I need to vent

Andruw Jones is a steaming pile! I am a Dodger fan and have grown very accustomed to mediocrity but I shouldn't be giving up on the season only 9 games in. The team did nothing to address the fact that their offense is absolutely pathetic during the offseason except for bringing in a guy who couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat into an already crowded outfield. Juan Pierre was doing just fine being the overpaid underacheiving outfielder thank you very much. If you got pulled over for driving erratically and blew Andruw Jones batting average into the breathalizer the officer would apologize and send you on your way.

And don't think you are getting away with anything Russell Martin. Feel free to remind us you were once an All-Star. I am currently developing a conspiracy theory that involves you witnessing a murder during the offseason and the Russell Martin that is now playing catcher for the Dodgers is actually a dock worker from Long Beach with no family who wouldn't be missed and likes to strike out looking.

Combined these two dudes have 0 HR's and 3 RBI's which is 4 HR and 5 RBI's less than Torii Hunter, who the Dodgers should have spent all that money on during the offseason instead of wasting it on Pierre and Jones the last two offseasons. On the season the Dodgers have a team batting average of .230. If it weren't for Furcal and Loney it probably would be .125. This is absolutely ridiculous.

RANT OVER (but we all know it will be continued throughout the season)

We have a Wii

My bride got me a Wii for our 2 year anniversary, which was at the beginning of this month, but thanks to the incompetency of Game Stop and UPS it just arrived on Friday. It was worth the wait (and the incessant checking of the tracking process that I had been doing every 30 minutes or so for the last few weeks). The Wii has been out for awhile now but they are still very hard to get a hold of. Mariah looked for months and at every store she checked in they were sold out. Then she finally found a package deal online that came with some extra controllers and games and we ended up buying it.

We absolutely love it. It is so different than any other video game system because of it's unique motion-sensitive wireless controllers. Most of the games you have to play while standing up and moving around. With Xbox (the other video game system I own) I could just sit and waste away a few hours while unwinding after coming home from work but with the Wii it is really tiring to play. I am sore after playing it all weekend.

It comes with a disc called Wii Sports which has Golf, Baseball, Boxing, Tennis, and Bowling on it and I could play the Golf and Bowling games forever. They are both fairly realistic. My bowling score on the game matches my average in real life.

If you can find it I definitely recommend getting a Wii. We have already had a few people over this weekend to play including people that don't normally like video games, but it is a system designed to involve everyone. It's great for parties or when you have a few people over and it's relatively inexpensive when you compare it to the Xbox 360 ($400) and the Playstation 3 ($500+).

One word of caution...be careful once you get it. It can be dangerous.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

No not Christmas time; to me that is the second most wonderful time of year. For a sports fan, this has to be the most wonderful time of year. The Final Four took place this weekend, with the champion of college basketball being crowned tomorrow night. The NBA playoffs are just around the corner, which in my opinion is the only worth while part of the NBA season. The Masters is also coming up this weekend and should be compelling as always. But most importantly, today is Opening Day for Major League Baseball.



Terrence Mann is right. Baseball is the one constant. It means so much to the history of the United States, and increasingly to the world. I was lucky enough to go to a couple of the World Baseball Classic games last year and was amazed at the scope and reach of such a simple game as baseball. This time of year reminds me of so much of my childhood, and makes me feel like I am 10 years old again, spending every Saturday at the baseball field, staying for hours after my game was over just to watch the other games my friends were playing in. This time of year makes me excited to be a father so I can teach my children about the "National Pastime."

If I were comissioner of Baseball, I would pick two games to be played on opening day every year, one national league and one american league, and rotate who hosts these games every year. I would have the games air on network TV back to back with a 30-40 minute break in between the two to have a pseudo "half time show" in which a highlight reel of the previous season was played as well as the clip above from Field of Dreams, just to get everyone excited about the season. Opening Day really should be something special; a celebration "of all that once was good, and that could be again."

Hey Kobe. Didn't your mom ever tell you...

that it's not ok to hit people?

This is twice this season that Kobe has been suspended for doing the same thing.

No, you are not bigger than the rules of the game Kobe. No, you can't get away with smacking people in the face to try and draw a foul just because your shot isn't going to go in. Just stop.

Super Poll

One of my most frequented web stops is espn.com. I am a huge sports fan and their website gives me everything I need to stay up to speed on all my favorite teams.

