2nd Down and 2…

I've mentioned before that I love a good trivia question. There's something else to which I'm always a captive audience and that is a good story about old-time ball players. Undoubtedly these stories are given a little extra flair by the story teller, particularly when that person also happens to be an old ball player himself (like the time an old baseball player told my brother he saw Lefty Grove throw a baseball through a brick wall). Regardless, there is a certain charm and fascination with old-timers and their stories that captivate me.

One of my favorite such stories is one I heard a few years ago about Bronko Nagurski of the Chicago Bears. A charter member of the pro football Hall of Fame, Nagurski was also a world champion wrestler. At 6' 2'' and 235 pounds, he was a man among boys in the world of professional football in the 1930s and was nearly unstoppable as a ball carrier. A big, physical, and bruising runner, it was once said the he accidentally knocked down a police officer's horse after finally being run out of bounds.

Well as the story goes, there was an equally daunting and fearsome linebacker (whose name I no longer remember) that was getting tired of hearing about Nagurski's toughness and was anxious to lay a few hits on him. His chance came on a cold afternoon at Wrigley Field (where the Bears used to play their home games). The Bears opened the game on offense, and the linebacker knew Nagurski was going to get the ball on an up-the-middle play to start the game. As the linebacker recalled, "I came up and hit him with everything I had right at the line of scrimmage. I don't know if I ever hit anyone that hard in my life and thought I dropped him right on the spot. As we were getting up from the pile, I looked down and said, 'Take that Bronko'. About the same time, as the referee was spotting the ball, I heard the call 'Second down and two…'".

Should Dom DiMaggio Be In the Hall of Fame?

I read "The Teammates" by David Halberstam for the second time recently, and again I was surprised by some of the player's comments in the book that Dom DiMaggio should be in the Hall of Fame. If you're not familiar with the book, it chronicles the life-long friendship between Dom DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky, Ted Williams, and Bobby Doerr. It's a great read, particularly if you happen to be a Red Sox fan.

From a baseball perspective Dom has the unfortunate circumstance of having the last name "DiMaggio". Overshadowed by his brother Joe, Dom played 11 seasons in the big leagues from 1940-1953 for the Red Sox. He completely missed the 1943, 1944, and 1945 seasons due to military service in WWII. It's made evident in "The Teammates" that Dom had the respect from his peers as a ball player, but is he Hall of Fame worthy as some players in the book suggest?

The recent passing of Phil Rizzuto prompted me to take a look back at his statistics as a player. Now, I bet you can see where I'm going with this and before you Yankee fans get all bent out of shape, I realize that Rizzuto was also a great announcer for the Yankees for many years, as well as a great shortstop. For many New Yorkers, Phil Rizzuto is the voice of baseball, period. I understand that. But there was a strong push to get Rizzuto into the Hall based on his statistics, particularly after PeeWee Reese of the Brooklyn Dodgers was voted into the Hall in 1984 with similar stats.

Neither Rizzuto nor Dom DiMaggio was a power hitter, and neither had much speed on the base paths. Both made a living getting on base any way they could and playing solid defense. Below is a look at the lifetime stats of each player:

	Dom DiMaggio	Phil Rizzuto
Seasons	11	13
BA	.298	.273
H	1680	1588
R	1046	877
HR	87	38
RBI	618	563
OBP	.383	.351
SLG	.419	.355
SB	100	149
Fielding %	.978	.968
All-Star	5	5
MVP	0	1

• DiMaggio scored over 100 runs 6 times. Rizzuto twice.
  

• DiMaggio was in the top 10 for hits 7 times. Rizzuto once.
  

Looking strictly at the numbers, DiMaggio seems to have been the better player. The thing that really stood out to me was the MVP award Rizzuto won in 1950. Let's just look at the stats of the two players for that season:

	Dom DiMaggio	Phil Rizzuto
BA	.328	.324
H	193	200
R	131	125
2B	30	36
3B	11	7
HR	7	7
RBI	70	66
OBP	.414	.418
SLG	.452	.439
SB	15	12
Fielding %	.979	.982

OK - take your pick here. Both players had a good season, and either one seems to be deserving of the award. While Rizzuto won the MVP, what is surprising is that DiMaggio finished 14^th. Fourteenth! Billy Goodman, also from the Red Sox, finished 2^nd in MVP voting that year, so it can be argued that he took votes away from DiMaggio. Well, Yogi Berra finished 3^rd and that did not seem to hurt Rizzuto.

Do I think that Dom DiMaggio should be in the Hall of Fame? Probably not. And I would say the same thing for Rizzuto. However, the results of the 1950 MVP voting seem to give some credibility to the theory from the players in "The Teammates" that Dom DiMaggio was never recognized for being a great baseball player. Maybe things would be different if he had another last name.

