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USA TV Talk Sports with Justin Mazzarese

...Justin Mazzarese knows sports and plays all media and wins...Stay tuned here for updates......

9/05/05

WELCOME BACK WESTCONN

Justin Mazzarese

Sports Editor

Hope all of you had a great summer because its back to school which can only mean one thing, its back to procrastination season. Just knowing that you have all that time to either not clean your kitchen or not do that paper is a great feeling.

Anyway, enough about the daily haze that is the college life and on to a quick round up on what�s going on in the �cleaner� world of sports.

First off, how great is baseball, besides the whole Rafael Palmerio thing. No matter how much of a blow the sport takes, whether it is dealing with the strike or steroids, the sport still shows its resiliency year in and year out. Ticket sales continue to climb each year to see the Yankees and Red Sox nation wide. How many times have you seen Kauffman Stadium (Kansas City Royals) sold out? I know your not suppose to answer a question with a question, but the answer is how ever many times the Red Sox and Yankees played their.

Another reason that baseball has bounced back is the return of natural talent. Griffey Junior is back and producing like he never missed those four years. He still has the same sweet stoke that made me buy his jersey and shoes eight years ago, both which probably cost more than my college wardrobe, which includes a five dollar shirt from Savers. With the season Griffey is having, it is now safe to say that he would have been top ten players of all-time. He is twelfth all time on the home run list, and he missed four years due to injury! Do the math; he would have been the all-time home run hitter before he was 40, with two years to play.

If your talking about the greatest outfielders ever, then you gotta talk about Andrew Jones because that is what people will be saying in ten years when he makes his run at the home run record. Jones has an advantage because he started out when he was 19. While most 19 year olds are still trying to get into the local dive-bar, Jones was having multi-home run games against Andy Petitte, in the World Series and oh yeah it was at Yankee Stadium.

Jones has a bright future but the crown right now best all around player belongs to Vladimir Guerrero. Not only has the American league discovered who Vladimir Guerrero is, but the world is starting to take notice. Case in point those who have played the summer hit, MVP Baseball 2005, and realized that you can not move Vlad closer to the plate or away from the plate, you can only move him forward and backwards. And the reason is simple: HE HITS EVERYTHING! Also, if you watch Sportscenter often I am sure you are familiar with the �Vlad zone�. The zone extends the average strike zone a foot in each direction. This poses a problem for opposing pitchers who try to pitch around him because he will put the ball in the upper deck on a high fastball that any sane Major League hitter would not even think about swinging at (see Jamie Moyer).

The other major sport in the news write now is obviously football. I am not going to even waste my time, and yours, on the likes of Terrell Owens and Ricky Williams. But I will say this: the under story of Terrell Owens was that the Eagles had two other of their main players hold out in Corey Simon and Brian Westbrook. Westbrook got signed to a deal that will keep him happy for the year while Simon got released and signed with the Colts. With the release of Simon, and the non-signing of Peerless Price, you have to start questioning the Eagles front office and you can also look for the Eagles to be a first round exit in the playoffs.

Some surprises to watch out for this football season is the Vikings and Chief�s defenses who bolstered squad through free-agency; good sleeper fantasy defenses. Also with the departure of Ty Law, wait to you see how good the Patriots secondary is and I guarantee by week eight you will know who Leonard Davis is of the Arizona Cardinals when they are 4-2. Oh yeah, he�s a lineman.

P.S.-GO TO WESTERN SPORTS EVENTS!!!!

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