Here are a bunch of cool teaser posters.

Goose Gossage will finally be in the MLB Hall of Fame as the lone member voted in by writers. Jim Rice missed again, but it’s assumed he’ll get the votes needed next year in his 15th and final year of eligibility.

Other notables:

Andre Dawson 358 votes = 65.9%
Bert Blyleven 336 votes = 61.9%
Tim Raines 132 votes = 24.3%
Mark McGwire 128 votes = 23.6%

Dawson should be in. Blyleven is definitely one of those borderline guys, even though his strikeout and win totals suggest otherwise. I’m surprised Raines didn’t get more votes despite all the recent ESPN love. In a recent HOF chat, Jayson Stark cites Raines’ 1987 season as one of the greatest ever for a leadoff hitter:

“If you were compiling a list of greatest leadoff seasons of modern times, where would you rank Raines’ season in 1987 — the year he missed all of spring training and all of April thanks to collusion, and still scored 123 runs? That .330 AVG/.429 OBP/.526 SLUG stat line is leadoff wizardry at its greatest, don’t you think?”

I don’t think McGwire will ever be in the HOF. Steroids talk aside, his career batting AVG is .263 (would be the lowest of any HOF player) and he only had 1,626 career hits. Of those hits, he had 583 home runs (over 1/3 of his hits). I don’t think anyone could have been a more one-dimensional player.

In one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard from the glorious Scott Boras on Rick Ankiel:

“You have a player whose contributions came first as a pitcher, then as a position player,” the agent said. “The last player you’re really talking about is Babe Ruth.”

Absurd.

Adrian Wojnarowski named the NBA’s five most disappointing teams. The New York Knicks probably shouldn’t have been on the list since no one thought they would be good anyway. Here’s my favorite quote regarding the woeful Miami Heat:

“As Wade has discovered on the worst team in the Eastern Conference, his greatness doesn’t even make this team competitive. In a desperate quick-fix attempt, Riley surrounded Wade with broken-down players and bad actors. The result finds the Heat with the worst record in the Eastern Conference, unfathomably even trailing the New York Knicks.”

Another one of those gotta have its…

A three foot curverd desktop monitor. Sick.

Here’s something I found and thought it was a little goofy. Well, rather manly… I suppose.

I stumbled across the movie Sex And Breakfast and decided to look it up on the good ole IMDB. Imagine why…

Gazing on the page stumbled upon the page’s message board. Someone asks a very male question and I am rather impressed at the directness and unshamefulness of one of the messages:

Kudos.

Other links:

• Texas has a strip club tax aimed at helping sexual assault victims. Each visitor must pay $5 to the state. Very bad policy, indeed.
• Yet another example of how much greater dogs are than cats. Dogs save kids from burning buildings. Confirmed.
• Hilary Clinton somehow won the New Hampshire Democratic primary. Sen. Barack Obama must be pissed. Although I’m not surprised to see my man Sen. John McCain won the N.H. Republican primary.

Despite all of the warning signs against drafting Greg Oden, the Portland Trail Blazers went ahead on June 28, 2007 and picked him anyway. Why? Apparently, his being a center proved too valuable too pass up.

I don’t know a single person who doesn’t salivate whenever the seven-foot “Blonde Bomber” (Dirk Nowitzki) swishes a three-pointer, but you’ve got realize that he’s as rare as they come. Taking away basketball god Tim Duncan out of the equation since he’s a mixture of center and power forward goodness, the last dominant center of the last fifteen years is Shaquille O’Neal.

NBA executives have gotten spoiled after Shaq was drafted in 1992 and subsequently dominated the paint. Shaq is that rare breed that has reinvented what a center should be: an overpowering dunk machine. Looking at the last few drafts, the only player that has found success as a true center is Yao Ming with his career points and rebounds per game averages of 18.5 and 8.9. I’m not even looking at Phoenix Suns star Amare Stoudemire since he mixes positions a la Duncan, and we’ll sweep the Detroit Darko experiment under the rug.

