To The Rack With Mac

In my NBA Game Of The Week Monday night, The Los Angeles Lakers traveled to Boston to take on the Celtics. I picked this game this week expecting to see two top teams in the NBA battle it out and have one come down to the wire. Unfortunately for Lakers fans that was not the case as the Celtics blew them out 139-107. The Lakers were unable to get anything going despite getting star PF Anthony Davis back from injury. Davis played 23 minutes and poured in just 9 points. LeBron James struggled from the field scoring 15 on 5-12 shooting. Javale McGee led the Lakers with 18 points. Boston came out strong and never looked back. Boston’s triple headed monster of Jayson Tatum, Kemba Walker, and Jaylen Brown led the scoring with 27, 20, 20 points respectively. Boston showed that they can make a deep run this year and it will be tough to beat them at TD. Lakers just seemed rusty and tired and were unable to keep up with the Celtics for most of the evening. The Lakers fell to 34-9 while the Celtics improve to 28-14. We will be hearing a lot from both of these teams as the season progresses. Stay Tuned for my next pick for NBA GAME OF THE WEEK!

If you didn’t stay up to watch Conor McGregor’s long awaited return to the octagon against Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, here’s a little advice, don’t blink when you watch the replay. Before the fight even began, we saw a completely different Conor than in the past. He was giving out hugs. He circled the octagon, giving props and bumping fists with his opponent which I have never seen from “Notorious”. It was a nice change of pace this week from the usual over the top trash talking and antics we usually see leading up to a McGregor fight. This week I saw a man who had been humbled, a man who really had to dig deep and get back to what made him the biggest star in the sport through hard work and sacrifice. Once the bell rang, it was all business. McGregor came out guns blazing, throwing a straight left hand that looked like it was aimed straight to the back of Cerrone’s throat but Cowboy slipped and nearly made Conor go right over the top of him, which probably would have been a better outcome for Cerrone. However, the 2 clinched up and at this point and everything changed quickly. In the clinch, Conor used his shoulder and thrusted it multiple times directly onto the nose and cheek of Cerrone, even changing levels and connecting flush as Cowboy tried to get away. They separated and valiantly, Cerrone threw one of those vicious head kicks he has in his arsenal, but to no avail as Conor blocked it and countered with one of his own landing the top of his foot directly across the jaw of Cerrone, dropping him to the mat for good. Conor seized the opportunity and came with a relentless flurry of lefts and rights as Cowboy did anything he could to protect himself from the floor. Referee Herb Dean jumped in and the fight was over in an astonishing 40 seconds. More of the new Conor appeared after the fight, as he could be seen kneeling in front of Cerrone embracing him and giving him his due props and even a little kiss on the forehead for good measure. I mean Conor even had an embrace and kind words for Cerrone’s grandmother who had come into the ring to see her grandson. Who the fook is this guy? After the embrace, Conor took to the Mic and following the promotion of his Proper 12 whiskey, took aim at the 170 pound division. He didn’t call anyone out specifically but the camera panned to current 170 pound champ Kamaru Usman and top contender Jorge Masvidal who have both stated they want a piece of the irishman. Conor simply said he’s not done at 170 and would welcome all challengers, throwing in a few elementary insults making fun of Usman’s hat and Masvidal’s robe. Cerrone got on the Mic next and I have to be honest I thought he was going to step away from the sport right then and there. However, that’s not his style. He was the same old Cerrone we’ve all come to love and appreciate. He said he’s going to enjoy some time with his family and keep fighting because he loves the sport and it runs in his blood. Good for you Cowboy, I don’t care who you fight next I will tune in. He’s one of a kind and has done so much for the UFC as a whole, there’s nothing bad anyone can say about his heart and love for the fight game. What’s next for Conor? This win has opened many avenues for him. If he stays at 170, I’d love to see him in an all out war with Jorge Masvidal. To me, that’s a huge fight and Masvidal has said repeatedly he would “hurt that little dude”. I tend to agree. Also, there’s potential for a fight with champ Kamaru Usman but honestly there’s other contenders McGregor has to go through first so I hope that doesn’t happen. Conor can also go back down to 155 and get his rematch with Khabib, or if somehow Tony Ferguson beats Khabib in April, he could fight him as well. I don’t know what’s in store but whatever it is, it’s going to be fun because love him or hate him that’s what a Conor victory means to the sport.

The next UFC card is February 8th featuring 2 title bouts. Jon Jones puts his light heavyweight title on the line against undefeated challenger Dominick Reyes and Valentina Shevchenko takes on Katlyn Chookaigan in a woman’s Flyweight title match. I will have more previews and build up for this than UFC 246 as well as my predictions for the entire card.

I’ll be reviewing the championship games coming up this Sunday to determine who moves onto Miami To play in the Super Bowl. I’ll give what I think are the key matchups for each team followed by my prediction for the outcomes of each game. Let’s get into it.

