TOP 10 LIST

Now that the White Sox are done putting my entire sports life on hold, it's time to play some catch up and hit a bunch of topics from around the world of sports:

10-- TERRELL OWENS WILL NOT PLAY FOR THE EAGLES AGAIN IN 2005: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2217740

I have been a big supporter of Owens since he began his NFL career in San Francisco, but it is getting increasingly harder to defend him. He's easily the best wide receiver in the game and therefore has a right to run his mouth to a certain extent. His track record clearly shows that he is capable of being the difference between a team that plays 16 games and one that goes into the playoffs. But, now his attitude is becoming more of a factor than his physical attributes.
With Eagles QB Donovan McNabb needing surgery at some point, the Eagles season is in jeopardy. Instead of continuing the ongoing Owens soap opera they made a wise decision and will demand major value in a potential trade before the end of this season or during the offseason. If Owens can learn from his stupidity and take his arrogance level down a notch he will still be highly beneficial to many NFL teams such as the Baltimore Ravens or Atlanta Falcons.

9-- NBA RETURNS: http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/basketball/bulls/cs-2005nba_eastpreview,1,6301106.story?coll=cs-bulls-utility........ http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/basketball/bulls/cs-2005nba_westpreview,1,5898710.story?coll=cs-bulls-utility (LINKS TO EASTERN AND WESTERN CONFERENCE PREVIEWS)

The NBA is a week into the 2005-06 season and it's good to have basketball back. The Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs are the favorites in each conference as they should be. Both rosters are sick as the Heat added Antoine Walker, Jason Williams, Gary Payton, James Posey and rookie Wayne Simien to compement Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade. Meanwhile, the Spurs kept their championship roster intact and added Michael Finley and Nick Van Exel to strengthen their bench.
As good as LeBron James is, the best player in the league is Wade. He plays the game the way Michael Jordan used to. He has a great work ethic, and displays class off the court. His midrange jumper is as good as it gets and he explodes at the rim unlike any other player in the game right now. But what seperates Wade is his ability to make everyone around him better and his defensive intensity. On another side note, the New York Knicks will not be much improved with Larry Brown as their head coach. Every great coach has had great talent; Red Auerbach had Bill Russell, Phil Jackson had Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen plus Shaq and Kobe Bryant. The Knicks group of Quentin Richardson, Eddy Curry and Jamal Crawford don't exectly strike fear into the hearts of their opponents.

8-- BASEBALL HOT STOVE SEASON IS UNDERWAY: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/scorecard/11/08/truth.rumors.mlb/index.html

Some people actually enjoy this time of baseball more than the regular season. Trade rumors and discussions of free agent signings are wild as fans are hopeful that their team's big move could make them the last team standing in October. The biggest rumor thus far involves Red Sox outfielder Manny Ramirez. He has asked for a trade and GM Theo Epstein is no longer with the organization meaning that "Manny being Manny" could land him in another uniform.
White Sox first basemen Paul Konerko has rocketed to the top of many team's wishlist. It is believed by many that he will stay on the south side. But if the Angels, BoSox or Dodgers come in with a Carlos Beltran-type offer he could be gone. No fears though, GM Ken Williams has many alternate plans in mind. Those include resigning a healthy Frank Thomas, exploring options with Yankees left fielder Hideki Matsui (who wants to join Tadahito Iguchi) and making a run at an intriguing hitter such as Alfonso Soriano or Carlos Delgado should Konerko depart. Either way, the Sox should be poised to potentially repeat as their starting rotation and bullpen are locked into place for the forseeable future which includes next season.

