Category: sports

Let the Pre-Fun Begin!

An A/C update… We are back to living in climate-controlled comfort. I put in a new filter, washed all of the lint out of the A/C unit outside. Cool air is blowing out of the right vents, and warm air is being sucked in the correct ones.

On to what I really brought this window up for. I’ve mentioned this before (so long ago that no one who reads my ramblings now would remember, or done well enough to inflict it on anyone): I love pre-season NFL football. Why? The games mean nothing as far as the team goes and are unrelated to standings or stats. But, the drama is there. There are 91 guys who go to training camp. 54 end up making the final team. Watching guys you’ve never heard of playing their hearts out trying to earn a spot on a team in the sport they love is just great to watch. Watching 3rd team offenses against 3rd team defense fills me with hope.

For example, the Redskins clobbered the 49er’s on Saturday night. The Redskins actually looked really good. For someone who didn’t pay attention, it would be a sign of a good season to come. If you paid attention though, the Redskin’s first team spent 90% of their time in the game playing the 49ers second team.

The other great thing about pre-season football is that every team in the NFL is full of hope (unless you happen to play for the Bengals), and everyone has a chance to reach the Super Bowl. It’s a great time of year, the end of the summer sports drought (and thank goodness for that.. if I had to watch another SportsCenter where nothing but baseball was shown, I think I would give up and start watching the Soap channel).

The season starts in less than a month. Two months later, we get the start of the NBA, and the glorious fall and winter of real sports. YES!

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There are only 63 days

There are only 63 days until the start of the NFL season, and the first payment of this years NFL Season Ticket just showed up on my DirecTV bill. Now I just have to survive the rest of the summer. There’s something horrible about watching SportsCenter and seeing only baseball.

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Go Away, Bill I despise

Go Away, Bill

I despise Bill Walton as a basketball announcer. He’s a flagrant Lakers supporter, biased, banal and annoying. His mock-gravitas is grating. His unending garbage metaphor and purile catch phrases make watching the games almost unbearable. I find myself muting the commentary instead of subjecting myself to the buck-toothed wonder. I hope ESPN is smart enough to realize that they can do better than Mr. Walton. Please, a team of Dick Vitale, Andrew ‘Dice’ Clay and Gilbert Gottfried would be better than anyone and Bill Walton.

On a related note, how much of a let down have the Finals been? The Lakers/Kings series was awesome. It was the best basketball I’ve seen in years, and brought me back. Of the two and a half games in the Finals so far, it’s just been depressing. New Jersey is completely overmatched by the Lakers. Now that Shaq is hitting free throws, it’s pretty much over. It’s predictable, boring basketball. Snooze-o-rama.

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Striking Constistency Last night was

Striking Constistency

Last night was the last real night of bowling. Our team, The Misfits (man, that name sucks… we’re coming up with our own name next time – like The Pothole Fillers or something), put on an amazing show of offense, heretofore unseen in our collective bowling escapades. We all broke our averages by more than 10 pins, and were absolute models of consistency. Instead of my normal infuriating 103 average, I averaged a strapping 129. It felt great, and better yet, we won! We won handily. There was much hand slapping, fist pumping, manly comraderie to be had. Yes, I am a bowler.

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Define Fun

In an effort to not talk about politics, terrorism or the middle east, here’s a collection of random stuff on my mind:

This morning, I got an urgent request to crunch some server logs. Now, that’s not so fun. But, taking the crunched data and inserted approximately seven hundred and seventy thousand records into a database – that’s fun. It’s on #505397 and has been running for a little more than an hour. It should be finished by 1:15, or thereabouts. Why is this fun? I’ve never done anything where I tried to insert over 700,000 items into a database at once. Yes, “firsts” are fun.

How does John Stockton do it? The man just turned forty and he’s still a great basketball player. I think I’ve figured it out. He’s boring. Yep, that’s it. He’s committed to his family, his church and the game, and that’s apparently about it. He likes golf and crossword puzzles. In a couple paragraphs in his latest column, Marty Burns tells us all we need to know about Mr. Stockton’s lifestyle. He’s not like a lot of today’s players that live high-risk lives and burn out. He’s even-keeled and boring, and well, just keeps on going. Great role-model, and I hope he coaches on day. Do I have an explanation for Karl Malone? Ummm… nope. He kind of shoots my theory out of the water. I think Karl’s a mutant.

