Friday, August 31, 2007

More Reasons Why I Love Sports

28. Starting Line-ups

Starting lineups are great as a player AND a fan. As a player, it gets you totally jazzed to have your name called out loud as you run out onto the court or field and all eyes are on YOU. You feel the crowd's energy and excitement just because they're calling names. As a fan it gets you pumped to see all of your team's players run out onto the field. The best part is when the best player is called last....."At guard, from North Carolina, Number 23, Michaeeeeelllllll Jooooooordan!!!!" In what other capacity do you get that kind of treatment? Could you imagine when you're coming home your wife fires up the microphone and says, "And at the father position, from Northern Arizona University, standing 5'11", Jooooooooosh Hamilllltooooooonnnn!!" A nice touch would be lazers and those smokes machines too.....



29. Colin Cowherd

For those of you who don't know who he is Colin Cowherd is literally the best radio show host in America. Lucky for me he does a syndicated show on ESPN radio every day from 7 am to 10 pm PST. His show is funny, insightful, knowledgable, and entertaining. He helps make my time sitting in front of this computer at work that much less painful. He doesn't just do X's and O's either. He talks about how sports really affect our lives, he makes comparisons, talks about social issues, and he's honest, totally honest. At first, I hated the guy. I think it was his honesty that bugged me and I wasn't used to it. But like any intelligent person I listened, thought about what he said, and eventually I started agreeing with most of the things he commented on. They made sense. He truly is one of the greatest radio hosts ever. You should listen to him. You can start here at http://www.espnradio.com/.


30. Walk-Off Home Runs
Ask any Detroit Tigers fans how it felt when Magglio "my name is strange as hell" Ordonez hit that homer to send them to the World Series? Walk-Off home runs are some of the most dragged out, painful, joyous, and anticipatory events in sports. Seeing the ball sail in the air wondering if it's going to hit the ground, hit the wall, hit the foul pole, or if the outfield is going to make SportCenter just adds to the excitement. It's not like a desperation three pointer from half court in basketball to where you KNOW it won't go in. It's not like a 25 yard field goal where you KNOW it WILL go in. And it's not like hockey where you KNOW you won't give a damn what happens. I've been fortunate to see a walk-off home run by Erubiel Durazo when he was with the Diamondbacks in 2002 and in what seemed like a lifetime he ended the Blue Jays hopes of coming back. Game over. Get off the field. Winning team celebrate. Losing team try not to trip on the way to the clubhouse.

31. SEC Football
Let me be frank. I've got my issues with the southeastern United States. I've never been there, but I've read a history book or two and it seems like the South just has things ass backwards. Blacks and whites still are separated from one another largely. They're the poorest region in the country. They're the least educated. They talk very distinctively. There's a stereotype that they're dumb. And let's not forget that whole slavery thing. However, if it's one conference that I'll watch right next to the Pac-10 (Go Sun Devils!) it's the SEC. The fans LIVE for college football. A fellow blogger (LeftLeaningLady) is a huge Gators fan and you can just tell it runs through her veins. This isn't uncommon. There's no pro teams that can compete and there's no rival football conferences. Each team in the conference is a rival. Every other team in the NCAA is just an obstacle. It's amazing to see that EVERY TEAM in the SEC is a rival of the other. Some teams are hated more than others, but even LSU vs. Missi-crappy State brings out the entire region!

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Matches Made in Hell: Hip-Hop and Sports

Another one of my revelations here on this blog is that I am a huge rap music fan. It started back when I was 11 years old and the West Coast Rap (Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eazy-E, Dogg Pound Gangsters, etc.) scene was on FIRE! For once there was rap music available to us that talked about low riders, palm trees, and lazy summer days. So for all of you that think that I'm just trying to hate on rappers in general you're wrong. I can appreciate rap music as much as anybody and here is my top five list of rappers all time


1. Tupac, 2. Dead Tupac, 3. Biggie Smalls, 4. Scarface, 5. Jay-Z. This list is inarguable and I defy you to say anything different! Anyway, rap music has contributed to a problem in many black communities that has stretched into professional sports.....Life is beginning to immitate art. Here are the reasons why I think that this match is ultimately made in hell.





