No More Excuses

When I played baseball in high school, one of my teammates was a pretty talented player. He had good speed and a descent arm. He was one of those small town heroes. Like, because we have more cows than people, this kid is special.

Unfortunately, no matter how much his father hyped him and his fat brother tried to convince us that the Atlanta Braves scouts were looking at him (which was a complete lie by the way) he had way too many downsides to ever be a big leaguer. He had a slow release at in the field that lead to infield hits, he got bad jumps trying to steal and an uneven swing lead him to pop up hittable pitches.

But the biggest downside to this player was that he always made excuses. Once he was pitching a perfect game and threw a low 3-1 pitch to walk the batter, of course it was the umpires fault. He then threw a wild pitch to allow the runner to second, which was the catchers fault, then allowed a single to score the runner, which of course was the fielders fault for not diving far enough.

Every 0-4 was because of the angle of the sun in his eyes, every error was the fault of the groundskeeper and every pitch he didnt swing at, was outside. If he hit a ball 5 feet short of a home run, he'd blame sir Issac Newton for there being too much gravity.

There are a few points I'd like to make about excuses. First, in sports, we teach our kids from a young age that they are very important, very special and deserve privlege because of their talent. We teach them that the umpire or referee is always wrong if the call goes against them and we continue to teach them that they can get away with being disrespectful to the zebras and the game, if they are good.

One of my fellow umpires told me that after a game, a mother approached him and said, "what is your problem with my son?" Standing shocked he said, "which one is your kid?"

The idea that some junior varsity first baseman could be so important that it would matter to an umpire whether he got the call or not is just laughable. But the parents give this kid the idea that the only reason those plays were out not safe was because the umpire has a problem with them, not because they were out or safe.

When i was coaching, one of my players stared down an ump on strike 3. I sat him down and explained that he isnt that good. That when you hit .167 on junior high and make 20 errors at short, your major league potential isnt high. I took him out of the game, the next day his father called the superintendent and claimed that we made his son, "Feel bad." awwwww I'm sorry Mr. xxxxxx your son should feel bad that he's AWFUL at baseball and that his dad is a MORON, neither of which had to do with the umpire.

anyway......

moving farther into our excuse train.....we look to major league baseball....we have this team called the Yankees, whos tag line should be, "The greatest excuse franchise in history."

Need proof? Just watch YES aka the Yankee Excuse Network

Why arent the yankees hitting, lets ask Michael Kay, "not that you want to use excuses but not having alex rodriguez and jorge posada is a good excuse." to which al leiter replied, "but yes Mike, it is a good excuse." Because no other team whos won games has had injuries, no no the '88 dodgers didnt exist.

Joba Chamberlin's blatent disrespect for Indians hitter David Dellucci was excused by, "He's just showing his emotion," and, "He's just a young player." And the issue was swept away, why?

Chamberlin thinks that every thing he does is so important because he's always been told that. Those assanine Joba Rules t-shirts are making this guy believe that a strike out on may 8th in the 8th inning of a 6-3 game....matters. But just like middle relief pitchers with less than 40 career appearances, they dont matter.

The point is, if you are a high school athlete, you arent important. If your a rookie middle reliever, you arent important. That we need to stop hyping up athletes and making excuses like, "It was the bugs," for them. If we want our athletes to grow up into descent human beings, we have to raise them like they are not the center of the solar system.

On a side note, Sal Fasano never made an excuse his his life, he broke both his arms and still played back up catcher for (insert your AAA team)

A swing and a miss

Todays 1-0, no-hit loss to VT by the USA Softball ladies has to be one of the most embarassing losses since...well, anyone lost to the Knicks.

