Girl of the Week

Here is your girl of the Super Bowl week: Susan Ward

Very Random...

I didn't really have enough material for a full post on either of the random incidents from this week, so this will probably be a really strange post.

Let me start with tonight's NHL All-Star Game. Hopefully everyone saw it? I wouldn't have seen it - or known it was on for that matter - except, I happen to be in Lansing MI, I had to go out to get food and Versus was on in the bar/restaurant. I look up at the screen and the game is getting ready to go into overtime. Okay, you say?

THE SCORE WAS TIED AT 11! FREAKING 11!

That is one goal every 2 minutes and 43 seconds. I understand that all-star games in professional sports do not generally replicate play during a regular season, but it should at least resemble the game in concept. 22 goals in 60 minutes? Really?

Oh, and to top it off, the game went a full overtime with no scoring and ended in a shootout. I simply don't have words to describe where the NHL is right now. Let's just all hope that the economic crisis swallows the Bettman abortion and I don't have to write about this anymore.

The other incident happened on Monday in Washington DC at a pre-inaugural party hosted by Stevie Wonder. LaRue Martin was holding court throughout the night and was clearly one of the most popular people in the room. Most of this is because he is 6'11" tall and is pretty good looking for a man in his late 50's.

Who is LaRue Martin? Glad you asked. Here are the first three sentences of his Wikipedia entry...

LaRue Martin (born March 30, 1950 in Chicago, Illinois) is a retired American professional basketball player. Martin was taken first overall by the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Portland Trail Blazers in 1972, drafted ahead of future Hall of Famer Bob McAdoo. Martin has been cited as the worst first overall draft pick in NBA history.

How's that for infamy! Oh, he was also drafted ahead of Julius Erving.

How big a bust was LaRue? He only played 4 seasons in the NBA, never averaging more than 7.0 points per game. In fact his best year came during a season when Bill Walton got hurt and he was pressed into service. He never averaged more than 17 minutes a game during his career. Period! Everyone talks about the other centers of Portland lore...Sam Bowie, Bill Walton, and now Greg Oden. But seriously, just go look at his numbers. THEY ARE ATROCIOUS!

I enjoyed this random encounter more than I can express. I didn't even know who he was until a family friend who also happens to be the mother of a current NBA player asked him who he was. And THAT was funny since the question was meant to be a joke!

It doesn't matter how often you encounter them. Professional athletes and former athletes never fail to entertain. They always believe that they are the most important person in the room. Even if someone like Stevie Wonder is also in the room.

Just ask Roger Clemons how it went when he testified in front of Congress. Or Michael Vick. Or Rae Carruth. Or Mike Tyson.

LaRue Martin isn't going to jail, nor did he do anything wrong. He just couldn't play basketball very well and...well, that's really it. At least I wrote about him.

Girl of the Week

Happy Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday. I present to you this week's "Girl of the Week": Jennifer Freeman.

The Meeks Shall Inherit the Earth

This past week in college basketball, something happened that had never, in the history of one of the most storied programs in college basketball history, occurred. Jodie Meeks, a talented junior shooting guard for Kentucky, went into Thompson-Boling Arena and absolutely lit up Tennessee for 54 points. That's right, 54 POINTS!!! Against Tennessee, an incredibly athletic, legitimate NCAA team.

Meeks' 54 points is the highest single game total in Kentucky history, surpassing the 53 and 51 put up by scoring machine Dan Issel almost 40 years prior.

Even more phenomenal is the way in which Meeks scored his 54. Meeks' ouptut came on only 22 field goal attempts. 22!!! Hardly a ball hog, Meeks shot 15-22, including 10 of 15 from 3-point range. He also shot an efficient 14-14 from the free throw line, where he is shooting an SEC best 90.8% for the season. (In the next game, against Georgia, Meeks snapped a 36 consecutive free throw streak with a rare miss). Although 54 cannot be expected, Meeks is averaging a cool 25.7 points per game, placing him fourth in the NCAA to date. If he can continue to produce at this level, then Kentucky can make a big run in the SEC, and hopefully deep into the NCAAs.

So Jodie, how did you feel after the Tennessee game?

Racism or Ignorance?

I don't know if I am reading into things, but when this situation occurred it really bothered me. I contemplated not blogging about it, but then I decided, what the hell. It's my blog (with Hopps and Sinickal, of course). This seems like an appropriate time, being just after the end of college bowl season and on the eve of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.'s holiday (although I have to work Monday).

Here is what happened.


Way back on December 26, 2008, Florida Atlantic University played against Central Michigan University in the Motor City Bowl, ultimately winning the game 24-21. This actually earned Howard Schnellenberger a nice win, bringing him to 6-0 in his career in bowl games. However, my gripe occurred well before the victory festivities began.

