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If yes wins, you guys could debate freezing autoshop buying and selling for a while that way people can't keep a decent amount of their wealth.

Scherzer to start Nationals' opener, not Strasburg

VIERA, Fla. (AP) -- Max Scherzer will start the Washington Nationals' opener on April 6 against the New York Mets, not Stephen Strasburg.

''It's going to be real exciting,'' Scherzer said Monday. ''It's a great honor to be able to start opening day, especially for this club, and especially on this staff. But at the end of the day, it's just game one. There are bigger and better things I want to check off.''

Starting a $210 million, seven-year contract, Scherzer will be making his first opening-day start. Strasburg had pitched the last three for the Nationals.

Manager Matt Williams said there were ''lots of reasons'' for picking Scherzer.

''He's a really good pitcher,'' Williams said. ''He's confident. We're confident in him.''

Strasburg could slot in for game 3 if the team stays to its spring training rotation of Scherzer, Jordan Zimmermann, Strasburg, Doug Fister and Gio Gonzalez.

Washington Nationals starting pitcher Max Scherzer throws during the first inning of a spring traini ...
Williams said he spoken with Strasburg about the opening-day start, approaching him with ''honesty'' and making sure that Strasburg understood the team had confidence in him, too.

''I can tell you this, to a man: The guys who are actually throwing the baseball, they don't much care about it,'' Williams said. ''They just want the ball every fifth day.''

Scherzer went 18-5 with a 3.15 ERA for Detroit last season and won the AL Cy Young Award in 2013. He did not get the opening day start last year, taken by Justin Verlander.

''In my experiences, the playoffs are more intense than anything I've ever seen in the regular season,'' Scherzer said. ''I've started Game 1 of the playoffs. That's something special.''

Florida golfers undeterred by large alligator on putting green
From Yahoo News

ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) - Golfers at a course in Florida on Wednesday were careful to putt around a large alligator, days after the beast was photographed lounging on the edge of the green in an image that went viral on Facebook.

A women's tournament went on as planned at the Myakka Pines Golf Club in Englewood, on Florida's west coast, as the gator, estimated at 12 to 13 feet (3.6 to 4 meters) long, reposed in full view of about 100 participants, said Mickie Zada, the club's general manager.

"If we stopped playing because of alligators, we'd never have golfers," Zada said.

Zada said she had spent much of Wednesday morning fielding calls from reporters asking whether the photo, taken by a golfer on Friday, was doctored to make the alligator appear larger.

"This gentleman is well into his 80s. He wouldn't even know Photoshop," Zada said.

While more than 200,000 people had viewed the Facebook photo as of Tuesday, according to the club, the alligator is far from the first - or even the biggest - to show up on the course.

A 15-footer (4.5-metre long one), nicknamed "Big George," hung around for years until his death, Zada said.

Despite nearly daily alligator sightings at the course, none have attacked a person in the club's 37 years, Zada said, owing in part to a strict policy against feeding the animals.

Dangerous confrontations between humans and alligators usually stem from people feeding them, Florida wildlife officials have said.

The new alligator has yet to be given a moniker, but that may soon change, Zada said.

"We might name him Viral," she said.

Federer defeats Djokovic to win Dubai Championship
From CNN News

(CNN)A ruthless Roger Federer confidently dispatched World No 1. Novak Djokovic 6-3 7-5 to take the Dubai Tennis Championships title Saturday in little over one hour and 36 minutes.

The Swiss master, appearing in his 126th tour final (of which he has now won 84) was at his imperious best, frustrating Djokovic who could do little to stem the variety of forehand, backhand and volleyed winners coming from the other side of the net.

"I don't think I could have played much better," Federer said on court after the match.

Federer edged ahead in game seven of the first, breaking Djokovic before confidently serving out for the set.

A critical double fault by Djokovic at 5-5 in the second handed his on-form opponent the upper hand. Federer then took the final game on serve to ensure he would win the Dubai title for the seventh time.

The match also saw Federer serve up the 9,000th ace of his career, becoming only the fourth man to achieve the feat since 1991.

"Clearly it is nice to get past that so now I don't have to think about it ever again for the next 9,000 or so," he joked

A magnanimous Djokovic later congratulated Federer on his victory.

"Today he was just the better player on the court," the Serb said. "There was not much I could do."

"(Federer) didn't miss much. I think he missed one or two volleys the entire match."

Judge overturns Adrian Peterson's NFL suspension
From Yahoo Sports

Let's go ahead and chalk up the Adrian Peterson suspension as another mistake for the NFL as it tries to police its own league.

