Tim Duncan or Kobe Bryant? Who has had the better career?

It's no secret that THE GREAT MAMBINO features a number of Simmons disciples here. We drink the Kool-Aid, heavily so, and listen to the musings of a man who spends an impossible amount of time thinking about basketball as a mere hobby.

Of course, with a false prophet, you've got to have the good book. And of course, in this sacriligious perversion of an analogy, the bible is The Book of Basketball. For the uninitiated, Simmons wrote a mammoth 700 page dissertation, the premise of which was that the Basketball Hall of Fame should be organized into a pyramid. In this concept, Simmons sets 96 players into five groupings, moving numerically upwards from several-time All-Stars, to the immortals of the NBA. In other words, Bill found a neat, clean (and profitable) way to rank the greatest ballers of all-time from bottom to top, with justifications, disguised as chapters, for each man.

It shouldn't surprise any loyal reader of MAMBINO that we'd naturally gravitate towards the particular ranking of one Kobe Bean Bryant. Simmons begrudgingly respects Kobe, though every part of his green and white being is dead set against ever truly liking the Black Mamba. Thus, when I read the updated paperback rankings in 2010 after the Lakers' 16th championship, I was surprised to see that Kobe had been elevated from the 16th spot, all the way to number 8. Just behind Tim Duncan.

And thus the debate started. While I have the utmost respect for Tim Duncan, who rightly wears the Barkley-ian badge of "Best Power Forward Ever" proudly upon his lean shoulder, I simply don't believe that he could ever outrank Kobe on the pyramid. The King, an infrequent contributor to MAMBINO and Boston-area scumbag, heartily disagrees.

This debate raged throughout the playoffs, and as both men were unceremoniously dumped from contention (is there any other way?), the stage was set for a late-August post where we scrap for any reason at all to talk about basketball. So here it is: Kobe or Duncan? Who has had the better career?

How could the Lakers NOT Win the NBA Title?

For the past few weeks, I've been a part of a series of Lakers roundtable posts by the fine folks over at Silver Screen & Roll. In the long, droning pace that's the NBA offseason, we've debated a number of subjects, but lately focusing on what could hinder this glamorous All-Star-laden starting five from doing anything besides parading down Figueroa in June. Here they are, aggregated and expanded upon. Check it out!

What's the biggest factor that could prevents the Lakers from winning a title this season?

Injuries. Plain and simple.

As I ran down a couple weeks ago, you really can't consider the Lakers the clear favorites for the Western Conference because quite frankly, there's too many variables before this famed new starting five even hits the hardwood together. This team's potential is vast; not just as a regular season juggernaut, but as a historically unprecedented vehicle for postseason glory. Thus, my prediction for their current standings had nothing to do with what I think their ceiling is. Far from it, in fact.

Out of everything regarding the Lakers potential deficiencies, team chemistry isn't a factor I'm worried about. The Lakers are facing a season of massive adjustments just in their starting five alone, from Steve Nash playing with the most talent he's ever had on a basketball court (all due respect to Marion, Amar'e and Joe Johnson, but we're talking about Kobe, Gasol and Howard here), to Dwight and Kobe getting less touches than they've ever gotten in their careers to Pau's role as a glorified Brad Miller-esque role as a facilitator and rebounder in the lane (that wasn't meant to be an insult..for real reals). However, these two biggest mitigating factors makes me think that these changes in on-court philosophy are miniscule compared to the task at hand:

A Fantasy Football Blurb

A week before this past Friday, Grantland announced a contest to all of its readers in its search for a fantasy football writer.  Pick the 5 best fantasy players and 1 sleeper within the unbelievably difficult task of 750 words, and the 10-12 best submissions would be invited to join a league for the upcoming season. The season would contain certain challenges; dude or girl with the most points at the end gets a one-year contract to write on Simmons' love-child.

Below was my submission to the website, which, if you haven't figured it out by now, presents an easy and lazy way for me to double up and contribute to THE GREAT MAMBINO this week.

