This is a blog post I didn't expect to be writing. This is Juan Uribe's third year with the Dodgers. During his first two years, the only Dodger that I can remember playing on a regular basis and being worse was Andruw Jones. Juan Uribe was about as bad as you can be and play in 143 Major League games the last two years. On Opening Day, I clapped my hands together exactly one time when Uribe was introduced. I figured it was a new year and he hadn't done anything yet this year to deserve to be booed, but I wasn't going to be too excited about him. I never expected that he would become an important player on a World Series contender.
After two miserable years, I expected nothing from Juan Uribe. I mean, he hit six home runs and drove in 45 runs the last two years. He had a .204 batting average and a .293 slugging percentage in 2011 and that was the better of of his first two years with the Dodgers. Luis Cruz started the season for the Dodgers at third base. He was solid last year, but this year he forgot how to hit. Uribe didn't play much in April, but he got more playing time as the season went on. He's played well in the field all year. Somewhere around the end of May, I realized that Uribe was actually having a decent season at the plate as well. June wasn't so good, but other than that he's been consistent. My theory on building a lineup is that you have to have some stars in the middle of the lineup and then everybody else just has to make the pitcher work. You can't give the pitcher easy outs. Juan Uribe used to be an easy out, but not this year.
Besides being a good fielder and a solid hitter, you can tell watching the games that Juan Uribe is a good influence on Yasiel Puig and Puig needs some good influences. There are only a handful of players that can be good influences on Puig because he doesn't speak English. You can see the way Uribe and Adrian Gonzalez interact with Puig in the dugout. You can't really be a leader if you're a terrible player, so Uribe's valuable leadership is another good thing to come out of his solid season.
And then last night happened. I saw Uribe's home run in the second inning and I went to sleep with the Dodgers ahead 2-0. When I woke up in the morning, I saw that the Dodgers won 8-1. Then I checked the scoring summary and I saw that Uribe homered not once, not twice, but thrice. The Dodgers would have won even without Uribe, but it was nice to see him have a game like that.
Back in June, I said Juan Uribe's transformation from a terrible player to a decent player was one of the few positives from what looked like a year that would be miserable for the Dodgers. The season is no longer miserable, but nothing's changed with Uribe, except maybe that he's gotten even better. I have a feeling he's going to help make this season even more special in October.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Monday, September 2, 2013
Sports Hate Power Rankings
Let me go back to May 1, 2011. After sweeping the Knicks, the Celtics lost game 1 of their second round series with the Heat by a score of 99-90. It was also the last day of my Easter vacation. I was not in a good mood so I just went to sleep early. In the morning, I didn't put on the TV before leaving the house and then drove to work and didn't listen to the radio. I didn't want to hear anybody talk about the game. It wasn't until I got to work and got on the Internet that I found out that we had killed Osama bin Laden. It was about nine hours after the rest of the world found out. I dress by mood so I was dressed in drab-colored clothing. Had I known, I would have been dressed in red, white, and blue. I told some people later that I knew what it would feel like if Notre Dame ever won the national championship in football. It was pretty awesome. On the other hand, I also thought about how I'd probably never know how awesome it must have felt in August 1945 when the Japanese surrendered. It was great that bin Laden finally faced justice, but we hadn't won the war.
That was my preface for this post to put things in perspective. I realize there are things more important than sports. I despise Michigan, but I despise al-Qaeda and Bashar al-Assad more. Given the choice between Notre Dame beating Michigan and the United States defeating its enemies, I'll take the destruction of America's enemies. But of course, this isn't a choice I have to make. There's no reason I can't have both.
Before I get to my rankings, a few thoughts on teams that won't make the list. Notre Dame plays Navy and Purdue all the time. They're not making the list. I have too much respect for the students at the Naval Academy and Purdue is just not good enough to care about. I asked Jon and Kyle their five least favorite college football teams in order and they both listed Ohio State first. I certainly don't like Ohio State, but we've only played them five times ever. When they play Michigan, I root for Ohio State unless it would somehow benefit us for Michigan to win. The Padres and Rockies are theoretically division rivals for the Dodgers, but they aren't good consistently enough to make the list. The Bills are in the same division as the Jets and they were in the first four Super Bowls I watched, but they haven't been good since then so I don't care about them. The New York Giants don't make the list. There are plenty of teams to detest as a Jets fan, but a team that we play in the regular season once every four years doesn't make the list.