Some people don't understand that "Thug Life" is not a realistic way to live if you're playing sports


Football players are probably the worst at this because of their inflated sense of toughness and ability to intimidate. In college for some reason is when many players think they're the most"thugged out." Never mind that many of these guys are pampered college students at a major university, they "ain't going to let no punk ass bitch stare at them that way." Frequently these dudes, yes dudes, get themselves in a ton of trouble. They end up stabbed, arrested, beat down, or in some cases kicked off the team. These guys don't ask themselves if it's worth it or if they should do something else, they just figure that in order to be thug, they can't back down. It's a stupid way of life.

Immaturity is rampant in hip-hop
Gold chains, 26 inch rims, fancy cars, big homes, a ton of girls.....these are all qualities that children think are a good idea. Wasting your money on things that are fleeting. These things can be re-posessed, taken away, or stolen. Good investments, smart business decisions, and saving money are not things that ever go out of style. Those in the hip hop culture often lack the foresight to see that all of the aforementioned things aren't really worth your time. These things are called luxuries for a reason. Some athletes aren't any different. They have the same women, cars, and homes as most rappers. Here's the problem. The life of a professional athlete isn't nearly as lucrative as a lot of rappers. Rappers can rap until they're old and gray. You can only dunk with authority until you're 36. There's a lot of living ahead of you, please be smart with the dough....

This is a short post, but I'll have more stuff up soon. I just started classes again and I've got a TON of stuff to discuss, thanks!

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Dear Mr. Bonds

An Letter to Barry Bonds,

Mr. Bonds, first I wanted to congratulate you on your most incredible of feats. Hitting that many home runs requires patience, strength, committment, and longevity. People stopped pitching to you for much of your career and you still managed to do something great. As a soon to be alumnus of Arizona State University I understand how much you meant to the progression of our quality baseball program en route to MLB superstardom as well.......

With that aside, you suck. For over a decade you have crushed some of the most important records in all of sports. Normally, of course, that wouldn't be a problem. Even for a social pariah such as yourself anybody that could do what you did would be absolutely amazing. My biggest problem though is that I don't know if there is anyone who deserved this less. Yes, you are very good at what you do, but you and your team haven't been relevant in at least five years, you're far past your prime, you are completely one dimensional, and of course, you play for a rival of my Diamondbacks which makes you suck even more.

I've read Game of Shadows and I learned one very clear thing. You've been using steroids for years to increase your performance at the plate. Most myopic sports nuts in the Bay Area will still say there's no proof. Grand jury testimony convinces me that there is plenty of proof you were on the juice. Yes, I know that there must have been dozens of other players doing the exact same thing, but you are at the center of it all, and it's all your fault. Nobody thrust you in that light, you welcomed it wholeheartedly. Now you complain continually of the coverage you've received. Welcome to the real world Barry. A place that has eluded you for much of your adult life.

Lastly, I really hope you recognize what you've done to your body, your family, and Major League Baseball. No one person has had more of an impact on the game than you and you are easily the worst choice for a league that is struggling internally anyway. I can guarantee that in about five years we'll see you admitting yourself to a hospital due to serious injury or checking into rehab for substance abuse. Even the guys who enjoyed the greatest of accolades like John Elway still struggled after their career was over. You aren't going to be any different. You're getting old, you're not going to be raking in any money, and nobody outside of northern California can appreciate what you've done so resting on your records is a bad idea. No one will invite you to speak. No one will invite you to throw first pitches. No one will even want to give you an interview. You're going to fade away into the abyss until Alex Rodriguez breaks your record and then we can finally forget about you. You're going to die before your 60th birthday because of the poison in your body and I will feel bad for you then, but it won't come before years of physical and mental breakdowns. I'm fortunate I don't care about baseball that much so I can turn my focus to this weekend's Cardinals/Radiers game. Enjoy your long off-season because it will be your last

The Double-U Show

More Reasons Why I Love Sports

22. NFL Films
This is mostly for football nuts, but do you remember the last really good NFL Films flick you saw? I do. It was a replay of the last Super Bowl between Pittsburgh and Dallas in the 1970s. I'm too young to remember it, but I was wrapped up in every moment the "Voice of God" John Facenda described. When I was in college I used to be home a lot in the afternoons and I would just flip on ESPN Classic and watch an old NFL film. My favorite one of all time was one called "Winning and Losing." They interviewed coaches like Bill Parcells and the late Bill Walsh about the differences emotionally between the two. Bill Parcells was completely candid and admitted fully "that after every loss he is literally sick for days. He said that there's nothing that makes losing in football feel better. There are no moral victories. There's no silver lining. Losing feels 10 times worse than winning feels good." Only NFL Films could capture something like that. They've been doing it for decades and I've enjoyed every minute of it.

