General: The Ol' One-Two Punch

Weighing in on Olympic security, the insanity of Canadians, a certain team whose ready to take another World Series, an unexpected fleshy sighting, and a prediction for the upcoming NBA season. eSports columnist Conor McCreery is nothing if not a fan of the 45 comma sentence.

And awaaaaay we go...

ONE: Canadians are an interesting lot.

If Mike Weir finishes in the top 10 of a golf tournament we as a nation are only too happy to cheer him on. Never mind the fact that on any given weekend 25% of the world's top golfers are staying home from competition.

Yet, when a swimmer finishes sixth in the world in his chosen event, swimming faster than he has ever before, the nation is so amazingly dismissive if not outright hostile towards the achievement. What is it about the Olympics that bring out the "Ugly Canadian?"

By no means do I think we should be blindly accepting of legitimately poor performances from our athletes, but clearly it is the system that is lacking.

A friend of mine is a member of the Canadian Olympic Cycling team. He recounts to me that the big $30 million payday that came down from the COC (Canadian Olympic Committee) arrived scant months before the Olympics were to begin. A nice gesture, but far too late to effect any real improvements for his or other's teams.

This sort of thing strikes me as akin to not giving a promising hockey prospect any formal coaching until a few days before NHL training camp and then wondering why he didn't make the team.

If we don't want to financially support our athletes on the massive levels of Australia, China, the USA or the Germans, well then we get what we get, an uneven haul of medals.

Really though, does it make any difference to this country whether we end up with 22 medals or 12? Does that change your day to day life in any significant manner? These athletes are NOT, despite what you may think, finishing 23rd in the pentathlon to spite you, to make you feel shamed as a Canadian on the international stage, or to piss you off.

Is it because they wear the Maple Leaf that we feel so much outrage?

N'ah couldn't be. After all they packed the Gardens in the 80's didn't they?

TWO: Uh, how the hell does a guy tackle the leader of the Olympic marathon, bundling him right into the crowd? The Brazilian athlete in question was able to get back on the track, but stumbled to a third place finish.

One can only assume that the absence of a terrorist incident in Athens was due to a lack of trying. Really though what sort of security can you expect from a nation that generally takes the summer off?

The best part of this is when the Brazilians protested the race, saying, quite reasonably that a minor little thing like being attacked by a defrocked Irish priest sporting a kilt damaged their man's concentration, they were refused.

Tripping on a piece of debris is bad luck, having Father McFreakydoo make like Lawrence Phillips is quite another. Would anyone have thought the result unfair if the Brazilian runner was granted a duplicate gold, and the fourth place runner was granted Bronze?

This is just the latest in a series of incidents where the Olympic adjudicators came up short on the fairness side of the stick. The refereeing in the men's Basketball was often confusing, a Canadian judge admitted he changed his marks after feeling "pressured," and the men's eights rowing semifinals were marred by an incident involving an inadvertent collision.

These are just a few of the many examples of oddities that affected podium placement. Apparently the Olympic committee is scared to death of thinking outside of the box, or actually making a ruling on anything. Then again these were the same geniuses who couldn't get two Greek sprinters to pee in a cup.

Opa.

ONE: I don't want to invoke the "Katie Holmes in 'The Gift'" mantra too lightly... But "The Hole," a British/US release from 2000, provides the most unexpected topless shot by a "Hollywood starlet you thought you'd never see topless" since said Sam Raimi's masterpiece (I'm not going to spoil it for you -- but it's NOT Thora Birch).

TWO: And in the audio portion of this digression -- I cannot, cannot recommend highly enough "TV on the Radio's" new album -- "desperate youth, blood thirsty babes." If you can get past the melodramatic title you'll be treated to an album, that after half a dozen listens provides you with one of the smartest, adult indie-pop albums in years. This is the music for you if you're sitting there wanting something new to make you excited like music used to. The second track "Staring at the Sun" is currently wearing out my headphones.

