[Written 2 days ago...]
I was originally going to write about something else today, but remember when I did my “man crushes” post several weeks ago? Well, team success hasn’t exactly followed LaRon Landry and Blake Griffin, and although Landry was personally playing at a defensive POY level, he hasn’t played in a few weeks and is now on season ending injured reserve. While the Clips haven’t exactly been tearing it up (for the better part of the season they had the NBA’s worst record), they have suddenly started to show improvement. They have gone 4-6 over their last 10 games. That doesn’t sound like much, but it’s better than going 4-16, which is what they were at one time. So, while they might not win 45 or 50 games this year like I once predicted, they are no longer in the Pacific division basement, and they have only the 4th worst record in the whole league as of right now…baby steps, baby steps.
Griffin has been a monster though. In the words of Joakim Noah, “He’s a problem.” He’s currently averaging 21 points and 12 rebounds per game for the year, which would put him in historic company for a rookie. Also, for a rook he’s been remarkably consistent, as he posted his 17th consecutive double-double last night (his 23rd in 30 games this year). Those numbers are impressive, but he’s been even better of late. His last five game split looks like this: 24 ppg, 15 rpg, 4 apg, while shooting 53% from the field. Add to that the fact that he’s worth at least 1 or 2 oh my damn, did you just see that plays every night. Case in point, last night when he threw down a one-handed lefty oop where at his highest point he’s just about eye level with the rim.
At this point, I feel like I could just post a “B-Griff highlight of the night” the day after every Clippers game. Even though their record is still terrible, I’ve come to three realizations. 1st, Clippers highlights/games are now appointment viewing for me. On most days I put on Sportscenter before I leave for work in the morning, and if I don’t get a chance to see the Clips recap (usually in a losing effort still at this point) it’s the first thing I check for online once I get to my desk at work. 2nd, since the Wizards can never seem to get it together, I’m pretty close to adopting the Clippers as my other favorite team. Along with Griffin, Eric Gordon is a fun player to watch. If they can remove some of the dead weight on the team and acquire a couple more good young players, they might have something there (although when your owner is Donald Sterling that might be asking too much). It would also be really cool if they uprooted the Lakers, who I loathe (as anyone who knows me knows). 3rd, I haven’t bought a jersey in probably 5 years. I have never really been a jersey guy to begin with, and I soured on them even more due to the fact that seemingly every time I got one that guy would immediately get hurt or traded…but I would at least entertain the thought of rocking a Griffin jersey…maybe.
Merry Christmas, everybody.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Bench Press Blues
I had a ridiculous case of hiccups this morning that for whatever reason just wouldn’t go away. Hiccups and yawning are two quirky biological functions that as far as I know are pretty much medical mysteries to this point. With all the technological and medical advancements of the 21st century, I can’t for the life of me understand how we haven’t figured out what causes stuff like this. I mean, there are much more pressing things that medical funding goes to (and rightfully so), but you would think we would have a better guess at this stuff by now than something like your brain is trying to get more air.
Anyway, on to what I wanted to talk about…my workout splits look something like this nowadays: day 1 is chest, day 2 is arms, day 3 is shoulders and back, and day 4 is legs and abs. Looking back at when I first started lifting, I can’t believe I ever did chest every other day, but at the same time I can understand why I did. First, I didn’t know any better. Second, there is simply nothing more fun to lift than chest. Arms is a close second, but even the pump you get from doing arms doesn’t approach the little workout high you get from a killer chest workout. Usually the only thing that gets me through my “day 4” as I’m slaving away with my leg workout is the fact that chest day is only one day away.
The problem is that even though I’ve made some gains with chest, it’s been increasingly harder to go up in weight. This has been especially true with the flat bench press on my gym’s Smith machine. (Our gym doesn’t have a real bench or squat rack.) The main downsides to the Smith machine are that for any given exercise it makes it easier on the lifter than if they were using true free weights because the lifter doesn’t have to worry about balance and could simply concentrate on lifting the weight, and you’re not quite sure exactly how much weight you are actually lifting. The bar on the Smith machine in our gym looks like a standard 45 lb. universal bar, but for whatever exercise you’re doing it’s obviously easier to lift the Smith machine bar then a regular ol’ barbell. There’s a sticker on our Smith machine that says the unweighted bar is the equivalent of a 15 lb. bar, but that seems awfully light to me. Anyway, if I wanted to be overly optimistic about my strength and just assumed the bar weighed 45 lb., I would say I max-out at about 250 lb. on the flat bench right now, but if I go by what the Smith machine says that number is actually 220 lb. (I have had the goal of benching 225 lb. for awhile now). So, I’m not exactly sure where I’m at right now…if I actually tried to bench 250 lb. on a real bench, I would probably end up like that USC running back from a year back, but I would like to think that I could very nearly put up 225 lb. (or very close to it) on a real bench for one rep at least.