23. Baseball Hats
Sports has a hard time translating to fashion statements in the real world. When's the last time someone let you into a club with a jersey on? Once when I was going to a bar with my friends in Tucson one night the bouncer told me I had to take my jersey off. This wasn't like the Shark bar or anything, this was the sleaziest bar this side of Oklahoma. The worst part was that it was "heavy metal night" meaning that everyone who was still into hair bands showed up in the same clothes they wore in 1984. Baseball hats are different. With the exception of a military base, you can wear a baseball cap anywhere. I've got a ton of different teams and I want to be able to collect all of them. There was a period of about two years where I made an effort to not get the same hat as someone else, even if I just saw them in the mall. That's how much of a fashion accessory it is to me. Jerseys and t-shirts aren't usually as fashionable, but baseball hats are on a different level. My next hat? Toledo Mud Hens, don't even think about getting it!

24. The Locker Room
As a player there is no greater place for solace than inside the locker room. When I was a freshman in high school on the basketball team we played Chaparral High School which has one of the top basketball programs in the state of Arizona and we realized that two seconds after tip off. They scored 24 straight points on us and we were down by 36 at half time. We had scored 8 points. I couldn't WAIT to get back to the locker room and hide forever. There's no fans, no opposing players, nobody except the guys you're with and your coaches. It's a time to re-group, re-focus, and get back out there. In our case we got back out there and lost by 63 so maybe we should have stayed, but that's not the point, the point was there was a time when we felt we could actually come back, and it came inside the locker room. The locker room also serves as a place to discuss any team problems, personal problems, bond, scheme, and chill out......Except for football locker rooms. They smell like hot garbage midway through the season.
25. Pride
Pride in everyday life causes people, especially men to do some really great and some really stupid things. The sporting world isn't any different at all. We've all seen those athletes and coaches that are so full of pride they need to get larger pants. Pride has caused people to really risk their lives in the face of better judgment. Whether it's the baseball player that has his arm dangling off his shoulder, the football player that is past his prime but wants to win that ring, or the basketball player that refuses to be denied a dunk even though he's been rejected the last four times by the rim. But without pride in sports, we'd have a bunch of pansies who never took any chances. Ask Boise State of pride had anything to do with their win. They could have rolled over and played it cautiously, but they didn't. They were Boise State and they WEREN'T going to lose. Ask Donovan McNabb in a game against the Cardinals a few years ago. Was a broken ankle going to keep him from trying to put them away? Nope. Ask Peyton Manning in the 2006 AFC Championship Game. Tell me pride didn't have anything to do with that win. He wasn't going to lose the Patriots again. Pride is a magical juice that forces athletes to forego all rational thought and just DO. And having witnessed some of those doings has convinced me pride is a great reason to love sports.
26. Hockey Games
I'll admit, I think hockey, at least on television, is about as exciting as going shopping for throw pillows. Hockey live? Totally different story. I don't know much about hockey, I grew up in the desert and I always thought that's what people did when they were spitting, hockey-ing a loogey. But here come the Phoenix Coyotes. I won some tickets from school to go see them at the America West Arena downtown and was totally blown away. The game was fast, the hits were hard, there was this cold chill coming up from the ice, every score was a celebration, and for me, the best part was there was a group of guys who taunted the Toronto Maple Leafs goalie for TWO HOURS STRAIGHT. Yes, they were hammered, but you didn't see that at Suns games. Hockey fans are ruthless fanatics who are in love with their sport. Did I mention these guys were about 60 rows up? That's how much they care. Hockey games keep your interest and although the scoring is similar to soccer, the chances at scoring are about 100 to 1 in comparison. I wish I knew more about the game or grew up with it because I know I would probably attend 10 games a year just to be involved in the excitement. Did I mention these guys beat the crap out of each other at least once a game? Yeah, that's kind of exciting.
27. Jackie Robinson
I have to acknowledge that there have been many players to come through sports who had to endure the same punishment as Jackie. But Jackie was different. Jackie had so much riding against him that to do what HE did, was incredible. He had to play in New York which Randy Johnson can't even handle. He couldn't stay with his teammates. He was constantly berated with racial threats and slurs. Not like today's whiny athletes where if someone calls them a "faggot" they get the ACLU involved. Jackie did all this and STILL won the rookie of the year award which is named after him. His fire, his demeanor, his intelligence, and ability really helped changed the way white Americans thought about black people. He was more than just a baseball player. He allowed guys like myself to play on teams that were predominantly white and not even think twice about it. He is literally the only reason I give UCLA any respect whatsoever. The most important athlete ever was a student and how can you hate that? Another reason, I love sports!

