O'Neil and Minoso Overlooked ... Again

A special committee of 12 "experts" has reviewed a list of 39 people from the Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues and decided that 17 of them deserved induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Great! While few - if any - of the 17 names will be recognized by anyone but baseball historians, it's about time the Hall of Fame recognized more of those associated with the Negro Leagues. That's the good news ...

Baseball, however, always seems to find a way to screw things up. Of the 39 candidates on the ballot, only Buck O'Neil, 94, and Minnie Minoso, 83, are still alive and could have enjoyed the honor and taken part in the induction ceremonies on July 30. So the panel of "experts" - in their infinite wisdom - chose NOT to put them in. There are few things more subjective than deciding who belongs in the Hall of Fame and who doesn't ... especially when you're talking about players and executives whose contributions came over 50 years ago. Yet somehow the "experts" were able to sift through the sketchy stats available on the Negro League careers of O'Neil and Minoso and determine that they DO NOT belong in Cooperstown. Morons. They took an opportunity to make this summer's induction ceremonies truly special and chose instead to penalize O'Neil and Minoso for not being dead. Nice job guys.

Believe It or Not, Larry Brown's Job Just Got Harder

Last week we went over all the reasons why Steve Francis would be a bad fit for the Knicks. Fast forward one week and guess what? Steve Francis is a Knick.

You think Larry Brown was indecisive in terms of setting a playing rotation before this trade? Wait until he throws Francis into the mix and tries to allocate playing time without further alienating his players.

In Francis, the Knicks get a player who is used to playing nearly 40 minutes per game. In Trevor Ariza and Penny Hardaway, the Knicks give up two players who were receiving no playing time whatsoever. So where are Francis' minutes going to come from? Jalen Rose? Jamal Crawford? Quentin Richardson?

If there's one thing an NBA player wants, it's minutes. Occasionally, in winning situations, players will sacrifice minutes without too much fuss. The Knicks - in case you haven't noticed - are the exact opposite of a winning situation.

Here are the career averages for minutes played per game for each player on the Knicks roster:

Player Steve Francis Stephon Marbury Jalen Rose Jamal Crawford Quentin Richardson Maurice Taylor Channing Frye Eddy Curry Nate Robinson Malik Rose David Lee Jerome James Qyntel Woods Jackie Butler	Min/G 39.2 38.7 31.1 29.4 27.7 25.6 25.3 23.6 19.7 17.5 16.1 14.6 10.9 9.6

This adds up to 329 minutes played per game ... and there are only 240 minutes to go around. See Brown's dilemma? He's gotta find a way to shave 89 minutes off what these guys are accustomed to receiving without igniting a mutiny. The problem is only compounded by the fact that the top five players in minutes per game are all essentially backcourt players. Sure, you can play Rose or Richardson at small forward a bit but there's no getting around the fact that the acquisition of Francis creates even more of a logjam.

Fifty-one games into his first season as coach of the New York Knicks, Larry Brown thought things had bottomed out ... thought the job couldn't get any more difficult or unpleasant. Larry Brown thought wrong.

Boxing's Top 25 Prospects Under 25

Last February, we looked at "Boxing's Next Generation" and tried to predict which young fighters represented the "future" of the sport. Just one year later and two fighters from that list - Jermain Taylor and Ricky Hatton - have already defeated future Hall of Famers and find themselves comfortably slotted among the Top Ten Pound-for-Pound fighters in the world today. So who are today's most talented young prospects? Who will boxing fans be watching on PPV in the coming years? To qualify for this list a boxer must be under 25 years of age and must not have appeared in a WBC, WBA, IBF or WBO title fight. Here they are - Boxing's Top 25 Under 25.
CLICK HERE FOR BOXING'S TOP 25 UNDER 25.

Stevie Francis to the Knicks? Really?

The New York Knicks win! Break up the Knicks! Really, break up the Knicks ... please.

And that – apparently – is exactly what Isiah Thomas intends to do. Despite the fact that he is personally responsible for bringing every single player on the roster to New York during his tenure as president of this once-proud franchise, Thomas will continue to wheel and deal – if for no other reason than to create the illusion of having a master plan.

The latest name being tossed around as a soon-to-be-Knick is Orlando's Steve Francis (for Jamal Crawford, Penny Hardaway's expiring contract and either Trevor Ariza, David Lee or Nate Robinson). Francis is a fascinating player to target on two levels:

1. If you were going to make a list of players that are exactly the opposite of what Larry Brown desires (present Knicks excluded as Brown has already voiced his distaste for all of them on numerous occasions) then Steve Francis would undoubtedly be on the very short list.

