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Tournament Championship Pick Goes Down

I was a bit surprised today to learn that a company monitoring software package had categorized my blog as a “gambling” website. I realize it’s a bit ironic to make the assertion that such a categorization is off base on the day I do my weekly review of picks, but I’ll stand by the assertion. Fortunately, the software company was very responsive and changed the categorization for the this blog to sports. However, I will be checking older posts and writing some type of introductory post for my picks. For now, I just want to say that this is certainly not a gambling site, and I do not endorse any illegal activity. I offer picks for entertainment purposes only. Speaking of those picks, I would say I had a “successful” week – though the quotes are definitely in order. I went 6-3 for +5.40 points, however, one game counted for two losses and the loss of a huge opportunity. At the beginning of the NCAA Tournament, I picked Kansas to win the whole thing at +450 for 25 points to win +11

Play “Streak for the Cash” with the Ink’s Group

I’ve decided to try something new to get readers of the Ink a bit more interactive. Despite my occasional criticism of ESPN, it’s pretty hard if not impossible to ignore the self-described worldwide leader in sports. I have played “Streak for the Cash” on espn.com for a while now. My oldest brother got me into it. For the uninitiated, it’s a free monthly game where players pick games or prop-like choices that the site offers every day. The longest streak of the month wins actual cash each month. There’s a bonus if you meet the “Streak Threshold,” designated each month by the website. There is also a smaller prize for the most wins in a month. See the official details here . With the Phillies season and a new month starting tomorrow, I created a group for the Ink: InkStreaks . (I re-started the group after creating a profile for the Ink on espn.com on 8/10.) All readers of the Ink (or non-readers) are invited to join the group. It’s a fun, free way to add a little more excitement to

2011 Phillies Primer Video

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Whether it feels like baseball weather or not, the Phillies 2011 season starts Friday afternoon. I found the below video on YouTube for this week’s Hump Day Distractions post – not a bad Phillies season primer from 86BHANS . Don’t forget, the Ink welcomes fan content sent directly to us for posting any time.

Worrisome Swing by the Sixers

It has to be a rarity to be a 10-point favorite at home and a 10-point underdog on the road in consecutive games and have the underdog win both games. But that’s what just happened to the Sixers in the last two games. They lost to Sacramento at home on Sunday, and followed that with a victory Monday night in Chicago. No, I haven’t moved my weekly post on picks to Tuesday. But it would have been easier to do that than to figure out what this means about the Sixers. The easiest answer seems to be that the Sixers are just young and immature. Lou Williams’ revelation that a portion of the team went to the Li’l Wayne concert Saturday night seems to solidify the argument. I’m not dumb enough to think NBA players are nestled in their beds by 11 PM the night before a game. But how many noon tips do they have? They were likely going to be out of sync anyway. Their body clocks are used to games that start just after 7 PM. Sucking it up for one night would have killed them? That said, I do

Phillies Sign Another Second Baseman

Just days from starting their season, the Phillies have signed second baseman Kevin Frandsen. This is the second player they have signed in the last two weeks as an attempted replacement for Chase Utley, who will begin the season this Friday on the DL. It seems pretty clear by the late addition of Frandsen that Luis Castillo’s no-show on his first day with the Phillies hasn’t been the only unimpressive thing about him. Frandsen’s career suggests he may be serviceable. In only 228 games over five seasons he’s hit .243. But he’s only played in 78 games the last three seasons after playing 109 in ’07. Not the best sign. Of course, the real story is Utley, who reportedly said he hoped to be back before the All-Star Game. Again, not the best sign. At this point, as others have already said, fans have to wonder if we’ve already seen the best of Utley. I don’t mean to suggest the season is doomed. But we sure are a long way from the day Cliff Lee was signed.

Rapid Fire Week-in-Review: Concern about Phillies, Weaver Stunner, Brown At It Again, NCAA Refs Hurting Tourney, more

In the midst of March Madness, I still have my Rapid Fire Week-in-Review: • Now Brad Lidge is reportedly headed to the DL. It’s a foregone conclusion that Chase Utley is headed there. Considering the expectations for this season, I think it has the potential to be one of the most disappointing ever. Hopefully, all of the injuries the Phillies seem to be experiencing are a distant memory by June. • In a bit of a stunner, Leonard Weaver joined the list of dopes who think playing in the NFL is akin to slavery. Last time I checked the history books, slaves weren’t paid millions, faced unimaginable atrocities, and certainly didn’t have the choice to do something else. Yeah, that’s the same. By the way, why aren’t leaders of the black community speaking up about these morons? • Doing his best impression of Droopy Dog, Larry Brown was on radio with Mike Missanelli letting it be known that he wants to get back into coaching. I grew to respect Brown’s style of talking about the game of ba

