Nick's Six: Reasons To Watch Super Bowl XLIII

There have been a lot of nay-sayers (does anyone actually say 'nay'?) surrounding this year's Super Bowl between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals. I'll admit, it's not the dreamiest match up, but this year's game has some compelling aspects. And no, I'm not talking about Ken Wisenhunt's revenge, the emergence of Larry "Unlike Anquan Boldin, I will not throw a" Fitzgerald, or a battle between long-time franchises. Here are six REAL reasons to watch this game.

1. Cardinals fans: Until about a week ago, I had no idea that people actually rooted for the Arizona/Phoenix/St. Louis/Chicago/Racine Cardinals. I will be interested to see how these people will react to things like: a big game, potential rain, and people from Pennsylvania without a trace of a tan.

2. NBC has the game: This means no Joe Buck. This means no Tony Siragusa. This means no Howie, Terry and Jimmy. This means no robot football player during timeouts. This means telestration by John Madden. This means actual comprehensive coverage from the studio with Costas, Collinsworth, and Dan Patrick. Unfortunately, this also means Keith Olbermann.

3. Sans Manning: I already consider this Superbowl a success, as it is physically impossible for the member of the Manning family to win it.

Disclaimer: I should note that the previous picture was not of the Manning family I was speaking about. But it: A. was what I found when I googled 'Manning brothers'; B. is hilarious; C. sums up how I feel about the actual Manning brothers.

4. Tampa: No, this is not in reference to Tampa's beautiful beaches, gorgeous views, or place in UConn basketball history. This is in reference to Tampa's apparent bevy of strip clubs. Using a Pacman Jones joke would be too easy here. My favorite excerpt:
"local lawmakers passed an anti-lap-dance ordinance before the last Super Bowl here in 2001, making it a misdemeanor offense for dancers to come within six feet of patrons."

Hi my name is Ben Roethlisberger, how much for an air dance?

5. Bruce Springsteen: The Bossman is providing the halftime entertainment. For Kurt Warner, I suggest "Countin' On A Miracle," and, "I'm Goin' Down."

6. Senor Bean: Check out the television listings for Sunday night. Unless you're in to reruns of The Drew Carey Show (Cleveland SUCKS by the way), or Teen Cribs...you'll probably want to stick with the game. Although Mr. Bean on Telemundo will probably be on my recall button.

Baseball Managers

The recent hot stove uproar over Joe Torre's new book has made me wonder: how important is a baseball manager anyway? Traditional sports media types love to talk about baseball managers (four letter network, I'm looking at you), but how should baseball managers be judged? It appears that the manager's value is yet another front of the "sabermetrics vs. intangibles" war - sabermetrically inclined teams/organizations don't care about their team's manager whereas less sabermetrically inclined teams care a great deal (Oakland's Bob Geren makes the league minimum, Lou Pinella makes 3.5mil).

Let's first examine what a manager actually controls:
- Playing time - specifically who to play and where to play them (obviously, this must be judged based on the players available for the manager to use)
- Stolen base success rates
- Bullpen usage
- Other game theory related issues (shifts, hit-and-runs, bunts, etc)
- Motivational ploys
- Day-to-day public relations of the team's 40 man roster

If we assume that the decision to call up prospects from the minors is an organizational rather than managerial decision, then a manager's control is extremely limited. However, a manager can do good things, or, more often, bad things (like, say giving Corey Patterson 366ABs). As for Torre, how many tough decisions has he had to make over the years? Penciling in the likes of A-Rod, Jeter, Giambi, etc makes the job much easier, however, allowing Jeter to take two steps and let balls roll by while he blows bubbles for a decade when a better fielder is 10ft to his right seems like a bad call. Torre has shown an ability to learn as he goes along - notice the Yankees SB% doesnt drop below 70% after '01 (however, such a drastic change could be attributed to baseball as a whole rather than Torre as an individual). Clearly Torre handled the New York media well but his motivational ability (especially in the playoffs) lacks any sort of distinction; Torre has always seemed content to not cause any waves while other managers (Bobby Cox's foul-mouthed trots out of the dugout are an especially poignant example) seem to at least try to motivate their players by getting thrown out of games. Perhaps it is telling that one a manager's best options to motivate his players is to get thrown out.

Obviously, only some of the manager's responsibilities are quantifiable, most of the job's success or failure falls under the scope of opinion - but in the humble opinion of this baseball fan some managers are clearly good, bad, and downright terrible.

King Selig

Apparently, Jordan Schafer never tested positive for HGH nor was it otherwise proven that he took it. According to Schafer, his 50-game suspension was based on associating with other players who were taking HGH.

I suppose we can only take Schafer's word for what it's worth, but if circumstantial evidence is the best MLB has on a player, it seems like suspending such a player stands on, at best, shaky ground.

Great Day for the Braves

What a glorious day for Atlanta Braves fans. Derek Lowe and Kawakami in the same day! My how our rotation will look different

1. Hudson (when he's healthy)
2. Lowe
3. Jurjens
4. Kawakami
5. Vazquez


It's not the Yankees but not too shabby.

Does anyone have any info on Kawakami? I have seen his youtube video, seen his stats from Japan, but not sure about his pitches, etc.