The Gambling Peak

The job of football manager must be the toughest and most stressful management role on the planet. There is no hiding. Your results are immediate – once or even twice a week. Club Boards and fans want instant results. Poor performance is punished ruthlessly and in public. Humiliation is a constant companion.

Under this constant pressure one can understand why many managers rant and rave on the sidelines, on television, radio and in the press. However, they are unaware that their aggressive and insulting behaviour is damning their players to continued poor performance.

In today’s competitive world almost all football managers know that at Premier League level most players are equal as far as fitness and skills go. What makes the STAR, what makes the exceptional player is mental fitness. It is mental fitness that wins games.

So why do many managers behave in ways that damage their players’ mental fitness? Surely it can only be ignorance (in it’s true meaning) – because every manager wants success for his players and club.

So here are seven things a football manager must do to build his/her players’ mental fitness

1.Promise openly, right now, never to criticise any of your players in public. Not even if it’s justified. You’ll do your straight talking in private and if you decide to fire a player you’ll do it in the most decent way possible.

2.Tell your players that you like them, that you think they are great players and that you know every one of them does the best he/she can in every game. You trust them.

3.Do whatever it takes to get fun and enjoyment back into the team. People cannot perform at their peak when they’re afraid, worried or unhappy. Make having fun your main objective. Work hard – yes! Win games – of course. But let’s not beat ourselves up when we make mistakes. Let’s get the fun back in our football and our lives.

4.Genuinely praise even the smallest improvement or the tiniest spark of brilliance and praise openly. Especially when things are going badly. Big fires start from small sparks. Really look for things to praise.

5.Stop shouting, mocking and insulting – even in private. Your macho ego may feel good but it does your players no good at all. In fact, they’ll subconsciously hate you and will play badly to spite you – and they won’t even know they’re doing it. Concentrate on helping people do better – not on crushing them with sarcasm.

6.Make it your main goal to help each individual become the best player he/she can possibly be. Be seen to be helping players with their careers. If your club cannot satisfy the playing or wage aspirations of a brilliant player, work with him to find the best transfer possible. Imagine the effect this will have. Players will give you undying loyalty and effort when they know you are there for them.

7.Find ways to keep players’ minds focussed on success. Every day – several times a day make statements that predict success and expect success. Do not even hint at losing! Allow time for players to visualise that success – everything comes from a dream.

Yes, some money to buy in talent is helful but it is not everything. Seriously apply these seven rules for two weeks and see your team improve beyond what you ever thought possible.

Dr Bill helps people improve their performance by using simple but powerful deep psychological exercises. No mumbo-jumbo – just solid subconscious programming. bill@profitimprovers.com

A few random thoughts on making Fall Ball a bit better experience!
*You may want to read the note at the end of this article

I believe that your ability to communicate will always make your life and your team a better experience. Nothing new so far, right?

Fall baseball is the time when teaching and learning, hopefully in a fun environment, may fight the demons of your competitive side. We like to say that it is fall ball so we are not going to win at all costs, BUT… it is hard not trotting out your stud pitchers at every opportunity… especially if you have history with some of your competition! The risk of looking like a weenie or your team getting crushed can be overwhelming!

Well coach, here’s a few thoughts to keep you on the straight and narrow and possibly allow you to retain some of your dignity (and your won-loss record).

1st – You Need To Have The Come To Jesus Meeting!
You have dads in the stands (and players, dependant on age) who are just as competitive as you. Your goals for this fall season must be outlined in an initial meeting with parents and players (this is two separate meetings for some teams).

You must be abundantly clear regarding your thoughts on winning, which I always encourage, but that playing well and marked improvement from beginning to end of this season are the real barometers.

IF THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE TO ANY PARENT, they don’t get it and should be best advised to find another team.

2nd – You are The Man
You, coach, are the guy who is giving your time and doing your best to help an entire team of other people’s kids to do their best. And trust me on this one, if the kids aren’t having fun, you had better change your ways fast… or you are missing the reason you should be doing this in the first place! So, in general…keep it fun!

And to a player, what could be more fun than to finally have a coach who gave them a chance to earn the position they have dreamed about. Learn to pick your spots, be honest with the younger kids who you know may be in harms way, and be aware of when you can and can’t do this. If your heart is in the right place…you will know!