The NFL suspended Peterson after the completion of his court case involving him injuring his 4-year-old son with a switch. On Thursday a federal judge said the NFL arbitrator who made that suspension decision overstepped his authority and applied the NFL's new conduct policy retroactively to Peterson's case, so he overturned the suspension. The Star-Tribune said Judge David Doty sent "the case back for further arbitration proceedings 'consistent with' the players' collective bargaining agreement." The NFL said it is reviewing the ruling, and hasn't yet said whether it will reinstate Peterson, appeal or arbitrate again.

(UPDATE: The NFL has decided to appeal the ruling in federal court.)

According to Doty's order (via the Star-Tribune), Peterson and the NFL agreed in writing on Sept. 18 that he would be put on the commissioner's exempt list until his court case was resolved. Peterson pleaded no contest to misdemeanor reckless assault in November. The NFL called a disciplinary hearing for Peterson, keeping him on the exempt list in the interim, and Peterson didn't show up because the NFL Players Association was upset about the process and that the league wasn't honoring what the union said was an agreement to reinstate him.

Doty agreed with Peterson and the NFLPA, saying former NFL executive Harold Henderson was wrong to suspend Peterson without pay for the remainder of the season on Nov. 18. The NFLPA argued many points, including that Peterson wasn't allowed time to submit his position in writing to commissioner Roger Goodell, and that Peterson was being punished under a new policy, even though the incident took place before that was implemented in late August.

It's yet another misstep for the NFL that a judge ruled it wrongfully took away games and pay from Peterson last season. In the NFL's other high-profile case last year, Ray Rice's indefinite suspension stemming from his domestic violence case was overturned in late November. Rice still hasn't signed with a new team. In the order, the judge points out that the NFL said it couldn't apply the new policy retroactively in the Rice case, but then applied it retroactively in the Peterson case.

"This is a victory for the rule of law, due process and fairness," NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith said in a statement. "Our collective bargaining agreement has rules for implementation of the personal conduct policy and when those rules are violated, our union always stands up to protect our players' rights. This is yet another example why neutral arbitration is good for our players, good for the owners and good for our game."

Peterson was supposed to be eligible for reinstatement on April 15. Having the suspension lifted now is important for Peterson because free agency starts on March 10, and there's no guarantee Peterson returns to the Vikings.

Between his $15.4 million cap hit and lingering feelings about how the Vikings handled the situation last year, Peterson is no sure thing to return. The Vikings have been able to stall because Peterson was suspended. Now the timetable for a decision will speed up.

Who's going to replace his 20 + points a game and 7+ rebounds a game


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Dragic averages 16 and Whiteside can be relied on more than usual. Anyways the east is still so horrid they can still make it to the eight seed with just Wade.

Doubt it, they gave 4+ people away a few days back. All they got in return was dragic


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The Brooklyn Nets at 22-31 are the eight seed right now, getting to the playoffs isn't even a problem for a team like the heat.

Right after they get Goran Dragic

With how bad the east is they should be able to sneak into the playoffs anyways.

Heat say Chris Bosh will miss remainder of the season
From Yahoo News

MIAMI (AP) -- Not even a week ago, Chris Bosh was talking about how eager he was to get home in an effort to turn the Miami Heat's season around.

The All-Star forward's season is over, with the Heat announcing Saturday that - as suspected - blood clots were found on one of his lungs. The problem, if it had not been caught, could have killed the 30-year-old Bosh, who had been fighting pain in his side and back for several days.

''He was able to get in front of it early,'' Heat guard Dwyane Wade said, adding that Bosh's wife, Adrienne, encouraged him to get checked out when the problem wouldn't subside. ''That's the good thing that helps all of us sleep at night.''

The team said Bosh ''is receiving care under the guidance of Miami Heat team physicians'' at a hospital, adding that ''his prognosis is good.''

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra sounded upbeat about Bosh's road to recovery. The team received the news Saturday morning, Spoelstra said, and welcomed the clarity after a frightening couple of days.

''His health will be restored,'' Spoelstra said before Miami played host to New Orleans. ''That's the most important thing. That's bigger than basketball.''

Spoelstra and Wade visited Bosh on Saturday.

''It's been very emotional for all of us,'' Spoelstra said. ''I was in constant contact with CB. But he didn't know either until they were able to go through all the tests and see all the specialists. ... I can't imagine how tough it was for Chris and Adrienne.''

Bosh is the second NBA player whose final game this season was the All-Star Game. New York's Carmelo Anthony was shut down for knee surgery earlier in the week, a move that was long expected.