Tennessee Titans at Kansas City Chiefs- Let’s be honest, when the season began, no one had this set as their AFC Championship matchup. I’m willing to bet that outside of the Titans organization and fan base, that no one had them making it this far. Yet here we sit. For Tennessee, the attack offensively is simple, FEED THE BEAST! RB Derrick Henry is on an unprecedented run right now racking up over 175 yards his last 3 contests leading the Titans to this point 60 minutes away from a Super Bowl berth. QB Ryan Tannehill needs to continue his smart, game managing ability that has got him this far. The key for them is both of these guys playing in sync with one another and controlling time of possession. Anything to keep the ball out of Kansas City QB Patrick Mahomes’s hands needs to be done here. If Henry can continue his dominant play and open things up in the passing game, I look for rookie WR AJ Brown to have a key role in this game. Defensively, the plan is simple. Make Patrick Mahomes flustered and cause mistakes. They will be able to achieve this if both S Logan Ryan and Kenny Vaccaro continue their lights out play this postseason. For the Chiefs, Mahomes needs to be the same QB he has been since returning from injury and continue to find his main target TE Travis Kelce. Kelce had a spectacular showing last week against Houston and will need to keep that rolling this week. Defensively they need to do one thing, stuff the run! If Kansas City can contain Henry, Ryan Tannehill will have a bigger role and as we have seen in the past, that’s not always a good thing. My prediction is this, if Kansas City can protect Mahomes and stop the run they will win in a blowout. It’s not that simple. Not with these Titans. Eerily similar to the 07 Giants, this Tennessee run has been anchored by their defense and I see no reason to say that stops now except, they haven’t played THESE Chiefs. I think it’s a close contest but KC moves on. Chiefs 30 Titans 28

Green Bay Packers at San Francisco 49ers- This is more of a matchup we fully expected to see this postseason. The top 2 seeds in the NFC meet in what should be and has all the makings to be an instant classic. For the Green Bay Packers, offensively, there are 2 things that are critical for victory. They need most importantly to protect Aaron Rodgers and five him the time he needs to make a play. Also if they are unable to protect Rodgers, they will rely heavily on RB Aaron Jones both in the running game and catching the ball out of the backfield. The 49ers offensively need to keep the same mentality they’ve had to get them here. Defense, Run the ball, and George Kittle. RB’s Tevin Coleman and Ricky Mostert are a 2 headed monster in the backfield and will be heavily used and relied on this weekend. Their success will be the 49ers success and I think that the secondary and pass rush of the 49ers will be what puts them over the top to head to Miami. 49ers 24 Packers 14

The San Francisco Giants made history Thursday, hiring Alyssa Nakken as the first full-time female coach in MLB. Nakken has been employed by the Giants since 2014, when she started as an intern. She has since played a major role in developing significant health and wellness initiatives and was promoted Thursday to full time assistant to manager Gabe Kapler. Kapler stayed “She’s a great person and coach and the ability to coach well trumps all”. I think this is a great move for the Giants and if it helps their club turn things around, more power to them. Congrats to Alyssa on breaking barriers and I’m sure inspiring plenty of young men women in doing so. Great job Alyssa!!!

New York Mets manager Carlos Beltran’s tenure didn’t even last one game as he has stepped down today due to his role in 2017 sign stealing scandal. This was a move that had to happen. Mets, Astros, and Red Sox are all in the market for new managers as a result of the investigation. Stay Tuned for more details!

New Orleans police have issued an arrest warrant for Cleveland Browns WR Odell Beckham JR. Beckham is accused of simple battery of a Louisiana Superdome security Guard. Stay Tuned for more details!

I would like to preface this entire article by stating a few facts before I dive right into MLB’s sign stealing scandal involving the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox. 1) I am a diehard, bleed pinstripes, scream at my t.v., frighten the wife and kids Yankee fan. I am also of pretty damn sharp sports mind and will not let my bias overshadow any facts or any realistic scenarios involving punishments handed down or the situation as a whole. I’m not going to yell and scream for them to give the title back because that’s asinine. Pitchers still had to pitch and defense still needed to be played. I will get more into that part later. 2) The Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox upper echelon management, manager, players, staff all participated in techniques outside the realm of the rules of the game of baseball and got caught cheating. That is fact. That information cannot be debated here. Now that those 2 things are out of the way, I can state where my mindset is based on the information that has come to light the a few months ago and again these past 48 hours.

First, as a Yankee fan, it needs to be said I am well aware that a few players have been caught cheating that donned the pinstripes in the past. The likes of Alex Rodriguez, Jason Giambi, Roger Clemens and even Andy Pettitte have no room in my mind or in anyone’s that values the tradition of the game of baseball mind to be considered as genuine players that achieved greatness the right way. Same goes for Mark Mcgwire, Barry Bonds, and Sammy Sosa among others. You get where I’m going with this. Their records are tarnished, their stats have an asterisk, they cheated! That is absolutely no different than what the Astros or Red Sox did. These coaches and players had cameras installed , had monitors installed, developed a system to steal signs being relayed to the pitcher from the catcher, and then found a way to communicate what pitch was coming to a hitter by banging on a trash can in the tunnel leading from the dugout down to said monitors. These are also facts. There is video evidence of this where you can hear the trash cans being hit. That is blatant and obvious cheating and a significant advantage over the opposing team. If you want to steal signs, do it the old fashioned way. Get a man on 2nd just how they have been doing in the game for 100 years! I have no problem with the latter tactic, it has been in the sport forever and well known throughout the league that it occurs. Players can adapt to that scenario. Catchers can switch signs while men are on base, pitcher can hide his grips, so on and so forth. However, there is no hiding from being unknowingly filmed and watched meticulously as you go through your normal routine and sign progression. There is a ridiculous disadvantage when the batter knows what’s coming and all they are left to do is watch for location of the ball coming in. They have now taken out half of the art of hitting, taking away the accomplishments of the guys actually guessing and doing it right.

