Roy Halladay

The baseball world was stunned at the death of Roy Halladay in a plane crash at the age of 40 in his small aircraft.

I'm never surprised when I hear of passings from airplane accidents.
I'm amazed that they don't happen more often and when you think of the number of miles that professional teams (and even college teams to an extent) spend in the air, the small number of accidents that have occurred are pretty surprising.

It seems so often when these things happen that they are using one of the smaller aircraft and that was the case this time as well.

Halladay, who is thought by some to be an eventual hall of famer, spent the bulk of his career with the Toronto Blue Jays winning the 1993 Cy Young before finishing his career with the Phillies with the first two years being the highlights as Halladay would win the 2010 Cy Young and finishing second in 2011 Cy Young balloting.

Halladay won 20 games three times (Twice in Toronto and once in Philadelphia) over a dominant ten-year run that saw his ERA rise over three and a half just once over that run and lead his league in complete games eight times.
Halladay will be most remembered as a Blue Jay, but it was as a Phillie that he etched the plaque that was inscribed "Big Game Pitcher" with a perfect game in 2010 along with only the second no-hitter in post-game history against the Reds in the NLDS.

What I liked about Halladay as a pitcher was that he was a reminder of the pitchers that pitched during my glory days of following days- big strapping pitchers that took the ball every four days (five by the days of Halladay) and wasn't afraid to accumulate innings.
Halladay never reached double digits in complete games, but yet in an age that prized peak performance over grit and guile, Halladay ( and maybe Curt Schilling as well) were almost the last of the old school arms.

Halladay also was unusual in another fashion- Halladay struck out more in the latter half of his career than the beginning half, which is very unusual.
Of Halladay's five seasons of over 200 strikeouts, four of them came after the age of 30, so he truly did get better as he matured and he kept the ball inside the park too as he allowed less than a homer per nine innings for his career.

One other note on Halladay- he played in an era of the two teams that he played for making some of the dumbest uniform decisions that you can think of.
Halladay's tenure in Philadelphia came at a time when the Phillies were suddenly pushing blue as a color used as trim and on bills on their caps and it just looked awful.
The Toronto term was even worse as the Blue Jays scrapped their beautiful logo that they had used since entering the league (they have since returned to it)  for two of the worse logos that you can imagine and using black as the predominant color for a team called the BLUE Jays!
It wasn't easy to find a picture of Halladay in Toronto togs that weren't those ugly things.
It's too bad because what a player plays in is what we remember him in and Halladay sure caught some sartorial bad breaks.

I think Roy Halladay is of Hall of Fame consideration caliber.
He did squeak just over 200 wins (his 203 final total being reached in his injury-riddled last year that saw Halladay win just four games), but his big game performance and run dominance gives him a chance to hit Cooperstown.
Halladay's not a lock though as the comparison's I think of are Curt Schilling and Jack Morris, neither who have made the Hall yet and on Baseball References ten closest pitchers in similarity score, only one is a hall of famer in Dazzy Vance, who isn't the top name you would hope to see on such a list.
Halladay will have an edge in some of the advanced stats with the voters that favor those becoming more and more prevalent, so he does have that going for him in future ballots.
Halladay is eligible for election in 2019.

Boxing Challenge:The Rest of the Weekend

I only wanted to cover the Wilder-Stiverne fight as I had some things to write about the heavyweight division, so now it's time to catch up on the rest of the boxing weekend.

Dmitry Bivol continues to show promise as the next boss at light heavyweight with a one round destruction of Trent Broadhurst to retain his WBA title.
Bivol didn't figure to be tested by Broadhurst and he wasn't, but Bivol figures to have a sterner bout in his next defense against Sullivan Barrera.

Also on the Bivol card in Monte Carlo:
Just as the Jamie McDonnell-Librado Solis rematch started to heat up, a clash of heads caused the fight to stopped in the third with a massive cut over McDonnell's eye.
Not sure if there will be a third fight, but there was nothing resolved after the controversial decision won by McDonnell in their bout.

