The Barbarian Invasions

The title of this blog post refers to the fall of Rome. Back in the 5th century barbarian invaders (typically Germanic tribes, I suppose this is the beginning of their invasion tradition) began chipping away at the Roman Empire. Eventually the corruption and hubris of Rome brought an end to a dynasty.

Over the past few weeks we have seen many dynasties come to their end. The troubles at USC are the most obvious fit for the metaphor but you could say that Lebron's debacle, Tiger and Federer's fall to normalcy and Lance Armstrong's "efforts" at the Tour de France have closed a chapter in American sports history.

The sports champions of the 2000s have all crumbled in the same few months which makes me wonder who is next? Will Peyton Manning be the next great sports figure to be immersed in scandal (I have heard he is a fan of the ladies. Could a Tiger Woods style f*ck up be in his future?)?

I am interested to here who you think the next scandal will be.

Speaking of the 2000s, will the last decade be known in Arizona Sports history as the Amare/Boldin years? Both players became Arizona sports icons around the same time and left around the same time. They were warriors with flaws (the former defense and IQ, the latter injury) that took their franchises to the brink of championships. In all honesty we have had it pretty good in this past decade and as these two players leave I am anxious to find out if we are going to be better off.

It's been a while since I last posted on the ASD so I want to list a few of the things I have been thinking about:

Dbacks: It only took the Dbacks 11 months (and extra innings) to sweep a series. Last wednesday's sweep of the Mets was the Dbacks first since late August of last year (to think I thought they had a chance this season). They have been depressing beyond belief this season, punctuated by the fact Webb hasn't pitched in two seasons and Haren is being mentioned in trade rumors (those guys were going to be Johnson and Schilling). At least our offense is usually fun to watch (not last night) and our announcers are great.

Justin Upton has been on a tear of late as I continue to vacillate between thinking he is a choke artist and the next great thing (same goes for Mark Reynolds). Upton's performance against the Yankees on national TV had me thinking that he should be in a bigger market especially if he is only going to focus for nationally televised games (he did this earlier in his playoff appearances as a rookie). I will be interested to see if he continues to play spectacularly on nationally televised games (next one - Saturday on the MLB network). Also I was totally wrong on Chris Young. Tyler and I were destroying Young at the beginning of the season and thinking he was the weak link. Now he is our All-star and despite hitting only one home run in home run derby he is the most consistent player on the team.

Suns: On the very first post of the ASD we sounded off on the career of Amare Stoudemire. We were unhappy with him and the squandering of his potential. Well now he is gone and we are replacing him with Hedo "Nightclub" Turkoglu. I have to say I am excited for this upcoming season. I know most of us were disgusted by the Lebron thing but it is going to make for fascinating basketball. No one will have to purchase the NBA ticket because there will be interesting games on ESPN/TNT every night. I can't wait to watch the following teams:

• Heat - how will those three co-exist? How will they be received by every city?
• Bulls - they put together a great team adding Boozer and Korver. They remind me of the type of team I would put together if I wanted to play real basketball. Solid defense, shooting, passing and rebounding (like me at the Rec Center everyday at Noon). Tom Thibodeau has a chance to demonstrate how the game is supposed to be played.
• Thunder - A year older with playoff experience. Durant is going to be the MVP now that Lebron is playing sidekick.
  
• CP3 - Whichever team gets him will instantly become a contender. I hope it is not New York I am looking forward to seeing how bad that team is now that they are building around Amare.
• Jilted Teams - I feel terrible for the Cavs and the Hornets. Two cities that seem to have enough problems without having superstars shit on them. (I do realize that New Orleans just won a Super Bowl but still)
• Lakers - They are still the team to beat and they signed Steve Blake and Matt Barnes (I will now go back to hating him) which makes them even better.
• Clippers and Nets - Historically bad but have some nice pieces and could have a breakout year.
• Jazz - Williams and Jefferson is going to be an interesting combo.

It's going to be a great final season before the lockout.

Cardinals - Are we really going to trust our team to Beanie Wells? Really? Remember the fumbles? I guess if Leinart is your second option than you give to Beanie. Is there some way that we could teach Fitz to throw it to himself?

Wildcats - Have you looked at the Cats football schedule? Two things; One it is top heavy with a brutal stretch from September 9/18 - 10/9 (huh, no game on the Saturday of my wedding...coincidence? I think not). The good thing about this stretch is that we have all the games at home. In fact we have a ridiculous 7 games at home and only 5 on the road (Toledo (going to be tough), UCLA (whom we own), Stanford (i hope it is like last years game), Oregon (sure loss)). If we have any kind of a home field advantage we should have a truly wonderful year. Now Tyler and company, it is your Senior year - don't you want to leave Tucson with the first ever Rose Bowl visit? You lot are responsible for those home victories. I know our defense is supposed to be young and vulnerable but yelling really loud at the opposing team should count as an extra defender. The Cats should lead the league in opposition false starts and delay of games. I repeat this is your responsibility.

Side note - I wish I could make a pre-season bet on UA's offensive stats they are going to average 35 points a game with Foles, Grigs, Antolin and Criner.