We talk about how kids simply don’t play games anymore…by themselves, without adults. Well, one of the great things about the pick up games we used to play was that kids eventually got to play most or all the positions. Today, without fall ball…when and how are they going to learn these positions?
We Play Baseball – We don’t work baseball!

3rd – More On Having Fun
If it isn’t fun, why would any kid want to do this? They are kids! No matter what the age and skill level, especially as they get older, they have a lot of choices. Keep ‘em in the game!

Face it… most of the world doesn’t think baseball with autumn in the air. It’s football, back to school, etc. So, any kid who is on a baseball field in September is telling you…I REALLY LIKE (or love) THIS GAME! Don’t you chase them away!

No matter what their present skill level, those skills may change… and fast!
I cannot tell you how many kids I have had in the Fall who grow and get stronger by Spring. What a shame it would be if I was the one who discouraged a kid just as we was finally able to physically do what he couldn’t just a few short months ago!

So, again, play ‘em where they think they can play, along with where you already know they can play. If they stink, don’t worry, they will know it before you do.

Always remember… Players get better. Help them make it happen!

Tough Tip – Bench your kid in game one and maybe other games too
Many amateur coaches have their own son, their “favorite player” on the team. If you simply keep your son on the bench for the first innings of your first game, it will display to all that you are indeed sticking to your guns about playing time, new position opportunities, etc.

Hint – Consider making your son your bench coach to show him that this is not punishment- you certainly can make this a pact between he and you alone. Sit him right next to you in the dugout and give him a real duty such as watching and helping position your defenses or maybe giving you a few quick tips on upcoming batters he may know – get creative. Show him you trust and need him! – Build a memory along with a team.

You can even hold out another of your better players too. Refrain from also placing your frontline players in the positions they always play in the first inning.

Your lesser players will play for you and maybe pay huge dividends come spring! The fact is that you may not be able to make all-stars out of all-stars. They will do most of that by themselves. But you sure can turn the lousy player into an average player, the average player into a very good player. This even happens in pro ball, just check out Marcus Giles, a former 53rd round draft pick, who is now an all-star second baseman for the Atlanta Braves.

Finally, remember that almost every World Series winner has one guy who unexpectedly made a difference. Team guys who were not all-stars or superstars! Remember the names Bucky Dent, Craig Counsell, Gene Tenace, Aaron Boone, Mark Lemke, David Eckstein, and Jim Leyritz?

So, take the high road, even if and when others do not. It is their loss…and their players are who ultimately pay the price with a lack of improvement or leaving the game prematurely. It’s not “daddyball”, it’s just smart fall ball!

Take some risks, show some courage, park your ego, then kick some butt on the scoreboard! You may end up getting more out of this experience than your players!

*Note: This article is aimed and read by many coaches and players of many age and skill levels. If your fall schedule is a win-at-all-cost league, some of this article is not for you. With that said, enter these leagues knowing that your players may be missing some very important instructional time for the long term, possibly even contributing to their premature departure from this greatest of games. After all, when do you allow a player to try a new position or switch hit or break out a new pitch…if not in the fall?

Exceptions – If you are coaching a group of prospects looking to the coming year’s pro draft and/or college ball, your goals are obviously different. Much of the above still applies, however you certainly will play these players at their positions of greatest potential.

http://www.baseballtips.com/

Baseball tips & youth baseball equipment, training aids & instruction!
It’s all here for baseball coaching of pitchers & hitters, little league to high school.

From the 9th of June to the 9th of July, the excitement and fan frenzy builds to a deafening crescendo. Soccer fanatics are on high alert. It is time to defend to no end the pride of Region and Country. This is big. No, it’s bigger than big. Considering the fact that soccer is the most popular sport in the world today, it is no jaw-dropping surprise that Soccer’s World Cup is actually the largest sporting event on the planet. Based on sheer numbers, fan attendance, television ratings, number of viewers, travel revenue, ticket sales and media coverage; there is no sporting event that even comes close to this one. If you take the NCAA Basketball Tournament, the World Series, the Super Bowl and the Olympics and add them all together, it would still not be as big as the World Cup! Three and a half billion people will be watching this tournament unfold in at least a dozen locations in Germany in 2006. Strangely enough, the past World Cup events have been all but ignored in the United States. This is rapidly changing as Americans get more familiar with this action-packed sport.