I came up with 19 teams for this list (actually it's a few more than that, you'll see why with number 18 and number 1). Since I got that far, I think I should come up with a 20th team. Let's just say its a tie between every Big 10 team I didn't mention and every SEC team (Jon and Kyle both mentioned the SEC as a whole).
Here are my 19 least favorite teams in American sports, in reverse order:
19. The Anaheim Angels. They only make the list for ridiculously calling themselves the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim when the only team that plays in Los Angeles is the Dodgers.
18. Connecticut men's and women's basketball. Jim Calhoun and Geno Auriemma. Connecticut was Notre Dame's biggest rival in women's basketball in the Big East days, but now that's over. In all this conference realignment, Connecticut definitely got the shaft. They're a basketball school and they were in the best basketball conference. Now they're in the American Athletic Conference with longtime rivals (not really) Cincinnati and South Florida. Yeah, I don't feel sorry for them.
17. The Cowboys. I mean, if you're not a Cowboys fan, you have to hate them.
16. Louisville basketball. If I cared about Notre Dame basketball as much as I cared about Notre Dame football, Louisville would rank a lot higher. They've become our biggest rival in basketball. We have had a lot more success against them than we probably should considering the talent level of the two teams. For our ACC basketball schedule, we're going to be playing two games a year against Boston College and Georgia Tech, we'll play two other teams twice a year on a rotating basis, and everybody else once. I would love it if we replaced Georgia Tech with Louisville as the permanent twice a year team. It's become a really good rivalry. This year, we were the last team to beat them in the five overtime game on February 9, probably my favorite college basketball game ever. Also, as a human being and a Celtics fan, I can't like Rick Pitino. But I do have to give him credit for actually building a team that's an actual team and not just a collection of talent for a year at a time (you can probably figure out who I'm talking about, hold on, we'll get there).
15. Michigan State football. The only teams Notre Dame has played more than Michigan State are Navy, Purdue, and USC. They make the list for the flag plant game (my first home game) and for having too much success against us (we still easily have a winning record against them, 47-28-1). Hopefully we're restoring order in this rivalry. A win this year would be three in a row.
14. The Dolphins. I probably hated them in the 1990s more than any other football team. I was not a Dan Marino fan. Fortunately the Jets beat Marino in their last four meetings. They also won the next four meetings between the two teams. Included in that winning streak was the Monday Night Miracle on October 23, 2000, my favorite NFL game of all time other than the Giants beating the Patriots in the Super Bowl twice. The Dolphins just haven't been good enough since then to care about too much.
13. Syracuse basketball. Jim Boeheim.
12. The Raiders. They would have ranked much higher on the list at the beginning of the last decade. Jets-Raiders has been and can be a very good rivalry when both teams are good. We won't have to worry about that this year. The Jets won their last game of the 2001 season in Oakland to make the playoffs, but the Raiders eliminated them in the playoffs that year and the next year. The Jets beat the Raiders in the AFL Championship Game in 1968 to make it to their only Super Bowl. The Jets also beat the Los Angeles Raiders once in the playoffs. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Buccaneers destroy the Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII.
11. Kentucky basketball. John Calipari is as dirty as they come. Kentucky has become a team of mercenaries under Calipari. How often do you think any of their players go to class?
10. The Knicks. Carmelo Anthony, J.R. Smith, and Jimmy Dolan. I don't really need any other reasons.
9. Stanford football. They definitely wouldn't have made this list six years ago, but now they're good. Jim Harbaugh, David Shaw, and the Stanford band. If they're not good again in five years, I won't care about them too much. At least they care about academics.
8. The Diamondbacks. The Rockies made the World Series more recently than the Diamondbacks, but they haven't been as consistently good as the Diamondbacks. I think they're the Dodgers' biggest rival other than the Giants. Over the last few years, they've gotten into some scuffles with the Dodgers so they've become very easy to loathe.
