ESPY Picks

My 2009 ESPY Picks:



Best Male Athlete: LEBRON JAMES over Kobe Bryant, Michael Phelps, and Jimmie Johnson (where is Alex Ovechkin?)


Best Female Athlete: NATALIE COUGHLIN over Nastia Liukin, Maya Moore, Candace Parker, and Serena Williams


Best Championship Performance: MICHAEL PHELPS over Kobe Bryant, Cole Hamels, and Misty May-Treanor/Kerri Walsh


Best Breakthrough Athlete: DERRICK ROSE over Shawn Johnson, Evan Longoria, and Matt Ryan


Best Record-Breaking Performance: USAIN BOLT over Michael Phelps, Larry Fitzgerald, and Phil Jackson (almost took Phelps again here)

Best Upset: UNITED STATES DEFEATING SPAIN over Mine That Bird, Oregon State defeating USC, and Tampa Bay Rays winning American League

Best Game: SYRACUSE/UCONN 6OT over Federal/Nadal Wimbledon and Steelers/Cardinals Super Bowl

Best Moment: US SWIM TEAM THRILLING FINISH over Tim Tebow's Speech and Helio Castroneves' Indy 500 Victory

Best Play: ROETHLISBERGER TO HOLMES SUPER BOWL WINNING CATCH over Ovechkin's Goal vs. Rangers, Pacquiao KOing Hatton, and Crabtree's Game-Winning Catch

Best Team: PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES over Uconn Huskies Women's Basketball, North Carolina Tar Heels Men's Basketball, Los Angeles Lakers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Pittsburgh Steelers (homer pick, should probably be UConn women)

Best International Male Athlete: RAFAEL NADAL over Usain Bolt, Pau Gasol, Lionel Messi, and Cristiano Ronaldo

Best International Female Athlete: YELENA ISINBAYEVA (I guess?) over Marta, Lorena Ochoa, Stephanie Rice, and Dinara Safina

Under Armour All-America Moment: DAVID RENFROE over Jake Bernhardt, Tara Glover, Hannah Werth, and Andre Debose/Russel Shepard (stupid category)

Best Sports Movie: THE WRESTLER over Sugar and The Express

Best Coach/Manager: PHIL JACKSON over Geno Auriemma, Dan Bylsma, Joe Maddon, and Mike Tomlin

Best NFL Player: LARRY FITZGERALD over James Harrison, Peyton Manning, Adrian Peterson, and Kurt Warner

Best Baseball Player: RYAN HOWARD over Roy Halladay, Dustin Pedroia, Albert Pujols, Francisco Rodriguez (I don't know how I feel about Manny being kept off this list. Without the allegations he's a clear nominee and probably the winner, but I guess he deserves the snub.)

Best NHL Player: ALEXANDER OVECHKIN over Sidney Crosby, Pavel Datsyuk, and Evgeni Malkin

Best Driver: JIMMIE JOHNSON over Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, Lewis Hamilton, and Tony Schumacher

Best NBA Player: KOBE BRYANT over LeBron James, Dwight Howard, and Dwyane Wade (Lebron's the better athlete and more valuable to his team, but Kobe's season was incredible and the championship makes him the best player. How I can possibly pick him as the the NBA's best player and LeBron as the year's best athlete is weird, but it just doesn't feel right snubbing Kobe on three categories.)

Best WNBA Player: Is Lisa Leslie still playing?

Best Fighter: MANNY PACQUIAO over Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida, and Shane Mosley

Best U.S. Male Olympian: MICHAEL PHELPS over Bryan Clay, LaShawn Merritt, and Angelo Taylor

Best U.S. Female Olympian: NATALIE COUGHLIN over Shawn Johnson, Dawn Harper, and Nastia Liukin

Best Male Golfer: TIGER WOODS over Phil Mickelson and Padraig Harrington

Best Female Golfer: LORENA OCHOA over Paula Creamer and Suzann Pettersen

Best Male Tennis Player: RAFAEL NADAL over Roger Federer

Best Female Tennis Player: SERENA WILLIAMS over Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dinara Safina

Best Male College Athlete: STEPHEN STRASBURG over Sam Bradford, Matt Gilroy, Blake Griffin, and Tim Tebow

Best Female College Athlete: MAYA MOORE over Kerri Hanks, Courtney Kupets, Danielle Lawrie, and Dana Vollmer

Best Male Action Sport Athlete: SHAUN WHITE over Ryan Sheckler, Kelly Slater, and James Stewart

Best Female Action Sport Athlete: TORAH BRIGHT over Ashley Fiolek, Maya Gabeira and Sarah Burke

Best Jockey: CALVIN BOREL over Garret Gomez and Mike Smith

Best Female Athlete with Disability: JESSICA LONG over Asya Miller, Maureen McKimmon-Tucker, and Ashley Popovich

Best Male Athlete with Disability: WILL GROULX over Jeremy Campbell, Jason Lester, and Oscar Pistorius

Best Bowler: NORM DUKE over Wes Malott and Chris Barnes

Best MLS Player: LANDON DONOVAN over Juan Pablo Angel, Jon Busch, Kenny Cooper, and Guillermo Barros Schelotto (props to ESPN for keeping Beckham off this list)

No Heart

As soon as the horn sounded on the regular season finale between the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers, I sent a text message to a guy I used to work with, who happens to be a dedicated Penguins fan: "We just don't have the goaltending. Pens in 6." After calming down and looking a little further into it, I picked Pens in 7 on this blog. Even though it seems I was right about the Pens taking this series, it doesn't hurt any less to see a season with this much promise end the way it did. And it hurt even worse to see that goaltending wasn't the only problem, but heart.

Of the four Philadelphia major sports teams, in my eighteen years on this earth, if you asked me on the whole which franchise was the most dedicated to winning, working hard, and never quitting, I would say the Flyers. Few times in my life as a sports fan have I ever questioned the heart of the Philadelphia Flyers. Today is a rare exception. The first period ended with Philly up 3-0. In the beginning of the second, after Daniel Carcillo beat the living daylights out of Max Talbot, I thought I could safely watch the NFL draft for the remainder of the afternoon. But the Penguins used the fact that Talbot put his body on the line to drop the gloves and rallied behind it, because they wanted to go home with the series clinched. Why? How? Because that's what great teams do, and that's what teams with heart do. Love 'em or hate 'em, and its certainly the latter for me, the Pens have a deadly combination of dedication and talent. But today wasn't really about the Penguins overcoming the three goal lead, but about the Flyers blowing it.

To give up five unanswered goals in any game is embarassing, but in a postseason elimination game, after just scoring three goals and winning one of the most lopsided fights I've seen this season? That's utter humilation, for the players, coaches, and fans. So what's the next move? I think John Stevens is one of the last guys that can be blamed for this end-of-season flameout, but the consensus move in professional sports in this situation is to fire the coach. So I think Stevens is out, probably within the next few days. But that's not the real problem. The real problem is that Marty Biron and Antero Niittymaki are both free agents, and honestly, I don't think it makes sense to bring either of them back. Take that money and go get a stud goalie. I'd rather a stud goalie and a shaky backup than two mediocre players between the pipes. If there's one silver lining in this post, its that the Flyers are never afraid to go out and get that impact player.

But honestly, it's way too early to even think about it.

Rest in Peace, Harry Kalas

I don't have a whole lot to say. My friend Dan did about as good of a job honoring Harry Kalas as anybody could, and all the things he said hold true with how I feel too. Simply put, baseball will never sound the same.

Rest in peace, Harry Kalas.