Justin Morneau: A feel-good story
Yes, I will start off by stating that I am biased. I am a Twinkies fan and dreamed of Mauer and Morneau the Minnesota version of the M&M boys mauling opposing pitchers and winning more MVP's and maybe even a world series. GASP! Obviously we all know that didn't happen, Justin got a freak concussion sliding into second base and was never the same. Joe had 'leg weakness' and his one year of hitting home runs was truly a fluke. He is still a great player but this segment isn't about Joe its about the only Canadian in sports I like, just kidding (can't forget my boy Robert Sacre). Morneau some how took his career from already falling off the cliff and brought it back to being on the fan vote for the All-Star game. If you read this article go to here to vote for him. And also if he wins I hope his teammate Troy Tulowitzki selects him to be apart of the home run derby. That would be something for a Twins fan, seeing Justin hitting homers somewhere we thought we would be seeing a lot of them and never did. He never lived up to his MVP expectations at Target field. However, even through all the surgeries and missed time you never heard Justin complain in the media. I am guessing the Rockies couldn't have found a better veteran presence to replace Todd Helton.
Side note: apparently if you're an ex-Twin and need to revive your career go to the Rockies!
Salary Caps: Confusing
There is a lot of articles on cap-ology and what not going on in this NBA offseason. First some facts, the NBA has a soft-cap with severe tax penalties for going over the tax apron ($4 million higher than the projected cap). Every team has the same cap limit, the penalties are how much tax you have to pay per dollar and they get worse the farther you exceed the cap. There are also repeater penalties for franchises that continually go over. Also there is a minimum percentage of the cap that you have to spend. Some of these things were just added in the last CBA in 2011. But what is confusing for me, is that owners and fans are complaining when players don't take pay cuts to be team players. The salary cap is the amount of money a team can spend on players, so what you have to know is when a player gets paid more that is just less money other players can get. The owner gets everything else. The owners signed this CBA because now they can hide behind tax aprons and player acquisition restrictions when they are over the cap, when really they just like pocketing profits. They never have to make any financial sacrifices for the betterment of the team. This isn't like baseball where if the owner wants to get that final piece he thinks he needs for a championship he can just pull out the check book. The players have a limited amount of time they can make money, the owners can make profits until...well ask Donald Sterling. And even he is selling, his fighting the sale is another matter altogether, for an absurd profit. He bought the Clippers for $12.5 million dollars and 30 years later is selling it for $2 BILLION. That is not a bad return on your investment for a racist old jerk. Not someone I would say is a team player. So stop ragging on Lebron, Carmelo, Bosh, or Pau for wanting money. And how is the salary cap doing for parity in the NBA? The Lakers, Celtics, Bulls (Jordan), and Spurs (Duncan) have combined to win nearly two-thirds of all the NBA championships.
World Cup
All I wanted to say is that even in this country where soccer is a little farther down the totem pole, the USMNT got the attention they deserved. They snuck one out against Ghana outplayed Portugal who was the more talented team on paper, and gutted out what they needed against Germany to advance. They were outplayed totally by Belgium but Tim Howard captivated the US and the world. It is easy to be patriotic every four years, and it is something that is fun to be get involved in. So any article/personality that spits any negativity towards the World Cup is just dead wrong. I had a blast watching the Americans play hard this tournament, and am looking forward to the next one.
