Mark_Concannon's Blog

I rooted for Rocco Mediate Monday. I'm not anti-Tiger. But he's won 14 majors and will win a bunch more. Mediate is 45, a lifelong tour grinder. This was clearly his last hurrah. Rocco didn't prevail yesterday and will spend the rest of his life mentally replaying the missed putt at 18 that would have defeated golf's best player. But in displaying his class and considerable sense of humor on the sport's biggest stage, Mediate has set himself up nicely for years to come.

First of all, he won enough money to secure his playing privileges for next season. He also clinched spots in the 2009 U.S. Open and Masters. And his valiant effort earned him legions of new fans which may reap him the biggest rewards. Rocco is approaching that awkward age where his skills will no longer make him competitive on the Big Tour while he is still too young to play on the Seniors Tour. But what tournament wouldn't give him a sponsor's exemption now? This is known as "the good guy" exemption(Madison's Steve Stricker was granted those during his down years) But where Rocco could really clean up will be far away from the glare of network cameras and the public eye. Major companies pay big money for certain pros to play in their corporate outings on Mondays. After yesterday, Rocco will be getting calls. There is no pressure; the pros will generally play one hole with each group that also shelled out major coin to enter the event. Rocco will have to make some small talk(which should be no problem for him) help the amateurs line up a few putts, pose for a happy picture and collect a substantial check.

I have interviewed Rocco at a couple of tour stops and he is a genuinely good person. It was great to see him in the spotlight. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

The NBA finals start tonight; an old school matchup that has regenerated interest in the pro hoop playoffs. Unlike last June when the clinical and sometimes joyless Spurs faced Lebron and the journeymen(also known as the Cavaliers), the Celtics take on the Lakers conjuring up the good old days of Bird vs. Magic, McHale battling Worthy, Parrish bumping heads with Kareem. It is all well and good to be excited about this best of seven but I must say this: If you weren't wearing Celtics garb last year when the team won 24 games, you don't get to wear it this year when they won 66.

I've seen Boston green all over the place in our area in the last couple of weeks which rekindles one of my pet peeves. If you support a team, you've got to fly the colors through the good times and the bad, not just when "your team" is the top seed in the Eastern conference. I know two people who grew up and now live in Milwaukee who spent part of this decade in Boston. They just happened to be there when the Red Sox won the World Series and guess what? Now they're Red Sox fans. I wonder how fanatical they'd be if the team had gone 77-85. In the late 1970's when I worked in Virginia, I knew someone who told me her football team was the Steelers. I learned a few years later "her team" became the 49ers, then the Cowboys. And although I now have no direct knowledge of this, I am certain she is currently a Patriots fan.

I'm a huge fan of sports fans so go ahead, paint your face, show your colors. But don't change them just to root for a winner.

The European club soccer season ended yesterday with a decidedly English flavor. No laid back tea and scones crowd here; 50-thousand Manchester United and Chelsea fans making a pilgrimage to Russia for the Champions League Final. No football lover wanted the season to conclude and the Red Devils and Blues obliged, battling through 90 minutes of regulation and two heart-stopping overtimes, still even at 1-1. Finally on the 7th round of penalty kick tiebreakers, United goalkeeper Edwin Van der Sar stopped a shot from the Blues Nicolas Anelka, and in the driving rain in Moscow, United had acheived "The Double."

This epic battle came just 11 days after Man U prevailed against Chelsea in a hard fought head to head battle for the English Premiere League crown which was not decided until the final day of the season. And what a season it was!

For the second straight year, Carlos Tevez tallied the most significant goal in the EPL campaign. He scored for West Ham United on the final day of last season, in a 1-0 win at Manchester United, a victory that kept the Hammers from being relegated. This season, Tevez scored for Man U in the waning moments in a late season fixture at Blackburn as the Red Devils salvaged a 1-1 draw. That point picked up by United was crucial, as Man U entered the final day of play even with Chelsea instead of one point behind the Blues, giving Manchester a huge psychological edge and control of their own destiny The Devils then clinched the Premier League crown with a 2-0 win at Wigan.

