foneGEAR: The Place For Cell Phone Cases

The great folks over at foneGEAR contacted me last week about trying out their products and tell my readers about how great their product line is. I tried a few things out and I can only say great things about what I received. Also, click the post on your chance to receive 50% off products at foneGEAR.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of foneGEAR. All opinions are 100% mine.

I don't usually write reviews about products, but since they carry products that have sports teams logos on them, I couldn't resist. I received a great bluetooth headset, a Ohio State laptop cover, and a car charger for my Motorola phone. The bluetooth headset gets great reception, the Ohio State cover is made of very good material, and the phone charger does its job.

They carry a large variety of sports teams cell phone cases. You are nearly guaranteed to find your favorite team on their website. They are running a great promotion where my readers get a 50% off with the code of 38whiteboy982.

They are currently offering 20% off of their products right now and free shipping of orders more than $35 dollars. You can get cell phone cases or laptop cases of your favorite NFL, NBA, NASCAR, and even some green gear at foneGEAR.com. While you are their picking out your cell phone cover of your favorite team, check out their other products. They carry phone chargers, GPS cases, cell phone holsters.

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Go over to foneGEAR and check them out for being a friend of America's White Boy.

Lebron Shouldn't Change His Number To #6

After Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers bear the Miami Heat, he said something rather insane. I don't know if he is trying to change the subject about if he's staying in Cleveland next year with another landmark decision, but it may work short term. He said that he would not wear the number 23 next season and he'll change his number to 6. It is to honor Michael Jordan, which he believes if the greatest player of all-time. He may think that, but why would you change your number for Michael Jordan and change it to the number that Julius Erving and Bill Russell wore? It's a stupid remark, but is Nike behind the move?

The 25th anniversary of the Michael Jordan shoe is about to debut. Lebron is a big part of Nike's marketing campaign and this may be a publicity stunt. When Kobe changed his number, his jersey was the highest selling jersey the next year. It's not because his publicity increased, but fans don't want to be perceived as "behind the time." It's like sporting a Michael Jordan #45 jersey after he changed his number back to #23.

Secondly, Bill Russell and Julius Erving were more important to people in the two generations before Lebron James. I know he never watched them live, but it would be a shame that he would change his number just because of Michael Jordan and to change it to a number when you can argue that those two players could be considered in some groups as more important to basketball than Jordan. If this is some ploy by Nike to get publicity or a way for Lebron to change the "Is he going to sign with the Knicks" questions in post-game interviews, it would be a travesty. I can just see all the males from 40-90 starting to picket games at Q Arena.

The Best NBA Team Blogs

I'm going to post a series that highlights the best team blogs out there. You have a lot of blog networks popping up and it's hard to differentiate between the good and the bad. Some of the guys that run them only post a few times a week and some sites go out of their way to inform the team's fanbase. I tried to pick a few for each team, so you will have an option or find out even more information on your favorite NBA team. Here are the best NBA team blogs on the internet.


