Kobe Wins MVP

It was announced that Kobe Bryant was named the NBA's MVP last night for the first time in his career. Kobe averaged 28.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 5.4 assists while playing in all 82 games this season despite tearing a ligament in his finger in February. Kobe also led the Lakers to the best record in the very tough Western Conference this year and a sweep of the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs.

While some fans may disagree with the decision, I think Kobe was the right choice for the award this year. He was the best player on the best team in the tougher conference. In the clutch, with the game on the line he is the guy I want with the ball in his hands. Kobe has won the scoring title twice in his career before and finished second in the MVP voting a couple of times before this year. Kobe has also won 3 straight NBA titles with the Lakers when him and Shaq were both on the team. Kobe is now looking to lead the Lakers back to the finals for his 4th championship this season. The NBA playoffs continue tomorrow with Kobe and the Lakers taking on the Utah Jazz in Game 1 of the second round.

The Greatest Upset in NBA History?

The Atlanta Hawks beat the Boston Celtics last night 103-100 to force a game 7 tomorrow afternoon in Boston. This Eastern Conference quaterfinals series is now tied at 3 games each. The winner of tomorrow's game 7 advances to the next round and the loser goes home. The Celtics finished with the the NBA's best record this year at 66-16. They were expected to easily breeze by their first round series against Atlanta, who finished the season 37-45, which is the worst record of any team to qualify for the playoffs.

The series has been much closer than anyone would have thought. The Hawks have played really well in a series where most people didn't think they could win a game. I think it is going to be very difficult for them to win tomorrow but if they do I think it has to be considered one of the biggest upsets in NBA history. The home team has one every game in the series so far, so the Celtics will have the advantage tomorrow playing in front of their home crowd. But Atlanta who is a much more inexperenced team than the Celtics, have looked like the quicker, more energized team throughout the series. Almost no one will give them a shot to win the game tomorrow, but they still have a chance to pull off what would be one the greatest upsets in NBA history.

The Run For the Roses

Tomorrow is the 134th running of the Kentucky Derby. For those of you not familiar with horse racing, the Kentucky Derby is horse racing's first big race of the year. It is run the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs every year. The race is the first leg of what is known as the triple crown. The other two races are the Preakness Stakes, which is held two weeks after the Derby in Baltimore and the Belmont Stakes, which is the three weeks after the Preakness in New York. Many horses have won the first two races and failed to win the Belmont.

Only 11 horses in about 130 years of these races has a horse won the triple crown. The last horse to do it was exactly 30 years ago in 1978. Tomorrow there will be 20 horses racing in the Kentucky Derby, hoping to win the triple crown. Horse racing is a still a very popular event, even though it it not as popular as it once was. I think that people enjoy these races because so many fans like to bet money on horse racing. I have watched some of these races over the years and sometimes they are really exciting and fun to watch. The Kentucky Derby starts at 6pm tomorrow on NBC.

BCS Mess

This week it was announced that college football would keep its current postseason form exactly the same for at least the next 6 years. The BCS (Bowl Championship Series) has been in place for over 10 years and has generated a lot of controversy. After the regular season ends in college football instead of having a postseason tournament, there are a series of bowl games that teams play in. One game always pits the two best teams in the country against each other with the winner being the National Champion. College football is the only major sport that does not have a postseason tournament. There are over 100 division 1 schools in college football. The current system only allows the top two to play for the championship.

I feel that the current system makes no sense and is unfair to many "mid-major schools". To not have a tournament after you play a regular season makes no sense to me. There have been some instances in the past where teams have finished the regular season undefeated and not gotten a chance to play for the national championship. I mean what more can you ask for than for a team to win all of its games.

I think what college football should do is have an 8 team playoff. The bowl games are a good idea, but what you have to do is pick the best 8 teams in the country and pair them off to play in the four top bowl games. Then the winners would advance to the next week as you eventually cut 8 teams down to 1. I think a postseason tournament would make college football more popular than it even is. Every other sport has a tournament, there is no reason to not have a legitamate postseason in college football. The fans have been angry with the BCS system for many years now and a change has to be made.

Cavs-Wiz Series Heating Up

The NBA's Eastern Conference Quaterfinals series between the Cleveland Cavs and the Washington Wizards series has started to heat up on and off the court. There has been a lot of trash talk and hard fouls in the series between these two teams. Before the series began Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas wrote in his blog that he wanted to face the Cavs in the playoffs saying that we know we can beat them. Other members of the Wizards have also called Cavs forward Lebron James overrated.

