The best seat in the house is the view from the couch

I owe you an explanation...

Contrary to popular opinion, I am not in fact dead. Nor have I given up blogging after four and a half years. I do realize, however, that it has been exceptionally long since last we spoke (OK, let's be honest - I'm rambling, you're reading. Not like we're having a civilized conversation and following Robert's Rules or anything).

There's a couple of good reasons for that. First, let's face it - it's a pretty slow spot in the sports world right now. I'm still not completely recovered from watching Ellis Hobbs do his best turnstile impression as a football sailed over his head and into Plaxico Burress' waiting arms. And as much as people love sitting around and disecting 40-yard dash times, the combine just doesn't interest me all that much. So that leaves free agency which, though interesting, usually fizzles out within the first week. This year, after Randy Moss & Asante Samuel, there haven't really been that many big names looking to cash in. Zach Thomas? Javon Walker? Lance Briggs was probably the only other "name" out there, and he stayed put. Boring.

And as much as I've professed my love of College Basketball in the past on these pages, I will admit I have been pretty lax this year in keeping up with the teams. I know Duke, Kansas, UNC, UCLA, Memphis & Tennessee are all the legit contenders, with Texas, Indiana, Michigan State and a couple others lurking in the second tier. Personally, I think UCLA/Duke would be entertaining to watch. But I haven't paid enough attention, so for now, I'm not going to write 2000 words about something that I probably wouldn't be able to carry on a five minute conversation about.

NBA? NHL? Wake me up in June. And that's coming from someone who's been a fan of the Celtics since birth. This season, of all the others, I should have been rabid about the NBA - the C's first legitimate title contender since I was seven years old. But... well, I stopped watching the regular season of the NBA about five years ago. When the playoffs kick in, I'll be back. Ditto for the NHL.

So that leaves baseball. My bread and butter. And yes, I am working on this year's MLB Preview post(s). And yes, with the Red Sox as defending World Series Champions again, you can probably expect a 10,000 word opus, with about 9,723 of those words devoted to the champs. That's coming in the next few weeks, and I may even try to have a couple friends write the previews for their own personal favorite teams (that includes a couple of you reading this right now - you know who you are).

Finally, a quick life update completely (well, partially) un-sports related. As I mentioned about 6 weeks ago, I've left Pittsburgh (THANK GOD - no offense to Sean) and returned to Massachusetts. And I've made a decision.

For the past 26 years, I've sworn that I wanted to retire by the time I was 30. Without help from the Powerball Gods, that's not happening. But I've decided that until such time as I either burn out completely or run out of money, I am at least going to "work" doing what I want to do and not wasting my life at a 9-5 that I don't enjoy.

No, that does not mean I've decided to become a full-time, unpaid blogger. I think my absence from these pages for the past 2 weeks is a pretty obvious sign of that. I've decided to return to the only "job" that I've actually enjoyed for the past five years, playing cards. specifically, various forms of poker.

I did this for nine months after college, and it successfully paid my bills and kept me happy. I'm returning to it now because I've gotten tired of waking up at 6am every morning to goto jobs that I hate and worse, resent. I've never felt the world owed me anything, but I've also never felt I owed anything to the world. So if I can scratch out a decent living playing cards, pay all my bills and have enough left over to go out drinking with my buddies a couple times a week, that's fine by me. Who knows - maybe I'll even turn out to be better at this than I thought.

As for what that means for this page... well, I'll continue to update this throughout the year with sports-related thoughts. As always, Baseball & Football will take precedent over just about anything else. I've got plenty to say about things like Lil' Stein and his thoughts about Red Sox Nation (Hank, it's real. They've got membership cards and elections and everything. Doesn't mean it's not completely ridiculous, but it's real.) and the complete overhaul by the Detroit Tigers.

So look for the preview in the coming weeks. And if you are a fan of a team not hailing from Boston, I might tap you to write something for me. Makes it easier to post a bunch of previews when I can spend more time at the tables and letting you guys do the work for me... :)

As always, see you all again soon.

Lata.

Labels: life, MLB, poker, Preview, Where the hell have I been?

posted by Big D @ 9:52 PM