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Baseball’s financial inequities have taken a new twist, allowing the Yankees and Red Sox potentially to buy top players at discount prices.

Underbidding by the Big-Spenders?

There was a great article today on Yahoo! Sports today about baseball’s economics, specifically in regards to how the two most monied teams could actually end up signing the two premiere position players (Matt Holliday and Jason Bay) on the current free agent market at relative bargain prices.

Now I am the first to bemoan the imbalance between baseball’s haves and have-nots, even though my team, the Red Sox, is the second most financially well-off in the sport after the Yankees. The fiscal inequities are not good for the game, period.
Continue Reading Matt Holliday & Jason Bay to the Yankees & Red Sox? – MLB Baseball

Breaking down why TCU’s Gary Patterson deserves his AP Coach of the Year Award… and why his most distinguishing move occurred off the field.

Well-Deserved Recognition

Another BCS-busting first for the Horned Frogs of TCU–Gary Patterson has been named the first non-BCS conference Coach of the Year by the Associated Press.

The irony of that being the case is that any extremely successful non-BCS conference coach has to workfar harder than his BCS counterparts. Regardless of their coaches’ recruiting skills, the big name schools will always draw in higher-ranked classes by virtue of the name of the university itself.

The coach of a less famous school needs to be twice as inspiring to potential recruits and do far more with less in the way of talent. Sure, the intra-conference competition may not measure up to that of the BCS leagues, but to receive national recognition, those coaches must schedule as many BCS schools for inter-conference play as possible, so it’s not as if they play nobody. And in the case of the Mountain West Conference, the powerful triumvirate of Utah, BYU and TCU negates even that argument.

Here are some of Patterson’s accomplishments this year:
Continue Reading TCU’s Gary Patterson AP Coach of the Year – NCAA College Football

Editor’s Note: Something new we’re trying here at Deep Into Sports: brief introductions–quick summaries, if you prefer–to our articles. Here I discuss the rare display of honest emotion from Chad Ochocinco in honor of deceased Cincinnati Bengal teammate Chris Henry.

The NFL’s Clown Prince Is Humbled

Chad Ochocinco is without a doubt the current clown prince of the National Football League. At times I’ve been quite critical of his antics (such as his ludicrous color blindness discrimination lawsuit), but, to tell the truth, I’ve grown to like the guy. Sure, he can frequently act out of line, but he represents the more humorous side of ego and cockiness that Terrell Owens is the epitome of negativity.

Heck, even the whole name-changing of Johnson to Ochocinco–which I formerly refused to recognize–in retrospect, you have to love the fact that he found a way to thumb his nose at the restrictions of the No Fun League in a manner they could not squelch. Audacious? Absolutely!
Continue Reading Chad Ochocinco Honors Chris Henry – NFL Football

Sorry I’m late. I just chased some intruder in a red velour outfit off of the roof! He escaped in a huge sled driven by what looked like jackasses with antlers. I just missed catching him because the ice made our roof slippery -

Oh, hi honey… Say hello to my readers… What’s that?

Of course, I know we live in Southern California…

Okay, maybe I had one too many vodka tonics…I might’ve slipped on my own… Thanks for clearing that up, dear… Now–

–Do I know what time of year–what kind of question is–Pardon me…

… Well, um, yes one of the–reindeer, is it?–did have a nose that glowed.

Who? Santa? As in Claus? OMG, he did say, “And to all a good night!”
Continue Reading Christmas Gifts for Athletes

Bowl season is upon us, kicking off Saturday, December 19, with two games, the New Mexico Bowl and St. Petersburg Bowl.

That being the case, here are my picks for this year’s match-ups–take them with a grain of salt, or perhaps a couple margaritas.

NON-BCS BOWL GAMES

NEW MEXICO BOWL

Fresno State vs. Wyoming – Dec. 19
Pick: Fresno State

ST. PETERSBURG BOWL

Rutgers vs. UCF – Dec. 19
Pick: Rutgers
Continue Reading 2009 NCAA College Football Bowl Picks