Instant Trade Analysis: Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett and Carl Crawford to the Los Angeles Dodgers

Los Angeles Dodgers get: 1B Adrian Gonzalez, SP Josh Beckett, OF Carl Crawford, IF Nick Punto

Boston Red Sox get: SP Rubby de la Rosa, OF Jerry Sands, IF Ivan de Jesus, 1B James Loney , SP Allen Webster

After the Los Angeles Dodgers were sold to a new ownership group including former Los Angeles Lakers point guard Earvin "Magic" Johnson, former Atlanta Braves President Stan Kasten and investor Mark Walter, Kasten repeated over and over that business in Chavez Ravine was going to change. For the past seven years, the team had been beset by management that didn't have the capital to back up the massive responsibility that came with running a league institution like the Dodgers. Fans became disillusioned and bitter, and after several seasons of seeing the best players being eschewed from their dreams of playing in Dodger Blue because of bigger paychecks in not just places like New York and Boston, but Detroit and Milwaukee, simply stopped showing up to the Stadium.

From day one, Kasten repeated that the Dodgers would take their rightful place on the iron throne that they molded out of the ingenuity of Branch Rickey and the sweat of Peter O'Malley. Over and over, he said that the Dodgers would no longer operate like a small-market team whilst sitting in the middle of the nation's second-biggest media market. Stan Kasten, with Magic's infectious smile beaming a little bit brighter than usual, proclaimed that the Los Angeles Dodgers would be the New York Yankees.

On Friday, August 24th, the Los Angeles Dodgers have become the New York Yankees.

The Life and Times of Andrew Bynum

Immature. Strange. Dominant. Lazy. Enigmatic. Brash. Uncompetitive. Headstrong. Captivating. Passive. Disrespectful. Talented.

All those are words to describe the new Philadelphia 76ers center and yet, a muddled jumble of seemingly unconnected adjectives couldn't come close to painting the portrait of the irrepressible Andrew Bynum.

In sixty years of Lakers basketball, whose history spans from the blue collar mid-western sprawl of Minneapolis/St. Paul to the glamorous lights of Los Angeles, the franchise hasn't seen many players that closely fit the profile of Drew. We've covered him extensively on MAMBINO, including this article that made us the middling featherweight sports blog that you've come to at least know, if not love.

In his seven seasons with the Lakers, the term that would most accurately described Drew is "a walking contradiction". Which man is he? The guy who involuntarily entered JJ Barea into a midget shotputting contest, put off knee surgery to attend the World Cup or the player who has recognized a weakness in his game each offseason, and has worked extremely hard to improve himself year after year? He's a fragile player who has undergone no less than three major knee surgeries since being drafted in 2005, and yet, has diligently toiled to bring himself back from what has to be a demoralizing medical chart. He has often visibly tuned out teammates and coaches, and still, the most competitive athlete in the NBA, Kobe Bryant, raves about his work ethic and desire to win.

At the essence of Andrew, I truly believe that he is a competitive person who perhaps just doesn't care about basketball as much as he cares that it's something he's extremely good at. I'm not sure that the concept of a "team" or the franchise is all that important to him, but I am certain that he enjoys being dominant and exerting what can be a mammoth hand print all over a contest.

All that being said, the road to where he is today--2nd Team All-NBA honors, a starting All-Star berth, averages of 19/12 on 56% shooting--is an accurate reflection of Bynum; a paradoxical series of events, ranging from the hilarious to the disappointing. Maybe, adding judgment to any descriptive word about Drew isn't appropriate. Perhaps we should just value him for being what he is; fascinating. Presenting The Life and Times of Andrew Bynum.

MLB Dog Days of Summer Check-in: What's Gone Wrong with the Detroit Tigers and Miami Marlins?

KOBEsh: The Detroit Tigers are one and a half games behind Chicago for the AL Central lead. D-Town was supposed to run away with the division this year, but a lot of pretty obvious holes have reared their head - an awful infield defense and a very subpar rotation beyond Verlander. 

What would you say is the most overlooked problem with their team? Were they just never that good to begin with?

Mr. Marquez: Defense – Looking strictly at fielding percentage the Tigers have actually overachieved expectations. Miguel Cabrera was previously moved to first base for an obvious reason, but third basemen for the Tigers this season are in the top five in all of baseball. I know, I’m shocked. Actually, the worst they are at any position in terms of field position is at first base, but even there they are not that bad. Any team with Prince and Miguel on the corners deserves further inspection though, and that’s where the 21^st Century comes in.

The Tigers UZR (ultimate zone rating, which determines how well a team gets to hit balls and fields them) is indeed the fifth worst in all of baseball. Among 17 qualifiers, Miguel is 14^th best among his peers and the Tigers as a team are in the lower fifth of baseball at third base. The Tigers are also below average at second base and (no surprise) first base.

Ultimately though, we see all of this coming. The offense that a team with Prince and Miguel should have been able to overcome this problem.

