No matter how bad it gets or how alone you feel, your appendix will always be lonelier.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Mavs Teeter- toter


The Mavericks seem to be on their heels lately in the last two games in the NBA Playoffs. They lost last night to the San Antonio Spurs 94 to 90. A close game, but they still lost. One thing that the Dallas team is slightly upset with is the officiating. Like other sports this is often a common excuse if the losing team loses in a close game. It happens in basketball, football, baseball, etc. Sometimes this really is the case, and sometimes in a really close game the officiating really does need to be right on and less about opinion. For an example which still lingers in some Vikings fans head were the last couple calls in the overtime loss to the Saints in the NFC Championship game. The pass interference call moved the ball down the field which would eventually put the Saints in position to kick the game winning field goal. Now I am not saying that the result would have been different if the call would have been correct be not making the call, but it very well could have. Well here in this example the Mavs are saying that they are getting called for way too much. One player, which was making the complaints had more fouls than points and rebounds combined in Game 3. While Tim Duncan of the Spurs had twice as much playing time and only two fouls. The player wasnt even just talking about him, but also other team mates which were getting unfair calls on them. Sometimes the complaints are semi legitimate and others just out there to complain, but in this case I would have to side with the Mavs. Make it up in Game 4.

NFL Draft

Well another draft has come and gone. The were some surprises and some very expected picks. I preferable want to talk some on the Vikings draft choices, but mention some of the other interesting draft picks from my point of view.

Lets first get all the extra information out of the way about the oddities and expected. The Rams went like they were believed to and picked Sam Bradford. I guess I am okay with this, but I guess I am not that big of a Sam Bradford fan. Who is to say he is not going to get hurt when getting sacked by someone like Suh who went second to the Lions. I am happy for Suh, and am a huge Suh fan, but scared out of my mind that he went to a conference rival and the Vikings have a 40 year old quarterback. To put it into perspective I ran across this video which would have to be very worrisome to whoever this happens to.
The biggest hit on Farve, equals Vikings without a veteran quarterback. Anyhow we will have to wait and see how the season turns out. Definably the biggest draft pick was... you probably already got it...Tim Tebow. He was the first draft by the Denver Broncos. I would like to ask what they have in mind. The already have Orton and Quinn, so why do they need a Tebow who was one of the quarterbacks to go last. In fact Colt McCoy didn't drafted until the third round. The fact that Jimmy and Colt went down as far as they did was quite surprising. There were a couple other minor surprises, but none bigger then these.

I think I like most of the draft picks by the Vikings. They traded some in their spots and it appeared to work out well for them. Their first draft pick was Chris Cook, CB from Virginia. He will hopefully help a semi struggling secondary in my opinion, which was one of the Vikings weaker parts of the the team. Then a little bit of a surprise was that the Vikings picked Toby Gerhart, RB from Stanford. Yeah you have probably heard this name before. He got second in the Heisman in the closest voting yet. I was kind of asking why they went out and got a running back when they already had Peterson, but what I realized soon after was that Chester Taylor left, therefore they needed some type of replacement. Then they went out and got some big guys for both the offensive and defensive line. Then they continued to go and get some linebackers and a tight end. Another semi strange thing was they drafted a quarterback in the 6th round. They have a few QBs already, unless they hope to really train and raise up a new quarterback, I really dont see the need for one right now. Anyways I think overall the Vikings did pretty well with they drafts picks and only the future will tell if they pay off or end up hurting them in the long run of things.

Sharks Biting the Avalanche


Now I know that the NHL isn't really that popular in the USA, but I really dont see why. There is plenty of cool things that happen in hockey, and it is semi fun to watch. Only during the Olympics does some of the public seem to watch. I mean one of the greatest upsets in the history of sports came in hockey. In the Olympics of 1980 the USA defeated the Soviet Union. This was the miracle on ice. Now that was suppose to boost the popularity, and it did for a year of so, but even now hockey does not seem to be very popular.

