Tiger

Did anybody really doubt that Tiger Woods wasn't in the running on Sunday? Just because he was down 5 strokes going into the day and was playing in only like his third or fourth event since his knee surgery did people think he would not be his usual Sunday Tiger? Was the possibility of a missed birdie putt on the 18th green running through anybody's head? Doubtful. Everybody knew that he was going to storm back to win the tournament. I never saw Jack Nicklaus or Arnold Palmer play golf so I can't really compare them to Tiger, but as far as I am concerned, Tiger Woods is the best golf player, period. When Tiger didn't play after the U.S. Open last year nobody watched, no-bo-dy. I know that I didn't, and nobody I knew did either. As a matter of fact, I never even watched golf highlights. Since he has been back the ratings must be skyrocketing. The Masters in two weeks are going to be the highest rated golf tournament in a long time, guaranteed. Tiger Woods is golf; just as Jerry West is basketball, and I would even go as fas as to say that a silhouette of Tiger Woods should become the new emblem for the PGA. I can not think of any other sport that would take as big of a hit as golf did from the loss of a single player, except maybe swimming with Michael Phelps. The four major sports (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL) would still survive with the loss of one star player, and most other sports really aren't that popular anyways. Men's tennis has Nadal and Federer, lose one and you still have viewership. Women's tennis has both of the Williams sisters. As we saw however, golf can not lose Tiger Woods, and I can only imagine that the smell me's in charge of the PGA are wetting their pants over the return of Tiger, especially after this weekend.

More Brackets

I was doing fabulous after the first two rounds with 15 of the 16 teams correct. After last night however, only 5 of 8 teams correct. Memphis really killed me as I had them going all the way to the finals, but luckily not winning. I am still at like the 91st percentile on ESPN so I suppose I am not doing that bad. With only 3 Final Four teams left, one of them being Michigan St. over Louisville, I will be squirming in my chair the next two nights. The only pick I have left that I am confident in is UNC over Oklahoma, but even that pick can easily be wrong with Blake Griffin, I mean the guy hit his freain' head on the backboard last night while he was dunking the basketball, he's an animal! Pitt over Villanova isn't looking so hot, especially after Pitt's performance against Xavier and Villanova's spanking of Duke.

Everybody on TV keeps talking about chalk too, ovbiously there is a context, they aren't just talking about chalk, they are talking about chalk in the sense that of the 8 teams left, only two of them are not a 1 or 2 seeds, they are 3 seeds. Some people are complaining that the tournament hasn't been exciting or there is no real Cinderella but I don't mind really. As far as I see it, the selection committee got it right. All of the 1's and 2's are supposed to be left in the Elite Eight. People should stop complaining about no Cinderellas and be glad that only the Big Boys are left...they are probably just bitter that their brakets aren't doing very well.

Foofball

Is the NFL serious? I understand safety is a concern but when that concern weakens the integrity of the game I think that's when you say it's safe enough. Yes, safety is important, but at the same time, football is a contact sport. People play football expecting to get knocked down and roughed up, and sometimes they even get hurt, oh my! When you watch tapes of old football games those guys are out there tearing each others heads off. They are not all that concerned about hitting the quarterback too hard or in the wrong spot, they just want to knock him down any way they can. In today's game players can't hit people to hard, or in the head, or below the knee, or too late because they will get a penalty and a hefty fine in the mail.

So the five rules that were past are as follows:

• The initial force of a blindside block can't be delivered by a helmet, forearm or shoulder to an opponent's head or neck. An illegal blindside block will bring a 15-yard penalty.
• Initial contact to the head of a defenseless receiver also will draw a 15-yard penalty.
• On kickoffs, no blocking wedge of more than two players will be allowed. A 15-yard penalty will go to a violating team.
• On kickoffs, the kicking team can't have more than five players bunched together pursuing an onside kick. Breaking this rule would draw a 5-yard penalty.
• Prohibits a defender on the ground who hasn't been blocked or fouled directly into the quarterback from lunging or diving at the quarterback's lower legs.

