Why MLB Opening Day is the Best in Sports

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Baseball is all about tradition, and there's no better tradition than opening day.

Say the words "Opening Day" to anybody and they know right away that you're talking about baseball. For baseball fans, it's nothing short of a nation holiday. Whether your team last played in August or October, this is definitely the best kickoff event the sports world has to offer.

Now there is "Opening Night" which features the Houston Astros against the Texas Rangers. Even though the Astros are playing their first game in the AL, this still doesn't qualify as Opening Day. Opening Night is more of a media event. It's baseball's way to get one game on primetime Sunday Night television. The real magic happens the day after.

Some ballclubs raise banners on Opening Day, and others trot out stars from years past. A-list celebrities throw out the first pitch, and the pregame ceremony is the best all year. While all of these little nuances are nice and make the day just a little more entertaining, they're certainly not what makes the day special.

Mark Lyons/Getty Images

Case in point: the Findlay Market Parade. It's been carried out every year for something like a million years in Cincinnati to celebrate the return of Reds baseball. It can be considered an annual reminder that the Reds have been playing America's pastime for longer than any other club in the major leagues.

It doesn't happen every year anymore, but the President of the United States throwing out a first pitch on Opening Day is a tradition that dates back more than 100 years. William Howard Taft got it started in 1910, and Barack Obama officially made it a 100-year tradition back in 2010.

The NFL will have an answer to this tradition when the president takes care of the first coin flip of the season. The NHL when the president drops the first puck. The NBA when the president tosses the ball up for the opening tipoff. Good luck with that, guys.

Opening Day is also at the perfect time. Spring is a time that everyone likes. Warm weather is on its way for most of the country, and it's the time period where is perfect weather in the southern part of the United States. There's no football, college basketball is drawing to a close, and the horribly long NBA season is still dragging on. It's the day of the season where anything is possible, even the Houston Astros selling out or even beating the Texas Rangers on national television.

Another great thing is the pitching matchups. Being named the opening day starter means a lot to most starters, and they don't take it lightly. Pitching in front of a packed house against the other team's number one starter can really get the blood pumping, which makes for awesome baseball.

I may be a little bias toward baseball since I play it and it's by far my favorite sport. But the excitement and feel inside the ballpark, along with the competitiveness in every single game rivals no other sport. The stats in spring training, good or bad, mean nothing once the real season starts. Whether you want to see an up and coming prospect that might want to lead your team to the promised land, or your amped up to watch the star players, nobody will be disappointed (unless your team loses.) Opening Day is an unofficial national holiday, so just kick back, relax, and enjoy everybody.

-Wyatt Smith, Sports Editor of Clickege Media

Cinderella Story Comes to an End

After becoming the first 15th seed to reach the Sweet 16 in NCAA tournament history, Florida Gulf Coast University lost to in-state rival Florida 62-50

Florida Gulf Coast University's Cinderella run ended the way most bad dates do: with anger, frustration, self-loathing and and a vow to never speak of this night again.

The Eagles jumped out to a 15-4 lead after a few trademark alley-oops and exciting fast break scores. But then Florida realized that they were a 3 seed that had gone to the Elite 8 the past two years and were facing a 15 seed. In light of this realization, Florida unfurled a 23-2 run and led 30-26 at halftime with FGCU already looking worn out.

The Eagles had as many turnovers (20) as field goals in the game. So even though they ended up shooting a higher percentage than the Gators, there wasn't enough opportunities to score. The philosophy of "lets throw a lob towards the basket every other possession and see what happens" turned out to fail against the more athletic and strong Florida team. The key moment came when Mike Rosario passed the inbound off of his defender on the sideline and took it all the way to the rim for a dunk with about two minutes left. A very fitting exclamation point to an overall sloppy and forgettable game for the Eagles.

But don't let this last game, as bad as it was, be the take away of the 2013 Florida Gulf Coast Eagles. They were the first 15th seed in history to go as far as they did, and they still kept up with powerhouse Florida in their loss. If asked what FGCU was before the season started, most people would say it was some DIII school or even an online type of college. But they brought their fun, cocky personalities to the big dance and outshined the likes of San Diego State and Georgetown. This team in the reason that the NCAA tournament is so much fun to watch every year.

Review: MLB 13 The Show

PlayStation's MLB the Show series has been a major success, taking home sports game of the year award multiple times since its release in 2006. Back then, baseball video games included the 2K series, MVP baseball, The Bigs, and a series of games simply called MLB and whatever year it was. Since David Wright graced the cover of MLB 06 The Show, it's blown all competition out of the water to the point where today only 2K baseball is left and that is fading quickly. It's gotten to the point where if a gamer wants to play a baseball game, then he has to have a ps3 to play the Show (since it's ps3 exclusive.)