Even if you dont pay attention to hockey, I have tried some to stick to a team. It kind of all happened on accident. I got a gift from my relatives that live out in California, close to San Jose. They knew that I liked sports, so they figured that they would get me a sports t shirt of some kind. Well as it turns out the only kind the store really had that looked alright was a San Jose Sharks shirt. Now when I got the present I was kind of surprised because up til then I did not really pay any attention to hockey like most Americans. I had not even heard of the San Jose Sharks. That is actually kind of a lie, though. I had a friend when I was little that was a hockey fan, and they liked the Red Wings, pretty much the only hockey team any one knows, but any way my friend had some hockey cards. I looked at them one time for the heck of it, and saw that towards the back there were a bunch of Shark players. She said that she didnt really like them and they werent that good, but she had a bunch of them so she put them in the back of her collection. It seems kind of strange that those would be the only cards I would remember her having, and a few years later getting a t shirt of that one hockey team.

Well once I got the shirt I figured that if I wore a shirt of a hockey team I should at least know something about them. I looked them up and found out some information about them. As it turns out they had gotten quite a bit better since the last time I had heard anything about them. In fact they were one of the better teams in the league. I thought this was kind of cool then, so I decided that I would become a fan of the San Jose Sharks. I also thought their logo looked pretty cool.

So that kind of brings me where I am today. The Sharks in the playoffs again this year and are one of the best teams again this year. The past couple of years the Sharks have had very good regular season, but have had a curse once it comes to the playoffs. Again this year they are kind of in the same place. They just the fifth game of the best of seven match. They are playing the Colorado Avalanche. The series is at 3-2 right now, and they play on Sunday. They need the win this up coming game so they move on and make it to the Championship Game and finally win it all. So I wish the Sharks good luck in their post season playoffs and that they dont make a stupid early exit.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Crazy Day in Baseball


Just in case you may not have heard yesterday was a crazy day in baseball. Not only was there a no hitter there was also a game that last just shy of 7 hours, 6 hours and 53 minutes to be more exact.

The no hitter came from the Rockies pitcher, Ubaldo Jimenez, which is the first in the Rockies club history. He pitched a good game obviously, but he also got a little help from the defense. There was one grab in the outfield in the seventh inning that could have very well been a hit, but the center fielder of the Rockies made a great effort to run over and dive out and make the grab at the ball. This kind of achievement doesnt happen really much each year in baseball, maybe just a couple of times, out of thousands of games.

Another thing that doesnt happen every often is a baseball game that almost lasts seven hours. If I would have been watching this game live I would have been bored out of my mind. Mostly because it was so long, but also because neither team scored until the 19th inning. But then once one scored a run the other decided they should score too. So the New York Mets and the St. Louis Cardinals finally went to 20 innings. By now the Cardinals had had their second baseman pitch and their shortstop. The Mets finally scored again in the top of the 20th, and the Cardinals were not able to quite match that. It made for a crazy game in the end though. This game was all good pitching though from the start as could be inferred from the score of the game even after 20 innings. These two events made for quite the day in the life of baseball. A no hitter and a 20 inning game with a final score of 2-1. Well I must say that I tried to find a decent video that would allow embedding, but I could find one so here is just a link to get to decent video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gXygRC1KfI

Twins Finding Success


The Twins are coming out strong so far this year. They have played a few more than ten games and already have a winning record. I believe their early success has to do with a variety of good things that they need to keep up doing.

First off their batting have been pretty good. When they have needed a run they have been for the most part able to create one. As a whole their lineup has been able to run of the pitch count on the starting pitcher. This is important because when they are at bat they are able to get many views and a variety of pitches and may be able to sort through them and find one they like. Also this wears down on the pitcher and makes him work harder. This could create walks or just catch him off guard on a pitch that ends up going over the fence. They have been able to get on base so there is always a possibility of putting on added pressure to the defense of the other team to watch this runner, because their team overall still has pretty good speed. As everyone probably knows the middle of the lineup is the Twins power house. With the trio of Mauer, Morneau, and Cuddyer. These three probably lead the Twins in their offensive and are probably a moral boost in the dug out.

Second of all the Twins pitching has so far been able to hold up. No one pitcher on the their team is really a star. They dont have a Hallaway, or a Santana, but just a group of your kind of everyday pitchers. I think this is good though because then they can feed off of each other and not solely depend on one person to do all the work. Also they have been pitching pretty close to any other pitcher that they have faced. Sure they will lose and sometimes lose bad, or just have an off day, but they have so far at least kept the Twins in the games. The pitchers I believe know that they have a pretty good lineup behind them and if they do allow a run or two that it shouldnt be the end of the game. I think I may have mentioned something about the Twins having their closing pitcher out for the season. So far though the guy to replace him has done very well. I believe that he is six for six in saves so far. Even with a little of their early success I am still mostly worried about the Twins pitching, as long as they can keep it close in games.

