Tuesday, April 29, 2008

John Daly Playing Golf Shirtless and Shoeless

Is this that big of a deal? How many times have you been on a golf course and wanted to take your shirt off? Don't tell me if you owned your own golf course that you wouldn't take your shirt off every now and then. If you watch the entire video clip of the interview you can tell he is not crazy or anything, just being comfortable on his course.
Leave JD alone and let him be himself. I think he is a great person and has a decent game. I guarantee you that if Tiger Woods was not at the course and John Daly was you would be following him around and enjoying yourself as a spectator.
I had the opportunity to do just that at Firestone (Akron, Ohio) Tiger was also there, but I enjoyed watching JD a lot more. He interacts with you and plays just like a lot of us except a lot farther down the fairway. Don't get me wrong Tiger is great to follow around and he will interact with the fans every now and then, but if you ever get a chance to follow Daly around the golf course, do it!

Monday, April 28, 2008

Lebron James and Jay Z v's Deshaun Stevenson and Soulja Boy


Jay Z got bored and decided to write a 2 minute song blowing Stevenson out of the water. This is a good song for a quicky. If you're a Stevenson fan then you are not going to be happy. LeBron does it with his game. Jay Z does it with his pen. Stevenson is just a wanna be like Soulja Boy.
Could this be the east coast Biggie and Tupac????? Get em Jigga Man!!!
click here to listen to the song!!!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

2008 NFL Draft: My Opinion!




With Jake Long already going to Miami and off of the board it seems that St. Louis is on the clock and it is only Tuesday. I can't say that Jake Long is a #1 pick, a safe pick, yes, but Parcell's likes to have his guys there on day one and it seems he has his guy. My take, Long will go to a few pro-bowls, but is not a superstar. (Watch the OHIO STATE games V's MICHIGAN the past 4 years and Long was dominated by the Buckeye defensive lineman and they (OSU) were dominated by quicker athletes on both sides of the ball against the SEC teams.
I would say the next pick will be either Vernon Gholston, Glenn Dorsey, or Chris Long to St. Louis. My take, I don't think they could go wrong with either of these three. I would go with Chris Long simply because his pedigree (Howie), work ethic, and very smart. Chris Long goes 150% the entire game no matter what the situation. That could really help him in the league. I say he'll get his share of pro-bowls and play for at least 10 to 15 years.
Gholston would be my next pick if Long was off of the board. This guy could be the steal of the draft. He has potential to be a freak, but he also has potential to be lazy. His work ethic would be my only question going into training camp. I wouldn't be surprised if he becomes a superstar. I don't think I could let him slide out of the top 5 picks.
Glenn Dorsey will probably be a top 5 pick, but I have him behind Long and Gholsten because I think he is injury prone and has potential to become overweight for his position. If I need a DE and the others are off the board then I would take a chance on him. I can't believe I think taking Glenn Dorsey is an iffy pick, but I am.
Matt Ryan will be the first quarterback taken, but I think he is overrated and will not make an impact right away for Atlanta or Baltimore. These two teams are the only ones in need of a quarterback. I may be wrong, but I think he will be a top 10 pick that is a bust!
Darren McFadden, probably the best player in the draft. I think he could possibly be the best athlete in the draft and have the best career. He also could get put in a bad situation...... the Raiders. This may not help his career because I think he needs to go to a team that will guide him.
My opinion on the steal of the draft, Rashard Mendenhall!!!! Enough said.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Tim Duncan the Most Underrated NBA Superstar Ever



I honestly believe he is one of the best of all-time and gets no love. He has lots of rings, has played in the same city his entire career, tremendous role model, what else can he do? If that was anybody else hitting that 3 point shot yesterday and putting up 40 on the Suns, sportscenter would have been going nuts. Why do we not give Tim Duncan his due?

