random thoughts

A few random sports thoughts (and some other things floating through my head that have nothing to do with sports) as another snowy, cold, miserable week in Kansas City begins:

* I have never been less excited for a Royals season than I am for this upcoming one. Don't get me wrong -- I still plan to spend more than my fair share of sunny Sunday afternoons tailgating the day away, tossing washers and wondering where the hell my t-shirt disappeared to. But I just have no excitement for the season. At all. Not a good sign with the first pitch of the season occuring eight weeks from today.

* How big is tonight's game in Austin? KU can all but clinch the Big XII with a win tonight, which would move them 3 clear of KSU (with a win in hand), 3 clear of A&M (with next Monday's visit to "Institution Whose Students Are Too Drunk and Stupid To Properly Build a Bonfire" on tap) and four clear of UT (with a win in hand). On the other hand ... KU still has a Big Monday roadie to A&M, a Saturday afternoon national TV game trip to Oklahoma State, and closes vs KSU / at MU. It might behoove the Hawks to win tonight and put this sucker out of reach before something strange could occur.

* Speaking of big weeks ... I think this is a huge one for the Bucks. At 23-26, statistically tied for the last Eastern Conference playoff berth (and in a group of four teams within a game of each other), the Bucks host Detroit tomorrow, and visit New Jersey to end the first half of the season. Two very, very winnable games to all but get back to .500 at the All Star break. Also, two wins this week means a four game winning streak, and winning seven out of eight, entering the All Star break. Good to see things potentially headed back in the right direction after the horrendous month of December.

* Plus, look at the schedule coming out of the break. vs Hou / at Det / vs Char / at NY / vs NO / at Ind. Another very winnable stretch of games, with the toughest game (Houston) at home.

* The good from Saturday's first day of racing: Kasey Kahne finishing second in the Bud Shootout. The bad: NASCAR sh*tting on its promise to end the race under green, denying my guy the shot at the win. The ugly: nah, there ain't nothing ugly about NASCAR returning. Unless you count Joe Nemechek qualifying for the 500 on time. But I'd rather see "Front Row Joe" in the field than Michael Waltrip any day of the week.

* My pick in the NASCAR pool for Sunday is ... Juan Pablo Montoya. My jaw damned near hit the floor Saturday during qualifying when the FOX guys were saying things like "nobody really knew how good this guy was". Really? Nobody knew? The guy's a F1 and CART champ! He won the most dominant Indy 500 I've ever seen in 2000! What the hell do you mean "nobody really knew how good this guy was"? That's a dumber statement than asking if Juan went out for a taco.

* Congrats to Brian Waters for winning the NFL Man of the Year award. I love it when good things happen to great people. That definitely occurred in this case.

* Wonder what Coach Asshat thinks of the honor. An honor, by the way, that Todd Haley will never receive. That guy will never receive a Man of the Year award in anything except stupidity.

* Liked the hire of Romeo Crennel as D Coord. I really liked the hire of Emmitt Thomas as defensive backs coach. And I really, really, really liked the firing of Tim Crumrie as defensive line coach. I don't know what incriminating photos that guy had to remain gainfully employed the last four years, but good bye, good riddance and please, don't let the door smack you in the ass on your way out. We never should have let go of Bob Karmelowitz. I'm convinced that's why the defense has sucked for five years and counting, no wacky Bob Karmelowitz during pregame warmups.

* I'm good with hiring Charlie Weis as O Coord. He'll put together a competent game plan, he'll coach to the team's strengths, and when you look at the last three quarterbacks the guy has worked with (Tom Brady in New England; Brady Quinn and Jimmy Clausen at Notre Dame), you have to be very optimistic about Matt Cassel's upcoming campaign under center. Plus, the dual hirings of Weis and Crennel mean we have two at least semi-legitimate mid-season coaching options in house, when the inevitable Todd Haley firing goes down.

* As always, I'd like to see the Chiefs trade down out of the top five and pick up a few extra picks for their efforts. I'd like to fall back into the 10, 11, 12 range and ideally end up with Rolando McClain from Alabama, under the "the last time we drafted an Alabama linebacker in round one, that worked out pretty damned well" theory. But if we're stuck at five, I'd go offensive tackle, and then try to pick up a big plodding running back at some point in the second or third round. I believe Jamaal Charles is a legitimate 1300 yard threat. But you still need a Shonn Greene type back to take the heat off of him.