Speaking of Tevez, he has become the Terrell Owens of the EPL with some memorable celebrations, pulling out a baby pacifier after one goal, and lifting his jersey to reveal "Feliz Cumpleanos(Happy Birthday) Ariel" written on his t-shirt after a Champions League tally against AS Roma.

And what a shock! The top four clubs were Man. U., Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool as the Big Four continued their dominance. But if you think that's bad, in all but one year, only three clubs (Ajax, Eindhoven and Feyernoord) have won Holland's top league championship(Eredivisie) since 1965.

Derby won only one EPL match this year which means one of its players, Marc Edworthy has now been on the roster of four different clubs that have been relegated. Derby's fans behaved shamefully when they booed every English national player on Chelsea when the Blues visited Derby, just a few days after England was eliminated from the Euro Cup competition. But Derby fans had to listen to taunts from visiting Tottenham supporters who sang "We'll never play you again," a serenade of relegation.

In the wildest game of the year Portsmouth defeated visiting Reading 7-4 but then didn't score at home for the next 6 matches, which included 4 scoreless draws. But Portsmouth mustered one goal when it mattered most in a 1-0 victory over Cardiff to win the F.A. Cup in a matchup of two surprise unheralded finalists.

Reading completely collapsed into relegation, not scoring a goal in 6 of its last 7 matches. That was great news for Fulham, who claimed the final safe spot with a 1-0 win at Portsmouth on the final Sunday. Fulham employs five Americans: Kasey Keller, Clint Dempsey, Carlos Bocanegra, Eddie Johnson, and Brian McBride(Captain and UWM alum)

So sadly, we move into another off-season for English Football, but junkies will soon be satisfied. The Euro Cup finals start June 7th. I can't wait for the lads to get back on the pitch.

*****WALK-OVER-Will any horse run against "Big Brown" in the Belmont Stakes? Why bother? After his dominant performance at the Preakness, "Brown" should be the only entrant at the Belmont, Jockey Kent Desormeaux should dismount and walk the big horse around the track in a Triple Crown victory lap.

*****MARKETING MARKETING MARKETING!-Desormeaux proudly sported a UPS hat in the winner's circle on Saturday. "What can Brown do for you?"

*****OFF TRACK BETTING-Of the $1.5 million wagered on Chicago's Hawthorne's races on a recent Saturday, only a tenth came from the track. Weekdays are worse: 4 percent or 5 percent. The whales, the big bettors who support the industry, don't show up at the track because they can get a better deal elsewhere-by calling in their wagers to phone-betting hubs in exotic, loosely regulated locales like St. Kitts or North Dakota. The hubs pay a little more for this privilege than the tracks-between 7 percent and 9 percent-but since they don't have to maintain a grandstand or feed horses, they can kick money back to their customers.

*****OFF WE GO INTO THE WILD BLUE WIN COLUMN-Air Force recently broke a 55 game conference baseball losing streak by beating BYU.

*****OLD HOME WEEK--The New York Mets transaction wire last Wednesday read like a "Who's Who?" of former Brewers. In one day, the Mets purchased the contract of RHP Claudio Vargas, activated RHP Matt Wise from the 15-day DL,. Designated RHP Nelson Figueroa for assignment,and assigned C Raul Casanova to New Orleans.

*****WHAT'S IN A NAME- The nickname of the independent baseball team, the Edmonton Cracker Cats intrigued me. A "Cracker Cat?" Their website dutifully explained."The name "Cracker-Cats" is derived from the oil industry term ("cat cracking" for short), which is part of the process of refining crude oil into gasoline by converting high boiling hydrocarbons into smaller molecules. Is this a mascot or a chemistry class?

