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So close, Dick Jauron. And according to the Buffalo faithful, expected. Hell, inevitable.

I don’t buy it, but I’m not a Buffalo sports fan. I didn’t watch Scott Norwood shank a 47-yarder which, apparently, has been reduced to a chip shot in current retellings of the game. I did watch the Sabres get screwed out of a chance to lose later in overtime by a skate in the crease, though. So maybe they have a point.

Regardless, if you didn’t see what happened, the Patriots were down 11 to the Bills last night in Foxboro with a few minutes left in the game, needing a very minor miracle and all of the fire that Tom Brady’s eyes can possibly produce. And they got both. After scoring a TD to pull within 5, they decided to kick away with 2 minutes left (apparently feeling confident in the flaccidity of Buffalo’s offense), putting the ball in the hands of Leodis McKelvin three yards deep in the end zone. And McKelvin brought it out. Then Brandon Merriweather put a perfect stick on him to loosen up McKelvin’s grasp just enough for a second Patriot to rip it out and recover it. When Tom Brady came back on that field, and had that California forest fire burning in his eyes, you just knew he wasn’t going to throw another pick to a defensive end. Game. Over. Greatest 15-yard game winning drive in NFL history.

The armchair quarterbacks have been going at it this morning both defending and vilifying McKelvin’s decision and the Buffalo coaching staff for not coaching McKelvin up well enough, and of course, I’m going to weigh in with my toonie as well. I have no problem at all with the decision to bring the ball out, and if you are that afraid of fumbling, why even run a play after you take the touchback? Just take a knee. F it…punt it on first down. Bringing the ball out of the end zone not only burns time off of the clock, but also gives Buffalo its best chance of getting the ball down the field. I would bet my left…uh, arm that more kickoffs are returned to the 40-yard line than are fumbled, and doing so likely would have iced that game. Additionally, every player in the world knows you can’t fumble there. Sure, it’s always bad to fumble, but there are certain situations where you know that you CAN NOT lose the ball and you adjust accordingly. That’s all on McKelvin, not the coaching staff. If Dick Jauron needs to have a “Don’t Fumble the Game Away” seminar, then the Bills might as well just finalize their transition into the CFL today.

I think a worse sign for the Bills was the futility of their drive following New England’s go-ahead TD. How do you get beat so quickly by a 3 and 4 man rush? It was like watching the Steelers out there. You know what? Maybe the Buffalo Swampers do have a point. Maybe it is the “same old Bills”.
Better luck next week, T.O.!

EDIT: It has been brought to my attention that the kickoff in question occurred with 2:06 remaining on the clock. Since the clock doesn’t start until the returner is in possession of the ball, chances are that if anything the coaching staff actually instructed McKelvin to go for the return. Doing so would have deprived the Patriots of what essentially would have been a 4th timeout.

16 party guests are showing up. Who’s staying for a while and who’s not?

Staying Until After Hours:
Cleveland (East #1 – 66-16)
There is no point in listing superlatives to describe the play of LeBron James. What is more important, however, is the Cavaliers’ status as the deepest team in the East, as the late addition of Joe Smith has made them two deep with better than serviceable players at every slot. Inside, outside, they’ve got it all. Cleveland also hung a 39-2 record at the Q (with one loss coming in the finale with only one starter playing) to sew up the rights to host any and all Game Sevens.

Los Angeles (West #1 – 65-17)
Kobe Bryant wants a title so that there is no doubting his individual greatness. With the return of Andrew Bynum, who has been superbly efficient on offense since returning, the deepest team of the West, which was already head and shoulders above the rest of the conference all season, gets its entire crew back for the first time in two months.

Boston (East #2 – 62-20)
While the team has gotten better than expected play from those filling in for Kevin Garnett down the stretch (Glen Davis – 12.2 points and 5.2 rebounds in 31.1 minutes per game, Leon Powe – 13.2 points and 7.5 rebounds per game in 25.8 minutes per game while missing time, as well), the return of a healthy KG is required for the team to make a legitimate run at Cleveland. Without him, the team is still formidable and can win a couple series, but the loss of their best interior defender will sink their repeat hopes.

Orlando (East #3 – 59-23)
The Magic are the NBA’s best-kept secret. I know, it’s hard to believe that a 59-win team is a secret. While Dwight Howard carries the load and gets national press, Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis open things up for a fun offense and everyone chips in with an effective defensive scheme to funnel everything to Howard. Rafer Alston has been everything the Magic could have hoped for in the midseason trade, as the team went 19-6 after his arrival before dropping three of their last four.

