I had high hopes that I would post something, maybe just something short, to this blog every day or at least 5 times a week. Well, it has turned into a once a week thing, but I’m not giving up my dream just yet. Instead, I would rather delude myself into thinking I am mysteriously going to get an extra hour a day for the rest of my life.
Here’s what’s on my mind in the world of sports:
1. I hope the Yankees trade A-Rod. I like A-Rod. I think he gets unfair treatment by fans and the media. He is, as far as I can tell, a good guy as athletes go and he came up in the NW for Seattle and he is if not the best player in baseball, at least in the conversation. I love the guys who make their living being clutch since that’s a huge part of sports and to date in his career I will concede that A-Rod hasn’t exactly been Larry Bird in that department, though as Bonds proved a few years ago that can change. But A-Rod takes way too much heat for this just as the others get too much credit. He does his job day in and day out and does it better than almost anyone. Stop hating. I was sad when he went to the Yankees because it was a no win for him. If they win, Jeter gets the credit. If they lose, Alex will take the blame. That played out even worse than I could have expected and now that it is where it is, I hope they trade him. I would love for the Giants to get him in fact, but I can’t see them absorbing that contract and keeping Bonds and they are going to keep Bonds so there you go. Still, I hope it happens
2. Speaking of baseball, I did get sucked into the playoffs a bit. My buddy Adam talked up the playoffs and the reasons to watch and he convinced me just enough to tune in a bit and I’m glad he did. I hope the A’s extend that series because both the As and the Tigers are great teams to watch and root for. Frank Thomas, the Tigers young pitchers, Pudge back for more, Kenny Rogers always seconds away from punching someone. Good stuff. Especially after that awful 119 loss or whatever it was season a couple years back, it is fun watching the Tigers win having stuck with some of the guys that suffered through that campaign. In the National League, however, where they play real baseball, the teams are much less interesting. The Cardinals have the personality (or lack thereof) of their manager and only the excitement of watching someone who may end up one of the defining players of this generation (Pooholes), gives a reason to watch them. The Mets are from NY and therefore, the enemy and I can’t even stomach watching NY teams anymore. They get 10 times more press than any other team (even on the west coast), and spend like crazy to get ridiculous lineups and contribute to the continuing demise of Baseball as a legitimate contender for my sports attention.
3. Last week was a horrible week in College football. I don’t care what else happened, because the Ducks lost to a very good Cal team in a very bad way. I give Cal credit, but the Ducks giftwrapped that game to them. But here’s the real issue. Without a playoff system, the entire college regular season is a single elimination tournament. But now the Ducks keep playing what amount to exhibition contests for the rest of the year with absolutely no shot at winning the title. Oh they could still make a bowl and even have an outside chance at winning the conference, but who freakin cares? This is why I can not fall completely in love with college football. Only about 5 teams in the country, by reputation and program strength can lose a game and still hope to win a title. Oregon, of course, is not one of them. So, now we’re not even half way through and the Ducks are done. Football season is over except that it isn’t. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. The people in the NCAA who allow this to continue should be rounded up and deported. And not to Europe either, but someplace bad. I’m not even kidding.
4. The NFL was a completely different story last week. My beloved 49ers got a win against their cross-bay rivals. This was huge for a number of different reasons:
a. Some people I care about may or may not have won money betting on this game and I’m not saying it was me, but if it was I sure would be happy and so would my brother if he bet and I’m not saying he won more than 100 bucks, but I’m sure he’d be thrilled if he did.
b. Because of the bye week I had to start Alex Smith at QB and I always rely on F. Gore for fantasy football success. Both played big which was huge for me (more on that below)
c. The Raiders may be the worst football team in the history of the NFL and are a real threat to lose every game and I couldn’t stomach the idea of my Niners being their lone win.
d. To drop to 1-4 would mean that all the apparent progress was just a mirage and my fragile football psyche couldn’t handle that.
e. The Niners need to win games against teams that are bad for them to have any kind of decent year. So, for them, it was really a must win
5. My non Niner football thoughts for the week (from last week) are:
a. Joey took over in Miami, just like I predicted. In fact I even predicted that it would happen after Culpepper played badly and they found some injury to blame it on so they could save face and start Joey. Of course, I also predicted he would lead them to the playoffs and resurrect his career. Ooops. That ain’t happenin.
b. The Eagles are a great team. McNabb is carrying that offense and you can tell because last week he didn’t have Westbrook at strength and had no WR who would be anything more than a number 3 on many other teams and they still won a huge game…against Dallas….and TO….very, very good times.
c. The Bears are not going undefeated. They have been good and their D is amazing, but they don’t even look as good as last year’s Colts and that team didn’t make it. The Bears will lose at least 2 games. Mark it down. Still, barring injury, Eagles will play the Bears for the right to play in the Superbowl and the winner will go on to win the big game.