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

That's Right, More Reasons Why I Love Sports

16. Camraderie
I remember it clearly. It was December of 1997 when I was a Freshman in high school and we were playing Buckeye High School in far south east Phoenix. Let me fill you in about the southwestern U.S. There are very few big cities and many of them like Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, and Tucson are all at least 100 miles apart. The furthest is probably Tucson to Los Angeles which is about a 7 hour drive. This means basically that big cities take up about 10% of the west and rural parts take up the other 90%. The rural parts, frankly, are scarier than shit. Picture where Forrest Gump grew up and just take away grass, charm, and hisotry, and add sunburns, overalls, and bad attitudes you've got the rural southwest. Buckeye is no different. And they sure as hell didn't like us "city-folk" beating the crap out of their team. So of course a few of their players started knocking us around and we, being city-folk, didn't wanna take "nothin' from none of those punk ass marks!" (we still believed we were Compton gangsters because we lived near L.A.). They didn't like that at all and started almost really beating the crap out of us, I mean the WHOLE TOWN. I learned three things that day that 1. We weren't Compton gansgters, 2. I didn't know how to fight, and 3. Sports can make even the strangest of outsiders stick together for one cause. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that and being a part of the team can sometimes mean more than winning.

17. Talk Radio
In college I used to be "that guy" that called into sports radio shows to tell them my point of view. Now don't get me wrong, I didn't argue with the hosts or anything, I was usually on par with what they were saying, but I called in at least 12 times my last semeseter of college. I finally quit that when I got a real job and they said they were going to fire me if I misused the telephones here. That didn't stop me from listening to ESPN Radio virtually everyday especially The Herd. I think sports radio can provide that filler in between games and it's kind of like one big forum for sports nuts to either agree or disagree with the host and other callers and much of the time they dive more into just what happened in the first quarter, they talk about issues that sports affect socially which drives interest. You all know you have it somewhere on your pre-set if you're a sports nut. Just fight the urge to call in and say "Bill Cowher is a BUM!"

18. Boxing
Boxing today is a complete joke. Judging by the "So You Think You Can Dance" audition known as the De la Hoya/Mayweather bout boxing can't even have its best fight be exciting. I understand that boxing is actually kind of an art form, but I've never actually boxed so I want to see people kick the crap out of each other, not prance around like forest lillies. But at the same time, can you think of a sport that requires more physical and mental toughness, training, expertise, talent, stamina, and of course the ever needed "balls?" I can't. The De la Hoya/Mayweather fight lasted 12 rounds, 3 minutes apiece I believe. It SEEMS feasible, but that same night I tried boxing my friends and each of us lasted about two rounds each for two minutes......with a 30 second break after the first minute.......two of us puked because we were winded and one of my friends had to have his girlfriend pick him up because he almost passed out after getting knocked silly. I don't think most people would even be qualified to hand most boxers water no less fight a man's sport. Boxing is truly mano a mano and nothing less.

19. Championships
It doesn't matter if you were a part of it or if your team was. There is NOTHING better than a championship in sports. The best part is, it DOESN'T get old EVER. I remember distinctly two championships in my life. The 2001 World Series (I'm still waiting for my DVD from Blockbuster Online so I can re-live it) and the 1997 Arizona Wildcats National Championship. Although I'm not a big UA fan my wife and her entirely family are from Tucson and she let me know that the entire city of about 600,000 people went completely ape-shit. Tucson, let me tell you, won't go ape-shit even if Godzilla went tearing down Speedway Avenue because those "damn youngsters might steal their purse if they go outside." That's what championships can do to people. John McCain once wrote in an article one time what was the one defining moment that brought the great state of Arizona together. He said the 2001 World Series without question. The entire STATE erupted into joy to see a championship come here. All of those whose teams have won a championship or have won one yourself (1999 Glendale Parks and Rec 3 on 3 B-ball Tournament Champions Baby!) you know the feeling. Here are a few memorable ones from the 1990s on......
The 2004 Boston Red Sox
The 2005 Chicago White Sox
The 1998 Tennessee Volunteers
The 2004 USC Trojans
The 1994 and 1995 Houston Rockets
The 2000 Los Angeles Lakers
The 2002 Ohio State Buckeyes
The Chicago Bulls Dynasty
The 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers
The Patriots Dynasty
The 1993 Dallas Cowboys
The 1993 Toronto Blue Jays
There are plenty more, but this is to just get the ball rolling in case you're a fan of any of these teams. Championships are just BEAUTIFUL!

