PLAY OFFS????

The NFL Division Weekend Playoffs are finally here. Let’s see what Coyote Chronicle Sports editors have to say about the weekend and their predictions, funny that they disagree already:

Sports Editor: Jesus Romero
Assistant Sports Editor: Levi Burnfin

Baltimore Ravens @ Pittsburgh Steelers
Jesus’ Pick: Baltimore Ravens 24-20
For starters I believe that the Raven’s running game is more effective then the Steelers. Although, it may come down to Joe Flacco making key 3rd down conversions. I still believe the Ravens can pound the ball enough to comfort Flacco.
Levi’s Pick: Pittsburgh Steelers 20-17
The teams split the two games they played during the regular season but the Steelers were without Big Ben when the Ravens beat them. I predict Big Ben does just enough to win the game.


Green Bay Packers @ Atlanta Falcons
Jesus’ Pick: Atlanta Falcons 28-17
“Matty Ice” does not lose at home!!! He’s showed time and time again that his rookie season was not a fluke. Too many weapons on Falcon’s offense for the Packers to stop, especially in the red zone; Gonzalez, White, Turner, take your pick.
Levi’s pick: Green Bay Packers 21-16
The Packers have overcome a ton of injuries to key players (e.g. Jermichael Finley and Ryan Grant) and are playing their best football of the season when it counts, the playoffs. The emergence of a running game spearheaded by James Starks provides balance for a team with an elite passing game and an elite defense. It will be too much for a very good but young Falcon team.

Seattle Seahawks @ Chicago Bears
Jesus’ Pick: Seattle Seahawks 21-10
I still cannot put faith in Jay Cutler. He is too inconsistent and has not won any big games yet in his career. It will be cold, windy and snowy, he WILL make mistakes. I’m still riding Seattle in their upset win over the Saints. Matt Hasselback needs to stay calm and collect and Marshawn Lynch will have to have another break out run, but hey, it can happen.
Levi’s Pick: Chicago Bears 28-13
I do not trust Jay Cutler as far as I could throw him, but I do trust the Bears defense led by Brian Urlacher and Julius Peppers. I do not think Hasselbeck has any more magic left after last week’s shocking defeat of the Saints and the Chicago Defense will force a few turnovers that will lead to Bears touchdowns.

New York Jets @ New England Patriots
Jesus’ Pick: J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets 24-21
Defiantly will be a close one, but I think the Patriots are a little over confident and they haven’t played a meaningless game in 3 weeks. Hard to get on track after a vacation. The Jet’s come from behind and win it in the end as most of their wins have his season. Revis shuts down Welker and the Jets get to talk trash another week.
Levi’s Pick: New England Patriots 27-16
The Jets defense will play much better than the last time these two teams met when the Pats delivered a 45-3 beat down. The defense will keep the Jets in the game but Mark Sanchez will not be able to conduct enough scoring drives to get the job done.

Rangers in for a San Francisco Treat

The Fall Classic is finally here!

And neither of the teams we expected to be in it, actually are. They proved themselves though. They took down some pretty big power houses in Phillies and the Yankees.

Well I’m glad we are talking about a fresh batch of teams. This is the Texas Rangers first World Series appearance and the San Francisco Giants haven’t been since 2002, but were beat by the Angeles.

We can sit here and talk about the what each team has done all season and the great stories, but lets get down to business.

I’m predicting the Texas Rangers take the series in 5 possibly 6 games, but most likely 5 games.

For a couple reasons. Good pitching and Timely hitting.

Yes, The Giants’ pitching has gotten them this far, but look who they faced. A young Atlanta Braves team and a Slumping Phillies team.

I feel that the Rangers have enough veterans like Vladimir Guerrero and Michael Young to put up enough runs and be aggressive enough with the Giants’ pitching. Oh yea, not to mention they have Josh Hamilton who hit .350 in the ALCS and probably would have hit higher if the Yankees didn’t walk him EIGHT TIMES!