Having a Few Drinks:
San Antonio (West #3 – 54-28)
Even with Manu Ginobili being gone and Tim Duncan being hindered by a leg injury, the Spurs can’t be counted out. Greg Popovich is still the coach, Duncan is still to be reckoned with, and Tony Parker can win games on his own.

Portland (West #4 – 54-28)
The Blazers are 27-10 since January 24, including 18-2 at the Rose Garden, featuring a pair of wins over the Lakers (not to mention seven straight over LA). Throw in one of the league’s best closers in Brandon Roy leading a deep crew (nine players average 15 minutes or more per game) and you can see how Portland is arriving a year early, even without getting much from Greg Oden.

Houston (West #5 – 53-29)
The Rockets are 22-8 since Tracy McGrady tapped out this year. They were 20-15 on the season with him. Bill Simmons made a big deal in his Wednesday column about Yao Ming being an “only” guy because he will give you a certain level of play and nothing more. Well, he’s getting more help then he did previously, as there are four other double-figure scorers, two guys over nine points per game, and Shane Battier. In particular, Yao is getting a lot of help from the first legitimate power forward to grace the Rockets’ roster in a while, as Luis Scola (who may be the most underrated player in the league) has averaged 13.6 points and 10.1 rebounds since McGrady was lost for the season.

Spilling the Dip and Slinking Out:
Denver (West #2 – 54-28)
This is not a question of Chauncey Billups, who transformed the Nuggets into a very good team. It is a question of the rest of the squad. Is Carmelo Anthony (a career 38.9 percent shooter from the field in postseason) ready to take the next step and lead his team in the postseason? Can Kenyon Martin and Nene stand up in the postseason? Can any of their shooting guards play good defense?

Atlanta (East #4 – 47-35)
Joe Johnson may carry the heaviest load of all participants in the first round. He is the Hawks’ do-everything player on offense… and has to check Dwayne Wade for most of the 40+ minutes he will be on the floor. It also remains to be seen if the rest of the roster is ready for primetime after last year’s postseason taste. At least they aren’t facing a premier point guard in the first round, thereby saving Mike Bibby some embarrassment.

Rude Guests Who May Overstay Their Welcome:
Miami (East #5 – 43-39)
Michael Beasley has ramped it up in his last five games, hanging averages of 24.2 points and 11.2 rebounds in that span. That’s an interesting development and could provide enough scoring as a complementary player to go with that Dwyane Wade character.

New Orleans (West #7 – 49-33)
Chris Paul can simply win a series for the Hornets on his own. He may have to, though, as David West has a leg injury, Peja Stojakovic is just coming back from an injury of his own, and Tyson Chandler made his first appearance in nearly a month in their finale. The Bugs are 29-24 since January 3, which includes a run of seven straight wins from late February to early March. Injuries have simply made them an inconsistent bunch.

Chicago (East #7 – 41-41)
The Bulls have closed strong, winning 12 of their final 15 games before dropping their finale and sliding into the seventh seed, outscoring their foes by 91 points in that 15-game stretch. The +6.1 scoring differential would have placed them fifth in the NBA over the course of the season. Ben Gordon (21.8 points per game) and John Salmons (20.1 points per game) were a dynamic 1-2 punch in that time in that hot streak.

Someplace Else to Go:
Dallas (West #6 – 50-32)
Age has finally caught up with Jason Kidd and his matchup with Tony Parker in the first round will illustrate that perfectly. The Mavericks’ biggest problem is that they cannot match up with the two best players on the Spurs in Parker and Duncan. It’s time for Cuban to go back to the drawing board.

Philadelphia (East #6 – 41-41)
A lack of outside shooting, an established go-to player, and polished interior talent make the Sixers overmatched when it comes to facing the Magic. At least they will have a longer offseason to try to figure out how they can blend Elton Brand into an uptempo style.

Utah (West #8 – 48-34)
This team is a shell of what they have been. While the names (Carlos Boozer, Deron Williams, Mehmet Okur, Andrei Kirilenko) are the same, the game is not. There are seven players on the team who either will be free agents or can opt out of their current deals, so the “last hurrah” will be mercifully short. It will be more interesting watching Jerry Sloan react to the team being first round fodder than watching the actual games themselves.

Detroit (East #8 – 39-43)
Speaking of a “shell of what they have been,” the Pistons limp into the postseason, longing for the return of Chauncey Billups. Oh, he can’t return? Never mind, then.

I guess I could put some joke in here about saving the best for last, etc., but I won’t. Or maybe I just did. Anyway, I was too humbled to write my own bio, so I solicited help from the Subject of our first profilee, SL22. Without further ado:

AB! The Osiris of this race! AB is here for running, other runners!