Grade: Met Expectations

New Knicks Unis Leaked!

Courtesy of Sportslogos.net, possible new uniforms for the 2012-13 New York Knickerbockers have been leaked. Take a gander:

Was Johan Santana's No-Hitter Worth a Mets Playoff Run?

On June 1st, 2012, it only took two hours and thirty-five minutes to erase 50 years of frustration. 

For the first time in New York Mets history--over 8,000 games, four National League pennants and two World Series title since 1962--a pitcher had thrown a no-hitter. Johan Santana, the team's ace, had put down 27 batters while registering zeroes all along the St. Louis Cardinals' side of the scoreboard. The setting couldn't have been more perfect; in front of 27,000 fans on a cloudy summer's night in Queens, Johan threw a career-high 134 pitches on his way to the franchise's first-ever no-no, striking out reigning World Series MVP David Freese. Santana, who had not led the the Metropolitans to the playoffs since his acquisition in a blockbuster trade with the Minnesota Twins in 2007, came back from a lost 2011 season in which he hadn't thrown a single pitch. SNY broadcasters and franchise mainstays Keith Hernandez and Gary Cohen, admitted after the game that they both truly believed that they'd never live to see a Mets' no-hitter. Grown men were crying in the stands, jumping into one another's arms as if the Mets had won the World Series. For many of them, the feeling might have been just as joyous. 

Our man Pucklius was one of the masses that night that yes, jumped into a stranger's embrace and high-fived bartenders. While the excitement of that night will eternally warm the hearts of Mets faithful, reality has set in on the rest of New York's 2012 season. 

At the time of Johan's no-no, the Mets were 29-23, tied for the Wild Card lead with one third of the baseball calendar in the books. Somehow, they had broken through the restrictions of their infamous payroll squeeze and a rebuilding movement that had stripped a once-formidable squad down to its studs. Though perhaps inevitable, the Mets have careened back down to Earth from their lofty perch at the top of the standings. One of the primary reasons? Johan Santana. 

Since June 1st, Santana has gone 3-7, with a sky-high 8.27 ERA and allowed at least six runs in his last five starts. In fact, he's only managed two quality starts in that time span, giving up an astonishing 68 hits. Some members of the media are laying his decline on the fact that Johan had been left to throw an enormous amount of pitches after coming off major shoulder surgery for a torn capsule, a rare injury that effectively ends careers. There's no concrete evidence to suggest that this one particular game set off Santana into statistical hell. After taking a year off, perhaps throwing well into the summer months was never in his future. However, the proof is there, and it's not a large logical leap to say that this no-hitter was the beginning of the end not just for Santana, but also the Mets' 2012 season and playoff hopes. 

That being said, we've asked Pucklius to weigh in on all issues pertaining to the Mets' first-ever no-hitter, as well as the fascinating psyche of the fanbase.

The Five Stages of Grief: Musings on Dwight Howard from an Orlando Magic Fan

(A week ago, the Orlando Magic traded Dwight Howard to an undisclosed location. It have been CSKA Moscow or something, because I haven't heard any information since then. Anyway, MAMBINO contacted the only living Magic fan outside of central Florida, our own El Mariachi, to give his thoughts on the trade. Having had a week to mire in his his own blue and white pit of despair, we asked him to get a pulse on the feelings of the beleaguered Orlando fanbase) 

The Five Stages of Grief : End of an Era

“The Magic are idiots. All I can say is don’t worry, in 8 years when the Magic are good you’ll feel so good about your loyalty.”

11:00pm August 9^th – D-12 Day

That was the text I received from my friend while getting in to bed that night. Say what you will, but I didn’t feel the urge to turn the computer and read everything I could about the trade. Instead, I closed my eyes knowing that it was finally over, Dwight was gone and now we, as a fan base, can move on.

I awoke to a nightmare.

Denial [dih-nahy-uhl] - disbelief in the existence or reality of a thing.

What you have to understand first and foremost is that I am happy Dwight is gone. To have such a cloud hovering over the organizing made watching any Magic game unwatchable. I would have the games on mute just to block out the endless commentating on where Dwight would end up. Unless Marv Albert was commentating. I would never mute him. He is a living deity.

So with this trade came a sense of relief, though fleeting as it may be. Because once reality sets back in, the fact that you just lost your only hope for the foreseeable future is like a swift kick to the nuts. And the fact that we literally got NOTHING back for him is like a full blown castration. And our wife has left us. And we’ve lost our inheritance. And our dog was run over.

