Now this is just piling on...

Another huge blow struck to your authors, my friends. Just days after the passing of Michael Jackson, it is being reported that pitchman and generally beardy fellow Billy Mays has passed away at the age of 50, same as Jackson.

Mays was known for his intense sales pitches on TV. Everything he sold, he did so with an incredible enthusiasm and gusto. But what set him apart was that Mays seemed like a good dude. You felt like you could trust him to give it to you straight. Unlike some salesmen, such as Vince Shlomi, you knew that Mays would never beat up a hooker for biting him.

Here's a fraction of the list of products that Mays had successfully sold over the years: OxiClean, Orange Glo, Kaboom, Hercules Hook, The Ding King, Impact Gel Insoles, What Odor?, SIMONIZE Fix It!, and of course, the Samurai Shark.

I, and many others as well I'm sure, have said on numerous occasions "Well if it's good enough for Billy Mays, it's good enough for me!" The familiar strains of "Hi! Billy Mays here for (insert awesome product name here)" will be missed.

The Saddest Day of the Year To This Point

The recent passing of TV Legend and big check giver Ed McMahon wasn't a surprise. Indeed, it was very sad, but the guy was 86. Still, we here at Sal's send our deepest condolences to his family and friends.

The same can absolutely be said of the passing of Farrah Fawcett. Fawcett lost her lengthy battle with cancer earlier today at the age of 62. Fondly remembered by many as the ultimate 70s pinup girl and one of Charlie's Angels (the original brand that didn't make me want to punch myself in the face so I wouldn't have to look at them), Fawcett will definitely be missed by many. Again, our condolences to her family and friends.

But ladies and gentlemen, all this, while extremely sad, pales in comparison to the sadness that Nick and I feel about the passing of THE King of Pop. Michael Jackson is dead at age 50.

Jackson was one of the finest musicians and entertainers to ever grace us with his presence. We owe the man an incredible amount of gratitude for the music he blessed us with. He sold over 750 million albums and won 13 Grammys. Perhaps never before and possibly never since has a nickname so fit its owner. Did Michael have his share of issues? Absolutely. Should that cloud our judgement of his incredible career? Not a chance.

There is not much else to say, so I'll leave you with a few clips of his music. Rest in peace, Michael. Today, we all moonwalk with one glove on.


Couldn't find an embeddable version of the orignal Thriller video, so this will have to do.

Some funny

Sorry about the infrequency of posts recently. Both Nick and I are working full-time during these summer months or being sick (as I am right now). Soon we'll have a few posts on things such as tomorrow's NBA draft, the hockey Hall of Fame selections (Nick is probably writing a 500-page opus on the legend of Stevie Y), and other goings-on.

Until then, please enjoy this clip I got from With Leather, the gold-standard for sports blogs on the internets.


Here it be.

Almost makes me like T.O.

An interesting article

Bill Simmons, the Sports Guy, is one of those writers that people either love or hate. I don't really belong to either, though if I had to pick one, I'm much closer to love. I read just about every column he writes, and his style of presenting facts interspersed with humorous anecdotes and pop culture references is something that I try to emulate (it should be noted, Simmons didn't invent this style and I wouldn't say he's perfected it, nobody has, but he turned me on to it). Simmons often gets too caught up in his own stories that occasionally detracts from his article and he's often asked to write on things he is not an expert in (only Rick Reilly, a legend in his own right, and Gene Wojciechowski, who sucks, are asked to cover and comment on as many sports as Simmons). Simmons is limited as a hockey (because of his absence from fandom) and baseball (because he only follows the AL) writer. He's a decent football writer. He's an excellent basketball writer; one of the most informed and engaging about the sport. In addition to his writings, he's a very funny and entertaining podcaster.

Really, this has little to do with why I'm posting, I just felt like I should give some background on my views of the man. The reason I'm posting is Simmons' recent article posted online and to appear in the June 29 issue of ESPN the Magazine. Here is the article. It's a very interesting examination of baseball and the "purity" issue that is so frequently brought up during conversations about steroids. I believe it also provides an interesting commentary on the pious nature of the sports fan; that is, they should stop freaking out about steroids. The problem is being address through tougher testing and more legitimate enforcement. No era of baseball is fully clean.

Also it's funny that the Red Sox' first black player was named "Pumpsie." That is great stuff. And if you disagree, I will kill you.

Some Nepotism

I won't subvert ESPN's Insider feature and post the entire article, but Keith Law, my favorite baseball writer, recently posted an article discussing 2010's MLB Draft Class. Here is the first sentence:

The 2010 draft class isn't as stacked right now as the 2011 draft appears to be -- the latter group includes cover kid Bryce Harper as well as Sonny Gray, Alex Meyer, Anthony Rendon, Gerrit Cole and Danny Hultzen.

For those of you who have been following Sal's for a while, you'll recognize that final name. Hultzen is currently the ace (as a freshman) of the UVA pitching staff. He's also one of the best guys around and both your authors are proud to say we know him.

Two Championship wrapups

As any sports fan worth his (or her) salt knows, both the NHL and NBA seasons have come to a close with the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Los Angeles Lakers, two of the more storied franchises in their sports, hoisting the respective trophies of their leagues.