7. Miami football. The Notre Dame-Miami rivalry has obviously cooled off. From 1971-1990, we played Miami every year except 1986. Since them, we've played Miami twice (both easy wins). But in its heyday, this rivalry was as intense as it could get. From 1987-1990, the teams split four games when Notre Dame went into those games ranked 10th, 4th, 1st, and 6th while Miami was ranked 2nd, 1st, 7th, and 2nd. Miami also stands for everything that is wrong with college athletics. Just watch the 30 for 30 on them. They were thugs and they were proud of it. If I had been in my 20s when we beat Miami in a battle of unbeatens in 1988, it would easily be one of my five favorite games of all time. Of course, I didn't watch it, but Rocket Ismail talking about that game is one of my favorite youtube videos of all time. Also, google Nevin Shapiro if you don't know who he is. Now they have Al Golden going with Jim Tressel's "wear a tie and people will think you run a clean program" strategy. Even if we don't play them on a regular basis anymore, there are sitll plenty of reasons to despise Miami.
6. The Heat. The Heat are the easiest team in all of sports to hate for anybody that's not a Heat fan. I rooted for them when they played the Mavericks in the 2006 Finals. Dwyane Wade was one of my favorite players in the NBA. Now, not so much. As soon as LeBron James signed with them, they became very easy to hate. I thought about doing this post after Game 6 or 7 of the Finals this year. Game 6 was about as frustrated as I could be with the outcome of a game that didn't involve one of my favorite teams. If the Spurs hadn't won four championships in the Duncan-Popovich years, that would be one of the worst losses in the history of sports. They had beaten the Heat and all was right with the world, and then they let it slip away. When the Mavericks beat the Lakers and Heat in 2011, I elevated Dirk Nowitzki to American hero. I can't put the Heat any higher on this list because my hatred for them is temporary. If LeBron James leaves after this year, I definitely won't hate the Heat and I might even root for them then.
5. The Patriots. I was rooting for the Patriots when they won their first Super Bowl. They weren't evil by then and the Rams were very easy to dislike at the time with Mike Martz as head coach. Then the Patriots kept winning and became very easy to hate. It makes me angry that the Jets propelled the Patriots to their first Super Bowl. Mo Lewis knocked out Drew Bledsoe and unleashed Tom Brady on the NFL. I'm sure Tom Brady would have been a very good quarterback eventually, but the Patriots wouldn't have won the Super Bowl that year with Drew Bledsoe as their quarterback. As a Jets fan, it's not difficult at all to despise Bill Belichick. I do enjoy the fact that they haven't won a Super Bowl since Charlie Weis left. And I'll always be thankful for what Eli Manning and Justin Tuck did to the Patriots in two Super Bowls.
4. USC football. There aren't many people in sports that I despise more than Pete Carroll, Reggie Bush, Lane Kiffin, Matt Leinert, and Mark Sanchez. USC is Notre Dame's biggest rival. Despite that, I respect USC. It's a good thing for college football when USC is good because they're the only traditional power in the west. As a Notre Dame fan, I want them to be good once Laney gets fired; I just want Notre Dame to be better. The Bush Push game is still the best sporting event I've ever been to in person, but I will never forgive Carroll and Bush for their cheating. I can't stand Lane Kiffin, but I guess I should be happy that USC won't be good as long as he's their head coach. Why does he keep getting head coaching jobs? Notre Dame-USC is the only national rivalry in college football. It's the Celtics-Lakers of college football. Notre Dame and USC should play in big games every year. Hopefully that will happen once Lane Kiffin gets fired. I need to see us beat USC in person. I was there in 2005, 2009, and 2011. I'll be there this year. And I plan on going to every Notre Dame home game against USC until we win. Hopefully this will be the year. Before I move on, this Bruce Pearl quote is one of my favorite random quotes of all time: "I was hoping some dumbass would take me off the front page. I miss Lane Kiffin."