Thirdly I think the new ball park has at least sparked a little excitement in the players and fans. It is always nice to play for a full stadium of people rather than a half full stadium. The fans seem to have responded well to the new stadium as well as the players. The Metrodome held lots of special memories in the Twins history, but now a home just for them, that doesnt have to be shared. I think that the players kind of feel like they have to play for their new stadium, in a way of telling the public thanks and earning the key to their new home.

I am really excited to see were the Twins go through out the season and who make it to the playoffs in the end. It would be really neat to see the the very first playoff game played at Target Field. So good luck and I will be talking about the Twins most likely later in a week.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Opening Day at Target Field


Well it has now been about a week since the Twins opened in their new ball park, but it seems to be pretty nice and welcoming to the Twins. They opened in their park with a game against the the Boston Red Sox. The new ball park seemed to be pretty whole in attendance and pretty popular. The club acknowledged many popular figures and former ball players or the Twins in a nice opening ceremony. In many sense the players really liked it and enjoyed the day too. It is always nice to win in your new stadium on opening day too. The Twins beat the Red Sox 5-2. The first home run, hit by Jason Kubel, was also hit on opening day. From now on it will be a beginning of firsts. The first run scored, the first hit, the first double, triple. etc. This is just a link to a brief video from a local news cast that was able to get some of the players reactions to the opening game day feeling and the new ball park. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBUddwSi1nY. The name of the new ball park is Target Field. I found this to be kind of strange, just because I mean its Target for pete sakes. I didnt even know that companies like Target would do that kind of thing. It would kind of be like Wal Mart naming themselves on a stadium. I at least could have seen that one coming before Target since Wal Mart is such a power house in todays society. Even from the name the stadium looks really nice and I really kind of want to go there. Just from watching videos it appears that the big Minnesota logo thing lights up of something ever time a Twins player hits a home run. I hope the Twins continue to win, even if it is only like five games or so into the season. Slightly off topic but still sort of related is that the people of Minnesota should be happy about their new stadium. It probably did come out of their pockets some but it appears to be pretty nice. Now I honestly hope the the Vikings are able to get a new stadium. They have been asking for one for a while and are probably the most popular team Minnesota has yet they are so far the last to get one. The Twins and yes even the Golden Gophers got one before the Vikings did, which I found kind of strange. One problem now that I heard is that there isnt really much room and the good tax paying people of Minnesota just paid for a new stadium. Even still i would like to see an impressive Vikings football stadium go up.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Woods Returns, Phils Steals the Show


Woods came back for the first time to play golf in a while. Just in time for the Masters. Woods was an icon to most Americans, until the scandal that was leaked and made public and changed his public view forever. Well anyways even if you still dont like Woods, or you were rooting for him because you still have a soft part in your heart, he got most the publicity until the end. Woods played well and still showed why he is still the worlds number one player even though not having played in a really long time. It was Phil Mickelson though who ended up stealing the show. He won his third Master Championship, which is quite impressive. So welcome back Tiger and congratulations Phil.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Start to a New Season


Now some may be thinking that this blog would be about the time of year when the transition of winter turns to spring. You are some what correct, but it is also more over the start of something new when this new season begins. That would be the start of the baseball season.

Now I am a Twins fan. I was very happy that the Twins were able to keep Joe Mauer in their lineup. He is probably one of the best catchers the game has ever seen. Also Morneau helps just a little bit. This year the Twins are going to have to focus on winning games by their offense and their field defense. The weakest thing in my opinion is their pitching. Ever since Santana left to the Mets the Twins pitching has been hurting a little. What really urts the Twins this year is the information about Joe Nathan. He is having surgery on his throwing elbow. Nathan has been one of the best in closing game for the past few years. It will be difficult to replace him, at such an important position. The Twins starting pitching is just kind of average. Unless a pitcher or two finds some new stuff in their pitch the Twins are going to have to rely pretty heavily on their batting. This isnt that bad of a situation though. The Twins lineup looks pretty good. Especially with one of the best three to four man combinations in the game. Their speed on defense is really good. Their outfield has great range and they improved upon their infield during the off season. I am really pretty excited for the season. The Twins may have a few problems, but with the division they are in, the other teams look to be in similar situations. Only time will tell on how their season will end up, hopefully going deep into the playoffs.