20. Kobe Bryant
I don't know if I could make it more clear that there is a short list of athletes that I would go out of my way to push in front of a moving car. Kobe Bryant is at the top of my list. He plays for a franchise I hate, for an arena I hate, has a number I hate, and I hate the way he breathes too. Let's just say I hate the guy. But the only reason I hate him is because he's so great. Despite Kobe's attitude and off the court problems I think the last player I saw that could do the things he did was MJ. Kobe is SO good that in the 4 times in his career he has played against my Suns in the playoffs he has managed to light us up like a Christmas tree. There's shots that he will pull from his ass that I think before they go in "Pfff, there's no way he can hit that sho....damn it!" It would literally take a SWAT team to keep him from getting a shot off and even they would have to resort to tear gas. He's strong, fast, a good defender, committed, passionate, intense, a terrific three point shooter, a good free throw shooter, and is undeniably more athletic than 99% of the guys in the league. If he were a Suns player I would rush to get my 24 uniform as we speak. But until that day, I'll just admire from afar.

21. Steve Nash
I couldn't follow up with a love fest of Kobe without talking about my main main, Steve Nash. Steve is probably one of the truest definitions of an MVP I've ever seen play. Granted, most people don't get to watch his games because if he's playing Sacramento on a Wednesday night are you really going to stay up that late to watch him if you're in Atlanta? Probably not, but that's part of his appeal. He's not flashy. He doesn't dunk. He doesn't play great defense. But I would pay him a billion dollars just to keep playing for my enjoyment. If you don't understand why he's the MVP then you just don't understand basketball. Let's look at it this way, basketball teams are like millionaires. Every one of them has Ferrari (a great scorer who always finds the hoop), good stock options (a great defender), a solid savings account (a great bench), and a money manager (a head coach), but millionaires desire something more. They desire that handcrafted African piece of art no one else has. They want that one football jersey that was signed by Jim Thorpe. They want that priceless item that is the most valuable of possesions. It may not bling like Kobe, give you returns like Ben Wallace, or buy your way out of trouble like the Spurs bench, but it stands out from the rest because it enhances every other item you own. Steve Nash is that rare piece of African art that is simply priceless.

Monday, August 6, 2007

Baseball Schmaseball

First off, I know that posting a million links in my posts can be annoying, but they just add to what I'm talking about. Not everyone that comes on here is going to be a sports fan and I don't want to confuse them. The blogosphere is so crowded with crap, yes, including mine, that I want to be sure that people have some background before they start reading. Anyway, I just saw this story on ESPN showing that Pacman Jones is going to be joining TNA, one of the wrestling organizations here in the U.S. This guy is a bigger idiot than I ever could have imagined. It's not technically wrestling, it's just soft-core porn (I mean, dudes in tights?) and for a guy that makes really bad decisions this is actually right in line with his thinking. Aside from that, he stated that he wanted to do something that would "keep him off the streets and out of trouble." I've got news for him, the world of wrestling is more depraved than any other sporting event. There are girls, drugs, steroids, and everyone looks like a cartoon, and that's what the fans pay to see. More wrestlers have died from narcotic or steroid related deaths than any other professional sport and for someone that enjoys the over-the-top lifestyle he should have kept wrestling off his radar. Oh well, keep an eye out on the obituaries now for him.

Anyway, why I'm writing this article is for two reasons 1. To avoid editing my thesis and 2. To comment on this all of a sudden love affair with Major League Baseball. On ESPN.com they were saying how baseball was having a really "great weekend" because of A-Rod, Barry Bonds, and Tom Glavine's 300th win. PLUS, on a personal level the Arizona Diamondbacks just swept the Dodgers giving them a full game and a half lead in the NL West. Here's the problem. I still REALLY don't care. It is midly interesting? Yes, these guys are Hall of Fame legends despite their troubles and the milestones are absolutely incredible. The saddest part is that as a major sports fanatic I still care more about how my grass is growing in my back yard than any of these things. This signals a couple of very obvious things to me about Major League Baseball in addition to the problems I posted earlier:

