Quick Hits and Curveballs

Coupla-two-tree thoughts as the sports meld on the calendar...

Have Marvin Miller and Bowie Kuhn usurped the NFLPA and commissioner's office?  The way the players are smacking around the owners is reminiscent of 1970s MLB, when Miller and the union spanked Kuhn and the lords of baseball on a weekly basis. 

The football owners have now blown all of a three games to none lead and are about to fall in game seven. They had solidarity and TV revenues. What did the opposition have -- a rookie union boss and a membership of self-centered knuckleheads? It's a stunning turn of events that is turning Roger Goodell into Tom Dewey.

The latest ruling against the lockout means that the two sides won't settle for a long time. As long as one side thinks it can win, it will not have incentive to compromise. The best case scenario for football now is another uncapped season. 

Maybe folks will watch the World Series in October instead. Pray for two warm weather teams.

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Memo to Carolina Panthers: run like Mike Vick from Cam Newton. Avoid Newton, Mass. Don't eat any Fig Newtons.

Let's consider the track record for run-first quarterbacks with low Wunderlick scores from simplified college offenses: Vick, Vince Young, Jamarcus Russel, Cam Newton. Okay, Newton's a better passer than the rest of them. He's also the only one who grew up in the shadow of a sleazebag preacher.

Run like a leaky faucet, Panthers. There are plenty of other areas in which you suck that could use a top draft pick.

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Warning: Expired Equine Whallop Zone
82-game season and four rounds of playoffs to determine who will face the Lakers in the finals. Ya-a-a-a-awn.

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AJ Burnett threw eight solid innings last night, relinquishing a run on three hits. He lost. How unclutch can you get to pitch well the night the opposing hurler throws a one-hit shutout?

The Rockies' Esmil Rogers knows clutch. The three runs and 12 baserunners he allowed in 5.3 innings stood up in a 5-3 win in Chicago because relievers shut down the Cubs for 3.7 innings.

I wonder what SF Chronicle columnist Bruce Jennings is doing tonight?

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Speaking of not being clutch, how about Jose Bautista. He's followed last season's breakout 50-homer season by leading the league so far in batting average (.364) and home runs (eight), but he isn't even in the top eight in the American League in RBI. What a bum!

Obviously, Bautista doesn't bat .364 or hit home runs when it really matters. The Jays should trade him and get someone more clutch, like Derek Jeter (.244, no homers).

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The Phillies' Cliff Lee and Diamondbacks' Ian Kennedy faced off last night in that bandbox in Phoenix. The two starters combined for one walk and 22 strikeouts, and Lee didn't even pitch the eighth or ninth. Kennedy won in a shutout.

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The Brewers recently inked Ryan Braun to a six-year deal for roughly $19 million/year. It's reminiscent of Ryan Howard's much-criticized contract with Philly in that Braun's a big bopper without a glove. On top of that, the Brewers unwisely bought out several years of below-market arbitration.

That aside, it should work out for Milwaukee. Braun is younger than Howard, and although he keeps buying mitts with holes in them, he's got an athletic body, not the lumbering slugger's build that gives many pause about Howard's ability to compete at age 35. Braun's deal is also for $6 million a year less.

More than that, Milwaukee needs Braun. As mentioned in an endorsement of Howard's contract last year, teams don't win without great players. Milwaukee is the smallest market in baseball, so locking up their star for six years means they won't lose him if his value soars. 

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