*****WILL HE REPRESENT HIMSELF?-The independent Sussex Skyhawks baseball team signed pitcher Rich Lawyer.

*****START ME UP-Celtics forward Paul Pierce, revealing to the Boston Globe that the team's video montage during introductions gets him revved: It "makes you feel like you drank 10 Red Bulls."

*****NOT BAD FOR A DEMOTION- Isiah Thomas is living the life. While Mike D'Antoni was being introduced at a Garden press conference Tuesday, Thomas was far, far away - scouting in Europe. According to a source close to Thomas, president Donnie Walsh dispatched Thomas last week to France and Italy. Not a bad absentee job. Thomas is not just there for the cuisine and wine. Walsh wanted him to scout two lottery possibilities in Danilo Gallinari and Nicolas Batum.

*****LUNCH WITH THE BOSS-The Bucks currently have an on-line contest where if you correctly pick the team you think will win the 2008 NBA Draft Lottery, you could win lunch with Bucks GM John Hammond.

*****VIVA LA FOOTBALL!-Washington & Lee's Division III football team plans to travel France to play against a semi-pro team, "The Parish Flash,"in June 2009.

*****GOING ALL IN-The World Series of Golf plans to host a tournament for amateurs next year in Las Vegas that will cost $200,000 to enter and offer a $1.5 million payout for the winner. Rules are loosely based on poker, with players betting on their strokes with poker chips. Players can go all-in after their tee shot, or fold and move on to the next hole if they hit a lousy shot. The player with the fewest strokes each hole wins the pot for that hole.

Go "All IN" with us for for musings after we take a spring break. We're back on Monday, June 9th.

Ned Yost continues to push the wrong buttons. Just look at the last two games of this homestand. Wednesday night, the Brewers took a 4-3 lead into the 9th inning. On Tuesday, Eric Gagne returned from a brief exile to get the final outs and appeared born again; brimming with closer confidence. So who does Yost summon on Wednesday? Guillermo Mota who promptly surrenders three runs and the ballgame. If Gagne had been able to string two saves together against his former team, this could have marked a turning point for him psychologically. But Gagne watched helplessly along with thousands of irate home fans as the contest slipped away.

On Thursday, Ben Sheets was brilliant in pitching 6 scoreless innings. In the 7th, Sheets gave up a leadoff homerun to Andruw Jones, then a second homer to Jeff Kent, followed by a triple and two singles. At this point it was obvious that Sheets had not only hit the wall, but had slammed into it at full speed. Obvious to everyone except Yost. The Dodgers lead was still just a salvageable 3-0 with men at first and third. Did Yost pull Sheets as every fan in the park was pleading with him to do? No. Moments later, Gary Bennett hit a three run homer and it was game over. Perhaps Yost was hoping Sheets could hang on so he could be replaced by a pinch hitter in the bottom of the 7th. But when rain is pouring through a leaky roof the first thing you do is fix the roof: You worry about the furniture later.

Brewer owner Mark Attanasio made a major commitment to Milwaukee baseball fans Thursday by signing Ryan Braun to a long term contract. Attanasio now needs to take the next step and give Brewer fans and players the manager they deserve.

Talk about a day of decision! More plot twists than an episode of "24."

Suppose the Milwaukee Brewers had to win one game against say, the Pittsburgh Pirates to keep their spot in the Major Leagues and that a loss would mean a demotion to Triple-A. That's the situation facing several teams in the English Premier Soccer League this weekend, as EPL clubs play their final game to complete the regular season schedule.

The bottom three teams will be relegated to the lower division, the "Championship" League, which is impressively named but light years behind the Premier League in money and prestige. Derby County, with an abysmal 11 points has been doomed for demotion since before Christmas. The real drama will be played out among the next three teams in the bottom four. Reading and Fulham have 33 points, Birmingham is in next to last place with 32. Two of those clubs will be sent down.

