EL BARRIO, EL FALLS – This was a week where I had no idea what to write about. The sports scene just seems so bare after the Super Bowl. Football is over, Spring Training hasn’t started, the Rangers are selling, the Knicks season is officially over, having lost their best player, and I really don’t care that much about the Winter Olympics. So I had to do a bit of researching and scrolling through the papers to find material. And I am grateful for my formula of a Song of the Week followed by Sports Stuff, as it always give me structure. On today’s sports menu: Dumb Derek Jeter, Cleveland Cavs Make Deals & Brandt Sisters.
Song of the Week: This week’s Song of the Week comes courtesy of my daughter, yet again. It is really down to the fact that I am an old man, so I don’t listen to music as much as I used to. I listen to podcasts on my commutes. There is a podcast I listen to with a bit of a cult following and with a host, whose name escapes me. Follow the link, it is worth a listen. Anyway, the music I heard the most this week was from the movie, Sing. Apparently, my daughter loves this movie. She has watched it every day this week… still gets scared in the same spots and acts like it is the first time she has seen it… every time. One of the characters has grown on me. It is the over-the-top pig Gunter and his pure piggy-power nature. Rather than play a song, cause it would be a Taylor Swift song, and nobody – not even me – wants to hear it, let’s see a little Gunter doing Lady Gaga.
Dumb Derek Jeter: Following in a long line of players that have been great players but dumb coaches or GMs, new Miami Marlins CEO Derek Jeter is showing he doesn’t know much about making a deal. After giving away Giancarlo Stanton to his old team for a box of donuts, Jeter has gone on to trade away the whole Marlins outfield, committed to cutting payroll and rebuilding over attempting to compete with a deep core of largely cost-controlled position players. 
Under Jeter’s leadership, the team parted ways with a group of franchise stalwarts that had been serving in special-assistant roles, made noise about removing the $2.5 million home-run sculpture from Marlins Park, and even fired the guy who had been serving as mascot Billy the Marlin for 14 years. The biggest problem is the Marlins really just needed pitching. If he would have committed to signing two of the top four arms in free agency and the two of the next tier down, the franchise would have easily made the playoffs. Unfortunately he is as dumb as a bag of rocks. I am calling it now, you can add him to the list of failures in the front office.
Cleveland Cavs make deals: I don’t normally care about the NBA trading deadline but there was some intrigue with the Cavaliers. The intrigue is that the team didn’t consult LeBron on the moves. The front office decided they were going to make the team better for the long run. The long run bit is a jab at LeBron, since he is a free agent again and seems disgruntled. The Cavs won’t be caught with their pants down if James moves, so they got ride of 6 guys to bring in 5. They hope they will gel in time for the playoffs. Even if they don’t, it appears the picked up players that will become more dangerous as the season rolls on and more importantly, next season.
Brandt Sisters: I don’t care about the Olympics but they suckered me in with a nice human interest story. The Brandt sisters are playing for two different countries. Marissa (Korean name Park Yoon Jung) was adopted as baby from Korea. After giving up on getting pregnant and starting the adoption process, their mom got pregnant with Hannah so now you have two sisters 6-months apart. Both played hockey and Hannah went on to USA honors. Marissa was done until Korea got the Olympics and the Korea coach went scouting for eligible players and came across Marissa’s name and history. So now you have two sisters representing two different countries. Cute story and worth the read.
Leave your thoughts below and come back tomorrow for another gem of a column by Cheesy Bruin. You can also find us on Twitter – @JunoirBlaber, @MeetTheMatts & @Matt_McCarthy00, Instagram – @MeetTheMatts – and Facebook – Meet The Matts.
