Your (Daily?) dose of G-Mac

As many of you know, Gerry McNamara is displaying his skillz for the D-League's Bakersfield Jam. Until he finally reaches his goal of the NBA, I'll be giving updates as to Gerry's progress because the mainstream liberal media seems to be ignoring him largely due to his roots from conservative Scranton, PA. Well mainstream media be damned. Gerry will be featured on this space as often as I can remember to post about him. To date, Gerry has started 26 of the 28 games he's played with Bakersfield but with the recent addition of Mateen Cleaves, he may see a precipitour drop in PT. Last night Bakersfield lost a heartbreaker to the Idaho Stampede 111-110. There's no recap of the game listed, but it looks like it was pretty close. Gerry pumped in 7pts in only 22 minutes. On the season he's averaging 12pts and 6.2 assists per game. He needs to step up his 3 point percentage which sits at a lowly 28%. Word is that if Reggie Miller isn't scooped up by the Mavs, their next look is Gerry. Or so I would have everyone believe.

Ode to The Fragile One

Not so much an "Ode" as much as a quick set of facts. Don't judge, just read the fucker.

When you think of the name Fred Taylor, the first word phrase that comes to mind is probably "pulled hamstring." Or if you're like me and draft him three rounds too early in your Fanta C League because you just KNOW this is the year that Freddy's gonna revert to 2003 (or preferably 1998) form and make you look like a genius, then the first phrase that comes to mind is the mental conversation at the fantasy draft that goes something like this: "don't do it don't do it don't do it, he's just gonna make you cry...." Uh, I'll take Fred Taylor. Which is why some people might do a double-take when they see that Freddy Taylor signed a 4 year extension with the Jags through 2010. The deal amounts to a total of $23 million and a guarantee of $5 million through next year. Almost a twofold salary increase for the oft-injured former Gator. Fred has only made it through an entire season without missing time due to injury twice in his 9 season NFL career. What Fred does bring to the table is a hefty helping of talent and versatility in the same way that Tiki Barber and Thurman Thomas did. That's right. I said it. Tiki Barber and Thurman Thomas. The problem is that you never see Fred mentioned in the same breath as either of these guys largely because of the stigma associated with his frequent injuries. With Thurman's induction into the NFL Hall of Fame this year, we've got to start thinking about Freddy's place in history. I'm not shitting you. Take a look at the stats:

--------------------------G--Yds--Avg--Td--Rec.--Yds--Avg---Td

Thurman Thomas--182-12074-4.2-65--472--4458--9.4---23

Fred Taylor----------112-9513--4.6--56--261--2205--8.4----8

Tiki Barber----------154-10448-4.7--55--586--5183--8.8---12

Depending on what goes on with Corey Dillon, Taylor could enter the season the leading all-time rusher amongst active players. Barring a career ending injury (the odds of which are about 70/30) we can safely project Freddy to play another 2 years. Even with the emergence of MoJo Drew, if Freddy does anything even close to what he put up last year (1146yds @ 5.0yds/car, 5tds, 23 rec. 242yds. 200 more yards on the ground than Drew.), he'll break the 10,000yd marker, blow past Tiki in rushing yards and maybe catch the prolific Thomas in Rushing Tds. The following year he will approach Thomas in rushing yards and will creep ever closer to 3,000 receiving yards. If he plays a third year, well, we'll have bigger fish to fry when it starts raining battery acid and the seas fill with feces and flood all the earth's land. You could probably go to Vegas and make up your odds if you wanted to bet on the chances that Freddy makes it through the next three years, but if he does, he'll likely qualify for the Hall of Fame. Fred Taylor, NFL Hall of Famer. That's a pretty f'd up thought.