Duncan's rare 3-pointer sparks Spurs to 2OT win in Game 1

CBSSports.com wire reports
SAN ANTONIO -- Midway through the first quarter after missing two jumpers, Tim Duncan threw the ball up yet again, then held his arms wide. This time, would the shot fall?
It did. And much later the Spurs' big man hit an even bigger one. Duncan's first 3 of the season with just ticks left sent his team into double overtime against the revenge-minded Phoenix Suns.
Then it was Manu Ginobili's turn, and his layup with 1.8 seconds left pushed the defending champions past the Suns 117-115 Saturday in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.
Now the teams have two days to rest from their marathon best-of-7 Western Conference opener before meeting for Game 2 on Tuesday night.
"I got a wide-open shot. Wound it up. Threw it up there and hoped for the best," said a clearly tired Duncan, who had 40 points and 15 rebounds.
This year's rematch of what many dubbed last year's real Finals -- a tense and testy second-round series between the teams that the Spurs won in six games on their way to the title -- got off to a wild start and more than met expectations.
"It feels like a Finals game," Duncan said. "It's the first game of the first series, and we're going to have to muster energy back up."
Early on, Game 1 did not look like it would turn into a thriller. The Suns controlled play for the first three quarters, leading by as many as 16 points despite early foul trouble for Shaquille O'Neal. The Suns held a six-point lead with a quarter left in regulation.
The Spurs took their first lead of the game late in the fourth quarter, but were down 93-90 with 1:10 to go after Leandro Barbosa's fast-break layup.
With 15 seconds on the clock, Michael Finley tied it at 93 for the Spurs to send it to overtime.
"We had the game won a few times and just weren't tough enough or disciplined enough to make every single play when it counted," said Steve Nash, who had 25 points and 13 assists.
Duncan made the big shot in the first overtime. With his team down 104-101, Duncan found himself all alone at the 3-point line.
After only a slight hesitation, he fired the ball and made it with 3 seconds to play. It was Duncan's first 3 of the season. He was 0-for-4 previously.
"I didn't know what was going to happen, honestly," Duncan said. "Manu turned the corner, Shaq just totally leaves me and stayed with Manu."
In the second overtime, Shaq's dunk tied it at 112 with 1:33 to play. Ginobili's layup put the Spurs ahead.
Nash missed a key 3 with less than a minute to play. After risky, cross-court inbounds pass to the Spurs' Brent Barry, he was fouled. Barry made one of two free throws.
With 15 seconds left, the Suns went to sharp shooter Nash. Nearly falling out of bounds in the corner, he hit a 3 that made it 115-all.
Then Ginobili drove the lane against Raja Bell and got to the hoop, as he often does, almost at will, and his layup fell.
"What I knew, before taking it to the rim, is that Shaq and Amare (Stoudemire) were not there," Ginobili said. "So, I knew if I had the opportunity to go get in there, get some legs into the shot, I had an opportunity to finish."
Tony Parker added 26 points for the Spurs and Ginobili had 24.
"We had a lot of opportunities to win," O'Neal said. "You can't make mistakes against a team like that especially here in this building."
But O'Neal wasn't completely contrite.
"I just wanted to play aggressive, but the floppers prevailed today. Amare and myself are going to continue to play aggressive," O'Neal said of his foul trouble. "Hopefully those guys will compete rather than just fall down." Stoudemire, who fouled out with 12 seconds left in the first overtime, led the Suns with 33 points. O'Neal scored 11 points.
"They know we let them have one," O'Neal said. "All we need is one in this building."
Phoenix acquired O'Neal in a blockbuster midseason trade for a series such as this one to give the run-and-gun Suns a defensive boost.
O'Neal played just under four minutes in the first quarter after picking up two quick fouls. He was on the court for just 24 seconds in the second quarter before picking up his third foul and sitting out the rest of the half.
O'Neal missed two shots right off, the first when his dunk off an alley-oop pass missed. He didn't score in the first half.
Even though Phoenix got O'Neal to help their half-court game, the Suns, who still like to play quick, had only nine fast-break points in the game.
The Spurs, on the other hand, were able to punish the Suns with their strong suit. They had a 72-46 advantage in the paint.
"They're just not going to fold up their tent and go home," Suns coach Mike D'Antoni said. "They're going to make runs. This is their homecourt. You're going to have to beat them."