ONE: About this time two years ago I made a bold prediction that was 100% right. The Anaheim Angels, I said, would win the wild card, and then run the table and take the World Series.

Ladies and Gentlemen I'm about to go two for two, because those Angels are ready to roll yet again.

This team is eerily similar to that 2002 squad. They've rounded into form after a so-so start, and have that offence going like a wood chipper again -- spraying out baseballs in all directions.

The Angels don't so much hit a pitcher as they take him into the back alley and pummel him. Their starting nine is filled with patient hitters who all have extra base power. They have eight players with 100+ AB's with a .350 On Base Percentage or better. The major league median OBP is .337. Angels RF, Vladimir Guerrero is arguably the most fearsome hitter in the game after some guy named Barry.

Most importantly the Angels are again forcing opposing hurlers into deep pitch at-bats, and getting key hits. This is a team that is never out of any ballgame, and grows stronger in the late innings -- six of the team's key contributors are hitting .300 or better in situations ESPN defines as "close and late." Remember Game 6 of the 2002 series? Down 5-0 in the bottom of the seventh, the Angels scored three runs in each of their last two at-bats to win 6-5.

The Angels, also have an excellent bullpen, just like in 2002. While Troy Percival is not the same lights out closer he was in the past, he, Francisco Rodriguez (K-Rod), Scott Shields, Brendan Donnelly and Kevin Gregg combine to form an excellent pen. Significantly, all of these hurlers, with the exception of Gregg, have been far better since the first of July then they were before.

In the rotation Bartolo Colon has come back from his disastrous start to go 8-3 since July 1st, while Kelvim Escobar and Jarrod Washburn have both been good enough to get deep enough into games so that the Angels pen can hold the fort. While the fourth starter could be a question, John Lackey has seemingly run into the wall with a 7.09 ERA in August, and Aaron Sele has been a classic example of wins obscuring poor performance, the Angels are certainly no worse off than the Yankees or the Twins.

Again, look back to the 2002 series when in Game 7 John Lackey was able to contain the Giants over his five innings start -- allowing the Angels pen to put the game away. Anaheim starters, with the bullpen, and non-stop offense have a far greater margin for error than many of their peers.

Of course Anaheim is going to need to pass one of Boston or Oakland, and fend off the Rangers. Texas should be the easiest of the three as their great pen is starting to unravel under the strain of so many poor outings by the starters. Oakland though, has Erubiel Durazo giving them the sort of middle of the order threat they haven't seen since the days of McGwire and Canseco. Add that to a now fully recovered Eric Chavez and the A's may finally have the offensive punch they have so badly lacked in the past four post-seasons. Boston's defense is now of the quality that Bronson Arroyo and especially Derek Lowe can thrive. Meanwhile the Beantown bullpen has been relatively solid all season, and we all know that Boston may be Anaheim's equal at the dish when it comes to outlasting opposing hurlers.

So, what puts the Angels over the top? Recent winning tradition. The A's, deep down, know they have yet to win anything significant, they're like the Atlanta Braves minus 1995. While the keyed up Boston media turns every foul ball into a missed opportunity of Buckner-ian proportions.

By contrast the Angels know they can win, returning 16 players from the title team. They also have just enough veterans, like Colon, Escobar and Guerrero who have yet to win, giving the team the needed hunger. Anaheim is rolling, just like they did two years ago, and that confidence will allow the Angels to make the post-season, and once they do... feel pity for anyone getting in their way.

TWO: How bad has it been for Blue Jay baseball this year? Bad enough that before the Jays rallied for five runs in the seventh inning to make a winner of Miguel Batista in Sunday's game against the Yankees no Jay starter had as many wins as Twins reliever Juan Rincon.

To make matters worse Rincon won his 10th game for the Twinkies on August 15th a date when the Jays had only one hurler (Batista) who'd even won nine games.

Batista, Ted Lilly (9 wins) and Josh Towers (9 wins) will be in a derby to try to keep Toronto from not having at least one 12 game winner for just the second time since 1995.