No Real Loser

As many of us already know, the madness came in a final showdown. The Duke Blue Devils vs. the Butler Bulldogs. This game was one to go down in history and is to be considered one of the greatest national titles in college basketball. The game literally came down to just a few points and a few seconds. I am titling this blog no real loser because as most of us know, and if you dont you must really not pay any attention to sports, Duke did end up winning. Like i had said in a previous blog i had wanted Butler to win it all, and in some sense they did and in other they just bricked it. just in came you did just some how miss the game or key plays here is a nice little video to help you along.
So as you can see this game came down to the seconds and just two points; a final score of 61-59. The point that I mostly want to make is on the behalf of Butler. They broke all the boundaries of the publics reputation and what they expected from them. many thought that they would lose in about the second bracket, and if they were lucky they would make it to the sweet sixteen, but then lose. That didnt happen though. I can not be here right now though and say that i have been a Butler fan or believed in this team because to be honest I didnt really know about them until they started to pull off all the upsets. In my own defense though I have said that I am just a fan of March Madness and really could care less about the regular season. This Butler team did so much for the culture of the college basketball game. Being a 5 seed and making the just about the closest run you can at a national title. I am not right now providing any evidence for those people who want to open the tournament up to about 128 teams though. This is a crazy idea and really just a waste. Yes some teams can make runs for it, and yes the upsets are what make the whole thing fun, but no not this many teams need to be in the tournament. I do not want to get too off topic, but I just know there is someone out there right now thinking that they should, but you are wrong for thinking that; now where was I. Oh yeah on how Butler really impressed people. If you watched the video, and if you didnt you should because it will help in you understanding because I am not going to summarize everything that happened in the game, plus it gets you in the scene. Well right in the final closing minutes Butlers shoots the ball in a fade away and right here I am thinking short because the dude is drifting back. I guess he was also thinking this too because he put just a little more push on it and it squarely hit the back part of the rim. At the time this would have given Butler the lead. We dont know what would have happened after that though. So well stick with the fact that he missed it and the game continued as is until the last approximate three seconds. Now here the Butler guy grabs the rebound and off the missed second free throw and get to about the corner of the mid court line. Now I dont know about you but I didnt feel anything really. I mean I was thinking the game is over. The shot missed and Duke won. Then about a minute afterwards, yeah it took me awhile, I realized that if that last shot had done in Butler would have won the game. If that shot had done it Butler would have made the greatest national title in college basketball ever. If Butler would have made that shot that guy would be trampled and the place would be exploding. The thing is he didnt, but it was crazy how close he even came. I remember hearing a Duke player in an interview about what he was thinking while the ball was in the air, and he had some time because that was a heck of a shot. The Duke player responded something like he thought it could go in, but he really hoped it wouldnt. That shot not have come that close to winning the game. A few inches down on the back board and it would have been good. Enough with the would have, could have, should haves. That fact is the game truly didnt have a loser. Yes technically Duke won and congratulations, but Butler had won just to get there and to play at the level they did and come a few of just about everything close to winning. I respect Butler and wish them the best of luck next year at the tournament.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Its April


So I hope everyone has had a great start to their April. April though, can sometimes have a rude awakening. Either it can rain the first week, or end up being abnormally cold. This year, at least where I live it has been pretty nice. There is this one thing I am forgetting about though. That would be April 1st, or April Fools as we all know it.

It is like it sounds. A day to be reasonably foolish. It was said to have begun sometime in history when the calender which New Years from April 1st to January 1st. Now of course back then word could only get around by word of mouth or by horse. Either way if you are trying to tell everyone in a country it may take a while. So while some people were celebrating the new New Years, the others were celebrating on the previous date. Well the people still celebrating on April 1st were called fools and had tricks played on them. Now today the date and customs have changed a little and it is a fun and games to pull a trick on somebody on April 1st. So once April comes around each year you better be on your toes and ready for almost anything, and don't believe everything you hear because you might become a fool for falling for the trick.