Fulham, my sentimental favorite since the club employs five Americans(including UWM alum Brian McBride) has a tough assignment playing at Portsmouth, the surprising FA Cup finalist which is protecting the golden 8th spot which would insure a place in the UEFA Cup tournament next season. Reading has the easiest assignment, at woeful Derby, but if Fulham and Reading acheive the same result this weekend, Fulham wins the tiebreaker on goal differential. Birmingham needs to win at home against Blackburn, not an easy chore with the Rovers in 7th place also looking to nail down a UEFA placement.

And the gut-wrenching tension among the bottom feeders is surpassed at the other end of the table, as Manchester United and Chelsea are tied for first place heading into the final weekend. Man U enjoys the goal differential advantage and can clinch the championship with a victory. The Red Devils visit Wigan, which has occupied the lower half of the standings all season and would love to play spoiler again after earning a surprising draw at Chelsea last month that could determine the EPL winner. Chelsea faces Bolton at home. The Wanderers, with 36 points, could still technically be relegated with a lopsided loss, so they're not likely to be too bold and send many attackers forward with the knowledge that a 1-0 or even 2-0 setback insures their place in the top league.

Talk about a big finish! I can't wait for the last act from these lads!.

*****POOPED IN PRIME TIME-Red Sox manager Terry Francona would like to play some weekday matinee road games to arrive home earlier to get some rest for the next series, but his A-list Sox are playing mostly night games."Those teams aren't going to give us day-game getaway days because we're a big draw. We have to accept that. I don't know that it always helps."

*****RUB-A-DUB-DUB-Nationals first baseman Dmitri Young's season-long struggle with back pain is lessening thanks to the team's masseuse.Young, who had made virtually no progress over the last month in his recovery from a strained lower back, enjoyed a breakthrough moment Wednesday when Nationals massage therapist Tatiana Tchamouroff worked on his hip flexor for the first time. Young felt immediate relief and was subsequently able to hit balls in a batting cage with authority for the first time in weeks. Once she worked on my hip, that was it," he said. "It fixed everything. It made all the difference."

*****BEES BUZZING-The Salt Lake City Bees of baseball's Pacific Coast League started the season winning 21 of their first 22 games.

*****SERIOUS SMOKE-Kenn Kasparek tossed the 20th no-hitter in University of Texas history, lifting the Longhorns to an 11-0 win over Texas State last week.

*****SERIOUS SMOKE #2-There were six no-hitters thrown in local girls high school softball on Wednesday.

*****MAY SADNESS- The Dallas Mavericks are 4-12 in their last 16 playoff games.

*****SOME EXPERIENCE REQUIRED?-The New York Knicks were seriously considering former guard Mark Jackson for their next head coaching job and former guard and current TNT analyst Kenny Smith for the GM slot. Neither man has any experience coaching or in the front office.

*****A ROUGH ROOM-Former UWM and current Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl's divorce after 25 years of marriage has been finalized, spawning major traffic in internet chat rooms full of Volunteer-hating Memphis fans.

*****RACE FANS GASSED-The prospect of paying $4 a gallon to get to the track has some race fans reluctant to start their engines. Ticket sales have slipped just as May, the biggest month in motorsports, approaches. So track promoters are shifting into high gear to keep the grandstands full, offering all-you-can-eat packages and staging rock concerts.

*****BLADE BLUNDERS-Ever since they teamed up for their mega-star shaving commercial, Tiger Woods didn't win the Masters and needed knee surgery, Roger Federer didn't win the Australian open and dropped to 4th on the world tennis money list and Thierry Henry has been a bust at FC Barcelona which finished leaps and bounds behind Real Madrid in the Spanish Soccer League.

*****THE NAKED CITY-Penguins minor-leaguer Nathan Smith has been suspended for one game after being arrested for running naked in downtown Scranton early Sunday. Public drunkeness was among the laundry list of charges Smith faces.

We return, fully-clothed for more musings on Monday, May 12th

Fabulous success or abject failure. There's no middle ground for fans of Manchester United and Chelsea, who in 3 weeks time will enjoy the former or suffer through the latter.

