Arrested for... what?

Check THIS out. It's like something out of an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, with the added bonus of it taking place at a Phillies game. From ESPN:

PHILADELPHIA -- A New Jersey man is facing charges after police say he intentionally vomited on an 11-year-old girl and her father in the stands during a Philadelphia Phillies game.

Yep. That's him.

Jerry Angelo's Poker Face for the Draft

So, I was thinking about this year's draft and wondering if the Bears are going to stay pat, or make a move. It seems like Jerry Angelo is keeping his cards, as usual close to his chest. Will we move up? Will we trade our 3rd round pick for more picks? Will we stay pat?

Moving Up

In order to move up we would have to trade someone. I guess the leading candidate happens to be Greg Olsen. How far could that move us up? Probably a mid-to-late second round pick. However, with Santonio Holmes only garnering a 5th it may hurt Olsen's trade value. With that said, Marshall did go for 2 2nd Round picks, which was more than I had him pegged for. I had him going for a 2nd and a 4th earlier this year. Who would Olsen go to? Perhaps the Patriots who have 3 2nd round picks. But the Patriots did just sign Alge Crumpler, so I am not too sure they are in the market for a Greg Olsen anymore. My guess is we do not move up. If we do though, I think you have to look for a quality RT in the second round. Schaffer played okay, but he certainly isn't any sort of answer at RT.

Moving Down

In order to do this the Bears would have to trade their early third round pick, and probably move it to the latter part of the third round. Maybe they'd get an extra 5th or 6th round pick. I do not really think it is worth it. There may be someone who drops from the second to the early third round that can help you immediately. Remember this years first two rounds are generally more talented than other years because of the potential of a lockout and a rookie salary cap. So, I would not want the Bears to trade out of their current position to later in the draft because of the chance of missing out on a potential first round talent in any other draft slipping to the early third.

Staying the Course

This is the Bears best option in my opinion. However, you never know, Jerry does have his poker face on. I think the Bears should remain in their position and draft either the best guard or FREE safety, unless of course someone really drops like a rock. I capitalized free safety because it seems like the Bears have done nothing but draft strong safeties the last few years: Craig Steltz, Al Alfalava, and Kevin Payne. I mean it's pretty clear that Daniel Manning sucks at free safety, which really stinks because he has all the tools to excel at the position. Elite speed, great hands, and he can make tackles. He just can't cover worth crap and is constantly out of position.We haven't had a viable option back there since Mike Brown pre-injuries. I say pre-injuries because let's face it, he was getting injured every year and we could not count on him.

(Jerry's Pokerhand)

So, to sum it up I say that the Bears stay pat and draft either the best available free safety or guard in the third round. With the obvious caveat that if someone drops like a rock for no explainable reason, we take them. Here is to hoping that happens!

THANK YOU, Michael Rosenberg

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/michael_rosenberg/04/15/tiger.jerry.ben/index.html?eref=sihp

The point of this story: Is it any of our damn business what Tiger, Roethlisberger, et al. do in their free time? I couldn't agree more. I'm so sick of these 'controversies' driving 50% of all sports traffic. What happened to watching the games?

Anyway, I'm glad somebody at a major outlet finally stopped pandering to the sensationalists.

NBA Playoff Predictions

Seeing as my March bracket was terrible I am gonna take another shot at this one with the NBA playoffs. Here we go.

First round:

Cleveland 4
Chicago 1

Miami 3
Boston 4

Atlanta 4
Miwaukee 1

Orlando 4
Charlotte 1

LA 4
Oklahoma City 2

Utah 3
Denver 4

Dallas 4
San Antonio 3

Phoenix 4
Portland 1

Second Round:

Cleveland 4
Boston 2

Orlando 4
Atlanta 3

LA 4
Denver 2

Dallas 3
Phoenix 4

Conference Finals
Cleveland 4
Orlando 2

LA 3
Phoenix 4

NBA Championship
Cleveland 4
Phoenix 2

I wish I had a boatload more time to explain every match up but for now I am going to leave it like this.

Best TV Sports Themes

Shark was insipired by my best Chicago fight song and wanted to do a poll on the best TV themes, but he's lazy so he left it up to me. Rank your top 5 in the comments

In no particular order

NBA on NBC (Tim reqested this video)




Monday Night Football



Sunday Night Football





NFL on Fox





NFL on CBS





The Masters





College Basketball on CBS




College Football on CBS





College Football on ABC/ESPN




NBA on TNT




NHL on ESPN




MLB on Fox



MLB on ESPN



Sportscenter

Sparty Saves Noffke

Going into the last two games of the elite 8, it was looking like I could go 0 for my NCAA predictions this year. My pre-season predictions were looking to go 0-4 and my statistical analysis of how to pick a Final Four was looking to completely miss for only the second time since the field expanded to 64 teams (1986 was the first and only miss). Then Raymond Morgan hit the game winning free throw with 1.8 seconds left and saved Steve’s season. Michigan State returns to the final four, proving once again, that my statistical analysis of the NCAA tournament is correct! Yes I know, two teams from one conference did not make it, and the four school’s that belonged to the two conference’s that had multiple teams left (Big XII and SEC) in the Elite Eight all lost. So if you were betting on them in Vegas, I apologize, but as I said before, past results do not guarantee future success.