My Blog Title: Not necessarily the theme for this space, but oh so true

Well to start, I should probably clarify that this is not a college basketball blog. At least not exclusively a college basketball blog. Finding a title for these things is difficult. You either want to be clever, hilarious, polarizing or pigeon hole yourself into a specific category. I, obviously, went with cleverly hilarious and polarizing with a hint of pigeon hole. I went through a couple names before finally deciding on this one. And while the blog's title is most certainly odd and not necessarily indicative of the conversation contained within its borders, it is a true statement. I won't go so far as to say I hate Quin Snyder (though I admit I've uttered those exact words at deafening volumes following the ingestion of a disgusting amount of fermented canned beverages), but I do harbor feelings of anger towards the man for reasons beyond even my comprehension. I grew up a Syracuse fan (with a brief stint as a Siena fan in the late 80's early 90's during their run of "prominence" in the Marc "Biz" Brown era. I had backstage access to the team because my family is friends with then Coach Mike Deane. I also owned a "Can't Touch Biz" t-shirt, which I wore until the white threads literally became see through.), and developed a hatred for the Georgetown team that closed Manley Fieldhouse, the UConn teams from the mid-90's on and later the Pittsburgh team that frustrates its opponents with its hard-nosed play today. Those were my rivals in college basketball and I hated those teams and those players on into the pros. Syracuse was only matched up with Snyder's Mizzou team three times to my recollection, and I think 'Cuse won all of those meetings. They are in no way rivals. They are hardly a factor in today's game after Quin's unceremonious tumble from "grace" amid recruiting scandals and rumors of him abusing the yayo. Snyder probably doesn't need some bozo who has no vested interest in Missouri basketball smiting his name further through a blog who's content has relatively little to do with him, but that's what I intend to do. And why may you ask? I just don't like the guy. I can't explain it, but I think my irrational feelings towards Q offer a perfect example of how people feel about sports. You grow up liking and disliking certain teams. Often times those feelings are passed down from generations like some bizarre mental birthright with no street value other than the ability to get your ass kicked if you display this "right" in the wrong stadium or circumstance. But aside from your hometown or birthright allegiance, most fans have an opinion about players they have no rooting interest in. They just feel like liking or disliking that person, player or team for some unknown reason. I think Allen Iverson is a great example of this. Even if you're not a Philly fan, you probably have an opinion about Iverson, good, bad or otherwise. I guess I grew up a Celtics fan but I was drawn into the Kenny Anderson / Drazen Petrovic / Derrick Coleman Nets of the early 90's. I have no idea why, but I just liked those guys (it didn't hurt that Kenny and DC could light it up in NBA JAMS). It may have had something to do with DC coming from 'Cuse, but more than anything I was drawn to Drazen and Kenny, neither of whom I had any prior connection. They were my guys despite the fact that I had no rational allegiance And for some reason I feel as passionately about Quin Snyder as I did about that Nets team. I wish the man ill-will and was generally pleased to hear that he was involved in a recruiting scandal, and I normally don't celebrate the pain of others. Snyder's an exception. I loathe the man for no reason other than that ever since I first saw him on the TV screen, I just knew I didn't like him. He was my anti--Drazen. So there you have it. I can't explain it any better than that. Hopefully I'll be able to sum up other points more clearly or this thing may not work.

As for the content here, I'm going to keep the conversation pretty general. I've also made the decision not to use the "royal we," though I'm not judging those who do. I intend to add stuff as it comes up and will try and offer a unique if not "edgy" side to sports. I'll be HEAVY into Fantasy Sports as I run teams that span from the usual (Football, Baseball, Basketball) to the obscure (Bass Fishing, Stockcar Racing, South American Soccer). Yes, I "run" these teams in the same way Steinbrenner "runs" the Yanks. And no, I do not go home and paint my model civil war figurines in preparation for this weekend's recreation of the Battle of Antietam. I'd like to think I can offer an objective view to often polarizing subjects. I have wanted to do this for awhile but have only now found the time to get things go. It could be a little hairy in the beginning, but hopefully things will work out. And maybe we'll learn to love eachother. I think Quin would like that.

(Blog title has changed but loathing of Q remains steadfast)