Notes

There were quite a few Suns orange T-shirts dotting the crowd.
The Spurs have eliminated the Suns in three of their last four postseason appearances.
Finley had 13 points for San Antonio, and Kurt Thomas, who played for the Suns last season, grabbed 10 rebounds.
Barry was playing just his third game for the Spurs since re-signing with them in March after a February trade sent him from San Antonio to Seattle. He's been sidelined this season with injuries to his calf.
Spurs Gregg Popovich got a technical foul with 11:48 left in the second quarter.
Parker and Thomas fouled out in the second overtime.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

A New Take on Manny being Manny



I had the privilege of watching the Indians and Red Sox Tuesday night at the Jake. I will never call it "Progressive Field". I had excellent seats on the 3rd baseline right next to the foul pole. I never intended to do much except visit with my brother - in - law and eat as many hot dogs as I could since it was "dollar dog" night. I ate six with no problem, but the other two were frozen by the time I was done with the first six. Yes! It was cold!
The first couple of innings I was intrigued with watching Manny Ramirez. Our seats were only about 20 yards away from him. He would take his glove off and play with it, or hold it with his right hand. He would pull out a bag of seeds and fill his mouth. While he is doing all of this, the game was in motion. The pitcher was in his wind-up and so on. I always believed that Manny was a terrible, lazy fielder, but even though it seemed like he could care less what was going on, he never missed a play. He made everything look so easy from fielding ground balls, to catching hard shots into the gap. His cut-off throws and one throw directly to 2ND base were precisely accurate and effortless.
The game got into the later innings and Manny would look around and smile, watch the scoreboard. A few fans dropped their signs over the wall and Manny walked over and picked them up and threw them back to the fans. Ryan Garko was injured and most players were chatting with each other, but Manny was down on one knee and clapped as Garko made his way to first.
He was constantly heckled throughout the game and never acknowledged anyone, but would occasionally smile and look at some fans. At one point during the 9Th inning, I leaned over as he went to retrieve the ball that got away from him while they were warming up and said, "Manny, I respect your game and the way you just have fun." He looked up and pounded his fist against his heart and pointed at me.
It was great to see a superstar playing and just having a lot of fun. That is Manny being Manny!!!

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Big Pappy, David Ortiz Jersey burried at new Yankee Stadium



I had to post this story. www.cbssportsline.com
Red Sox jersey removed from new Yankee Stadium, will go to charity
April 13, 2008
CBSSports.com wire reports

A construction worker's bid to curse the New York Yankees by planting a Boston Red Sox jersey in their new stadium was foiled Sunday when the home team removed the offending shirt from its burial spot.
After locating the shirt in a service corridor behind what will be a restaurant in the new Yankee Stadium, construction workers jackhammered through the concrete Sunday and pulled it out.
The team said it learned that a Sox-rooting construction worker had buried a shirt in the new Bronx stadium, which will open next year across the street from the current ballpark, from a report in the New York Post on Friday.
Yankees president Randy Levine said team officials at first considered leaving the shirt where it was.
"The first thought was, you know, it's never a good thing to be buried in cement when you're in New York," Levine said. "But then we decided, why reward somebody who had really bad motives and was trying to do a really bad thing?"
On Saturday, construction workers who remembered the employee, Gino Castignoli, phoned in tips about the shirt's location.
"We had anonymous people come tell us where it was, and we were able to find it," said Frank Gramarossa, a project executive with Turner Construction, the general contractor on the site.
The Yankees say they will send the tattered David Ortiz to a Boston charity to be auctioned off.
It took about five hours of drilling Saturday to locate the shirt under 2 feet of concrete, he said.
On Sunday, Levine and Yankees CEO Lonn Trost watched as Gramarossa and foreman Rich Corrado finished the job and pulled the shirt from the rubble.
In shreds from the jackhammers, the shirt still bore the letters "Red Sox" on the front. It was a David Ortiz jersey, No. 34.
Trost said the Yankees had discussed possible criminal charges against Castignoli with the district attorney's office.
"We will take appropriate action since fortunately we do know the name of the individual," he said.
A woman who answered the phone at Castignoli's home in the Bronx on Sunday said he was not there.
A spokesman for Bronx district attorney Robert Johnson said Sunday he did not know whether any criminal charges might apply.
Levine said the shirt would be cleaned up and sent to the Jimmy Fund, a charity affiliated with Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Along with that, New York will send a Yankees Universe T-shirt, which is sold to benefit Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
"Hopefully the Jimmy Fund will auction it off and we'll take the act that was a very, very bad act and turn it into something beautiful," he said.