3. The San Francisco Giants. The Giants are the Dodgers' biggest rival going back to when the teams played in New York. A lot of folks around here still despise Walter O'Malley. That's totally wrong. Robert Moses was to blame for the Dodgers leaving. But I also don't understand why the Giants get off the hook. The Dodgers weren't going anywhere if the Giants hadn't gone with them. Actually, the reason is probably that nobody cared about the Giants when they left (their attendance was terrible). But there's so much to despise about the Giants today. Their fans are dirty smelly hippies who like Barry Bonds. I can't stand A-Roid and Ryan Braun, but Barroid is the greatest baseball villain of my lifetime. The single season home run record was already forever tainted by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, but Barroid further tainted that record and stole the other greatest record in baseball from Hank Aaron. Tim Lincecum is my least favorite pitcher in baseball today. And I can't stand watching a Giants broadcast. Nobody is close to being as good as Vin Scully, but their broadcasters are so annoying with their scribbling on fans on the telestrator. Last year, the Dodgers were eliminated from playoff contention at home by the Giants. That was bad, but the fact that I got the Giants broadcast on the package instead of Vin Scully made it even worse.
2. The Lakers. If the Heat and Lakers had played in the NBA Finals the last couple of years, I'm rooting for the Heat without any hesitation. I respect the Lakers, but I hate them. Celtics-Lakers is the best rivalry in professional sports. There are other good rivalries, but this one is the best because of their many meetings in the NBA Finals. Yankees-Red Sox is great, but they can't play each other in the World Series. Yankees-Dodgers was a great rivalry, but they haven't played in the World Series since 1981. Anyway, Kobe Bryant is my least favorite basketball player of all time. My two favorite basketball games ever were Game 4 of the 2008 NBA Finals (when the Celtics came back from 24 down to win and take a 3-1 lead in the series) and Game 6 (when the Celtics won the series with a 39-point win). The Celtics have won three championships during my lifetime. Unfortunately for me, the first two were during the first three years of my life. So 2008 is the only one I remember. Winning the Finals against anybody would have been great, but to do it against the Lakers was perfect. On the other hand, Game 7 in 2010 was the worst loss of my life. Having 2008 softened the blow, but it's still easily number 1 on my list of soul crushing losses. And then the Giants won the World Series. 2010 was not a fun year. For the NBA, the Celtics and Lakers should always be good. It's nice for the NBA when the Bulls were good in the 1990s or with the Heat now, but the NBA is at its best when the Celtics and Lakers are both contenders for the championship. It looks like we'll have to wait a while for that to happen again. While I acknowledge the NBA is better off with the Lakers being good, I definitely don't want that to happen until the Celtics are good again.
1. Michigan anything. I originally had the idea for this post during the Final Four last year. If you had asked me before the tournament began who my least favorite college basketball teams were, I would have said Louisville, Kentucky, Syracuse, and Connecticut. In the Final Four, I was rooting for Wichita State, of course, but my second choice was anybody other than Michigan. So I was happy when they lost the championship game (even though it meant Louisville won). As I already said, USC is Notre Dame's biggest rival in football. Michigan is not Notre Dame's rival; Michigan is Notre Dame's enemy. When the Notre Dame football program was in its infancy, Michigan dominated Notre Dame, winning the first eight meetings between the schools. When Notre Dame finally beat Michigan in 1909, not only did Michigan stop playing Notre Dame (until 1942), they tried to destroy Notre Dame football by getting other teams to refuse to play Notre Dame. The Western Conference (the future Big 10), led by Michigan, refused to play Notre Dame in an effort to destroy the football program of the Catholic school in northern Indiana. That's why I would rather stop playing football altogether than join the Big 10. Fortunately, we have a home in the ACC now. Unlike USC, I don't care if Michigan is ever good. I want them to lose every single game they play. And that's why they get the top spot on my Sports Hate Power Rankings.
Go Irish! Beat all of these teams!
That was my preface for this post to put things in perspective. I realize there are things more important than sports. I despise Michigan, but I despise al-Qaeda and Bashar al-Assad more. Given the choice between Notre Dame beating Michigan and the United States defeating its enemies, I'll take the destruction of America's enemies. But of course, this isn't a choice I have to make. There's no reason I can't have both.