Bosh's situation was anything but. It was nothing short of a shock to the Heat, who entered Saturday with a 23-30 record and holding onto the No. 7 spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

Losing him becomes the latest - and by far the biggest - blow in a season filled with tumult for the Heat, reminiscent in some ways to when All-Star center Alonzo Mourning was forced to miss most of Miami's 2000-01 season because of a kidney disease that eventually necessitated a transplant.

Mourning was able to return, and helped the Heat win the 2006 NBA title. Spoelstra stressed that any talk of when Bosh can resume play can wait.

''We're not even thinking about that right now,'' Spoelstra said. ''The most important thing is he'll be healthy again. We'll get a game plan as we continue to get more information.''

Bosh averaged 21.1 points and 7 rebounds for the Heat this season, his first in a five-year deal signed this past summer that will pay him $118 million.

Bosh was part of the ballyhooed free-agent haul Miami landed in 2010, when he and LeBron James were brought in to play alongside Wade and form one of the most star-studded trios in league history.

They were together four seasons, the breakup coming this past summer when James elected to go back to Cleveland. They went to the NBA Finals four times, winning two rings, the second of those in 2013 when Bosh made two plays that will forever be etched in Heat history.

On the 3-pointer that Ray Allen hit with 5.2 seconds left of Game 6 of that year's NBA Finals against San Antonio, it was Bosh who fended off Manu Ginobili for the offensive rebound and found Allen backtracking toward the right corner for the tying shot. And to end that game, Bosh blocked Danny Green's potentially game-tying 3-point try as the overtime clock expired.

Those were the glory days. This year has been a far cry, one where the Heat have constantly fought injury and illness, with a constant string of different lineups being assembled.

The Polarity of Sports and Esports
From The Huffington Post

When legendary game developers John Carmack and John Romeo got local-area-network (LAN) working for their cult classic computer game Doom, they had no intention of pissing off network administrators by crippling university networks. They had just created one of the most bad-ass games of its time and, more importantly, they weren't concerned with making trivial distinctions between video game players and athletes. Instead, they were having fun playing a game and building the very foundation of the first-person shooter genre and online competitive play -- two massive milestones in the history of video games.

That's right Generation Z, you missed the phenomena of waiting 48 hours to download a game over a 2,400 bit/s modem -- that's bit as in bits -- only to have the transfer cut by your parents picking up the phone.

With the 90s came Doom sequels, Quake, and Unreal Tournament -- three first-person shooters (FPS) with online competitive game modes keeping millions of teenagers glued to their computer screens. Equipped with better modems and computers, gamers could now test their skills against people outside of the typical basement LAN set up, giving birth to global leaderboards, ego, meta-tactics, game-dedicated sites/forums, tournaments and teams. What started off as a few grand in prizes back in 2000 has rocketed up to millions today, with big-name sponsors like Coke, Intel, Red Bull and Nissan.


Given the rapid growth around the games played at a professional level, it's not surprising that major news publications have taken interest. And with that kind of coverage, the general public has become aware that professional video gaming is a real thing. Fame breeds hate -- or so it often goes; maybe it's the science behind "haters gonna hate," but out of all the intriguing elements of eSports, the only thing it seems people care about is shouting, "Gamers are not athletes!" Some cannot even fathom the idea that a professional player can have sustaining income from playing video games.

I want to demystify some of this and bring attention to the real sensation in this evolving culture. After all, competitive video gaming is still in its infancy stages. The real issue lies with our definitions, stereotypes and classification system.

Our current definition of an athlete is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed and /or endurance; athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Thus, video game players -- professional or not -- are widely not considered athletes. At least that's the general consensus you'll find in most comment sections surrounding this topic. However, in spring 2013 the U.S. government decided to recognize League of Legends players as professional athletes and award visas for them to come play in America. As expected, this added fuel to the raging debate but also became a milestone in eSports history. Unfortunately, all this hyped-up concern over trivialities detracts from the intrigue of a growing culture.

To keep things simple and appease both sides of the "are gamers athletes" argument, we'll follow this classification chart for the remainder of the post:




In 1997, the first real instance of a FPS-eSports tournament was held, known as the Red Annihilation tournament for Quake, pulling in over 2,000 participants. The winner would receive a Ferrari previously owned by John Carmack (developer of Doom and Quake, currently the CTO of Oculus VR). 1997 was also the first year of the professional video game tournament organization, the Cyberathlete Professional League, which is when the term "cyberathlete" started to spread around. Going back to 1980, Atari held the first organized video game competition ever, known as the Space Invaders Tournament, and attracted more than 10,000 participants.

But let's go back, say, a century.

