Umass – Dave Talks Sports

My brain hurts.

Normally, I’d call that Tuesday, but I’ll blame 2004 for today’s headache. ON THIS DATE, 16 years ago, I was roaming the halls of my dorm at UMass with a broom (I had “borrowed”) from a random janitor’s closet. The New York Yankees held a 3-0 lead over the Boston Red Sox in the ALCS, I was decked out in my A-Rod jersey, and I was constantly 2.5 seconds away from an ass-kicking from any one of the 20,000 Mass-Hole, Red Sox fans that inhabited said University.

Despite the imminent danger I was putting myself in, I was overjoyed that the Yankees would be playing in another World Series.

Being able to rub it in the faces of so many Sawks fans was icing on the cake.

Then, Dave Roberts happened, and David Ortiz happened, and the rest is…you know the saying.

Sooo, Friday night, with a 7-4 victory, the Houston Astros joined the 2004 Boston Red Sox as the only teams in Major League Baseball history to force a game 7 after trailing 0-3 in a postseason series. I’m not going to waste time, or mince my words…

I HATE THE HOUSTON ASTROS!!

And I’m here to tell you it’s okay for you to hate them too. Don’t feel bad. They deserve your vitriol. You can’t just cheat your way to a championship, put on a sad, puppy-dog face, and expect everyone to feel bad for you. Then, when people remind you that you’re an asshole, act like the victim.

And while I’d gladly headbutt Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, or any other Houston Astros’ player within a head’s length, 99.9% of this diatribe is directed at Carlos Correa.

See, some people are just born with a punchable face. *Yes, 36-year old man, living in his mother’s basement, I’m aware punchable isn’t a word. Now, shut up, and keep reading.* Enter Carlos Correa. As talented as they come, wildly underachieving so far in his six-year career, there’s just something about Correa’s face you want to see in front of a Mike Tyson, in his prime, right-uppercut.

As a Yankees’ fan, it should be sacrilegious to root for the division rival Tampa Bay Rays, but I have been for the better part of a week now. And Saturday night will be no different (there may be some scotch involved this time though).

Do you hate the Houston Astros as much as I do?? Are you even watching the MLB Postseason?? If not, who do you hate?!

Tell me in the comment section below.

If you haven’t seen it already, the Miami Heat and the Minnesota Timberwolves got into a little scuffle Monday night. J.J. Barea and Ray Allen started getting physical early on in the 4th quarter. Ray Allen had the ball and gave Barea a little incidental elbow out on the perimeter. Then, as Allen drove toward the basket, J.J. Barea gave Allen a little bump that knocked him to the floor. Allen hopped up immediately enraged over the foul. Both teams quickly met face to face where the incident took place, but all players involved were separated without it escalating any further. As a result of the play, J.J. Barea was given a Flagrant-2 foul and was ejected from the game. You need to see the play with your own two eyes to understand just how ridiculous the flagrant foul and subsequent ejection was. If you want to check out a video of the play then click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUtYCXPW9fM First of all, J.J. Barea is about 5’8″ and 160 pounds soaking wet (I don’t want to hear anything about the 6’0″ and 175 pounds that he’s listed at). On a little side-note, I saw Barea play live in a college game once back in ’04-’05. He played at Northeastern, and they were visiting my school; Umass. When the game was over I walked past him as he was on his way to the locker room, and trust me he is not 6’0″ tall (I was towering over him and I’m only 5’11”). Same goes with Allen Iverson, I stood next to him at a Knicks game once and was eye to eye with him. I digress. The fact of the matter is that J.J. Barea couldn’t toss Ray Allen and get a deserving Flagrant-2 foul if his life depended on it. Ray Allen should have gotten up, dusted himself off, and walked to the free throw line like a man. That would have been the end of it, and at most he could have whispered something to Barea next time they found themselves next to each other on the free throw line (something like, “try that again, and I’ll step on you little guy”). Instead he got all flustered and created something out of nothing. And that is the problem I have with today’s NBA. Today’s NBA is soft. Back in the day guys got knocked down way harder than that little bump Barea gave Allen. Just ask Michael Jordan how hard the Pistons used to hit him in the ’80’s and ’90’s. NBA players used to be as scared to drive to the basket as a wide receiver is coming across the middle of the field. Unfortunately, that type of NBA has come and gone. I understand that in this era everyone is more involved in player safety, and I’m okay with that. I don’t want players getting injured unnecessarily, but we need to stop babying these players. Flagrant fouls should be reserved for clearly intentional fouls that endanger the safety of a player. You can’t watch that Flagrant Foul from Monday night and tell me that Ray Allen’s body was ever in danger. That’s all I’m saying! If you have something to say about the issue of flagrant fouls in the NBA, please leave me a comment or question. Thank you.

If you enjoy my writing, follow me over to intheneutralzone.com where I am a contributing author there as well. Also you can follow me on twitter @DaveEttinger2 or like me on Facebook at http://www.Facebook.com/DaveTalksSports. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it!

If you want to see what a real flagrant foul looks like then check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dabt_Kb2UmQ