Maddux Sports Blog

We don’t talk about swimming here much for obvious reasons, but a story today caught my attention. Michael Phelps is currently swimming at a World Cup meet in Stockholm. He’s not at his peak fitness by his own admission, and he’s sporting a beard, so he clearly isn’t looking to set world records. He’s still Michael Phelps, though, so it is very significant that he failed to qualify for two of his first three finals at the meet. The most glaring explanation for this is the swim suit. Swimming is doing the right thing next year by banning the ridiculous high tech swimsuits that have so changed the sport over the last couple of years. In anticipation of that, Phelps is using a regular suit at this meet while his competition uses high tech ones. This is a clear example of just how much of an impact the suits have. It seems ridiculous that a sport would allow something that would change the sport so fundamentally. It would be like MLB suddenly deciding to allow aluminum bats, or using softballs instead of baseballs. Those changes would make a mockery of hitting records just like the new suits have destroyed the meaning of world records.

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It was a great day at the Breeders’ Cup on Saturday. Zenyatta’s win in the Classic was, without exaggeration, one of the top five racing moments of my life – and I have seen a lot of them. She is truly an all-time great. She should be the horse of the year in my book without question – and that’s no insult to Rachel Alexandra. Rachel won a Triple Crown race and beat older horses, but Zenyatta’s win over older horses was far more impressive, and it came in the richest race in North America – one a female horse had never won. The field in Zenyatta’s race was far deeper than Rachel’s as well. I’d be fine with a split award this year, but if there is one winner it has to be Zenyatta.

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1. There isn’t a game on the schedule in which the two teams both need to win more than the Washington – Atlanta game. The Redskins need to stop the bleeding and get the focus off of what a circus their team has become. The Falcons need to stop the bleeding after their tremendous early promise was derailed bytwo losses in a row. 5-3 isn’t a bad place to be, but 4-4 would be a disaster.

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I won’t be watching too much college football today because of the Breeders’ Cup, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t be keeping an eye on the scores and the summaries, and probably clicking over to some games for a bit between races. Here are the stories I’ll be most interested in following:

Purdue (+6) at Michigan – I will be watching this one with fear in my heart. I have so little faith in my Wolverines right now that I am terrified of what could happen here. This is probably their last chance to become bowl eligible, so it’s an important one. There are about a million ways we are capable of losing this one right now.

Central Florida (+34.5) at Texas – Texas is looking great right now, and are back in the good graces of the media and the public. It will be interesting to see if they can maintain the momentum now that they have probably read the headlines about how great they are again. The Knights are dangerous enough that they could make this interesting if the Longhorns aren’t into it.

Northwestern (+15.5) at Iowa - The Hawkeyes need to keep winning, and Northwestern really needs a career-defining win as they attempt to rebuild their program.

LSU (+7.5) at Alabama – The Tide need a big win to gain back the public opinion that they have been losing gradually. LSU needs a big win to get back into the BCS Championship picture. Both teams will be fired up for this one.

Ohio State (+5) at Penn State – If and when the Hawkeyes falter the winner of this game is going to be there to try and pick up the pieces. This is the battle for second best in the Big Ten.

Wake Forest (+14) at Georgia Tech – The Wreck is quietly playing some fantastic football and are increasingly relevant nationally. This would move them to 9-1 if they win. If they play as well as they can then 11-1 is perfectly possible, and that’s when things get interesting.

Oregon (-7) at Stanford – This one is interesting for a couple of reasons. We get to see how the Ducks will react to a big win – if they can stay focused and on task. The Cardinal isn’t a team to be taken lightly, though, and they have a track record for killing giants.

TCU (-24.5) at San Diego State – Boise State had a bit of a scare on Friday night, and it could hurt their reputation. A big win here by TCU would further increase the gap between them and Boise State, and would make the road to the BCS all the more clear.

Vanderbilt (+35) at Florida – Florida needs to win this one in a big, big way or, if Texas or Alabama wins big, it is going to get harder and harder for Florida to justify their position atop the polls. Tebow and the team need to play like 35 point favorites here.