The Cavs are currently winning the best of 7 series 3-1 right now. After Game 4 of the series Lebron said after the game that he thought the Wizards had commited many hard fouls and were trying to hurt him. Wizards center Brendan Haywood responded to Lebron comments by mocking him today and saying were just playing basketball, were just going out there and trying to win. I think that Haywood is right. I feel Lebron has done too much complaining about the hard play in the series. This is the playoffs, it's supposed to be intense. I also think Lebron shouldn't be complaining because I believe if you watch the games you would agree he does get the majority of foul calls go his way. I'm not saying Lebron isn't a great player because he is definetely one of the best players in the NBA today but he tends to get some star treatment from the officiating crew most of the time.

I think that all this trash talk is good for the game. It's pretty clear that these two teams don't like each other that much and they have developed a good rivalry over the last few years. Gilbert Arenas made another comment today saying that he didn't think this series was over and he guaranteed that his team would come back and win the series. Even though the Wizards are down I don't think the series is over yet. The Wizards have shown that they won't quit and still believe they can win. Game 5 is Wednesday night in Cleveland and it should be interesting.

Mets Fans: Too Much Booing?

There has been a lot of talk this week about Mets fans and what happened in last Sunday's game. The Mets beat the Braves on Sunday afternoon but the real story in the game is what happened after Mets first basemen Carlos Delgado hit his second homerun of the game. Delgado had been in a 4-49 slump before the game and had been getting booed heavily by Mets fans. After he hit the homerun that put the Mets ahead the fans wanted him to come out for a curtain call. Delgado refused to come out of the dugout and give the fans what they wanted. After the game he said that he really didn't feel like he should take a curtain call after a home run in a game in April, especially since he had been hitting so poorly.

I have no problem with what Delgado did, but it was seems to me it was made such a big deal this week by New York media. Whether he really didn't feel like taking the curtain call in that situation or he was just upset with the fans for booing him, I think he was right not to do it. First of all, I think that Met fans have been really excessive this year with their constant booing of certain players on the team. I understand that when you buy a ticket to game you have the right to boo players if you want, but I just think that their have been times this year where fans have gone over the line. I remember that their were some Met fans booing players in the first week of the season for things that happened last year. Some fans even booed pitcher Johan Santana after his first start at home this year because he gave up a couple of homeruns in his first start. He has pitched really well overall this year and is the pitcher on the team, the guys not going to be pervect every time out. It's just not smart, I mean why don't we give these guys a chance first. The booing is not going to help the players, so why do it?

I think the fans have to realize that just as they have a right to boo, the players have a right to refuse curtain calls and do what they want. I just think that some fans are still upset with the Mets collapse last year and they want the team to be perfect. As a Met fan I want the team to succeed, but I feel that some fans have gone over the line in their hating this year on some circumstances. The main thing that should have been taken from that game Sunday was that they won the game. Not this whole booing and curtain call stuff.

The NFL Draft

The 2008 NFL Draft started ysterday and concluded today. The top football players from college are chosen by NFL teams to play at the highest level of competition. Many football fans have different feelings about the draft. Some fans love the draft. Their are fans who will watch almost all of the picks and follow the players closely in the months leading up to the day. Other fans can't stand to watch it. Some think that watching players names get called out for hours and hours can be tiresome and that it takes too long.

I guess I am somewhere in the middle. Ysterday I enjoyed watching almost all of the first round. But after that I agree that it can get boring. The players taken in the first round are usually players that even the average college football fan knows. There are 7 rounds in total and when the middle rounds start to begin is when you cannot watch anymore of this. I like to tune in to watch what players my team will pick but I really can't see how anyone can watch the whole draft over this two day span.

I really think that the draft is a fun sports event and I tune in every year to watch. I also enjoy the talk of the top players who will be taken in the weeks leading up to it. But you just can't watch to much of it because it will get boring even for the die-hard football fan.

What to do With Joba?

There have been many people talking about Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain. Joba was called up from the minors last year towards the end of the season to be a relief pitcher in the bullpen. He pitched very well last year and has continued to impress this season. The thing is Joba was always a starting pitcher in the minors and the Yankees said they want him to eventually be a starting pitcher again. Even though he has been excellent as their set up man this year.