1. Younger fans can't bring themselves to care
Although my extent of being in the media involved working at the school radio station when I was in the 8th grade I still learned a thing or two about demographics. Most of that came from a guy who worked at 99.9 KEZ here in Phoenix who I believed was sleeping with one of our teachers in the student council. He let us know that attacking demographics basically between 19 and 50 years old is key for several reasons. The first is because the younger part of the demographics may not have a lot of money, but they've got a lot of money to WASTE which is key and the older part of the demographics doesn't have a lot of money to waste, they've just got a lot of money, which is a good thing for advertisers. Baseball, who is in desperate need of fans who are 50 years or younger, simply can't bring us in with these milestones that are just clouded in controversy. Personally, Barry Bonds could have hit his 12,000th home run and I would still watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition before that at bat.

2. Roids, roids, roids, roids, roids, roids, roids, roids, roidy roid roid roid rooooids, ROIDS, CHARGE!....or something like that
I'll admit that the steroids in Major League Baseball is not exactly a total out rage. This is for two reasons. 1. Steroids are more pervasive than people would have ever imagined, especially the older fans, so to many of us younger people, we're not exactly surprised. I think we were more surprised at the coverage it received. I knew at least 6 guys on my high school football team and at least 10 others on teams we played my senior year that were on the juice. Hell, I know a guy who is on them NOW. But older fans aren't usually aware of that so it WAS an outrage to them. The second reason is because I JUST DON'T CARE ENOUGH TO BE OUTRAGED. If there was a major steroid probe in the NFL I would be terribly saddened on the other hand. I know guys are on the juice in the NFL, but with the checks in place and the penalties put forth I'm confident the cheaters are being caught as much as they can. Major League Baseball has that now, but it's just too late to make up for any issues in the past. With all of that aside, I have to admit that the more I listen to people in the sports world the more they're saying things like they actually are "rooting for Barry Bonds to get this home run chase over with." That's where I begin to have a problem. Just because we haven't had any books published this year about steroids, just because it seems like it's old news, and just because this is just a great record does NOT mean that steroids have all of a sudden become mostly excusable. I think too many people are just fed up that they actually haven't caught any big name cheaters so they're tired of speculating, but to treat it as no big deal I think is a mistake. It's one of the reasons that I won't go back to baseball with all of my love, and as a guy with money to spend on sports, all of my love is good for their bottom line. Does baseball still have a place in my heart, of course it does, but I won't buy jerseys, I attend maybe one game a year, and I hardly watch on TV. As far as the NFL goes, I have season tickets, 8 jerseys, am considering NFL Sunday Ticket, watch all the games on Sunday, and have bought my kids a ton of merchandise. To prove this, look at the revenues of each league. For MLB, their revenue in 2006 was $4,733, 000,000 For the NFL..., it was over 6 billion dollars. For the NFL, it just makes cents.

3. Football is starting
I'm not going to lie, August is owned by football at the college and pro level. I couldn't tell you when the next game is in ALL of MLB, but I can tell you that at 5 pm PDT, The Colts play the Cowboys on FOX. Right now, I don't care about anything else. I don't care about cycling, hockey, basketball, or baseball right now. This is because football is starting. I'm even considering getting Arizona State football season tickets on top of my Cardinals, just so I can be guaranteed some football every weekend. I can't say the same for baseball. D-Backs tickets are about 15 bucks, but I REFUSE to spend my hard earned money on them. Cardinals tickets are 25 bucks apiece and I think it's a STEAL! The worst part is that the Diamondbacks play big time rivals like the Dodgers and Padres for the division title and the Sun Devils are scheduling schools like Pomona Junior College and I'm already in line to get my ticket. Let's go MLB, convince me I should care. Right now, I'm going to watch NFL Live on my DVR and skip the next baseball game.


one last thing, check out espn.com and look for the story called "Bottom's Up" It's about southern, east and west, dominance in college sports. I JUST posted on my blog, it's called "East Coast Influence Fading, Southern Influence Gaining" and its about how warm weather schools are beginning to change the landscape of college football. 19 year old kids. Check it out!

Friday, August 3, 2007

Academics and College Football, a match made in Hell

The new pre-season poll came out for college football and a few things jumped out at me right away aside from the obvious fact that USC is one of the best college football programs ever.