New Features

• Revamped Road To The Show mode
• Different camera angles in all game types
• Beginner mode 
• Halo tracker helps to see the ball at all times
• Almost every single player's batting stance is 100% accurate
• In franchise game mode's, each team has different tendencies as to how they will build their team.
• Postseason Mode

Positives

There is so much to love about this new edition of The Show. Sports games have more of a predicament than say Halo or Crysis because they need to come out with virtually the same game every year but still make it appealing to fans to get the new edition. Sony and San Diego Studios certainly do not make it look hard with this series.

Two things hit me right away in the first game I played in this game: the player tendencies and the overall feel of the game. What they did with batting stances was absolutely perfect. For the longest time, atleast I've wanted all of the players in the game to have their own stance because I always imagined it propelling the game to a completely new level, and it did. The ways that the batter swings and what he does before the pitch is spot on to what he does in real life.

Another new feature is beginner mode. This enables new users to the game to get their feet wet, pirsay, and figure the game out before they start a franchise. The CPU feeds the batter fastballs until they get their timing down, and it also provides feedback based on what they're doing right and wrong. Another minor feature that's been added is the ball halo and tracker. This is a glowing yellow-ish light and a red tail trailing from the ball that make it easy to see at all times. This is especially handy in RTTS when you're running the bases and need to know where the ball is going.

Possibly the biggest upside to the 2013 edition of The Show is the improved Road To The Show. In this game mode, you can create your own player and rise up through the minors to the MLB and beyond. But in year's past it's been a struggle. Often times (for me atleast) I'd end up as a 27-year old player just making it to the majors but never getting enough playing time and eventually my chances of ever being successful fade away. In other words it was really hard to do well. But now it's a lot more playable with multiple difficulty levels and new features. One is when you're fielding instead of seeing the play as if it was an exhibition game, you directly behind your player running to the ball. This makes for a more realistic and fun way to play the usually boring part of defense. Another is the ability to look at the ball while you're running (press R1) and pick up your third base coach (L1.) This is MUCH appreciated as running the bases has been more difficult than it had to be in years past without being able to see the ball and the camera switching angles all the time. Also, it's possible to completely customize your player as well. From the shape of his face to his stance to the way he follows through on a home run, it's all there.

Postseason mode is a new element that's been added to the game too. It gives you the ability to play a postseason with any team and feel the excitement and roar of the crowd like a real playoff game would feel like. Also, in past games to view a player's overall, you had to look at a red bar and try to guess how muchout of 100 it is since there was never exact numbers. But realizing that every sports games now ranks players with overall numbers, The Show has given every attribute and overall a specific number which makes it a lot easier to asses who's actually better than who.

Negatives

There aren't too many drawbacks to point out, but every game has some. While the feel and pace of the game is spectacular overall, there are still a few glitches here and there. Every once in awhile I'll be batting and when the pitcher throws the ball, the game glitches out and I end up striking out embarrassingly  Or there's another instance where Diamondbacks center fielder Adam Eaton ended up running through the outfield wall and was trapped for the play. So while these occurrences rarely happen, it's still a little bit of a downside. 

Also, I was really hoping that every team would have an accurate farm system. And if that was too hard to do, which is understandable since the minor leagues consist of hundreds of players, atleast make the triple A teams accurate and have all of thetop 100 prospects in the game. But just as the first edition of The Show, the minor leagues are full of generically named players. Not even stolen base king Billy Hamilton or top prospect Travis D'Arnaud, whom RA Dickey was traded for. Overall it's not my biggest concern but it makes running a franchise a little less realistic.

Verdict (ratings out of ten)

• Graphics: 8.5
• Smoothness and overall feel: 9
• Online gameplay: 7.5
• Life of game (ability to play it for awhile): 8.8
• Improvement over previous game: 8.5
• Overall Rating: 8.9

MLB 13 The Show is definitely worth the purchase if you're a baseball fan. There's virtually no competition as far as other baseball games go, plus the graphics and way the game plays is far better than any other sports game. With the PS4 coming out later this year, there are many reasons to look forward to next year's edition of the game. But until then, The Show continues to provide stellar baseball gameplay.

The Money of the NCAA Tournament

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All sorts of people make all sorts of money from the tournament. There are ads, sponsorships, ticket sales, wagers and more. But who gets the money, and how much?

1. Broadcast Rights

In 1982, CBS agreed to pay $16 million a year for the rights to broadcast the tournament. In 2010, the NCAA and CBS renewed that agreement for 14 years, but with an increased price tag: $771 million a year.  

CBS owns all the channels which broadcast the games (CBS, TNT, TBS, and TruTV).

For comparison, CBS, NBC, and FOX pay between $950 million and $1.1 billion for just the Super Bowl. CBS, NBC, and FOX will soon pay around $3.1 billion a year for the rights to the rest of the games, while ESPN will pay $1.9 billion. 

More comparison: FOX and Telemundo paid a total of $1 billion for the rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup. 

