Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Sports Casserole


Brett Favre: Will somebody put this guy out of his misery, please? I can’t take him anymore. Watching him hobble around on Sunday night, throwing interception after interception, and ruining his team’s chance to win was downright painful. It has always been about Brett, and it’s more glaring than ever this year. The media’s perception that the Vikings wouldn’t be as good a team without him is ludicrous. Right now, he’s a detriment to his team and he needs to go. Problem is, until someone decapitates him, he’s not going. For Brett, its not about the good of the team, it’s all about Brett and his consecutive games started streak, and feeding an ego the size of all 10,000 Minnesota lakes combined.

Adrian Clayborn: “Are you crying? Are you crying? ARE YOU CRYING? There's no crying! THERE'S NO CRYING IN BASEBALL!” Those, of course, are the famous words of Tom Hanks in the movie about women playing baseball in A League of Their Own. And—pay attention now Adrian--if there’s no crying in baseball, there should certainly be no crying in football, which is exactly what happened during the post-game locker room interviews with the star defensive end for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Maybe that Hawkeye defense isn’t quite as “tough” as everyone thinks it is.

Kansas City Royals:Can you believe it? Can you believe the Kansas City Royals once won a World Series title? That World Series title just happens to be 25 years old this year. The Royals beat the St. Louis Cardinals in 7 games, and finished 91-71 in the regular season. All 5 starters won at least 10 games. Bret Saberhagen won the Cy Young Award with a 20-6 record and a 2.87 ERA. How many players can you name from that team? Here’s a look at their 1985 starting lineup just to take you back:
C-Jim Sundberg
1b-Steve Balboni
2b-Frank White
3b-George Brett
SS-Onix Concepcion
OF-Willie Wilson
OF-Lonnie Smith
OF-Darryl Motley
DH-Hal McCrae
SP-Bret Saberhagen
SP-Bud Black
SP-Charlie Leibrandt
SP-Mark Gubicza
SP-Danny Jackson
Closer-Dan Quisenberry

NBA Season Opener:Watching the Miami Heat’s season opener go up in smoke tonight was almost as much fun as watching the Yankees nearly get swept in this years ALCS. At one point in the first half, the Boston Celtics were up by 19 points. Miami had just 30 points at half time. The Heat’s offensive total of 80 points was 5 fewer than the LEAST amount of points the Cavs scored in last years playoffs to the Celtics! On the flip side, Boston’s high profile free agent, Shaquille O’Neal, looks like he’s been eating cheeseburgers all summer—for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! And, the OVER-RATED! chants by Celtics fans at the end of the game were awesome!

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Role Reversal


Forgive me if I’m giddy. It’s not a normal Saturday in the state of Iowa. In fact, it’s a complete role reversal, for one day anyway. Iowa, playing on its home turf found just about every way possible to lose a game. Iowa State, playing at perennial power Texas, did the unthinkable—they won against the Longhorns for the first time ever, this after back-to-back rear-end kicking’s against Oklahoma and Utah. Seriously, who saw this coming? If you had told 100 people on Friday that one team in the state would win and one would lose on Saturday, 99 would have picked Iowa as the winner.

For the Cyclones, this is the second straight season a Paul Rhoads led squad has won on the road against a top 25 team. I don’t know if that has ever happened in back-to-back seasons in ISU history, and for Rhoads to do it the way he has in both of those victories is down right amazing. Last year, it was with a backup quarterback and a backup running back on the road in Lincoln. This year, it was at the end of a merciless three-game stretch, a game most people chalked up as a loss well before the season even started. Texas was rated in the top 5 in many preseason polls.

Hawkeye fans, we’re familiar with your pain. A missed extra point, a blocked field goal, a fake-punt, and a mismanaged clock in the final 65 seconds—all can be pointed to as the difference in a 31-30 loss. Heartbreaking isn’t it? Been there, done that as a Cyclone fan about 5 million times in the last 10 years. But for one night, the Iowa State Cyclones are the talk of the college football world. And for one night, I’m really going to enjoy it.