Salary Cap

As a long time philadelphia sports fan, I am completely soured on the chances of seeing a championship team this year.  I have been patient.  I have been vocal.  I prayed to God.  I cursed God.  I am now to the point that I am completely numb to all sporting events that have a philadelphia team in it.
Whenever I look back at all the near misses in the 23 years of no championships, I start to tear up.  I know that my suffering doesn’t compare to Cub fans, but my city has all four major sports teams(football, baseball, basketball, hockey).  The sixers last won in 1983.  OMG, this is just ridiculous.  The SIXERS?!!  The Phillies did it in 1980.(by the way, that year is the only year all four teams in the major sports from one city have ever been in the finals)  Sadly, only the Phillies won their final.  The Flyers last won in 1974-75.  Bobbi Clarke was the captain, not the burnt out GM.  The Eagles, well, they are still looking for a Super Bowl win.(won the Championship in 1960 before it was called Super Bowl) 

 My point is that I am tired of all the excuses that seem to go along with Philadelphia sports teams.  They had injuries.  They had one bad play.  Mitch Wild Thing Williams was pitching.  Always something to tell the fans about why they didn’t get the job done.  How long before fans stop showing up to games?  How much of this can one endure?  If you have the answer to any of these questions, please feel free to let me know.  Check out the poll and let me know when a Philadelphia team will win.

Salary Cap concerns are pretty much nonexistent with the new baseball deal that was just finalized.  Baseball players and owners proclaimed an unprecedented era of labor peace, finalizing a new five-year collective bargaining agreement Tuesday night.  The numbers are staggering to say the least.  Lets break them down.

Thresholds for luxury tax on team (Poorly managed teams is why the Yankees can spend at will) payrolls set at $148 million for 2007, $155 million for 2008, $162 million in 2009, $170 million in 2010 and $178 million in 2011. Tax rates on amount over threshold remain at 22.5 percent for first time over threshold, 30 percent for second time over threshold, 40 percent for third or subsequent time over threshold. 

The predictable baseball is that business as usual for the salary cap.  Where fans of all teams in hockey enjoy the excitment that their team has a chance, baseball fans get to know that only 5-7 teams are in the chase every year.  Good job, baseball.  I just wish baseball would go and change like Football.

I think the trade for LT was a bad one.  LJ was overrated last year.  He followed future hall of famer Roaf last year for all of his yards.  Since Roaf retired, LJ has averaged 1.9 yards versus 5.9.  Also, the last eight games are different than the first 8 games of a season.  Teams are out of the playoff race and basically collecting game checks til the end of the year.  This is when LJ got all of his yards.  When teams still believe they have a chance, they play harder.  LJ is running into determined teams right now.  To see this bad decision by FF Rookie

General manager Bobby Clarke has finally realized that playing hockey is easier than managing it.  With the ultimate goal of the Stanley Cup now farther away than ever, Clarke decided that he had messed the team up enough to move on.  Clarke is personally responsible for the failure of this team.  His decision to bring in hard nosed Ken Hitchcock ( who got canned too) as completely destroyed player morale and effort.  In the boldest move before leaving, Clarke released three players because of lack of effort.  Why would you want to play for people who yell at you all the time? And expect an out of date mentality managing stlye to help you compete in the ever changing NHL.  The philadelphia flyers used to be able to spend freely without worrying about the salary cap constraints.  I guess time catches up with everyone.  ESPN has a great article about what happened.

Fantasy football has taken a huge turn into the salary cap atmosphere.  The football story of the year is about how fantasy football should have a salary cap for the upcoming football year.

Fantasy football owners are scrambling after just the third week into the season. Looking at the fantasy players numbers, the second most productive running back has been Frank Gore for the 49ers. Having watched this NFL game personally, I can tell you the fantasy football owner that you might want to consider taking Robinson off of waivers. Gore got a heavy dose of Eagle into his stomach and might be out for a game or two. Robinson runs with some authority and has the quickness to break a long run at anytime. Trust me on this. Do your fantasy football team a favor and pick up Robinson. As for that game, it looks like Westbrook has it going on. His three touchdown day probably either won or loss your game this week in fantasy football. Next week, the Eagles play Green Bay on monday night. I would start everyone that I owned for both teams. I would say this game has a chance to be 49-42 with the way both defenses are playing. Yuck. Another fantasy football fact would be to drop Vernon Davis at tight end and pick up Eric Johnson from the 49ers. He will be starting now since Vernon broke his leg the same time Gore got hurt. Talk about a hard hitting football game. Johnson got 22 fantasy football points after getting only 1 through the first two games combined. This is going to be the average number of points because it seemed like Alex Smith was comfortable throwing to Johnson right away. Just a fantasy football suggestion there.

The rumor is circulating that the plane that crashed into the apartment complex is owned by Cory Lidle, the pitcher for the New York Yankees.  I am looking for any information that can verify this.

Fanatsy football has taken a new twist and turn with the salary cap as important as which players you select.  I am kind of shocked and amazed that fans of fantasy football have taken on this crazy new internet game.  The salary cap game allows the players to actully crunch the numbers just like a real football general manager.  Let me say that again, fans of fanatsy football are actually sinking themselves so far into the business that the are actually becoming capologists.  Salary cap for fantasy football should be taught in school.  People hate math and will do anything to get out of it.  As soon as you make it a game, people jump at the chance to compete in math.  Fantasy football is making the greatest sport on earth even cool for us math nerds.  Salary cap in football will be explained while you talk around the water cooler at work in the upcoming years.  If you want to be one of the first to play this cool fanatsy football salary cap game, I suggest this free site.

I was just browsing through some blogs and found this interesting little website.  Since there is no salary cap in college football, I thought I would make some comments about what the NCAA is doing to the college athlete.  The rates of graduation are horrible while the Schools reap all the money.  I believe that the NCAA have fumbled away to give back some of the money to the true moneymakers, the players.

Online poker has taken the ultimate salary cap hit from who else but the United States Congress.  Banks and Credit card companies are no longer going to be able to make payments to these sites.  I believe poker will have a huge falling out because of this.  No longer will people be able to play money games on-line.  I predict that after 2 years of such laws, poker will be back to where it was before the ESPN explosion. 

The true salary cap of on-line poker.  So sad, it reminds me of my 7-2 off suit.