The money paid by CBS goes to the NCAA, where, according to their site, 96% of it is distributed to Division 1 schools in some fashion.

2. Advertising

While it's no Super Bowl, the tournament does get some pretty great ad rates, especially for the Championship. A :30 spot during the first round costs between $100,000 and $250,000 ($110,000 is average for network TV), while the same spot could cost more than $1.6 million during the championship. (For comparison, a :30 ad during the Super Bowl can cost more than $3.5 million.)

According to Adweek, a first or second round ad (again, :30) goes for $100-$250,000. By the time the Final Four hits, the price is up to $1.1 million, and the championship goes for the previously mentioned $1.6 million.

Last year's tournament brought in around $775 million in ad revenue for CBS. This year, that number is expected to rise to around $875 million.

Another interesting area related to advertising is ratings, which is the largest factor affected the price of an ad.

The incredibly worthless "First Four" games managed to get 4.48 million viewers this year (a pretty low rating when compared to network shows, which can get up to 15 million a week, but a pretty nice one when compared to cable shows, The Americans gets about 2 million a week and Breaking Bad and Mad Men get between 1 and 3 million.)

That 4.48 is up 14% from last years First Four.

Last year's tournament averaged 9.6 million viewers per game. The championship last year was watched by 20.1 million viewers.

3. Sponsorships and Ticket Sales

If you've seen any of the games, you've definitely experienced some of the sponsorships. AT&T got their mame slapped on every half time show, Capital One is sponsoring the Tournament Central studio show. (Coca-Cola is the third premium sponsor this year.)

While details are scarce on the numbers behind the sponsorships, it is estimated that Capital One pays $35 million their sponsorship. 

In previous years, ticket sales and sponsorships have made more than $40 million for the NCAA.  That number will likely be significantly larger this year. Again, 96% of this money is distributed to Division 1 schools. 

4. Wagers 

Chances are you filled out a braket. It's also pretty likely you entered this bracket in some sort of monetary award system, which requires an initial "investment" from you. Each year, an estimated 40 million brackets are filled out, and $7 billion is bet on these brackets. (That's more than the Super Bowl's $6 billion.)

Because of all this money on the line, employees have been known to focus less on work and more on sports. One survey estimatesthat 8.4 million hours of time are wasted during the tournament by private sector employees. Since the average pay is $22.87 an hour, that comes out to $192,108,000 in wages.

It is worth noting however, that this survey assumed that employees would otherwise be productive, which we all know is not always the case.

What's it All Mean?

So, unsurprisingly, a lot of money is made by people (mainly CBS and the NCAA) during March Madness. In total, about $1,693,000,000 is moved around by college basketball this month. With that you could buy 3.38 million iPads, 16,930,000,000 pieces of gum, or 483,714,285.714 gallons of gas, or enough to travel 11,609,142,857.1 miles in the US. 

You could also buy 7,695,454,545.45 meals for starving families in Africa. 

I leave it on that uplifting note. 

This report was sponsored by Yahoo, which isn't as old and gross as you think it would be. 

Sources: Adweek, Investopedia, Wikipedia

1909 Honus Wagner Baseball Card Could Auction for More than $3 Million

The rarest baseball card in the world in up for auction at the Audemars Piguet Flagship Boutique in midtown Manhattan. The 1909 "cigarette" card has reportedly already been bid on for $1.5 million and could go all the way up to $3 million. 

The card itself has its own display in the baseball hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York and is widely considered the most valuable baseball card of all time. "The Honus Wagner card is the Mona Lisa, the Van Gogh of our industry," said Ken Goldin, the founder of Goldin Auctions. "You can be a casual baseball fan, but if there's one baseball card you've heard of — it's the Honus Wagner."

The last time a Wagner card was publicly sold was in 2012 for $1.2 million. Since then, the average Wagner card, depending on condition, has appreciated 70 percent in value.

The opening bid for the tiny piece of fine art was $500,000. Break open your piggy bank, the auction ends April 5.

The T206 Honus Wagner card was designed and issued between 1909 and 1911. But then Wagner refused to allow production of the card to continue either to prevent kids from buying cigarettes or because he wanted more compensation. It's estimated that there are anywhere from 60 to 200 of these cards worldwide.

The most famous T206 Honus Wagner is the "Gretzky T206 Honus Wagner" card. The card has a controversial past, as some speculate that it was once altered, based on the card's odd texture and shape. The Gretzky T206 Wagner was first sold by Alan Ray to a baseball memorabilia collector named Bill Mastro, who sold the card two years later to Jim Copeland for nearly four times the price he had originally paid. Copeland's sizable transaction revitalized interest in the sports memorabilia collection market. In 1991, Copeland sold the card to ice hockey figures Wayne Gretzky and Bruce McNall for $451,000. Gretzky resold the card four years later to Wal-Mart and Treat Entertainment for $500,000, for use as the top prize in a promotional contest. 
The next year, a Florida postal worker won the card and auctioned it at Christie's for $640,000 to collector Michael Gidwitz. In 2000, the card was sold via Robert Edward Auctions to card collector Brian Seigel for $1.27 million. In February 2007, Seigel sold the card privately to an anonymous collector for $2.35 million. Less than six months later, the card was sold to another anonymous collector for $2.8 million. In April 2011, that anonymous purchaser was revealed to be Ken Kendrick, owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks.^[2] These transactions have made the Wagner card the most valuable baseball card in history.