The great debate between fans is whether he should start games or continue to be a very effective relief pitcher. Yankees owner Hank Steinbrenner made his opinion clear ysterday. Steinbrenner said that he felt Joba had to be in the Yankees starting rotation right now. He also said that anyone who doesn't think that he is right is "an idiot". I think Steinbrenner is wrong and doesn't now as much about baseball as he thinks.

I think the Yankees should defintely keep Chamberlain as their set up man. The Yankees middle relief pitching without him would be terrible. I also think that the Yankees have enough young starters that they have to give a chance. The only reason that Steinbrenner made this comment is because some of the Yankees starters have struggled to open the season. It's only April, the team has played 20 games and their record is 10-10. It's too early to start making drastic changes. I think that right now Joba is one of the best set up men in baseball. Why would you remove him from a role he has been so successful in?

I think what the Yankees should do for the long term is keep him in the bullpen until their current closer Mariano Rivera retires. Then they should make him the closer. Chamberlain has proven that he can pitch well out of the bullpen and is unproven as a starter. As long as he continues to pitch well and the team wins, I don't see how you can make this change.

What Happened to Sportsmanship?

The New York Rangers defeated the New Jersey Devils in 5 games in the NHL playoffs this weekend. The series was very close throughout and their was a lot of physical play. New York Rangers forward Sean Avery and Devils Goalie Martin Brodeur were involved in many of the fights during the series. After every playoff series in hockey, all the members of the winning and losing teams shake hands with each other. This is a long practiced tradition in the NHL.

When the teams lined up to shake hands with each other, Avery put his hand out to go and shake hands with Brodeur. Brodeur looked the other and skipped over Avery as if he wasn't there. Now I understand that Brodeur doesn't like Avery and he was annoyed at many previous things Avery had done in this series but he still should have shaken his hand. I thought Brodeur showed no class and went against one of the great traditions in all of sports. There are players who have gotten into extremely heated fistfights over the years but they still honored the tradition by shaking their opponents hand.

Martin Brodeur is one of the greatest goalies in the history of the game. He has won 3 Stanley Cup Championships and is a no doubt future hall of famer, but he acted with no class after that game and I lost a lot of respect for him.

Reversing the Curse

Last week there was a story that a construction worker who was working on the new Yankee Stadium buried a Red Sox jersey underground in the concrete of the stadium. The construction worker was a Red Sox fan and he put the jersey underground in an attempt to put a curse on the Yankees.

When I heard about this story I thought it was pretty funny. I mean this guy was just trying to have some fun, get his name out there and make headlines. On Saturday, the Yankees told the construction workers to dig up the jersey and remove it. I can't believe the Yankees actually took this story seriously enough that they made these construction workers do five hours of drilling to get a jersey out just because some guy said they would now be cursed. I was even more shocked when they said they might pursue legal actions against this guy. What law did he break?

I found this whole story pretty amusing but it does show you how serious people take curses in the whole Yankees-Red Sox rivalry. It is believed that the Red Sox were cursed for 86 years for trading Babe Ruth to the Yankees. The Red Sox finally won the World Series in 2004 ending the curse. So I guess the Yankees did not want to take a chance to suffer something like the Red Sox did. Even though I think the Yankees completely overreacted to this story, I will praise them for sending the jersey to a fund which will auction it off to help raise money for cancer awareness. That was a good idea and a noble cause.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

The Kansas Jayhawks defeated the Memphis Tigers to win the NCAA basketball championship on Monday night. Kansas came back from being down by 9 points in the final two minutes of the game. Kansas guard Mario Chalmers hit a three-pointer et the end of regulation to tie the game and force overtime. Kansas ended up winning the game in 75-68 in overtime in one of the best college basketball championship games of all time.


YouTube - Mario Chalmers 3-point shot 2008 NCAA National Championship

Hockey Rivals Meet in Playoffs

The New York Rangers will play the New Jersey Devils in the first round of this year's NHL playoffs. The two teams played each other on the final day of the regular season with the Devils winning. This will be the fifth time these two crosstown rivals will meet in the postseason. The Rangers have won four out of the fives times and they won the season series from the Devils this year by winning seven out of eight. As a huge Ranger fan, I can't wait for this series to begin. Playoff hockey is always exciting, but with the Rangers playing the Devils this should be a great series.

The Goaltending matchup in this series will be important, as it always is in hockey. The style of hockey that both teams play would indicate many low scoring and tight games. Most of the games these teams played in the regular season were close and decided by one goal. The Devils goalie is longtime veteran Martin Brodeur, who has won 3 Stanley Cups and is considered one of the best goalies of all time. The Rangers goalie is Henrik Lundquist, who is in his 3rd year and has led the Rangers to the postseason and won 30 games in each of his first three seasons.