On their main page they have poll questions that change every couple days. Currently the question is "Should Super Bowl Sunday be a national holiday?" If you vote, then a color-coded map of the nation pops up showing you the poll-results state by state. I voted "no" and thought for sure that I would be in the majority. I was wrong.

At the time of this post, 23,652 people had submitted their response and 59% of the people who responded thought that Super Bowl Sunday should be a national holiday. Are you kidding me?

Arkansas was the only "red" state, having 52% of their 104 responses saying that it shouldn't be a national holiday. Minnesotas 624 respondents were split 50-50 making it a gray state (although doesn't blue and red make purple?).

This baffles me. I think the Super Bowl is one of the most overrated events in pop culture. It is bloated and vacuous and overhyped, just like Prince. Hey, maybe Prince should play halfti...wait...nevermind.

Turnover

First let me say that I really loved "Love", the Cirque show that the bride and I went to see last weekend. It was brilliant and my opinion on the whole bizarre european acrobats, while eerily spot on, was nonetheless broadened by their beautiful performance. Some of the performers walked about in the audience pre-show and let's just say I was made a little uneasy by their presence. Not only do they "stay in character", you kind of get the sense that these people are always this way; they are their character. It's like the time that I worked at Halloween Haunt at Knott's Berry Farm and noticed that all of my fellow employees were as scary out of costume as in. I often found myself thinking, "Wow, you really are a vampire!"

Now on to a completely different subject...USC Football. They lost today to Oregon State 33-31 and I really am not as upset as I thought I might be. When they lost in the Rose Bowl in January it was like someone had bagged on my momma, punched me in the gut, fired me from my job, and then stole my cd collection only to burn it in a bonfire rather than to marvel at my excellent taste in music, all in one day. It was terrible. I mourned for weeks. Still to this day it hurts, almost 10 months later. I also still remember watching the Cal loss in '03 (USC's last Pac-10 loss prior to today) in a sports bar in Phoenix, because I was there for a convention, which I ditched to watch that heart-wrenching game.

But today is different.

Now of course today wasn't for the national championship like the Rose Bowl vs. Texas. But if the rankings were to be believed, USC was in the hunt for yet another national championship, having been ranked 3rd in the BCS prior to todays game. But I knew better, and have thought that USC was overrated the whole season.

I just have never felt right about this team. There is just something missing, maybe a few things actually. I really don't like them. It is hard for me to say this, but I don't think they are done losing. Of course I recognize that I was spoiled with the previous USC teams that played for 3 straight national championships, but I really don't miss those teams. Pining for the good ol' days is not my issue.

Ultimately it comes down to the quarterback. Football is a team game, but there is no doubt who is the leader of the team; the QB. I can't stand John David Booty, USC's QB. This came as a slow realization. Little by little the confidence I had in Booty after the opening game against Arkansas dwindled as each week he and his team seemed to escape defeat rather than achieve victory. After the Arizona State game two weeks ago, which USC barely won 28-21, no thanks to John David Booty, who had 2 turnovers resulting in 14 points for ASU, I said to myself, "I just don't like John David Booty." And it is safe to say that today's performance (another fumble and interception) didn't improve my view of him.

So what do you do if there is someone you don't like at all leading your favorite sports team? Well the beauty (and the curse) of the college game is that everyone has to run out of eligibility sometime.

Let's see that one again

Conclusive Video Evidence
Man I hate bad officiating. And in this day and age where every little detail of a sporting event is covered in every possible angle, there is no way soemthing like this should happen. I am a huge USC fan and most of the time I will root for PAC-10 teams in interconference play, as was the case on Saturday in the Oklahoma Oregon game. But PAC-10 officials missing a call like this just makes the conference look bad. Why have instant replay if it doesn't work? I don't know one person who would look at the video evidence and say that #1 Oregon didn't touch the ball before it went 10 yards, and #2 Oregon recovered the kick. And yet someone did look at the video and concluded both of those things. The link above proves that whether they touched the ball or not Oklahoma recovered the kick. How can the officials clear out the pile and then give possession to Oregon when the ball was in the hands of an Oklahoma player?

It really hurts me to write all this, because I hate Oklahoma as much as the next USC fan, but they got robbed.

If I was as much an Oregon fan as I am a USC fan I would be ashamed of that victory.