The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) was established in 1904 and they are the ultimate authority when it comes to anything that has to do with International Soccer. For those of you that don’t know, the United States is the only Country in the world that calls this sport “soccer”. Every other Country calls it “football”. The FIFA is, of course, overseeing the qualifying of teams into the World Cup Tournament. This is an extremely lengthy and complicated process that is several years in the making. The process of a team qualifying is too complicated and lengthy to go into here, but suffice it to say that the teams that make the cut are well qualified. Individual team statistics considered for the qualifying starts two years before the World Cup begins. For this year, the host country team, in this case Germany, gets in automatically, as does the reigning Cup holder from four years prior, in this case Brazil. The rest of the field is chosen from 150 possible candidates spread out all over the globe. The FIFA analyzes endless streams of data from the two years of competition leading up to this prestigious event. They eventually whittle the field down to 32 teams. These 32 well represent not only the best soccer teams from around the world, but the will represent the regions of the world.

Certainly, no other sport unifies and assembles so many different cultures from each of the 7 continents. But it also can cause friction and even violence between some fanatical groups. Soccer fans are among the most passionate (and expressive) of any sports spectator group and needless to say; security considerations are always very high as an explosive situation could arrive at any given time. This is true even in the early rounds of the competition. Heck, this is even true in the pre-competition games known as the “International Friendlies” matches, which start up early in March. These games are held all over the world and include more practice and a chance for teams to “feel out” their potential competition. They work on their conditioning and strategy more than anything else. Nevertheless, the competition is very fierce. There doesn’t seem to be anything “friendly” about this phase of the World Cup. It is indeed taken very seriously. Getting respect from opponents in the pre-competition match-ups can be a huge psychological edge going in.

Some luck is involved in the final groupings. The top 8 teams are separated as #1 seeds for groups A through H. Germany and Brazil get their free pass as top seeds and the rest are drawn at random from a bowl. So the draw is now set and in order of their group seeding, they look like this:

Group A; Germany, Costa Rica, Poland, Ecuador
Group B; England, Paraguay, Trinidad-Tobago, Sweden
Group C; Argentina, Ivory Coast, Serbia-Montenegro, Netherlands
Group D; Mexico, Iran, Angola, Portugal
Group E; Italy, Ghana, United States, Czech Republic
Group F; Brazil, Croatia, Australia, Japan
Group G; France, Switzerland, South Korea, Togo
Group H; Spain, Ukraine, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia

SOURCE: The official site for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany

Keep in mind, only one team emerges victorious from each group when we get to the final eight. The teams that have to be the most hopeful with their draws are England, Mexico, France and Spain. Although the Sweden draw for England historically has been a problem, England is looking forward to putting to rest the thousands of critics that will remind us all that Sweden has not lost to England in 37 years. Beyond that, there is little hope for Paraguay and Trinidad-Tobago.

The two toughest groups to predict a winner out of is obviously Group A, Group E and possibly Group C. In Group A, Germany is, indeed a tough opponent and they are on their home turf, which makes them tougher than usual. However, Costa Rica, Ecuador and especially Poland have a legitimate shot at the final. In Group E, the Italians are good, but overall this group has parody. The United States has as good a shot as anyone coming out of this division, but all four of these teams are evenly matched. For good measure, the two toughest powerhouse entities in a single group are Argentina and the Netherlands out of Group C. One of these two will no doubt emerge victorious.

The best bets in the win market are Brazil (odds to win it all ~ 3/1), England (~ 6/1), Germany and Argentina (~ 8/1), Italy (~9/1), France (~10/1), Holland (Netherlands) (~ 12/1) and Spain (~13/1). The odds are changing every few minutes so consult your favorite sportsbook for up-to-date numbers. If you feel like the soccer universe is about to be turned on it’s head, bet on Trinidad-Tobago (~1000/1). The best long-shots may be placed near the middle of the field by the odds-makers: Portugal (~22/1), Sweden and Mexico (~40/1) and the Ukraine (~50/1). There are many other ways to wager on this epic event including final pair, most goals and continent of winner. You could also look to fatten up your wallet with fairly good odds on the elimination stage, single match, team qualifying and which two teams will reach the final game.