More Upsets, More History: FGCU First 15th Seed to Reach the Sweet 16

While it may not be the best thing for your tattered bracket, it's great for underdogs everywhere. 

The number 15 Florida Gulf Coast Eagles have solidified their placement as the lovable underdogs of 2013, as they defeated the No. 7 San Diego St. Aztecs, 81-71, and became the first 15 seed in tournament history to reach the Sweet 16.

The first half was pretty much even the whole time, with neither team pulling away. San Diego St. went into halftime up 35-34.

Just like that Georgetown game (where FGCU beat #2 Georgetown), the second half was much, much better for FGCU fans, and much, much worse for Aztec fans. 

The Eagles pulled off a 21-5 run to put the Aztecs away, and it was just as dazzling as the last game. San Diego St. gave up 17 turnovers on the game.

Bernard Thompson and Sherwood Brown led FGCU with 23 and 17 points, respectively. Brett Comer was a master on the point, dishing out 14 assists.

FGCU will play the #3 Florida Gators next week. 

Round Three Results

Click here to view. 

Let a Math Nerd Tell You Why Your Bracket Sucks, Even If You're Smart

Joey Votto Cranks a Homerun Off of Yu Darvish

Whether you're a Reds fan (like me) or not, this moonshot off of Darvish's curveball is so great that even Darvish is laughing about it.

Iowa State Beats Notre Dame 76-58

Yay, more upsets! 

Iowa State basically crushed Notre Dame tonight, with a final score of 76-58.

At half time, Iowa State led 35-23, after Notre Dame struggled to take care of the bal, turning it over 14 times in the first twenty minutes. 

That helped the Cyclones take 13 more field goals in the first half.

The Fighting Irish cut down on their turnovers in the second half, but could not slow down the Cyclone offense. Iowa State scored 41 points in the final 20 minutes. Overall, Iowa State shot 49 percent from the field.

Georges Niang led the Cyclones with 19 points, while Melvin Ejim added 17 points and eight rebounds. Tom Knight and Jack Cooley both scored 14 points in a losing effort for Notre Dame.

Iowa State will play the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes on Sunday in Dayton, Ohio.

See round two results here and see all our madness coverage here. 

Iowa State Fails at Dunking

There has been quite a few impressive dunks in the first two days of the tournament. This was not one of them.

Annnnd... Wisconsin is Out

After Harvard, you might think that your bracket couldn't get any more messed up.
Nope. Wisconsin, a #5 team, has been knocked out by none other than Ole Miss (#12)

When the final buzzer buzzed, the score was 57-46 at the SprintCenter in Kansas City, Missouri.

SB Nation reports:

(Marshell) Henderson made just one of his first 13 shots before hitting a three-pointer at the 11:25 mark in the second half to cut Ole Miss' six-point deficit in half. Henderson drilled another trey two minutes later to tie the game and cap off an 8-2 run. After Murphy Holloway gave Ole Miss the lead with a pair of buckets with less than nine minutes remaining, Henderson extended the Rebels' lead to six with a layup and another three-pointer.

The Rebels' energetic junior guard finished with 19 points on 6-of-21 shooting. Holloway chipped in 10 points and nine rebounds for Ole Miss, which outscored Wisconsin in the second half, 35-21, and held Wisconsin to a 25.4-percent clip from the floor, to win its first tournament game since 2001. 

Ole Miss will face La Salle in the third round on Sunday.

Check out the results of round two, which should really be called round one, here. 

Harvard Stuns #3 Ranked New Mexico

Eight Presidents of the United States. Forty-seven Nobel Prize winners. Forty-seven more Pulitzer Prize recipients.
And one NCAA tournament victory.

Harvard, that bastion of Supreme Court justices, captains of industry and high school valedictorians, continued its rise in men's basketball with a historic 68-62 victory over New Mexico on Thursday in Salt Lake City.

"I'm extremely proud," said coach Tommy Amaker on CBS after the win. "They had to believe. [Before the game] we talked about preparation and we talked about belief."

Generally it takes winning the entire NCAA tournament for a coach to receive a phone call from the sitting president, but in this case it probably wouldn't surprise anyone if Amaker's phone buzzed from the White House as Barack Obama went to law school there.