Atlanta Hawks
Peach Tree Hoops
Hoopion Blog
Human Highlight Blog

Boston Celtics
Red's Army
Hardwood Houdini

Charlotte Bobcats
Rufus On Fire
Queen City Hoops

Chicago Bulls
Blog A Bull
Pippen Ain't Easy

Cleveland Cavaliers
King James Gospel
Cavs the Blog

Dallas Mavericks
Mavs Ball
The Man Game

Detroit Pistons
Life On Dumars
Motown String Music
Need 4 Sheed

Denver Nuggets
Dunking Nuggets
Roundball Mining Company

Golden State Warriors
Golden State Of Mind
Warriors World

Houston Rockets
Rockets Buzz

Indiana Pacers
Pacers Place
Indy Cornrows
Always Miller Time
8 Points 9 Seconds

Los Angeles Clippers
Clippers Chat
Clippers Blog

Los Angeles Lakers
Lake Show Life
With Malice

Memphis Grizzlies
3 Shades Of Blue

Miami Heat
All U Can Heat
Peninsula Is Mightier

Milwaukee Bucks
Brew Hoop
Bucksketball

Minnesota Timberwolves
Twolves Blog
Howlin Twolf

New Jersey Nets
Scorching Nets
Nets Are Scorching

New Orleans Hornets
Hornets Hype
Hornets 24/7

New York Knicks
Posting And Toasting
Knicks Fanatics Blog
Knickerblogger

Oklahoma City Thunder
Hoops Of Thunder
Blue Blitz
Daily Thunder

Orlando Magic
Howard The Dunk
Third Quarter Collapse

Philadelphia 76ers
Sixers Court
Liberty Ballers

Phoenix Suns
Valley Of The Suns

Portland Trailblazers
Blaze Of Love
Rip City Project
Beyond The Beat

Sacramento Kings
Sactown Royalty
Kings Kingdom

San Antonio Spurs
Project Spurs
Pounding The Rock
Spurs Of The Moment

Toronto Raptors
Raptors Republic
Raptors Talk
Jurassic Hoops

Utah Jazz
Salt City Hoops

Washington Wizards
Bullets Forever
Truth About It

Brewers Trade J.J. Hardy To Twins

The Alcides Escobar era has officially begun. The Brewers clear the way for their young phenom by trading J.J. Hardy to the Minnesota Twins for speedy center-fielder Carlos Gomez. Does this trade mean that Mike Cameron's option won't be picked up by the Brewers?

J.J. Hardy had to be traded to make room for Alcides Escobar, but was Carlos Gomez enough in return? Hardy has some power in his bat, he has hit a total of 75 homers in just over 500 career games. His average hit a career low last season, he was hovering around the Mendoza line all year, but Gomez doesn't give you much of anything offensively. He is only a career .246 hitter and 12 career home-runs in over 1000 at-bats. Gomez is a nice defensive center-fielder, but with the pitching problems that the Brewers have had, maybe a player with more offensive abilities would be a better match in center-field. Mike Cameron has a $10-million dollar option that they can pick up, I think that they should still pick that up to give Gomez another year of maturing before giving him the job permanently.

I have owned both J.J. Hardy and Carlos Gomez in fantasy baseball leagues over the last two seasons. Hardy is a much better player, but he had a bad year last season. Gomez hasn't showed that he has the ability to hit for average in the Majors. He has speed, but if he can't get on base, it doesn't help the team much.

Who won in this trade? An instant judgment would be that the Twins were the winners in this deal. They can let Orlando Cabrera walk and Nick Punto will be a nice platoon player for them. With all the hitters on the Twins, Hardy will be protected and he should have a very nice season for Minnesota.

Carlos Gomez has the tools to be a lead-off hitter, but with his low batting average and his horrible strikeout-to-walk ratio, he is more likely to be projected as a #9 hitter or pinch-runner.

Time will tell who is the winner, but the Twins have a way to get the most out of their players. J.J. Hardy landed in the perfect place, but I'm not sure if Carlos Gomez can do much to help out the Brewers.

Not Again! Bob Sanders Out For Year

Bob Sanders was the Defensive Player Of The Year just a few seasons ago, but he hasn't been able to stay healthy since. He is under-sized and is a very physical player, which may lead to some of his past injuries. There is no doubt that the Colts are a better team with Sanders in the lineup, but they have done well without this year, but will this injury lead to the Colts' defense being exposed?

It's been a long time since the Colts have had a great player in their secondary. Jeff Burris was a good player and Ray Buchanan had a few good seasons, but went on to the Falcons and had his career years. Bob Sanders was the first elite defensive back that I can remember the Colts having since they moved to Indianapolis. He hasn't stayed healthy since he signed his contract extension and it's possible if he can't stay on the field next year, he could see his way out of Indianapolis. The Colts no longer play the Tampa 2 and they have learned to play without him for most of the last few years. He is clearly a slow healer, unlike Dwight Freeney, who if he gets injured, seems to be back on the field the next week.

The Colts are currently undefeated, it's not uncommon really, over the last few years this has happened a few times. They go through the first-half of the year undefeated, then they start to play divisional opponents a second time and then usually a tough game against the Patriots or Steelers and lose a few games. Injuries usually start to add up and a team that goes 8-0 in the first half, ends up as a 12-4 team.

The injuries that I am most worried about are the injuries to Marlin Jackson and Kelvin Hayden. Jackson injured his knee in practice for the second-straight season. He will miss the remainder of the season, an injury is that is similar to what occurred in 2008. Hayden will miss a few weeks with an injury, so he will miss the Patriots game. With these two guys out, they will have to start two rookie corners for the next few weeks. Tom Brady could be drooling by that time, since he has been known to go after rookie corners, but if he has two of them to carve up, it could be a long game for Indianapolis. Jacob Lacey and Jerraud Powers will be tested over the next few weeks.

I was worried about the Colts at the beginning of the year. Anthony Gonzalez suffered a knee injury in the first game and has yet to return. He had his knee scoped this week, so the timetable for his return may have been pushed back a few weeks. They have a nice young receiving corps and guys like Pierre Garcon and Austin Collie has stepped up in place of Gonzalez. He can afford to stay away and fully heal up, a luxury that members on the defense do not have.