They cancelled bowling tonight because Maryland is in the NCAA Finals. Yeah, well, fine. I guess I can watch the game and wait until next week for another dreadful showing in GutterLand.

I didn’t sleep well last night. Not sure why. I think maybe I’m coming down with dad’s flu… I really shouldn’t kiss him when he’s sick (April Fool’s!! I don’t kiss my dad, you sickos).

Speaking of, I hate April Fool’s day. I only ever pulled off one good April Fool’s gag, and it was all Jen’s idea. Last year, we were going over to the fam’s for dinner. Max was about 18 months old. So, we decide to drop hints like Jen’s expecting kid numero dos. She made frequent trips to the bathroom and complained about not feeling well. I kept telling her to take it easy, got her pillows, drinks, etc. (writing this, I’m not sure how different this is from every day… again, just kidding). So, after dinner, and successfully pulling off this charade, my sister blurted out, “Are you guys PREGNANT?!” We turned a little red, and tell everyone, yes, we’re pregnant. We let that sink for a minute and then fell apart laughing and yelled, “APRIL FOOLS!!” My mom wasn’t impressed. And even now, when we bring it up, she says, “That wasn’t funny…”

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Now, the Bucs have fired

Now, the Bucs have fired Tony Dungy. With Dennis Green, and now Tony Dungy on the market, the ‘skins went and signed Mr. Spurrier? Now, I admit that he’s a good coach with an offensive system that can put up a lot of points. The problem is the guy has no NFL track record. There’s no way of knowing how his style will translate. Green and Dungy both have proven track records.

I feel really bad for both guys. Dennis Green had to deal with a tragedy in training camp that you could tell sapped his team. They just weren’t the same. He had to deal with the unexpected loss of Robert Smith to retirement. After what he did for that franchise, you’d think the owner would realize that and let him try to redeem himself next season. Dungy only took the laughingstock of the NFL and turned them into a contender. The guy is all class. I’m hoping both guys resurface soon. I would love to see Green take over in Indy. To see him get ahold of the triumverate of Manning, James and Harrison would be a glory to behold. Dungy would be a good fit in San Diego where there defense has lost a little swagger. With Dungy in charge of head coaching and defense and Norv Turner heading the offense, I think they could be back in the playoffs in no time.

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The Redskins have a new

The Redskins have a new coach. I’m a little surprised it all happened this quickly, but I guess I shouldn’t be. The short owner isn’t known for acting with deliberation. Now they have a coach who will at least make them entertaining. I’ll be interested to see who they get as GM. That’s the real problem. Tony Banks won’t work as the QB in Spurrier’s system, and well, I doubt anyone else on the roster right now will either. That means they need a GM who can get a top-flight QB without mortgaging too much of the future. Good luck.

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“I thought Tony was

“I thought Tony was fine,” Schottenheimer said. “He missed a few throws, but with the exception of Brett Favre everybody misses a few throws. What we want to do is keep working with the guys we’ve got and try to get Tony more and more comfortable with all the receivers.”

That has got to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard out of a head coach’s mouth, and I’m including everything Jerry Glanville has ever said. The Redskins suck, and as long as Marty’s the coach, they will continue to suck. Tony Banks was NOT fine on Monday night. It’s not fine to fumble snaps, forget to go through your progressions and make stupid throws. Stephen Davis can’t get anywhere because the Offensive Line has been hideous since game one. Oh, and the fact that he doesn’t seem to want to get anywhere. No one on the team looks like they’re trying. They sit back on their heels and wait for the next bad thing to happen.

How can they fix it? They need a top-flight VP of Football Operations to keep Daniel Snyder out of the football part of the team. Then, a top-flight GM to trade for good draft picks next year, and at least a decent coach. Marty is the whole thing, and is sucking wind at each position. He made no deals to get a decent quarterback, when everyone could tell that the system wouldn’t fit Jeff George. He’s not coaching his players; he’s yelling at them. He’s not making any moves in the right direction in any part of his job.

It’s just sad that the Redskins have turned into such a mess, and they’ve done it in a very short period of time. It’s just amazing, isn’t it?

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