Scott Quigg won every round on my card before the referee stepped in round six in a WBA eliminator over Oleg Yefimovich,
Quigg will be the mandatory contender to the winner of next year's Leo Santa Cruz-Abner Mares fight.

Undefeated heavyweight Agit Kabayel won a majority decision over veteran fringe contender Dereck Chisora.
I had Kabayel a 117-111 winner, but the official cards were far closer at 114-114 on one card and 115-113 on the other two for Kabayel.
Chisora might have lost a lucrative shot at Dillion Whyte rematch with the loss, while Kabayel might be able to move to the next level of the Euro contenders...

On the undercard of Wilder-Stiverne.
Shawn Porter won a unanimous decision over Adrian Granados with all three judges agreeing with my card of 117-111.
Granados was game in defeat, but being a natural 140 pounder rising in weight for the fight, he was just too small to handle the larger Porter, who retained his top contender status.

Sergey Lipinets won a more difficult than expected unanimous decision over Akihiro Kondo to win the vacant IBF junior welterweight title.
Kondo was better than advertised, but Lipinets earned a 115-113 nod on my card.
Lipinets may face Adrien Broner next in the latest of "last chances" for Broner.

In a WBC heavyweight eliminator, Dominic Breazeale stopped Eric Molina in the eighth round.
Originally, this was scheduled to determine the number one contender for Deontay Wilder, but this might be an eliminator to fight for the top spot in their next fight after lots of criticism from the boxing media.
Breazeale has had out of the ring issues with Wilder and might get the shot in Wilder's next optional defense.
This fight was not televised, so no scoring on this.

In the boxing challenge, I scored ten points to Ramon Malpica's nine on the weekend.
The difference was Agit Kabayel's win over Dereck Chisora as I picked Kabayel for a point while Ramon tabbed Chisora as the winner.
My ten came from two points from wins from Porter, Breazeale, and Bivol with one pointers from Lipinets, Quigg, Wilder, and Kabayel.

Ramon's nine came from two pointers from Breazeale, Bivol, and Lipinets with one pointers from Wilder, Quigg and Porter.
The challenge is at 169-151

Wilder takes care of business!

AP Photo/Kevin Hagen

The biggest bout in the boxing challenge featured the biggest men as Deontay Wilder blew away the only fighter to have lasted the distance with him in just one round as Wilder crushed Bermane Stiverne in their rematch in Brooklyn.
Stiverne, who had fought just one time since his first bout with Wilder, appeared out of shape and didn't land any of the four punches that he threw at Wilder, proved that his top ranking in the WBC was as farcical as it appeared and it appeared that the skills that he once possessed that helped him take Wilder the distance were gone and he needs to retire.
As for Wilder, he did exactly what champions do when you are forced to fight undeserving challengers- dispatch them quickly and impressively as three knockdowns and leaving your opponent unconscious showed in this one.

I've been hard on Wilder's competition in the past and this didn't change that, but it's pretty clear that the time is right for Wilder to step up (or someone to step up and fight him) for a big fight.
Wilder made a lot of noise after the fight about fighting Anthony Joshua and I do believe that he wants that fight badly-mainly because it would prove who the best heavyweight is and bring Wilder the largest payday of his career- especially if Wilder is willing to go to the UK where the fight would sell out an 80,000 seat stadium.
However, is there anything more overdone in boxing than "calling out opponents"that are promoted by someone else, therefore making the said fight difficult to make?
I'm not saying Wilder doesn't want Anthony Joshua, but calling him out doesn't prove anything and I am very weary of fighters from any stable, but especially from the notoriously difficult to deal with PBC talking about fights that they aren't willing to make a deal to close a contract.
Considering the options available for Joshua there (UK fighters that might make Joshua more money at lesser risk such as Tyson Fury, Dillion Whyte and the winner of the Tony Bellew-David Haye rematch) compared to the less than wonderful options available for Wilder, I'd be surprised if this fight happened next year and very surprised to see it happen in the next fight for either man.

