Quick Thoughts - Spring Training and such...
I have heard your pleas, I have seen the overwhelming support for my MLB Preview post, and I have discussed with some of you (at length) why you think I suck. So now what?
Guess I’m forced to write something new up here until baseball season starts. Maybe I can get an entire post out of the NCAA tourney next week…
And so, without further ado…
Quick thoughts while deciding what the hell to write about next
(hey, I’m not gonna lie to ya…)
- Welcome back to relevancy, NBA basketball in Boston! Enjoy it while it lasts (you know, like until next week). I should admit, I took a long hard look at my past history with the NBA, and I realized that my “fandom” was at it’s peak when Jordan was shrugging his shoulders at Magic in the announcer’s pit, and then again when he finally gave up on Baseball and came back to the hardwood for three more titles. But my interest really faded after that, and it was almost completely gone after the Celtics traded away Antoine Walker two years ago. Now he’s back, and suddenly the Celtics seem like the team they were when I was most interested in them. No Larry, Kevin, Chief or Reggie, but Pierce and Antoine are the guys who made this team while I was following it the most. Glad to have ya back #8…
- Now, if the Celts could have found a way to land a legit big-man to face Shaq in the playoffs, I’d feel a lot better. Raef LaFrentz and Mark Blount… I get a little chill when I think about that…
- Tickets for last night’s split-squad Red Sox – Yankees Spring Training were going for $400 through scalpers and eBay at game-time. Are you kidding me? And people were paying this? I’ll admit – I don’t think there’s any amount I wouldn’t pay for tickets to the April 11th game in Fenway, provided I actually had the money to start with. But for a Spring Training game? Uh, no.
- Caught the premiere of The Contender on NBC last night. Strangely entertaining. I’ll admit – I’ve watched maybe five boxing matches in my lifetime, the last being Lewis/Klitchsko for the Heavyweight title three years ago. This show is pretty damned good, and it just might return boxing to the forefront of American sports. Or at least put it ahead of hockey…
- Speaking of hockey – oh wait. No we weren’t. No one was.
- Tiger vs. Phil on the back 9 at Doral. Wow. If you’ve ever played golf seriously, then you can probably appreciate the magnitude of those nine holes. I’ve been a big fan of Lefty for years, primarily because I’m also a left-handed golfer, and I know how hard it is to play most courses since they favor right-handed players. But that half round of golf might have vaulted the PGA back to #3 in TV ratings behind football and baseball. Or at least until…
- The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. I don’t think I’ll be running a pool again this year, considering that I actually would like to have my own entries and there’s too many conflicts of interest in running a contest that you’re actively competing in. But let me give you a little sneak preview of my very own “Bracketology” thoughts…
o UNC and Illinois will meet at some point in this tourney. And if it’s in the Championship Game (as it should be), UNC takes it.
o Duke will be done by the third round, and it really hurts to say that. If I’d had any basketball skill at all aside from being able to shoot free throws really well, I’d have been a Cameron Crazy. In fact, growing up, my top four colleges that I wanted to go to were Michigan, Duke, Syracuse and Miami. Actually almost ended up at Syracuse…
o BC will be the biggest upset of the tourney, when they go out in the second round. Syracuse will represent the Big East the best, probably advancing as far as the Elite 8 or Final Four.
o Dark Horse Final Four teams – Southern Illinois and Louisville. And keep an eye on Villanova. All three teams are playing well when it counts.
o I’ll have a full breakdown next week after the brackets are actually released.
- Playing a lot of freeroll poker lately (no more cash games online – too many bad beats). Finished 7th in one a couple days ago, out of 1771 players. I was happy with my play, especially with my discipline after flopping trips four times and waiting players out. But a hand in last night’s freeroll really showed me how far I’ve come as a player in just the past six months…
o I got moved to a new table, and on the first hand I was under-the-gun with pocket 8’s. I was also third in chips at the table after being way ahead at my last table, so I decided to play safe, raising the blind from 50 to only 175. I got two callers, including the Big Blind.
o The flop came out 8c-3c-Ah, giving me trips. The Big Blind checked and so did I. The third player bet out 150. Big Blind called (he had about 1000 more chips than I did) and so did I.
