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Friday, August 31, 2007

Sports Musings

I watched ESPN's 25 hours of College Football program. It was very impressive, although they weren't broadcasting for all 25 hours. So I don't get where they came up with the idea. Here's my thoughts:
-Jesse Palmer should be hereforth announced as Jesse "the Bachelor" Palmer.
-Palmer announced that he is most excited about the Big East and all of their potential teams that could go undefeated and get into the National Championship game: Louisville, West Virginia, Rutgers, Southern Florida... Yes, he did in fact say he was excited for Southern Florida's chances at getting into the National Championship game.
-Palmer rounded out his excellent commentary by calling Michigan's coach David Carr. Yes, his career with the Texans was so bad, he decided to pack it in and coach.

The summary of my previous thoughts is Jesse Palmer is a douche.

Overall, the show was really exciting. College football is my favorite sport and I now live in one of the top 5 College Football cities. You know it's a college football town when you see Kirk Herbstreet's face planted on the side of a Vitamin Water truck. The excitement here is palpable and students don't come back for another 2 weeks. The sad thing for me is that college football team is my second least favorite team (behind Nebraska).

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Fantasy Trades

Assuming you have the second set of players on your team, would you accept the following trades?

1. Donovan McNabb and Terrell Owens for Tom Brady and Larry Fitzgerald
2. Willie Parker and LJ Smith for Joseph Addai (your starting TE is Chris Cooley)
3. Carson Palmer and Cadillac Williams for Donovan McNabb and Willie Parker (this was the bs counter offer I received)
4. Brandon Jacobs for Lee Evans (the trade I may propose to Mike)
5. Calvin Johnson for Marques Colston (the trade I may propose to Kevin)
6. Brian Westbrook and Jason Witten for Joseph Addai (your starting TE is Dallas Clark)
7. Brian Westbrook and Vernon Davis for Joseph Addai (same situation, different TE)
8. Tony Romo and Frank Gore and Calvin Johnson for Peyton Manning (your #3 WR is Anthony Gonzales, your RBs are Edgerrin James and Fred Taylor, and your other QB is Steve McNair)
9. Philip Rivers and Marvin Harrison for Tom Brady and Braylon Edwards (your other WRs are Steve Smith and Torry Holt, your other QB is Matt Leinart)
10. Tony Romo for Eli Manning

Saturday, August 18, 2007

MSU Football

Fuck them. We get a new coach and all of a sudden they are trying to revitalize the program. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for that. The revitalization I am looking for will be seen on the field with their improved effort. Not through some lame overhyped marketing promo for season tickets http://adcsquad.com/msu/fb/wearespartans/index2.html

Why am I so pissed with the football program then? In my attempt to find tickets for the MSU/OSU football game for the center of our semi-planned reunion, I discovered away game tickets are available to season ticketholders only. They should be honored that they have fans willing to drop $30-$40 to watch their crappy program hundreds of miles away from East Lansing. They can hardly get a home field advantage in East Lansing. (Remember the sea of scarlet chanting OH-IO during last year's game at Spartan Stadium?) Never fear, my dad's friend is a season ticketholder who will most definitely not be interested in treking down to Columbus, so we still should be able to get tickets... details to come.

I did come across this, which completely made my day, however unlikely it may be. If they wanted to create a marketing campaign, this is what they should have done. Credit unknown.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

The Return: Why Soccer is Better

ok, I'm back. I may not post too often, but it will be fun to discuss sports again with you guys. I'm going to start by delivering Kevin with his soccer post I promised over a year ago.

Stadium Experience
I have a much better perspective on the subject now, as I have actually gone to a live soccer game. The experience seemed much more intimate since you can sit closer to the field (for less money). I really enjoyed the die hards that were chanting and drumming. I did not enjoy the people throwing streamers at the opposing goalie -while it was funny, it took 3-4 times before security kicked the person out. What was worse, every time the Crew scored, the team launched confetti that blew over the entire opposing goal. That kind of overcelebration and indirect taunting doesn't belong in sports. The final aspect of the stadium experience - the "promo squad" - was dull. They halftime dance team's routine doesn't come off well when done in the middle of a wide open field and the fan contest lacked imagination.

Game Play
They don't score much. There's two sides to it - boring because of the low scores and frequent ties, exciting when someone actually scores. I don't mind the low scoring so much, but I don't like the 1-0 games or the ties. What I do like is that the game will end after 90 minutes, plus an extra minute or two of "stoppage time", which in my opinion is handed out arbitratily. It seemed like the perfect amount of soccer. Baseball can drag on for over 3 hours too frequently. Plus, the running clock avoids the lull that baseball has between innings and during pitching changes. I can't go much deeper into the game, because I don't understand it enough myself. Put the ball in the net, but don't crowd around it like every 5 year old's game.

Intangibles
To really enjoy soccer, you can't limit yourself to MLS. You have to look at EPL (impressed that I used the acronym?) or at the World Cup. As I said before, the deep rooted rivalries among countries is still alive in soccer, unlike in the Olympics. There's a reason why it's one of the most popular sports among kids. The problem in America with the sport is that there aren't enough people that stay attached to the sport and continue that interest into watching it professionally. It is possible that, slowly, the MLS will give kids athletes to be awed by and will gradually peak more and more people's interest. Much like Jose Canseco both gave birth to and temporarily destroyed my interest in baseball. Sadly, hockey is leaving that door open for them to creep into the #4 slot in America's sports pasttimes.