AB certainly BA’s, that is, bombs atomically. The man is too modest to write about himself, but that’s certainly not due to a lack of subject matter. For example, AB…well, AB is a moderator on this here Sports Frog! That’s certainly an accomplishment, no? He also has a full-time job!

While Brian, TommyBoy, and some of the others may have done more of the actual work in putting this outing together, AB has certainly been the face of the Frog Hood 2 Coast thus far. When you think 12 random strangers piling into vans and struggling to run 5 miles at a time in a reasonable pace, well, you can’t help but think AB. When you think of diligent training over the course of 10 months to turn yourself from a terrible runner into merely a bad one, again, you can’t help but think AB. And finally, when you think potential hero in case a fellow runner cannot complete their leg…well, you are thinking AB.

The first man, the subpar leadoff runner, the Juan Pierre of the Sportsfrog Hood 2 Coast team…AB!!!! Let’s get down to the measurements.

Tale of the Tape:
Name: AB
AKA: The Shark, AB the Intoxicated
Height: 6′2″ (he’ll be real easy to spot amongst the fellow 5′10.5″ runners)
Weight: Doug
Team Role: Runner, Leg #1 (13.55 Miles, 12th most Difficult leg (nice way of saying easiest leg))
10K Potential: Do they hold 10Ks on the treadmill?
Hobbies: Fine whiskeys, cheap beer, fast women
Biggest Asset to Team: Has the size to take on 4 or 5 opposing runners should they get mouthy
Most Likely To: elicit the most responses of “you’re not from here, are you?”

LET’S DO THIS!!!!

The following is from Swamper Bensell. Recently I met up with Bensell at Keeneland, Lexington’s ractrack, and quickly discerned that horse racing is a passion of his. He and his friends spoke knowingly about trainers, jockeys and traning sessions. Therefore, I thought it fitting that he offer up a post that was a bit more complete than has been in the Swamp. With that, Bensell:

“My family owns thoroughbreds. One of my uncles has been involved in the business since before I was born. He is a smalltime breeder, never having more than a dozen mares at a time (he owns 3 currently). My brother no longer owns any thoroughbreds, but he is an assistant manager at a farm that breeds, sells and races horses (they own about 25 mares). He ran about a dozen horses in his name in the 1990s and 2 of them died in racing related accidents. I have been a fan of horse racing all of my life, and the safety of the horse (and jockey) are of paramount importance to me.

But before I go into my thoughts and feelings, allow me to highlight Andy Beyer’s piece in the Washington Post from today:

When Eight Belles broke down and was euthanized after finishing second in the Kentucky Derby, her death provoked a predictable outcry about the cruelty of the sport.

The filly’s fate was a bigger story than Big Brown’s victory, even though the undefeated colt appears poised to become the first Triple Crown winner in 30 years. Sunday’s New York Times sports pages reflected the popular reaction. A photo of the filly, lying on the track, was spread across the first sports page; a column described the sport as “brutal;” published e-mails branded it as inhumane, abusive, unethical and barbaric.

The reaction of casual fans, who may watch only a few races a year, was intense because the memory of Barbaro’s breakdown in the 2006 Preakness is fresh in everybody’s mind. Many of those viewers probably remember the tragic deaths of Ruffian and Go for Wand, too.

As someone who loves the game, I would like to defend racing by explaining that such breakdowns are not an everyday occurrence. I could argue that racing has been terribly unlucky that so many catastrophic events have occurred in high-profile races seen by a nationwide television audience. The sport is not inhumane. It is not brutal. It is not barbaric.

But Eight Belles was a tragic manifestation of a problem that is more pronounced every year. America’s breeding industry is producing increasingly fragile thoroughbreds. They may not break down, but they have shorter and shorter racing careers before going to stud to beget even more fragile offspring.

The facts are irrefutable. In 1960, the average U.S. racehorse made 11.3 starts per year. The number has fallen almost every year, and now the average U.S. thoroughbred races a mere 6.3 times per year. Almost every trainer whose career spans the decades will acknowledge that thoroughbreds aren’t as robust as they used to be.

There are at least two good explanations for this phenomenon. In earlier eras, most people bred horses in order to race them, and they had a stake in the animals’ soundness. By contrast, modern commercial breeders produce horses in order to sell them, and if those horses are unsound, they become somebody else’s problem. Because buyers want horses with speed, breeders have filled the thoroughbred species with the genes of fast but unsound horses.