Time for a quick review of my pre-season Final Four predictions

Kansas

Kansas was one of the best two teams all year. They ran into a very good Northern Iowa team and couldn’t outlast my nominee for watermelon balls of the year Ali Farokhmanesh. I still stand by this choice.

Michigan State

Saved my season by returning to the final four where they fell to hometown sweetheart Butler

Purdue

Was one of the last 6 teams without a loss and was really starting to play well until Rubbie Hummell blew out his knee. Still had a good tournament showing, but didn’t have the man power to beat eventual champion Duke.

Louisville

Hey, they made the Tournament!

Pisa Tinoisamoa Resigns with Bears

So, according to ChicagoBears.com the Bears have resigned Pisa to a one year deal. I think this is a good thing seeing as how in the 1 quarter we got to see him, Pisa did look great. Lets just hope the injury bug stays away this year. We certainly have the best LB corp in the league now, at least in my opinion.

Santonio Holmes to the Jets

So, following Santonio Holmes' recent character issues, which have resulted in a 4 game suspension, he was traded to the Jets for a fifth round pick. Apparently, this was NOT some secret meeting between the Jets and Steelers that escalated quickly. According to PFT, every team in the league was contacted and the Steelers were about to cut him. This brings me to my point: Santonio Holmes is coming off of a 79 catch 1,250 yard season, and the Bears receivers were very unimpressive last year. How is it that the Bears did not give up their 5th round pick for Santonio Holmes? The chances of landing that good of a player in the 5th round are slim to none. Not to mention, they'd have to develop. Santonio is young and fully developed. It really doesn't make sense to me.

Masters Wrapup

The Masters is over and done with and Phil Mickelson won his third Green Jacket. Lefty shot 16 under for the tournament while Lee Westwood shot 13 under, and Anthony Kim shot 12 under.

Tiger Woods had a solid showing at this years Masters by playing above everyone's expectations (did that sex rehab center have a golf course?). Woods was 11 under for the tournament, but struggled at times with his drives and putting.

Back to Phil, Mickelson played awesome this weekend I thought. The most memorable moment for him and probably the tournament was where he picked up 5 strokes on 3 holes on the back nine on Saturday. Phil almost had three Eagles in a row which would have been unreal. I thought it was going in and two inches to the left it would have been.

There was a point on Sunday where I thought Phil was going to fall apart, his drving became an issue at one point but he was able to keep it together which past Phil was not known for.

After Mickelson won The Masters there was a touching moment with him and his wife. Phil's wife is a breast cancer survivor -- he took time off last year to spend time with her. The win must have made it that much more special to them. It was absolutly a memorable Masters and Mickelson played outstanding.

You can't forget about Westwood, who also had his fair share of moments. Westwood was going for his first major victory , but couldn't overcome Phil's play on the final day.

I was also glad to see Fred Couples and Tom Watson play well over the whole thing. I never really thought they had a chance, but it would have been cool if they did. Overall it was a great weekend for golf and it showed why I love The Masters so much. I look forward to watching next years Masters. Hey Noffke The Masters is coming up.

Best Chicago Fight Song! Poll

I haven't posted in awhile but I was listening to the Bears fight song and this got me thinking, "What do other people think is the best fight song in Chicago?" Well let's find out. Rank your favorite fight song in order of 1-5 from best to worse. (Note there has been some discrepancy with my choice for the Bulls [Jamie] so if you can come up with a better song then my choice, let me know.


Chicago Bears





Chicago Blackhawks





Chicago Bulls





Chicago Cubs





Chicago White Sox

White Sox Are 1-4: Are You Worried?

I think we all knew going into the season that this Sox team would be defined by excellent starting pitching. Sure enough, every member of the starting five, except Jake Peavy, turned in a more-than-solid effort in their first trip out.

Floyd, Danks, and Garcia all had quality starts, yet lost because, apparently, nobody but Paul Konerko in this lineup can hit in the clutch. Buehrle was a monster on Opening Day, but is getting lit up by the Twins in his second start today.

Juan Pierre hasn't been able to get anything going from the leadoff spot (he's well under the Mendoza Line), and nobody towards the bottom of the order (Alexei, AJ, Teahen, "DH" Kotsay) has been able to make contact either.

I know it's early to freak out about this, and offense often doesn't get going until it warms up a bit anyway, but are the White Sox in trouble? The Twins look awfully good, and the Tigers, Indians, and Royals won't be terrible this year either. Will this lack of scoring punch continue? If it does, no good will come of this season.

Personally, I think the Sox need to find somebody other than Kotsay for the DH spot. You know, somebody that can hit the ball. Why did we get rid of Thome, again?

Some other issues - I'm starting to think that Matt Thornton may end up taking Bobby Jenks' closing role. So far he has struck out six of the eleven batters he has faced, while Bobby hasn't notched a save in two appearances.

Carlos Quentin is actually hitting pretty well (OPS over 1.00). It's too bad Beckham and Pierre haven't managed to get on base in front of him at all.

The Mark Teahen Watch - so far he is hitting .091, while Chris Getz and Josh Fields, who we traded to get him from Kansas City, are contributing for the Royals (well, Fields is on the DL - but he looked good in spring training!). Bad trade? I thought so at the time. It's too early to tell, though.