The Red Devils and the Blues are dead even atop the English Premier League standings after Chelsea's home victory over Man U. this past Saturday. But even though the teams are tied, Manchester has a much easier schedule for the last two matches of the season and the Devils also win the tiebreaker on goal differential, a fact that United coach Alex Ferguson seemed to recognize when he rested EPL player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo Saturday.

The coach rested Ronaldo because the Red Devils have bigger football fish to fry this week, hosting the second leg of the two game UEFA Champions League semifinal with Barcelona today. Man U played Barca to a goal-less draw last week in Spain, Barcelona held the ball for 70 percent of the match, stringing together dozens of passes but never looking really dangerous. A United victory today at Old Trafford would mean a berth in the championship game next month in Moscow where the Devils could face....

Chelsea. Yes the Blues dreams of European club supremacy are quite vivid these days. Chelsea hosts Liverpool in the other UEFA semi tomorrow at Stamford Bridge. The Blues escaped with a 1-1 draw in the first leg last week at Anfield when Liverpool's John Arne Riise knocked the ball into his own net in the waning seconds. So even a nil-nil draw on Wedneday(away goals count double in the aggregate tiebreaker) would move Chelsea into the title game. So the Blues, who sacked legendary coach Jose Mourinho in September throwing their program into disarray, now have a chance to take the "double;" both the EPL and Champions League crowns.

So imagine if the Packers played the Bears in the NFC championship game AND Super Bowl. That's the type of angst Chelsea and Man U. supporters are dealing with these days. And considering what those fans are accustomed to, there's no prize for second place here. It is all or nothing.

*****LOWDOWN ON LO MEIN-Brewer fans didn't cheer on many dramatic victories during last week's homestand but they could enjoy the best food stand name in baseball: "Wok Off Noodles.

*****SKIP WANTS TO SEE YOU IN HIS OFFICE-A tough week for former Brewers Brady Clark and Ray King who were both sent to the minors

.*****SAUSAGE STRIKER SURFACES-Randall Simon, the former Pirate who became famous for whacking a racing sausage at Miller Park has signed a contract with the independent Newark Bears.

*****NO BIGGIE, MATE-Australian native and Padre infielder Justin Huber hit his first major league homer off Randy Johnson."It's pretty special," said Huber "But I don't see myself telling stories about it in 10 years' time or 20 years' time, because nobody in Australia knows who Randy Johnson is."

*****AUGUST OFFSPRING GOT GAME-Since 1950, a baby born in the United States in August has had a 50 percent to 60 percent better chance of making the big leagues than a baby born in July. A recent survey showed as of the 2005 season, 503 Americans born in August had made it to the major leagues compared with 313 American born in July.

*****THE LONGEST DAY-Watertown's Maranatha Baptist College baseball team took a doubleheader drubbing Saturday against Aurora, losing the first game 32-1 and the nightcap 19-0

*****GET MEL KIPER ON THE HORN-Sportsbook.com offered fans the chance to bet on the NFL draft.

*****BAGGAGE CLAIM-Four 1,700-pound, black granite replica racing tires, ordered as milestone markers to honor Darlington Speedway, NASCAR's oldest superspeedway, got a weeklong unanticipated detour to Anchorage, Alaska, on their trip from the manufacturer in China to South Carolina. "They got to California and got put on the wrong train and ended up in Alaska," said Darlington's president.

*****MOVE THE VEHICLE OR I'LL MOVE IT FOR YOU-A suburban Chicago police officer is a new world record holder for bench pressing. Dale Szymanski of Bolingbrook lifted 622 pounds earlier this month at the National Bench Press Competition in Lake George, NewYork.

*****NO REAL MADRID CHAT FOR YOU-Spain's Defense Ministry has ordered its staff to stop browsing sports and entertainment Web sites while on duty. A Spanish newspaper reported the restrictions stem from recent incidents in which computer systems overloaded and nearly crashed.