Amaker is a confident coach however, a man who's been to the big time and has been able to pass on to his players the concept that they are just as good as anyone out there, Ivy League or not.

He's proven to be the perfect Crimson coach. After some success at Seton Hall and Michigan, he's found his niche identifying exceptional students with game and convincing them that they don't have to pass up any athletic dreams in Cambridge. The Crimson took on a Lobos team that spent much of the season ranked in the top 15 and entered the game with a 29-5 record. They won both the Mountain West regular season and tournament championships


And judging by the excited, but hardly over-the-top reaction of Amaker after the victory, the coach doesn't think his team is done. You might as well get used to the Crimson coming for you.

2013 NCAA Tournament Results: Round One

Click here for the results. 

The Gonzaga Scare: History Almost Happened

A #1 team has never lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Today, Southern almost pulled it off. 

Sure, it would have screwed up everyones brackets, but I really wanted to see Southern make history and defeat Gonzaga.
In the end though, the Bulldogs gritted out a 64-58 win over the Southern Jaguars in Salt Lake City.

With 1:57 on the clock, Gonzaga was only up by one (59-58). Kevin Pangos drilled a three from to put his team up 62-58.
A couple of key defensive stops down the stretch held the Jaguars scoreless in the final 90 seconds of play, and two free throws from Pangos put the game on ice.

Kelly Olynyk was the star for the Zags, scoring 21 points and bringing down 10 rebounds. Pangos had 16 points, and Gary Bell Jr. chipped in with 11 more. The Bulldogs shot 42 percent from the field.

Southern gave it everything they had on the offensive end. They went 10-for-23 on threes, which kept them in it throughout the second half. Sadly, they just didn't have the firepower to pull the historical upset.
Derick Beltran led his team with 21 points.

MLB Predictions: AL Central

5. Minnesota Twins
2013 Predicted Record: 65-97

The Twins would be considered a team in rebuilding mode. Somewhere along the way of dominating the American League Central with superb fielding, patient hitters, and strike-throwing pitchers over the past ten years, the Twins just fell apart. Even with the opening of the beautiful Target Field two years ago, the Twins have gotten last place in both seasons at their new park.

Over the next six years, the Twins will be paying Joe Mauer $23 million annually. This isn't too unreasonable, given Mauer's batting titles and an MVP under his belt. The only problem is that the Twins' payroll is about $80 million this season. So if you were to do the math, Joe Mauer is taking up one fourth of the team's payroll to only catch half the time and play at most 145 games.

Now that general manager Terry Ryan is back and calling all of the shots, he's made some solid moves. His main focus has been to patch up the pitching staff since the team's best starter is Scott Diamond currently. So he traded speed demon Ben Revere to Philly for Vance Worley, a 25-year old starter with solid stuff. Denard Span was sent to Washington for the prospect that the Nats did not want to give up in Alex Meyer. Ryan also signed Rich Harden and Mike Pelfrey to make the team a little more competitive.

The Twins are absolutely loaded on prospects, with Kyle Gibson, Miguel Sano, and Aaron Hicks just to name a few. But that doesn't suggest that this season will be any less painful. Joe Mauer hasn't played over 150 games once in his career. Justin Morneau is a shell of his once self. Jamey Carroll will be their shortstop and the only talented outfielder is Josh Willingham. The future definitely looks brighter than the present for the Twins

4. Chicago White Sox
2013 Predicted Record: 76-86

Chicago enjoyed surprisingly good success last season by leading the division most of the year against the loaded Detroit Tigers, until they bottomed out and blew their lead to end the season. Bounce back years from Jake Peavy, Alex Rios, and Adam Dunn all helped propel the White Sox to an 85 win season that should've been a 90 win season.

This offseason really hasn't been too exciting Chicago. They've spent $12 million on platoon man Jeff Keppinger to play a position he rarely ever plays. And they also signed a hard-throwing reliever. Chicago also lost the heart and soul of their team in AJ Pierzinski, along with Kevin Youkilis, Francsico Liriano, and Brett Myers.

This season the White Sox have a lineup full of aging hitters. Their three best hitters are all above the age of 32, and even though Paul Konerko has been consistent, this might be the season he starts to decline. Gordan Beckham has proven to be a solid defensive player, but his bat hasn't panned out like the scouts once thought it would. The rotation had its ups and downs last season. Chris Sale and Jake Peavy were spectacular, with Jose Quintana being a pleasant surprise at the end of the rotation. But Gavin Floyd, Francisco Liriano, and Phil Humber struggled with none of the three posting an ERA under 4.29. John Danks struggled with injuries and only pitched in nine games.

This year will be interesting. The lineup could potentially be pretty good, but with aging and disappointing hitters it most likely won't be too much of a force. The staff is chock full of injury prone pitchers as well, which is why the White Sox won't repeat with a positive record.