On Nov. 6, 1869 the first intercollegiate game of American football was played between Rutgers University and Princeton, bringing in about a hundred spectators. One of the players, John W. Herbet, recalled,
"To appreciate this game to the full you must know something of its background."
Without a doubt, I'm certain the same players who competed at Red Annihilation in 1997 would have agreed with Herbet.

It wasn't until 25 years later on Nov. 12, 1892 that the first instance of professional American football was played between the Allegheny Athletic Association and Pittsburgh Athletic club. William "Pudge" Heffelfinger, regarded as the first professional football player, was paid $500 (approximately $13,200 today) to play in this game -- the first time a player was ever paid to play. Due to the majority of players being amateur, payment was frowned upon and the sport itself was primarily seen as a new game to gamble on. Betting became common with the establishment of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAA), which haphazardly tried to manage teams, players and rules.

It took 50 years before the National Football League was established to solve the problems the AAA faced, bringing in a group of professional teams with a mission to end bidding wars, stop the use of college players, and abolish the poaching of players.

Here's a simple timeline comparing American football to one of the most popular computer games played at a competitive level, League of Legends:



League of Legends is currently around the 1940 era of American football as far as average contracts go, and it's closer to 1985 as far as average viewership goes. According to the NFL in January 2014, the average game brings in about 17.6 million viewers. While more than 27 million tuned in to watch the League of Legends 2014 World Championship, a normal season game pulls 200,000 to 300,000 average viewers. But that number is growing every day.

League of Legends has only been around for six years, but it is evolving about 12 times as fast as American football did.

The League of Legends 2014 World Championship was held at Sangam Stadium in Seoul, South Korea, with tickets selling out to 40,000 fans. And that's just one game in the world of eSports. DoTA -- the game League of Legends inspired from -- evolved into DoTA 2 in 2013 and has actually gone on to host the largest tournament prize pool, with nearly $11 million for their 2014 International. That's a larger prize pool than the Masters Golf Tournament, one of the four major championships in professional golf. Esports has also found its way on to ESPN broadcasts, selling out physical sport stadiums and outperforming physical sport viewer ratings.

What's more, every genre within eSports has its own cultural following, just as football, basketball, and baseball do. Massive-online-battle-arena (MOBA) fans and players are cut from a much different cloth than those of the Fighter genre. There are also outer-game rivalries of the same genre, such as the notorious League of Legends fans versus DoTA 2 fans that mainly squabble in online forums about which game is better.

Novak Djokovic looking to fix up relations with Andy Murray
From Tennis.com

Novak pictured Left and Murray on the right.
Novak Djokovic says he wants to speak to Andy Murray about any issues between them following the Australian Open final. Murray said he had been "distracted" by Djokovic's apparent physical problems during the third set of the 7-6 (5), 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-0 match, winning only one more game from that point in the contest. The world No. 4 said he should have handled it better, but he did not know what was wrong with Djokovic at the time.

The Serb, who defeated Murray to win the Australian Open for the fifth time, spoke to the press the following day, saying, "If there is a chance, if he's willing to talk, I'll talk, no problem. I have nothing to hide. I'm not the sort of guy who is pretending, who is trying to do something behind anyone's back or is saying bad things about anybody, especially about him, someone I have known for a long time."

Djokovic has said he was experiencing fatigue during portions of the match. He indicated that he did not like Murray's comments, though saying he did not want to "point a finger at him" or at the press.     

"We have a good and very fair relationship," Djokovic said of Murray, who he has known since the two were teenagers. "Maybe he was just under the impression of losing the match and he was disappointed. I don't know."

The world No. 1 said he and Murray had not spent a lot of time together in recent years, but that could change. "Not in a bad way, but just because we have been rivals for the last couple of years, he has his own team, I have my own team, so we don't get to be together as we would maybe like to on and off the court," said Djokovic. "But now when he gets married and maybe has a kid we will spend more time. We'll have an excuse."

Djokovic sees a connection between the top four players, and suggested he also wants to spend more time with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal as they further along their careers.

"I do look at him, Rafa and Roger as my friends, honestly, because I see them so much, more than my parents and sometimes more than my wife. There is this special relationship that has been created with the number of years that we spend on the tour together," said Djokovic.

"Yes, we are rivals and of course you can't really sit down and have dinners and chat about some intimate things because tomorrow you're going to be on the court fighting for the biggest trophies. So at this point of our careers maybe that intimate and close relationship is not possible yet. But we're all humans at the end of the day and I think we should consider that human side as a priority before sport."

Djokovic now leads Murray 3-2 in Grand Slam finals.