Kuzul

The NBA All-Star Game is to be held on Sunday, and we have every reason to believe it will be a terrific event for fans and families alike.   But how does it compare to the games in the other professional sports?   Certainly, all of the games have their own strengths and weaknesses, but which one is the best overall? Here is a comparison of the games for the NBA, NHL, NFL, and MLB.Begin Slideshow

By now, everybody knows that Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers tested positive for a PED just weeks after being named MVP of the National League. Braun is currently in the midst of appealing this positive test, but the odds of him getting it overturned do not look great.  (the rest of this article is written with the idea that his appeal will fail)  Because of this, many fans and experts are calling for Braun to lose his MVP award, either by refusing to accept it or by a re-vote.  I, however, could not disagree more.  1.  The voters awarded it to him because he had a great regular season. First and foremost, Ryan Braun won this award because the voters recognized that he had a fantastic regular season.  Braun led the NL with a .994 OPS, finished third with a 166 OPS+ and second with a 7.7 WAR while leading ...

Coming off a franchise-record 17-game losing streak that has essentially torpedoed the season, it was only a matter of time before the Seattle Mariners started trading from their position of strength:  starting pitching. We know they are not dealing Michael Pineda or Felix Hernandez (which I have been saying for awhile now), but the rest of their deep rotation is up for auction. It appears that the Mariners have finally made a move, as SI’s Jon Heyman reported that the Mariners had traded Doug Fister and reliever David Pauley to the Detroit Tigers in exchange for outfielder Casper Wells and lefty Charlie Furbush. I’ve felt bad for Fister this season, as the tall righty has pitched much better than his won-loss record would indicate. Fister has gone six or more innings in 18 of his 21 starts, ranking seventh in the AL in walk rate (1.97) and taking advantage of spacious Safeco ...

To the surprise of no one, the recent Barry Bonds perjury trial ended with a result that satisfied neither party and only really succeeded in stirring up another round of PED-related articles.  One of the most common type article to enter the fray is how the Hall of Fame will view such candidates; after all, Bonds (and others guilty/suspected of usage) put up some impressive numbers during his career.  Some writers are calling for the Hall of Fame to establish new guidelines on voting procedures for the next election; others are calling for an outright ban of all PED users. Both of these ideas strike me as rather unnecessary.  I mean, isn’t it the job of the HOF voters to decide who is worthy of induction?  Besides, a lot of the arguments that are being used against PED users don’t really hold water—and could set a serious double-standard when it comes to past ...

Unbreakable records and feats are as intertwined with MLB history as metal cleats and pine tar. Numbers like 56, 16, 1.12 and 41 are widely recognized as some of MLB's greatest and most famous stats and achievements, but every once in awhile a player or team will accomplish something that—due to styles of play or circumstances beyond their control—is so absurd it defies all logic.   Such feats shouldn't be possible at any level of competition, but they actually happened in Major League Baseball. Here's a list of five such instances.   1. Babe Ruth Hits More Homers than Any Other Team...Twice When people think of eye-popping statistics, Babe Ruth is usually the first athlete who comes to mind. Heck, to this day big numbers in all sports are often referred to as “Ruthian.” Everybody knows about his jaw-dropping career and single-season numbers, with 60, 714, 177, 170, 2213, 457 and .690 ranking among the most famous ...

Pitchers and Catchers Report. For many, those four special words signal the beginning of the end of the long winter months and the unofficial start of the new sports calendar.  In the recent weeks, I have been compelled to think about the current commissioner, Bud Selig, and his impact on the game of baseball. Few public figures are more polarizing than Bud Selig, as discussions about him are often in a tone usually reserved for politicians and prostitutes. However, very rarely does the average fan ever show support for Selig’s legacy; on the contrary, most people tend to attribute all of the bad things that have happened specifically to him while giving him little to no credit for the positive developments.  This is a shame, because when one takes a look at the entirety of Selig’s legacy, it looks a lot better than anybody realizes. Hear me out on this.   Payroll and Parity Perhaps the greatest complaint ...

Last Monday, Major League Baseball revealed the names of the 33 players on the 2011 Hall of Fame ballot. The list contains 19 first-year candidates along with 14 holdovers from previous seasons.In order to be eligible for the Hall of Fame, a player must have spent at least 10 years in the Majors, with his final game coming in the 2005 season.Holdover candidates must be named on at least five percent of the ballots from the previous season and can remain eligible for 15 years. Any player who is named on 75 percent of the ballots in a given year is inducted into the Hall of Fame.Here is my 10-player ballot.Begin Slideshow