As I wrote, Joshua has far more options than Wilder, but that doesn't mean Wilder doesn't have any.
Since Joshua has two belts (WBA and IBF) to Wilder's WBC title if this fight cannot be worked out.
I would go looking for the third champion in WBO champ Joseph Parker, who has not looked great in winning his title against Andy Ruiz or his first title defense vs Hughie Fury.
That fight makes a lot of sense as the winner can claim two titles as Joshua does, Parker is far more likely to come to the United States than Joshua is and Parker has even fewer options than Wilder does, although after his win over Fury, Parker too "called out" Joshua.
It's easy to see that calling out the man that brings the dollars and leverage to the table is much simpler than making the actual fight.

If Wilder (and for that matter Parker) can't make fights against Joshua or each other, I would try to keep them in the ring as much as possible fighting more often.
The heavyweight division is strong at the top with three champions and if Tyson Fury is ever able to return to the ring in a decent mindset, but where it is weakest is in legitimately strong contenders.
Dillon Whyte's biggest "win" was in a loss to Joshua, the same can be argued for Dominic Breazeale, Jarrell "Big Baby" Miller gets his first top 15 test next week on HBO, Kubrat Pulev has an injured shoulder, Carlos Takam has already been beaten by Joshua and Parker, Andy Ruiz hasn't fought since his very close loss to Parker and Luis Ortiz along with Alexander Povetkin cannot be trusted to pass PED tests before title fights and these are the best of the contenders.

Staying active against weaker challengers won't prove much more about Deontay Wilder than we already know from his past soft touches, but it will keep him in front of fans and with each impressive and preferably explosive win, the roar for a Joshua-Wilder showdown will increase.
Of course, we all would love to see this made as soon as the spring and I'm not calling for a "Marinade", but there could be a way to make this a bigger event on this side of the Atlantic and it would come with multiple wins.

The heavyweight division suddenly is exciting, if not filled with proven depth, and if we cannot see Joshua-Wilder soon, let's hope that we see more of them more often against what is available in the heavyweight division....

I'll be back later with the rest of the weekend in boxing...

Letdown in Iowa-Buckeyes smashed in Iowa 55-24

Photo Credit: Cleveland Plain Dealer

In perhaps the most disheartening loss of the Urban Meyer era, the Ohio State Buckeyes watched their hopes for a national championship berth go by the wayside in Iowa City as Iowa rolled over the Buckeyes 55-24 that saw Iowa score 31 unanswered points against a helpless Buckeye defense.
J.T.Barrett threw three touchdowns, but also tossed four interceptions in the crushing defeat.
Ohio State falls to 7-2 overall and 5-1 in the Big 10.

1) Ohio State's national title hopes are dead, but they do control their Big Ten East destiny win their final three games and then will meet Wisconsin in Indianapolis.
Lose one of them (especially if they defeat Michigan State next week) and any one of four teams could represent the East in the championship game that looks to be a disappointment after what was thought that it would be as recently as last week.

2) The key swing came late in the second quarter with the game tied, Iowa quarterback Nathan Stanley threw an incomplete pass on third down and should have forced a field goal attempt.
Nick Bosa leaped at Stanley and there was some helmet to helmet contact, which saw Bosa called for a penalty for targeting and removed from the game.
Iowa would take the lead at 24-17 with the first of those 31 unanswered points and never looked back.

3) Here's my issue (again) with this targeting penalty.
Bosa did hit with the crown of his helmet, so his ejection was by the book.
The problem is the book.
The rule is supposed to make the game safer.
What it has actually done is take some of the best players off the field and weakened some of the best games.
I have no problem with the 15-yard penalty, but if there is seen to be no intent to injure, the player should not be ejected.
If you want to go a step further and say if there is a second penalty of targeting regardless of intent means ejection, I would accept that.
The current rule is not a good one.

