Matthew McCabe's Florida Marlins fan blog

The country is getting more and more disgusted with each passing day as one of the NFL's greatest quarterbacks continues to make a mockery of his career by behaving like a spoiled diva. As if it weren't bad enough that we were subjected to endless speculation his last three seasons in Green Bay over whether he would or would not be in training camp, we now face year two of whether he will come out of retirement or stay out for good. Whether you loved Brett Favre throughout his career, or hated him, you cannot deny his place among the all time greats at his position.

Despite Favre's behavior over the past two years, he is still a viable option at quarterback. The fact of the matter is, if the Minnesota Vikings ever want to come with a breath of touching the Vince Lombardi Trophy in the foreseeable future they should get Brett Favre in camp ASAP and get him sleeping with a Vikings playbook. There are three simple reasons Minnesota needs to continue to pursue Brett Favre and pray he dons the purple and gold of the Vikings come September. I should preface all of this by saying this is assuming Favre's shoulder is healthy enough to play again.

Continue reading "Who needs Brett Favre? The Minnesota Vikings, that's who!"

Chivas USA, for so long considered LA's 2nd MLS franchise, have the opportunity Wednesday night to step into the limelight alone and establish themselves as the unquestioned top dog in the MLS. The Houston Dynamo, #2 in the West, host the MLS' best team in a primetime match up with huge implications. The game will be a contest between #1 and #2 in almost every aspect of the game. For Houston, it is a chance to keep Chivas close in the standings, but for Chivas it is an opportunity to pull away from the pack and solidify their claim to #1.

The importance of this game, of this season, is monumental to Chivas USA. In the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles, Chivas have often had to play 2nd fiddle to the Los Angeles Galaxy. The Galaxy, with international stars like Landon Donovan and David Beckham, have for so long been the favorites of LA's soccer crowd. In the past Chivas were even treated like guests or renters at the Home Depot Center, but all that is changing. The Galaxy, for all their star power, are floundering while Chivas are beginning to rise under the steady leadership of their head coach Preki Radosavljevic. Chivas USA are building off successful seasons in the past few years and now find themselves atop the MLS with a chance to stretch their lead to a very comfortable margin.

Continue reading "Monumental opportunity at hand for Chivas USA"

After standing by his AC Milan club for the past two years, denying any intent to leave, and passing on overtures from the likes of Real Madrid, Chelsea, and Manchester City, Kaka has finally decided to depart the San Siro and make his way to Spain. Real Madrid forked over a whopping 68 million Euros ($94.05 million) to attain the 27 year old Brazilian playmaker from AC Milan this week. Kaka's move signals a change of direction for two of Europe's biggest clubs, and makes clear the intentions of Real Madrid.

Kaka's move is not only a sign of the times at the respective clubs, but in the respective countries. Kaka departs AC Milan for Madrid at a time when Italian football faces a tough challenge. AC Milan in general face tough economic times and are reportedly short on cash, a rumor not likely to be discounted by the selling of their best player. Milan have been slipping from the top in the past few seasons. 2007 was a banner year as Milan won the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup, and the FIFA Club World Cup. Success at home has been falling in recent years as their best finish in the Serie A was Runner-Up in 2004-2005. Last season saw them finish only good enough to make the UEFA Cup competition, and they finished a slightly better 3rd place while watching in town rival Inter Milan finish 1st in Serie A for the 4th straight year. Adding to Milan's woes, financial and otherwise, Paolo Maldini retired, head coach Carlo Ancelotti resigned to take over at Chelsea FC, and its rumored Ancelotti is keen to bring Alexandre Pato and Andrea Pirlo with him to London.

Continue reading "Brazilian playmaker Kaka bolts to Real Madrid, will a new Reign in Spain follow?"

The Florida Marlins' 2009 season got off to nothing short of a dream start back in April. Two full weeks into the season the Fish were 11-1 with the best record in baseball and a wide lead in the NL East. Sure it was early in the season, but it was the best start in team history and it energized South Florida with prospects that the franchise was finally ready to see its youth movement served with a strong post season run. Then the team hit a bit of a road block. After their fast start the Marlins would finish April on a 3-7 run, dropping their record to 14-13. At this point the team still had a winning record and had finished the month with a 3 game win streak against strong opponents, perhaps the 7 game slump was just a hiccup. The month of May however would prove it was no hiccup as the Marlins went from bad to worse as the Marlins went 9-20 and won back to back games only twice. So far in June the Marlins appear to have only leveled out as they are on a current stretch of 13 games in which they’ve won back to back only once and typically win one night and lose the next.

Continue reading "Florida Marlins' crippled by inconsistency"