3. Cleveland Indians
2013 Predicted Record: 81-81
The Indians went from a promising 80 wins two seasons ago to a dismal 92 losses last year. They outhit only the Seattle Mariners in the AL and outpitched nobody. It looked like a promising season at first with Chris Perez and Jason Kipnis making the all-star team, but soon the club dipped back under .500 and stayed there. Travis Hafner didn't produce. Grady Sizemore didn't play a game. The team's best starter was Zach McCallister who went 6-8 with a 4.24 ERA.

But the front office looked to bring the team back to a 2007 ALCS like state that had the whole city buzzing about the bright future of the team. Even though that excitement, along with Grady Sizemore's career, faded quickly, the Indians were determined this offseason. They signed eccentric outfielder Nick Swisher to a four year deal, and got this free agency's best outfielder in Michael Bourn. The Indians then pulled off an absolute steal when they gave up Shin Shoo Choo for a somewhat outfielder in Drew Stubbs and starter Trevor Bauer, the number three overall pick just three years ago and a top twenty prospect.

This season the lineup could potentially give Detroit a run for its money. Nick Swisher brings power from both sides of the plate along with catcher Carlos Santana. Bourn will give you 40 stolen bases, 100 runs, and superb defense. Jason Kipnis and Asdrubal Cabrera make up a potent up-the-middle duo with both the ability to hit and defend.

The rotation will be the key to the Tribes success this year though. Last year Ubaldo Jimenez was god-awful and Justin Masterson, who looked as though he was on the rise, took a step back. With the signing of Brett Myers and acquiring Trevor Bauer, the staff has a chance to carry the Indians but the big-name guys need to have bounce back years.

2. Kansas City Royals
2013 Predicted Record: 87-75
Yes, the Royals will finish somewhere besides fourth or fifth place this season. After almost a decade of draft busts and trade chips that never panned out, the Royals decided to actually go for a talented player this offseason in James Shields. Shields went 15-10 last year and has pitched atleast 200 innings three straight seasons. But they had to give up a potential superstar in Wil Myers, the fourth rated prospect according to Baseball America. The Royals also signed Ervin Santana to an excessive $13 million and Jeremy Guthrie to an even more absurd $25.5 million. Being that it is that these pitchers are being overpaid, it's clear that the Royals are trying their best to patch up a typically awful rotation.

Even though Myers is gone, the Royals still have an incredible lineup and there wouldn't have been enough room for him anyways. Salvador Perez is only 23 but has the rare combination of a strong arm and being a great hitter. He hit .303 and slugged .471 last season and showed some flashes of greatness. Eric Hosmer was chosen by some as a dark horse MVP candidate last year, but instead fell into a sophomore slump and hit a mere .232. He did well at the WBC and he should do better than last season. The outfield trio of Gordon, Cain, and Francoeur will be top of the line defensively and is looks like Alex Gordon is finally becoming the player everyone thought he would.

With the lineup have more than enough power and speed, it all depends on the rotation for the Royals. But either way they're going to finally be a contendor.

1. Detroit Tigers
2013 Predicted Record: 100-62
Picking the Tigers to win the Central is a pretty safe pick. They coasted through the season last year just hanging around the White Sox in second place until they turned it on the last month and took first place. Miguel Cabrera won the first triple crown since 1967 and snatched the MVP over a worthy candidate in Mike Trout. Justin Verlander was as flithy as usual winning 17 games.

The Tigers are a prime example of what having a rich, competitive owner can do for a team. Mike Ilitch decided he wanted a championship level team, so he traded prospects Andrew Miller and Cameron Maybin for Miguel Cabrera.Over the past eight years he's signed Victor Martinez, Prince Fielder, Johhny Peralta, Ivan Rodriguez, and Jose Valverde. Add to that list this summer Torii Hunter and Anibal Sanchez.

The lineup is superb from both sides of the plate. The Tigers made the WS last year and now they have Martinez and Hunter on the team. Add to that a full year of Anibal Sanchez, a weak division, and a team full of stars and the Tigers should win the central with ease.

Two Buzzer Beaters Back to Back to End the First Quarter

Greek Soccer Player Banned from Team For Life

Greek midfielder Giorgos Katidis has been banned for life from the team after he gave the Nazi salute to the crowd after he scored a goal.

The growing sentiment of neo-fascism in Greece appears to have spread to the beautiful game, as AEK Athens midfielder Giorgos Katidis "pulled a Di Canio" by apparently giving a Nazi salute after scoring in his side's 2-1 victory over Veria on Saturday.

For the gesture, the tattooed 20-year-old has been handed a life ban from the Greek National team, whom he once captained at U-19 level. Katidis, however, will not join Di Canio and Christian Abbiati in the pantheon of proud football fascists, as he has denied knowing what the gesture meant on Twitter.

Katidis insisted on Twitter and through the media that he had no idea what the salute meant and that he was simply "pointing to a mate in the stands."