4) All of the goodwill that J.T. Barrett earned with his performance in State College almost (only because ) evaporated in Iowa City.
Yes, three touchdowns, but four interceptions?
Iowa was watching Barrett progress through his reads and knew what he was doing.
Good games and bad games are part of careers and its part of what we will remember about J.T. Barrett-the dramatic swings in performance...

5) Give Iowa full credit-they came in with a well scouted and excellent game plan.
Kirk Ferentz is known for being very conservative and yet he pulled out all the stops.
Fake field goals from Ferentz?
Give credit to the Iowa scouts and coaches, they saw flaws and took advantage.

6) More credit to Iowa's preparation-It was mentioned during the broadcast that since Iowa had not played OSU in a while and not since Greg Schiano had arrived as defensive coordinator, that Iowa watched films of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers when Schiano was the head coach there to prepare.
Iowa had no problems with a Buckeye defense that had shown problems in the secondary.
I cannot give the coaches and scouts enough credit in this win.

7) Gashed in the running game, Iowa ran for over 200 yards against Ohio State and this does not bode well for Ohio State should they manage to make the trip for a Big 10 title game.
If you have problems stopping Iowa on the ground, I cannot imagine the problems that Wisconsin will create.

8) The only thing that I will criticize Iowa for was the late touchdown with 1;43 to go.
You could argue at that point that the Hawkeyes could have knelt down, but young players do things.

9) Ohio State was killed by short and middle of the field passes to the tight ends of Iowa, who combined for 125 yards and four touchdowns.
The Ohio State linebackers and safeties were caught off balance all day and they simply did a lousy job in coverage.
Plenty of blame to pass around here.

10) Ever notice when Ohio State lays an egg, it often comes with the lack of commitment to the running game?
I know OSU fell behind and had to throw more and on paper 30 times looks like a reasonable number.
However, J.K. Dobbins received just six of those carries (51 yards) and Mike Weber only five more (27 yards).
J.T Barrett had three more carries than Dobbins and Weber combined!
If we can see this trend in big losses, why can't the professionals?

11) What an atmosphere at Kinnick Stadium!
I've always liked Kinnick and if I ever decide to start doing college football stadiums like I do baseball stadiums-Kinnick (and Camp Randall in Madison) rank right up at the top after a visit to the Horseshoe of course.
I'm planning another list column over the winter and Kinnick will be high on the list.

12) Ohio State can win the Big 10 East with three wins over Michigan State and Illinois at home and at Michigan and maybe that would add a little glory to the season, but this is tremendously disappointing.
I'll move that aside for another day, but imagine this chaos in the Big Ten East- Ohio State defeats Michigan State and Illinois and loses to Michigan.
Michigan adds an upset of Wisconsin to the OSU win, Michigan State and Penn State win their final conference games and that leaves four teams with two conference losses!
I would have no idea who would win the tiebreaker and trip to Indianapolis under those conditions...

13) I absolutely love the new Iowa tradition of waving to the children at the nearby Children's Hospital in Iowa City and I applaud the Buckeyes as well as other teams that have participated in this new tradition.
Not every school has something that works like this with proximity, but I think this is awesome and part just why college football is just plain better than the NFL.
Imagine the money-grubbing pro league doing something like that!
Hell, they'd probably charge the kids for looking into the stadium!

Back later with the weekend in boxing....

Boxing Challenge

The boxing challenge moves into a big weekend with eight bouts on two cards and two networks.
Not all of these fights are going to be televised, but all are important to various degrees.

Showtime has the larger card with three fights on television and the fourth being an important eliminator.
The main event features Deontay Wilder defending his WBC heavyweight title against the man that he won his title from and the only man that has taken Wilder the distance in Bermane Stiverne.
Wilder's competition has been severely questioned since defeating Stiverne as he defended against five less than quality contenders ranging from way past his prime Chris Arreola, journeymen Artur Szpilka and Eric Molina, untested former football player Gerald Washington and no name Johann Duhaupas, but Stiverne has fought just once since their fight in January 2015 and was dropped in a loss to journeyman Derric Rossy, so both can be questioned entering this fight.
Wilder's style which has been a seek and destroy style against most of his foes, boxed more from a distance in their first fight, which makes me wonder just what Wilder brings to the table overall.
This will be interesting to see how Wilder fights in this contest.