Opening Round of NCAAs Ends Run

This week’s picks reminded me of the time I had to discuss The Sound and the Fury in college. I wrote out a page-long sheet of notes trying to make sense of it, the whole time thinking that the novel hadn’t made a damn bit of sense, and when I was done the professor essentially said the book didn’t make any sense and spent about two seconds of class time on it. By the way, I did graduate with honors and an English Lit degree, so I’m not a complete idiot – I just felt like one that day. After a lot of picks this week I also ended up with a lot of noise signifying nothing, or at least very little. The hot streak came to a halt with a 6-10 record, but I only dropped 2.72 points. I split just two NBA picks for -.45 points, including last night’s brutal Sixers non-cover, and went 5-9 for -2.27 points in the NCAA Tournament. My bracket was awful, although I still have 6 of the final 8 alive and the Final Four. If I’ve figured it out properly I think I actually have a shot in one of the po

Dunking Over a Car 101

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Today’s version of Hump Day Distractions is for those of us who are tired of hearing about Blake Griffin’s faux dunk over a car. This is dunking over a car:

Sixers Movin’ On Up

Don’t look now . . . or do . . . but the Sixers have moved passed the Knicks for the sixth spot in the Eastern Conference despite limping home from a west coast swing. With just 12 games to play, they would be looking at a first round playoff matchup with the Miami Heat in that spot. I think their biggest opponent in such a matchup would be the referees. I’m not a conspiracy enthusiast, but the NBA playoffs are the most predictable in sports. The NBA absolutely wants their marquee teams and players on television in May and June. LeBron James and Dwayne Wade will get the benefit of the doubt on every call in a series against the Sixers. Atlanta is playing Chicago as I type. Entering the game, they were four games ahead of the Sixers. In the unlikely scenario that the Sixers catch the Hawks, they would matchup with the Orlando Magic. I actually think that is the Sixers best potential matchup. Dwight Howard would be tough to deal with, but I don’t think he’s the type of player that ca

Castillo’s Arrival a Bad Sign for Phils

Ok, I’m kind of nervous now. The Phillies have signed former Mets second baseman Luis Castillo. The key words there are “second baseman.” I’m not breaking any news with the thought that the move is a strong indication that Chase Utley is likely going to miss significant time this year. Utley has patellar tendinitis (a bad knee) and has yet to play a spring training game. At least a couple people seemingly “in the know” have suggested Utley could miss the season. I doubt I’m the first to suggest that the Phillies aren’t winning a World Series this year without Utley, the Four Aces be damned. They didn’t win one last year because their bats went cold in the playoffs with Utley. Without him, I think they are in serious trouble. With Jason Werth in Washington, Ryan Howard might not see a good pitch all season with Utley out. There’s just no one else in the lineup to fear. Possibly dropping Jimmy Rollins in the lineup could help, but I doubt it would be enough. A season that once

Rapid Fire Week-in-Review: Tournament Edition 2011

It’s Friday, so it’s time for a Rapid Fire Week-in-Review: • It took less than a week of being locked out for NFL players to say something stupid. I mean, we knew it was coming, but it took less than seven days! C’mon, guys, pace yourselves. Rashard Mendenhall apparently didn’t want Adrian Peterson, who compared the NFL “modern-day slavery,” to feel lonely as the biggest idiot of the lockout so far. He reportedly tweeted , “Adrian Peterson is correct in his analogy of this game. . . . It is a lot deeper than most people understand. . . . Anyone with knowledge of the slave trade and the NFL could say that these two parallel each other.” Actually, no, it’s not deeper than most people understand, nor parallel to slavery in any possible way. • In the worn out debate over whether or not players should be paid, on Sunday morning Jay Bilas actually said, “So what?” when the point was made that players receive college educations. This may seem like a contradiction, and maybe it is, but a

Nice Run in Conference Tourneys; NCAA Champion Pick and Parlay for Thur/Fri

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everybody! It’s the best two sports days of the year as the NCAA Tournament kicks into gear, so I just have a quick review of last week’s picks. Tomorrow’s Rapid Fire Week-in-Review may be delayed . . . I know you were wondering. I had my third straight solid week of picks at 8-5 for +36.08 points. With just one pick in the NBA, a 15-point loser on the Lakers -2.5 versus the Heat on Thursday, I feel good going into the tournament with an 8-4 run, including two multi-team parlay picks counting as just one win each, for +51.08 points. Here’s the rundown of the college picks during the week, which were all during the conference tournaments: Thursday Connecticut +5.5 over Pittsburgh for +4.55 points Syracuse -2.5 over St. John’s for +4.55 points Friday UNC -10 over Miami for -5 points Texas -6 over Texas A&M for +4.76 points Syracuse -3.5 over Connecticut for -5 points Parlay Pick on the money line: Kansas -750, Temple -500, Duke -500, UNC -550,

2011 NCAA College Basketball Tournament Bracket

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What other distraction for sports fans is there this week? Turning my 2011 NCAA College Basketball Tournament bracket into a picture that I could post here was much more of a chore than I thought it would be, but I finally got one to work. Click on it for better readability.