Houston (-1) at Tulsa – This one is going to be a good old fashioned shootout. I love that.

UConn (+17) at Cincinnati - The Bearcats need to keep winning to prove themselves, and they could stand to win by a really big margin to improve their public perception and try to move higher up the rankings.

USC (-10) at Arizona State - How do the Trojans bounce back from being blown out? We have no idea because it has never happened before under Pete Carroll. This will be educational.

There are few things harder in gambling to win than a pick six. It costs a fortune to play it properly, and it all can be derailed too easily. I haven’t done any Breeders’ Cup content this year because I don’t get the sense that most people here care about the ponies as much as I do. For kicks now, though, I’m going to try to put together a winning pick six ticket. It’s play money, so I plan to spend a lot of it. I can afford to, though – the pick six paid more than $155,000 today, and should be much bigger tomorrow. Here we go:

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Tim Lincecum is just 25 years old and he is in serious contention to win his second straight Cy Young award. Kids, does that sound like something you would like to accomplish, too? Well, apparently it’s easy, because now we know Lincecum’s secret – pot, and lots of it. Lincecum was apparently pulled over last week for speeding, and the officer discovered that his car reeked of pot. Lincecum ended up handing over a pipe and 3.3 grams of pot. That’s not much, but it’s enough for him to be facing misdemeanor charges. It will only be a slap on the wrist ultimately, but it’s obviously not what a league that has been overcome with drug stories for years now would have hoped from one of its biggest young stars. Kinda funny.

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I am impressed to the point of being shocked by the start that Brandon Jennings has gotten off to. In three games for a reasonably crappy Bucks team the point guard has averaged 22 points, .3 assists, and four boards. I have only seen him play part of one game, but he looked the furthest thing from a rookie point guard. The game I saw them play was against Chicago. I am a huge Derrick Rose guy – couldn’t be a bigger believer. That being said, Jennings flat out outplayed him in the game. I was very skeptical of Jennings ‘ decision to play in Europe instead of college, and the reports coming out of Europe weren’t universally great, but early indications are that he could be a serious draft steal. The downside to his early strong play in my mind is that it further legitimizes his decision to skip college and turn pro in Europe. If it continues to turn out so well for him then other players will surely follow, and that will only hurt college basketball. I’d obviously rather not have that happen.

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I’m always intrigued by how teams respond to losing a star player. There have been so many injuries to stars in the NHL this year that there are lots of interesting examples. For one, Vancouver has played their last four games without all-World goalie Roberto Luongo. Their backup is Andrew Raycroft, a guy who has bounced around and was chased out of Toronto despite their goalie struggles because he was playing so poorly. You’d expect a fall in performance then, but that just isn’t the case – they were just 6-6 with Luongo, but they are 3-1 with Raycroft. Even more surprising, Raycroft has allowed just two goals in those three wins. Atlanta is another interesting case. Ilya Kovalchuk is by far their best player, and he was off to a good start, but now he’s out of action for several weeks. The team lost the last three games with Kovalchuk in the lineup. They lost the first one he was out for as well, but then bounced back and have won two in a row. The natural reaction would be that a team built around one star would struggle without that star, but the Thrashers won a high scoring game in Montreal tonight. Interesting stuff, even if it is anecdotal.

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Just when you thought that the Browns couldn’t get any more ridiculous…

It was obvious to anyone with a brain, including owner Randy Lerner, that the team was hopelessly screwed up thanks to the not-so-brilliant Eric Mangini . It’s their bye week now, so it was a good time to do something. The good news is that Lerner did do something about it. The bad news, at least for Browns’ fans, is that what he did is hopelessly stupid and almost entirely without a chance of success.

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1. Will Denver ever lose? If they are going to do it then this is a good place for it to happen – in Baltimore. The Ravens have been impressive in a lot of ways despite their 3-3 record. Really a few breaks either way and these teams could easily have the opposite records. I have a feeling that whichever team wins this one will really have proven something in the process.

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