Showtime also has a WBC welterweight eliminator as Shawn Porter, who is the top contender already, is staying active against hard luck Adrian Granados, who I thought defeated Adrien Broner, but Granados was never going to get that decision.
This looks to be the best action fight of the weekend and could be close on the cards.

The opening bout on Showtime has power punching Sergei Lipinets against Akihiro Kondo for the IBF junior lightweight title, which was one of the four vacated by Terence Crawford when he moved up to the welterweight division.
This could be a short night for the talented Lipinets as Kondo hasn't fought anyone that has even sniffed the top 15.

The untelevised fight is one with consequences as the WBC has inexplicably decided to make a scheduled fight between Dominic Breazeale and Eric Molina a title eliminator with the winner becoming the next mandatory contender for the Wilder-Stiverne winner.
Breazale, who has only one win since his loss to Anthony Joshua and zero wins over top ten contenders (and hit an Hamburglar alert in a 2015 "win" over Fred Kassi) looks like Larry Holmes next to Molina, who has been knocked out in undeserved title chances against Joshua and Wilder.
This being a title eliminator is one thing, making it the mandatory contender is another.

HBO is showing the main event from Monte Carlo as talented WBA light heavyweight champ Dmitry Bivol defends for the first title in a squash match vs Trent Broadhurst.
Bivol has a chance to be the next great light heavyweight and even though I'd like to see him against better competition, it should be a spectacular ending.

The other three bouts include a minor bantamweight title rematch mandated by the WBA as Jamie McDonnell fights Librado Solis in the same place one year later that saw Solis win a clear decision on my card and McDonnell earn a Hamburglar in getting the unanimous decision.
Scott Quigg attempts to revive a career that's been quiet since his split decision loss to Carl Frampton in a title eliminator at featherweight against Oleg Yefimovych, who is an unknown factor against world class competition.
The winner will become the mandatory for the winner of the WBA featherweight fight between Leo Santa Cruz and Abner Mares in 2018.
Undefeated German heavyweight Agit Kabayel receives his first jump in competition against veteran Briton Dereck Chisora,
We'll know a lot more about Kabayel after this one as Chisora's track record has been that he beats the pretenders and loses to the true contenders.
I lead the challenge over Ramon Malpica 159-142.

WBC Heavyweight Title. 12 Rds
Deontay Wilder vs Bermane Stiverne
Both: Wilder Unanimous Decision

Welterweights. 12 Rds
Shawn Porter vs Adrian Granados
R,L: Porter Split Decision
TRS: Porter Unanimous Decision

Vacant IBF Junior Welterweight Title 12 Rds
Sergei Lipinets vs Akihiro Kondo
R.L: Lipinets Unanimous Decision
TRS: Lipinets KO 6

Heavyweights. 12 Rds
Dominic Breazeale vs Eric Molina
R.L: Breazeale KO 5
TRS: Breazeale KO 10

WBA Light Heavyweight Title.12 Rds
Dmitry Bivol vs Trent Broadhurst
R.L: Bivol KO 6
TRS: Bivol KO 3

Bantamweights. 12 Rds
Jamie McDonnell vs Librado Solis
Both: McDonnell Unanimous Decision

Featherweights. 12 Rds
Scott Quigg vs Oleg Yefimovich
Both: Quigg Unanimous Decision

Heavyweights. 12 Rds
Agit Kabayel vs Dereck Chisora
R.L: Chisora Unanimous Decision
TRS: Kabayel Unanimous Decision

PPM

Time for another week of the PPM!
With the Browns on bye, I'm adding an extra game of the week.

