Jose Canseco - This week sing the apocalypse is upon us

If there is flag bearer of the steroid era of Major League Baseball is former baseball player Jose Canseco.

The 1988 American League Most Valuable Player confirmed he wants to help MLB commissioner Bud Selig and union head Donald Fehr to make the game “the great sport that it is”.

The funny thing is that a player who accepted that his 462 career home runs where possible by the use of steroids is now a good option for a league that is trying to put behind an era of usage.

Canseco was the first baseball player to come clean on his issues when he wrote his book “Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big”. In this now infamous publication he talked about introducing then Oakland Athletics Mark McGwire to illegal substances.

On his 2008 publication “Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars, and The Battle to Save Baseball” Canseco tells the story on how he introduced Alex Rodriguez to a steroids dealer, back when they played for the Texas Rangers.

As a side note Rodriguez, now of the New York Yankees, recently admitted to steroid use between 2001 and 2003.

But back to the savior.

Canseco has a point of view of those stormy years better than most; he was a user and also a ringer for others. He might be in a position to do some good and shed that notion that he used baseball as a money making business and his books to make even more dollars.

The Major League Baseball offices are willing to give him the opportunity to help; hopefully something good can come out of this. The problem is that with Canseco you never can tell what might be the end result of this ordeal.

Dwight Howard, the future best player of the NBA

Was it Superman? Not really, it’s Dwight Howard who is arriving to the Magic's court wearing a T-shirt of the famous comic book super hero from which his NBA nickname is taken.

You might think Dwight Howard is not the best player of the NBA right now; but just give the kid some time, he hasn't played at the league for that long, but during the period he's been active in the NBA, he has proven that he has what it takes to be a super star and more.

I can assure you without a doubt that Dwight Howard is going to be as big as Shaquille O'Neal: in fact, he's going to be the Shaq of his generation.

It is easy to believe that Howard hasn't reached his full potential just yet. There are critics who say that he's not even close to getting there. But the NBA betting fans notice his potential every time the Orlando Magic comes out to play, just like they saw it when Howard played for the USA Olympic team, as there is no doubt that he was critical for the team to do so well and bring the gold medal home.

To be honest, most NBA centers aren't just born with the talent for the position; they are simply given the chance to play and only a few do it as outstandingly as Dwight Howard.

Howard entered the NBA as a first overall pick back in 2004, and had to remain at the shadow of players like emerging super stars Dwayne Wade and LeBron James, but then he started to show what he was capable of and gave a big jump in popularity when he began participating at the NBA slam dunk contests.

If you still have doubts about Dwight Howard and his huge potential, just watch a few Magic NBA games; you won’t regret it.

New Coach for the Kansas City Chiefs

St. Louis Cardinals offensive coordinator Todd Haley has accepted the position of head coach for the Kansas City Chiefs this week. According to anonymous declarations the Chiefs’ players are actually very happy with the decision since after dealing with him right before Super Bowl 2009 he showed a very friendly and professional presence and basically called the plays for the high-flying Cardinals offense that shocked the world by not only getting to the Super Bowl, but nearly winning it last Sunday.

Todd Haley will be joining a franchise-worst 2-14 under coach Herm Edwards, recently fired on January 23t. Edwards lost all but two of his last 25 games. The Kansas City chiefs were working with Edwards on a rebuilding project though that made the Chiefs the youngest team during this NFL season.

Maybe the hopes are too high, especially if they are aiming to match the 2008 Chiefs game where they set an NFL record for pass-rushing futility with only 10 sacks, most yards allowed in a game, most points allowed in a game, and biggest lead squandered in a loss all of these under Gunther Cunningham’s supervision, who has become defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions.

Another issue that Haley will have to take into consideration for this years NFL season is that the Kansas City Chiefs haven't won a NFL postseason game since Joe Montana was their quarterback in the 1993. In more current matters, Todd Haley will have to deal with two very important issues regarding the Chiefs players: Larry Johnson who was saying that he saw no future for himself in Kansas City after he was benched for violating team rules for three games and suspended for one game by the NFL and a solution for Chiefs quarterback Brodie Croyle, that has been prone to injury and unreliable.

No more Lucky for the Celtics!

That’s right, Lucky, the until-now mascot for the Boston Celtics was fired from his position, announced the team’s front office in an statement citing the departure of Damon Blust.

The Celtics’ management team said that they truly appreciate the efforts of Blust for bringing smiles and entertain the Celtics crowd as well as his work for the Boston community during the term he served as a member of the team.

Through his representatives, Damon Blust said that the Celtics relieved him from his duties as team mascot so he could pursue other things. Blust is looking to invest in a school for kids and specialized in fitness and health.

Probably is a wise decision for both ‘Lucky’ and the Celtics, because Damon Blust is thirty three years-old right now, and because the time of an athlete is a short one, he as the rest, is looking to build up a different career which can be practiced during an older age.

Even Blust’s dad was impressed with his son’s sudden decision about leaving the current champions of the NBA, and people in general couldn’t believe either such fast departure from the team.

But there is something for sure, Damon Blust is well appreciated at Boston and well received across the whole nation too, he even was in Conan O’Brien not so long ago and the stories around his talent are numerous.

Blust is a Cincinnati native, but a long-time Celtics fan since the days of Bob Cousy.

Well, the Celtics are losing a great entertainer in Damon Blust, but the search for the new ‘lucky’ is on the march, and the team from Boston is surely waiting to find a replacement for Blust before the Celtics hang their 18th banner on their court’s ceiling this season… or at least that’s what Celtics fans hope for.

Brady, Titans, uncertainty in sports and betting lines

This NFL season has been a strange one. All sorts of things have occurred since it began. Let’s start with the Tom Brady injury and let’s finish with the Titans deception.

If you think about it, that is why most sports betting houses are making so much money, because they know that there is no certainty in sports no matter what the odds are, and because of that, they always try to twist the odds in their favor as much as they can. But this requires an enormous effort; otherwise everybody would have left their day jobs by now as everybody would be rich due to gambling winnings. But that’s not the case; the truth is that sports books base their betting odds on professional sports lines services which are dedicated to know what is going on with every player involved in a game. Even small factors as if he didn’t had a good sleep or if his mom or other member of his family dies are extremely pieces of important data and can twist an odd easily.

After all, it is all about money, and as in everything, if you are ahead, you will always win.
Oh yes, the season, let’s start with betting futures. I am sure there were many people betting for the Patriots to be the champions this year, but their faces went from excited to sad very quick when Tom Brady got injured in the first game of the regular season. There’s another good example: everybody thought the Titans were sure candidates to make it to the Super Bowl this year because of their excellent record until they got beaten by a not-so-good seeded team, I’m sure many people placed bets favoring the Titans, but they lost at the end, and so the people that bet on them.