Like I mentioned before though, I’ve been finding it harder and harder to go up in weight on that exercise over the past several months. I’ve still been making good progress on the Smith machine with the incline bench press, but I haven’t nearly begun to approach the weight that I’ve doing on the flat bench yet. Interestingly enough, I’ve still been making pretty good progress on both the flat and incline benches with dumbbells though. This has got me thinking about the mechanics of the Smith machine itself. Another drawback of Smith machines aside from the removal of the need of balance from the lifter and the question of how much weight you’re really lifting is that it’s impossible for the Smith machine to exactly replicate what the lifter’s motion would be using real free weights for any given exercise. Some Smith machines are angled, but the motion of the one at our gym is straight up and down. If you were using a real flat bench, this wouldn’t be the case, as the trajectory of the bar actually angles from the lifter’s chest towards the lifter’s eye level. Because of this, and this is just based on my own thinking without doing any actual research, I’m wondering if the Smith machine actually stops being effective at a certain point anyway. I try to keep a blind eye to what other people in the gym are doing, but for some reason I seem to have as much strength or more with the dumbbells than other guys that are lifting more weight on the Smith machine than me. I guess that in reality if you were going to be better at one or the other you would definitely want to be stronger on the dumbbells, but it just doesn’t look quite as sexy to use the 100 lb. dumbbells as it does to keep piling on 45 lb. plates onto a bar.
One of the problems I have with the dumbbells though is the same problem that I run into using the Smith machine: how much are you actually lifting? At first, this seems like a stupid question. If you’re using the 100 lb. dumbbells, you’re technically lifting 200 lb…but just like the introduction of balance makes using a real barbell harder than a Smith machine, dumbbells are more difficult to use when you’re benching than a barbell…but to measure strength, everyone always wants to know how much you bench, meaning bench on the flat bench press using a weighted barbell. I can probably rep the 100 lb. dumbbells 7 or 8 times in one set on the flat bench, but how exactly does that translate? And in my gym, the dumbbells only go up to 100 lb., so it’s not like I can even say I max-out on the 105 lb. or 110 lb. dumbbells (210 or 220 lb. total weight, respectively). I’ve asked my friend Mac, who always crushed me on the bench, how many reps he could do with the 100 lb. weights, and it was difficult to gauge how hard or easy it was for him compared to for me. I wish there was some kind of chart for this. Like, if you knew the maximum number of reps you could do in one set for 100 lb. dumbbells, that would mean you max-out with the barbell at 215 lb. or something. Unfortunately, pretty much everyone is different anyway, and if you can do a certain weight for a certain number of reps, there isn’t really any guarantee as to what your one rep max will be.
The end result of all this is that I should probably concentrate more on the dumbbells than the Smith machine, but in our gym it’s hard to shy away from it too much given the lack of variety. One thing that I think I have working against me no matter what I do though is genetics. Most bodybuilders are short, stocky, barrel-chested guys. As a somewhat tall, lanky guy, I’m the complete opposite of that. With no shoes on, I’m a hair under 6-0, but I have a pretty long wingspan. The average person that stands 5-11 and ½ would be proportioned to have a wingspan of about 73 inches, but my wingspan is a little over 75 inches long. (By the way, I’m tired of basketball announcers going crazy because a 6-10 guy has a wingspan of 7 feet, because that would actually be the average wingspan for a guy that height.) 2 inches doesn’t seem like a big deal, but for an engineering major like me this is just simple math: a longer wingspan creates a larger moment arm, which makes it more difficult for me to lift the same weight as a person of my height with an average or less than average wingspan. So, if you see me in the gym with the bar resting on my throat and choking me to death, just remember that I have a built-in excuse.
Anyway, on to what I wanted to talk about…my workout splits look something like this nowadays: day 1 is chest, day 2 is arms, day 3 is shoulders and back, and day 4 is legs and abs. Looking back at when I first started lifting, I can’t believe I ever did chest every other day, but at the same time I can understand why I did. First, I didn’t know any better. Second, there is simply nothing more fun to lift than chest. Arms is a close second, but even the pump you get from doing arms doesn’t approach the little workout high you get from a killer chest workout. Usually the only thing that gets me through my “day 4” as I’m slaving away with my leg workout is the fact that chest day is only one day away.