Browse all you want here. We'll be back with more musings on Monday, May 5th.

In Chess, it's known as the "Endgame," the pivotal moves in the waning stages of a match where there are only a few key pieces left on the board. I'm not an expert at Chess and I'm certainly no Grandmaster at baseball, but I know enough about the latter competition to question two of Ned Yost's Endgame moves yesterday in a contest I attended at Miller Park.

The Brewers were in great shape to put the Phillies in "checkmate. The home side had runners at first and third with no one out in a 1-1 game in the bottom of the 7th. With the pitcher due up, Yost called on Tony Gwynn Jr. to pinch hit. Gwynn is a terrific young prospect who may patrol the team's outfield for years to come. But yesterday, he hadn't seen major league pitching since going on the disabled list 3 weeks ago. And Gwynn faced crafty veteran Tom Gordon(Gordon is 40, any pitcher 40 or over still in the big leagues is automatically deigned "crafty"). And Gordon ate the kid alive. Gwynn was retired on three pitches after awkward swings at each delivery. Meantime, Craig Counsell, another left-handed stick, sat on the bench. Counsell, a pressure tested warrior with much big game experience, has been one of the team's best offensive performers(a .350 average at gametime) He is a tremendous contact hitter. Any ball in play in that situation would have certainly scored a run. But buoyed by Gwynn's strikeout, Gordon whiffed Jason Kendall and got Rickie Weeks on a grounder to end the threat. Counsell later came off the bench and singled in the 9th, but by then the train had left the station

Because in the top of the 8th, The Phillies had two outs with left-handed hitter Greg Dobbs at the plate. Rather than to bring in lefty-killer Brian Shouse, Yost stayed with right-hander David Riske who promptly gave up a walk to Dobbs and a single to Chase Utley, another left-hander, before surrendering what proved to be the game winning 2-run double to Pat Burrell. Shouse was then summoned to retire Geoff Jenkins but by then the train was pulling out of the station.

As we saw last season, there is little margin for error for any team making a run at the playoffs. The Brewers must get smarter in Endgame scenarios going forward or their playoff run will end before it gets started.

I am not a fan of the designated hitter but I am a fan of hitters, which are becoming a vanishing breed in Major League Baseball. In Tuesday's game at Miller Park, the Cardinals used two pitchers as pinch hitters. During last night's broadcast, Brewer announcers Brian Anderson and Bill Schroeder talked about how Milwaukee pitchers Dave Bush, Yovani Gallardo and Manny Parra were in effect "auditioning" for pinch hitter roles any time they came up to bat.

What is going on here? It's simply a numbers game. There are 25 spots on a baseball roster. Most teams carry at least a dozen pitchers(The Brewers currently have 14) so that doesn't leave a lot of room for backup position players. The solution to this problem is a no-brainer. MLB needs to expand its rosters to 28 players.

The NFL has increased its team rosters from 40 to 53 players in recent years. Even the NBA now features 15 players per team instead of 12. Why isn't baseball following suit? Because once again the powers that be in this sport treat the game's rules like they were etched into marble and brought down from the mountain top. Change comes slowly to the big league diamond.

Fans want to enjoy the late inning strategy afforded by inserting pinch-hitters. But they want to see HITTERS; not someone who qualifies as a "good-hitting pitcher" by recording an average north of .150.

There are some purists who might argue the real problem is teams using too many pitchers. I don't disagree. In their 4-2,  9-inning win over the Phillies last week, the Mets summoned 7 different hurlers to the mound. We are now awash in 5th inning "set up" men. But that manager mind set is here to stay. The days of all 5 starters recording multiple complete games each season are as much a distant memory as pro footballers playing on both sides of the ball.

So expand the rosters to 28. And for heaven's sakes cap the number of pitchers at 14. Or else we'd have a bunch of jobs out there for third inning set up guys.