* My favorite commercial from the Super Bowl was the Doritos ad with the guy who shows up to take this chick out on a date. He meets her son, and after watching her ass as she leaves the room for a minute, he takes the kid's Dorito. The kid slaps him and goes "two things you don't touch. My mama, and my Doritos". I couldn't stop laughing at that one.

* I love how the quack pro-abortion groups that were so incenced over the Tebow ad ... then realized that there wasn't one damned thing about it that was offensive ... are now saying that the playful tackle at the end of it "condones violence against women". Really. I could go off on how "you can't get much more violent against a woman than sucking her out of the womb with a shop-vac", but why bother. You can't argue logic and reason with folks that don't have any. And NARAL Pro Choice America is not an organization overflowing with logic and reason.

* Sarah Palin's demands that Rahm Emanuel resign for calling left wing Democrats "f*cking retarded" is, in two words, "f*cking retarded". Good God. He didn't mean it as an insult to mentally challenged people. And if he did, with all due respect Ms. Palin ... most of the far left fringe IS "f*cking retarded"! Just please, go away already! How about you go home, and actually raise your baby that you used as a prop in the campaign? How about you deal with your idiot daughter and her sleazy ex-boyfriend that you trotted out as ... what exactly? Poster children for kids having kids? Ugh. Everything about this woman just really irritates me.

* Didn't get to live blog the State of the Union like I'd planned ... but one thing I really loved about the speech -- Obama didn't turn to the center. Good for him. I love how the "voting public" is outraged over some of what he's trying to accomplish. Really guys? The guy told you every damned thing he was going to do during the campaign. Now, he's doing it. And you're surprised? I guess I can see how some would be shocked when a politician actually does what they say they're going to do. But its not like Obama's the boogeyman here and playing a bait-and-switch on you. He told you he'd govern from the left. He's doing it. If you don't like it, too bad. Try nominating electable candidates next time.

* Finished reading "Game Change", Halperin's account on the 2008 presidential race. Took me literally one night to finish it, I couldn't put it down. Really good read if you're a political junkie like me.

* Another great read, although it took me more than an evening to knock it out, is "Loose Balls" by Terry Pluto. Its an oldie, one I discovered after reading the Sports Guy's "Book of Basketball". "Loose Balls" is the history of the ABA. Its really fascinating to read. Especially the history of the Spirits of St. Louis. That was one nutty franchise.

* Back to college hoops for a moment. One of the great stories this year, at least to me, is the complete and utter collapse of North Carolina. Losers of six out of seven, now sitting 13-10 overall, 2-6 in the conference, fresh off a woodshed beating in Maryland last night. But this Wednesday night, if I was a Duke fan (and other than for this matchup, I'm usually not), and I mean this seriously ... has there been a game this decade you're more excited about as the matchup approaches? Wednesday night, Duke can BURY North Carolina's season. On UNC's home floor. You don't get chances like that very often in sports, to basically drive the nail in the coffin of your hated rival, in their building. Go Duke Go! Man, I pray Scheyer and Singler are raining threes down on them (lionel richie voice) all night long! (all night) all night! (all night). I'm absolutely giddy about this game Wednesday night, and I have no rooting interest in either team. I just want to see the rat bastard "accomplish" something that noone has done since UNLV in 1991: miss the tournament as the defending national champions. And at least UNLV had the convenient "our coach bailed on us for the NBA" excuse. From national champs to conference cellar dwellers in eight months. That's a humiliation you don't get off the resume.

* I see Isiah Thomas is actually under consideration for the Clippers coaching and GM job(s). I wouldn't think its possible to do worse than Mike Dunleavy ... but the Clips seem hell bent on trying. I mean seriously, did you watch the Knicks under Isiah? (I did). Isiah shouldn't be trusted to walk the dog out onto the lawn to pee, let alone run a third NBA franchise into the ground.

* Gotta give a shout-out to the HyVee on 40 and Noland, for their tremendous efforts the last few months to become THE destination ... liquor store of south Independence. Tomorrow night is yet another wine-tasting event that costs $0.00 to enjoy. In the last six months alone, there've been over 10 wine tastings, 5-6 beer tastings, a scotch tasting, and a whiskey tasting. Plus the day I'm living for, the vodka tasting, is coming soon. Of course, this is going to destroy my TiVo -- I'm already at seven shows on Tuesday nights that I watch when they're new, and that's not counting NBA or college hoops action.