2. If you were going to try and find a player in the NBA who is most like Stephon Marbury, it would be hard to come up with a better match than Steve Francis ... and we all know how much Larry Brown loves Marbury. Check out their career stats:

Player Marbury Francis	Min/G 38.7 39.3	FG% 43.5% 43.0%	3PT/G 1.2 1.1	FT% 79.1% 79.8%	AST 8.2 6.4	PPG 20.4 19.4

Both Marbury and Francis are undersized shooting guards trapped in point guard bodies. Both are athletically gifted. Both turn 29 later this month (they were born on back-to-back days in 1977). Neither makes their teammates better. Neither has tasted any post-season success. Both have worn out their welcomes on multiple teams. Neither demonstrates much interest on the defensive end of the floor.

It is this final similarity that is, perhaps, most troubling. Especially since Isiah Thomas either doesn't recognize it or simply chooses to ignore it. Thomas apparently envisions a pairing of Marbury & Francis bringing back memories of and (hopefully) duplicating the championship success of himself & Joe Dumars and Walt Frazier & Earl Monroe. Please tell us he's joking.

While Marbury and Francis could create some match-up problems for other teams, it would be one of the weakest defensive backcourts in recent memory. Walt Frazier was first-team all-defense seven times! Joe Dumars was first-team all-defense four times! Marbury and Francis have been in the league a combined 15 years and the next time either is even considered for the NBA all-defensive team will be the first.

Not only is Francis a bad fit with the current Knicks, he also comes with - you guessed it - another monstrous salary obligation -- $49.3 million over the next three seasons.

So we obviously object to trading Jamal Crawford, Penny Hardaway and Trevor Ariza for Steve Francis, right. Wrong! Despite all the reasons that Francis will not make the Knicks a better team, we still say DO THE DEAL. Why? Partially because when you're as bad as the Knicks are right now, then change simply for the sake of change isn't necessarily a bad idea. But more so because we finally accept that the New York Knicks will never, ever, ever, ever, ever be under the salary cap ... meaning they will never, ever, ever, ever, ever be able to compete for impact free agents on the open market.

Dumping expiring contracts is the only way for the Knicks to improve the talent on their roster (even if that talent duplicates rather than complements what they already have). The Francis trade is 100% about stockpiling and 0% about chemistry ... yet it still makes sense. Remember, it was less than two seasons ago that Steve Francis was traded more-or-less straight-up for Tracy McGrady.

The best case scenario for the Knicks is to acquire Francis and hope that either he and/or Marbury plays well enough to – at some point – be able to trade one of them for a player that may actually help them win some games. Yes, Knicks fans, it's come to that -- advocating trades that don't make sense and won't translate into wins ... simply because they may lead to other trades in the future that do make sense and might translate into wins. Yikes!

Question: What do you think? Should the Knicks trade for Steve Francis? If not, who should they go after with Penny Hardaway's expiring contract? Please click below on "COMMENTS" and share your thoughts ...

Goodbye Sammy Sosa ...

Sammy Sosa has officially entered the Latrell Sprewell phase of his career. Both players were stars in their respective primes and were compensated richly for their services (Sprewell ~ $100 million; Sosa ~ $125 million).

However, Sprewell and Sosa are no longer productive players. Their skills and statistics have diminished to the point that there are few – if any – teams interested in their services. Toss in the fact that both are high maintenance and tend to be disruptive influences and it's easy to see why neither is in high demand. Yet both players still feel as if they should be treated like royalty.

Despite making more money than either of them will ever need, Sprewell and Sosa have made one thing crystal clear: They're only in it for the money.

Last year, Sprewell turned down a 3-year, $27 million contract extension from the Minnesota Timberwolves saying "Why would I want to help them win a title? They're not doing anything for me. I've got a lot at risk here. I've got my family to feed". Sprewell is now where he belongs -- out of basketball (and any GM that is still considering offering him a contract should be fired on the spot). Good riddance Latrell.

Similarly, Sosa is reportedly "considering retirement" a more attractive option than the one-year, non-guaranteed offer of $500,000 he has received from the Washington Nationals. Sosa "feels that the lack of interest in his services this winter constitutes a humiliation". In other words, "If I don't get paid more than I’m worth, then I'd rather not play at all".

