The Sports Pulse

I thought Roger Clemens wanted to go to a contender. When you have more money than you know what to do with, what’s the difference between a million or two per month? He could have gone to Boston to end his career where it started. He’d make that starting five the best in baseball. They have a legitimate shot to win the World Series.

Yet Clemens finally took a staggering pro-rated $28 million contract to pitch in pin stripes. That’s $4.5 million per month and he gets days off when he’s not pitching. Just think he’ll still get meal money when he’s on the road.

This is the team that signed Carl Pavano to a four-year, $39.95-million deal, and what did they get out of it? He’s out for the season again, might have Tommy John surgery, and could be done for the remainder of his contract. It worked out to him getting $16,000 per pitch. Thinking about that kind of money for so little work makes it hard to breath for a second. Talk about stupidity and desperation for some starting pitching.

Clemens must not have wanted to pitch in the post season because at this rate the Yankees will be at home the same time as the Royals and Nationals.

Boxing’s biggest fight in a long time is tomorrow night and I’m almost considering paying an arm and a leg so I can see what unfolds live. Seeing the replay the next week just might not be satisfying enough. Charles Barkley said tonight on TNT he is pissed that Houston and Utah are going to a Game 7 cause he wants to be able to sit in the front row of this fight. He was seriously bummed out. That’s just classic.

The best idea to promote this fight was to air the four part behind the scene on HBO that looked into both fighter’s lives. I found myself riveted by how these guys live and train for the biggest fight in their career. In one corner you have the flashy and definitely not shy Floyd Mayweather. That guy is a training machine and seems to never get tired. I loved how he brings in this scared looking sparring partner and because we could not see the actual sparring session, the next thing we see is a bloody Mayweather shirt from the ass whooping he put on the poor soul. But my favorite Mayweather moment has to be when he pulls out all those $100 bills he just randomly carries in his pocket. The guy is a walking bank vault with all that cash he carries. He is young, rich, and handsome and he’s not afraid to tell you all those things more than once. People in this corner are very in your face.

De La Hoya is all business. This is the best business move ever for him. He stands to make $40 million from this fight after the pay-per-view gross is divided! He might get his ass beat but this fight will show that his company, Golden Boy Promotions, can promote a huge fight. He’s looking to the future. That payday will set him even more than he is now.

I find myself rooting for Oscar. He’s the underdog. I like his trainer Freddy Roach, who looks nothing like a boxing trainer but is a soft spoken man who really knows his boxing. People are all likeable in this corner.

If De La Hoya wins, I see a rematch that could be even bigger. If Mayweather wins, a rematch would not have the same luster because an aging De La Hoya would seem unlikely to come back and even up the series.

I’m rooting for the underdog Oscar. I sense a Mayweather victory though.

Now that’s why everyone watches the draft. It’s best reality show for guys that doesn’t have bad comb overs, bug eating, or practicing your runway walk.

To see Brady Quinn’s reaction when the Miami Dolphins selected Ted Ginn Jr. Anyone who could read lips saw him sas shocked as we were at home. If we could only read his mind, he was probably thinking “Damn bitches!!” If Miami didn’t want Quinn okay. Going for Ginn that high is about as questionable as you can get.

Brady’s slide also cost him about $25 million. He can’t blame the Browns as much because according to Randy Savage they had Brady rated very highly but not in their top three. He can blame bad luck and the flip of the coin.

Tampa Bay and Cleveland has a coin toss to determine the #3 pick. Cleveland won and went third. Had Tampa Bay won they may have gone for Joe Thomas. At the #4 spot, Cleveland takes Brady Quinn. A coin flip loses him millions of bucks and embarassment. Gotta feel good about that huh? Still Cleveland gets him but it’s gotta feel like sloppy seconds for him.

Michael Smith on ESPN rambled off a bunch of reasons why Brady Quinn wasn’t being picked and one reason was that some people don’t like the name Brady. They don’t like his first name?? This first round had a JaMarcus, Marshawn, Jaamal and Levi. Brady may sound a bit metrosexual but that’s about as normal as you can get compared to others.

The top nine picks of the draft

1) Raiders - Jamarcus Rusell

If the NFL draft is the most overhyped event of the year, I feel like Russell is the most overhyped player in this draft. Before his epic Notre Dame game, he wasn’t even thought of as a franchise quarterback. There were more holes in Notre Dame’s defense than a dozen donuts and voila he’s a number one draft pick. Okay he’s big, got big hands, and can throw the ball 60 yards from his knees.The problem having the first pick is that it means your team is really really bad. All aspects of your team is struggling so one player isn’t going to turn around your season. Now the Raiders just traded their best, albeit troubled, deep threat receiver. Plus how often do quarterbacks #1 overall go on to win a Super Bowl? More often they’re mediocre relative to their draft position. Raiders will be drafting #1 again next season.

2) Detroit - Calvin Johnson

Detroit takes another wide receiver in the first round. Man their war room must be in cruise control in the first round every year. This year though they could not pass up on a player that is a freak of nature, hard working, and a can’t miss. Wasn’t that said of most of their other wide recivers? Right now a wide receiving tandem of Roy Williams and Calvin Johnson sounds pretty impressive. Good thing Calvin is used to bad quarterbacks throwing him the ball. The different is Jon Kitna will seem like Montana compared to Reggie Ball.

3) Browns - Joe Thomas

This pick really dictated the rest of the draft. Brady Quinn was pick to go here but even Randy Savage said later that though Quinn was rated highly, he wasn’t in their top three. I don’t know much about Joe Thomas except that he’s really big and stopped some really big guys.

