The Phitin Phils

The Philadelphia are back in the MLB playoffs again. Thats five straight years for the 2008 World Series. They are looking to advance to the NLCS for a fourth straight year this October. The Phils are 2-1 in those three NLCS series and 1-1 in the World Series. They fell to the New York Yankees in the 2009 World Series, and the San Fransico Giants in the 2010 NLCS. This years it seems as if they are back with a vengeance. They acquired starting aces Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt in the offseason to join Cole Hamels and Roy Halladay. Now the Phillies are sitting on top of the MLB, becoming the first team to clinch a playoff berth. Their record currently stands at an MLB best 95-51 and they are not slowing up as they look to win 100 games and clinch a NL East title, with 15 games currently remaining on their schedule. They hold a 11 game division lead heading into these next 15 games. Roy Halladay (2.34), Cliff Lee (2.44) and Cole Hamels (2.71) rank 2nd, 6th and 11th best respectively in ERA's. Halladay and Lee are also tied for 6th best in strikeouts with 211. lee also ;eads the MLB with six shutouts this season. But you cant forget about the Phillies hitters. Ryan Howard is always the stalwart of a group of great hitters. The Phila rank 9th in batting average (2.53), and tie for 7th in home runs (143). Howard has hit an MLB 6th best 33 home runs while teammate Hunter Pence ranks 11th for batting average with 3.12. The Phillies seem to be rolling through this season and into October and they don't seem to be slowing down. They look to fight all the way to another world series championship because they know they fell short in 2009 and 2010.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=310914118

http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/order/true

http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/team/_/stat/batting/league/nl/sort/homeRuns/order/true

Peyton in the Neck

The Golden Child's consecutive streak of 227 NFL starts including playoffs, which now belongs to his younger brother Eli Manning, is officially done and the record. Peyton Manning may not get another start until next season after undergoing his second neck surgery since May and his third in the last 19 months. The Colts have only suffered two losing seasons with Manning at QB . He has lead them to two Super Bowls, in which he went 1-1, beating the Chicago Bears in 2006 & losing to the New Orleans Saints in 2009. The Colts will need Peyton in order to win. In 2008, they went 3-4 while he was injured and reeled off nine straight wins to finish the season at 12-4 when he returned. This year they have already fallen to 0-1 after a 34-7 loss to the Houston Texans. Everyone is unsure if the Colts can make it to the playoffs without Manning even though they have one of the NFL's top defenses. On Sunday, the entire team looked out of sync without him and the Texans blasted the Colts. Peyton better return and fast or the Colts will face their first losing season since 2001. Kerry Collins, a seasoned veteran, is at the helm in place of manning currently but he does not the have the chemistry that Peyton has with that team. The Colts seem to rally around Manning. However, as of now it seems as if the entire team is suffering from the pain in Peyton's neck.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-colts-manning

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/6944302/indianapolis-colts-peyton-manning-more-surgery-neck

Dirk feeling the "heat"?

Dirk Nowitzki dazzled us in all in the 2011 NBA playoffs. His Dallas Mavericks, knocked out the Portland Trailblazers, defending champ, Los Angeles Lakers, and the explosive Oklahoma City Thunder on their road to the finals, where they faced the star studded Miami Heat. The Mavericks obtained the 3rd seed but were not the favorites in any of their playoffs matches. However they had one player every other team did not, NBA Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki. The 7 foot tall German who is rated as one of the NBA's top five players, he had to play against the four who everyone ranks above him to obtain his ring, Kobe Bryant (LAL), Kevin Durant (OKC), and Lebron James & Dwayne Wade (Miami). However, Dirk did not dazzle in Germany as much as he did in the NBA playoffs. His German team recently was eliminated in the Eurobasket tournament by Lithuania, eliminating all hopes of Nowitzki representing his home country in 2012 London Olympics. It is even said that it might have been the last anyone will see of Dirk in a German uniform. Nowitzki averaged 27 points & 8 rebounds in the NBA playoffs, but only mustered up 16 points in the loss to Lithuania. Is he not the same guy knocked off the NBA's best so he and his Dallas teammates could hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy. Now in the midst of the lockout and his supposed last game in a German uniform is he looked at as the old Dirk? The guy who was soft and couldn't win when it mattered most. The Olympics are big to a country and Dirk could not rally his team to a bid like he did to get Dallas its first NBA championship. It seems as if the heat is on once again for Dirk.