* Wednesday night should mark the first time in a month Team Tito has all its bowlers in the house. No wonder we're in eighth place. Although I did love last week how the resident b*tchologist in the league ("Tom"), the guy who b*tches about how long it takes smokers to bowl ... well, both our team and the team we were bowling against took multiple smoking breaks ... and still finished 30 minutes before "Tom" and his opponents, neither of whom took a single smoking break. The lesson? Don't be the league's resident b*tchologist. Nobody likes that guy.

* I see the alma mater is ranked 16th in the preseason college baseball polls. That's neat. What isn't neat, is that this is the last season for the College World Series in Rosenblatt. There's some things that just aren't meant to be messed with. College baseball at Rosenblatt for a week in June is definitely one of those things.

* Still can't believe Tony George has nothing to do anymore with the IRL. I miss the old IRL. Some of us were youtubing wreck videos on Saturday after the latest ARCA big one (trust me, they happened every friggin lap. When you're red flagging a race before it hits the midpoint because there's so many effed up cars on the track, that tells me all I need to know about your series.) Anyways, I pulled up the scariest wreck I've ever seen, my boy Kenny Brack at Texas back in October 2003. And a few things struck me re-watching that clip:

1. How did Brack not die? Granted, he suffered like 40 broken bones, and would only race one more time in his career, a truly inspiring comeback at the 2005 Indy 500, but man, the car literally disintegrates after it goes flying 50 feet in the air into the catch fence at 235mph. And yes, if you guessed Tomas "Crash" Scheckter as the guy who ran into Brack and caused the wreck, you'd be correct.

2. I could listen to Paul Page call anything. I admit my bias up front -- I freaking love Paul Page. I've long had this dream, where me and my buddy Brett would get to call a race. I should post our "call" of the 2006 Brickyard actually, its one of my more inspired "podcasts". (And shows just how funny the Brett and Steve show could be). Anyways, I love Paul Page, because he's basically me behind the mic. Just blurts out what he thinks, no rhyme or reason, no prior thoughts, just run with it and hope you don't get fined by the FCC. So, when the clip of the wreck begins, Page is just rambling about something that has nothing to do with the race (every seasoned IRL fan's voice: no ...), and then when Brack goes airborne he lets out this "WHOA!" and then there's just silence. The lesson: when Paul Page is too scared by what he just saw to talk, I think that ranks as a horrific wreck.

3. As an open wheel fan I'm thrilled that reunification happened ... but I miss the old IRL. I miss wagering with my other buddies watching the race on whose car wouldn't fire when the start engine command was given. I miss race day at the Speedway, when after four hours of drinking in the 95 degree heat, you'd toss the names of all the drivers into the hat to pick your guy(s), and even the biggest race fans there (which would have been me, Gregg, or Brett) would have at least one pick that you'd hear a "who the hell is that?" in response to their name appearing.

I miss AJ Foyt ordering his driver to take out Arie Luyendyk, and then Luyendyk and Foyt brawling in Victory Lane. (Yes, that really happened, Texas 1997). I miss Scott Sharp leading the field at the start of the race, taking the green flag ... and promptly wrecking by driving straight into turn one's retaining wall. (Yup, 2001 Indy 500). I miss Jason Priestley as the color commentator. (Yup, 2001 season). Hell, I miss everything about that 2001 broadcast team, from Brandon Walsh, to Bob Jenkins' "I cannot believe my career has sunk to this level" mail-it-in commentary, to Larry Rice's insane analogies and thoughts (look at this! three abreast!) I miss the 5-6 legitimately good drivers literally playing russian roulette with their lives because of the 20-22 "have no business operating a go-kart, let alone a vehicle that travels at over 230mph" drivers on the track. (Any race pre-2005).

Watching Danica race on Saturday, I felt kind of neat, because obviously those of us who love the IRL have known about her for a while now. But I also felt like Red in "Shawshank Redemption" after Andy escapes, and he gets the postcard. "Mostly, I just miss my friend". I miss the old IRL. I miss my "friend".

* Finally, check this out. It appears there's another group of Bucks fans here in Kansas City! Sweet!