o The turn came out 8h. Now the Big Blind bet out 200, making me think that he had a flush draw, probably to the king. I called with my quad 8’s, and so did the other player.
o The river was another low heart. The Big Blind checked (now I KNEW he had the flush and was slow-playing it) and I bet out 250. The third guy folded (he told us later that he had been chasing clubs) and the Big Blind raised me to 1000. I had about 2500 chips left, but I didn’t want to scare him away. I wanted him to call with his flush, and if it was the king flush, I knew he probably would call a re-raise, but not an all-in. I raised to 2000.
o He used his entire “Time Bank” that PartyPoker gives players to think over a tough decision, and finally called. He had K-10 of hearts, and was unbelievably mad when I showed quad eights. PartyPoker uses “XXXX” to block out profanity in their chat module – I’ve never seen so many X’s in my life.
- NFL update – OK, I asked a Jets fan friend of mine about this, but he never responded, so I’ll post it here for open discussion. Two years ago, the Jets let Laverneus Coles walk to Washington in order to keep the younger Santana Moss and to be able to pay Chad Pennington and John Abraham in long-term deals. Now, two years later, they have traded Moss (who is still younger than Coles…) to Washington for Coles, with Pennington locked in to a long-term contract and John Abraham designated as their “Franchise” player for the second straight year after failing to agree on a long-term deal again. How can this possibly make sense? I know the Patriots are having a relatively bad off-season to date, but for the most part the salary cap forced their hand. The Jets moves just don’t make sense to me.
- Of course, the Redskins’ moves make even less sense. Didn’t Dan Snyder learn about big signing bonuses and ludicrous contracts after he signed Bruce Smith, Deion Sanders, et al.?
- The Cowboys could be a legitimate force in the NFC next year (8-8, maybe even 9-7!). They’ll probably be stuck as a wild-card team at best though, because the Eagles haven’t gotten any worse… yet.
- Losing Ty Law hurt, but we all knew it was coming. Saying goodbye to Roman Pfifer was a bit of a shock, but understandable. But Troy Brown? That came out of nowhere! I understand his cap number was just way too big for a player of his caliber ($5M in 2005), but so far it doesn’t seem like New England has any interest in bringing him back. That could be a mistake…
And finally, a travel update. My Vegas trip got pushed back to August due to unforeseen circumstances (the flight was full), which is probably for the best. I plan on making a Jersey Pilgrimage sometime in late April or early May to finally go to Atlantic City – who’s in?
And then there’s this news. My company has decided to send me to Texas for three days of training in two weeks. In order to confirm the schedule, I had to call a woman in the Texas office last week for flight numbers, hotel reservations, etc.
Now, I have a friend from Texas. He has an accent. But even on the first day I ever met him, it didn’t sound that foreign to me. Speaking with the good people in the offices in Gatesville (which I have been informed is a true redneck town – great), I felt like I was calling a totally different country. The woman I needed to speak with – Cheryl (or “Sherrrrl” as the secretary called her) spoke like a cross between Dolly Parton and Tommy Lee Jones (wow, that’s a disturbing mental image) while trying to give me my flight itinerary and hotel address.
I’m pretty sure I’m going to end up at the airport looking at flight numbers like a lost puppy trying to figure out where it all went wrong. And if I’m lucky enough to board the right plane (two stops on the way to the puddle-jump endpoint at Gatesville/Killeen Interstate Airport – Philly and Dallas. I’m thinking about wearing full NY Giants regalia just to try and cheat death), I know there’s absolutely no way I’m finding my hotel. I’m the same guy who once got lost driving home from work – a job that was 2.5 miles from my house and only one street away.
But the best part of the conversation (or at least the parts that I could understand) was the verbiage. I’ve seen enough Spaghetti Westerns that I could probably speak like the gun-slinging cowboys of the late 1800’s. Of course, I’d probably get my ass kicked in the process. But I always just assumed that the dialogue in those movies was made-up.
Not so. At one point, Sherrrrl told me that she would “check those numbers and get back to you right quick, now don’t you fret.” Huh?!?
Did someone just use the terms “right quick” and “don’t you fret” in succession? And I’m supposed to meet this woman and keep a straight face?
I’m screwed. I’ll be fired before I even get back.
posted by Big D @ 5:20 PM
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