If you're still wondering why only one team is even marginally interested in Sosa's services, consider the following: In 2005, a total of 223 major league players had 400 or more plate appearances. Of these, 205 were more productive than Sammy Sosa (based on OPS, or on-base percentage plus slugging percentage). That's right, only 17 hitters in all of baseball were worse than Sosa last season. Think it was just an off year? Consider this trend:

Year 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005	HR 64 49 40 35 14	RBI 160 108 103 80 45	BA .328 .288 .279 .253 .221	OBP .437 .399 .358 .332 .295	SLG .737 .594 .553 .517 .376

Sosa is 37. You don't have to be a sabremetrician to see where this is headed ...

If Sammy Sosa truly believed he had anything left in the tank (or really cared about getting the 12 homers he needs to get to 600), then he'd be looking for nothing more than an invitation to training camp with the promise of a fair shot to earn a starting job. Since he's made it perfectly clear that he's looking for guaranteed cash rather than an opportunity to prove himself, the Washington Nationals should pull their offer off the table. Goodbye Sammy ...

The next time we talk about Sammy Sosa should be in five years when we're debating how to judge his Hall of Fame statistics against the collective taint of corking his bat, allegedly using performance enhancing drugs and conveniently forgetting how to speak English during the Congressional hearings on steroids.

One Dozen Reasons for Knicks Fans to Remain Optimistic

The degree of difficulty on this piece is 10.0 but we're going to go for it anyway. It has never (and we mean never) been harder to be a New York Knicks fan than it is right now. While it's easy to kick them while they're down (and infinitely more enjoyable than actually watching them play), we're not going to do that (at least not today). That's right, we're going to do everything in our powers to identify 12 positive things in which a beleaguered Knicks fan can take some consolation. So, for advocates of glass-is-half-full-thinking (or "GIHFT") everywhere, here goes:

Top 12 Reasons for New York Knicks Fans to Remain Optimistic

Fact: The front office is – at best – incompetent and at worst – criminal.
GIHFT: There have yet to be any arrests and – in America – you're still innocent until proven guilty.

Fact: The Knicks have – for the first time in franchise history - lost 15 of their last 16 games.
GIHFT: On Jan. 27, after squandering a 25-point lead, the Knicks hold on for a glorious 97-94 win over the Orlando Magic – thereby averting (at least for the time being) the only thing worse than losing 15 of 16.

Fact: The Knicks lead the league in turnovers at 16.7 per game.
GIHFT: Don't think of them as turnovers ... think of them as passes to future teammates (i.e., players that Isiah Thomas is interested in acquiring). Hey, good team chemistry has to start somewhere ...

Fact: Anonymous sources are reporting that players are beginning to tune out coach Larry Brown.
GIHFT: Excellent news because this suggests that – all evidence to the contrary – they were actually tuning him IN at some point.

Fact: The Knicks have the second worst record in the entire NBA.
GIHFT: Thank God for expansion. As we're writing this (though it could easily change by the time you're reading it), the second-year Charlotte Bobcats are one game worse than the Knicks.

Fact: Thanks to the Eddy "The Franchise" Curry trade, the Chicago Bulls own the Knicks' first-round pick – a lock for the lottery – in this June's NBA Draft.
GIHFT: Knicks fans can rest easy knowing that the pick is no longer available to re-acquire the draft rights to Frederic Weis. Plus, Larry Brown is known to have little patience with rookies -- this way he won't have to be bothered with a nuisance like Adam Morrison or J.J. Redick.

Fact: The Knicks payroll is the highest in the NBA at $120 million and climbing steadily.
GIHFT: It's not our money that's being squandered (at least not directly) ... and if someone's going to be forced to watch helplessly as their money is flushed down the toilet it might as well be fan-friendly sweethearts like Jim Dolan and the rest of the Cablevision family.

Fact: The Knicks are 0-9 with Stephon Marbury out of the line-up.
GIHFT: See, Marbury really is more valuable than anyone realized (although 14-27 is only impressive when you're comparing it to 0-9).

Fact: At 14-36, the Knicks have established a new mark for the worst record in franchise history after 50 games (the 1963-64 squad opened the season 15-35).
GIHFT: The Knicks "only" have to win nine of their remaining 32 games to avoid becoming the first team in franchise history to lose 60 games. While far from a slam dunk, our sources tell us that Janet Jones-Gretzky likes the over.

Fact: For obvious reasons, no Knicks will be participating in the upcoming NBA All-Star Game.
GIHFT: Nate Robinson has been invited to participate in the dunking contest during All-Star weekend and he's a better bet to win it than the Knicks are to win nine the rest of the way (see above). Plus, everyone knows that a win in the dunk contest automatically translates into a long and productive NBA career -- just ask Harold "Baby Jordan" Miner ... or Kenny "Sky" Walker. Oh well, at least it gets you a cool nickname ...

