Alright MLB, show us what you got

I’ve spent a lot of time imploring fans not to buy into the sports terrorism propaganda of the past three months, insisting that the game on the field is what really matters.

Even if you didn’t agree with me, could you really blame me?

Between Clemens versus McNamee, the Mitchell Report and Hank Steinbrenner spouting off gospel that makes him sound like a homeless man in the middle of an acid flashback in Central Park, I just couldn’t listen to any more.

I know it’s important to clean up baseball and I know drug use is rampant, but if it were up to me, we’d never hear another word about it.

It’s not up to me, though. It’s not up to the media and it’s not up to the fans.

It’s up to Major League Baseball to make us forget about the “scandal” in the game.

Not by ignoring it (they already tried that, remember?), but by putting out a product that is so good, so scintillating, so riveting, that we have no choice but to forget about the mind-numbing steroid-babble that infected the offseason.

Will the men out of the field take their game back? Can baseball finally be about baseball again?

It wasn’t long ago we all thought the NBA was facing its own version of Armageddon with the NBA betting Tim Donaghy scandal.

That was only eight months ago, and we haven’t heard the ex-referee’s name since the season started.

We haven’t heard his name because we’ve been too busy hearing LeBron James’, Dwight Howard’s, Tracy McGrady’s and Chris Paul’s. We’ve been too busy following the Celtics, Rockets and Lakers.

Over the course of the regular season, the NBA has given us impressive winning streaks, woeful losers, blockbuster trades, buzzer-beaters, 50-point performances and of course, LeBron and Kobe.

With all that going on, who wants to read or hear about a point-shaving referee?

The NBA made us look and the NBA blogs responded. It made us forget about Donaghy because we couldn’t resist all that sweet, savory, mouth-watering basketball right there in front of us.

Even the mighty NFL has it’s own share of problems this offseason with the likes of Pacman Jones and Mike Vick.

Before the season began, entire episodes of NFL Live were practically dedicated to Mike Vick.

By the time preseason rolled around, it seemed like the NFL football line was more about lawyers, suspensions and crime than it was about big hits, circus catches and Lombardi trophies.

Then Randy Moss started catching touchdowns, Adrian Peterson broke a few long runs, Donovan McNabb got hurt… again, and our focus shifted back to football.

As soon as that first ball was kicked off, the off-field headlines made their way back to their rightful place at bottom of the sports page.

Now it’s baseball’s turn.

The storylines are already in place.

The Red Sox and Yankees, Joe Girardi, the Mets and Phillies, A-Rod, Russell Martin Jr., Prince Fielder, and Ozzie Guillen’s promise to be more profane (Who will he offend next? Tune in to Major League Baseball in April to find out!).

I’m not saying the doping problems in baseball are gone, but they are being dealt with. Enough so that we can turn our focus back to baseball.

If baseball can execute the plays drawn up by the NBA and the NFL (Oh beloved NHL, when will you stop being so squeaky clean?), then the healing process in baseball has truly begun – hopefully without the help of HGH.

Get your helmet on: It’s football time

Every morning for the past few weeks I’ve woken up to feelings of depression, loss and helplessness.

Why?

Because it’s still February.

Not even a month has gone by since the Super Bowl. The NFL draft is over a month away, training camp is still seven months away and opening kickoff isn’t as much as a gleam in our collective eye.

Sure, I write about other sports, but who am I kidding? Everything I do, this blog included, is merely a faint attempt to pass time until that glorious Thursday night when the NFL reaffirms its grip around America’s neck.

This morning was a little different, though. This morning I woke up to news of new contracts, offer sheets, extensions and GMs willing to listen to trade offers.

Praise the football gods, free agency is upon us.

We haven’t reached our destination as football fans yet, but this will give us the strength to push on until the draft.

Jonathan Vilma has signed with the Saints, Kawika Mitchell headed west on I-90 to Buffalo and Madieu Williams is Minneapolis-bound while Flozell Adams, Derek Anderson and Teddy Bruschi will all stay put.

All this new football news has given my system a bit of a kick-start. I’m done looking back on 18-1, Redskins coaching searches and Brett Favre’s resurgence. I’m ready to look forward to next year (in fact, if I see that David Tyree catch one more time I may throw up).

With that said, here are five things I’m excited to see in the 2008 season.

1) The Seahawks

This coming year is Seattle’s best chance to bring home the hardware. One of the better NFL masterminds of the past 15 years, Mike Holmgren, has one last shot at finishing the job he came to Seattle to do.

The pieces are in place. Matt Hasselbeck has developed into a top-ten quarterback, and somewhere along the way, the Hawks’ went from perennial underachievers to the model of NFC consistency.

They are the only team in the past eight years to make the playoffs after losing the Super Bowl and have been in the postseason five years running. Forgive me if I’m not sold on the Giants as a shoe-in for a repeat, but I think by August the Seahawks (and their sweet neon green gloves) will be the team to beat in the NFC.

2) Jay Cutler

This might make me sound cruel, but the reason I’m so excited for Cutler is because he’s about to crash and burn.