d. I do not like the Pink intro to Sunday night football. The song is actually ok and the look of the thing is fine and Pink looks like a man, baby. She is neither feminine, nor masculine. She is not at all attractive and is just sort of hard to watch. And now I guess we’re stuck with it for the rest of the year. And who thought this was a good idea to begin with? I mean your best options to appeal to the generally male football watching audience is to go one of two ways: Either tough and manly like football itself (e.g. Hank Williams, Kid Rock, Jay Z, the Boss or something like that) or you go with straight sex appeal which is always appealing to men and trot out some awful popstar like Jessica Simpson who sells her self on sex appeal not musical talent. Instead, they chose Pink which is sort of like the Subaru Brat in that just like it was neither a good car, nor a good truck, she is neither tough enough or pretty enough to get the job done. I don’t get it.
e. I’ve thought about it and tried to be fair, but I still hate Theisman. Not as a person, but as a commentator. He is terrible and since he has no discernable sense of humor, it always sounds like Kornheiser is making fun of him….and he probably is.
f. Why isn’t Indy scoring? Is it really because of their running game? I haven’t seen them play much, but where is the high-powered offense? They should be very concerned.
6. Fantasy football report: Thanks to Alex Smith and Frank Gore and the continued unheralded success of Deuce McCallister (the forgotten man in the Bush media storm), I went 2-0 last week in fantasy football bringing my record up to 7-3 and putting me alone in 3rd place. I had the high point total of the week for the 3rd week out of 5 and it was good enough to bring me back up after posting the weeks low total the week before. This week I have Hassleback back, but it will be my first week without the services of star WR, Larry Fitzgerald whose absence will be sorely missed from my already thin WR lineup. To cover for this I traded Alex Smith for Antonio Bryant and feel pretty good about that. Now a starting lineup of Bryant, Keyshon and Mike Furrey (who?) will have to hold down the fort until Matt Jones and Fitz get back from injury. The guys I’m playing with seem to have much more favorable matchups for their guys, but I’m remaining hopeful. I probably only need 5 more wins to get a playoff spot.
7. Fantasy Basketball report: We have our draft day set for the 25th and must declare our keepers by next week. I’ve decided to keep Marion and Brand and place CP3 back into the free agent pool. It is very hard to let him go as I’m convinced he’ll be even huger (yes, “huger”) this year, but I can’t not keep Brand, he’s just too good. Not sure any of this matters however since my buddy Adam starts the year with Kirk and LBJ. He will have to really make some bad mistakes in the draft (which he very rarely does) for anyone else to have a shot. But you never know.
8. Gibson and I are going to the Blazers’ fan appreciation scrimmage this Sunday. Should be fun, especially since Gibson is waaaaay into the NBA these days. My mission: Get Brandon Roy’s autograph. I think I’m even going to buy display worthy basketball for him to sign. I can’t decide if I’ll even have any other Blazers sign it. Yes, I have a man crush on Brandon Roy. Deal with it.
Ok, that’s all for now.
Here’s what’s on my mind in the world of sports:
1. I hope the Yankees trade A-Rod. I like A-Rod. I think he gets unfair treatment by fans and the media. He is, as far as I can tell, a good guy as athletes go and he came up in the NW for Seattle and he is if not the best player in baseball, at least in the conversation. I love the guys who make their living being clutch since that’s a huge part of sports and to date in his career I will concede that A-Rod hasn’t exactly been Larry Bird in that department, though as Bonds proved a few years ago that can change. But A-Rod takes way too much heat for this just as the others get too much credit. He does his job day in and day out and does it better than almost anyone. Stop hating. I was sad when he went to the Yankees because it was a no win for him. If they win, Jeter gets the credit. If they lose, Alex will take the blame. That played out even worse than I could have expected and now that it is where it is, I hope they trade him. I would love for the Giants to get him in fact, but I can’t see them absorbing that contract and keeping Bonds and they are going to keep Bonds so there you go. Still, I hope it happens
2. Speaking of baseball, I did get sucked into the playoffs a bit. My buddy Adam talked up the playoffs and the reasons to watch and he convinced me just enough to tune in a bit and I’m glad he did. I hope the A’s extend that series because both the As and the Tigers are great teams to watch and root for. Frank Thomas, the Tigers young pitchers, Pudge back for more, Kenny Rogers always seconds away from punching someone. Good stuff. Especially after that awful 119 loss or whatever it was season a couple years back, it is fun watching the Tigers win having stuck with some of the guys that suffered through that campaign. In the National League, however, where they play real baseball, the teams are much less interesting. The Cardinals have the personality (or lack thereof) of their manager and only the excitement of watching someone who may end up one of the defining players of this generation (Pooholes), gives a reason to watch them. The Mets are from NY and therefore, the enemy and I can’t even stomach watching NY teams anymore. They get 10 times more press than any other team (even on the west coast), and spend like crazy to get ridiculous lineups and contribute to the continuing demise of Baseball as a legitimate contender for my sports attention.