Monday, April 7, 2008

NCAA National Championship Preview: Kansas v's Memphis


from www.cbssportsline.com

Memphis (38-1)
Coach: John Calipari, eight years at school, five years in NCAA Tournament.

How they got here: Automatic bid (C-USA tournament champion); South first round: def. No. 16 seed Texas-Arlington 87-63; South second round: held of No. 8 seed Mississippi State 77-74; South semifinals: pasted No. 5 seed Michigan State 92-74; South final: routed No. 2 seed Texas 85-67; National semifinals: dominated West No. 1 seed UCLA 78-63.

They'll win the title if ...: Winning 38 games by an average margin of 18.6 points -- 80.2 to 61.6 -- the Tigers are earning credibility after feeling disrespected much of the season and through the early rounds of the NCAA Tournament. Memphis keeps the pedal to the floor with double-digit wins over Michigan State, Texas and UCLA in the last three games. That erased doubts about whether Memphis was among the nation's elite. The Tigers' backcourt tandem has become the team's rudder and, while barely leaving the floor as the stakes were raised building to Monday's grand-prize finale, scoring in bunches without making mistakes. Memphis has 16 turnovers in the last 80 minutes, covering the UCLA and Texas wins. Rose and "CDR" had 53 points against the Bruins, 46 against the Longhorns and 52 against Michigan State. If KU is to grab the Tigers by the tail and take the national title, disrupting the dynamic duo of Rose and Douglas-Roberts is essential. In a loss to Tennessee on Feb. 23, Memphis had 11 turnovers and Rose scored 23 points. But "CDR" was held to 14 points, shot 8 of 17 from the line and shot 39.7 percent from the field.

Memorable moment: The Tigers was ranked No. 1 in both polls and 26-0 when it lost 66-62 at home to then-No. 2 Tennessee on Feb. 23. That loss probably did more for the Tigers than any of their C-USA wins. It forced the Tigers to re-focus before the tournament.

Go-to guys: Memphis has multiple go-to scorers. Sophomore reserve guards Willie Kemp and Doneal Mack can score from the perimeter, junior guard Antonio Anderson can score off the drive and junior forward Robert Dozier can produce inside, but no two players are more valuable to the Tigers than their first-team all-conference selections -- junior guard Chris Douglas-Roberts and freshman point guard Derrick Rose. If the game is close and the Tigers need a basket, the ball will be in their hands.

Strengths: Memphis has the No. 1 RPI and was tested outside the well-cushioned conference schedule. The Tigers are deep and versatile, and their interchangeable parts fit together well. Rose is the closest thing to a complete player on the roster, but the Tigers have many different skills and talents in their playing rotation. They're capable of winning with defense and rebounding, even when they're not shooting well, because they can make the most of a fast, intense tempo and create easy shots.

Weaknesses: This is still a sum-of-all-parts team. Take one or two pieces out of the Memphis puzzle and cracks in the foundation can be exposed, especially if Dorsey disappears or finds foul trouble. Opponents prefer to play zone and take their chances with the Tigers erratic 3-point shooting. The Tigers were one of the nation's worst free-throw shooting teams during the regular season, but is hasn't been an issue during the tournament.


