Monday Links

I’m gonna try something new and each week post the best links. It will probably be on a Thursday from here on out but today is such a good day that I’ll start the tradition on a Monday.

ESPN: Perry Jones to Stay

Baylor Lariat write up on PJ3

Baylor adds JuCo guard

Brett Wallace gets his due

Because the NCAA is a joke

Top 10 Sports calls of all-time

I’d be upset too

Bill Simmons Tiger Woods

Read Bill’s column on Tiger Woods’ Sunday. I enjoyed it especially this paragraph:

“I am supposed to think that he’s a poor role model — that he’s an adulterer, that he’s selfish, that he’s a phony, that he behaves badly on golf courses, that he’s someone I wouldn’t want my son to emulate some day. That’s horses—. I want my son to know that people screw up, that nobody is perfect, that you can learn from your foibles. I want my son to watch “The Natural” some day, hear Roy Hobbs say, “Some mistakes you never stop paying for” and know that it’s not just words in a movie. I want my son to know that you haven’t lived until you fought back, that you haven’t won until you’ve lost, that you can’t understand what it’s like to relish something until you suffered, too. I want him to understand that it’s the 21st century, that we sit around picking our heroes apart all day, that we expect them to be superhuman at all times, that we get pissed off when they aren’t, that it’s hypocritical if you really think about it.”

God Bless and Sic Em Bears

DisAstros

If anyone has any ideas of a team I can support that isn’t named the Rangers please let me know. I have given up on the Astros, which is a surprise cause I think to myself why was I even supporting the Astros from the beginning?

No, I’m not a fairweather fan as much as I would like to I would love to have no emotional connection with this team but I do. This has always been my team from the Killer B’s to the no name Astros I have always been an Astros fan. I mean when I need to stop thinking about things I recite the 1997 team in my head: Shane Reynolds, Tim Bogar, Pat Listach, Derek Bell and so on…

I just can’t do it anymore, I look at this team and I expect them to lose. You know it’s bad when the Pirates are better than you.

Like I’ve told Janelle before, I don’t like praying about sports because there are so many bigger things in life but Lord if you are reading this please help the Astros. I don’t want you to help them win but help them to please not completely suck! I mean baseball is a religion so please help them.

I can’t quit you, Astros but I’m trying.

God Bless (the Astros) and Sic Em Bears

NCAA Title Game

Here is my quick take on the NCAA Championship Game tonight. Butler will win, again just like the NFL Playoffs, my picks have been terrible so if you are going to bet based on my opinion then you should take UConn.

Since I really tried to fill my NCAA bracket out by using pure logic and completely failed I am picking Butler for one reason alone, I like Brad Stevens and he looks like a real cool guy when he wears his glasses.

I mean look at those glasses. He looks sharp and then go and compare that to Jim Calhoun. Stevens wins by a landslide. I want to play for a guy who dresses like he coaches, sharp! There’s a reason Stevens wears those glasses though and it’s not a funny matter so don’t make fun of him. That alone is why Butler will win this game. It will not because Butler has more experience or because UConn is full of freshman.

God Bless and Sic Em Bears

Opening Day

 

It’s the best day of the year, better than Christmas, my birthday and even your birthday. It’s Opening Day for MLB. One would think that you can’t mess opening day up but one would be completely wrong, this is Bud Selig we are talking about, the man messed up an All-Star game. Opening Day 2011 should be titled Opening Day 2011 Part 1 and Part 2 or Opening Days 2011. Selig decided this year to start the season earlier so he gave teams the option to choose rather they wanted to play Thursday or Saturday. Most teams chose Friday but a few chose Thursday because of projected weather conditions on Friday. 

This doesn’t make any sense to me why wouldn’t Selig have all of the teams start on the same day? From a PR perspective I think having every team start on the same day would only strengthen the game. A day full of baseball games where all of your stars can shine only makes things better for the league it doesn’t hurt it.

Not putting all the games on the same day only weakens the product. Let me make one thing clear baseball is going to be fine; this is just a minor thing but why not start the season off well. What’s beautiful about opening day is that every team has a chance. There’s a belief that this could be your season.

Baseball used to be America’s sport but football has taken over that title. The NFL is potentially facing a shortened season and it looks like the NBA is going the same way, this could have been baseball’s chance to become the national pastime once more.  This was baseballs chance to win their season. They blew it.

 

 

No Ho’ing Around

Make sure you go get your “Supa Fly Ho with cheese” while they’re hot and available. Fat Ho Burgers on 11th Street and Ross Avenue opened Tuesday. Naturally any business with the word ho in it was open to a lot of criticism.

One of Fat Ho Burgers’ closest neighbors is the Gospel Café. Folks at the volunteer-run religious café and bookstore wish
the burger joint was a little more “holy.”

“Would’ve been nice to think a little more sensitively,” said Pastor Marsha Martie.

Latika Evans the 23-year-old owner of Fat Ho Burger is a college graduate who worked her way through college to open her burger joint. But is the name of her business going to hurt her?

I think it was a brilliant idea to name her burger place Fat Ho. As unfortunate of a term it is, it has people talking and in a world where the big name companies run so much what is going to make someone who goes to McDonalds all the time try something different? Fat Ho sets them apart from every other burger place in Waco except for maybe Health Camp whose name is exactly opposite of what the place is but even Fat Ho is controversial than that.