http://www.nba.com/2011/news/features/09/12/dirk-nowitzki-germany-eurobasket/index.html

http://www.clipsnation.com/2011/9/11/2419744/eurobasket-germany-loses-fails-to-advance

Hurricane Shapiro XII

12 current University of Miami players have been discovered to had accepted improper benefits from booster Melvin Shapiro, who is currently serving jail time for a multi million dollar ponzi scheme. 8 of those players have been penalized with at least an one game suspension, while the other 4 simply had to repay the benefits they accepted. Of those 8 players, one happens to be the star quarterback, Jacory Harris. Shapiro also stated that many other Miami players dating back to 2002 had accepted benefits from him, including current Tampa Bay Bucs Tight  End Kellen Winslow Jr., who is a Miami legend. Now the question has become raised again, should players be paid for play? Athletics schedules control the athletes everyday lives. While they seemed to paid with a college scholarship, that is still not enough to maintain a healthy living while at school. What about their lives outside of football? Schools make million of dollars every year off athletic events and nothing is repaid to the athletes. not to mention they sell jerseys with the players names on them and the players still receive no benefits from that. While it seems like the players are just breaking rules, they are just trying to get money to maintain a living outside of athletics at school. Their violations are always unheard of until the person who gave them the benefits reveals all the secrets. The NCAA never discovers the violations themselves, they find out through sources such as ESPN and Yahoo Sports. Boosters are like hurricanes sweeping through and ruining players lives. When will the NCAA actually take more charge and weather the storm. You have to pay these athletes or there will continue to be violations.

http://sports.yahoo.com/investigations/news?slug=ys-wetzel_miami_suspensions_083011

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/6909795/ncaa-eight-miami-hurricanes-serve-suspenions-repayments

Introduction

I am Daivon Jackson, a sophomore from Philadelphia. I am a Sport Management major and Coaching minor. I am also a student athlete at Slippery Rock. I play both football and basketball. I made this blog in the spring semester of 2011 as a apart of my "American Sports in the 21st Century" class. Now i am continuing it for "Sport Communcation" class. I like to blog about the most controversial topics in sports, so you will be in for a sow. I look for to entertaining you with my blog post. When talking about sport I like to describe myself as the "Anti-Skip Bayless".

Money Hungry

How can you not settle on 9 billion dollars? That's the amount of money that the NFL has to split between the owners and the players. On March 15 and 17 we talked about sport and economics. Sport organizations generate billions of dollars because of things like TV contracts, media rights, and apparel rights. The big problem is when their agreements are up and they receive more money how do they manage to get themselves in a jam. it seems as if both sides are getting greedy and are making it very hard to split up 9 billion dollars. The players and owners have been in a heavy dispute since the labor contract expired back in FFebruary. it has gotten to a point where the NFLPA is even trying to stop rookies from partaking in the NFL Draft. While some rookies won t go to the draft many others say they will because it's a dream come true to be there. Why is it so difficult for a organization that generates so much money to split up that money? Because they can not split up the money the league will face a lockout. The greed for money is costing the fans. While the players and the owners argue about their money they forget about the fans who pay to see them play on SSundays. Economic problem in sports destroys the game for the fans.



http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=6205936

Uncle Toms are the Thorn in Rose's Side

On April 5 and 7 we got the chance to talk about race and ethnicity. Since the release of Michigan Fab Five story in the ESPN 30 for 30 series, Jalen Roses comments about Duke and Coach K only recruiting "Uncle Toms" have been the topic of discussion in the media. The Fab five were the media big money maker back in the early 90's because the did exactly what no one wanted them to do. Rose and his Michigan freshman teammates were all from poor neighborhoods and Duke had black players like Grant Hill that were from well off families. Rose felt like Coach Kdidnt have interest in having players like himself. Roses comments were said to be racist and unnecessary. However, he has said numerous times that he does not feel that way currently, but that was just how he felt back when he was in school. Grant Hill and Coach K have both spoke out on his comments and defended their university and program. Roses comments were just a hint of racism in sport even though it may have been not intended to offend anyone but it is how he saw Duke at the time. The video above show Roses comments.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=6224395

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegebasketball/story/jalen-rose-clarifies-uncle-tom-comments-made-in-fab-five-documentary-031711