Last Week: 8-3
Overall: 69-31

College
Ohio State over Iowa 33-17
Bowling Green over Kent State (Already Played)
Texas Tech over Kansas State 41-39
Houston over East Carolina 28-14
Boise State over Nevada 36-16
Middle Tennessee State over UTEP 20-13
Washington over Oregon 40-21

Games of the Week
Oklahoma State over Oklahoma 33-30
Virginia Tech over Miami 30-23

NFL
Saints over Buccaneers 29-17

Games of the Week
Cowboys over Chiefs 24-21
Falcons over Panthers 32-24
Lions over Packers 24-17

Another day from the worst organization in sports

I started to write this about the failures of the Cleveland Browns to land Jimmy Garoppolo after the San Francisco 49ers acquired the Patriot backup for a second-round draft pick, only to have the Browns attempt to make a move for a lesser quarterback at a higher price and only a paperwork snafu kept a ridiculous and panicky deal from happening with a division rival.

With minutes remaining before the NFL's trade deadline, the Browns thought they had come to an agreement to trade inside the division with the Cincinnati Bengals for their backup quarterback A.J. McCarron.
McCarron, he of the few average late-season, starts in 2015, has been coveted by Hue Jackson, who coached McCarron in Cincinnati since he left, and being that the Browns QBs range from inexperienced to pop-gun armed to one-dimensional scrambler, the Browns (or at least Jackson) were interested in McCarron.

The reporting wildly varies on whom to blame for this, but the result was that a ridiculous overpay for McCarron in a 2018 2nd and 3rd round pick was avoided by the paperwork not being filed by either the Browns or the Bengals.
This organization is dysfunctional beyond belief- seemingly uninterested in Garoppolo, Hue Jackson pounding the table to overpay McCarron, botching the trade, and clearly pitting the coaching staff vs the front office- Precisely what yours truly foresaw on DAY ONE that Hue Jackson was hired!!
If the rumors (and there are plenty of different ones) are correct, Jimmy Haslem stepped in with an order to make the McCarron deal happen.
Haslem, who has a wonderful track record with quarterbacks having told his team to draft Johnny Manziel over Derek Carr, Teddy Bridgewater, and the aforementioned Garoppolo, may have decided to back Hue Jackson over Sashi Brown in this talent battle.
Considering that Jackson is a dazzling 1-23 as Browns head man, he clearly has done a fine selling job on Haslem about the incompetence of Brown, which is true, but Jackson hasn't helped himself with a set of other erratic game/personnel decisions that often border on bizarre, yet as of now, it's Jackson that appears to be winning a battle that both sides should lose.

Put aside the ridiculous aspect of an NFL front office that has been in place for two seasons botching an issue like this- that's administrative stupidity without an excuse.
Let's focus on this- Who among this bunch that values draft choices so much that they pass up premium talent on a consistent basis thought that a 2 and 3 for A.J. McCarron, who brings a below-average arm, Brent Musberger's favorite wife, and his knowledge of Hue Jackson (for whatever that's worth, if he's gone in eight games) was worthwhile?
At best, McCarron is a stopgap for the next QB and at worst, he's grilling brats with Laura Rutledge and Paul Finebaum live from Starkville Mississippi on the SEC network in three years and yet he was valued at a 2nd and 3rd rounder level?
Add to that the reported non-pursuit of Garoppolo at a cheaper price and you would have to think that the front office evaluates talent badly, Hue Jackson must too if he thinks A.J. McCarron is a potential position changer and that someone (Brown and/or Haslem) hit a panic button to get Hue Jackson's guy.
Just mind churningly bad on about every level that you can think of.

I'm not sure any of these guys deserve to survive, but I think things are turning up in Cleveland.
The screwing up of a trade this bad is a good thing besides the overpay, you know the Browns would play McCarron (they have to after that price), avoid drafting a quarterback and continue this awful train to nowhere.
The humiliation of the ridiculousness of yesterday just might be the ticket to turning this thing around.
After all, missing on Grillin' AJ, getting the silly front office removed, and maybe the coach that thought A.J. McCarron was a quarterback worth building around to go just might be the ticket to fix the most pathetic organization in pro sports...