If your asking me for a prediction, that will be tough. I think it's going to be a close series that will go 6 or 7 games. As for a winner, I think the Rangers can pull it out; but having watched both these teams during the season I think they are pretty evenly matched and the winner has a chance to go far in the postseason. The series starts on Wednesday night in New Jersey.

Hockey Playoffs Almost Underway

The four most popular sports in America are Football, Baseball, Basketball and Hockey. Of these sports Hockey is the least talked about. Many sports fans may not know that the NHL playoffs are a week away. As a big hockey fan, I think that the NHL playoffs is one of the most exciting sporting events of the year and it is not talked about enough.

The overall popularity of Hockey is down right now and I really dont know why. Many people say that Hockey is not exciting and there is not enough scoring, so therefore it is boring. I disagree, I think Hockey is one of the most exciting sports. If you have ever been to Madison Square Garden then you know what I'm talking about. During really good games that place is electric, especially the playoffs. As a New York Ranger fan I have been there many times and it is a great experience. I think for you to really enjoy hockey you have to see it in person. It's one of those sports that's much better to be at the event then to watch it on TV.

I feel that Hockey has been much better since they made some rule changes after the lockout in 2004. The biggest change that the sport made was the elimination of ties. All regular season games now that are still tied after regulation and overtime go to a shootout. When the playoffs began the overtime is continuous till someone scores to break the tie. If you are a big sports fan and have never been to a hockey game, I would recommend going to one. The NHL playoffs began next week on Wednesday.

Baseball Season to Begin in Japan

The start of the Major League Baseball season begins tomorrow in... Japan and at 6 a.m eastern time? The Boston Red Sox will play the Oakland A's in a 2 game series in Tokyo to kick off the baseball season. MLB decided to play the regular season opener in Japan to try and promote their league overseas in Japan where baseball is just as popular over there than it is here. This is not the first time baseball has began a season in Japan. Both the Mets and Yankees have gone overseas to began baseball seasons as well. Baseball is not the first sport to play in another country either. The NFL played a regular season game in London this year and the NHL began their season this year in London as well.

I don't think that it is bad idea that baseball is playing games in Japan I just think the timing of the games is not right. They will play two regular season games Tuesday and Wednesday and then go back to the U.S to play more preseason games before the start of the season on Sunday. I just think that process is not right. If they want to play the games this week they should be preseason games that don't count in the standings because everyone else is still playing preseason baseball. If they want to play regular season games there they should wait to the season officially begans for other teams as well. Either way the season begans tomorrow in Japan. If your a big time baseball fan you will want to set your alarms early if you want to see the first regular season game live.

Let the Madness Begin

The road to the NCAA basketball championship began ysterday with the selection of the 65 teams for the NCAA tournament. I think college basketball has a perfect tournament system. The NCAA tournament every March is always one of my favorites sporting events of the year. The 65 teams are chosen by a selection committee and given a seed from 1 to 16. All the teams chosen are paired against each other by seeding in a bracket. It is a single elimination event. Win and advance to the next round, lose and you go home. There are four regions and all the games are played on a neutral site.

Every year this tournament generates tons of hype and is extremely popular among all sports fans. I believe that the tournament is so popular because of the way it is setup. It gives smaller basketball schools, more commonly known as mid majors, a chance to win and play for a championship. The college basketball playoff system is played in direct contrast to the college football postseason. Football may be a more popular sport for most fans than basketball, but when it comes to the postseason everyone loves the tournament.

Final Event at Yankee Stadium...Hockey?

The final sporting event at historic Yankee Stadium could be a hockey game featuring the New York Rangers on New Years Day 2009. The New York Yankees are playing their final season this year in Yankee Stadium before moving to the new Yankee Stadium opening up. The old stadium will not be knocked down but it will be left up as a place where fans can go see the field.

Some people have said they feel that a hockey game being played at a Yankee Stadium for the final sporting event is just wrong. I don't see what is wrong with this idea. When I first heard this I thought it was a great idea. This would be great for hockey. If you played this hockey game in Yankee Stadium you would easily sell the game out and have over 50,000 fans there. The NHL has already tried an outdoor hockey game in Buffalo this year and it was a tremendous success. I watched most of the game and thought it was a great atmosphere for hockey. I think the NHL should try to play a couple of games a year outdoors in some cities.