The USA ladies had previously won 185 games in a row dating back to 1996. So i figured we'd take a look at the state of the world the last time the women went down in exihibition play.

in 1996, 2pac was killed (He's since released 73 hit records)

Janet Jackson signed an 80 million dollar contract, (then lost a boob and a career)

Seal won record of the year with, "Name of the Rose." (He's since gone on to make babies with super models....gives all of us with acoustic guitars alot of hope)

Braveheart won best picture (they since did take Mel Gibson's freedom for a night due to him hating jews, nice mug shot tho mel)

George Burns died (ironically, Julio Franco was still older than Burns in 96)

The first sheep was cloned.....(thats funny enough by itself)

Ken Caminitti won the baseball MVP...what a slippery slope it was after that huh Ken?

Sal Fasano was a rookie in 96 and hit a whopping .203

Today is a dissapointing day for the girls in red white and blue, but hopefully 08 will be more exciting than 96...geez

"That dyke can throw"

As Patches O'Houlihan said in Dodgeball, softball girls can throw... while wearing plenty of eye make up.

ESPN has been showing many of the USA Softball Bound 4 Beijing tour, exhibitions for the national team to partake before the Olympics. I think its sad that it's come to this. I don't mean the games themselves, but rather the KFC sponsorship and the challenges baseball and softball have to face for being an Olympic sport. While both sports are played by few countries (I doubt England has a great baseball team), the sport reminds me of the goodwill exhibitions Major League Baseball used to do. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig would go to Japan with a team of all stars to showcase baseball to other parts of the world. Now, we have the Oakland A's playing the Boston Red Sox in Japan or the Dodgers playing in China. There is a slightly good chance a player could be on one of the teams and also a native of this country. Something you don't see in the NFL.

It amazes me that the NFL actually thinks people care about the NFL in Europe. NFL Europe failed, because no one went to those games, even with really low beer prices. Despite the sell out in London for the regular season game, chances are tickets were bought on the basis of the novelty of an NFL game. There cannot be that large of a demand to have an NFL expansion to Europe.

I'm not saying that no one in England knows a thing about the NFL or even the NBA. For those who watched such British sitcoms in the early 1990's such as Keeping Up Appearances, the character Onslow was seen every few episodes wearing a Green Bay Packers t-shirt, even though the only football he was watching was English Premier. Even the paperboy in the show was seen wearing an Orlando Magic t-shirt.

But the fact remains that few sports that were created or developed in America are in the Olympics. Basketball is getting competitive and if baseball and softball was given a better chance they could help create more competition from the Latin American and Asian countries. Who knows maybe someday it can be as competitive as the hockey teams in the Olympics.

I chose the Cat Osterman photo because... well, she is pretty hot and the official softball player of Sal Fasano's 401K.

Our Mission Statement

From the Desk of Sal Fasano's 401K


So recently, blogs have been getting a lot of flack. The word on the journalism street is that blogs are "irresponsible", lack "journalistic integrity" and do not wear "Cosby sweaters". In fact Buzz Bissinger, pictured here, really hates blogs. He is a god, no one can touch Bissinger because he is the law and can decide what is real journalism.

Everyone has heard, seen and talked about the round table discussion on Bob Costas's show, but I and this means Sal Fasano's 401K, needs to lay down what the overall mission and objective of this sports site.

Sal Fasano's 401K is a sports website that wants to go beyond conventional journalism and talk about sports in the context of history and overall fandom. We do not try to blur the lines between giving straight fact and opinion, but will try to communicate so that our message could be deciphered to eliminate bias, unless specifically mentioned. Overall, this site is to look at sports from more than just the context of now, but rather in the big picture. When we talk about great match ups, they will be examined from not on the present but also the past and incorporate the culture of which we live in now.

While we here at Sal's 401K respect Bob Costas as a broadcaster, we disagree with his feelings too about blogs. Well, slightly, yes some blogs do offer nothing but mindless opinion that no one cares about with no overall message, though you won't see that here.