But I think a lot of people are overlooking the Rangers’ pitching. Yes, it’s not the Giants’ or Phillies rotation. But hell, it gets the job done. They are a bunch of scrappy guys. Leading the staff is Cliff Lee. He did great last year in the post season, (including the World series) as a member of the Phillies; and he has done well again this post season.

The next two in the rotation aren’t headliners but they have done the job when counted on, C.J Wilson and Colby Lewis.
Lewis threw 8 innings against the Yankees in the ALCS game 6 only allowing one measly (bad call) run.

Well, there you have it. Rangers in 6, hoping for 5. With Josh Hamilton hitting at least three home-runs and winning the MVP award to cap off a wonderful season and fairytale story.

New Nike and Lebron Commercial

Oh yes, on opening day for the NBA what everyone is talking about (besides the Lakers here in Southern California, but the new Nike Commercial.
As if we didn’t talk about Lebron James enough this off season, let’s talk about him again.
[To understand what I will talk about, make sure that you have seen the new commercial first.]
Well, well, well; Lebron has done it again. Sparked up the criticism he will here throughout the year. (Don’t worry though; he’s been taking mental notes on those who took shots at him.)
I’m not taking a shot at Lebron, and I’m not taking a shot at Nike. I’m just trying to figure out if it was the right time for a Lebron commercial.
Yes, let’s start by saying that the commercial is promoting his new shoe. Or is it???
It would be nice if the commercial ACTUALLY SHOWED THE SHOE LONGER THAN A SECOND.
So that’s why I don’t think that the commercial was entirely about his shoe.
Over the summer Lebron pissed off a lot of people. Including an entire city, maybe even state.
“The Decision” maybe could have gone a little bit better. But despite the hour long decision Lebron did what he did and now it is over with.
I think it will all blow over after he wins a championship this year. But Nike is losing a lot of money with people not buy as much Lebron apparel, so they quickly had to help Lebron’s Image.
It’s one thing when Tiger and Nike made a commercial trying to clean up Tiger’s image and get him in the right direction again, but this is a different issue.
Lebron James didn’t do anything wrong. He had the choice to go wherever he wanted. He chose the place that would be successful for him to win a championship. He didn’t do anything morally wrong.
But it’s all about marketing. Lebron’s commercial needed to go out at the beginning of the season because come play-off time, he’ll be the whole focus all over again.
Nike timed their commercial right, but let’s see how many people hate on the commercial and hate Lebron more. Maybe they should just see the sales of his shoes.
By the way, Did anyone catch the Charles Barkley diss in the commercial? Or was it a not a knock on Sir Charles?
In the commercial Lebron says: “I am not a role model… right chuck?”
Barkley had a Nike commercial in the ‘90s saying that he was not a role model, he was a rough on the courts.
Also Barkley took shots towards Lebron for his decision, and the hour long show to make his decision. But again, we know that Lebron is taking mental notes.
With that being said, let the NBA season begin.

Dark Horse Candidate???

Will Boise State finally get a chance to play in a Bowl Championship Series?
No doubt college football fans could argue that Boise State is a damn good football program.
Good recruiting, great coaching, cool blue turf field and good athletic team!
But why haven’t they earned the respect they deserve?
Finally this year they were ranked pretty high for a team in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).
Why no love for the WAC teams?
Well compared to SEC, Big 12, Pac 10, Big East etc. the WAC doesn’t even compare.
But Boise State is good!!!!!!!!
But are they good just because they are in a weak conference?
Boise State emerged as a David and Goliath story in 2006/2007 season when they beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.
An overtime win, ending with a trick play. The game put Boise State on the map.
Since then college fans and analyst have been keeping an eye on them.
Looking for revenge from the 2008/2009 one point loss to TCU in the Poinsettia Bowl, the Broncos faced off against TCU once again in the fiesta Bowl. This time with a different outcome as Boise again played the role of David with another underdog bowl win.
Boise State is on a 30 game winning streak; of regular season games. The longest active winning streak in Division I college football.
Still with little respect from the big boys they continue to win. To open the 2010/2011 season they faced off against Virginia Tech, which would be a big regular season game. The Broncos won again 33 to 30.
Now that Alabama has surprisingly fallen off of the number one spot in the BCS rankings, Boise is left in the second seat.
They have the resume, but the only thing that is holding them back is their strength of their schedule.
The new number one team Ohio State, fell off to Wisconsin Saturday Oct 16.
Now that Boise is number two will they finally get their chance to play in a BCS title game?
Finally they are getting some recognition.
College football fans would love to see Boise State get a shot at the BCS title. Let’s see what they can do against a real number one team.