Of the 32 outstanding teams representing regions from all over the globe, only one will stand on the podium with cup in hand. Come July 9th, 31 of the competing countries at the World Cup will experience a range of emotions from mild disappointment to broken hearts. However, one region, one country and one aspiring championship team will experience the elation of overcoming incredible adversity to win, what some would call the greatest sporting event on the planet; The 2006 FIFA World Cup.

By Mark Rothstein sponsored by BetUS Sportsbook at www.betus.com/ BetUS is an online sportsbook that offers sports betting, online poker and Vegas-style casino games as well. Please link to this site when using this article.

Camping outdoors has gained much reputation over the years to be an alternative from your accustomed busy life. Taking some days away from chaotic work agenda gives much excitement and recreation choice than any other holiday plan. If you intend to have an outdoor camping this winter then it is suggested that you try and find the best of camping equipment to carry with for the finest enjoyable camping experience.

Outdoor camping accessories often come in the way of camping tables camping lanterns camping clothing etc. As the camping sites chosen are wide-ranging so are the camping tools that are required for particular jobs. Some people prefer to camp in the plains, whilst some go in the mountain areas, some in fields & some in woods. This means that the camping equipment used will depend on the location you have chosen to camp in.

To enjoy the fun and excitement absolutely, it is important to carry camping equipment that you will require during your camping vacation. There are loads of hikers & campers who enjoy to camp and discover the most extreme parts of the world. Therefore the camping needs differ from person to person.

Thus before going camping outdoors it is essential that you procure the gear that you will need. To get the best camping accessories it is better to locate a cheap camping equipment dealer and request the equipment you require to carry along. The light weight tents, transportable camping stoves, handy weightless chairs, disposable utensils, sleeping bags, hiking boots, light fabric weightless clothes & other camping accessories can be obtained online at the largest discount rates. It’s vital to carry camping kit that is light so as to provide you as much liberty whilst trekking and hiking. Find great offers on camping lights.

Numerous variety of camping gear are not cheap to acquire and can be afforded only when you have a huge budget. Hence you ought to make a list of items that you cannot do without whilst camping. Depending upon how regularly you go for camping, renting camping accessories is a great alternative. Otherwise if you are a camping fanatic then having a collection of your own camping accessories is worth. Have a superb camping experience this summer by keeping all your camping desires toned up.

Related topics of interest include: Formula 1 Merchandise & Discount Toys.

We’re in the middle of the first NHL Playoffs since 2004 and there seems to be a common theme. No it’s not Ilja Bryzgalov shut-outs (although those seem to be happening quite often), it’s NHL bashing.

It’s no surprise that the NHL is not as popular as the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NBA, or NCAA Football and Basketball for that matter – but it gets treated by major media like it is a joke of a sport. Shows like Around the Horn on ESPN constantly make fun of anyone who actually watches hockey. They don’t pick on NASCAR, they don’t pick on soccer, and they don’t pick on tennis or golf. They pick on hockey.

Earlier this week, Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel wrote an article entitled “Hockey: The cold, hard, truth” in which he claims that no one wants to read about hockey, and pleads sports sections and media outlets to stop covering it. He cites low NHL ratings as the reason to stop covering it, and claims that “sports editors are from an era when hockey still mattered.” He states that “the WNBA and Major League Soccer” are in the same category as the NHL.

That’s funny, last time I checked, the NHL drew 16,955 fans per game – barely less than the 17,558 that the NBA averaged this season and just a little more than the 8,174 that the WNBA drew in 2005. Last time I checked the NHL revised the rules for a more exciting game, had two of the most exhilarating rookies in sports history in Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin, and was in the middle of an exciting playoff run.

We all know that the NHL isn’t the NFL, but it does deserve the respect for what it is – an immensely popular sport that has an extremely loyal following. Haters will point to the fact that hockey doesn’t get the ratings of Golf or even Arena Football, but fail to realize that much of the reason for the lack of interest is their incessant nagging about how uninteresting it is. What would happen if the media promoted it like they promote golf or boxing? I know that I don’t particularly like those sports but when ESPN hypes up a fight for a week, it tends to peak my interest and I tend to watch. Don’t you think the NHL bashing has the reverse effect?

The NHL bears some responsibility for this, but they don’t get any help from the national media. The NHL shouldn’t have allowed a work stoppage and they shouldn’t have allowed their game to be showcased on mediocre sports networks like NBC and OLN. However, they don’t deserve the treatment they are getting. They managed to evolve the quality of play this year and have given their fans everything and more that they could have asked for coming off of the work stoppage.