1. College football preseason rankings are a very stupid idea
Although they get us talking we have to really wonder how much good are they? The teams in the bottom half of the list are probably going to be out of the ranking in the first three weeks. Besides, how can you rank teams you've never seen play? These teams schedule cream puffs the first four games to pad their win/loss record so much so that it would make Tim Donaghy question their integrity. For example, in 2006, Florida, the national champion, was ranked #8, plus Iowa, Oregon, Tennesse, Penn State, and Alabama all falling out of the top 25 at the end of the season. By the way, Oregon State, Hawai'i, Brigham Young, and Boston College all found their way into the top 25. Football is just one of those sports that has to be decided on the field. The best these pre-season rankings do is stir up discussion from nerds who post onto their daily blog and eat Cheetos. I, on the other hand, am eating Flaming Hot Cheetos so I can't be lumped into that category.

2. The Pac-10 should be called the Whack-10
Never have I seen a more ridiculously storied conference do so poorly depsite being ranked so high every year. With the exception of USC, no other Pac-10 program has a shot at finishing in the top 15. Looking at last year's final poll I saw that only USC finished even in the top 20!! There's an easy explanation for this too. Most schools that are west of Colorado like all the Pac-10 schools reside are so unbelievably hippie that nobody can really takes sports that seriously. You can't blame the pac-10 entirely though. Look at the cities these schools are in....Los Angeles (too cool to even say the word cool), Eugene Oregon (hippie central), Seattle (I'm too sophisticated for football), Berkeley, California (football? I've got a protest to go to), Stanford, California (screw football, I'm going to be a Senator), Tucson (speed limits don't exceed 15 MPH), and Tempe (I think I'll cut my lunch break to four hours today). I have a special hatred for Tempe because I work just outside of there and I'm telling you that the number of jobless used-to-be college students is astonishing. I've never seen a Target be so crowded at 11:30 on a Wednesday. Anyway, football doesn't take precedence at these schools like it does in other places. I also blame it on the fact that the Pac-10 teams are placed in very big cities with lot more going on than football (Seattle, Los Angeles, Tempe, and Berkley (Bay area)). I've been to the bay area, Los Angeles, and live near Tempe and let me tell you, college football is like #5 on the list of fun things to do. Aside from that, as soon as these Pac-10 schools unchain themselves from the tree they're trying to save they'll have competitive football teams.

3. "Me no like skool, me like foosball."-Mongo
What I'm getting at here is that the best football powers typically have the worst academic standards. This isn't to say that football players are dumb. In fact 100% of the players in the NFL have at least three years of college experience with many of which having stayed to obtain their degree. This is in addition to all of the head coaches and assistants having their Bachelor's and/or Master's degrees as well because of the requirements to coach college football which is the stepping stone to the NFL. With that said, some of the top football schools have some of the most lax academic standards and there are several reasons why. The first reason is because anybody can recruit smart offensive players. The players that score the highest on the Wonderlic test at the NFL combine go in this order 1. Offensive Tackle, 2. Quarterback, 3. Offensive Gaurd, 4. Running Back. All offensive players. Recruiting good defensive players into college is more challenging. This tells me that defensive players are just dumber. It's difficult to convince a smart person to tackle someone that may have 4 inches and 30 pounds on them and enjoy it. Plus, defense has always won championships. It's an unusual situation that appears to college football programs. They need certain academic standards, but they also need "Mongo to run through a wall for them." If you look at each of the conferences and who is typically at the top take a look at their academic standards and their standards for admission. Stanford in the Pac-10, horrible program, great academics. Ohio State in the Big 10, great program, you could get in having done your SAT in crayon. The fate for Stanford goes the same for Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Duke, and Notre Dame. This reminds me of a Simpsons episode where Ned Flanders says "Heaven is easier to get into than Arizona State!." Just thought of that.....

All that aside, I love college football and right now the Sun Devils are at training camp preparing for another mediocre year in a terrible conference. A-S-U! A-S-U!