By the end of next season, it should be apparent that the Broncos need to go a different direction under center.
Since the day Mike Shanahan pulled Jake Plummer for “the future”, I’ve been critical of the move. It cost the Broncos the playoffs in 2006 and Cutler made little-to-no progress last year.

The Broncos had some depth issues on their defense, which contributed to their disappointing season, but Cutler isn’t the cure for what ails Denver.

Cutler is another example of what can go wrong when a team puts too much stock into the combine. Backup Patrick Ramsey may never amount to anything in the NFL, but at this point he deserves more of a shot than Cutler does.

3) The Browns

The Browns made the smartest move of this young offseason by keeping Derek Anderson on board. Anderson is a legit NFL quarterback. Unlike Shanahan, I doubt Romeo Crenell will throw away his team’s playoff hopes based on the round he drafted his backup quarterback.

Just because Brady Quinn was selected in the first round, doesn’t mean he’s entitled to a starting job without earning it. Anderson took the starting job and ran with it. He ran all the way to a 10-6 record and the brink of a playoff berth.

Bravo, Cleveland.

I’ll be rooting for the Browns to get over the hump in 2008.

4) Quarterbacks in make-or-break seasons

There are plenty of them this year. I mentioned Cutler, but there are some with a realistic shot of becoming winning quarterbacks.

Jason Campbell may have bought some more time in Washington because he’s learning the West Coast Offense, but this will be his third year as a starter and second as the starter on opening day. Redskins fans get mighty impatient, mighty quickly, too.

It’s also time for Matt Leinart to put up or move on in playoff-starved Arizona, J.P. Lossman could be out as the Bills starter before the end of the preseason if he’s not careful and Alex Smith is running out of rope in San Francisco.

We’ll see if any of these quarterbacks can get up from off the hot seat and take the starting job by the horns.

5) The suprise teams

It’s a little early to predict who they’ll be, but this offseason reeks of unpredictability. There were too many good teams in the AFC last year for all of them to be good again if you’re betting football online.

The Colts, Patriots, Chargers and Jags were all considered powerhouses.

Fans in every one of those cities are sure of their team’s return to the playoffs in 2008, but I know the NFL well enough to know better.

Can the Cheifs, Jets or even the Dophins displace one of them?

The NFC is wide open, but could anyone legitimately see the 49ers, Rams or Falcons making a run for it all?

It should be a wild 2008… if only it weren’t still seven months away.

The Sundin sets in Toronto

Good for Mats Sundin.

Toronto Maple Leafs fans are waking up to the news this morning that team captain Mats Sundin has opted not to waive his no-trade clause, remaining a Maple Leaf.

As usual, Maple Leafs fans will become distraught. They will call Sundin selfish when really, he just made the classiest move I’ve seen a professional athlete make in a long time.

We all know there’s no pleasing Maple Leafs Nation, but most fans would kill to have the kind of team loyalty that Sundin has shown.

I don’t just mean NHL teams either. Professional sports teams all over the world exist for decades at a time without seeing that type of love from a player.

In a statement made by Sundin he said he wanted to stay in Toronto because “I cannot leave my teammates and join another NHL Club at this time. I have never believed in the concept of a rental player. It is my belief that winning the Stanley Cup is the greatest thing you can achieve in hockey but for me, in order to appreciate it you have to have been part of the entire journey and that means October through June.”

You hear that, Leafs Nation?

Your captain wants to go down with the ship. He’d rather spend the last month of the season at the bottom of the standings with his teammates than fighting for a Stanley Cup.

I sure hope Leafs fans can appreciate the rarity of what they have here. The most beloved athlete (aside from Jamario Moon) in a city that nearly burned itself down in anger over the selfish antics of Vince Carter and Curtis Joseph, just said “I love you, too.”

Has anyone listened to sports talk radio recently?

Sports fans in and out of Toronto litter the airwaves with cliches like “Players play for the name on the back of their jersey, not the front,” or “Back when I was growing up, athletes cared about the game, not about the money.”

Sundin’s decision was hardly about money, but at 37, he may have just passed up his last opportunity at a Cup.

Obviously, from a business vantage point, big Mats may have cost his team a good draft pick or some skilled young players, but take a good long look at the Leafs roster and payroll.

That rebuilding process is a long way from being done. So why not keep around the franchise’s all-time leading scorer for a few more games?

I’ve also heard some Leafs fans batting around the notion that the team should take the “C” away from Sundin for not acting in the best interest of the organization.

Really?

Leafs fans and the Toronto media alike love to speak before thinking, but this one may take the cake. I know its not the popular opinion amongst the Buds faithful, but the idea is out there. I’ve read about it enough to make me feel sorry for Leafs Nation.

Even as a Washington Redskins fan, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered that level of fan ignorance.

Instead of taking away the captaincy, Paul Maurice ought to give Sundin another “C” to put on his other shoulder, and maybe an “A” that will fit in between the 1 and 3 on his back.

Never has a captain been more of a captain than Mats Sundin was Sunday evening.

I’ve been lucky enough to have players like Cal Ripken, Olie Kolzig and Darrell Green play for the teams I love, and class doesn’t come any classier than those three guys, but I’d still consider myself lucky to have a player as honorable as Mats Sundin play in my city.

If Leafs fans can’t recognize than, then shame on them.