I’m fairly certain that hockey would be better off getting no attention from the media than the negative tail-whipping they’ve been getting lately. Someone wise once told me that if I didn’t have anything nice to say, I shouldn’t say anything at all. When it comes to covering the NHL, the media should contact their local elementary school so that they can sit in on a kindergarten class. It obviously didn’t sink in the first time around.

Adam McFarland owns the SportsLizard.com Network – a network of sports sites including collectibles, movies, books, video games, and more. SportsLizard.com recently won honorable mention in the Microsoft Start Something Amazing Awards

There is a vast array of ladies lingerie online for example the best nightwear lingerie, satin lingerie, exotic lingerie & a lot more. There are numerous interesting makes of womens lingerie on the Internet that you will undoubtedly be perplexed & will want to understand which exact 1 to buy now & which 1 to purchase later. For the reason that there is defiantly no way, you can ever say no to lingerie online! Get stunning and sexy corset tops at great prices from designers such as Panache, Sielei, Mademoiselle, Valisere, Vollers and Simone Perele

Ladies Nightwear Lingerie: If you are confused about women’s nightwear lingerie to buy and which will suit you & the occasion the most, this is the greatest place to get all the need information about nightwear lingerie.

Sexy Lingerie: Even though all women’s lingerie is sexy lingerie, its enormously important to know if you will come across sexy in specific piece of lingerie or not. For e.g. corsets and bustier might not look right on every person, so even if you spend a fortune on this sexy lingerie, you may not look sexy whatever.

Satin Lingerie: Satin is a material, which can appear sexy no matter what. If you get satin lingerie, the probability is you will never wan to come out of it. The first thing women as well as men love about satin lingerie is the pure smoothness & shine of the fabric. If you want to come across striking & attractive, its worthwhile giving satin lingerie a try

Ladies Exotic Lingerie: If you want to appear out of the ordinary & desire to get exotic lingerie, lace courtesan chemise set, is the perfect pick for you. There are various exotic lingerie fashions available online, all of which are bold, gorgeous and of course, strange. Your other half would have never ever imagined you could look so great, as exotic lingerie is something that comes into view more frequently. In addition, you can also purchase fetish sets as they work well as tremendous exotic lingerie. The best exotic lingerie obtainable on the Internet is ‘Shangai Sweetie’ – if you get the opportunity to lay your fingers on this sexy piece of lingerie, just do not let it go!

The oldest (but not wisest) League in the world was founded in 1888, and initially consisted of 12 clubs in the midlands and north of England. The FA cup, which initially embraced both Scottish and southern “non – league” clubs, had already been going since 1872. It was not called the English League as initially it hoped it would grow to include Scottish clubs, but these later (1890) formed their own league instead.

A second division was added by absorbing the rival Football Alliance in 1892, and by 1899 it had 36 member clubs. Initially the bottom four clubs had to apply for (re) – election, but this was reduced to three (1895/6), then two (1898/9), before reverting to four (two each for the regional Division 3-s) in 1920/1. Between 1893 and 1898 “test matches” (an early form of play – offs) were used to decide all promotion issues between the two divisions. The league stopped between 1915 and 1919 for the First World War, but resumed in the latter year with 40 clubs. The league was still largely northern – and midlands – based, so in 1920 virtually the entire First Division of the rival southern League was absorbed as the FL-s Third Division. The following year a further batch of clubs from the midlands and north were added to make two regional Division 3`s, North and South.

Stopping again for the Second World War (1940 – 1946), it saw the creation of Division 4 in 1958, expansion by four clubs to 92 in 1959 and the start of the League Cup in 1960.

More about the history of England football (soccer).

The author – Radi Georgiev, is a publisher in World’s History.

We know from watching migratory birds that when many birds get together they can fly further with each individual bird spending less vital energy for the trip. In the military they learned this too with their aircraft, by drafting like bicycle riders in the Tour de France off the rider in front of them, riding in their slipstream. Now then there is a way to program UAVs or unmanned aerial vehicles in using these techniques to conserve fuel while flying in small swarms? I believe there is indeed; how so you ask?

