General: The Ol' One-Two Punch

Completely unsolicited here is this space's current thoughts on the Bryant hoopla: Really, who knew Kobe could MAKE a pass?

Ok, I promise that's the last dig on Kobe you'll see in here until everything comes to light. However, if you are in the "Kobe didn't do it camp" you have to be nervous, the DA didn't take that week before pressing charges to discover he DIDN'T have any evidence that could convict Bryant.

It's going to be a very interesting trial.

ONE: I just became aware of the Lingerie Bowl. An idea that is either complete tongue in cheek genius, or soft porn smut of the cheese-iest variety.

For those of you who have not heard of this event head to the web site www.lingeriebowl.com Available exclusively on Pay-per-view, the Lingerie Bowl is a 7-on-7, full contact game of football to be played by teams of 11 models aside during the half-rime show of the Super Bowl. Angie Everheart is QB'ing "Team Euphoria" while Nicki Ziering will be the pivot for the under-dog "Team Dream."

I see Team Dream as the early dog as they are currently trying to nail down their 11th man... errrr woman... errr "non-traditional athlete". That and the fact that "Team Euphoria" has Aussie Cassie Lane as a defensive lineman and Kiwi Bronwyn Leigh (I know, how perfect is that?) as a DB. We all know that those tom-boy girls from the Southern Hemisphere are just waaaay tougher than any wussie North American lass.

Regardless FOX has to be kicking themselves that they didn't think of this first, about 10 years ago, when they weren't going to be the network whose half-time ratings get pillaged like a Viking-targeted village on Thor's birthday.

TWO: I It's pre-season and nothing means anything, but the fact that the Kansas City Chiefs held the Green Bay Packers off the scoreboard for more or less three quarters was still impressive. Dick Vermeil's club could be heading for an Arrowhead renaissance.

ONE: One wonders if Sac-town might not have made an error in acquiring Brad Miller.

No doubt Miller is a very solid young player - but the first thing to realize is that his career numbers of last year (13.1 PPG 8.2 RPG) came in the East, where as we know, the centers are not grown tall and strong like the redwoods of California.

A bit of number crunching shows that in 23 games versus the Western Conference Brad Miller averaged 11.2 and 7.9 last season.

Not a huge drop-off, but the question is: "does Miller's game improve with repeated exposure to the West, or do the West's post-players, upon seeing more of Miller, learn to better neutralize him?"

Then, you have to figure in that to acquire and sign Miller it cost the Kings Hedo Turkoglu a versatile 6-10 forward, Scott Pollard a 6-11 back-up centre who was accomplished on the defensive end, and not lost on the other, and now Keon Clark -- the 6'11" string-bean shot blocking rebounder with intriguing offensive abilities. Clark, traded to Utah the other day, was dealt because the Kings were worried about luxury tax implications following the signing of Miller to a long-term deal.

Right now the Kings have only ten players signed for the upcoming season, but are close to inking Jim Jackson. However, the Kings had no picks in the past draft to come to terms with and will have to be smart in filling out their roster. That vaunted depth of the Kings? It could be in trouble.

Lawrence Funderburke was an effective presence in his first two years as a King, but since then has seen diminished floor times and results, culminating in career lows last year. Can he be counted on?

Darius Songalia is a 6'9 prospect with a nice inside-out game, but no North American pro experience, while Gerald Wallace is a 6'7 player with out of the gym athleticism, but no proven polish.

The West is tougher than ever before with both Houston and Minnesota making off-season moves that should make them, at the very least, upset threats. Can the Kings hold their ground, let alone make headway with a smaller, less experienced team?

The season is a few months away yet keep an eye on what Sacramento does between now and then -- it very well might make or break their championship hopes.

TWO: Could the Chicago Bulls make the Eastern playoffs? It's definitely possible.

First of all you have to pencil in New Jersey, Detroit, Indiana, New Orleans and Philadelphia. Barring a Raptor like deluge of injuries these teams can't miss.

Then on the other end we see that Atlanta is horrible, the Cavs, Lebron or not, are too stacked with smalls and not good enough anywhere to be anything but an improving team. Miami is in for another year of 82-78 losses (can there be ANYTHING worse than being a Heat season ticket holder?) and Milwaukee's three most intriguing players (Joe Smith, Anthony Mason and Tim Thomas) all are best suited to the same position.

None of these four teams, barring something unusual (like Desmond Mason flourishing into a prime time talent for the Bucks) should have enough to see the post-season.

So, that leaves five teams fighting it out for the final three spots.

Orlando should make it, but McGrady's back is iffy enough, and the Magic's depth is still thin enough that Orlando can't be considered a lock.

Boston has the talent, but their dependence on the 3-pt'er and continued vulnerability inside (yeah, I don't think Kendrick Perkins is the answer there yet either) makes them a potential target to slip down a rung or two.

Toronto, is similar to Orlando, except that mere health of Vince Carter doesn't guarantee anything. Carter has to prove he's more than just an Abdur-Rahim like scorer. The Raps have some NBA talent on their roster and they could be middle of the pack or lottery bound again.

Washington is interesting. The Wizards have a lot of young talent, good size, and if Gilbert Arenas is for real (and the Warriors don't pull a last second rabbit out of their hat) the Wiz could be that playoff team who learns to lose while they remain a year or two away from becoming something really problematic for the powers that be. Or, the young talent might not make any more strides and the Wiz will simply be not good enough.

Then there is Chicago -- by adding Scotty Pippen the Bulls did two things:

1)Added a veteran who can teach the kids about winning (as opposed to Charles Oakley who taught the kids to use the left hand for a pre-game sucker punch) and maybe more importantly.