USA Soccer Wins in Mexico

At one point, due to the NBA lockout, I tried to follow the Premier League. Didn't work out. Games were played at odd hours, I couldn't pick a team without feeling like a phony, and I didn't want to put the time in to learn who all the players were.

It's different with USA soccer. Patriotism presents an easy foundation for fandom, and coupled with my born-again love for playing the sport, it got easier and easier to become a real fan. Throw the Olympics in there and fandom goes bonkers. In London the men's team failed to qualify, which might have actually helped me. I was able to fulfill my soccer quota with the United States of Alex Morgans. (She played well all tournament and looked good doing it. Seriously, name five girls right now who look better with no makeup and full of sweat.)

Last night the men's team took the pitch in a friendly against Mexico in the infamous Estadio Azteca. The Americans haven't won south of the border in 25 matches, and of the last 49 goals scored between these two teams in Mexico, the Taco Bell chihuahuas have scored 45 of them. For the first time in our national team's history, the red, white, and blues defeated Mexico with grit, luck, and Tim Howard.

Henry Abbott, the Lakers, and the Limits of the New Labor Agreement

I have a conflicted relationship with Henry Abbott, of Truehoop and Laker hater fame. The incredible writing of FreeDarko that drew me into the blogging world initially, but I used to read every line TrueHoop published. Nowadays I don’t find myself reading it on a regular basis. Abbott’s refusal to own his palpable bias irritates me, but it's more that he can be purposefully narrow to create controversy and has become unbelievably predictable. In May, Kobe hit a clutch shot and I wrote: “I’d bet the farm that my Kobe-Nemesis Henry Abbott is already planning a huge post to talk about the merits of hero ball.” TrueHoop put up that exact post several hours later.

I try not to pay much attention, but Abbot’s latest Laker bashing is too much. Lamenting the Dwight trade, Abbott lashes out without fury or purpose. If I may summarize:
1) Like flies in your house (??), this is just how the world works and who are we to fight nature?
2) The NBA is STILL broken guys, and we can kind of blame the system. Damn stars!
3) But the Lakers are spending too much money!
4) Alright, fine, the Lakers have played their hand pretty well...
5) But the Lakers are overrated anyway and don’t believe the hype.

If there were a cogent point to all this, maybe it’s his last sentence about the Lake Show: “If it works, it’ll be despite, and not because of, the NBA’s ‘system.’” As you can imagine, Henry and I do not agree.

Hard Knocks: Looking for Some Talent

It's been a minute since I've posted on the best sports blog you've never read, and to most of my commenters, maybe that's a good thing. YOUR New York Knickerbockers are waiting for the season to start, YOUR New York Yankees play a sport that bores the living daylights out of me if I can't watch it at the ballpark, and the files on top of my desk at work may reach the ceiling at some point.

But no matter what happens, there's always room for TV. And since I've been basing my Manny Pacquiao fight previews on HBO's glorious 24/7 series, it's pretty hard to keep me away from the tube when HBO does their thing.

Hard Knocks goes behind-the-scenes of a real NFL training camp. It started out in 2001, took a break after 2004, then kickstarted again in 2007 when HBO realized that barely anybody watches the network for its movies. In 2010, it landed a hit when the New York Jets hopped on board. We were treated to a litany of amazing clips and soundbytes, featuring head coach Rex Ryan and cornerback Antonio Cromartie:

Are the Lakers the Clear-Cut Favorite for the Western Conference Title?

Expanding on an earlier post from Silver Screen and Roll, do the additions of Dwight Howard, Steve Nash, Antawn Jamison and Jodie Meeks make the Los Angles Lakers the clear-cut favorites to win the Western Conference?

In a word, no. But let's go a bit further.

The two horses in this race are clearly the Lakers and the defending Western Conference champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder. It's easy to see why anyone would see this more like a lopsided Usain Bolt sprint rather than an actual fair competition: the Lakers imported two players who are one of the five best at their position and heavily fortified their biggest weakness in bench scoring. However, Lakers fans have to temper their expectations. Why? There's just so many variables:

Nash's age, Kobe's age, Jamison's age, Metta's age: Out of these four players, Metta World Peace is the youngster of the group at age 33 in November. Kobe will be 34 later this month, Jamison just turned 36 and Nash is of course 38 years old. Each of these men are still highly effective, competitive players, but are all on the downsides of their careers. I'm not so much worried about their skill level depreciating, as they all still are goodato excellent major league NBAers, but with advancing age, so increaess the risks for injury.