Well consider a natural motion waving skin on a morphing aircraft fuselage and airfoils, next apply some haptics pressure sensors on the leading edge and nose cones of the UAVs and as the circular airflows come of the trailing edges of the wings on the UAVs and the back of the fuselage the aircraft in the rear will morph to accept the airflow in a way which it will do the most good.

For instance if a high intensity eddy is produced the UAV in the rear may create a dished out area of canal like surface to accept the eddy flow and use to suck up the airfoil like a Tornado rips off the roof of a house and since the surface will be canal shaped to accept the size and shape of the eddy, it will use it to its maximum advantage. Thus we should be able to increase life and use any drag we create for the formation.

By switching the lead aircraft like bicycle riders the extra-spent energy and fuel of the lead aircraft can return to the rear of the formation to conserve its fuel. Or an aircraft, which indeed is designed to create high intensity eddy flows and such would be full of lots of fuel in the front or lead and no armament or payload to deliver to the target. Its only job is to break wind and communicate with the rest of the units in the formation and perhaps block radar signature with shape shifting stealth technology while the other aircraft hide and wait using very little fuel and perhaps even doubling their range, time in the net-centric battlespace and increase payloads. I know you like this idea; don’t deny it.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

There are a variety of reasons to attend and pick a particular gymnastics camp. Since we are so often asked for our opinion about which summer training camp is best, we thought we would lay out the criteria we use to choose.

Innovation

We are not unbiased in our choices as we run a summer training camp and we, of course, think it is an excellent choice. The reason our camp is unique and to be recommended is because of the innovative training concepts that we use. Our books are full of innovative concepts that we know are not being utilized anywhere else because we developed the concepts. Our camp offers many of the following advantages as well, but we don’t know of any other camp that is as innovation oriented as we are.

A High Level of Training Available

The second reason to attend and pick a gymnastics summer camp is the level of training available. Parents and gymnasts might choose a gymnastics camp run by a gym with coaches who have or are currently training Elite International competitors. That level of training is not available to every gymnast in every town. Thus the choice for a summer camp might be based on a high level of training and there are a limited number of gym camps that would qualify in this category. Parents and gymnast will likely look at the most successful gymnasts of the last year and check into attending camp at one of their gyms.

Training Equipment

There are still gyms around that don’t have all of the latest gymnastics training equipment. Gymnasts and parents and even coaches may want their gymnasts to be able to take advantage of training equipment they don’t have available during the year. This is especially true of gyms that don’t have pits. Certain skills are very difficult to teach and learn without pits. Other equipment gymnasts and parents might be looking for might include trampolines, tumble tramps and Bungee training systems for trampoline, beam and tumbling.

College Scholarships

For gymnasts (and parents) who are interested in a potential college scholarship, it may make sense to attend camp at a number of colleges that the gymnast is interested in attending. This offers both the chance to see if the facility and coaches are a good fit for the gymnast and to make personal contact and let the coaches get a look at the gymnast and hopefully be impressed enough to add them to their recruiting prospect list. A good strategy may be to attend three or four college summer camps in the years before graduation that are scholarship potentials.

Elite Contacts

We are hesitant to recommend any camp or coaches that are so well known for their yelling and screaming style of coaching and we never appreciated programs trying to recruit both our gymnasts and coaches when they attended their camp. But there is one camp whose director has more control over who competes internationally than anyone else in the country. For gymnasts who are interested in competing at the Elite level, Karolyi’s summer camp gives the opportunity to train in the same facility that all TOP and National Team Training camps are run. This could also potentially allow gymnasts the opportunity to be noticed by Women’s National Team Coordinator, Marta Karolyi. And who knows maybe the Karolyis have mellowed since they retired from coaching their own team training program.

15 Books and Counting

John Howard is the author of 15 books and e-Books about gymnastics, gym design, gymnastics humor and cheerleading. More books are already on the way. He has 25 years experience and has coached State, Regional and National champion gymnasts and international competitors.