4) Bucs - Gaines Adams

There was interest in Brady Quinn but Tampa Bay already has Jeff Garcia, Simms, and Bruce Gradkowski on their roster. Another pretty boy who throws an oblong ball is not what they needed. Gaines Adams here will bring youth to their defense which is reaching social security age. An excellent selection but I’m sure the Bucs could careless what I think.

5) Cardinals - Levi Jones

A big offensive tackles to try and open up holes for aging Edgerrin James and protect Matt Leinart’s pretty face. I don’t know much about him but I bet he tears up the buffet line. A young Adrian Peterson would have been a great fit in that young offense but they already paid the bank vault for James and that would be about as dumb as having three 1st round wide receivers on your team.

6) Redskins - LaRon Landry

Think any wide receivers want to run across the middle with Landry and Sean Taylor laying hits across the middle? Just hope he works on his conditioning because their defense will be on the field for a very long time. It wasn’t a great idea though to give up your 2nd, 3rd, or 4th round draft pick for the rest of the day.

7) Vikings - Adrian Peterson

Read the recent cover story in Sports Illustrated on Peterson. I don’t think working hard is something you have to convince him to do. He runs fast on grass but now he gets to run on turf. He also gets to run through Detriot, and Green Bay’s defense twice a year. He’s gotta be excited by that.

Falcons - Jaamal Anderson

Relentless pass rusher who will come in and start right away. Michael Vick better watch out because they could be yelling for Jaamal to play quarterback by the middle of the season.

9) Dolphins - What the Hell Where They Thinking

This is like the guy in your fantasy football league who takes defense in the 3rd round or a kicker in the 5th. Waaaaayyyyyy too early but he thinks he’s smarter than everyone else.

Everyone outside of the Dolphins war room did not see Ted Ginn Jr. getting picked this high. Even dinosaurs woke up from extinction to say “WTF?” He is an electric return man but he was an average receiver in college. If you draft a receiver in the top ten, you’re hoping for 90 catches 1200 yards and 10 TD’s a season. He ran only three routes in college. Go straight really fast. Go straight really fast and turn left. Go straight really fast and turn right. In the NFL, it’s going to take a bit more than that. This was Brady Quinn’s last hope to save face. I think in the end the really stupid ones will be the Dolphins.

This is what gets me excited about baseball. The best rivalry in baseball going at it in Boston over the weekend with the Sunday night matchup featuring Dice-K who sees the Yankees for the first time this season. Yankees bringing the one man offensive machine A-Rod who is on a torrid offensive pace but still won’t mean anything if he bats .150 in October. Nice pressure huh?

On Friday night A-Rod put on an offensive display (2 HR’s and 4 RBI’s) that had to of wowed even the most hated Boston fans. It looked like it was going to be all Yankees until the eighth inning when the Yankees gave up five runs including ones off the sure handed Mariano Rivera.

Sunday’s matchup looked like the Yankees were going to avoid the sweep after a quick 2-0 lead. Before you blink again it was 3-0. Then Boston did something so historic that fans will be talking about this game for years. Yanks pitcher Chase Wright, who will be shipped back to Double A in a FedEx box ASAP) had been crusing along until he faced Manny, JD Drew, Mike Lowell, and Varitek in consecutive at bats in the 3rd inning and all absolutely crushed homeruns. It was home run Derby in April. It looked so easy. It was surreal.

Then the game could not have ended in anymore dramatic fashion. It’s only April but damn I felt like we were in October. Papelbon comes into close the game leading 7-6 and struck out Damon and Jeter in unfair fashion. He walks Abreu to have A-Rod come to bat in another clutch situation. Power vs. Power. I don’t think Boston fans wanted to see him at bat but in the end they cheered that he was the final victim in a Boston sweep of the Yankees.

In the end, it showed that the Yankees are going to have a long season unless they fix their starting pitching and find ways to plug holes in their weak bullpen. Even Mariano Rivera has blown two saves this season. Friday’s starter Andy Petitte came in for an inning of relief. That’s how bad it got in the bullpen.

Fifteen more games left in this series and if they’re even more exciting than this one, we’re in for a treat. Apr 27, 2007 is the next time the meet, with possibly Dice-K pitching the opener in Yankee Stadium.

Still trying to wrap my head around this Virgina Tech tragedy. I haven’t been glued to the news like this since 9/11. I think now the story will die down and that will give time to the family to have their privacy. Of course this is something that will never be forgotten in our lifetime.

One very famous Virigina Tech alumni has stepped forward and donated $10,000 to assist the families affected by this tragedy. Of course Vick played at Virgina Tech where he made a name before himself before becoming one of the most overrated quarterbacks in the NFL. It’s nice that Vick stepped forward to donate some money but doesn’t that sum seem a tad low? Clearly Vick is the richest Vtech athletic alumni out there. His 2005 salary including bonuses was $23 million. His 2006 base salary was $1.4 million which is nothing compared to the total value of his contract which is worth $130 million.

He certainly didn’t have to donate but $10,000 seems very low for a man who makes millions and it very much associated with VTech. Maybe $10,000 just a common number for him. Last season when he flipped the bird to fans after a Falcons’ game he was fined 10K for his gesture. He then donated an extra 10K to a charity to boost up his public image and make people forget about that incident.

Let’s put it in perspective. He gives 10K to charity out of his own pocket presumably to boost his image after giving the middle finger? Then it’s the same amount given to assist families of the most senseless act of violence since 9/11?

I guarantee you that watch (above ) is worth more than the amount he donated. Plus he probably has ten more at home. The woman he went probably charges that much for a couple nights of her services.

He could have reached deep into his pockets to really pull out an amount that have a greater impact. Anything over $100,000 would have made me say that was a nice gesture. But $10,000? There are over 30 dead and that’s a lot of families. That’s a little over 3,000 per family. Give up the watch and the hookers and he could have donated more.