The problem is that even though I’ve made some gains with chest, it’s been increasingly harder to go up in weight. This has been especially true with the flat bench press on my gym’s Smith machine. (Our gym doesn’t have a real bench or squat rack.) The main downsides to the Smith machine are that for any given exercise it makes it easier on the lifter than if they were using true free weights because the lifter doesn’t have to worry about balance and could simply concentrate on lifting the weight, and you’re not quite sure exactly how much weight you are actually lifting. The bar on the Smith machine in our gym looks like a standard 45 lb. universal bar, but for whatever exercise you’re doing it’s obviously easier to lift the Smith machine bar then a regular ol’ barbell. There’s a sticker on our Smith machine that says the unweighted bar is the equivalent of a 15 lb. bar, but that seems awfully light to me. Anyway, if I wanted to be overly optimistic about my strength and just assumed the bar weighed 45 lb., I would say I max-out at about 250 lb. on the flat bench right now, but if I go by what the Smith machine says that number is actually 220 lb. (I have had the goal of benching 225 lb. for awhile now). So, I’m not exactly sure where I’m at right now…if I actually tried to bench 250 lb. on a real bench, I would probably end up like that USC running back from a year back, but I would like to think that I could very nearly put up 225 lb. (or very close to it) on a real bench for one rep at least.
Like I mentioned before though, I’ve been finding it harder and harder to go up in weight on that exercise over the past several months. I’ve still been making good progress on the Smith machine with the incline bench press, but I haven’t nearly begun to approach the weight that I’ve doing on the flat bench yet. Interestingly enough, I’ve still been making pretty good progress on both the flat and incline benches with dumbbells though. This has got me thinking about the mechanics of the Smith machine itself. Another drawback of Smith machines aside from the removal of the need of balance from the lifter and the question of how much weight you’re really lifting is that it’s impossible for the Smith machine to exactly replicate what the lifter’s motion would be using real free weights for any given exercise. Some Smith machines are angled, but the motion of the one at our gym is straight up and down. If you were using a real flat bench, this wouldn’t be the case, as the trajectory of the bar actually angles from the lifter’s chest towards the lifter’s eye level. Because of this, and this is just based on my own thinking without doing any actual research, I’m wondering if the Smith machine actually stops being effective at a certain point anyway. I try to keep a blind eye to what other people in the gym are doing, but for some reason I seem to have as much strength or more with the dumbbells than other guys that are lifting more weight on the Smith machine than me. I guess that in reality if you were going to be better at one or the other you would definitely want to be stronger on the dumbbells, but it just doesn’t look quite as sexy to use the 100 lb. dumbbells as it does to keep piling on 45 lb. plates onto a bar.
One of the problems I have with the dumbbells though is the same problem that I run into using the Smith machine: how much are you actually lifting? At first, this seems like a stupid question. If you’re using the 100 lb. dumbbells, you’re technically lifting 200 lb…but just like the introduction of balance makes using a real barbell harder than a Smith machine, dumbbells are more difficult to use when you’re benching than a barbell…but to measure strength, everyone always wants to know how much you bench, meaning bench on the flat bench press using a weighted barbell. I can probably rep the 100 lb. dumbbells 7 or 8 times in one set on the flat bench, but how exactly does that translate? And in my gym, the dumbbells only go up to 100 lb., so it’s not like I can even say I max-out on the 105 lb. or 110 lb. dumbbells (210 or 220 lb. total weight, respectively). I’ve asked my friend Mac, who always crushed me on the bench, how many reps he could do with the 100 lb. weights, and it was difficult to gauge how hard or easy it was for him compared to for me. I wish there was some kind of chart for this. Like, if you knew the maximum number of reps you could do in one set for 100 lb. dumbbells, that would mean you max-out with the barbell at 215 lb. or something. Unfortunately, pretty much everyone is different anyway, and if you can do a certain weight for a certain number of reps, there isn’t really any guarantee as to what your one rep max will be.
The end result of all this is that I should probably concentrate more on the dumbbells than the Smith machine, but in our gym it’s hard to shy away from it too much given the lack of variety. One thing that I think I have working against me no matter what I do though is genetics. Most bodybuilders are short, stocky, barrel-chested guys. As a somewhat tall, lanky guy, I’m the complete opposite of that. With no shoes on, I’m a hair under 6-0, but I have a pretty long wingspan. The average person that stands 5-11 and ½ would be proportioned to have a wingspan of about 73 inches, but my wingspan is a little over 75 inches long. (By the way, I’m tired of basketball announcers going crazy because a 6-10 guy has a wingspan of 7 feet, because that would actually be the average wingspan for a guy that height.) 2 inches doesn’t seem like a big deal, but for an engineering major like me this is just simple math: a longer wingspan creates a larger moment arm, which makes it more difficult for me to lift the same weight as a person of my height with an average or less than average wingspan. So, if you see me in the gym with the bar resting on my throat and choking me to death, just remember that I have a built-in excuse.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Monday Morning Deflation
For all but 5 or 6 weeks out of the last 2 NFL seasons, Krissy and I have participated in a pick em’ pool. In the 20-some weeks that we’ve done it, we have only won it once. We have come very close a bunch of other times, and it’s rare for a week to go by where at least one of us isn’t still in the running by the time Monday Night Football comes along. I’d like to think that in the case of the Redskins, my team, that I’m able to pick their games with my head rather than my heart. I know some people, like our friend Kevin, aren’t able to do that. Kevin is as die-hard of an Eagles fan as I’m a Skins fan or Krissy is a Giants fan, but he refuses to pick against the Eagles regardless of the situation. Similarly, because of his hate for the Giants, he will almost never pick them to win either. It’s the same reason Kevin doesn’t play fantasy football: according to him, it’s just bad karma. Aside from the internal turmoil it creates to bet against your team or for a hated archrival (or in the case of fantasy, for players of those teams), I just don’t look at it this way. I’d like to think that I can separate my rooting interest from following the money. That’s probably foolish of me to think, but that’s how I approach it at least. If I think the Redskins are a lock to lose and the Ravens and Cowboys are locks to win in a particular week, I have no problem making my picks accordingly. If I simply followed my heart, that might mean 3 L’s right off the bat. That’s just bad business practice in my opinion.