The next few weeks will be a test for the Colts. They have two games against the red-hot Matt Schaub and the Texans, the Patriots, and the Ravens over the next four weeks. If they get past these four games, they only have the Broncos and Jets as possible teams to knock them out of the ranks of the unbeaten.

I don't think this team should worry about staying unbeaten, if they know anything, a loss in the regular season doesn't mean much, it looks like they will win the AFC South. A loss in the post-season will end their season, if they are going to have a bad game, they better have it in the regular season or another productive season will go up in flames.

Help A Blogger Out!

Hey guys, as many of your know, I write for a Columbus Blue Jackets team site for Fanball. I will soon be under review to get media credentials to cover the games live. I would love to boost my traffic numbers up, so if you guys could please visit a few links here and check out the site, I would helps me out a lot. Thanks guys, you are the best.

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The Many Faces Of Jayson Werth

The season is officially over and I have been sitting on something for a few weeks. I have read numerous amounts of tweets on Twitter about how Jayson Werth looks like Edge from the WWE. It got me wondering, has it always looked like that or could this soul-patch, long hair look be something that he has been sporting his entire career. After going a google search, what I found was very, very disturbing. This is a must-see.

Let's start off with some fairly recent pictures of Mr. Werth. Please note the obvious soul-patch or flavor-saver (I've been told that people actually call it that) and shaggy hair. Here are a few to look over.



Now that you see what Jayson Werth looks like now, let's take a gander to just a few years ago when he was an up & coming young prospect in the Baltimore Orioles organization.



Wow, is it me or does it look like a guy who would be rather be at a Comic-con than in a baseball diamond?

What The Cubs Need To Do This Off-season

Now that the Yankees have won the World Series and the season is officially over, it's time for Cubs fans to start thinking about what the team needs to do this off-season. Can the Cubs do anything internally to upgrade their bullpen? Can they afford to wait on their high-priced player to contribute or should they deal them to a team for prospects and re-build? We identify some needs, some players that need to go, and some free agents that Tom Ricketts need to sink some money into.

The Cubs have a lot of dead weight on their roster. They have used a lot of money to sign high-priced players that haven't lived up to their potential. Alsonso Soriano, Milton Bradley, Kosuke Fukudome, and Carlos Zambrano didn't have great seasons last year and their combined payroll is most than many small market teams. Their pitching staff, especially their closer position, was very rocky and Carlos Marmol completely imploded with a WHIP around 1.50 for most of the year.

Let's start off with players that are free agents from the Cubs. Kevin Gregg, Reed Johnson, Rich Harden, and John Grabow all are free agents this off-season. First off, let Gregg walk, he wasn't good on back-to-back days and he played himself out of the closer role. I would also agree with letting Harden leave as well, there are some nice 4th and 5th starters in this free agency pool that could step in and go more than five innings. Harden put extra burden on the bullpen to close games and many of the games Harden would give up a lot of runs the last inning of work. I would say to re-sign Grabow and Johnson to contracts. Grabow is a nice left-hander that could be a possible closer candidate. You would have to give him at least a three-year deal, but I would be okay with that, he showed promise with the Cubs. Reed Johnson would be a nice two-year player as a platoon with Fukudome in center. He is nice off the bench and pinch-hits very well.

Tom Ricketts needs to spend money to make this Cubs roster a contender. You have at least one more year of Pinella as your manager and you need to stack the deck. As a new owner, you will need to make a splash, so your first move should be to sign Mark DeRosa and get him back on the Cubs. The biggest mistake that they made was trading him away. They did get a few nice minor-league pitchers that will probably be on the 40-man roster this next season, but throw the check book at DeRosa. He probably wants at least a three or four year deal, but try and get him for $10 million a year. They shouldn't care what it costs, it will bring all the Cubs fans together and support Ricketts as the new owner. DeRosa can play nearly every position and if there is an injury, like last year's injury to Aramis Ramirez, it won't cost the Cubs games with DeRosa filling in. If you go another season with Aaron Miles and Jeff Baker as your options in case of an injury, you're going to be hurting.