Hit Vick Where It Hurts

As each week passes the outlook for Michael Vick is becoming more and more bleak. Two more co-defendants are set to agree to plea agreements with federal prosecutors, leaving Vick the odd man out. He is clearly becoming the target of this investigation as rumors swirl that the dog-fighting ring was financed by Vick himself. Vick reportedly has until Friday to plead guilty and agree to a deal or he will stand alone in this trial with his former co-defendants as the prosecution's best witnesses. That spells trouble.

But I'm not sure this bothers Vick all that much. In some twisted, backward thinking there may be some element of "street cred" (whatever the hell that is, and why it seems to be important I'll never understand) that he gains as a result of this. And while I'm sure his defense team isn't cheap, he has already made more money than most people see in a lifetime.

What is perhaps the worst thing that can happen to Vick is for him to become irrelevant. A great big blow to the ego. The latest comments from Warrick Dunn are the first step in that direction. If you missed it, Dunn basically said that there is nobody on the Falcons who is hoping Vick comes back. Ouch.

For three years in a row the Falcons have declined in the numbers of wins, from a high of 11 in 2004 to just 7 last year. Incidentally, Vick's completion percentage has dropped each of those years. His ability to become a successful, winning quarterback in the NFL has been questioned as a result. If Joey Harrington (whose completion percentage has increased three years in a row) can take this team to a 9+ win season and a shot at the NFC wildcard, Vick becomes irrelevant in Atlanta -his critics justified and his reputation has a quarterback who can't lead a team to the promise land solidified. And could you imaging he public relations nightmare for the team that may try to pick him up after that? He would be forgiven quicker if he was caught funneling money to Al-Qaeda than for dog-fighting, and any team that would try to acquire him would feel the wrath of every animal lover in the country.

So whatever happens as a result of the legal proceedings, and I hope the judge rules with an iron fist, he can do nothing that would hurt Vick as bad as Joey Harrington leading the Falcons to the playoffs. So for this year, I'm the Atlanta Falcons biggest fan.

UFC vs Boxing – Part IV

This is the fourth and final post in the series detailing why I think the UFC is a better sport right now than boxing. Part I talks about the mess that is the various ranking systems and title belts in boxing. Part II looks at the better marketing efforts by the UFC, and part III claims the UFC has better pay-per-view events.

Reason #4 – Better Fighters

The topic of who would win in a fight, great boxer X vs great MMA fighter Y, has been an often discussed topic among fight fans. Recently, however, the argument has been given a unique twist in that the fighters themselves have begun to weigh in on the issue. For whatever reason, it seems the more vociferous arguments have come from boxing world with Bernard Hopkins and Floyd Mayweather Jr. being the most publicly opinionated on the matter. Mayweather Jr. claims the UFC fighters are lesser athletes and that any boxer could easily transition to MMA and be dominant. Hopkins equates the UFC with unskilled, drunken thugs slugging it out at the local bar.

Not surprisingly, Hopkins and Mayweather Jr. have made no attempt to back up their claims with any type of action whatsoever. A lot of words but no action, despite the promise from Dana White (UFC President) that he would make it financially worth their time. I'm not surprised by this, and you shouldn't be either. Why? Because the UFC guys are better fighters, and Mayweather and Hopkins know it.

It may seem strange to bring up Lance Armstrong in a discussion about fighters, but there is a point to be made here. Armstrong is probably the best cyclist in the history of the sport. He dominated cycling biggest stage, the Tour de France, like nobody in history. But other than riding a bike and having incredible endurance, what particular skills does this require? Would you think he is a better athlete than Kobe Bryant? Roger Federer? How about LaDainian Tomlinson or Derek Jeter? The range of skills required by these others athletes to excel in their respective sport is far greater than that required of Armstrong. I contend that with the proper training, any of these other athletes I just mentioned would have a greater chance at succeeding in cycling than Armstrong would in any of their sports. Why? Because they are better athletes.

It is for these same reasons that I think the UFC guys are better fighters than boxers. I would not go as far as to say Chuck Liddell could beat Bernard Hopkins in a boxing match. Hopkins is too good of a boxer. The same reason I would not predict Derek Jeter to beat Lance Armstrong in a cycling race. But when we talk about MMA, we are talking about a fight, which can (and will) require a larger set of skills than a boxing match. And who would you put your money on in a fight – a one trick poney or somebody who knows boxing, muay thai, wrestling, and jujutsu? I'll take the more skilled fighter, and my guess is that deep down inside Hopkins and Mayweather know where the smart money would be too.