Brings a link between the glory days for the Bulls and the current moribund existence.

The Bulls hopes will be pinned on the continual maturation of Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry, and it is a continuing maturation. Both Chandler and Curry saw increased minutes post All-Star break and both responded. Curry went from 6.3 PPG and 3.1 RPG to 16.6 and 6.2 and shot an amazing .621 from the field post break. Chandler upped his numbers from 7.8 and 5.2 to 11.7 and 9.7.

With the East possessing such a lack of quality bigs, Chandler and Curry could be good enough this year to help Jalen Rose, Scotty Pippen, Donyell Marshall et al get this club into the post-season. With Jay Williams tragic injury the Kirk Heinrich pick is now a god-send as Heinrich will be able to effectively spell and perhaps even outshine starting point Jamal Crawford. With a mix now of intriguing youth and a real veteran rudder the Bulls could cause problems.

If the Bulls are sniffing around the fringes of the playoff race in late February, remember you heard it here first.

ONE: The Toronto Blue Jays shouldn't worry about beating Boston and New York to move up in the tough AL EAST. The Jays need to focus on stopping that juggernaut Tampa Bay Devil Ray squad. After Toronto salvaged the final game of a three game set they ended the season a miserable 3-9 against the Rays (who sport a .340 winning % when not facing the snowbirds).

This, of course, comes as no surprise to long-time Ray fans (if there are any) as the Rays have always feasted on Birds.

Tampa Bay owns 44 career wins against the Baltimore Orioles, the most against any major league franchise. The Rays No. 2 victim is the Jays who they have beaten 41 times.

The Rays own two .500 records against AL teams. They are 44-44 against Baltimore, and a solid 26-21 against the Tigers, a .553 winning percentage.

A quick look at the Rays top records in their league:

Team W-L Win %

Detroit 26-21 .553

Baltimore 44-44 .500

Toronto 41-46 .471

Kansas City 21-25 .456

Minnesota 23-28 .450

Chicago 23-31 .425

The Rays actually entered the season with two career records above .500. It was the Tigers and the Twins though. The Rays had been a career 23-22 this season against the Twinkies before losing all six outings so far this year. Baltimore held a 37-38 advantage, but lost the season series 7-6 to fall to .500.

Of course none of this compares to the Rays own personal drum, the Philadelphia Phillies whom the Rays have owned to the tune of an 8-4 .667 record.

Kinda like the Cleveland Spiders having your number huh?

TWO: In the "worthless stat of the week department" as of Tuesday August 5th the Arizona Diamondbacks were the major league leaders in players with 100AB's or more who had drawn more walks than strikeouts. The Diamondbacks had four such players, Luis Gonzalez (+15), Craig Counsell (+7), Alex Cintron (+2) and Mark Grace (+2).

No other team had more than two players who had accomplished this. The Braves and the Cardinals both had two to accomplish this (Chipper Jones and Gary Sheffield for the Braves, Albert Pujols and Edgar Renteria for the Cards) and an additional player (Robert Fick in Atlanta and Orlando Palmerio in St. Louis) who were exactly even in the BB/K ratio.

The biggest gap was earned of course by Barry Bonds (+58). The second biggest gap? Brian Giles of the Pirates has drawn 33 more walks than he has struck out.

Six major league teams had nobody who had more walks than K's over 100 AB's, and of those teams only the Chicago White Sox were at least .500. The other squads? The Tigers, Reds, Angels, Devil Rays and the Blue Jays.

Of the twelve teams who had at least two players to accomplish the feat (including the Royals and Padres who each had one, plus a player with an even amount of walks and K's) only three were AL based (the Royals, A's and Yankees) and only three were under .500 (The Padres, Rockies and Pirates).

Maybe "Beane-ball" really does work.

ONE: Get ready for a new No. 1 in women's tennis. Kim Clijsters is knocking on the door to become the top rated player. She'll either accomplish the feat in Toronto or be the No. 1 upon arriving in Canada.

Of course, No. 1 Serena Williams has played 10 less tournaments than the Belgium to date and is on the shelf for the next seven weeks, so some of the luster is lost there, but anything that challenges the Willaims' sisters world domination is a good thing.

TWO: Quick, name me two players in the men's top 10 who are not Andre Agassi (#4) or Andy Roddick (#5).

Heck, name me the No. 1 ranked men's player in the world.

Couldn't do it could you?

The men's game is an ocean of non-American faces, which means it's an ocean that is pretty well ignored here in North America. Add to that the few non US names recognizable to the casual fan of the tour (Gustavo Kuerten and Lleyton Hewitt) are not top-10 currently, and the men's tour has a serious case of lack of identity.

The problem is consistency. In the past 15 Grand Slams, only seven have been won by current top 10 players, five by Agassi (2000, 2001, 2003 Australian Open) and Hewitt combined (2001 US Open, 2002 Wimbledon).

In those 15 tournaments only four of the runners-up are currently top-10 players. One suspects that Martin Verkerk, Mark Philipoussis and Rainer Schuettler are all sitting in the top 10 because they were the losers of the past three Slam finals. In six months will any of them still be there?

The tour better hope that Lleyton Hewitt can recover his form, Agassi still has a few years left and that Roger Federer (the 2003 Wimbledon winner, and likely the only top-10 you could name), and Andy Roddick are for real. Otherwise the men's tour runs the risk of continuing to be so specialized that fans of the sport will forever be staring at unfamiliar names on the rankings sheet.

Oh, by the way Juan Carlos Ferrero is the current world No. 1. I can hardly wait for EA Sports to create a "Legends of Tennis" game so I can pit HIM against Ivan Lendl...

That's all folks have a good week.