Sixers Follow Big Win with Two Bad Losses

When there’s not much to talk about in the sports world, fans tend to nitpick. Needing more time with my brackets and something to post, that’s about all I have today. I caught the end of the Sixers game last night, and saw a great fourth quarter comeback against the Jazz. It was a bit frustrating to see after what I thought was a signature win against the Celtics on Friday night. I was willing to overlook the drubbing they took the next night in Milwaukee. It bothered me a little bit to hear Doug Collins say that he told his assistants that he could see in the players’ eyes that they just didn’t have it. But I could live with it. Milwaukee was their fourth game in five nights and right after a huge win. Ok, young core showing their youth; I get it. But the next game, I think, has to be a win against a so-so, leaning toward bad, Utah Jazz team. I expected a little fire out of Collins after the game. Instead, the head coach said , “Tough loss, but I told our guys after the game

Initial Thoughts on the 2011 NCAA Tournament

The brackets are out, and March Madness can finally get into full swing. That’s not to suggest that the conference tournaments weren’t a great kickoff, but despite the fact that the NCAA seems determined to mess up Thursday and Friday of the first week of the tournament – formerly known as Round 1 – they are still the best two days of the year in sports. While we all try to find truTv on our televisions – as far as I can tell it’s not even in HD on FiOS – here’s a few early thoughts on the tournament. My brackets will be posted before the Thursday’s games. • I guess I’m a subway alum of Villanova since I went to a state school not initialed PSU and root for the Wildcats, but even I don’t think ‘Nova should be in this tournament. They are a perfect example of why the field of 64 was just fine and should have been left alone. Villanova lost 10 of their last 15 games, and didn’t win a game in the Big East Tournament. The only argument I’ve heard for them getting in is that it was a “w

Rapid Fire Week-in-Review: Sixers Team Effort Enjoyable, More on Dykstra, Big East Refs, more

Another Friday, another Week-in-Review: • All the people shrugging at the Sixers improvement seemed to be buoyed by their loss to Oklahoma City Wednesday night. I’m so tired of the “you need a superstar” mentality. First of all, the same people saying that will tell you that small colleges aren’t represented enough in the NCAA tournament, and how wonderful it is to watch team basketball. And although it’s still fashionable to rip the Sixers, I like where they’re going. Wednesday was mostly about youth, inexperience, and Andre Iguodala not being the guy who should take the last shot. Would I like a Durant? Obviously. But I like watching a true team, too. • I touched on Lenny Dykstra’s babbling interview that aired on NBC10 Sunday night, but I am still surprised (I don’t know why, since the guy came off like a jerk) that he made a point to say he doesn’t speak to Mitch Williams “after what he put me through.” He seemed shocked that interviewer John Clarke didn’t know he was talking

Solid Weeks of Picks

Another solid week of picks has me rolling into the heart of March Madness on a nice streak. I went 11-3 for the week with +39.30 points. In college basketball I had a nice 5-2 record for +12.29 points. I started slow with a Thursday loss on St. Johns -3 over Seton Hall for -5 points. I rebounded on Saturday with Kansas -3 over Missouri and Louisville +3.5 over WVU, both for +4.55 points. Villanova couldn’t hold on for the +9 cover over Pittsburgh for -10 points, but I got 9.09 back with North Carolina -1 over Duke. So far the Big East Tournament has been good to me. On Wednesday, I took Connecticut -3 over Georgetown and Cincinnati -10.5 over South Florida, each for +4.55 points. In the professional ranks, I had a strong win/loss record at 6-1 for a nice +27.01 points. On Friday, I went 3-0 with the Bulls +1.5 over Magic, Spurs -2 over Heat, and the Suns -2.5 over Bucks, all for +4.76 points. On Sunday I won another pick with the Bulls +5 over the Heat for +4.55 points, but gave

Finally, Something Worthwhile from the UFC

With concern on the rise about Chase Utley’s knee, the Flyers seemingly in the doldrums (although last night offered some positive signs), and lockout news replacing Eagles chatter, something light from the world of sports wouldn’t hurt most Philly fans right about now. Let’s face it, Villanova fans (myself included) need a distraction more than anyone after last night’s utterly disgraceful loss. Hey, there’s always the Sixers. Didn’t think you’d be reading that this season, did you? I found the below last week via SI.com. This is certainly the best thing I’ve ever seen related to the UFC. Enjoy the Master Poet’s audition tape as our Hump Day Distraction.