Other people have said that a historic baseball stadium should not have another sport played there. There have been many famous football games and boxing matches that took place at Yankee Stadium. So, why not a hockey game for the final event at Yankee Stadium. It would be a memorable event to close a place that has been home to many great moments in the past.

Favre's Swan Song?

After 17 years in the NFL, Brett Favre has retired. Favre announced that he would retire early last week in a shocking decision to many. Favre had talked about retiring the last few years, but what made his decision so suprising was that he decided to call it quits after getting so close to the Super Bowl again this year. Favre played his rookie year in Atlanta and then played his next 16 seasons in Green Bay for the Packers. Favre led the Packers to two Super Bowl apperances and one victory. Favre is also a three-time NFL MVP. Favre has set many NFL records including passing TD's (442), passing yards (61,655), and wins by a starting quaterback (160). Favre also ended his career on an unperecendent 253 consecutive regular season starts.

Since his retirement many people have questioned whether this is really the end for Favre. Many analysts have said that his love of the game will bring him back and that he will not stay retired for long. Favre himself admitted that he felt physically he could still play, but he felt tired mentally and thought it was time to move on. Whatever he decides to do one thing is for sure, Favre is one of the greatest quaterbacks to ever play the game. Favre was one of my favorite football players of all time. The toughness and intensity he played with was hard not to love. Brett Favre is a true legend and he will forever be remembered as one of the greatest competitors ever.

Why Are Sports so Corrupt?

As a big sports fan I have noticed that there has been a lot of cheating and corruption in some of the most popular sports in America over the last couple of years. The three most popular sports in America are the NFL, MLB, and NBA. These sports have all suffered through major cheating scandals that have impacted the integrity of the game. The MLB problems with steriods and HGH use has been the most talked about of these issues. Steriod and HGH use in MLB has led many fans to believe that most of the records and statistics of this era are tainted because so many people have been found taking these illegal drugs. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, who were once thought of as the best hitter and pitcher of this generation have both been linked to steriods. While I feel baseball has done a better job trying to clean up steriod use in the sport many fans believe that the game has already been damaged and historic records have been broken unfairly.

While the NFL has suffered through minimal steriod use problems in its sport, the major scandal in football was spygate. The New England Patriots were caught taping the New York Jets signals illegaly in the first game of the regular season. While many people said they felt the taping did not really help the Patriots win the game, they still broke rules. Other fans said that this was only a one time thing and should not effect the way the Patriots dynasty should be viewed winning three Super Bowls in four years. Now I would agree with that if reports had not come out that the Patriots also did some illegal taping in two of those Super Bowl victories. The NFL did penalize the Patriots by fining the team and taking away a first-round draft pick but I think Patriots dynasty has to be looked at with some suspicion. They won each of their three Super Bowls which they gained some illegal advantage by only three points and this year when they were playing by the rules after getting caught they lost the Super Bowl by three points.

The scandal that has affected the NBA is by far the least talked about of these three. Last summer it had been confirmed by the FBI that one NBA referee Tim Donahue was being indicted because of gambling and betting on basketball games he officiated. I felt this was very serious news when it came out because the referee is supposed to be impartial on the court and in a sport where so many players and coaches complain about calls by referees this was definitely shocking news. The thing that was good for the NBA was it had been confirmed that it was only one referee doing this and the league has of course fired and banned the ref from the NBA. Even though it appears that the NBA does not and will not have this problem anymore it still affected all the games that referee officiated in and raised some suspicion about the integrity of their sport.

Popular sports have definitely been affected by cheating scandals in the last few years. As a fan of these sports I am happy that the commissioners in these leagues have taken strides to help improve their sports. As fans of the game I feel we should want to see good and clean competetion regardless of who we root for.

Superman Saves the Dunk Contest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRM3ziyXx_o

A Giant Victory

The New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots 17-14 in Super Bowl XLII. This game has to be considered not only one of the greatest upsets in NFL history, but also one of the greatest football games ever played. The game had everything you could want for a Super Bowl. A great storyline with the underdog Giants playing the perfect Patriots, the game went down to the wire with a unbelievable finish and the commercials were pretty funny. All of America must have loved this game too. The game had 97.5 million viewers, making it the most watched sporting event ever and the second most watched television broadcast ever.