Dwight's back: Unbeknownst to many before his press conference last Friday, Howard admitted that he might not be ready for the beginning of the 2012-2013 season in November (even if he were to be cleared by the doctor today, he's looking at a two to three month rehabilitation period). His injury, originally thought to be a relatively minor hernia surgery, could keep him out of action for up to six months. Obviously back surgeries are a very serious matter, but if the Lakers were willing to give up a major piece like Andrew Bynum (albeit a piece who has injury concerns of his own), Dwight's injury can't be that serious. Right? Either way, it's going to be hard to tell how and at what strength he comes back at.

Basketball World Cup vs. Olympic Games vs. Champions League? A MAMBINO Debate

For the past 20 years, the Olympic tournament has been the preeminent form of international basketball competition here in America. However, over the rest of the world, the FIBA World Championships, held two years in between Summer Olympic Games, is held in the highest esteem as the most important international tourney. 

As player salaries increase and the competitive balance for basketball around the globe evens, several once-dormant debates have arisen around the advent of the recent games on London. Several NBA owners, as well as the Commissioner David Stern, have publicly called for a NBA-sponsored tournament, which would be a re-branded FIBA World Championship event, so that basketball could be given it's "proper focus", rather than lost amongst the myriad of Olympic events in a two week span. Most importantly, such a tournament would give the NBA control over the finances and profits of the "Basketball World Cup", which would surely put owners at ease when watching their million-dollar assets take the floor in a non-profit making enterprise known as the Olympics. 

The debate rages on the airwaves and on the internet, and of course, MAMBINO is no different. A few of our writers are on an immense NBA e-mail chain whose length is literally thousands of e-mails long over several years. We've all wasted countless hours raving and ranting about our beloved L on this supreme procrastination tool, but from it arises pointed debates like the following string of call and responses. Read on as our argument spans the pros and cons of  World Cup of Hoops, a basketball "Champions League" and the proposed Under-23 rule. 

Manu Ginobili - Greatness Wasted or Greatness Fulfilled?

Against some of the best players the United States had to offer, Manu Ginobili, then a mere one-time NBA champion, far from the man thrice coronated with crowns of locker room champagne, looks coldly across the floor in Athens, Greece. The Argentinian national team had stood toe to toe with the number one ranked team in the world, taking a double digit lead early in the semifinal matchup. The US team had looked shaky during the entire tournament, falling twice in pool play, doubling the losses that the United States basketball program had ever endured in Olympic play. Ginobili, then 27 years old, only added to their misery. Over and over again, he killed the US with back breaking jump shots and momentum stopping lay-ins. Manu ended the semifinal with a game-high 29 points, as Argentina took down the highly-vaunted United States men's basketball team. Two days later, he would score 16 points, with 6 assists and 6 rebounds, to lead Argentina to its first Olympic basketball medal, Gold. Ginobili wasn't just the best player on his team - for two weeks, he was the best basketball player in the world. The question is: could have been the best player in the NBA as well?

Instant Trade Analysis: Dwight Howard to the Los Angles Lakers

Los Angeles Lakers get: C Dwight Howard, PG Chris Duhon, SF Earl Clark

Orlando Magic get: PF Moe Harkless, C Nikola Vucevic (from Philadelphia), F Al Harrigton, SG Arron Afflalo (from Denver), 3 1st round picks (from Philadelphia, Denver and Los Angeles), 2 2nd round picks

Philadelphia 76ers get: C Andrew Bynum (from Los Angeles), SF Jason Richardson (from Orlando)

Denver Nuggets get: F Andre Iguodala (from Philadelphia)

In a trade that had become so apparent that it eventually became surprising again, the Orlando Magic have finally traded Dwight Howard to the Los Angeles Lakers in a four-team deal that immediately changes the face of each franchise.

To break this mammoth deal down, let's go city-by-city:

Los Angeles: Suffice to say, this trade was a complete "win" for the Lakers organization. But, it's important to note that this isn't at all out of character for a franchise that prides itself on staying competitive year after year with little segue between eras of success.

Game Recap: USA vs. Australia, Olympic Quarterfinals

What, me struggle?