Before I get to my rankings, a few thoughts on teams that won't make the list. Notre Dame plays Navy and Purdue all the time. They're not making the list. I have too much respect for the students at the Naval Academy and Purdue is just not good enough to care about. I asked Jon and Kyle their five least favorite college football teams in order and they both listed Ohio State first. I certainly don't like Ohio State, but we've only played them five times ever. When they play Michigan, I root for Ohio State unless it would somehow benefit us for Michigan to win. The Padres and Rockies are theoretically division rivals for the Dodgers, but they aren't good consistently enough to make the list. The Bills are in the same division as the Jets and they were in the first four Super Bowls I watched, but they haven't been good since then so I don't care about them. The New York Giants don't make the list. There are plenty of teams to detest as a Jets fan, but a team that we play in the regular season once every four years doesn't make the list.
I came up with 19 teams for this list (actually it's a few more than that, you'll see why with number 18 and number 1). Since I got that far, I think I should come up with a 20th team. Let's just say its a tie between every Big 10 team I didn't mention and every SEC team (Jon and Kyle both mentioned the SEC as a whole).
Here are my 19 least favorite teams in American sports, in reverse order:
19. The Anaheim Angels. They only make the list for ridiculously calling themselves the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim when the only team that plays in Los Angeles is the Dodgers.
18. Connecticut men's and women's basketball. Jim Calhoun and Geno Auriemma. Connecticut was Notre Dame's biggest rival in women's basketball in the Big East days, but now that's over. In all this conference realignment, Connecticut definitely got the shaft. They're a basketball school and they were in the best basketball conference. Now they're in the American Athletic Conference with longtime rivals (not really) Cincinnati and South Florida. Yeah, I don't feel sorry for them.
17. The Cowboys. I mean, if you're not a Cowboys fan, you have to hate them.
16. Louisville basketball. If I cared about Notre Dame basketball as much as I cared about Notre Dame football, Louisville would rank a lot higher. They've become our biggest rival in basketball. We have had a lot more success against them than we probably should considering the talent level of the two teams. For our ACC basketball schedule, we're going to be playing two games a year against Boston College and Georgia Tech, we'll play two other teams twice a year on a rotating basis, and everybody else once. I would love it if we replaced Georgia Tech with Louisville as the permanent twice a year team. It's become a really good rivalry. This year, we were the last team to beat them in the five overtime game on February 9, probably my favorite college basketball game ever. Also, as a human being and a Celtics fan, I can't like Rick Pitino. But I do have to give him credit for actually building a team that's an actual team and not just a collection of talent for a year at a time (you can probably figure out who I'm talking about, hold on, we'll get there).
15. Michigan State football. The only teams Notre Dame has played more than Michigan State are Navy, Purdue, and USC. They make the list for the flag plant game (my first home game) and for having too much success against us (we still easily have a winning record against them, 47-28-1). Hopefully we're restoring order in this rivalry. A win this year would be three in a row.
14. The Dolphins. I probably hated them in the 1990s more than any other football team. I was not a Dan Marino fan. Fortunately the Jets beat Marino in their last four meetings. They also won the next four meetings between the two teams. Included in that winning streak was the Monday Night Miracle on October 23, 2000, my favorite NFL game of all time other than the Giants beating the Patriots in the Super Bowl twice. The Dolphins just haven't been good enough since then to care about too much.
13. Syracuse basketball. Jim Boeheim.
12. The Raiders. They would have ranked much higher on the list at the beginning of the last decade. Jets-Raiders has been and can be a very good rivalry when both teams are good. We won't have to worry about that this year. The Jets won their last game of the 2001 season in Oakland to make the playoffs, but the Raiders eliminated them in the playoffs that year and the next year. The Jets beat the Raiders in the AFL Championship Game in 1968 to make it to their only Super Bowl. The Jets also beat the Los Angeles Raiders once in the playoffs. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Buccaneers destroy the Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII.
11. Kentucky basketball. John Calipari is as dirty as they come. Kentucky has become a team of mercenaries under Calipari. How often do you think any of their players go to class?
10. The Knicks. Carmelo Anthony, J.R. Smith, and Jimmy Dolan. I don't really need any other reasons.
9. Stanford football. They definitely wouldn't have made this list six years ago, but now they're good. Jim Harbaugh, David Shaw, and the Stanford band. If they're not good again in five years, I won't care about them too much. At least they care about academics.