First, hockey. As much as it hurts to say, congrats to the Pens. As a Caps fan, I'm bound by law to hate Sidney Crosby, and that hasn't changed. Crosby though has made his mark by being the youngest Captain to ever hold Lord Stanley's Cup. Of course, it should be noted that it was Evgeni Malkin who won the Conn Smythe trophy as the MVP of the playoffs. While I would be lying if I said that Crosby was not a good or even great player, because he clearly is, certainly one of the 5 best non-goalies in hockey right now, I would be remiss if I didn't say that I think Malkin might be better. Malkin is tough-as-nails and a true force offensively and the two complement each other very well in a nearly-unstoppable fashion. I had picked the Red Wings to win it all in the beginning of the year, and they almost made me look very smart, but ultimately the injuries, the 1-2 punch of Crosby and Malkin, and the excellent goal-tending of Marc-Andre Fleury were all too much for the ancient wonders to overcome. The hockey playoffs proved once again that it's such an awesome sport that deserves so much more than it gets in terms of recognition. I can only look forward to another great season next year, where I fully anticipate Alex Ovechkin to abuse the league. Now if only he could get a little defensive help...

The Lakers, on the other hand, did make me look very smart as my preseason pick took care of the surprising Orlando Magic in 5 games. The Magic played out of their minds versus the Cavaliers with everything breaking their way and not much going the way of LeBron James whose teammates decided to take a vacation during the series. Unfortunately, just about everything went the wrong way for the Magic in the finals as they were ultimately out-talented by the Lakers. The Magic also killed their chances by playing Jameer Nelson (oddly, as he is the team's 2nd best player) who was rusty and completely out of rhythm with his teammates. This also affected the fragile psyche of Rafer Alston. Of course, it would be foolish to not congratulate the Lakers who were the better team and played like it, instead of last year where they seemed to sleepwalk during the finals against the Celtics.

This leads to two persons to discuss: Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson. Let me be up-front: there is not a single thing you can say that will convince me that Kobe is the best player in the league. I might accept 2nd best, but LeBron James is still better. There is no way around it. Kobe's only advantage on LeBron is rings, something it takes a team to win. If the Lakers and Cavs matched up, the top 5 players in the series would be 1. LeBron, 2. Kobe, 3. Pau Gasol, 4. Lamar Odom, 5. Trevor Ariza...Kobe simply plays with better players. That being said, Kobe deserves a lot of credit. By winning his fourth title, he has cemented himself among some of the best to ever play. He also finally won a title without Shaq (though I would say that Gasol is one of the best big men in basketball right now, so that helps). But Kobe was on a mission this year and it payed off. Few players can match Kobe in terms of intensity and desire to win and when he's on, he's impossible to contain. Perhaps the best play of the finals and perhaps the entire playoffs was Kobe's pass to a trailing Gasol to avoid Dwight Howard in Game 4. It was a perfect summation of where Kobe is as a player: he is still the leader and the man, but when he's willing to let his teammates help him out, he becomes a legendary player. Doesn't change the fact that he raped that chick in Colorado...

Phil Jackson is probably the greatest basketball coach in history. He just won his 10th title. People will point to Jackson always having great players such as Kobe, Shaq, Gasol, Dennis Rodman, Scottie Pippen, and Michael Jordan. But if you look at other G.O.A.T. candidates, you'll find similar talent levels. Having players like Bill Russell, John Havlicek, Bob Cousy, Sam Jones, KC Jones, and Tommy Heinshon probably didn't hurt Red Auerbach's chances. And Pat Riley never won a title without some combination of Dwyane Wade, Shaq, Magic Johnson, James Worthy, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the lineup. No Jackson simply has won every where he's been. As ESPN's Chris Broussard pointed out, the 1993-1994 Bulls won 55 games, two fewer than the previous year despite losing Michael Jordan to his first "retirement" (GAMBLING SCANDAL!). The Zen Master has been able to run the complicated and highly prolific triangle offense, manage the sizeable egos of players like Kobe, Jordan, and Shaq (both Jordan and Kobe got to the point where playing for anybody else was out of the question), he's probably the best in-game adjuster ever, and, perhaps most impressively, he made Dennis Rodman seem to be an almost acceptable citizen.

So now that these two seasons are over, we can turn our attention to the upcoming NBA Draft, the NFL training camp season, and, of course, baseball.

Congratulations

...are in order for one Randy Johnson, who last night picked up his 300th career win against the hapless Natinals.

300 is a magic number for a pitcher. It's one of the most sacred milestones in baseball, and with the recent release of Tom Glavine, Johnson is now the only active 300-game winner. The advent of the bullpen and the increase in professionalism in baseball has made it more and more difficult to amass that many wins, and it is not completely ridiculous to say that we may never see another 300 game winner, at least not for a very long time, as it would take 20 seasons of averaging 15 wins to do so. In fact, the closest active pitcher is Jamie Moyer with 250 wins, and he is all kinds of ancient. 300 is such an elusive number, that you'd have to go all the way to Mark Buehrle to find the winningest pitcher who is 30 or younger and he has only 128 career wins, not even half way. The pitcher who seems to have the best short would be CC Sabathia, who at age 28 has 122 wins and plays for the Yankees, where he will undoubtedly rack up a lot of wins. Of course, that means that Sabathia will have to stay as healthy and effective as he has been for the first 9 seasons of his career for likely at least another 10 seasons, a tall order.

Simply put, Randy Johnson is one of the finest pitchers to ever step on a mound. He is second all-time in strikeouts. He's thrown two no-hitters, including one perfect game. He's a 10-time all-star, a 4-time league leader in ERA, a 9-time league leader in strikeouts, and a 5-time Cy Young award winner. In addition, he sported one of the most fantastically ugly sports mullets of all time for much of his career. While Johnson still has the stuff to stick around for at least a few more years, it is unlikely that he will do so. Obviously he will be finishing the season with San Francisco, but if this is in fact his last season, it will mark the end of the career of arguably the greatest left-handed pitcher in baseball history. About six or seven years from now, the Hall of Fame is going to have plenty of awesome first-ballot pitching talent with Greg Maddux, Mike Mussina, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson. Congrats, Randy.