     After watching the Russians, Spanish, and Argentinians advance to the semifinals, the US men’s team went out and took care of business against Australia, a repeat of the chippy quarterfinals in 2008. On paper, it was a 119-86 drubbing where the US dominated with 22 threes, 13 steals, and 18 forced turnovers. In reality, however, it was the third straight game where the Red, White, and Blues played only sporadically with the requisite focus and let their opponent hang in the game well into the second half. Thanks to LeBron’s steady triple double and the Black Mamba’s 2nd half explosion, the game never felt as close as the scoreboard indicated. 

MLB Dog Days of Summer Check-in: How bad is it in Boston and Houston?

You know your perennial All-Star first baseman? He's not turning it around. Hoping that your bullpen can start to hold down leads? It's not happening. Praying that your center fielder is going to regain that sock in his bat? Switch religions. 

It's the "dog days of summer". If your team isn't playing to how you thought they would, then what you see is what you got.  Baseball is over 100 games into its season, so hoping for a late season surge has gone from unlikely to damn near impossible. Sorry kids, time to start saying "well, there's always next year."

The only good to come out of this desolate section of the summer? The playoffs are right around the corner, and the herd is rapidly being thinned out. As the air has gotten thicker and the temperature has risen to record heights, teams throughout the league start dragging and the true core and character of your favorite squad has begun to rise to the top. We know who the contenders are, and sadly for some, who will be selecting in the upper half of the MLB draft next season. Over the next few days, MAMBINO will be taking a look at what has gone horribly wrong with some teams, but unsuspectingly right with others.

The Red Sox are nine games back of the Yankees in the AL East but only four and a half games back of the Tigers, Orioles and A's for the Wild Card. They're pretty far away from being dead in the water, but if you were to listen to the national media, you'd think that they were absolutely toasted. My first question is, in a season of incredible lows, what's been the worst part of it for you as a Sox fan? And do you think that they can make the playoffs, and will make the playoffs?

 

Mr. Marquez: Before 2004, we lived by the same mantra as Cubs fans do today: “There’s always next season.” After 2004, things were never going to be the same for a whole generation of Red Sox fans. Nor should they be. The passion isn’t the same - the pain of a loss, the scrutiny of a manager, the anticipation of a Yankee game, the desire to be inside Fenway – it isn’t on the unhealthy obsessive level. When a goal has been accomplished, it’s easy to lose motivation.

Since then we have continued to be spoiled as a city. Four months after the Red Sox swept the Cardinals, Tom Brady won his third Super Bowl. Two years after that the Red Sox won again this time with a core that was younger and primed to be a perennial juggernaut. Jon Lester threw only 63 innings that year after beating cancer. Dustin Pedroia was an MVP in his second season. Jacoby Ellsbury was in his first year and didn’t start in center field until the World Series. Clay Buchholz was left off the post-season roster after throwing a no-hitter in his third career start. The Patriots became the first team to go undefeated since the Dolphins (hey, they made it to the Super Bowl, okay?). The Celtics acquired Ray Allen and KG and won immediately. The Bruins somehow even managed to sneak in and win a Cup two summers ago. And the Patriots made it to a fifth Super Bowl in eleven years – maybe the most impressive team accomplishment of the 21^st Century.

When you are spoiled though, expectations do get higher. When Jonathan Papelbon blew the save and Evan Longoria hit the home run, it brought out comparisons of Bucky Dent and Bill Buckner. THAT wound opened up. The Red Sox blew a 9 game lead with only 27 left. Think about if Seattle came back to take the Wild Card right now. It wouldn’t be worse than what the Red Sox did last season. The moment that Longoria touched on home plate it was one of those "let’s get them next season" moments.

And that’s why the worst part of this season has been every attempt by management to side with the players. It started when John Henry made a spontaneous appearance in the studio of The Sports Hub where Michael Felger and Tony Massarotti were predictably teeing off on everyone in the organization for chicken, beer, and choking. Henry had the opportunity to show the fans, the team, and the rest of the front office that he was drawing a line. And he didn’t. He defended everyone except Carl Crawford. The team had failed, and they did it in a way that painted an awful picture for how important winning was in this town. Here's a couple of other ways this has happened:

• The Red Sox responded by first “firing” Terry Francona and replacing him with Bobby Valentine. Bobby V is considered a brilliant baseball mind by all accounts, but was brought in especially with an eye toward getting in players faces rather than coddling them. But there was one slight problem with the whole idea:  new GM Ben Cherington didn’t want Bobby V. He wanted the guy that old GM Theo Epstein hired in Chicago, Dale Sveum. Thus something was probably worked out behind closed doors and the rest of the staff were not really "Bobby’s guys". It's not surprising at all then that of course the coaches don’t all get along.
  