Nudging the Media Back In Line

I know I went on a bit of a rant yesterday about the media, so consider today’s post leftovers. I happened to catch some of the Sports Reporters on Sunday, and while we’re all used to the sanctimony that the sports media dishes out on a daily basis, every now and then I think fans need to reign them in. A panel that included Mike Lupica, who seems to live to be on the show, Bob Ryan (I believe), Jemele Hill, and host John Saunders, spent a segment of the show discussing which side of the NFL labor dispute fans should be on. ESPN spends hours a day allowing reporters to share their opinions from 1st and 10, PTI, Around the Horn, to just about every non-sports event programming that they air. To be fair, it seems like every station that has a sports department has at least one show in the genre. I can live with the rapid fire formats that allow these people to blather on with their opinions on about 10 stories five days a week. The shows aren’t a bad way to get a feel for what’s

From Twitter to Dykstra to Cuban to Sheen

For me, it was one of those weekends when the proverbial bar for standards of what the media would do couldn’t get any lower – and then it kept going lower. Please forgive the self-indulgence in the beginning of the rest of this post, though I promise it’s at least relevant. Normally, I pretty much shut things down in terms of my blog on the weekends except for putting my picks against the spread on games I like on Twitter . This weekend was a little different. I happened to learn through a new Twitter follower that a Facebook exchange I had with another blogger had continued unbeknownst to me. I guess I missed the notification on Facebook. Kyle Scott Laskowski falsely accused me of lifting a Photoshopped image from his blog as if it was his own creation. You can find the entire exchange via Philadelphia Sports Daily’s Facebook page (until it’s deleted), where he eventually admits that the picture he referred to was actually created by someone else. The picture, as I pointed out

Rapid Fire Week-in-Review: BYU, No Lockout Yet, Mets Need a Loan, Phillies Doubters, more

Here’s my rapid fire look at the stories from the world of sports that I haven’t touched on yet this week: • I guess BYU has to be applauded for sticking to its principles and booting leading rebounder Brandon Davies off the team Tuesday for violating their honor code. The school has said he didn’t break the law (reportedly he had sex with his girlfriend, a no-no at the Mormon university), and they seem to have squashed the basketball team’s hopes for a Final Four run. It’s a shame for the other students, and at BYU I think you can actually call them students. I’m tempted to wonder if the punishment is too severe, but it’s better than the “sweep it under the rug” mentality of most schools. • I was actually wondering if the NFL was toying with us. Extending the lockout 24 hours seemed incredibly promising, but it made me wonder why it wasn’t a longer extension. Today, that longer extension came. There’s nothing really pressing right now for the players or the owners, so a one-day ex

Bounce Back Week with Picks, Without the Handicapper Schtick

The NCAA Tournament is coming, and everyone will be looking for help with their bracket pools. Check out college basketball predictions provided various sites if you want, but don’t ever pay for picks. It just makes no sense. The point spreads generally make the games enough of a tossup; paying for some guy’s pick just makes it necessary to risk more to recover the cost of buying an opinion from a so-called “expert.” And if the expert pick loses, no refund is coming. I had a solid bounce back week. My picks went 6-3 for +32.28. Only last night’s rough loss by half a point on North Carolina -2.5 over Florida State kept me from making up front last two weeks in points. But for 2011, I’m still at 23-19 for +66.29 points. I didn’t like many games in the NBA, but went 2-1 for +8.64 points. I had a bad call on the Celtics -4.5 versus Denver before learning of the Kendrick Perkins trade. I thought about yanking the pick off twitter once I heard about it, not because Perkins was so vital

Schmidt on Rollins, Victorino via Joe Conklin

Mike Schmidt criticized Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino recently for not playing “small ball” instead of always swinging for the fences. But it’s always a little more entertaining when Joe Conklin puts his spin on things. Check it out as this week’s Hump Day Distraction:

Buyouts Hurt the NBA

I recently blew off any major concerns about the so-called “super teams” in the NBA. I still think ESPN is far too quick to start planning parades for teams that acquire a “second superstar,” which apparently equates to anyone who can perform a windmill dunk for SportsCenter. Yet, the latest move of players taking a buyout from their team to go play for a winner may have me changing my mind. Do I really care that Troy Murphy took a buyout from Golden State to go play for Boston? No. Quite frankly, I never heard of the guy. Mike Bibby leaving $6.2 million behind from Washington to play for Miami is a little more troublesome. Bibby doesn’t win anybody a championship, but role players are important in the playoffs. The idea of what’s going on is the problem. Teams must have the ability to build a roster, and part of that roster needs to be good, solid players. The mentality that a team without some media ordained star isn’t worth playing for makes the league look like some high school