7-- MISSOURI BASKETBALL SET FOR SECOND SEASON AT MIZZOU ARENA: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/ncaa/specials/preview/2005/teams/missouri.html

Missouri basketball, which used to bring high expectations into each season, is upon us again. But the expectations are gone. That's what happens when a program fails to win even a single NIT game in 2 years. Especially after carrying a top-5 preseason ranking into one of those seasons.
The Tigers have a plethora of talented wings including the inconsistent Thomas Gardner and unproven Marshall Brown. Jason Horton now has a season of work under his belt and should be much more capable of leading the attack. However, these Tigers are thin inside. Kevin Young and Kalen Grimes are both extremely raw talents and can't be counted on for much at the offensive end. Freshman Leo Lyons can put the ball in the hole, but much like Linas Kleiza, prefers to put the ball on the floor as opposed to playing with his back to the basket. The real key is the play of Jimmy McKinney. McKinney is in danger of being regarded as one of the most disappointing players every to wear a Mizzou uniform. While he showes flashes of offensive brillaince, he often times looks like a player on a playstation game after a wrong button is pushed on the control. If he can finally follow through on the expectations he came here with, the Tigers might not be as bad as most think.

6-- NHL IS BACK, BUT DOES ANYONE NOTICE? http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/story?id=2212618

For true hockey fans, the new NHL is a great thing to watch. The scoring is back, the highly skilled players are showing their immense amount of talent and the game is entertaining. However, too many penalties and goals are making scoring too easy. Pucks are going into the net at such a high rate, it sometimes forces you to take a second glance and make sure their is actually a goalie in between the pipes. The scoring will most likely drop as the season goes on, as teams adjust to the new rules and defenseman get back into playing shape.
The biggest bright spot is the play of 18-year-old Pittsburgh Penguins rookie Sidney Crosby. In his first 15 games he has scored 5 goals to go along with 14 assists. The kid has the talent and the smarts to be one of the best of all time and as the NHL gets back into the national consciousness, he has the potential to be "King Crosby."

5-- NFL STANDINGS REFLECT SURREAL BALANCE: http://www.nfl.com/standings

If there was any doubt before, there shouldn't be anymore. The NFL is by far the sports league with the most balance as reflected by the standings. First of all, the Cincinnati Bengals, Chicago Bears and Seattle Seahawks all lead their divisions. As do the reigning Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots with a 4-4 record. So far, the Indianapolis Colts appear to be the best team with an 8-0 record. But with many teams just two games worse, the trophy with the silver football can go to any team early in 2006.

4-- STEROIDS... AGAIN: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2217361

For those sick of reading about steroids in professional sports, specifically baseball, sorry. This is a major topic that is not just going to go away. Numerous reports, books and suspended players are going to pop-up as the topic gets hotter as every week goes by.
It's easy to see what took place during the middle and late 90's. After the strike in 1994, baseball needed its fans back. The easiest way was to hit more homeruns, MLB's version of an 80-yard touchdown. Comissioner Bud Selig, as well as many players, coaches and general managers slid all the evidence under a rug and ignored it until it was impossible to do so anymore. It benefitted the game, the revenue and the performance and nobody seemed to care. Hopefully, it will also benefit the future of the sport as attention turns back toward playing the game the way it was meant to be played: good pitching, good fielding, timely hitting and good baserunining.
At the same time, I can only hope that the media punished those who cheated by not voting them into the Hall of Fame. If the 1919 Black Sox can get banned for cheating, why shouldn't any player who has cheated by taking steroids? It won't matter if you ban Rafael Palmeiro or Mark McGwire as their careers are over. But holding them out of Cooperstown would open the eyes of the entire country.

3-- THE SPORTING NEWS NAMES INDIANS GM MARK SHAPIRO EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR

Are you kidding me? Is that a complete joke? You see, there's this man sitting in Chicago right now named Ken Williams. The same man who brought in 11 new players this season and won a World Series. The same man who lost Carlos Lee, Magglio Ordonez and then Frank Thomas (due to injury) and replaced them with castoffs (players that other teams didn't want in case your vocabulary is short).

This is the same man who brought in Jose Contreras (for Esteban Loaiza)... Juan Uribe (for Aaron Miles, and I don't mean the former Jayhawk PG either).... held onto Neal Cotts.... signed Bobby Jenks when no one else would... Took a shot on Orlando Hernandez, AJ Pierzynski, the oft-injured Jermaine Dye, a player he'd only seen on video (Tadahito Iguchi) and acquired Freddy Garcia as well as World Series hero Geoff Blum...

