Damn you Ryan Braun

I usually don't resort to such hostile words, I honestly don't.

After all, I do have family that reads this.

But there is no other way of describing these emotions swirling my head.




Damn you Ryan Braun, you are ruining baseball.





Damn you Ryan Braun for taking away the focus on all these wonderful stories happening in baseball: including the mammoth rise of the Pirates and Orioles, the continuing bafflement of the Rays, the slew of wonderful young stars ranging from the hard-as-nails Puig saving the Dodgers to competitive-as-nails Wil Myers giving Tampa a boost, the Red Sox rising after tragedy, Matt Harvey giving life to the usually-lowly New York Mets, the quiet rise of the Cleveland Indians, Chris Davis actually giving Roger Maris a run for his money, the emotional good-bye tour of Mariano Rivera, and finally Miguel Cabrera being one of the greatest hitters in the past decade making another run at the Triple Crown.

Damn you Ryan Braun for once again making us question the heroes and stars that we desire and follow vividly.

The most disturbing thing about all this is all the millions you will still make once the suspension is over. While your reputation is in the crapper, this was a sacrifice you were willing to make in order for those millions to continue flowing into your bank account. You owe the man whose job and reputation you ruined with layers of lies an apology, you owe your defenders of the previous offense an apology, you owe the Brewers an apology, you owe the state of Wisconsin an apology, and you owe practically all of Major League Baseball an apology.

And I think the only way to truly tackle and flush out this steroid or PED issue is to strike more viciously then just a 65 game suspension or a 100 game suspension. After all, Melky Cabrera got a $16 million contract after his suspension. And we all pretty much forgot that he was caught.

Expulsion should be much more of a potential threat. If you get caught the first time, 100 games AND your contract gets voided. The whole thing. You lose all money you could be making and you have to go prove yourself to the team you played on before getting caught. The team gets first dibs, gets a month to claim you, and then you get paid the MINIMUM that year. Trust me, nothing will hurt more than going from 7-10 million a year down to a mere 500,000. The second time you get caught? Well, you get to join Shoeless Joe Jackson and Pete Rose.

And then we should go after the teams. If you sign a player previously busted and they get busted again---not only do they get expelled, but your team also gets fined for housing a repeat offender. This way teams will think twice before signing a convicted cheater. While I would prefer an expulsion the first time you get caught, I am suuuuuure that the Player's Union wouldn't appreciate the idea as much. But these punishments need to be harsher, so that way players think twice before considering to cheat, and teams can think twice before getting someone of this negative caliber.

I despise talking about this, I honestly do. I want the Steroid Era to become a pure thing of the past, as we focus on the influx of young stars that have overtaken the sport. But unfortunately until we flush out the lying douchebags like Ryan Braun, Alex Rodriguez, and potential others during the latest investigation.

Bud Selig, this all must end, we must be harsher, more ruthless, and even less tolerant of the cheaters.

But damn you, Ryan Braun.








Damn you.

My First and Last Treyvon Martin Post

I am going to put my last two cents about the George Zimmerman trial and then let it be, let it end, let it die.

The man is guilty. Second degree murder for sure because it was not planned, but he did it anyway. 

Should he rot in prison for the rest of his life? Perhaps not, I am pretty sure he wasn’t intending on killing Trayvon Martin but he should spend a good period behind bars because he started the situation and ended it in a most awful way. To continue: He disobeyed the police when he made the call, he followed Martin, and he approached Martin. He instigated the entire situation. And when he was losing the fight, he decided to kill him. There were many different ways he could have approached the situation, and made one bad decision after another---leading to the death of a teenager holding skittles and iced tea.


If he had stayed in the car, excellent chance Martin would still be alive.


If he had simply approached Martin in a calm manner, this trial would have never happened.


If he had done only the extent of his duty as opposed to becoming a Batman, the cops would have handled the situation…and arguably much better.


If he didn’t want to kill him, he would not have shot him in the chest. Plain and simple. This would have been my main argument.


What absolutely cluttered and damaged this trial however were all the little controversies surrounding it, making this trial a hotbed for conversation. Race, gun control, self-defense, police involvement, and even to an extent social class was brought into the conversation. It absolutely clouded the main fact that a man with a chip on his shoulder took the law to his own hands and did what he did---and to this day I still don’t see much remorse in his eyes. And yes, race did indeed play a part of it because of the racial profiling.