So there will be no more electrifying blind side blocks by wide receivers. I suppose the second rule is actually a good one because sometimes defenseless WRs get rocked by defensive backs after the pass is incomplete. So much for the wedge! No more than 2 players? That is just ridiculous, even Devin Hester won't be able to run back kick-offs for touchdowns anymore, no blocking. Also, so much for late game comebacks by trailing teams because they will never recover and on-sides kick now. But the worst one of all, the ultimate siss-i-fication of the NFL is the "Tom Brady Rule". This next season the quarterbacks may as well just keep the red jerseys from training camp and wear them all season.

WBC

Now that the World Baseball Classic is over and Japan has won it, again, I feel like the whole thing is somewhat predictable. And I realize that most sports are like this anyways, I mean there are certain teams that are good every year and have a chance to win every year but it seems as if the WBC is definitely like this. If Japan or Korea doesn't win it then the USA or Venezuela will. It was nice to see the Netherlands go as far as they did this year but other than that everything else went pretty much according to plan. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the WBC is boring or pre-determined or anything; the game last night was very exciting and you could see the honest and pure excitment that both sides were exhibiting while rooting for their team. I would have been happy to see either team win because they both played hard.

It's not even the WBC that is dominated by these countries either. Watch the Little League World Series in August and you will see the same teams dominating (of course half of the teams in the whole tournament are from America so that may be a little uneven). The quarterfinals are usually between two American teams and Japan and Korea or Japan and the Caribbean. So maybe the WBC isn't predictable or anything, maybe the people who live in those countries and play baseball are just that much better than the people who live in other countries and play baseball...but then I guess that would make it predictable for those teams to succeed now wouldn't it.

NCAA update

After the first two rounds I am actually sitting pretty. I have 15 of the 16 remaining teams correct, with Villanova being the team I didn't have in the Sweet 16. As far as the first round goes I missed 4 games I think...I actually called all of the upsets except Cleveland St. but I did pick VCU to upset when they didn't. I am in the 99.4th percentile of the ESPN braket challenge which is good enough for a rank of 27,800, at least I'm doing better than Obama.

The games this year have definitely been exciting, especially the Siena, Ohio St. game and the VCU, UCLA game. Both of them were very interesting and down to the wire, I only got one right, but that's OK. I suppose the tournament is going as planned...of the 16 teams left only two are not supposed to be there, as in not ranked 1 through 4, and only Arizona at 12 is really a stretch since Purdue is a 5 seed. The only games I am nervous about coming up are Purdue, UConn and MSU, Kansas; I have Purdue moving on past UConn but the way UConn has played so far makes me think that that may have been a bad move, and after only winning by five against the 10th seeded USC Trojans today I just don't know if MSU has enough to beat Kansas.

Also, I have been lacking as far as posting goes and that is because this past week was my Spring Break and when I am at home I don't get on my computer as much and I was also on vacation for a couple days with no computer access, terrible, I know, but anyways, hopefully the frequency of posts will go up here in the upcoming weeks.

Bracket

Sunday was the glorious day when the college basketball brackets were revealed and this year I honestly was not that excited. I haven't really followed college basketball much at all this year, which is unfortunate when I filled out my bracket because I was clueless on about half of the games. For the most part I just picked the higher ranked team...or lower I guess, the better team, how about that? Of course I had my fair share of upsets from 9 seeds all the way to 13 seeds. I think I had all 1's and 2's in the Final Four. Last year I did really well; I got every final four team correct and got like 7 out of the 8 Elite Eight teams right, except I think I got both of the teams in the final game wrong.

Anyways, the whole point of the post was to talk about the bracket. In the Midwest I like Louisville, Arizona, Kansas, and Michigan State to make the Sweet 16, with Michigan State advancing out to the Final Four. In the West I like Connecticut, Purdue, Missouri, and Memphis with Memphis going to the Final Four. East has Pittsburgh, Xavier, VCU, and Duke in the Sweet 16 with Pitt going to the Final Four. Finally in the South I like the top four seeds, North Carolina, Gonzaga, Syracuse, and Oklahoma with UNC going to the Final Four. As far as the Final Four goes I like Memphis and UNC to make the championship game with North Carolina winning it all 69-63.