3. Last week was a horrible week in College football. I don’t care what else happened, because the Ducks lost to a very good Cal team in a very bad way. I give Cal credit, but the Ducks giftwrapped that game to them. But here’s the real issue. Without a playoff system, the entire college regular season is a single elimination tournament. But now the Ducks keep playing what amount to exhibition contests for the rest of the year with absolutely no shot at winning the title. Oh they could still make a bowl and even have an outside chance at winning the conference, but who freakin cares? This is why I can not fall completely in love with college football. Only about 5 teams in the country, by reputation and program strength can lose a game and still hope to win a title. Oregon, of course, is not one of them. So, now we’re not even half way through and the Ducks are done. Football season is over except that it isn’t. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. The people in the NCAA who allow this to continue should be rounded up and deported. And not to Europe either, but someplace bad. I’m not even kidding.
4. The NFL was a completely different story last week. My beloved 49ers got a win against their cross-bay rivals. This was huge for a number of different reasons:
a. Some people I care about may or may not have won money betting on this game and I’m not saying it was me, but if it was I sure would be happy and so would my brother if he bet and I’m not saying he won more than 100 bucks, but I’m sure he’d be thrilled if he did.
b. Because of the bye week I had to start Alex Smith at QB and I always rely on F. Gore for fantasy football success. Both played big which was huge for me (more on that below)
c. The Raiders may be the worst football team in the history of the NFL and are a real threat to lose every game and I couldn’t stomach the idea of my Niners being their lone win.
d. To drop to 1-4 would mean that all the apparent progress was just a mirage and my fragile football psyche couldn’t handle that.
e. The Niners need to win games against teams that are bad for them to have any kind of decent year. So, for them, it was really a must win
5. My non Niner football thoughts for the week (from last week) are:
a. Joey took over in Miami, just like I predicted. In fact I even predicted that it would happen after Culpepper played badly and they found some injury to blame it on so they could save face and start Joey. Of course, I also predicted he would lead them to the playoffs and resurrect his career. Ooops. That ain’t happenin.
b. The Eagles are a great team. McNabb is carrying that offense and you can tell because last week he didn’t have Westbrook at strength and had no WR who would be anything more than a number 3 on many other teams and they still won a huge game…against Dallas….and TO….very, very good times.
c. The Bears are not going undefeated. They have been good and their D is amazing, but they don’t even look as good as last year’s Colts and that team didn’t make it. The Bears will lose at least 2 games. Mark it down. Still, barring injury, Eagles will play the Bears for the right to play in the Superbowl and the winner will go on to win the big game.
d. I do not like the Pink intro to Sunday night football. The song is actually ok and the look of the thing is fine and Pink looks like a man, baby. She is neither feminine, nor masculine. She is not at all attractive and is just sort of hard to watch. And now I guess we’re stuck with it for the rest of the year. And who thought this was a good idea to begin with? I mean your best options to appeal to the generally male football watching audience is to go one of two ways: Either tough and manly like football itself (e.g. Hank Williams, Kid Rock, Jay Z, the Boss or something like that) or you go with straight sex appeal which is always appealing to men and trot out some awful popstar like Jessica Simpson who sells her self on sex appeal not musical talent. Instead, they chose Pink which is sort of like the Subaru Brat in that just like it was neither a good car, nor a good truck, she is neither tough enough or pretty enough to get the job done. I don’t get it.
e. I’ve thought about it and tried to be fair, but I still hate Theisman. Not as a person, but as a commentator. He is terrible and since he has no discernable sense of humor, it always sounds like Kornheiser is making fun of him….and he probably is.
f. Why isn’t Indy scoring? Is it really because of their running game? I haven’t seen them play much, but where is the high-powered offense? They should be very concerned.
6. Fantasy football report: Thanks to Alex Smith and Frank Gore and the continued unheralded success of Deuce McCallister (the forgotten man in the Bush media storm), I went 2-0 last week in fantasy football bringing my record up to 7-3 and putting me alone in 3rd place. I had the high point total of the week for the 3rd week out of 5 and it was good enough to bring me back up after posting the weeks low total the week before. This week I have Hassleback back, but it will be my first week without the services of star WR, Larry Fitzgerald whose absence will be sorely missed from my already thin WR lineup. To cover for this I traded Alex Smith for Antonio Bryant and feel pretty good about that. Now a starting lineup of Bryant, Keyshon and Mike Furrey (who?) will have to hold down the fort until Matt Jones and Fitz get back from injury. The guys I’m playing with seem to have much more favorable matchups for their guys, but I’m remaining hopeful. I probably only need 5 more wins to get a playoff spot.
7. Fantasy Basketball report: We have our draft day set for the 25th and must declare our keepers by next week. I’ve decided to keep Marion and Brand and place CP3 back into the free agent pool. It is very hard to let him go as I’m convinced he’ll be even huger (yes, “huger”) this year, but I can’t not keep Brand, he’s just too good. Not sure any of this matters however since my buddy Adam starts the year with Kirk and LBJ. He will have to really make some bad mistakes in the draft (which he very rarely does) for anyone else to have a shot. But you never know.
8. Gibson and I are going to the Blazers’ fan appreciation scrimmage this Sunday. Should be fun, especially since Gibson is waaaaay into the NBA these days. My mission: Get Brandon Roy’s autograph. I think I’m even going to buy display worthy basketball for him to sign. I can’t decide if I’ll even have any other Blazers sign it. Yes, I have a man crush on Brandon Roy. Deal with it.
Ok, that’s all for now.
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