The cluttering began with the rather slow arresting of Zimmerman in the first place. There was a dead boy on Zimmerman’s watch and the only reason the process to arrest him happened was because of the major social outcry. Race became the issue because questions started ringing in everyone’s heads: why did it take so long? If it were a black man killing a white man would the arrest have come quicker? So with that, race became the big issue, and there were opponents from all over. Race was indeed a reason why it all happened, but turning Martin into a potential martyr for the Black community may have deterred the jury a little. 5 white women being in the jury didn’t help make things any easier either……

The gun control issue came up, and this was a non-issue plain and simple. The gun wasn’t the issue, the violence that followed became the problem. We don’t see the gun issue going up when the gangs are shooting each other here in Orlando, Miami, and other parts of the country. The gun debate happened only when a high-profile case was brought to our attention.

The Stand Your Ground law was the other big issue, which ironically is a law that was meant to protect people like Trayvon Martin, who was a person being threatened that night when he was being pursued and followed. The law is still very vague and confusing—because technically anyone can take out anyone if they feel the slightest bit of a threat. With the right lawyer and the right smile, you can quite literally get away with murder. And now with an unarmed boy being perceived as enough of a threat for this law to stand and help Zimmerman win, it really opens up some ugly doors.

What the Trayvon Martin case did to Florida was open up an ugly history that occurred in the Post-Reconstruction era. Northern Central Florida had many clashes between blacks and whites in the 1900s, and one of them actually resulted in an area becoming a haunting ghost town---see Rosewood. While Florida doesn’t have the uglier reputation of the other Dixie states in terms of this, it unfortunately still happens within the Sunshine State borders—although from Central to South Florida it’s not as dominant an issue.

The Trayvon Martin investigation was pretty much the breaking point in one of the nation’s larger problems in recent years. The country’s true racist colors started rising after (Yes, this is going to be said) Obama became president. Yes most states were fine with this major change as the black sheep (pun intended) in the entourage of presidents in all of history, but there were some spots in the nation that got very ugly seeing him in the White House. And with this, whether it’s the increasing exposure and/or increasing technology, it seems like racism has been on the upswing in recent years, and Treyvon seems to have become the breaking point.

And if you need reminders, there’s the Cheerios commercial, the Islam mosque controversy, the Gainesville Koran burning, what happened after the Hunger Games minor character turned out to be black, everything happening in Arizona, the Immigration issue, the anti-Black statements made by Boston fans towards a hockey player two years ago, the Paula Deen controversy, and that’s just the beginning. Yes, I am extremely aware that it is usually a few punks making us look bad, but with the quiet rise of the KKK among other hate groups, a lot of racism has been brewing in the waters in recent years. And I have not mentioned the sudden rise of the Confederate flag….including a huge one that you can see on the I-4 West/I-95 junction.


You know this is in the back of most of our minds when we waited between the end of February and APRIL while waiting for the arrest of Zimmerman.



I think I should wrap this up so I can try to put this sad story behind me. Basically, man sees black kid, assumes he is up to no good, stalks him, approaches him, starts losing the fight, pulls out gun and shoots him on the chest.

Prosecution fails to display just how there were many ways to handle the situation that would not have led to a death---they honestly did, even if the facts pointed more towards Zimmerman instigating the situation. 



Zimmerman is free. He should be allowed to live in peace because we had our chance to convict him, and failed to do so.



Time to try to move on.

Sorry Martin family. May your son rest in peace.

The Coffee Stain in Main Street U.S.A.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea closing.



Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride closing.



Stich’s Great Escape existing.



These three moments are the biggest travesties in Magic Kingdom’s history. Seriously. Honestly. Getting rid of the all-beef corn dogs in Casey’s Corner is an extremely close fourth place. However we have a new travesty and rather disappointing moment that to me ranks nice and high with the other entries.



Starbucks in Main Street USA.



Alright I am fully aware that Disney has had a history of sponsors and companies throwing their brands in the faces of the guests passing by. But here is the difference: these companies didn’t evolve the experience to match their service and their style. Starbucks did. The Main Street Bakery is no longer a bakery despite keeping the name: it is literally a Starbucks inside Magic Kingdom.



There is no specialty Disney product in this bakery. There are no Disney-exclusive or Disney-specialty beverages here. Hell, they even took out the freakin’ tables that once decorated this establishment. All the bakery products are Starbucksy, the entire menu is Starbucks, and the only way you can tell its Disney is through the costumes of the cast members and with the old-school pictures that you see all over Main Street (P.S. all the classic classic baseball pictures in Casey’s Corner remains one of the most underrated details in all of Walt Disney World).



It really bums me that Disney allowed for another company to smudge their print on Walt Disney’s creation. I am fine with other companies being in the company, but at least try to evolve into the damn theme of the area. Dole did a great job Adventurelanding it up with their pineapple floats and nice classic setting. The so-called bakery here feels out of place from the second you walk in to the second you walk out.



