Random Sports Thoughts

My prediction on the NFL's Competition committee

Everyone who knows the NFL knows that the parity is the intended consequence of any rule change. Their dream is to make all 32 teams 8-8 so that every game to the last week will be meaningful. For the most part they have succeeded.

However there is a human unintended consequence of the salary cap. First came the "hometown discount". This meant that superstars with more money than God would take less than they could make with a lesser franchise in order to make room in the salary cap so the team could hire more talent. The next phenomena is well established superstars taking huge pay cuts to come and play for a winner. In 2007, the perfect storm has developed in New England. Adelius Thomas, Randy Moss and other took less money to play for Bellichick and company. Thus that season, the Patriots were so much better than nearly any opponent that is was laughable.

I predict that the competition committee will not sit quietly on this one. I believe that they institute something that will regulate the hometown discount. They will assign elite players a level. Any player placed in this elite level by the NFL must be paid a minimal salary and cannot be traded for anything but a 1st round draft pick. This would keep several superstars from flocking to one team on minimal salaries so as to win a championship.

Don't put it past the socialists on the competition committee to consider this.


Manny smarter than he knows

Well they said it was just Manny being Manny. Several local news types tried to make a scandal out of it. I thought it was brilliant. It was brilliant because it was not meant to be brilliant thus it was childlike and honest.

After the 3rd straight loss to the Indians in the ALCS, Red Sox nation was feeling pretty bad and beginning to pack things in for the year. The Red Sox were not hitting and incredibly uptight. Then came Manny. In a nonchalant interview Manny said "If it doesn't happen, who cares? ... There's always next year. It's not like it's the end of the world."

This comment from one of their leaders brought it all home and brought reality back to the team. One of the reasons that Ramirez is so good is because he does not make baseball life and death. He enjoys it. The comments he made changed the collective psyche of the entire team. From that point on the team was looser and having fun.

I believe that was the turning point for the team and Ramirez should get credit for the unintended consequences of his comment.


Sweet and Sour World Series victory

Yes I am happy that our beloved Red Sox won it all again. I cried in '75, '78 and '86. '04 and '07 have been quite a remedy for all of those years.

However something has evolved in MLB that I think is very unhealthy. Started by the Yankees, big market teams have begun spending what money they make. Small market teams in no way can afford to do this. Thus there is an elite group of cities; New York, Boston, LA and Chicago that can afford to spend exorbitant amounts of money on free agents while smaller market cities hope for the best. In 2007 the Red Sox beat the Indians of Cleveland and the Rockies of Denver. Both of these small market teams had team salaries of around $60M. So together their team salaries in 2007 were about $115M. The Red Sox player salaries in 2007 total $143M. OK maybe if the Rockies and Indians could combine their best players and maybe add a $30M in superstars then I would feel better about this victory.

Until then I say a salary cap in MLB is the way to go.

Our finest protect the vacuum from being filled by the lawless

This may seem like an obvious statement but honestly it is a appearing to be less than obvious to many in our society.

There is a plethora of police cam videos replayed on TV and the Internet and they continue to remind me of what is entailed in the job of our law men and women. It is not all Miami Vice or Adam 12. These people babysit daily the litany of humans who refuse to get along and refuse to obey the laws of a civil society.

I then came upon a website run by former and current criminals who honestly believe that they are doing their neighborhoods a service by "policing" the Police. Their objective is to videotape and post videos of cops being too rough with perps. While surfing their site I kept asking myself 'who do these guys want doing police work'? What do these guys ultimately want? I thing they want the police to not be so mean to their criminal buddies.

OK! Well what if the police agreed with these guys and they all resigned or they all agreed to leave the criminals alone and essentially neutered themselves? This has actually happened in varying degrees in recent history. Remember the riots in 1992 in LA? The Police chose to withdraw from south central LA. Well what then happened? The vacuum was filled by the gang members and they assumed the role of judge, jury and executioner. Immediately due process was withdrawn from all victims.

If there are no police then there will be a void and that void will be filled. By nature it does not go unfilled. For instance look at your typical lawless third world country. They are not really lawless. Yes there is no established law set forth in writing by a government but there is law established and carried out by those with the least to lose led by those with the most to gain. Albeit murderous and tyrannical but there is a law. Essentially "warlords" take a piece of land and their henchmen essentially "police" the territory. Do you think there is due process for the innocent in these areas? Me neither.

So what is the solution and what works? I believe the police forces work best for their communities when they have a stake in that community. I mean if members of the police force have a wife and kids or a mortgage or something else larger than they are that they are responsible for then they are more likely to honestly seek to do what is right to law abiding citizens while weeding out the criminals in the community.