The reality is the game has sped up, and point guards and playmakers like Steve Nash and Jason Kidd have much more impacts on their teams than a tall guy constantly shifting in and out of the paint. Look at what LeBron James has done for the Cleveland Cavaliers or Dwyane Wade for the Miami Heat (especially when Shaq retires) or Carmelo Anthony for the Denver Nuggets. What has 2005 first overall pick Andrew Bogut done for the Milwaukee Bucks? How long has it taken the Los Angeles Clippers to recover from drafting Michael Olowokandi?

In winning six titles for the Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan should have proved that a dominant center wasn’t needed so much as an adequate one. Could any other team win a title with the likes of Will Perdue, Luc Longley, or Bill Wennington as their starting centers? Having Scottie Pippen by your side doesn’t hurt either, and I bet Shaq liked having Kobe Bryant by side all those years with the Lakers. But the fact remains Jordan was the Bulls and made everyone around him so much better.

Everything would be a moot point, however, if Kevin Durant disappoints for the Seattle Supersonics with either poor play or — god-forbid — an injury. The only person who would find solace in the combination of Oden’s injury and Durant’s uncertain rookie season is Danny Ainge. Whoever saw the telecast of the recent draft could see the moment that Ainge’s heart stopped when NBA commissioner David Stern read the Boston Celtics for the fifth overall pick. If the Celtics do find success sans Oden or Durant it would in spite of losing its statistically dominant top two picks to long odds and very bad luck.

If anything, that bad hand forced Ainge to make tough decisions to get the 2007-2008 season to mean something other than lots of drinking. With all of those past draft and trade mistakes, Ainge had a mandate for change, like New York Mets GM Omar Minaya had the season after he idiotically traded away Scott Kazmir for walk-specialist Victor Zambrano and traded FOR Kris Benson in 2004. When New Yorkers made their feelings shown, Minaya swiftly signed Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran in 2005, and in 2006 got Carlos Delgado and reached game seven of the National League Championship Series.

Ainge made powerful trades too. His golden star was getting the best player available in Kevin Garnett to strengthen his already solid Paul Pierce-Ray Allen (whom he traded for earlier that year) duo. KG is tall, but a center he is not because of his mobility and versatility. Having a starting line-up of three all-stars can sure make you smile, but will he smile with his team in the playoffs?

Another moot point would be if Oden successfully recovers from the dreaded microfracture surgery. Stoudemire did it. Hell, John Stockton did it at age 35. Many others were able to recover from it, although poor Penny Hardaway was never the same after having it on both knees.

Two things work in Oden’s favor when he finally plays an NBA game. One, he’s still only 19 with his youth being able to heal everything short of missing limbs. Two, he hasn’t played an NBA game so expectations would have to be scaled back dramatically and every analyst would call him a success if he gets more than a 10.0 PPG/5 RPG average that first year after the surgery.

While Sam Bowie comparisons might be premature, it helps my argument as to why you never draft a center over a playmaker. Also I’m choosing to ignore the fact that the Houston Rockets drafted Hakeem Olajuwon ahead of Bowie and Jordan because the team needed a center that year and “The Dream” was universally lauded as the best center of the draft. Plus, he led the team to back-to-back titles in 1994 and 1995. Either way, all eyes will be on Oden for the 2008-2009 season, and hopefully (for the team’s sake) not another Oden moment will be repeated. Although from a non-Blazer fan viewpoint, it’s a little comical to see the karma. With only a 5.3% chance at landing the first overall pick, Portland snatched it from both the Memphis Grizzles (25%) and the Celtics (19.9%) and has so far landed a dud. Ouch.

Also watched almost all of game 2 between the Spurs and Jazz. The Spurs outplayed the Jazz like you wouldn’t believe, and at one point completely dominated with a 22 point lead.

That Matt Harpring is pretty buff.