Childhood

I'm sitting here watching an old home video of one of my family's vacations to Disney World. Even though I am almost 20 years old now I still love Disney World and would go back in a heart beat so watching old videos of Disney World is wonderful. Anyways, watching them just brings back so many great memories. I can remember so many things that we used to do at Disney, all of the different places we would go too and just how much fun it was. I really can't describe how I feel when I watch those old videos of us at Disney, trying to sum it up all I can say is that I miss my childhood. It really was magical to go to Disney World, and I know that may sound cheesy and it is their pitch to get you to go there but when you are 8 years old Disney World is bliss. When I watch them I don't know whether to cry, or laugh. So many things rush through my head when I watch them that it is almost overwhelming. I guess this wasn't really a good topic to write about here because I can't really accurately describe what I am even talking about, I just know that I absolutely loved Disney World as a kid and still absolutely love it as a young adult and can not wait until I get to go back.

Two Terms

In my local newspaper there is a section where high school seniors pick topics to write about and submit them to the paper and they publish three of them every day or week or something, I'm not exactly sure how it works. Anyways, this morning the topic they were writing about was whether or not the United States President should be able to stay in office past two terms. After reading their responses I found that I was opinionated on the topic and since I can't write into the paper and have them publish it I figured I would write it down here.

George Washington set a precedent when he stepped down after two terms in office. This became an unwritten rule that was never broken for about 150 years. FDR was the first person who dared to defy Washington. After FDR made the White House his home for 16 years the government finally decided they should do something about it. Since the United States is a Democratic Republic it only makes sense to pass an amendment to prevent any President from running for a third term. No matter how loved a President is he or she should not get more than eight years in office. Even if Obama makes America fall in love with him and everybody is joyous and prosperous for the next eight years, we should still elect a new President in 2016 (this is of course assuming Obama will be re-elected in 2012). One of the seniors wrote something to the effect of impeaching a president who is doing a bad job...of course refering to George W Bush, but if he was doing such a bad job then it seems he wouldn't have gotten re-elected, and yes, he may have gone downhill once he was re-elected, but it seems like if so many people hated him and made fun of him as Presiident than Kerry should have been elected in 2004. Anyways, I believe that even if a President is doing a phenominal job at running the nation he should only be able to do that phenominal job for eight years. If we allow Presidents to start running for three or more terms then not only will we have to revoke an amendment but we will also have to wrestle with the idea of a tyranny, which I'm sure will never happen and it just an exageration.

Scores

I am not a huge fan of orchestral music or anything like that but I do seem to have a knack for movie scores. As I am writing this I am listening to the Dark Knight soundtrack and honestly I love it. It's nice to listen to music without lyrics and be able to appreciate the instruments that are playing. Most music nowadays is just electronic sounds mixed together with somebody singing about non-sense. Relaxing is a good word for it, especially while doing homework. It just seems to fit perfectly; The Dark Knight and homework.

Anyways this post will be short because I am about to leave for Spring Break...even though I am not going anywhere. Just back to good ol' Kalamazoo for me. At least it is a nice break from school and I can just lay around and do nothing. Maybe the sun will be out and I can go outside in mid 40's weather instead of mid 80's like all the other rich people at school...bastards.

Things I Wish I Could Do

There a plenty of things I wish I could do...so I figured I would make a list

• Speak another language besides English
• Play the piano
• Write for a living
• Change my phone service
• Get a new phone
• Write music
• Control my junk food intake
• Go to many places, ie. Hawaii, The Caribbean, England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Australia, California, New York City, Mayan Temples, Egypt, and Key West.
  