Kansas (36-3)
Coach: Bill Self, five years at school, five years in NCAA Tournament.
How they got here: Automatic bid (Big 12 tournament champions); Midwest first round: def. No. 16 seed Portland State 85-61; Midwest second round: def. No. 8 seed UNLV 75-56; Midwest semifinals: def. No. 12 seed Villanova 72-57; Midwest final: nipped No. 10 seed Davidson 59-57; National semifinals: crushed East No. 1 seed North Carolina 84-66.

They'll win the title if ...: Memphis boasts a bevy of options and lineup choices for John Calipari, but that won't wow the Jayhawks, who are deep and talented. Kansas has seven players averaging more than seven points but none over 13.1 per game. Kansas is capable of disrupting the Tigers with a zone defense. The Jayhawks have enough size and interior depth to cut off penetration from Memphis' Derrick Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts and on-ball defenders Mario Chalmers and Brandon Rush have the length to make them work to get free. A zone defense also challenges the patience of Calipari's team, which shot 35.1 percent form 3-point range but was prone to extended cold streaks from the outside during the regular season. KU has some familiarity with the strategy of slowing down the 1-2 punch on offense from meetings with rival Texas. But how the Jayhawks respond to the significant pressure they'll face on the perimeter could become KU's key to the game. Memphis won't slow the pace, but it will change defense and make execution in the halfcourt a challenge.

Memorable moment: Darnell Jackson and Rodrick Stewart played against Oklahoma State despite violent deaths of family members in the days leading up to the game. Jackson's cousin died of gunshot wounds, while Stewart's adopted brother and cousin was murdered. Jackson, a starter, responded with a double-double (16 points, 10 rebounds). KU finished the regular season with four straight wins, outscoring opponents by an average of 24.5 points.

Go-to guys: No Kansas player scored more than 25 points in a regular-season game but seven players averaged between 7.3 and 13.4. Brandon Rush, Darrell Arthur, Mario Chalmers and Darnell Jackson are all candidates to lead the team in scoring on a given night.

Strengths: Athleticism, depth and balance. Kansas has skilled individual players capable of scoring 25, but the offensive system is more likely to yield three 15-point men. Darrell Arthur and Mario Chalmers are likely to lead the team in scoring. Do-everything wing Brandon Rush stuffs the stat sheet and contributes without taking 15 shots on most nights. KU doesn't start a true center. That doesn't mean the Jayhawks can't deal with size. Sasha Kaun and Cole Aldrich, who has come on strong since January, give Self the option of attacking teams with great size with this twin-towers approach.

Weaknesses: Rush isn't a prolific scorer, even though he's capable of an explosion if his mid-range shot is falling. But KU has a tendency to go stagnant when the pace slows to a half-court tempo. When Rush is cold, there have been times this season when the Jayhawks stand around and wait for him to create offense. The return of Collins has made the Jayhawks more assertive as a whole, but KU should fret if Rush disappears. Of late -- the NCAA Tournament win over Portland State and in the Big 12 tournament -- Rush has been assertive and the Jayhawks benefit from his confidence. KU relies on a potent perimeter attack and without it, the offense can be stalled. Witness the loss at Oklahoma State, when KU missed 11 of 13 3-point tries. Darrell Arthur has to be guard against being too aggressive on defense. He fouled out in 17 minutes in that OSU loss.


Matchup Summary
From frontcourt to backcourt to depth to style, the two championship game foes are about as evenly matched as two teams can be. So why the slight edge for Kansas? Shooting. Though both teams have played magnificently throughout the tournament, the statline for the season shows the Jayhawks shooting 51 percent to 47 percent for Tigers. From 3-point range the gap widens to 40 percent to 35 percent and from the free-throw line it's 70 percent to 61 percent.

Saturday, April 5, 2008