At the outset of the programming, ESPN made a HUGE deal over the fact that FAU had 3 defensive starters with the last name Joseph, yet none were related. The players were Daniel Joseph, a sophomore defensive lineman from Lake Worth, Florida, Frantz Joseph, a senior SI Honorable Mention All-American linebacker from Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Greg Joseph, a senior FoxSports.com All-Bowl cornerback from Miami, Florida.

Now, Florida Atlantic is a small, regional university located in Boca Raton, Palm Beach County, that attracts second-tiered recruits from around the state of Florida, and perhaps some first-tiered recruits from the local area who either (1) want to stay close to home, or (2) do not want to compete with 15 other prized recruits at the same position at UF, FSU and Miami. (Note - This still brings in some pretty healthy recruits for the program.) As you can see, the Josephs are no exception, all hailing from SE Florida (Palm Beach, Broward and Dade Counties, respectively).

Now, South Florida also has a pretty healthy Haitian community. Joseph happens to be a relatively common surname amongst the local Haitian community. Ergo, it should come as no surprise that a local university that heavily recruits locally, finds a collection of unrelated kids with the same surname. BIG FUCKING DEAL ESPN! This is not a story. Do you do the same thing to a baseball team that has a couple of Martinezes or Ramirezes? What if Northern Illinois had a few Wasilewskis? I am sure several colleges have multiple Smiths, Thomases or Johnsons. (Wow - multiple Johnsons - but I digress).

The fact that the announcers (and boy do I wish I remembered who announced this game), kept bringing this up shows that either the announcers or whatever production personnel thought that this would be an actual story worthy of mentioning on air are either completely ignorant about South Florida culture, and in particular that of the Haitian community contained within, or they are just plain racist (either subconscious or overt). I hope that its the former. I really hope that its the former.

BCS Pregame

So, I have been remiss about posting lately, but I did want to recap the BCS. Not the important stuff like the game itself, the stupid formulas used to calculate the participants in the game, or who should have been in the game, but rather trivial stuff like my venture to the stadium and the interesting occurrences and observations during pregame. Now, since the game was practically in my backyard, I didn't arrive until 5:30 or so, but it was an interesting couple of hours before kickoff anyway.

Here we go:

4:15 - Leave work early

5:30 - arrive at the stadium and parked in the supplementary lot. The primary lot was for VIPs and those that pre-purchased tickets. Haven gotten them from a friend, no parking pass for me. $40 for parking. Probably should have carpooled that is for sure. At least the supplementary lot was an actual asphalt lot with lined parking spaces.

5:35 - As I walk through the supplementary lot to my pre-ordained pregame location, I noticed that a lot of douchenozzles were parking in multiple spaces. Not the "set up camp in an adjoining space to save room for my friends who are coming later" type of way, but rather the "straddle the line between two spaces" or "park the length of the car through the width of two to three spaces" type of way. I saw this on a number of occasions and each time, it was UF fans.

5:40 - Still in the parking lot, I see some young guys, students or recent grads, tailgating out of the bed of a truck and drinking bud in a can. Not necessarily my choice, but I understand the costs/logistics of tailgating, so no complaints there. However, as I passed, one of the kids grabs a bottle out of the cooler. I am thinking he is the most sophisticated of the group, until I see that it is a Miller Chill. What are our educational institutions teaching nowadays? Anyhow, also UF fans.

5:45 - As I enter the main lot and close in on the tailgate location, I pass a gaggle, and I mean gaggle, of young OU (female) students wearing red t-shirts that say "Sammies" and the number 14 in white. My assumption is that this section of ladies and their shirts are an homage to Sam Bradford. Now, I coincidentally happened to eat lunch at Quiznos that afternoon. As I passed the ladies I mentioned that I ate a couple of them for lunch. I think I thought it was funnier than they did, and I suppose, from the looks I received, that I am lucky they didn't summon any member of local law enforcement.

5:48 - At tailgate. Have beer.

5:49 - Hang out with a few MLB baseballers, Brad Wilkerson, Brad Schneider and Josh Fogg, none of whom I had met before this week. Wilkerson had a charity event Monday night/Tuesday that I was able to attend. Much props to Brad for his foundation and its support of the local Boys and Girls Club of West Palm Beach, as well as his hometown in Kentucky.

6:05 - Jigga, one of Racecar's friends, a UF alumna and a fervent fan of the Gators, calls her Mom in Pinellas County to remind her to put the UF bandannas on Jigga's dogs, "so that we don't lose". After calling Jigga out on this conversation, she says that she forgot to put the bandannas on for the Mississippi game. So it was her fault.

