The Love of Match Play

          For Golf fans, this week is one of the best as the WBC-Accenture Match Play tournament is going on. This is a knockout event in with 64 players compete within brackets named after famous golfers (See all the rules here and how match play works here). The golfers play a match in where the player who takes the most holes advance to the next round.

            Speaking as a golf fan, this is rather exciting. The 64 best players are pinned up one on one where every little mistake can make our brake the player. It adds a kind of competition not found in how regular tournaments work. There is also tons of parody in the tournament. A player can have a couple bad holes and shoot 4 over but come away with a tied score. Not every hole counts in this format, rather how you outwit your opponent.

            It is also fun to watch because it doesn’t come around often. This makes it a special event amongst the fans. Happening once a year, it is the equivalent to the other sports’ all-star games. Who wouldn’t want to see Ian Poulter and Rickie Fowler, who share a sponsor, compete against each other head to head? The sharing of sponsorship (which I believe they do these things on purpose) add to the competitive feeling. Who will show that they are the brands’ dominate golfer? Fowler came out on top in a great battle against the man who claims to be the “best match player in golf.”

            All-star games tend to be one of the best events in any sport. The match play event at Accenture is golf’s version of an all-star game. Pinning the best against the best is what the fans want to see, and as a golf fan, I wanted to express the excitement in this tournament.

NHL Olympians Nevermore

     You heard it first from me. The next winter Olympics will not have players from the national hockey league competing. Currently the national hockey league has not committed to the International Olympic Committee on allowing players to compete in the Olympics beyond this year. Much of this has to do with compensation.
     Currently the NHL does not receive any gains, or compensation for allowing their players to play in the competition. They do this "for the love of the game," while also shutting down their entire league for 16 days while the competitions go on. The NHL receives not a single penny for any of this. This is pretty generous of the league.
     However, the NHL has the upper hand in the future because of their non-commitments after this Olympic season. It has been brought up recently by the IOC of giving the NHL money as compensation, but the IOC shot it down quickly. With neither side willing to budge, I believe the NHL will stick it to them and not allow players to leave, and also they will not shut down their league while the Olympics go on.
     Most would say that is petty of the NHL and is taking away from the Olympics, but why should they budge? The Chicago Blackhawks have allowed 10 of their players to play in this year's Olympic games, including some of their star and key players. What happens when one of their players injures themselves while playing? They have now lost a key player outside of their league, paying him millions of dollars and received nothing as compensation.
     I think the NHL owners are quietly fed up with the Olympic system and don't want their players playing anymore. I believe that no NHL players will be scene next Olympic games unless the league's owners get their compensation.

Marijuana in the NFL

                Today, NFL player Ryan Clark spoke out about teammates smoking marijuana, especially for relief of pain. He never says directly that he is for the use of medicinal marijuana in the league, but he hints at it by saying the NFL “is losing a battle” in their testing system and how marijuana is stopping players from turning to other pain medications such as Vicodin.

                Clark is not to only player to speak out on this topic. Many other players are in favor of the use of medicinal marijuana in the league. Even recent Super Bowl Champion Coach Pete Carroll said the league should investigate into letting players use the substance. The public also piped in recently. The latest poll on ESPN asked if the NFL should allow the use of medicinal marijuana. Out of 23,000 votes 79% said yes.

                I don’t agree with either opinions. The reason to allow players to use marijuana is because of the stress of the game, both physical and mental. Isn’t that just life though? Students today go through a lot of mental stress, along with most of the workforce. People get banged up all the time as well, a bruised knee here, a pulled shoulder there, the aches and pains never go away for some. Why don’t these people get to use medicinal marijuana as well? I don’t think NFL players deserve any more attention just because these people choose a physical work opportunity.

                Whether someone agrees with it or not, there is no debate. Marijuana is illegal at a national level. This topic will be discussed at high levels throughout this football off season, but it is not going to get anywhere because it is illegal at a national level. NFL players should focus on becoming the best employees possible before focusing on whether or not they can get their marijuana.

Fantasy Baseball: The relevance of the Toronto Blue Jays

     While the football season has come to an end, another one is just starting: Fantasy Baseball. Fantasy baseball provides an alternative to fans of the game who can't watch the entire game but still want to enjoy it. It satisfies those who live and breath fantasy sports. For those who have played fantasy sports, they know about the importance of value and upside. Drafting a player too early can kill a player's season. I would like to minimize this risk by discussing the relevance of the Toronto Blue Jay's starting pitching staff in fantasy baseball.
     Toronto's starting rotation (for now) consists of pitchers R.A. Dickey, Mark Buehrle, Brandon Morrow, J.A. Happ, and Esmil Rogers. Many may ask, what is so important about these players and who they play for? Well, for one, these pitchers provide an interesting situation in fantasy baseball. Happ and Morrow are coming off of injuries, while Dickey and Buehrle are coming off of less than spectacular seasons, but respectable ones none the less. The perplexity in their value is interesting.
     Having one or more of these pitchers will not bring your team to automatic victory. They will probably not even go in the first couple of rounds of your draft. What these pitchers do bring to a team is value at their projected draft positions. In a league where pitchers score points based on wins, strikeouts, and innings, Dickey and Buehrle can help. They have consistently pitched without injury and produced decent statistics. Happ and Morrow have major upside when it comes to production, especially since many project them to be taken off the board towards the end of the draft, if at all. This is where the best fantasy players succeed: grabbing players late in the draft that have potential to produce.
     However, production does involve the talent around them. In a league consisting of the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays, where all three teams project to win 85+ games this year, one out of five teams is bound to have a losing record. This team could be the Toronto Blue Jays and unfortunately, this can reflect in their pitching staff.
     These pitchers take on the burden of playing great teams. The starting staff might not be up to the task either. Unfortunately, this staff has a good chance of producing losing records and high earned run averages, potentially hurting your fantasy team if you picked up one or more of these players. It is a slippery slope when welcoming a Blue Jay pitcher to your team. Nobody really knows what will happen during the year either. Picking up one of the Blue Jay's starting pitchers can help your team immensely due to their ability to produce consistently. But because of their competition, this might not happen. My advice? Stay away for now. I would rather feel angry for not picking one of their pitchers and having them succeed than picking up one and it being a flop.