Luck Of The Irish Runs Out On Te'o....Shame On Media?!

Good evening everyone and welcome to 2013 where apparently hockey bug wigs were finally able to figure out a new CBA that will not cause another labour disruption for at least another eight years. 2013 also has an early candidate for hoax of the year as Notre Dame Linebacker Manti Te'o's girlfriend's death before the Michigan State game earlier this season, was a hoax towards Te'o. Deadspin.com was first to report that after extensive investigation into who exactly Te'o's girlfriend was, after Te'o revealed he lost his grandmother and girlfriend just days apart leading up to a game against the Spartans, there was no record of her at all. No records of her attending Stanford like Te'o previously mentioned, no record of the car accident that claimed her life, nothing! Now I know what you are already thinking, here is the Irate Italian sounding off like the nut job that he is, but before you freak out let me break down for you. 

The week before the Michigan State game where Notre Dame was an underdog, Notre Dame released a statement to the media, and to yours personally, stating Linebacker Manti Te'o has lost his grandmother and girlfriend in the same week. The story instantly went viral on the web, spreading quicker than Nutella on a warm bagel. The following week the Fighting Irish took their perfect record home for a matchup against the Michigan Wolverines. At noon on game day,  Te'o asked to Irish head coach Brian Kelly what time it was. "12:01" Kelly responded. "I knew that was the time they were going to close her casket. So I took a minute there", referring to the funeral taking place in California for his recently deceased girlfriend. He played against Michigan as the Irish went on to victory. Te'o led  Notre Dame to a perfect 11-0 season and was their leader on and off the field. Te'o's stock was at an all time high with many NFL analysts pegging him to go in the top 5 of the NFL Entry Draft. After Alabama dismantled Notre Dame easier than a lego set on national television, Te'o's stock began to plummet. Many people picked apart his game against Alabama calling him a "flash in the pan" as well as "overrated". Three days prior to the BCS National Championship, ESPN received the information of Te'o's girlfriend not being real but had to sit upon the information for 10 days before it could verified. Now as Deadspin verified the story some in the sports world were not surprised, most evidently LA Times sports writer Bill Plaschke. Plaschke posted on Twitter that this story has been around for a bit, noting that the South Bend Tribune ran the story of Te'o's girlfriend and had the same answers. Te'o now says he was on the end of a hoax. Te'o met his girlfriend online and apparently that is where he was tricked. A male friend developed an online interest in Te'o, pretending to be a female.  Unfortunately, if this was true than Te'o was cruelly tricked but there is way too much to this story that does not add up.

First off, the timeline. The timing of such tragedy was done right before what was at that time a huge game against the Spartans. I am not saying he would lie to help get his team pumped and rallied for Michigan State but hypothetically this would be the perfect time to do it. 

Secondly, Te'o did not attend the funeral of his girlfriend the following Saturday against Michigan. If this girl meant anything to him he would have been on a plane to California to say his goodbyes. Even if he felt he should be with his team, Kelly has to step in and direct his All-American linebacker to do the right thing and go to California. 

Thirdly, if you watch the interview after the Irish victory over the Spartans you do not see the anguish you would think would come over a player that just lost "two of the most important women" in his life. Just seems weird he answers the questions by referring to his girlfriend as "my girlfriend" not by her first name Lennay.

Whether this is Te'o making up this story or he was actually tricked by some sadistic f***s, the media is the biggest "person" to blame. The fact that the story was never checked out by the media is one thing but to run it as a main story line without running a background check for at least some minimal information is pathetic. This is another merry go round of the media hopping on the Irish bandwagon hoping to be part of the breath that revives the tradition Notre Dame once was so strong in representing.  If this was any other player at any other school, the story would be scrutinized or at the very least caught after a couple weeks. To let this story become the heartbeat of the Irish is almost unfair and cruel to players week in and week out. Every player who gave everything they had to only be overshadowed by Te'o and his heroics for playing through his personal pains must be feeling pretty upset. I do not know the inside information on the Irish nor do I give a rat's ass because the Irish, to me, are about as useful as Shaquille O'Neal playing hockey. 

The media needs to take a majority of the responsibility on this matter and realize they fell in love with what seemed an awesome story line that could be run on every pre-game, halftime, post-game and sports show across the country everytime Te'o and the Irish went to battle on Saturday. It took a bunch of college kids at his own school to report the fake girlfriend, to only have it tucked away until 10 days ago!!!!!! I think some people either did not want to touch the issue and be that douchebag who questioned a death or wanted to believe Te'o so bad they tricked themselves into liking the story. I for one do not show any remorse towards Te'o. Many people everyday lose a loved one and sometimes at the worst time. I can bring up multiple examples, but one that stands out the most recently is Torrey Smith losing his brother the morning of a game. He went off for 127 yards receiving and two touchdowns. Athletes deal with losing loved ones all the time. ESPN and company just saw another opportunity to do a nice, heartfelt story and instead it blows up in their face. Now they try to blame Te'o. Vaffanculo as my grandparents would say. Te'o was in the wrong and maybe he was tricked but not as bad as the media was. 

