Tale of an Underrated Baseball Player

So we have this baseball player who used to play from 1979 to 2002. Played in 4 different decades for 7 different teams. He had his tough career of unfair salaries, drugs, illnesses, and underrated numbers.....and of course, playing for the Montreal Expos. Now, despite this he was a 7-time all-star, played for two World Series teams, was in the MVP race multiple years, runner-up in Rookie of the Year, won a Batting Title, and led the National League in stolen bases for four years in a row. Good stats, right?

It gets better. He holds the Expos/Nationals record for career singles, triples, walks, stolen bases, runs created and times on base. He has a .988 fielding percentage while also leading the league in double plays-----as an outfielder. He batted over .300 ball in five different seasons, while being amongst the top switch-hitters in hits, runs, walks, times on base, singles, doubles, triples, times on base, and several other categories. Good stats, right?

How about we throw in the fact that only four players in the history of baseball have stolen more bases than him, and not one of them have had a better success rate than this man. 808 stolen bases in total, which is 200 more than any current player in baseball. He stole over 70 bases six times, while at one point stealing 40 straight bases without getting caught. This man is the best lead-off hitter not named Rickey Henderson in the history of baseball.




So tell me, why is this man, Tim Raines, still NOT in the Hall of Fame?!???!?!?

My only post about the 2011-2012 NBA Season

So with Chris Paul going to the Clippers for essentially nothing, this month has been quite possibly one of the dumbest amongst any sports league in the history of mainstream entertainment. Honestly, seriously, how much stupidity can possibly fit in a league? The dumbness of it all is exactly why I will not be watching this season of the NBA.
Now, this will be my only article about the NBA until the season is over, but here are all the instances in which the stupidity amongst the players, teams, and higher-ups in the league itself provide nothing but baffleness (not a word, I know) to the trained mind.

1) 50/50 Split is unfair…..
Players, what on earth is wrong with a 50/50 split!?!/ Never mind, I’m not even going to dwell on this one…what’s done is done..



2) The Lakers
Okay, I totally understand that the trade with the Hornets was extremely unfairly nixed. That I understand. But why in the heck do you trade arguably your third best player to the team that totally annihilated your arse the previous season? And for nothing. You just made your blood rivals even stronger, and gave them even more reason to destroy you this season. Now Odom is pissed, Kobe is pissed, the Lakers are weaker, and the Mavericks are stronger. This trade was unnecessary, pointless, and dumb.



3) J.J. Barea
You win a championship with the Mavericks, the Lakers can’t seem to catch a break, and most of your team is remaining intact. And…..you sign with the Timberwolves for four years, a franchise that just might die within the next year. A franchise that has not done anything useful since…2004. I hope money equals happiness in your life, because playing in Minnesota wont deliver that.



4) Dwight Howard
You want to leave. You want to stay. You love Orlando. You hate Orlando. You want to play for a contender. You mention New Jersey. Dwight Howard is one of the best players in the NBA, and is worth every penny, but he has become a total nuisance. He loves Orlando but not enough to swallow the pill of constant defeat (which will continue to happen if we have the same GM) .



5) Orlando Magic
With all their stupidity, they don’t deserve Howard. In the past couple seasons you give up nearly your entire roster of the team that TOOK YOU TO THE NBA FINALS, traded away a disappointing-but-still-decent Rashard Lewis for a I-will-never-succeed Gilbert Arenas, signed an aging Vince Carter, traded away Howard’s ONLY backup center, traded with the Suns and did NOT get Steve Nash, and let me repeat this, traded FOR GILBERT ARENAS. And you thought about getting that overrated trash Bynum from the Lakers (among other players) for Dwight Howard? And you signed Big Baby Davis?!?! No wonder this franchise is going down the crapper.



6) David Stern



7) David Stern



8) David Stern
You deserve three spots for your hail mary of stupidness. You rejected a legit deal from the Lakers and Rockets for no particular reason whatsoever, yet allow the Hornets to get essentially nothing and trade Paul to the Clippers, the one team that shares their home with the bigger, older, and more handsome brother Lakers. You do know L.A. is going to flip out right? You do know that the Hornets now pretty much have no future...not for a couple of years. You do know you just added to the conspiracy theorists about the evilness of the NBA, right? And lastly, you do know that you just busted the plans of multiple franchises with one unfair swoop, right? I am going to repeat this: the Lakers trade was a legit one.

David Stern, you were a no-nonsense commissioner back in the day. What happened?




Once again, I am done. I will sit through the rest of the rather-boring NFL season and wait for baseball next spring.

My its been a while

I will resort back to writing in the near future. it has been a tough past couple of months.