The "pointing at a team mate" excuse is painfully unlikely, but it is quite possible that Katidis is naive/stupid enough to not know the meaning of his offensive celebration. (After all, this is a man half-witted enough to apparently have "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" tattooed just above his junk.)

While the club will decide his future at a board meeting next week, AEK's German manager Ewald Lienen has supported his midfielder, insisting he is apolitical and probably saw the salute "on the internet or somewhere else" without knowing what it meant. Which seems a perfectly good defense for repeating it in front of thousands of people.
-Wyatt Smith, Sports Editor for Clickege Media

Why the NBA Schedule is Simply Way Too Long

One of the main criticisms of the NBA is that the season drags out too much. Basketball is looked at as more of a winter sport, but professionally the schedule goes from October through the end of June. 9 months of one sport is a lot for anyone to follow, especially if there's other sports that they're interested in following as well.

College basketball has about a five month season, and is relevant during the time period when football isn't the source of every story on sportscenter and baseball is also in the offseason. So basically it serves as a winter-only sport like it should. Most NBA fans tend to like the college game atleast a little bit if they don't love it. But there are a lot pf college fans that rip on the NBA for having lackadaisical play and letting egos of the players take over with all of the drama throughout the season.

It's been said for awhile that "nobody in the NBA plays any defense." It appears this way for three reasons.

1. The league banned hand checking, along with adding three seconds in the lane rules to make the game less physical.
2. With an 82 game schedule, it becomes a tiring, grueling season
3. Talent in the NBA is better than college, therefore playing defense will be much harder as well with all of the isolation plays that are run

Now to address these three. Back in the 80's and 90's, it would legal to basically beat an opposing player up and steal his lunch money while you were at it. Hand-checking meant that guards couldn't just drive into the lane whenever they wanted to. Bigs were more important because they positioned themselves closer to the basket anyways, which resulted in more hard-nosed, physical play.

An 82 game schedule is pretty ridiculous considering that teams may only play up to two games a week. A season that starts before halloween and runs all the way to the Fourth of July can be expected to be a pretty taxing season. 

For every thousand of so players in college every year, under 80 of them make to the NBA and less than half of that end up seeing playing time. Truth is, the talent level is far superior to that of college or any other basketball league, and if anyone not named Lebron or an athletic big guy wanted to play defense every single night there's no way they'd be able to. 

The NBA is a league that's run by superstars. The last three NBA champions have been the Heat, Mavs, and Lakers. Lebron James, Dirk Nowitski, Kobe Bryant. It would be in the best interest of both the league and the fans to shorten the season to 66 games, if not fewer. Imagine almost every game mattering in the NBA like it does with the NFL, where players go all out on defense and truly showcase their skills instead of coasting through the season until the playoffs start. 

MLB Season Predictions: AL West

5. Houston Astros
2013 Predicted Record: 53-109

The Astros are bad. After two consecutive seasons of 106 losses or more, the team has actually gotten worse and shrunk its payroll to $25 million. Ryan Howard and Alex Rodriguez are making more than that by themselves.

Houston is moving to possibly the best division in baseball. The Angels have spent as much as anyone the past two offseasons on free agents. The Rangers have lost some of their star players but should be a good team. The A's have a better squad than last season when they shocked the country and made the playoffs. And even the Mariners made a series of offseason moves to make themselves a contender.

The Astros have made a few moves of their own. They traded shortstop Jed Lowrie to the A's for power hitting first baseman Chris Carter. They also made a bad move in trading an up and coming reliver, Wilton Lopez, for a former top prospect Alex White. The only problem is that White has a career 6.03 ERA with a 5-13 record, and doesn't seem to be getting too much better.

Houston is currently in the middle of baseball bankruptcy. This method requires a team to trade away any valued players for prospects, shrink their payroll, and expect atleast three years of dreadful, 100 loss seasons of baseball. Houston is trying to explain this to their fans, but really there isn't anybody on the Astros that has "future" written all over them.

The teams best player hit .211 last season and the best pitcher had a .500 record. The Astros are looking at tough times ahead, and there doesn't appear to be an end to that in sight. Atleast they have a new logo.

4. Seattle Mariners
2013 Predicted Record: 79-83

After spending four years ranking last in the AL West in runs scored, the Mariners decided that it was the ballparks fault. So the fences were moved in.

The Mariners, much like the Royals, have had an abundance of prospects for years. A few are almost ready to make an impact at the big league level, and some others just haven't panned out yet (Dustin Ackley, Justin Smoak.) But this offseason, with Felix Hernandez a year away from becoming a free agent, Seattle decided to go after some hitting. Early in the offseason Angels DH and first baseman Kendrys Morales was acquired for starter Jason Vargas. Soon after outfielder/first baseman Mike Morse was sent over to Seattle as well. Raul Ibanez and Jason Bay were also signed as free agents this offseason.