ONE: I think the Non-American players in the NBA are going to be taking a step forward as a result of these Olympics. Before a Euro (an unfair generic term I'm going to use no matter how geographically incorrect) came into the NBA well aware of the fact that Americans dominated the game. Euro's weren't athletic enough, couldn't play in the paint, and were too soft, too slow. Their roles were limited to being spot shooters, or good passers.

Now though that myth, leaking badly the last few years, has burst completely. This doesn't mean that Dirk Nowitzki is about to find another level to take his game, but what about players like Boris Diaw, Jiri Welsch or Mickael Pietrus, players who showed promise last season but still have far to go? I wonder how much additional confidence will be bestowed upon them by the Americans hard fought bronze medal showing. Remember the US had to play a very good game to beat Lithuania to win the bronze.

It's true that, really, when you look at it objectively this US team wasn't that good. They didn't have any superior shooters, and aside from Tim Duncan, they lacked overall size in the post. Still the world made a unarguable statement that the gap has closed, likely for good. Now the stage is set for the NBA Euro contingent to tap into that new confidence and take the next step here in North America.

TWO: With the Olympic trial behind them, the NBA needs to focus on fixing their game. Basketball is heading rapidly down the road hockey is on. A game that has become a shadow of it's past self.

There is no doubt that today's players in both sports are far superior athletes, but what is definitely up for debate, especially in basketball, is are the athletes better players? Do they have the same "nose" for the game their predecessors did?

In a word "no." The NBA is filled with players who can leap, get out and defend on the perimeter, run like nobody's business, and yet accomplish almost nothing on the court.

This is directly attributable to the increased attention the game received in the 1980's and unfortunately to Michael Jordan, because Jordan's talents were so awe inspiringly different.

Nobody had the aerial game Michael had. Sure their had been ferocious dunkers, Julius "Dr. J" Erving, Dominique Wilkins, and Bernard King spring to mind, but still nothing had come along that was quite like Jordan, until Jordan. His aerial game became the signpost that all others had to try to reach. So entered the era of the "jump out of the gym" athlete (of course this unfairly ignored what truly made Jordan great, his all around game, and his unquenchable competitive fire).

So, the era of spectacle descended on sports. The mantle of great player was passed onto the most explosive. Would Larry Bird's game, which rarely featured dunks of great authority, be appreciated in today's market place? Ask Andrei Kirilenko -- he's probably the player today who has the most Legend like set of all-around skills.

Who?

Exactly.

Heck, even Magic, with his dazzling array of no-look passes, and smooth moves to the bucket, would have trouble topping a Richard Jefferson flush for Sportsnet's "Highlight of the Night."

The NBA needs to, in the worst way, get their pipeline -- young players -- back to basics ASAP. The league needs more players who don't, by happy accident, turn out to be more than mere dunkers. For every Vince Carter, who, when he chooses to, can unleash a breathtaking all-around set of skills, there are a dozen Eddie Robinsons, players who are nothing more than aimless leapers with no idea how to actually play within the flow of the game.

Look at the flawed nature of Team USA, neither Stephon Marbury nor Allen Iverson, can really properly play the point. A fact all too painfully revealed when Carlos Arroyo lead Puerto Rico to the shocking victory over the US in Athens. Iverson has never shot better than .421 in his career, Marbury never better than .442. Yet in the NBA where the one-on-one still remains supreme these players can be invaluable (though Starbury has never done anything more than throw a scare into better teams at playoff time).

The NBA, needs kids to play more college ball. Pure and simple. Very few college seniors come out of the experience without a fundamental knowledge of how to properly play the game. Give NBA coaches this base to start building upon, not some hot shot freshman who probably never executed a pick and roll correctly in his life.

Otherwise, the NBA is going to become the same uninspiring spectacle that is 80% of NHL hockey games, and sadly 70% of NBA games as it stands right now.

Now go get outside and enjoy the weather while it still lasts.