Monday, January 28, 2008

On Shuffle

Here's what I've been thinking about in the world of sports.

I'm still a little sick of the Reds dealing Josh "Hambone" Hamilton. I know own two Reds jerseys of outfielders who play for other teams. The crappy part is, I can't figure out whose jersey I SHOULD buy. I'm going hunting for a Larkin, that's all there is to it. Thanks to Chad for the link. He's my official source of awesome baseball links.

My hopes for open wheel unity and a return to national relevance are dashed again. I get why George did what he did all those years ago. Road racing was killing the CART circuit. Oval racing is more interesting. Unfortunately, it seems that too much ground has been lost to NASCAR. They need to get this deal done.

This article about Jim Caldwell was reassuring. It sounds like Wake Forrest was an outhouse for football. He did take them to a bowl which is impressive. The no cursing thing reminded me of my high school baseball team. I had a great coach at Pike that made us all conduct ourselves with pride. Profanity meant that the whole team had to run. That team was incredibly successful, and my senior year we set 19 school records. I later attended a private college where the atmosphere should have been even better. It wasn't. The difference in environment and attitude was striking. That team won about 5 games. I'm not drawing any larger conclusions, mind you. I'm just saying that I enjoyed playing in a strict environment, and our team had more discipline and more success. I had always been taught that profanity was for unintelligent people of a limited vocabulary, but of course that my Dad who said that, and he has quite the mouth so take that for what it's worth. Let's not have a long discussion on how this would play out in the NFL. It's obviously a different situation.

Finally, I'd love to get my hands on this document. I love stats and would like to see them. I think part of the fallacy that they are pushing is that Clemens was normal. HGH is supposed to heal your body and aid recovery. His career was far from normal and lasted far longer than almost anyone else's. I want to see the stats, but I remain markedly unconvinced.

Oh, and here is the single best thing I've ever seen on CHFF


I saw this tour pre-911, and it was the coolest thing I've ever been to. I heard it was even better afterwards. I get chills watching this again. I've heard U2 play in front of 80,000 in Buenos Aires where everyone knew every lyric to their songs despite the fact they didn't speak English. They've had a lot of great nights, but I doubt they were ever better than this.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah yes...my roommate for 2 years played on that team. What a weird group. I knew guys on that team that were really cool, and even went on to be pastors (Babs, for one), but it seemed like the vast majority of them were just LOOKING for trouble most of the time. My favorite story was when a couple of them printed up fake Photoshopped handicapped parking tags, and somehow thought they could get away with parking around on campus in handicapped spots using them. Just brilliant. At a school that small, it took the administration about 30 seconds to figure that one out.

Anonymous said...

Deshawn:

I was at that game in The Big Easy in 2002.

My boy went to Tulane so I had free room and board uptown....not far from where Juvie grew up in the 'Nolia.

Dude....you wanna talk about surreal? Picture a Northeast yankee boy walking down the street with a thirty pack (legally) in 80 degreee heat wearing a Manny jersey, casually passing surface to air missiles positioned all around the Superdome.

It was, after all, shortly after 9/11.

When they rolled out those big screens (which I feel like were a lot bigger in person) there wasn't a dry eye in the building....compounded by the fact that we were already pretty much blackout drunk. And mostly Irish. But mostly drunk.

Anyhow that's by far the best live performance I've ever seen in my life.

Deshawn Zombie said...

U2 is one of about a million reasons I'm proud to be Irish. That and the whole "hating the English" thing. It makes life in Buenos Aires A LOT easier.

Great story. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Oh yea - the article about SB Rings was especially cool because the anecdote for the '72 Fins was about how convicted crackhead (and documented hater) Mercury Morris lost a ring, got it replaced, then lost another one.

Anonymous said...

DeShawn,

If it'll be of any help to you (that is, if you're in Indy in the next few weeks), I'd suggest you go to the I-MAX theatre at the Indiana State Museum, since they're showing "U2 3D" there. Best $13.50 my family's spent on me yesterday (it was my birthday).

Sarah
Terre Haute, IN (the one who recommended the recent GMC DPOY survey)

Deshawn Zombie said...

I was at the concert in Buenos Aires when they filmed it. Yeah, I'll be going.

Anonymous said...

Drinking on Mondays when there's no football should be strictly prohibited.

There's nothing to be gained.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, but road racing was not killing CART. Tony George did with his small grievances and huge ego and "his" race.

And if it weren't for that race, the IRL would be dead and everyone would be united again.