As this change in the breeding world took place, the sport was allowing the use of pain-killers and other medications that are forbidden in most other countries. They allow infirm horses to achieve success, go to stud and pass on their infirmities to the next generation.

If you want a very good summary of the injury, and how it happened, go to drf.com and read Glenye Cain Oakford’s article entitled “Eight Belles’s injury rare and baffling.” Oakford quotes Larry Bramlage, the vet who was at scene on Saturday:

“You’ll see things like condylar fractures or sesamoid fractures in one leg, and as they start slowing down and their mind gets off of the competition, they’ll become aware of the discomfort,” Bramlage added when asked what injuries are most likely after the finish line. “An injury as they’re pulling up is not terribly unheard of. The vast majority of injuries, however, don’t manifest until they’re cooling out, unless the horse becomes structurally unstable in some fashion. Then they start slowing down in the race. None of those scenarios fit here.”

Bramlage said close examination of video shows Eight Belles’s breakdown began when her right front leg failed.

“Two steps later, her left front gives way as well, and that’s when she went down,” he said. “She gets very asymmetric [uneven in stride] for about two steps, and then her left front fails.”

Several friends of mine are good friends with Larry Jones, the trainer of Eight Belles, and another worked for him for a couple of years. They have all said he would never run a horse that was not 100%, and there is no reason to think that Eight Belles was anything but ready to run the race of her life. And that she did; she was the only horse gaining on Big Brown in the stretch. Hell, she was the only other horse in the picture at the end. She jogged out easy into the first turn; I went back and checked the dvr for any missteps and there were none. That is until her last couple of steps, when both front legs were shattered. There was no reason to believe that anything bad would happen, especially that far past the finish line.

Barbaro broke down just as the Preakness was starting. When Charismatic broke down in the 1999 Belmont Stakes, it was in the last few yards of the race. Go For Wand broke down just before the sixteenth pole in the 1990 Breeders Cup Distaff (my seats were directly in front of it – I can still see her get back up and try to finish the race). You don’t expect anything to happen that far after the race is over, because it simply doesn’t happen. The only injuries I’ve seen at that part of the track, after the race, were heat exhaustion issues. Those horses collapsed and had to be vanned off. That isn’t a fatal occurrence very often, though it may well be a career ending one.

The point I’m trying to make is the jockey, Gabriel Saez, had no idea the filly was hurt until it was too late. I expect that groups like PETA will try and get mileage out of this tragedy, but to disparage the name of this 20 year old kid who did his best in his very first Kentucky Derby by calling for his suspension is absolutely appalling. Can thoroughbred racing improve safety? Yes. But to say it can happen overnight is ridiculous – even synthetic tracks only reduce the chances of injury. Synthetic tracks reduce fatalities, but the career-ending injury rate is remarkably similar when compared to the traditional dirt tracks.

Three are some good signs that the industry is addressing this problem already. While many commercial breeders are still focused on speed, there is a move away from the “2 years old in training” sales, where the youngsters are asked to work out under tack for 1/8th of a mile. There are now steroid tests at the sales, and the drug tests that the horse faces after a race are able to actually catch the cheaters. With the introduction of the Breeders Cup Marathon, a 1 ½ mile race on the dirt that will be run for the first time this year at Santa Anita (and the series of races organized to lead up to it), some of the focus is going not only to the traditional stamina-based sire lines but also to try and develop new ones. The introduction of synthetic tracks has allowed the “turf sires” offspring to move from the grass to the fake stuff fairly easily. This not only increases the stamina lines, but many tracks are transferring a style of running that has been mainly European to this point. The jockey’s game plan has shifted to sitting back through out the early part of a race, then turning it into a calvary charge when they turn for home.

The bottom line is that there is always a chance of death in horse racing – when an animal that weighs over a thousand pounds runs at 35 MPH on an ankle the size of a small adult, there is a huge risk factor. Racing has been unlucky to have 2 high profile break downs in the last 6 Triple Crown events, since that is about the only time the general public pays attention to the industry.
In all honesty the average thoroughbred is safer on the track now than it was 10 or 20 years ago. And we’ll leave the discussion of the dangers of retirement for another day…”

And the targeting of athletes continues. Time to up the security systems.

I had a wife’s co-worker ask for my thoughts on the UK-Tennessee game from this past weekend. Here is my reply.

The game? There was a game?

Or was there just the same old same old? The same give-em-a-little-leg-and-take-it-right-back? The same tease that defines UK-Tennessee? Was there a state of blue getting their heart stomped once again by hideous, day-glo,hunter,road crew orange for the twenty-third straight year. Was there an 20th straight class of seniors graduating without knowing of victory over their southern neighbors?