Don’t expect me to be ordering here ever again, for I am not sure its something Walt Disney himself would like to see. Especially when Disney has more than enough money to have to depend on a coffee company to improve the reputation of the food in the Resort.




At least Disney up the Starbucks logo.

Doc Rivers, Bill Simmons, and the Scary NBA Coaching Culture

So the oddest NBA feud in quite some time is happening, as my favorite sportswriter Bill Simmons is taking on the former Celtics coach Doc Rivers because of Rivers becoming coach of the Clippers. Rivers claims that he was not bailing on the team, while Simmons (a huge huge Celtics fan) is 100% sure that Rivers decided to take off once the going got tough. Now this feud has become quite interesting because both parties have a good point—and it leads to you deciding which side sounds more reasonable and more believable.




On Bill Simmons’ side, he definitely has reason to be furious about the whole thing. An avid Celtics fan, Simmons knows more than anybody on ESPN the history of Boston sports. The Celtics are like a family to the Boston community so seeing the coach suddenly wanting to move to a winning culture in Los Angeles (of all places…) is definitely jarring. Now although there technically are no such things in a big business like sports, let’s recall the 57-107 record he helped deliver to Boston in a two-season stretch. Most coaches would have been canned after that mark, especially the infamous 24-58 season that Celtics fans would rather not bring up. And he still kept his job. Danny Ainge gives him an extremely good squad, a fresh breath of life, and together they got their championship.


However.....





Doc Rivers was given so many chances you’d swear in a past life he was a cat. Similar to Grant Hill’s Lost Years in Orlando he doesn’t owe the Boston Celtics anything---but at the same time he kinda does. The 2005-2006 season was full of blunders, and I definitely have the Bill Simmons article that can break it down. Then there’s the 2006-2007 Celtics season that was marred by injuries, but also contained some pure lost moments in coaching on his part. Nowadays, he still wanted his 7 million a year, but didn’t want to coach an inferior team doing so. Rivers wanted his money, but didn’t want to brave any rough waters doing so. He wanted a contender, and in a barrage of mixed he-said-she-said tales, essentially admitted that he wanted to get out before things got ugly and coach a team with…you know…stars.


Stars. This is what makes Doc Rivers look good---coaching stars. Rivers had his best years when veterans were on the court mixing in with the younglings. This is when Rivers shines best, as he provides great chemistry and support to the players that have been on the court for years. Garnett, Pierce, Allen excelled amazingly under Rivers.


However.....


Remember the Orlando Magic under Rivers? The veterans and experienced players surprisingly shined during the Heart and Hustle time period, but the youngsters struggled immensely. Arguably the lack of developing rookies and sophomores led to the deplorable records in Boston before the formation of the Big Three. So seeing the Big Three essentially disappear and nothing but an under-developed Rajon Rondo (With a little tweaking, he could be the best point guard in the NBA by far) at the helm, Rivers wanted to run. I don’t care what story he gives, the man took off when the team started looking younger.


However.....


How successful is a 56-26 record? How successful is a 57-25 record? The Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, and the Denver Nuggets accomplished those high marks this past season. They all have one thing in common: they fired their coach. Each of these teams had never (repeat) ever had such a successful regular season. Yet Lionel Hollins, Vinny Del Negro, and the mighty George Karl are without a job. Why in the hell would Doc Rivers be willing to stick with a team that will most likely lose twice as many games this season? Two of these three coaches are far superior than Rivers (Del Nego is quite iffy at times). How can you possibly guarantee that the Celtics wouldn’t drop him mid-season regardless? If you saw this offseason and all the transactions that have gone on, then you know that Rivers was scared out of his mind.


13 coaches have been dropped in the offseason!! 6 of them were in playoff teams!! 3 of them gave their franchise their best season ever!! And I am not even including the firings of teams mid-season that made the playoffs, including Mike Brown, Avery Johnson, and Scott Skiles—none of which ever deserved the firing by the way. How dare Bill Simmons and the rest of us even get mad at Rivers when we have seen nearly half the teams in the NBA move in a new direction coach-wise? Let’s not forget that there are great great coaches still in the market like Jerry Sloan, Larry Brown, Stan Van Gundy, and Phil Jackson.


Bottom Line: Doc Rivers did quit on the same team he said he would remain with for the rest of his career. Bill Simmons was definitely right, once things turned a little south, Rivers took off---and to L.A. of all places. That being said, you can’t fault Rivers for watching his career after seeing the NBA mistreat great coaches in the past two seasons. Rivers had every reason to feel like his days in Boston were numbered, and him staying could have led to his departure. After all, if 56 wins and the Western Conference Finals wasn’t good enough, then screw loyalty, take the money and run.