MLB 2010 play offs

PLAY OFFS???

October is here and play offs are back.
Unfortunately I wasn't correct on all my picks from the beginning of the season. But I got about half of the teams in the play offs. Not bad, I guess. But now the schedule is set.

Rays and Rangers: Although the Rangers just won game one, I'm still taking the Rays.
(Gut feeling)

Yankees and Twins: I had the Twins to go to the World Series from the beginning of the year. (Check the April blog for proof.) and I still have them going to the World Series. Yes. I'm going against the best team in the play offs. But the Yankees only have CC Sabathia to pitch. Andy Petite has been hurt all year and although he has an incredible post season resume, I don't think he can come back that quick.

Reds and Phillies:It's going to be tough to beat philly. They're pitching AND they're hitting. It's the most complete of all the teams. I would like to see Dusty Baker take the Reds to the 'ship.

Giants and Braves: I don't even want to watch this series. because of these two teams the Padres did not get in the play offs. I hate the rival Giants. If i had to choose a team I would want to see Bobby Cox go out with a bang. Great manager finally calling a quits, might as well go out on top.

Phillies and Twins in the World Series. (again like I called in April.)

Almost Perfect!

A perfect game was thrown to the eye of the Tigers.
As later reply would show, indeed a perfect game was thrown.
Young 28 year old, Armando Galarraga, had 26 of the first outs of the game June 2 before Jason Donald came up to bat.
With all of Detroit fans on their feet they cheered as the last out was recorded for the third and final out, soon to be crushed by first base umpire, Jim Joyce, called Donald safe.
Everyone stunned, because Galarraga beat Donald to the bag.
The Tiger’s manager Jim Leyland came out to argue in a hurry. He gave his two cents in but Joyce still felt he had made the right call.
After the game Joyce saw the replay and realized he was wrong. He told 97.1 the ticket, Detroit’s sports radio, “… I took a perfect game away from that kid. ”
He said during the game he felt that he was correct, but after seeing reply he admitted he missed the call.
Joyce found Galarraga after the game and apologized. He told him he was sorry. Galarraga said that no one is perfect and admired Joyce for coming and finding him. He said that Joyce had tears in his eyes.
Major League Baseball asked Joyce if he wanted to work the following day. Joyce said yes and would take all the heat for his mistake.
The following day Chevrolet presented Galarraga with a brand new Corvette for his performance.
(I would have rather taken the perfect game.)
Joyce was the home plate umpire the next game and guess who presented the Tiger’s line-up card? None other than Galarraga. It was a good way for everyone to move on. Again Joyce had tears from the integrity of the pitcher.
It was one of the worst calls ever made, and that’s how Galarraga’s game will be remembered, but that’s what keeps baseball human.
None of this non sense reply. The game would take too long and it would change the game. You lose some you win some. That’s the point of the game.

Worth the Hype?

A year ago my brother showed me Bryce Harper on You Tube. I thought to myself, “Damn, that’s a hell of a ball player.” He was 16 years old at the time. He is now 17 years young and he was drafted number one in the 2010 MLB draft!
#1 and 17 years old. A risk?
Yes, huge risk. But he’s legit.
Harper crushed junior college pitching at 17 years old.
His hands are the fastest I’ve ever seen and has tremendous power.
We’ll have to wait and see, but he is the best player in draft.
Harper left High School early to finish his GED and to be eligible for this years’ draft.
What do you guys think? Phenom or flop?