Let's look at the opposite for a moment. In many major cities, gang members control neighborhoods. Who are these gang members? They are typically 15-25 year old males. They own no property and they have no family to support and create a safe environment for. Basically they have no stake in the neighborhood being civilized and livable. So what do they do? They terrorize law abiding neighbors and kill each other. If there were no Police on their block then they would be the ones to fill the void of neighborhood control and "security". Furthermore, look at any instance in any city in any country. When law and order are removed, gangs of youth assume that role and the city is no longer a safe place to be.

Yes police are imperfect. They are human. They deal with the worst people in our society on a daily basis. They get worn down. But they typically have mouths to feed at home and they desire a safe place for their families. In an imperfect world our trained police forces are more perfect than anything else on the planet and we owe them a debt of gratitude for risking their lives and their health so that the "police vacuum" can never be assumed by the lawless.

Letter sent to the Derry News today

Either Derry/Londonderry has become Massachusetts-North, the Derry News favors letters from liberal voters and/or conservatives just don’t write letters to the editor. I think all three have a semblance of truth. I am frustrated and honestly disheartened by routinely reading letters to the editor that are full of complete naiveté and downright ignorance.

First let’s start with Barak Obama. This man is truly a gifted orator and he may have wonderfully destructive programs to allow the government to take over everything, but his foreign policy actually makes the 1992 Bill Clinton look like Henry Kissinger. I am continually frightened by the fact that liberal candidates and their voters refuse to acknowledge that this is a dangerous world and there are people out there right now that want America to be a pile of dust – literally.

The only focus of the Democrat voters seems to be universal government-controlled health care for all, as if health care is not available to some people. Did you know there is a law that requires emergency rooms not to turn anyone away? Why do you think hospitals in the southwest are closing? Even illegal aliens know this. The problem with the medical system today is the result of decades of removing market forces from the equation. Since the advent of the third party payer (insurance companies and medicaid) the prices of health care have skyrocketed because the customers are not paying the real full price. Having the government take over health care – as all the Democrat candidates have promised – will be like having a humungous insurance company in control but one with no accountability (you can’t sue the government). Honestly it is government laws and regulations intended to help people that have driven up the costs of health care. Oh and we can’t leave out the trial lawyers (Hi John Edwards) whose frivolous law suits of our doctors has required them to take out millions of dollars in insurance just to protect themselves. But these insurance costs actually kill many medical practices, especially OB-GYNs. I will give an example. Years back I heard of a medication that was given to cows which cost about $15. However if a similar shot was given to humans it would be $3000. When asked why, the response was “cows don’t sue”.

Anyone who believes in Barack or Hillary’s class-envy tax the rich to pay for everything plan either has no understanding market economics or is blindly partisan. The fact remains that we are currently in a roaring economy though widely unreported by the liberal media. This is precisely because of the tax cuts for everyone pushed by Bush. I know many people don’t like tax cuts for the rich but let’s face it. The rich have the money, folks. When wealthy private citizens can keep more of their money then they can invest their money into private endeavors thus creating real jobs and creating real wealth. Government confiscation of money does not create wealth. So what if the rich like to buy expensive cars and homes. This demand gave work to a middle class auto worker and a middle class construction worker. Would it be better for Hillary to take the rich person’s money to then give it to people who don’t work just so she could look like a hero? Anyone who believes that money belongs in the hands of government over private individuals has bought hook, line and sinker that a benevolence government can do better with our money than we can. I don’t believe this.

As for the war, all of the democrat candidates and voters who believe that the only solution for peace is to get out of Iraq now frighten me the most. The conversion of Iraq from a dictatorship to a democracy takes lots of time and many of our bravest Americans have given their lives in this cause. If we stay the course then we will prevail. Iraq will become a democracy and the region will be stabilized. However if we pull out now, Iraq (or even the UN) are not strong enough to protect the vacuum that will be filled by Iran (Russia by proxy) and the genocide that will ensue. If this happens then our servicemen and women will have died in vain and you will not want to see how high gas prices will go with Iran and Russia in charge of Iraq’s oil supply, not to mention how emboldened our enemies will become. This scenario is too frightening to imagine.

One last comment I would like to make is concerning Londonderry’s most high profile liberal. I have taken my family to Mack’s apples for apple picking every September for several years. However I have had enough of Andy’s signs and the repeated idiocies that I read from him. I did a Google search and there are plenty of apple orchards in this great state. My family will be taking a longer trip from now on to pick apples because I can no longer patronize this local embarrassment.

I hope this letter will counter the overabundance of ignorance and partisan campaign speeches I read in this section every week.