But that's okay.... KW is sitting somewhere right now laughing at TSN and its sports writers as he holds the only award that really matters, the 2005 World Series trophy. Hopefully when Williams reads the magazine he quickly uses it to replace the toilet paper in his bathroom.

There's a reason nobody reads TSN, and maybe it's because their so-called "experts" really have no clue what they're talking about, maybe they didn't know the following stats:

The White Sox won the World Series and the Indians didn't make the playoffs... The White Sox went 7-0 at Jacobs Field in the second half and by completeing a 3-game sweep during the last weekend of the season, single-handedly eliminated the Indians from playoff contention.... The White Sox bench, comprised of players Williams has either drafted or acquired in trades, beat the Indians during the series.... Most importantly, THE INDIANS WERE NEVER IN FIRST PLACE AT ANY TIME DURING THE REGULAR SEASON!

And one more thing: In the same time that Shapiro has had the job in Cleveland, Kenny Williams' White Sox teams have finished ahead of them EVERY SEASON... Shapiro couldn't hold Williams' jockstrap.

2-- MISSOURI FALLS TO COLORADO WITH BIG 12 NORTH TITLE ON THE LINE: http://mutigers.collegesports.com/sports/m-footbl/recaps/110505aaa.html

First and foremost, congratulations to Brad Smith for becoming the All-Time leading rusher for a QB in NCAA history. His 3,907 rushing yards leave him just 93 shy of becoming the only QB in NCAA history to throw for over 8,000 and rush for over 4,000 yards in a career.
There's the positive, now for the negative. The Tigers have talent, no doubt. So what is really their problem? Two words: Gary Pinkel and his coaching staff. Their offense isn't working and hasn't for 2 weeks now. They just played one of the worst pass defenses in all of college football and managed a repulsive 217 yards.
I'm sick of seeing Pinkel get outcoached. Gary Barnett embarassed Pinkel Saturday and for three straight years Mark Mangino has done the same at Kansas. Pinkel's complete unwillingness to make adjustments throughout the course of a game is nothing more than a stubborn coach afraid to admit that he's wrong. His play calling is abysmal and should Missouri be trailing at halftime, fans should just go home and continue their tailgating plans because Pinkel is incapable of making the proper adjustments to comeback as his 3-23 record when trailing at halftime while at Mizzou indicates.
There's so much more wrong with his scheming, I am afraid I'll run out of room with which to type. But if I see another screen pass go for 9 yards on first down and our cornerback continue to play 7 yards off the receiver I am going to throw something. Colorado did that to our defense all game and not a single adjustment was made, beggind the question as to whether or not our coaches are even watching the game? No matter how much time the coaches spend in meetings and during practice working on plays, they are judged by the product on the field during each game and that product stinks.
Athletic director Mike Alden made a big mistake by giving Pinkel a 5-year contract extension in 2003. It would be a bigger mistake not to fire him when this season is over. And if simply making some crap bowl game is good enough to keep him around, it is a significant sign that the MU football program will NEVER be among the elite in the country.

1-- GARY BARNETT STILL ROAMS THE SIDELINES IN BOULDER

Finally, something really got underneath my skin as I sat in the stands in Boulder, Colorado on Saturday. Directly across the field I could see Gary Barnett with his visor and headset on watching his team win the Big 12 North title. I couldn't help but wonder how this man is still allowed to coach a team when he should really be behind bars.
Is our society that messed up that success in sports means it's okay for women to be raped? I understand Barnett didn't have anything to do with the sex parties or rapings, he wasn't even there. However, they are his players and the parties took place under his watch. He is the head coach and the leader of that program and should be held accountable for what happens. A zoo is required to have staff to control their animals, I find myself wondering why Barnett wasn't required to control his animals as well? All I know is that the longer he sports the CU and is leading the Buffaloes, the less respect I have for an otherwise beautiful and classy institution. The women that were raped need some form or justice and watching that coach and his animals take the field every Saturday is a travesty to the NCAA, the University of Colorado, sports as a whole and even our country.