Also, I think these sports writers and broadcasters are failing to realize the idea that the internet is filled with opinion and amateur journalism. But then again, every newspaper is pushing their top writers to post blogs and you can see that some could care less. Here in Rochester, nearly every sports writer has a blog and some are barely updated. It's just a transition period between the old school and new school of journalism. Since both writers for this site are in their early twenties, we expect this kind of flack, but also take it with a grain of salt.

Enough said, let's get to talking about sports!

Sal Fasano says: Blogs are COOL! d:)

The Unlikely Cycle

In light of Carlos Gomez's cycle last night, i've decided to put out some other players who you would never expected to have achieved this feat...and of course, a little info about them.

1998- Neifi Perez - This amphetamine abuser had a lucky day for Colorado on July 25th of 98, but the rest of his career has not been so lucky. Stints with the Royals and Tigers both turned out badly. Even with extra illegal boost, Perez only managed 64 career home runs and a bottom basement .297 On Base %. This guy made Billy Ripkin look like Tony Gwynn

2003 and 2005- Brad Wilkerson - WHo? Somehow this hapless outfielder ended up hitting for the cycle twice. Nothing on his stat sheet points to how this could have happened, a .249 career hitter who has struck out 894 times in only 887 games, Wilkerson is pretty much pathetic. Even funnier is that 03 and 05 were very poor overall seasons, hitting .248 with 11 HRs and 57 RBIs in 05....that was enough to lose his job. Congrats Brad for the feat, but otherwise you suck.

2002- Gred Colbrunn- When i first did a player seach, MLB.com said he didnt exist. Took awhile, but i found him. Greg was around from 92-04 and won a series in 01, but never really achieved anything. He was a career backup first baseman who only played over 100 games three times. I'll give ole Greg the credit for swinging the bat though, he only walked 170 times in 992 games. If you swing that much, your bound to hit it eventually.

1998- Alex Ochoa- From 1995-2002, Ochoa played for 6 different teams. He hit a grand total of 46 home runs and had a career high of just 119 games. The guy was about as forgettable as Marcus Thames. Ochoa was last seen trying to make a roster spot with Boston, to which he failed miserably...well Alex, there will always be your potential, which the Mets are still talking about you, Bill Pulsipher and Bobby Jones being the future.

1992- Andujar Cedeno- Ok so, only baseball card collecting guru's will remember this guy. I had a ton of his cards and despite his 92 cycle, they are worth less than 5 cents. From 90-96, he only managed 98 doubles, 13 triples and 47 home runs...its really a wonder that he could do one each in a game. His career .236 batting average suggests that he shouldnt even be able to get a single off of major league pitching. Even more interesting, Cedeno wasnt even a good fielder, a measley .951 fielding % is pretty pathetic for a back-up short stop.


FUN FACTS ABOUT CYCLES:

The Rays and Marlins have never hit a cycle....big shock, right? But neither have the San Diego Padres. A team that had Tony Gwynn and Steve Garvey, you would have thought someone would have managed to pull it off, judging by the above info, maybe even Quilvio Veres?

Also, Bob Watson had cycles in consecutive years, 78 and 79 but for different teams in different leagues. 78 with the Astros and 79 with the red sox

Catcher's do it better

A little trivia here.

Q: Who won the 1972 World Series MVP?

A: Gene Tenace - Catcher Oakland A's

Yeah, that's right on those trio of Oakland teams loaded with star talent and future Hall of Famers - Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers - the best player in the World Series was a career .241 hitter.

No disrepect directed to Tenace, he can tell his grand kids that he won something over those guys that year. He had a hell of a series.

But if you look up the winners of the World Series MVP, you'll find some amazing picks from a lot of catchers... many of them will only get into the Cooperstown by paying admission at the door. Since the 1970's 6 catchers have won the MVP during the Fall Classic. Some of these come as a shock and I consider myself I very knowledgeable baseball fan. Here's the list.

1972: Gene Tenace (Oakland Athletics)

Tenace hit two home runs in his first at bats and finished the Series with four total. He went 8-23 in route to the championship. He career wasn't much after that, the .241 average, 201 home runs.