In closing I hope people realize that Te'o might have been a victim himself of a cruel prank or he could be a liar and scammed the sports fan of ever taking a story for face value ever again, either way curse out ESPN and the rest of the media numb nuts that did not fact check a single thing. This sounds like  Mitch Albom and his terrible fact checking all over again. 

Hope you enjoyed it! Get at me bro and broettes on how you are feeling. Leave your comments on Faceboon below the post and I'll gladly mix it up with you. 

Later,

The Irate Italian

Reasons Why The Tigers Flopped In The World Series

With the wind howling and the Tigers down to their final strike, Santiago Casilla gathered himself on the mound and ran a fastball down the heart of the plate ending the Tigers season. Miguel Cabrera was simply froze on a pitch he figured was going to nip the outside corner like the last three. As the Giants celebrated their second championship in three years and Buster Posey starting his career in Jeter-like fashion with two rings, I began to wonder why my beloved Tigers fell so hard. It was a fellow friend that told me via Facebook that I should blog my dismay. Well Colin, here it is. My reasons why the Tigers stunk worse than when someone steps in dog s**t and wonders where the smell is coming from.

The most obvious answer is that the bats went cold. But when you analyze the situation a bit further you see an imperfect relationship of how great pitching can only carry you so far. Aside from Justin Verlander getting lit up in Game #1, the pitching from Doug Fister, Anabal Sanchez and Max Scherzer was quite impressive. If the bats stayed even half as hot as they did against the Yankees, the Tigers are probably still playing. Along with the bats doing nothing, the big guns did not show up to play. Cabrera and Prince Fielder were nowhere to be found in the first three games and aside from a two run jack from Miggy, they might as well not even been there. For f**k's sake, Jeremy Affeldt, who's career ERA is above 4, struck out the side to end any threat in the 7th. And through all this, the guy that people couldn't stop ripping in the regular season was the one guy who kept hitting. Delmon Young, accused of being a racist and a waste of a roster spot, was hot throughout the playoffs and eventually led to him capturing the American League Championship Series MVP. I am sure that every Tiger fan who watched the game last night knew if the Tigers could get a win, the series could change drastically.  With Verlander going tonight and momentum in our favour, the road to getting back to San Francisco seemed a lot shorter. But when you can't hit it becomes a large problem.

Another large factor in the playoffs has been Jim Leyland. I want to clear up that this is not entirely his fault but a few things are. First off, people keep talking how he is a winner and how he makes the Tigers better. Well if one win in two World Series appearances along with a seven game losing streak in the Series is considered winning than this guy is Charlie Sheen. He once again failed to keep his players ready after a long layoff and did not correct the problem that plagued  the Tigers in 2006. The bullpen was rocky at times but barely kept it together. Valverde was a complete disaster and took up a roster spot that might have burnt Leyland if the Tigers would've won last night. He continues to trust  an incompetent third base coach in Gene Lamont and turns his nose to people with logical questioning to his lineup cards throughout the entire season. If Lamont holds Fielder and the Tigers score in the inning, the series is changed completely. I am sick of the lack of responsibility that Leyland holds his players accountable for and how he always pushes issues aside and say that they are part of the game. If part of the game is to get your ass handed to you on the national stage, then Leyland accomplished it. When Omar Infante was hit in the hand last night and left the ball game, Danny Worth was the backup. It was then I realized that with Valverde using up a roster spot and Infante now a no go, the Tigers are running thin on bodies. Who is to blame if the Tigers trot out Worth at second tonight if there was a game 5? It's Jim Leyland. Same ole problems and no answers. That is Jim Leyland's MO. Tony La Russa anyone?!

I will tip my hat to the San Francisco Giants to exposing the reasons as to why the Tigers were seriously over achievers even though the goal the entire year was to win the World Series. The Tigers got to the show by playing mediocre baseball for nine tenths of the season and then watch Chicago collapse like a house of cards. Once in, they took on an Oakland A's team that used the Moneyball approach better than the actual movie and took the Tigers the distance. The A's had over-achieved themselves and watched Texas blow the AL West to miss the playoffs. The Tigers then drew the Yankees who are a bunch of overpaid and washed up ballplayers with problems internally. This reminded me of the Lakers and Pistons in 2004, where Shaq and Kobe couldn't get along and handed the trophy to the Pistons. With the sweep, the Tigers drew a San Francisco team that was hot after coming off a seven game series that saw them overcome a 3-1 series deficit. A team that battled at the plate, had very good pitching and a closer that was lights out. I said it before the series and now my worst fears are confirmed, the Tigers have lost but not in a sweep. This is what happens when to many things go wrong and a great team does what they are suppose to do.

Congrats San Fran, and to all Tiger fans, lets take some time and rebound from this and watch a little hockey... oh wait!

Cheers,

a very irate italian!