The Mariners also have one of he best farm systems in the game. With pitchers Taijuan Walker, Danny Hultzen, James Paxton, Carter Capps, Stephen Pryor, catcher Mike Zunino, infielders Nick Franklin, Brad Miller, Stefen Romero and Vinnie Catricala on the horizon, it suggests that not only does Seattle draft well, but they also develop their talent. Seeing all of the positives occuring with the team, Felix Hernandez decided that he wanted to stick around for a few more years. 7 years more, for $175 million.

Seattle's lineup is slightly above mediocre. To succeed, Ackley, Smoak, or another young player will need to step up if the team wants to finish above .500. With the departure of Jason Vargas, the rotation isn't anything to write home about either. This season may not be great for Seattle, but within the next five years they should be a legitimate world series contender.

3. Texas Rangers
2013 Predicted Record 85-77

The Rangers have fallen from their pedestal atop the American League. After two straight world series appearances, twice being a strike away from winning it all, the Rangers lost in the inaugural wild card game last season. This year, Texas lost superstar Josh Hamilton to their division rival, Mike Napoli to Boston, Michael Young was traded away, and relievers Koji Uehara and Mike Adams were picked up by other teams in free agency as well.

But to make up for this Texas signed relievers Jason Frasor and Joakim Soria, along with catcher A.J. Pierzinski to make up for the departures.

The Rangers are still considered playoff contenders. They've swung and missed on a few trades this offseason and couldn't land Hamilton or Grienke in free agency. But through it all they've been smart with their money, not over-paying an aging player to make up for the loss. Instead they'll be relying on the elite prospects that they've developed over the years, such as Jurickson Profar and Mike Olt, both top 25 prospects in baseball.

With Adrian Beltre, Nelson Cruz, Pierzinski, Andrus, and David Murphy carrying the hitting aspect of the team, the lineup isn't so bad. There are concerns with the fact that both Cruz, Pierzinski, and Beltre are over 32 years of age, but none of the three show signs of drop-off seasons. The rotation leaves cause for concern though. Darvish and Matt Harrison are the only two consistently good pitchers on the staff, and one's only pitcher a season in the bigs. Alexi Ogando, Derek Holland, and possibly Robbie Ross will have to stay healthy and productive if the Rangers want another shot at the world series.

2. Oakland Athletics
2013 Predicted Record: 90-72

There's one question that needs to be asked after the most ridiculous, implausible, roller-coaster ride of a season for the Oakland A's last season. Are they sustainable?

Their best player struggled with injuries and was a rookie last season. Josh Reddick had a sub .300 OBP and batted .244. The Division is twice as good, their payroll is 3 times less than that of the Angles, the team is full of a bunch of no-names, and they play in a craggy old football stadium.

Yes they're sustainable.

Almost like the 2002 A's in the movie Moneyball that came out last year, Oakland went 51-25 in the second half last season. Amazingly enough, it was powered by a bunch of rookie starting pitchers that consist of Jarrod Parker, Tommy Milone, Travis Blackley, and Dan Straily. Now you can't tell me that you've heard anything about those guys before the season started.

The lineup had its ups and downs last year, but for the most part was entertaining and powerful. This offseason general manager Billy Beane added Chris Young to the already stacked outfield of Coco Crisp, Josh Reddick, Seth Smith, and Yoenis Cespedes. He then traded first baseman Chris Carter for utility man Jed Lowrie.

The A's seemed to be somewhat of a fluke last season. Everyone was waiting until they'd collapse like all cinderella stories do, but they didn't. The A's have the perfect mix of talented players that aren't worried about contracts or egos. Just having fun and winning games. And doing the Bernie lean.

1. Los Angeles Angels
2013 Predicted Record: 100-62

Last offseason the Angels, who typically made runs for big name players but never landed them, signed Albert Pujols and C.J Wilson to mega-deals. But after a disappointing 2012 campaign that resulted in no postseason games, the Angels grabbed Josh Hamilton for 5 years at $125 million.

With that signing the Angels outfield currently consists of runner up MVP Mike Trout, Josh Hamilton, and Mark Trumbo. The lineup will have those three, hall of famer Albert Pujols, solid second baseman Howie Kendrick, and Alberto Callaspo. With the balance from both sides of the plate of power and speed, the Angels might have the best lineup in all of baseball.

Last season everybody apart from Jered Weaver was shaky. Dan Haren missed about half the season, Ervin Santana's ERA was over 5.00, and C.J. Wilson's Era was above 4.00. To resolve this issue, the Angels acquired Jason Vargas and Tommy Hanson in trades. They also established the bullpen by signing Ryan Madson and and left-hander Sean Burnett.

With the Yankees in serious trouble, Boston a mess, Texas slipping, and Oakland having a $60 million payroll, the time is now for the Angels to cash in on their $200 million team and win a world series. 

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