I think this game was not only the greatest Super Bowl I have ever seen but also the greatest sporting event. I was on the edge of my seat the entire game from kickoff to the final seconds. The 4th quarter was unbelievable with the Patriots scoring a go ahead touchdown with only about 2 minutes left in the game. I'm sure many football fans thought the game was over and the Patriots would walk away with their perfect season. Eli Manning led the Giants on amazing Super Bowl winning drive, which included an incredible play in which Manning escaped a sack to throw a pass to Giants receiver David Tyree who made an unreal catch. A couple plays later Manning threw a touchdown pass that would win the game and earn him Super Bowl MVP honors.

With the victory the Giants secure their place in NFL history as Super Bowl Champs and the Patriots end their season with a dissapointing finish despite winning 18 straight games. All the experts picked the Patriots to win this game with most people not giving the Giants a chance. If the team that was expected to win always won sports would be unexciting. It just goes to show you thats why we play the game and thats why sports is so great, you just never know.

Super Bowl XLII: A Chance For History

The Super Bowl is always known as the biggest sporting event of the year, but this year's game seems to have some extra buzz. The New York Giants (13-6) will play the New England Patriots (18-0) this Sunday in Glendale, Arizona for football's ultimate prize. There are many big stories surrounding this year's game. The biggest one is, of course, the Patriots trying to go 19-0 and completing a perfect season. They have won every game this season and they are the only team to ever start a football season by going 18-0. They have won some of their games in convincing fashion this season and have looked unbeatable at times. If they win this game they will cement their legacy as one of the greatest teams of all-time and become the second team in NFL history to finish a season undefeated.

The Giants come into this game with a lot of momentum too. They have won 3 consecutive playoff games, all of which they were the underdog in. The Giants have also won 10 consecutive road games this year, which is an NFL record. The Giants will again be the underdog this week and not many people feel they have a chance to win. These two teams met during the regular season with the Patriots winning a really close game 38-35. The Patriots going for a perfect season is not the only piece of history which can be made on Sunday. Many people feel that the broadcast of the game on Fox has not only the chance to be the most watched Super Bowl game ever, but also the most watched television broadcast period. With the Patriots undefeated storyline and the big markets of New York and Boston tuning in the rating is sure to be very high.

Even though the Patriots are highly favored to win I feel that this game is going to very close. I think the Giants are playing just as well as the Patriots and if they play smart and don't commit any turnovers they can win. They have an excellent defense and they will have to be on their game to have a chance to win. I believe they will come up big and pull off one the greatest upsets in NFL history.

The New King of Queens

Johan Santana is now officially a New York Met. The New York Mets sent 4 young prospects to the Minnesota Twins for the 2-time Cy-Young winner. Now the trade itself should come as no suprise to baseball fans, the Twins had been talking about dealing Santana for months now because they could not afford to pay him the amount of money he wanted. The suprising part of this trade is the players the Twins received for Santana. The four prospects the Mets traded are Carlos Gomez, Phillip Humber, Kevin Mulvey, and Deolis Guerra. Only one of these players, Carlos Gomez, has major league experience and none of the players were exactly regarded as top, can't miss prospects. Other teams such as the Yankees and Red Sox offered deals to Minnesota with more proven talent. I mean as a die hard Met fan I am very pleased with this trade, but if your a Twins fan you have to be pretty upset about this deal.

With Johan Santana in a Mets uniform this year this team looks ready for a World Series run. Santana is in the prime of his career and has led all of baseball in wins, strikeouts, and earned run average in the last 5 years. He will join a Mets team with a lot of talent on it already. The Mets pitching staff now looks like one of the best in the majors and the will again have a very solid lineup. Santana will also be moving to the National League where the teams have weaker lineups than the American League and he will also be pitching in Shea Stadium which is known as a pitcher's ballpark. Both these factors should mean in improvement in Santana's stats for this year.

While there are many reasons to believe this final season at Shea Stadium will be a good year for the Mets, you still have to remember this team blew an unthinkable 7 game lead with 17 games left to play last year to lose the division title and miss the playoffs. Also this will be the first time Johan Santana will be pitching in a big market city in New York. He has spent his entire career in Minnesota, where there is less pressure to win. He will now be on the big stage in New York for the first time and will have to deal with the tough New York media.

With all things considered I feel the Mets should be one of the favorites to win the World Series this year. On paper this team looks like one of the best in baseball, but no team has ever won a championship on paper. How good will the Mets be this year? We will have to wait for the season to begin to find out.