Fact: Isiah Thomas is intent on trading Penny Hardaway (and his atrocious expiring contract) for the likes of Kenyon Martin, Darius Miles, Ruben Patterson or Theo Ratliff (and their equally atrocious multi-year contracts).
GIHFT: While other teams apparently liken negotiating with the Knicks to stealing candy from a baby, Isiah Thomas has (thus far) resisted including Channing Frye in any of the egregiously one-sided offers he has received. Reason to worry: The trading deadline (Feb. 23) is still ten days away ...

Fact: The Knicks worst loss of the season was a 33-point drubbing at home against the Los Angeles Lakers on Jan. 31.
GIHFT: Despite their woes, the Knicks will not suffer the worst loss in New York this season. That distinction belongs to the Brandeis High School girls basketball team, which suffered a 137-32 loss to Murry Bergtraum High School. In the game, Epiphanny Prince scored a record-setting 113 points. [Hey, we don't feel good about piling on the Brandeis girls either, but you try and come up with 12 good things to say about the Knicks!]

They said it couldn't be done but – against incredible odds - we have successfully delivered on our promise to come up with a dozen reasons why New York Knicks fans should refrain from wearing paper bags over their heads ... at least for a few more weeks.

Gretzky Gambling Case: Much Ado About Nothing (Unusual)

Why is the Wayne Gretzky gambling story dominating the headlines? Apparently his wife bet on football games. Big deal. Hundreds of thousands – if not millions - of people bet on sports every year. Some do it legally. Many more do it illegally.

In fact, had these very same bets been placed in Las Vegas - where sports gambling is embraced and encouraged by lawmakers - then this wouldn’t even be a story. If I need to ask you where something happened before I decide whether or not I should care ... then I probably didn’t care to begin with. Tell me O.J. Simpson killed two people and you’ve got my interest ... regardless of what state he did it in. Tell me Janet Jones bets on football and I really don’t care ... regardless of what state she does it in.

Now, find out that either Wayne Gretzky or his wife bet on hockey and you’ve got yourself a story ... but we have seen no evidence whatsoever that suggests they were betting on hockey ... and I doubt we ever will. It’s a relatively small ethical leap to place a sports bet that isn’t technically legal -– whether it’s with a bookie, an offshore internet operation or in your office pool. However, it’s a huge ethical leap to violate the one sacred rule of athletics and bet on your own sport.

Right now, all Wayne Gretzky is guilty of is incredibly bad judgment ... and he’s paying for it by having his previously impeccable image tarnished forever. Unfortunate, but he has no one but himself to blame.

However, that doesn’t make him Pete Rose. Rose had incredibly bad judgment AND bet on his own sport (actually his own team!). [Q: How do you know Pete Rose is lying? A: His lips are moving.]

Professional athletes know they can get away with almost anything except betting on their own sport. Rose knew the ramifications and chose to cross that line anyway. Gretzky may very well have broken the law and – if he did – should be punished accordingly ... but he did NOT bet on hockey. At least not according to the latest odds out of Las Vegas ...

Thoughts on (Not So) Super Bowl XL

There have been 40 Super Bowls. Of the 19 that were decided by less than two touchdowns, this was the worst.

Poorly played. Someone tell Ben Roethlisberger that Chad Pennington called and he wants him arm back. It's unlikely any QB will ever again play that poorly and still win the Super Bowl. You know you're in trouble when the best pass of the day is thrown by a wide receiver.

Poorly officiated. The refs weren't favoring Pittsburgh, it just seemed that way because the majority of the calls they blew went against Seattle.

Poorly coached by Mike Holmgren, who looked like a graduate of the Herm Edwards School of Clock Management.

Weak excuses from Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw for missing the pre-game introduction of past-Super Bowl MVPs. Tiger Woods demands an appearance fee ... but at least he admits it. Good job by whoever at the NFL made the call to say no to Montana and Bradshaw's inflated senses of self-worth.

Weak commercials. If it wasn't for some gratuitous violence (always entertaining), the ads wouldn't have produced as much as a chuckle all evening. Where is Terry Tate, Office Linebacker when you need him?

Heck, the Rolling Stones can do no wrong in my book and even they weren't 100% on top of their game. At least they got to do their thing (network bleeps notwithstanding) and weren't conned into a lip-synched half-time embarrassment with some no-talent flavor of the week (anyone seen Justin Timberlake lately?).