Thursday, August 2, 2007

More Reasons Why I Love Sports

11. Michael Jordan

I feel like a dumbass for never actually affording myself the opportunity to see this guy play. Here's a small story. When I was twelve years old, after Michael had retired from basketball, he was playing briefly for a minor league team, the Scottsdale Scorpions, in 1994. A friend of mine said that his dad received tickets to a game of theirs and Michael Jordan would be there and he offered them to me because they couldn't make it. I didn't go. I don't even remember why, but hey, I was twelve, I was an idiot. I've never seen Michael Jordan play live ever, even after he came back. I can't say all is lost though, I did see this guy play on television 100s of times and when I watch old tapes now I can see how fantastic he actually was. The guy was a true leader, a butt-hole at times, but he still just commanded the attention of every eye in the arena, no matter where he went. He was one of the first superstars that literally transcended the game. He was Michael Jordan, in fact, I believe his name is a trade mark now. LeBron and Kobe are big, but they're no Michael. I mean, his SHOE still is one of the highest selling and he hasn't played in a couple of years!! You don't see Charles Barkley's shoes selling do you? No. MJ made sports fun and I really do miss watching him play.


12. Fresh cut grass during football season

It may be a simple pleasure, but I'll never forget the first day of training camp for the new football season in high school and I'm sure you remember it too. The sun's beating down on your back, you're in practice uniforms that don't reek like dead raccoons, and the grass, (sniiiiiffffff), the grass is so freshly cut the groundskeeper is barely getting off the field. You know that the grass is a sign of a new season. It hasn't been ruined by cleats, blood, sweat, rains, and cold weather. It's green, it's lush, and it's ready to be trampled. It represents starting over.

13. Rivalries

There's not enough bandwith on the internet to get into how much I love rivalries in sports. Even after a MISERABLE season you may actually, as a player, be looking forward to that big game against the team you hate the most. For fans it works the same way. You can see your team suffer horribly all season, but when it comes time to face those "motherf******s from Boston" it can really make the season worth it. Conversely, it can ruin a GREAT season. Just ask the Michigan Wolverines if their high win percentage over the last five years means much despite being owned by Jim Tressel, AKA Sweater Vest. Another example is Harvard and Yale, two of the worst programs in college football, yet when they get play, you have alumni ripping off rolexes and throwing their glasses of chardonnay on each other because it's so heated. Even if you're not a fan of either team the rivalries can be so interesting it draws you to the TV. Michigan/Ohio State in 2006 was the one rivalry game that I couldn't miss. You had a #1 and #2 match up. Two teams that hated each other. Two historic programs. Each team in search of a national championship. It was perfect. True rivalries are undeniable too. Sometimes you have a team that thinks the other team is their rival (like the St. Louis Cardinals thinking the Cubs are their rivals) which makes it only meaningful on one side, but true rivalries don't need to be played up in the media, they do it themselves. The best rivalries stand the test of time also. The best aren't short lived. Here are some of the best that I could come up with:

Yankees/Red Sox

Michigan/Ohio State

Dodgers/Giants

Patriots/Colts

Bears/Packers

Clemson/South Carolina

Broncos/Raiders

Alabama/Auburn

Arizona/Arizona State

Oklahoma/Texas

I know there's a ton more, but these ones are the battles I've got no problem skipping church for. Let me correct myself, I don't actually go to church so technically I'll skip church to stare at the ceiling, but either way I get excited just thinking of these rivalries!

14. Winning

This of course goes for the fan or the athlete themselves. Winning is like a magical elixir that can cure any bad blood between teammates, years of losing, bad trades, and draft pick busts. Everything is just BETTER. In some sports winning is at more of a premium than others. This is mostly true for football. As a player and a fan there is nothing worse than a crushing defeat and then having to wait a WHOLE WEEK to get back at another team. You don't get second chances in football very often. Sometimes you have to wait a year to play some teams you lost against and that will eat at you like nothing else. Football is such a mental sport and dealing with losing actually shows the mark of a true winner. Just sit back and think about all of the times your team in any sport came from behind and won, beat a team that was heaviliy favored, won a rivalry game, won a championship game, clinched a series, won at the buzzer, or blew out a team. Feels good doesn't it?

15. Losing

You'd be surprised that losing is one of the great things about sports. Losing helps teams figure out who they really are. It allows teams to re-evaluate their stance, change up their philosophy, personnel, and in some cases even ownership. Losing is also great for the sports section. I remember after each big loss by a team I hated I would go to that city's website and read the responses from fans. You can just FEEL the heart break and when the other team loses it makes everything feel that much better. You also get to see the pure emotion that is involved with defeats. Another thing losing does is makes many more fans and athletes actually MORE committed. Think about the big shot that was hit against your team, whey your team was blown out of the water, acted as if they didn't show up to the game, were out coached, were out hustled, were physically dominated, or lost to a team they should have beaten. It makes us all reasses what needs to be done and the only way to get better is through making mistsakes.