Here’s what it was:

It was UK wasting chances to win. It was UK making the same mental errors that plagues Bill Curry, Hal Mumme and Guy Morriss and Rich Brooks. It was needing a field goal, and instead of playing the way they’d played the whole second half, it was changing the offense to play it safe. It was PLAYING NOT TO LOSE. It was failing to get the ball to the middle of the field for the field goal attempt, thereby letting UT focus their rush on one side of the line because the other side of the line would have been wide left anyway. It was having the ball with a chance to win and turning back into the same old Kentucky.

It was Andre Woodson not dropping his shoulder and hammering himself towards the goal line on the game’s final play. It was that same Woodson getting dragged down from behind and making Mel Kiper’s Big Board look stupid (Big and Mobile? Come on Mel, watch some games!). It was receivers not coming back to Woodson to give him a chance to force a throw. It was O-lineman giving up when Woodson broke the pocket.

It was being reminded that going one-deep at all positions doesn’t get it done in a game that spans nearly five hours. Nor does it get it done in a conference where teams go three-deep on their practice squads.

It was thinking that you were where you needed to be, capable of a big comeback against a bitter rival. It was that rival who doesn’t see us as a rival at all doing what they always do.

It was a loss.

Here’s what it is:

It was Kentucky, and I live and die with it. You die more than you live, and the deaths stick with you longer than the living does. It is what it is. It’s wait-until-next year, then repeat ad infinitum.

Go Blue.

There’s a local charity here in Baltimore, NCADD – Maryland, that is offering a pretty sweet Final 4 related fundraiser. You have the opportunity to win:

*Roundtrip airfare for two from Baltimore to San Antonio
*Four night accomodation in San Antonio
*Two Tickets to both semi final games
*Two Tickets to the national championship game
*Exclusive behind the scenes access with Billy Packer (just for kicks, you may ask him how he rolls)

They are only selling 250 tickets. Priced at $100 a pop it’s a great way to help a great cause and would be a fantastic opportunity to see the best in college basketball up close. Check it out if you are so inclined.

The Kings are coming off their fifth straight season where their win total has decreased, starting at 61 in 2001-2002 and having settled at 33-49 last year. The team is talented, but perimeter-dominated, which may bode well for new coach Reggie Theus. Theus, known best for his work on the NBC Saturday morning television show “Hang Time,” looks to bring his acting skills to Sacramento to help Ron Artest seem less crazy. Just kidding, as Theus actually authored a lightning quick turnaround at New Mexico State, turning a team that went 6-24 into a squad that went 25-9 two years later. The question is if the three-time All-Star who scored just over 19,000 points in his NBA career can translate his college success to the NBA. There are doubts in some circles about Theus’ long-term hopes, as one of his first acts when camp opened create a midnight curfew for the night before any road game and banning the use of cell phones on team bus trips. Being the new, hard-ass coach who makes less money than his star players always works out well for the coach, right?

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I guess the Red Sox and Rockies are going to square off in a best-of-seven series that starts tomorrow, which is all well and good if you’re into that sort of thing, but I’d prefer to look at the different ways that Boston and Colorado handled well-regarded prospects Dustin Pedroia and Chris Iannetta, respectively. The stark contrast between how they were treated illustrates perfectly the proper way, in Pedroia’s case, and the improper way, in Iannetta’s case, to bring rookies into the fold.

Coming into the 2007 season, the Red Sox were counting on Pedroia to provide solid production at second base. They didn’t let his poor performance last September persuade them to bring in an external option at the position, nor did they give much consideration to turning over the starting job to the mediocre-at-best Alex Cora. Rather, they began the season with Pedroia firmly entrenched as their starting second baseman.

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I’m back. Please contain your excitement. Thanks to garyclark for carrying the torch while I was swimming at a waterfall in Hawaii. But I digress…

There’s a very simple reason why the Bucks slid from 40-42 in 2005-2006 to 28-54 last year – injuries. Milwaukee started eleven different players last year, including the immortal Jared Reiner. Charlie Bell was the only Buck to appear in every game and the opening night’s starting five missed 101 games on the season. Michael Redd missed two months’ worth of games, Mo Williams one month, Andrew Bogut got shut down for the final 16 games of the season, and the weight of Charlie Villanueva’s giant frontal lobe kept him out of 43 games. Oh, and Bobby Simmons, who almost certainly would have replaced Ruben Patterson in the opening night lineup, missed the entire season. Comprende?

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