8. The Diamondbacks. The Rockies made the World Series more recently than the Diamondbacks, but they haven't been as consistently good as the Diamondbacks. I think they're the Dodgers' biggest rival other than the Giants. Over the last few years, they've gotten into some scuffles with the Dodgers so they've become very easy to loathe.
7. Miami football. The Notre Dame-Miami rivalry has obviously cooled off. From 1971-1990, we played Miami every year except 1986. Since them, we've played Miami twice (both easy wins). But in its heyday, this rivalry was as intense as it could get. From 1987-1990, the teams split four games when Notre Dame went into those games ranked 10th, 4th, 1st, and 6th while Miami was ranked 2nd, 1st, 7th, and 2nd. Miami also stands for everything that is wrong with college athletics. Just watch the 30 for 30 on them. They were thugs and they were proud of it. If I had been in my 20s when we beat Miami in a battle of unbeatens in 1988, it would easily be one of my five favorite games of all time. Of course, I didn't watch it, but Rocket Ismail talking about that game is one of my favorite youtube videos of all time. Also, google Nevin Shapiro if you don't know who he is. Now they have Al Golden going with Jim Tressel's "wear a tie and people will think you run a clean program" strategy. Even if we don't play them on a regular basis anymore, there are sitll plenty of reasons to despise Miami.
6. The Heat. The Heat are the easiest team in all of sports to hate for anybody that's not a Heat fan. I rooted for them when they played the Mavericks in the 2006 Finals. Dwyane Wade was one of my favorite players in the NBA. Now, not so much. As soon as LeBron James signed with them, they became very easy to hate. I thought about doing this post after Game 6 or 7 of the Finals this year. Game 6 was about as frustrated as I could be with the outcome of a game that didn't involve one of my favorite teams. If the Spurs hadn't won four championships in the Duncan-Popovich years, that would be one of the worst losses in the history of sports. They had beaten the Heat and all was right with the world, and then they let it slip away. When the Mavericks beat the Lakers and Heat in 2011, I elevated Dirk Nowitzki to American hero. I can't put the Heat any higher on this list because my hatred for them is temporary. If LeBron James leaves after this year, I definitely won't hate the Heat and I might even root for them then.
5. The Patriots. I was rooting for the Patriots when they won their first Super Bowl. They weren't evil by then and the Rams were very easy to dislike at the time with Mike Martz as head coach. Then the Patriots kept winning and became very easy to hate. It makes me angry that the Jets propelled the Patriots to their first Super Bowl. Mo Lewis knocked out Drew Bledsoe and unleashed Tom Brady on the NFL. I'm sure Tom Brady would have been a very good quarterback eventually, but the Patriots wouldn't have won the Super Bowl that year with Drew Bledsoe as their quarterback. As a Jets fan, it's not difficult at all to despise Bill Belichick. I do enjoy the fact that they haven't won a Super Bowl since Charlie Weis left. And I'll always be thankful for what Eli Manning and Justin Tuck did to the Patriots in two Super Bowls.
4. USC football. There aren't many people in sports that I despise more than Pete Carroll, Reggie Bush, Lane Kiffin, Matt Leinert, and Mark Sanchez. USC is Notre Dame's biggest rival. Despite that, I respect USC. It's a good thing for college football when USC is good because they're the only traditional power in the west. As a Notre Dame fan, I want them to be good once Laney gets fired; I just want Notre Dame to be better. The Bush Push game is still the best sporting event I've ever been to in person, but I will never forgive Carroll and Bush for their cheating. I can't stand Lane Kiffin, but I guess I should be happy that USC won't be good as long as he's their head coach. Why does he keep getting head coaching jobs? Notre Dame-USC is the only national rivalry in college football. It's the Celtics-Lakers of college football. Notre Dame and USC should play in big games every year. Hopefully that will happen once Lane Kiffin gets fired. I need to see us beat USC in person. I was there in 2005, 2009, and 2011. I'll be there this year. And I plan on going to every Notre Dame home game against USC until we win. Hopefully this will be the year. Before I move on, this Bruce Pearl quote is one of my favorite random quotes of all time: "I was hoping some dumbass would take me off the front page. I miss Lane Kiffin."