• While the team parted ways with Jason Varitek and Time Wakefield (it wasn't exactly a difficult decision as neither guy drew interest from any of the other 29 teams) and Jonathan Papelbon, the players at the center of the team’s collapse in September – John Lackey, Jon Lester, and of course Josh Beckett - were all still here.
  
• Fast forward to the season. Bobby V criticizes veteran Kevin Youkilis for not showing any fire at the plate and immediately becomes a symbol of evil among the players. Cherington jumps to Youk’s defense and Bobby has an awkward apology. Meanwhile, the fact that Youkilis is not performing is completely lost on everyone. Is a professional athlete really this fragile that he can’t hear a little criticism from his manager?
  
• Then there’s Beckett. The former 2007 ALCS MVP has turned into a guy with no redeeming qualities. He has missed a turn in the rotation, but been healthy enough to golf. He won’t talk to the media. And if you ask anyone in the organization about him you would think they had him confused with Missy Franklin. 

Will they make the playoffs this season? No. The Tigers are better. The Angels are better. And since the Rays get Longoria back, they are better too. It also doesn’t help that the Red Sox play 32 of their last 50 on the road. They have won in my lifetime, but this will make it three straight years that they have missed the playoffs and four straight that they will not have won a playoff game. 

I think I’m ready to be emotionally invested again. 

The Houston Astros are 7.5 games back of the Chicago Cubs. They are the worst team in baseball's worst division. Next year they move to the American League. How did things get so bad? Will they be the first team to win 25% or less of their games since the 1962 Mets next season?

KOBEsh: Lets get into the most intriguing part of this discussion which is: just how bad is this Astros team? Well, they're pretty awful. At the beginning of the season, MAMBINO asked if this Astros team could be as bad as the 2003 Detroit Tigers, losers of an American League record 119 games. We said that the team wasn't quite that horrific, but it wouldn't be far off: 110 losses sounded just about right.

111 games into it, the Astros haven't gone 0-111, but they're not far off. The Astros are playing at a .324 clip, on pace for....52-110. Spot on! I'd feel great about this if nailing the record of a bad team was an Olympic sport.

The root of this no doubt historical season for the Astros is all the major problems you'd expect with a major league organization that's played to a record 77 games under .500 since going to the World Series in 2005. The Astros started their rebuilding in the middle of the 2010 season, when they should have started two years earlier.  Their returns for trading Roy Oswalt, Wandy Rodriguez, Lance Berkman, Michael Bourn and Hunter Pence could have left with them with something substantially better than the 18th-best farm system in the Majors. Instead, the Astros are stuck with a young team, which isn't always a bad thing, but when the ceiling for these young players is a .327 winning percentage, it's a really, really, really bad thing.

Which leads to the second part of the problem: the Astros, while winning in the middle of the last decade, weren't drafting nearly as successfully as their on-field team was playing. Players like Bud Norris, Jordan Lyles, Chris Johnson, Brian Bogusevic and Jason Castro haven't turned out nearly the way that the team had projected. Houston's scouting has been awful, and this putrid team of over the hill one-time prospects expresses that out loud. Moreover, because the major league team was winning, they continually were signing high-priced free agents, at the cost of compensatory first round picks coming from their draft. So while the squad in Houston was experiencing nearly unprecedented success, the farm system was slowly withering away.

That all being said, it's going to be difficult for even the Astros to lose more than three quarters of their games, but not completely out of the question. The team has been playing .324 ball, but with veterans like Brett Myers, Wandy Rodriguez and Carlos Lee being traded away, Houston is getting less experienced and though those players aren't elite, they certainly are starting-caliber major leaguers.

Looking at their schedule, the Astros have just about 39 games left, and 27 of those are against teams that are .500 or better. Let's say that they lost to all of the winning teams and beat all of the losing teams (who, including the Cubs and Brewers, have sub-.500 records that are better than the Astros'), they'd finish at 49-113, which leaves them with a .302 winning percentage. They'd have to lose 36 games and only win 4 more to come close to the Mets' 1962 record.  Combining the difficulty of their schedule and loss of their veteran players, it's still possible, but improbable. They're the awful team we forecasted, but not that awful. I expect the Astros to lose around 110 games, which would be "just" the worst in franchise history, rather worst in MLB history.