1976: Johnny Bench (Cincinnati Reds)

This Hall of Famer had a great career, so I won't mention anything about him. This post is targeting obscure players

1981: Steve Yeager (Los Angeles Dodgers)

He shared the award with Ron Cey and Pedro Guerrero when they beat the Yankees. His performance was not exactly overwhelming (4-14 , .286 avg, a game winning HR), but the voters felt it was worthy of an accolade. Yeager finished his career with a .228 AVG and 102 HR.

1982: Darrell Porter (St. Louis Cardinals)

The late catcher was known more for his drug problem rather than his playing days, but 1982 was a great postseason as Porter went on to win the NLCS MVP as well.

1983: Rick Dempsey (Baltimore Orioles)

So in a three year span, a catcher won the MVP of the World Series. Dempsey, was a veteran and far from the end of his playing days (1969-1992), helped lead the Orioles over the Phillies. His career numbers were not fantastic (.233 AVG, 96 HR), but he built up a reputation as a solid backstop.

1992: Pat Borders (Toronto Blue Jays)

Who would have thought Borders would win this. He hit .450 and knocked a home run in route to the first Canadian team victory in the World Series. Borders would go on and become a journeyman, seeing action in several towns and finish his career with a .253 AVG and was one of three American players with an Olympic Gold Medal and a World Series Ring.

So this October, watch out for the catcher, he could be the next MVP. It's been 16 yrs since the last catcher won an MVP.

NHL PLAYOFFS: How the West will be Won

So I gave you guys the Eastern Conference Preview, now it's time for the West.

Western Conference

Dallas comes into the series coming off the 4OT win against San Jose. Yes, San Jose didn't make it this year, so every analyst can stop riding their dick. I don't question their pick, with strong offense (especially that Joe Thornton who became a new man since leaving Boston), a punishing defense and superb goaltending, Dallas proved to be the better squad. Dallas was saved by the strong goal play by Marty Turco. He has no Stanley Cups to his credit and this is a huge theme of this series.

Turco is pitiful against Detroit. In fact, during the postseason, he has never really been successful in Detroit (0-7-2). Since taking the position from Ed Belfour, winner of the No Goal Cup Final, Turco has been unreal during the regular season but absent in the playoffs. You could essentially make the comparison to Peyton Manning pre-2006.

The entire team is going to have to step up to a Red Wings team that is 5-0 at Joe Louis. With the first two in Hockeytown, the Stars have to at least split; better case being winning Game 2. Brendan Morrow leads the Stars with 7 goals in the postseason, he along with Mike Madano (how do guys still not find ways to cover him) and Mike Ribeiro (leader in points) will need to cranking out goals.

But Detroit, to go with a winning streak at home, are coming in as the President Cup winner and this team is loaded and ready to go. It's getting sick to see Johan Franzen, NHL leader with 11 goals, nine in the Colorado series, keep scoring and helping Detroit. Dallas has to find a way to stop him.

Oh yeah, and don't forget Henrik Zetterberg, Tomas Holmstrom and Pavel Datsyuk out of the scoring column.

Don't forget that Detroit has a strong defense as well. Okay, so Chris Chelios and Nicklas Lidstrom are the AARP of bluelines, but them along with Brian Rafalski and Brad Stuart are younger studs who play to that kind of intensity. Dallas's offense could run into a road block.

Then in goal, Mike Babcock can choose his poison between Chris Osgood and Dominik Hasek. While Hasek was skated out by the Nashville Predators, Osgood came in and cleaned up the mess. Then he helped sweep the Avs, an upstart team that was beat up coming into the series. Though no one can challenge them in that they've played this far in the season and have both won Stanley Cups.

In the end, I think we'll see Turco's demons come back. He has to deal with a hot Detroit offense that cannot be stopped and the defense is just so good and too smart to lose in a short series. I'll take Detroit in five games.