The name has brought customers to Fat Ho Burgers and that was Evans’ intention. “That’s one thing I learned in American Broadcasting School, get an attention getter. Get something that will grab their attention and that grabbed their attention.”

Report is that the negative and positive media attention that Fat Ho received over the past two days put Evans’ out of burgers and available cash on Wednesday.

If you think the name of the place is crazy check out the name of some of her food items: “Supa Fly Ho,” “Supa Dupa Fly Ho,” “Toasty Ho,” “Badmamajama” burger with four patties, and “Tiny Ho” meals for the kids.

I have no idea if the burgers are good but the name brings customers so to me this was the best move Evans could have made other than making amazing burgers.

As for me, I’ll take a Badmamajama no onions, dry.

 

God Bless and Sic Em Bears

 

Happy birthday

John Garza, Robbie Crabtree and John Paul Encarnacion yalls birthdays have either happened or about to happen so I just wanted to take a second and thank you for being there for me. Along with Joe Bramanti and Jean Scott Dodd, whose birthdays are in April and May respectively, yall have drastically affected my life. The things I have learned and the moments I have shared with each one of you holds a special place in my memories. Since high school yall have always been there for me when I needed you and have been a lot like my brothers so thank you. Things are changing for all of us and who knows when we will all be in the same place again but I will always be there for yall.

God Bless and Sic Em Bears

Actions > Words

Last week Michael Vick cancelled his appearance on Oprah that was supposed to happen Thursday, Feb. 24 but no one besides Vick, his camp and perhaps Oprah know why.

Rumors have flown around about why such as the Eagles didn’t want him to do it and he was scared of meeting the owners of his former dogs. Make no mistake; what Vick did was inexcusable, stupid, inhumane and sadistic. I don’t even like dogs and I feel this way so I know that dog lovers feel even more passionate about it but the man was punished and has paid his dues to society. So was Vick cancelling his appearance on Oprah a good or bad pr move?

I have gone back and forth about what I think about his decision and at first I thought that it was a foolish mistake. Vick has made it back to the NFL and won over some fans but not all such as Mark Buehrle. I would guess that he has also not made fans of a lot of non-football fans. Why wouldn’t a man who has lost so many fans go on Oprah and try to gain some of them back specifically women? I thought the same thing about Tiger Woods.

However, while thinking about it over the weekend I decided that cancelling his appearance was the best decision Vick could have made. Why? Because why go on a show that you aren’t prepared for, where one slip of the tongue, one defense of himself, one question that he tried to get out of would make him look bad and damage the image he has worked so hard to rebuild? Oprah and Piers Morgan from CNN made a bet in jest it seemed like to see who could get Vick on first and Oprah won but why even do this? Has Vick not answered enough questions? Was Oprah going to ask tougher questions? Vick is still in the process of rebuilding his image and his brand so I don’t blame him for cancelling his appearance especially if he wasn’t ready to face those things.

Things could have gone bad, Oprah could have brought one of Vick’s former dogs on or the audience could have been less than their usual peaceful selves. People are very passionate about their dogs so what if someone just lost it?

Do I feel that Vick is truly remorseful about what he has done? Yes, but I clearly don’t know the guy so I can only go by what I have seen. He has partnered with the humane society to speak out against dog fighting and regularly speaks to kids about it. Vick has been willing to speak about his errors so this once I’ll give him a pass.

Vick will have to face his demons, time will come for him to do it but until then I hope that he can stay on the path he seems to be on now and provide hope to do those who need a second chance.

Sometimes actions are louder than words.

God Bless and Sic Em Bears

Melo and crew

I figured I should touch on the Carmelo Anthony to the Knicks trade. Lets make one thing clear, anytime you get a top 10-15 player in the league then you do it. Melo is not a top five player, he’s not LeBron, Kobe, Durant, Derrick Rose or either Chris Paul or Deron Williams. Melo is not better than Dwight Howard or Pau Gasol because he doesn’t influence the defensive end of the court which will be just fine in Mike D’Antoni’s coaching system.

Melo is one of the best scorers in the league though and by adding him it makes the Knicks better, not worse. They aren’t gonna set the league on fire this year but they will compete and they will the make the playoffs and if the rumors are true Williams will join them when he’s able to (good job of running of Sloan then). A team of Williams, Melo and Amare is definitely one of the top teams in the NBA only Chicago, the Lakers, Miami, Boston, Oklahoma City and Orlando if Dwight stays there can compete with them now. That trio will attract role players just the way Bron, Wade and Bosh did too.

Not only is a great basketball move, it’s a great business move and that’s what sports is, a business. Courtside seats for Melo’s first game, no matter if he’s playing or sitting on the bench in street clothes are going for $9,555 each. I’m guessing the starting five will be Chauncey Billups, Landry Fields, Melo, Amare and someone at center. Playoffs and hope they play the Hawks and they’ll advance to the next round otherwise I think it’s a first round out for them.

Melo is a liar, not really.

God Bless and Sic Em Bears

JJ Redick Can’t Stay On His Feet

And for more fun…

I think the Kirk Hinrich one is worst because Redick tries to save himself by fouling Hinrich. Good thing these two were at home otherwise he would’ve been made fun of.

Also in Orlando…

I use to do that dance regularly, I’m pretty sure I could still bust it out if I ever needed to.

God Bless and Sic Em Bears