Enter the Gymnastics Zone

GymnasticsZone.com is a web site for gymnasts, coaches and parents with numerous FREE articles and information, fun pages and activities available for viewing. Check out our unique Gymnastics Makeover Summer Training Camp at: http://gymnasticszone.com/Camp.htm

For More Information

A variety of interesting and useful products and even more in-depth information books are available at: http://gymnasticszone.com/eBooks.htm

It’s not too often that you read about a team needing a 43-year-old pitcher to have a legitimate shot at the playoffs, but Clemens is not a pitcher who comes along that often. At 42, he put together one of his more stunning seasons in his illustrious 22-year career by going 13-8 with a 1.87 ERA, striking out 185 batters and walking just 62 in 211.3 innings. While Chris Carpenter won the Cy Young for the National League, last season (Clemens finished third behind Carpenter and Dontrelle Willis), his 2005 was one of his three or four best seasons over the course of his career (better than his 2004, in which he did win the Cy Young Award). His 1.008 WHIP was the second-best in his career (bested only in 1986), his 1.87 ERA was the best in his career, and his 44 earned runs allowed was also the best in his career with a minimum of 100 innings pitched. And he was 42.

Clemens tired down the stretch. He labored his way through the playoffs, going 4-3 while helping guide the Astros to the World Series. It was clear that Clemens had worn down, and an injured Clemens posted a 13.50 ERA in his lone outing as the Astros were swept by the Chicago White Sox. Had Clemens not been injured and tired, the history books might remember the 2005 season a little differently.

Without Clemens, this season, Houston is winning games by mashing the ball, which is not something that the ‘Stros are accustomed to. They are second in the National League in team average, fourth in home runs, tied for second in runs scored, and second in OPS. This is largely the same team that finished near the bottom in all of those categories in 2005. Though Roy Oswalt continues to prove that he is an ace pitcher, and Brandon Backe has surprised early on, Andy Pettitte has struggled to a 1-2, 6.35 ERA start. Wandy Rodriguez has started off well, but he is a guy who would come out of the bullpen, ideally. Ezequiel Astacio, the Astros’ emergency starter in the 2005 playoffs, has been downright pathetic in his two appearances, this season. The presence of Clemens allows everyone to shift down a spot in the rotation: Oswalt becomes the #2, Pettitte becomes the #3, Backe becomes a #4, and then the Astros can choose between Rodriguez, Astacio, or Taylor Buchholz for the fifth spot. The rotation goes from being second-best in its own division (behind the Cardinals’ deep rotation) to becoming the best rotation in the game, simply by adding Clemens. Assuming that the Cardinals turn it on like they are able to do, assuming the Mets continue to play spectacular baseball while the Braves play their normal brand of solid ball…the Astros without Clemens will have a hard time winning even the Wild Card. The offense just is not good enough, and the pitching just is not deep enough.

The possibility still exists, of course, that Clemens will rejoin the Astros in May. That period exists because the Astros did not offer Clemens arbitration. There are other teams, though less realistic, in the mix. The Red Sox have spoken to Clemens, but here’s to doubting that you will ever see Clemens back in a Red Sox uniform. It is awfully hard to cross a river when you have burned just about every single bridge that leads back to the other side. The Texas Rangers are also interested and seem more than willing to pay any amount of money required to get Clemens to pitch in Arlington. It is just not evident that Clemens reciprocates those feelings, though pitching for the Rangers would satisfy his requirement of staying close to home. The Yankees have called, as well, but Clemens left the Yankees to return home; it is unlikely that Clemens would leave home to return to the Yankees.

Besides that, Clemens’ leaving the Astros for any of those teams would leave a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths. Clemens went to Houston to pitch specifically for the Astros. He wanted to be close to his home, close to his family, and able to spend more time away from the game while still competing. In other words, while he was getting paid the highest salary of his career ($18 million in 2005), Clemens was not doing it for the money. The man has made $121 million over the course of his career in salary alone. If he became the latest Yankee hired gun, it would be a disgusting act to many, many people.

No, the only place where Clemens truly fits is in Houston. And though there was some tension about the Astros’ not waiting on Clemens’ decision about retirement and not offering him arbitration, it is apparent that Clemens would return to Houston in May after taking the first month of the season off. It would allow Clemens to continue resting, the entire month of April, essentially adding a month onto his stamina and effectiveness in 2006, assuming that he is healed completely (and after a 1-1, 2.08 ERA, 0.81 WHIP in two starts during March’s World Baseball Classic, it is safe to assume that he is the same old Rocket). For Houston, the equation is simple: Clemens equals another trip deep into the playoffs, while no Clemens might mean no playoffs at all for 2005’s National League Champions.

www.wagerweb.com