• Be in a band
• Open up a restaurant
• Write a book about my grandpa's life
  
• Become an actor
• Design my own split-level house
• Go somewhere for Spring Break
• Be an Olympic swimmer
• Meet a lot of people, ie. Michael Jordan, Kanye West, AC/DC, Metallica, Jim Rice, Bill Cowher, Linkin Park, Jim Carrey, Dave Chappelle, Will Ferrell, and my grandpa Ralph's dad.
• Own a little cottage on a lake and have a boat
• Get a second chance at playing baseball more in High School
• Right all the people I have wronged
• Get a job relatively close to graduation

There's more to add I just can't think of anything else right now...........

Netherlands

It is so refreshing and nice for a baseball team not from the Caribbean, USA, or Japan to be doing well in the World Baseball Classic. The first time I saw that the Netherlands baseball team beat the Dominican Republic I was shocked. I talked about it with some co-workers at work for a good 20 minutes because none of us could really believe it. It was amazing that, not only did they beat the DR, they pounded them, not in score because it was only 3-2 but the first game I think the DR had like 2 hits or something like that. So, I figured this time the Dominicans would be angry about the last loss and take this game more serious and beat the pulp out of the Netherlands...nope! The game was scoreless until the 11th inning when the DR scored one run in the top of the 11th on an error by the Netherlands right fielder. And wouldn't you know it the same guy that committed the error in RF was the same guy who knocked in the tying run. After an error on a pick-off attempt the same man was sitting on 3rd base. Then, on a grounder to 1st base, he scored and the Netherlands came out victorious and showed the whole baseball world that they are a force to be reckoned with. Now that they have beaten the Dominican Republic twice they are advancing past pool play and going to Miami to play some more. Afterward, during the post game interview the Netherlands coach teared up a little when he started talking about how lucky his was to coach a team like this, and boy is he right. It would be great to be the coach of a team who was never given a chance to beat the Dominican Republic in pool play...and definitely not given the chance to do it twice, with the second game being a pool championship game. Most likely the biggest upset in WBC history, the Netherlands two wins over the dominant Dominican Republic will be remembered for a long time...and the Cinderella story isn't over yet, we still have more games to watch to see how it all plays out. As the Dutch would put it, Ga Nederlands!

TO to Buffalo

Well, I definitely didn't see it coming but I suppose it's a good deal. I just don't know if TO will be the number one WR in Buffalo, especially with the year Lee Evans had last year. And like I said before, I don't think TO will be happy being the number two receiver. The acquisition of definitely puts Buffalo in the running for the AFC East though...I suppose they were last year too until they melted down the second half of the season.

Double Dreams

It is not very often that I remember my dream(s) when I wake up in the morning. Today, however, was an exception. When I finally woke up this morning at about 11:30 AM I realized that I had remembered two dreams. Now before I go ahead and tell you about those dreams I am going to need to give you some background information. First, my grandparents on my mother's side live next-door to us. Second, my family has a yellow lab named Gator that is about 8 years old now. OK, now that you know a little bit more I can continue on with the first dream.

The first one was actually very strange because somehow I discovered a cave in my grandparents backyard next to their garage. I usually park over there when I am at home so I found it one day when I came back because there was a big whole about 10 feet from the end of my car. I went over to it and figured out it was a cave. So I went back to my house and told my parents what I had found and that I was going down into it. I don't really remember much else about it except that at some point my mom, dad, grandpa, grandma, and me were all down in the cave looking around. I also remember that I was out of it to do something but was getting ready to go back down and measure how big it actually was, but then the dream ended.