There is a statistical anomaly that’s exists in this whole situation. During the 2017 regular season, the Houston Astros actually performed better on the road than they did in their own stadium. This brings me to the point that they can’t strip Jose Altuve of his MVP award (Aaron Judge finished 2nd in the voting). He was just as dominant on the road, having an outstanding season leading them to a division title. There’s no way you can punish him when no matter where he was, no matter if he had knowledge or not, he lit it up and earned the award. However, in the postseason, the differences are glaring especially during the ALCS against the Yankees. The Houston Astros won all 4 games at Minute Maid Park averaging 2.5 more runs per game and batting at a significantly higher clip than the 3 games they lost at Yankee Stadium. I remember watching that series thinking “Man, these guys are just unstoppable at home”. Now we know why. The Astros went on to win the World Series. Now for those of you that say Rob Manfred should have stripped that title, I say stop it. They still had to pitch well. Not all of the players on the team participated. How can you punish an entire team by stripping away a title from them when there many players who weren’t involved? You can’t. The title stays in Houston.

Now for the fallout. Astros GM Jeff Lunhow and Manager AJ Hinch were suspended a year and ultimately lost their jobs. They also lost draft picks and 5 million dollars. 2017 Astros Bench Coach and Now Manager of the Boston Red Sox Alex Cora was let go by the team although punishment has not been handed down by the league yet. Lunhow’s punishment is whatever, as a GM to knowingly participate in this kind of scheme probably means he’ll never work in the league again or at least I would hope so. As for manager AJ Hinch,  I think it’s absolutely bogus! Things just don’t add up. He states in the report that he didn’t know what was going on for the most part. However, if the plan involved banging on a trash can, and he heard that going on during a game how in the heck did he not know what was going on?! Did he think his team was just drumming away on a can for fun?! Complete bullshit coming from this guys mouth. In his statement released after the suspensions came down, he admits to doing nothing to stop it. Exactly. He knew about it and did nothing to stop it. That’s why he should have been given the boot from the league for good. As for Cora, he needs to be banned for life as well. He was apparently named numerous times as the orchastrater and leader of the entire thing. He then took this same tactic and led a different team to a world series title, cheating the game twice! See ya! This sport has no place for crap like this. Do it right, do it fair, or get the hell out! The players will not be punished. I agree fully with this decision. It is way too hard to punish every single player who was on that team. Some players are retired. Some players are on different teams, ultimately punishing their new team who most likely didn’t know what was happening and signed the player thinking he had done nothing wrong. It’s not feasible. It’s not plausible. However, there is an interesting situation arising in this regard. A player on that 2017 Astros team, Carlos Beltran has since retired and has now been hired as the manager for the New York Mets. Does Rob Manfred make an exception and punish him? Or does he keep him in the same realm of player with no punishment? Or do the New York Mets make the decision to fire him before he even gets 1 game as manager in? I don’t know. The Mets will have a deciaion to make. If they feel strongly enough that Beltran’s involvement was great, then he will be fired. They will do it save face in the media and they will do it because it would be the right thing to do. But in my opinion, as a player at the time, Beltran cannot be punished by MLB. They have to stay consistent across the board. Major League Baseball did a great job in making a statement that rules violations of this nature will not be taken lightly. Investigations will be thorough. Punishments will be swift and severe. The game will not attacked by people trying to gain an edge outside the realm of the rules. For this I applaud their efforts and decisions.

That is where I stand. There’s many different ways I could have gone. I understand arguments from all sides of the situation. To me, this makes the most sense, they are my real feelings and real reactions.

Thank you for reading! Please take the time to comment and share your thoughts. I look forward to it!-Nick Mac

The list of the Centennial Inductees as a part of the NFL’s 100th season and 2020 Hall Of Fame class. 5 more modern-era inductees will be introduced the night before the Super Bowl on February 1st. Congrats to all!

One of the greatest to ever do it, Arizona Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald is returning on a 1 year deal for 2020. In my opinion, he is a top 10 receiver of all time and I’m personally glad we get to see him play for one more year!

NFL- Carolina Panthers LB Luke Kuechly has announced his retirement after just 8 seasons via Adam Schefter ESPN. Kuechly was easily one of my favorite LB’s in the game. Had an outstanding nose for the ball and a tough hard hitting ballhawk. He is just 28 years old. Congrats on a great career Luke!!