the field. Lamar is going to get the ‘boards and intangibles. Fish is going to take his offensive charges. And Kobe will be the Black Mamba. All those things have me thinking win on Sunday as well as a win in Game five in Los Angeles.

Yo Adrian

Finally some hockey news comes to the Sports Toilet. Well...sort of. I came across this story about some Pittsburgh Penguin fans who are rumored to be playing a prank on Flyers fans--and the city of Brotherly love as whole--by putting a Sid the Kid jersey on the Rocky statue. No revealing pictures have surfaced yet, but I sure hope they do. That would certainly add some fuel to this in-state rivalry. Especially if someone responds to the craigslist posting asking for a Flyers fan to step up and perform a similar act of immaturity on a landmark in Pitts. I am a big fan of rivalries and pranks like this. Its always fun when sports fans logic goes down the sports toilet, and they revert back to their behavior from college. On second thought, the pranksters are probably in college right now. Still it is great to see two fan bases unite to support their team (and embarrass the opponent). Oh, and for those of you who don't follow hockey, this would probably be a good time to mention that the Pens and Flyers are currently playing each other in the Eastern Conference Finals. One other thing, look at that statue of Rocky. It is glorious. Best statue ever created of a fictitious character. Seriously, I dare you to find one better. Send me a picture if you can. But you can't. Only one slight problem: now when I look at it, I keep thinking of this Dwayne Wade-Chuck Barkley commercial. It got me thinking...would anyone go out of their way to deface a statue of Sir Charles?

AFC Prediction

After a season dominated by Brady's Bunch and a crushing Super Bowl loss, it's safe to say anything can happen in this division. The Pats are still the obvious favorite to win it all but I think a Super Bowl Champ from only a couple years previous has a great shot to take it again this season. After a solid draft and a pretty good season last year, the Pittsburgh Steelers look like a serious contender in a very deep AFC.

They somehow managed to have a respectable 10-6 record without, "Fast" Willie Parker, for a lot of the season and one of the top defensive players in the league, Troy Polamalu. With everyone healthy, Ben Roethlisberger coming off a strong season and a strong draft, they look tough going into the 08-09 season. Rookie editions Rashard Mendenhall (RB), Limas Sweed (WR) and the new "Slash" Dennis Dixon give Ben Roethlisberger and Willie Parker the help they needed last year. The Parker/ Mendenhall combo is as strong as any one-two in the league. The defense also added UCLA's Bruce Davis (DE), which will add even more pressure on opposing QB's and will allow Polamalu to control the secondary. The Colts have not done enough to match the likes of Pittsburgh or New England and another AFC contender, the San Diego charges didn't quite right the ship this off-season. Taking Anton Cason, although he was a late round steal, the U of A corner when cornerback was not a necessity this draft. Therefore, the Steelers and coach, Mike Tomlin, are in great position to battle the Patriots for AFC supremacy, and go on to win this year's Superbowl.

The Knicks may be on to something...

As bad as they have been in the Isaiah Thomas era, things may be on the up and up for the Knicks. I'm not saying it's a guarantee that they are a team to be reckoned with for years to come, but they have a chance. Getting Mike D'Antoni, an Italian, and a decent coach will please the people of New York, for now. Isaiah is out and that's even better. A few things have to happen for this mess to be cleared up in New York. The new GM, Donnie Walsh, has to look at this roster and set aside all the guys with baggage and trade them to teams who don't mind sitting on contracts, much like Portland's Kevin Prichard has been doing over the last three seasons in Portland. Eddy Curry, Jerome James, Jared Jeffries, Stephon Marbury, Zack Randolph, Quentin Richardson and Malik Rose all have to go. They must be traded for anything. 2nd round picks, D-Leaguers, foreign players still in the development process, pretty much anything but Kwame Brown. Let the young talent like, Nate Robinson, David Lee and Wilson Chandler develop. As good as Jamal Crawford has been, he is the key because his value can draw a more D'Antoni friendly player into NY via trade. Jamal Crawford for Richard Jefferson(Nets), would be a near perfect solution. A guy with little to no baggage and enough entertainment and scoring value to please the fans. Another huge factor is the draft pick they get. If they get number 1 they are all set, you get Derrick Rose, but if they get a 5-10 pick, look for them to get former Indiana Hoosier, Eric Gordon. This is a run and gun, D'Antoni friendly player that would work very well in his system. If the Knicks could have a starting lineup of Nate Robinson, Derrick Rose/ Eric Gordon, Richard Jefferson, David Lee and Wilson Chandler, while not a sexy lineup, it could be strong enough to earn a playoff spot in the very thin east. By the end of next season after cap space is freed and new players develop, they could be in good position to sign a 2009 free agent big man and make a run in the very soft east with D'Antoni at the helm.

If You're Not Cheating You're Not Tryin

Whether you are talking about Pete Rose or Bill Clinton, the people who are the best in their respective fields have often been those most prone to various forms of cheating. Hell, George W. wouldn’t have won the presidency in 2000 if it wasn’t for working a little outside of the rule books. Sowho is the culprit this time???…You guessed it. Bill Belichick. But I want to be honest with you. For me, it’s hard to find fault with this man. He has won 3 super bowls and last year he had only the second perfect regular season of all time. So what if he cheated? Is it cheating if your lineman holds and don’t get called for it? What about if your linebacker reads the quarterbacks signals before the play and calls a defensive play to stop it? Cmon. Only sore losers have a problem with this. People have been trying to steal signs in baseball for 100 years, this is nothing new.

And Roger Goodell clearly agrees with me. What was the penalty for getting caught cheating. you ask? The Patriots lost a 2008 first-round draft choice and $250,000 and Belichick was fined $500,000. That sounds like well worth the 3 rings, the millions of dollars in revenue and the notoriety of being one of the great football dynasties in the history of the game. Why don’t we all stop complaining and start hoping that our teams figure out how to tape signals too. I personally raise a glass to a man who has found a way to win and would not let anything, especially morality, stop him from accomplishing his goals.