My second dream was even stranger because it was in a house that I have never been in before. I have no idea who's house it was but it wasn't the nicest. Anyways, my dog was there along with some body's pit bull....along with 4 snakes. Now...I really have no idea why there were 4 snakes in the house but it was scaring the living day lights out of me because I am scared of snakes. Anyways I somehow ended up on a recliner in full recline mode and the 4 snakes were under me. The pit bull was next to the chair on the ground growling at the snakes like he wanted to tear them up. My dog, Gator, was lying down behind the chair sleeping. What happened next though surprised the hell out of me; the pit bull lunged at one of the snakes and killed it. Then he did it again, and he killed a third one. But before he could kill the fourth one it had already gotten behind the chair and bitten my dog on the neck...it was a King Cobra snake. Right after the snake had bitten my dog the pit bull came and finished him off. So i frantically searched for a phone to call the police while my dad, friends Drew and Tom, and brother, Bob, all went out the front door to the hospital. Now that I think about it I don't really know why they were going to the hospital but oh well. So I got a hold of the police and told them what had happened but the call got cut off. So I went to get my shoes because I was going to run to the police station while my Tom's brother, Andy, stayed with the dog. Once I finally got my shoes on a burst out the front door I saw a police car drive by and starting flailing my arms in the air to get his attention. I finally got it and amazingly he turned around and another police car was driving by and he stopped too. They walked up to me and for some reason my sister, Emily and one of her friends were with the police. As we were walking in the front door her friend asked me why it was such a big deal that my dog was dying. It actually amazes me how detailed my dream was because I can remember how I answered that question; I was so sad and hysterical that I was crying and trying to talk at the same time so nothing I said was really understandable. I was basically mumbling non-sense in short increments between my sobs and breaths. And, unfortunately, that is where the dream ended because I woke up.

I know that those were pretty long descriptions and it really doesn't make any sense as to why I would talk about my dreams, but I would say that I am just genuinely happy that I remembered not one, but two of my dreams and can tell them back with such detail.

Warm Weather

It's amazing how many people get outside and do stuff on the first day of good weather in the spring. Today it was around 60 degrees in the afternoon and there were tons of people outside. People were wearing shorts and t-shirts and everybody felt the excitement of spring approaching. After three to four months of below freezing temperatures, snow covered grounds, and little to no sunshine a day in the low 60's with some sunshine is like heaven. It feels so nice to just walk around outside and now have to shudder from the cold or have the bottoms of your jeans get wet from snow. It's nice to see more then two minutes of sunshine at one time and have there be a breeze that doesn't chill you to the bone. Hell, 60 degrees is like a heatwave in Michigan during early March, but if it was 60 degrees at the end of September everybody would be getting their sweatshirts out because winter is coming. If it was 60 degrees in Florida everybody would be grabbing their jackets and stocking up for the end of the world. It's just funny to see how relative weather really can be.

TO

As of a little while ago the Cowboys released Terrell Owens...so who will pick him up? Maybe the Lions will try to, I mean why not? What could the Lions possibly do to their team to make it any worse? All jokes aside I believe somebody will definitely pick up Owens as soon as possible. Yes, he may be in his mid 30's but he is still one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. And yes, he is a cancer that can easily infect any team he is on but for some struggling teams that may be a risk worth taking. I personally believe the Broncos, Chargers, or Falcons could be possible new homes for him. The Falcons have a great young quarterback in Matt Ryan but no real super star wide receivers, but I don't know if they will want to take the risk in signing Owens or want to spend the money he will demand. The Broncos definitely have some solid wide receivers right now and a good quarterback in Cutler but they may not want him because they already have a sufficient wide receiver crew. The Chargers have the star quarterback, the star running back, and even a star tight end, so why not add a star wide receiver? Knowing my previous prediction skills as far as where players will go, Owens will probably end up with some other team I didn't even think of...oh well. I think he needs to go to a team where he will be the star receiver though because if he has to share duty with another receiver he will not be happy and start trouble with his new team. Wherever he ends up Owens will most likely still be in the headlines throughout the upcoming NFL season.

Housing

So today is the day I find out if I got into an apartment for next school year or not...and the anticipation is killing me. We applied for a 4 person apartment and 2 of my co-workers did as well and one of them has already found out. She actually got the apartment she wanted so that gives me hope that maybe I will too. The other guy has a lot of credits (where you live is based on credits) so we are thinking that he is a shoo in for an apartment. I'm sitting here waiting though, hoping that I at least get into one, even if it's not my first choice. Just for fun I have my email set to play a gong when I get an email so I am waiting for that spectacular song to come out of my computer speakers...nothing yet though. Mortal Kombat here we come.