6:12 - Jigga receives another call, this time from the cousin of a fellow tailgater saying they are stuck in traffic, which the police have blocked in order for the team buses to enter the stadium. I remark that this seems a little late for the teams to arrive. A later discussion with some of the stadium employees reveals that yes, the buses were late to arrive as they were stuck in traffic.


6:15 - Tailgate is very near the Oklahoma band. Had I known that this picture was to become famous after the game, I would have taken a before shot.

6:19 - I spy some tailgaters playing beanbag toss. However the board is decorated green, white and gold and clearly says USF. Amazing.

6:24 - Ken Griffey, Jr. and his three children saunter by to speak with Brad. Jr. is incredibly nice, speaks with everyone and I couldn't say anything bad about the man. This is actually the second opportunity that I have had to meet and speak with him. Perhaps a more detailed version of the first encounter will be a post, but not at least until the first anniversary of that meeting is past (I'll explain all later).

6:30 - Gates open.

A side note - The previous picture notwithstanding, by far, the OU girls are much prettier than the UF girls. This isn't to say that the Gators don't have some attractive fans, they do, but on average, it isn't even close.

6:50 - Make way into stadium. Takes a long time. At this point I resign myself to the fact that this is going to be the end of my blog. Until ...

8:06 - As I go to the concession stand for some beers (and obviously forgetting that they don't sell beers at the stadium because it is a college bowl game), I catch some of the pregame television festivities in the concourse, including the fact that the captains are walking out to midfield for the coin toss. At this instant, the announcers talk about how great a leader Sam Bradford is, but that Tim Tebow is unquestionably the best leader in college football, if not all of sports. As I glance at the television, I see that neither is a team captain. Now that is, if not irony, then certainly ironic timing.

Yada, yada, yada - The Gators win.

Jim Rice for Hall of Fame:

As 2pm today nears, the culmination of one person's career will be unveiled. He will be in the Hall of Fame or not. My personal hope is that he is. Writers will decide his fate not me.

Here is my argument for why.

Runs Batted In: If you score more runs than the other team you win.

From 1975 to 1986 he was the most feared hitter at the plate in all of baseball: 1,276 RBIs during that time (More than any other player). Many people would like to count HRs, but RBIs change the game as well.

If the entrance to the Hall of Fame is being the best of your generation, as many writers have indicated than this qualifies overwhelmingly.

Thoughts?

Girl of the Week

Here is this week's Girl of the Week: Argentinian stunner Rocio Guirao Diaz.

Do You Know the Utes Fight Song?

First, let me get on record. Florida wins tonight and I don't think it will be a very close game. Me, Pepster, Hopps and 8 homeless people could score on Oklahoma's defense. And I find it hard to give Oklahoma an advantage over Florida at any skill position.

I also put some stock in championship experience and coaching...Meyer never seems rattled in these situations, whereas Stoops' teams have been hit or miss.

Now on to today's rant...

Do you believe that tonight's game will decide the National Championship? Really?

What would convince you that this is a National Championship game? The fact that there will be a crystal trophy on camera for a minimum of 2 hours tonight? That's about all for me. When Grand Wizard of the BCS is handing over the trophy and proclaiming this to be one of the best examples of how the BCS is supposed to work, I am hoping that I don't try to stab myself with the nearest blunt instrument.

I guess that my opinion has to be considered as valid as anyone else, so I am now proclaiming Utah to be my National Champion. That's right, the real BCS (Better Championships by Sinickal) has is happy present the Utes with my imaginary trophy.

Why the Utes? Because Utah not only satisfied all of the requirements of a football season -- that is win every contest put before you, but they then went on the road and beat the team that held the number 1 ranking for the most weeks this year! The only team Alabama lost to is playing tonight. Also, isn't this what college administrators were talking about all along? That the regular season must have meaning?

WHAT IS MORE MEANINGFUL THAN WINNING ALL OF YOUR GAMES?!

Look, I don't know who the best team in the country is right now. And by the way, neither do you. Based on schedule, talent, coaching, and game results, I could make an argument for USC, Utah, Alabama, Oklahoma, Florida or Texas. I won't make arguments for some of the two-loss teams because they wouldn't have made a playoff under my system anyway.

What I do know is this, I will wake up tomorrow morning and feel very dissatisfied about having sat through an entire college football exhibition season without determining who the National Champion is.

All I want now is for Fox to run pictures of all the computer geeks who decide the National Championship picture in the same way they introduce starting line-ups and the referees...They are just as important to the outcome of this season.

Girl of the Week

To start the New Year of 2009 off right, I present to you the Girl of the Week:
Colombian starlet Lisa Daniels.