3. The San Francisco Giants. The Giants are the Dodgers' biggest rival going back to when the teams played in New York. A lot of folks around here still despise Walter O'Malley. That's totally wrong. Robert Moses was to blame for the Dodgers leaving. But I also don't understand why the Giants get off the hook. The Dodgers weren't going anywhere if the Giants hadn't gone with them. Actually, the reason is probably that nobody cared about the Giants when they left (their attendance was terrible). But there's so much to despise about the Giants today. Their fans are dirty smelly hippies who like Barry Bonds. I can't stand A-Roid and Ryan Braun, but Barroid is the greatest baseball villain of my lifetime. The single season home run record was already forever tainted by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, but Barroid further tainted that record and stole the other greatest record in baseball from Hank Aaron. Tim Lincecum is my least favorite pitcher in baseball today. And I can't stand watching a Giants broadcast. Nobody is close to being as good as Vin Scully, but their broadcasters are so annoying with their scribbling on fans on the telestrator. Last year, the Dodgers were eliminated from playoff contention at home by the Giants. That was bad, but the fact that I got the Giants broadcast on the package instead of Vin Scully made it even worse.
2. The Lakers. If the Heat and Lakers had played in the NBA Finals the last couple of years, I'm rooting for the Heat without any hesitation. I respect the Lakers, but I hate them. Celtics-Lakers is the best rivalry in professional sports. There are other good rivalries, but this one is the best because of their many meetings in the NBA Finals. Yankees-Red Sox is great, but they can't play each other in the World Series. Yankees-Dodgers was a great rivalry, but they haven't played in the World Series since 1981. Anyway, Kobe Bryant is my least favorite basketball player of all time. My two favorite basketball games ever were Game 4 of the 2008 NBA Finals (when the Celtics came back from 24 down to win and take a 3-1 lead in the series) and Game 6 (when the Celtics won the series with a 39-point win). The Celtics have won three championships during my lifetime. Unfortunately for me, the first two were during the first three years of my life. So 2008 is the only one I remember. Winning the Finals against anybody would have been great, but to do it against the Lakers was perfect. On the other hand, Game 7 in 2010 was the worst loss of my life. Having 2008 softened the blow, but it's still easily number 1 on my list of soul crushing losses. And then the Giants won the World Series. 2010 was not a fun year. For the NBA, the Celtics and Lakers should always be good. It's nice for the NBA when the Bulls were good in the 1990s or with the Heat now, but the NBA is at its best when the Celtics and Lakers are both contenders for the championship. It looks like we'll have to wait a while for that to happen again. While I acknowledge the NBA is better off with the Lakers being good, I definitely don't want that to happen until the Celtics are good again.
1. Michigan anything. I originally had the idea for this post during the Final Four last year. If you had asked me before the tournament began who my least favorite college basketball teams were, I would have said Louisville, Kentucky, Syracuse, and Connecticut. In the Final Four, I was rooting for Wichita State, of course, but my second choice was anybody other than Michigan. So I was happy when they lost the championship game (even though it meant Louisville won). As I already said, USC is Notre Dame's biggest rival in football. Michigan is not Notre Dame's rival; Michigan is Notre Dame's enemy. When the Notre Dame football program was in its infancy, Michigan dominated Notre Dame, winning the first eight meetings between the schools. When Notre Dame finally beat Michigan in 1909, not only did Michigan stop playing Notre Dame (until 1942), they tried to destroy Notre Dame football by getting other teams to refuse to play Notre Dame. The Western Conference (the future Big 10), led by Michigan, refused to play Notre Dame in an effort to destroy the football program of the Catholic school in northern Indiana. That's why I would rather stop playing football altogether than join the Big 10. Fortunately, we have a home in the ACC now. Unlike USC, I don't care if Michigan is ever good. I want them to lose every single game they play. And that's why they get the top spot on my Sports Hate Power Rankings.
Go Irish! Beat all of these teams!
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