The Confusion about Easter


Have you ever just sat down and decided that you would begin to think about the oddities of some parts of our lives. Well if you nave never done this I will give you a very easy topic to start with. Holidays, Events and the imaginary kind of things we associate them. Still Easter is this weekend this would be the perfect time and the prefect example.

Easter is probably the most screwed up commercial holiday that we have. First off there is the Easter bunny. Fine there really isn't anything truly wrong with associating a semi peaceful and cute little animal with a holiday. Also bunnies are kind of a sign of spring and Easter happens to occur around spring time. But there are just a few flaws. First of all we always call the animal the Easter bunny and not the Easter rabbit. Some how the name bunny just sounds more innocent and cute than rabbit. Second of all this bunny apparently hops around to everyones house in one night and delivers candy, goodies, and toys. This part is worst than Santa. At least Santa doesn't manual have to go to each house, he just sits in a sleigh. Not only does the Easter bunny have to travel by foot, but by hopping. I would just like to see you try and jump all the way down your street and back, let alone everyones house. Also if this bunny has to go every where what does he use to carry all these goodies for all the children. It is not like he has a huge sleigh or magic to help him with that. So not only does he have to hop everywhere he has to hop back and forth from his house and carry as many baskets as he can at a time before he has to go back again and restock.

Enough with the bunny business. Now to the eggs. The egg part of Easter is alright and kind of neat. It is rather kind of strange though too. Who ever thought of decorating your eggs, but I guess it is kind of similar to Halloween when we carve out pumpkins or paint them. Just a reason for those people who enjoy playing with their food to do so. Fine we decorate our eggs and have a good time, so what. Well that is not enough. We think we have to go and hide them around our homes and make it a big hunt. Why did we begin to hide real eggs in our houses and claiming that a bunny came by and hid them and left baskets full of goodies? I mean it would stink to not find the last egg, literally.

Well there was your seasonal example of the one of the holiday oddities that we have. The next could be the tooth fairy.

And Then There Were Four


As we all know, or most of us know, it is now April, and no longer March. That does not mean that the madness is far from over though. Of course I am talking about March madness, the college basketball tournament. Well just a little less than a week ago the Final Four were decided. Oddly enough though, only one of the four teams remaining in the tournament are a number 1. That would be Duke. Even having that said, there is still maybe a little bit of a surprise there. Duke was kind of said to be before the tournament one of the number one seeds to go down, and maybe even in the first couple of rounds. But now on the one side we have Duke and West Virginia. A number one seeded Duke vs. a number two seeded West Virginia. All in all though according to the seeds, there should not be that much of a surprise in that match up. If you look to the other side of the bracket there are some pretty big shockers. We have two, five seeded teams playing each other, guaranteeing a five seeded team into the National Title game. This match up is Butler vs. Michigan State. This entire tournament seemed to have that little bit of extra madness this year, and it could go all the way. Whoever is the winner of the Butler vs. Michigan State game will be playing in the National Title game as a five seed. Then this winner will be playing either a number two seed or the last remaining one seed. The fact that a five seed will make it into the final game just adds to the suspense and attitude of the tournament. It also just kind of builds up the high possibility of a big upset in the National Title game. Personally I don't really like Duke that much and would like to see them lose against West Virginia. That is not to say that I particularly want West Virginia to win it all. I would like to se the upset in the National Title game. It would the the cherry on top and the perfect summary of this years March Madness tournament. The overall number seed getting upset by Northern Iowa and not even making it into the Sweet Sixteen, and all the other unexpected upsets that happened earlier. Personally I would like to see Butler win it all. Michigan State is okay, but they did beat out Northern Iowa, who I was originally rooting for, so they aren't really on my top list. Also I think Michigan State after losing their key player won't be as good competition in the title game. If Butler makes it into the title game it will make for a good local story too, because the Final Four is being held in Indianapolis, and Butler is real close to there. So my hopeful finalist would be Butler vs. West Virginia. I would like to see Butler win, but if West Virginia happened to win that would be okay too since they haven't been this far in the tournament in I believe about 50 years. In the end I hope to be seeing Butler, the local high spirited team from around Indianapolis, cut down the nets. All we can do now is just wait for tomorrow while the Butler vs. Michigan State games runs in the afternoon and the Duke vs. West Virginia game runs in the evening. Then the two winners will battle it out to decide the National College Basketball Champion.