Grim Job Prospects

The economy sucks right now, plain and simple. And from what I can tell it seems like it is only going to get worse in the oncoming months or years. Newspaper journalism is already a hurting profession because of the internet but a bad economy only makes it worse. Lucky for me I want to be a newspaper journalism...happy day. It really makes me nervous to think that what I want to become once I graduate from college may not even be a possibility. What if I get my degree and intern at some newspaper and write for the school newspaper and when I try to get a job they say sorry try again later? What if I can't find a job for years after I graduate? Scary stuff...

Iverson vs Billups

Just as with the Lions, I am from Michigan but am not a huge fan of the Pistons. They made a trade only a few games into the season that baffled many, me included. Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess for Allen Iverson seemed like a stupid trade for the Pistons to make. Give up your team leader and a valuable big man for a player that has nothing to show for. I never really liked Iverson when he was at Philadelphia and I don't like him as a Piston either. I still feel like the Pistons made a mistake with this trade but when you look at it statistically, player to player at least, it seems they didn't. Billups is averaging 18.7 ppg as a Nugget and Iverson has 18 ppg as a Piston. Billups has about 6 assists per game while Iverson has about 5. They both see about 36 minutes or so a game and they both shoot about 42%. So just looking at the numbers they seem to be identical players but if you look at team numbers Billups seems to have the advantage. Denver is 39-22 this season while Detroit is only 30-29. Of course the other players on the Nuggets could be better than the other players on the Pistons and this could also be the reason for the difference in record between the teams. Personally I feel that Billups is a better player than Iverson by himself and is a much better team player than Iverson and the team records seem to back me up on this, yet look at personal statistics and you really see no difference. I guess we will have to wait until the end of the season to see who comes out better when it is all said and done.

Rubik's Cube

I was thinking about it and I realized just how wonderful a Rubik's Cube really is. There are only 6 colors, nothing else to worry about. You have to know certain patterns and algorithms to solve it and once you know them it's just a matter of doing them in the right order. If only everything else in life were as simple as a Rubik's Cube (I know that may seem like an oxymoron: Rubik's Cube and simple, but for somebody who can solve one the comparison holds true). If only relationships were like a cube...spin it this way, turn that way, make the colors match up and all better. Simple; 9 squares on each side, 6 sides, make each side of 9 squares the same color. I just wish I knew how to solve relationship problems like I know how to solve a Rubik's Cube. And unfortunately I have had this blog for like 2 days now and it seems to be some what of an obsession for me...which is in fact unfortunate because I'm sure nobody reads this, so it's like talking to myself...guess I better go back to solving my Rubik's Cube.

Detroit Lions

So over the weekend I saw that QB John Kitna was traded by the Lions to the Cowboys for CB Anthony Henry. As a Michigan native who is not a Lions fan I suppose I was happy to see those words crawl across the bottom of my television screen because anything that can help the Lions maybe win a game is always a positive. The puzzling thing though is what were the Cowboys thinking? The Lions were pretty much ready to release Kitna since he was on IR for half of the season last year with a minor injury...so the Cowboys decide to trade a decent CB for a whiny, old QB to back up Romo. Granted, Kitna is better then Brad Johnson, but why the trade? I don't know but at least somebody is trying to help out the Lions. Not being a Lions fan I found it quite ammusing that they were the first team in NFL history to go 0-16 but I'm not somebody who gets off on other peoples misfortunes. It's nice to know that the Lions are trying to improve their team and maybe win a game next year...I personally think the front office needs adjustment before Detroit can ever be respected as an NFL threat. Maybe with their two first round draft picks (one of them from the ever friendly Cowboys) they will draft somebody other then a WR and build up the rest of their team. Who knows, maybe next season they will have a winning record...let's not get too optimistic though.

About Me

So I am starting this blog because I am currently attending college in Holland, Michigan and am working towards a degree in Communications, focusing on journalism, so I thought a blog would be a good way to start writing some and see if anybody pays attention. As of now I am planning on becoming a sports writer so hopefully this blog will steer towards the sports world...but I'm sure it will veer off track every once in a while depending on what has me going on any particular day, in fact it may be more about everyday life then sports. So hopefully this goes well and at least one person pays attention to me.