The other free agents that you need to look at are Bobby Abreu (who they should have signed last year), Chone Figgins, Justin Duchscherer (could be a nice, cheap option as a 4th starter), Randy Wolf, Ben Sheets, and Miguel Tejada (if he would agree to a one-year deal). Abreu will be looking for a huge contract and will probably be out of the Cubs price range. Figgins would also be looking at a huge contract and it would be a multi-year deal, it could be risky, the older he gets, the more his speed could diminish. Justin Duchscherer was out all year recovering from surgery, but his 2008 season was amazing. I know he has injury concerns now, but they could get him at a discount. I would love if they signed him, his upside would be tremendous. Randy Wolf is dependable and you know what you get with him. His upside would be last season when he was coasting through games with an ERA around 3.00. He could have played himself get into nice contract, so the Cubs may have to outbid a few teams if they really want him. I listed Ben Sheets because I think he still has something left in the tank. Who would have thought that Sheets and Jake Peavy would be in baseball no-man's land, if you add in Brandon Webb, those were the best three pitchers in the league just two seasons ago. You could get Sheets cheap, I would love this signing. Miguel Tejada is the last on my list and rumors have been floating around since he was in Baltimore of a possible deal/signing with the Cubs. If the Cubs were more of a contender, he would sign a one-year deal, but it doesn't look like they are on the short-list to win the World Series next year, so it would be unlikely.

The Cubs need to do their best to move some player this off-season. Milton Bradley would be the best candidate for this to happen, mostly because of his attitude and the fact that they still owe him more than $20 million over the next two seasons. Some rumors are flying around a trade with the Blue Jays for Vernon Wells, but I don't see how that makes sense. Wells is a nice player, not great, but he is signed to an ungodly contract. Wells still has five years left and $107 million dollars left on his deal, but the rumor is that the teams would split the contract in half. I still don't see this happening for the Cubs, since they have received plenty of interest from other teams and the Blue Jays would have to sweeten the deal.

Jake Fox is another player that has to be moved before next season. If the Cubs were in the American League, Fox has the ability to be their franchise designated-hitter for many years, but unfortunately he doesn't have a position on the Cubs. If they could move him for a nice young starter, it would be in the Cubs best interest to make that deal. The Orioles have a nice stash of young pitchers and we all know how the Cubs love to make trades with the Orioles. I can see this happening, even though I wrote many posts about how the Cubs need to stop trading with bad teams and getting little in return.

Tom Ricketts has a lot to think about this off-season. A lot has been written if the Ricketts family can afford to add to the payroll and it has been a mixed bag of responses. They want to put the profits back into the Cubs and improve the facilities, but before you do that, make one push to get this team to the elite level. They did a great thing by signing Rudy Jaramillo as their hitting coach, he did some great things for the Texas Rangers. These are the things that the new owner needs to do to improve the team. Build the team around fundamentals and get these high-priced players to get back to hitting and pitching and doing everything right. I don't know what the window of is on this team to be good, but it's closing. Zambrano could bite the head off of a pitching coach any day, you never know.

Eric Mangini Still Not Fired?

The Cleveland Browns fired GM George Kokinis yesterday, but head coach Eric Mangini is still the coach. I don't know how this can happen, considering that Mangini actually picked Kokinis to be the GM. I don't know a situation that has ever worked out when a person picks his own boss. How long does Mangini last in Cleveland?

I have seen my fair share of Cleveland Browns games since I moved to Columbus, Ohio three years ago. I thought the team last year was a joke, but they can't even score points this year. They completely quit on Brady Quinn and decided to put Jake Delhomme Jr. (Derek Anderson) in as a permanent starter. If a QB goes 2 for 17 in one of the first games as a starter, I don't know how many keep that role. It happened against the Bills, who to the Browns defense, made Mark Sanchez look like a, er, rookie. Nevermind, Anderson should be benched and just like the Titans did with Vince Young, the Browns need to see what they have with Quinn.

One of the reasons why many speculate that Quinn is not the starter is because he has a bonus in his contract that if he takes more than 50% of the snaps this season he gets $11 million dollars. I know that is a large number and it could be wise for a team not to spend money, but are the Browns a football team or an accounting firm? If your job is in jeopardy, wouldn't it be wise to play your best players?

The Browns are in bad shape. I have really been back and forth about which team is the worst team in the NFL. I think the Browns are definitely in the conversation with the Rams, Redskins, Lions, Raiders, and Jaguars. The Redskins and Browns are so bad that when I watch them, they make me feel bad for them. I'm not supposed to feel sad during an NFL game. These players are making more a year than I will this decade and they are grown men, yet I think they probably need a hug after most games.

I hope the Browns get better, if that's with Mangini, so be it, but I hope that it is soon. I get most Browns and Bengals games here and I am tired of watching horrible, sloppy football on Sundays. Is firing George Kokinis enough for Cleveland fans not to do a protest and leave their seats vacant at kickoff on Monday Night Football? I sure hope so, because it's not about the personnel anymore, it's about an entire franchise that seems to have lost the connection with the hard-working, blue-collar fans that pay for tickets.