The Life and Times of Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey

Daryl Morey is one of the finest young minds in the NBA. As the current General Manager of the Houston Rockets, he has piloted the franchise with unorthodox methods through the waters of the professional basketball tides. Morey has long been a proponent of heavier reliance on statistical and technological analysis when evaluating basketball players, tied in with  traditional scouting. Popularized by sabermetric godfather Bill James and Oakland Athletics' GM Billy Beane through the novel Moneyball, this application of numbers and percentages to the NBA is a practice that many old-time basketball people said could never be quite accurate enough. Morey, a graduate of Northwestern University and MIT's Sloan School of Management, has defied his detractors, as the Rockets have in his five seasons as GM made the playoffs twice and narrowly missing them the other three seasons. Houston has never had a losing campaign under his stewardship, and while there certainly hasn't been a championship contending squad in the bunch, Morey has certainly mimicked Beane in finding and acquiring undervalued assets to create proficient, if not spectacular teams.

However.

For all of Morey's ingenuity, his teams have fallen well short of any NBA front office's goals, with all of his Rockets teams being middle of the conference fodder, at best. Billy Beane's A's have frequently been one of baseball's best teams and though they haven't been in the game's upper stratosphere since 2006, they certainly were contenders for multiple seasons before that. Morey seems to be in a circular pattern of acquiring undervalued assets, but never quite parlaying them into the requisite superstar or All-Stars needed to vault them into the NBA's elite. Rockets fans are continually flummoxed by players being cycled in and out, like a Manny Ramirez pill carosel. Morey's moves usually go deeper than how they appear on the surface, but an end game isn't always clear much to the dismay of Houston basketball faithful.

I can't imagine being a Rockets fan. They are gifted with one of the brilliant minds in the game, and yet, are stuck in a perpetual circle of roster turnover and unfulfillment. Very little personnel continuity has been kept, with Luis Scola being the longest tenured Rocket at five seasons. At the very least, his incessant roster turnover in the hopes of striking a winning formula of players is fascinating. I'm still not sure if Daryl Morey is a genius, or a just a misguided nerd who follows his statistical sherpas on a narrow trail to nowhere.  I suppose there's only one way to really find out: Presenting the Life and Times of Daryl Morey.

USA Basketball 2012: The Stream Team

(This is a guest post from MAMBINO friend and brother of CDP, Big Plato. From SoCal, he's been intently watching the Olympics with a keen eye for historical implications. Check it out!)

No significant cultural or athletic event can pass without a title, a hook attached to the legacy. We love the pop pull of nicknames, of zingy summations of the historic impact or general character of whatever passed before us. Like all self-respecting sports entities, USA basketball has a proud tradition of accurate inscriptions. The Dream Team is a fondly remembered, hazy monument, an untouchable feat that can never be undermined despite modern considerations of talent and logic. We were Redeemed in 2008 and while much of the squad remains on the roster, the influx of new stars and an entirely different swagger sets the 2012 team apart. So what are they? We could pull out our rhyming dictionary and throw a slew of irrelevant adjectives and inappropriate nouns at the board until a syllable sticks, but there may be a simpler answer. And before any naysayers try to spoil the fun in favor of naturalism and letting the games speak for themselves, I would like to state, to insist, that this team must have a moniker. There is no way around it, we would be passing up too great an opportunity for jingling insight otherwise.

Without further ado, Uncle Sam proudly presents your 2012 American basketball all-stars, the Stream Team.

Instant Trade Analysis: Ryan Dempster to the Texas Rangers

Texas Rangers get: SP Ryan Dempster

Chicago Cubs get: 3B Christian Villanueva, P Kyle Hendricks

Tears of Texas baseball fans everywhere still saturate the dirt despite the unforgiving southern summer sun, but GM John Daniels is doing his best to see that the waterlogged field doesn't get damaged any further. In a bid to get to their third straight World Series, the Texas Rangers acquired starter Ryan Dempster just minutes before the trade deadline expired on Tuesday.

Just weeks ago, playoff hero and de facto staff ace Colby Lewis went down for the season with elbow surgery, leaving Matt Harrison, Derek Holland, Roy Oswalt and of course, unhealthy MAMBINO favorite Yu Darvish as the only members of the Texas rotation left standing. With CJ Wilson leaving for the Angels in the offseason and former closer turned starter Neftali Feliz undergoing Tommy John surgery, the Rangers needed another starter badly if they wanted to stay up with the hard-charging Angels, who acquired SP Zack Greinke from Milwaukee on Friday.