The Redskins are more than likely to finish well below 0.500 this year, and likewise I’ve picked them to lose more often than not. With that being said, I think I’ve only picked about half of the Redskins games correctly this year. Such is the nature of a mediocre middling team: they are just as likely to win some games they’re not supposed as they are to choke away games that they should win. After saying everything I said in the last paragraph though it’s still pains me whenever I pick them to lose. I’ve rationalized it the following 3 ways. 1st, like I already said, it’s nothing personal…it’s just business. 2nd, if it came down to winning the pot or the Redskins winning, I would sacrifice my winnings for the Skins to win. 3rd, I’ve come to find that picking against your team actually takes the sting out losing…and that goes for watching your team lose and losing the pool. It’s basically the equivalent of emotionally hedging your bets. In this situation, nothing would be worse than picking your team to win only to have them lose. Then, you have to deal with your team losing and your incorrect pick. If you pick your team to lose and they win, then at least your team won. If they lose…hey, at least you picked the game right. This probably falls under the category of stuff that gives you bad karma as well, but until this organization fields a team that you can actually believe in, I don’t see my psychology changing anytime soon. The aforementioned Kevin is actually the one that we turn our weekly picks in to. If I happen to pick Washington to lose and he notices, I will soon hear a, “You picked against them again,” accompanied with a look of disbelief, to which I usually just sigh and nod my head in shame.
Anyway, this week I picked Tampa Bay to beat my Skins. Coming off the week where Albert Haynesworth was finally sent his walking papers after a listless loss to the Giants, I could actually envision the Redskins winning this game. Sure, the Bucs still actually have playoff aspirations, but I thought maybe the last week would have given the team some kind of spark. Combine that with the fact that you had a warm weather team coming to play in what was forecasted to be a cold rainy December day in the nation’s capital, and this was scripted as one of those games that the Redskins could win despite having no business winning (similar to when they won in Tennessee a few weeks ago). This would only further serve to tease and torture Redskins fans with the possibility that maybe this team isn’t that far away from being good after all. Still, I just didn’t have the guts to pick them to win. My prediction was some kind of ugly 17-13 loss filled with turnovers, mistakes, and missed opportunities.
My prediction turned out to be not that far off. The final box score showed the Bucs winning 17-16, but that didn’t begin to tell the story. Donovan McNabb, who apparently had no business conducting a 2-minute offense earlier in the season, efficiently marched the offense down the field for a game-tying drive. After a short touchdown pass to Santana Moss on 4th down, I could only think of one thing. They’re going to miss the extra point. I think I even said it out loud. Maybe that was some kind of reverse-jinx I was trying to pull off, maybe it’s what I really thought, or maybe it was some combination of both…but I did say it. The kicker, Graham Gano, had missed 2 chip shot field goals earlier in the game and had very nearly yanked an extra point wide of the left upright as well. Shaky didn’t begin to describe his game up to that point, and if he had made those 2 earlier kicks, the Redskins might not have even been in that position to begin with. What actually happened wasn’t even within the realm of possibilities I had gone through in my mind.
I have been a Redskins fan my entire life. The 1st team I ever followed as a kid was the 1991 Redskins, a team that dominated the league on the way to 14-2 and a Super Bowl win. Really, there hasn’t been much to cheer for since then. In the past 2 years alone, the Redskins have found more embarrassing ways to lose then it would probably take for most franchises in an entire decade. From the shalackings the Skins got courtesy of the Eagles and Giants over the course of the past month to the overtime loss to the eventual Super Bowl champion Saints last year (where aside from missed field goals, a Redskins defensive back intercepted a pass only to have the ball stripped and returned for a touchdown on the same play), I thought I had seen the full spectrum of losses that was possible…until yesterday. On that extra point attempt, the ball and the field were soaked, as a cold drizzle had persisted throught the whole game. The snap was high, but catchable, yet the ball skipped through the hands of holder Hunter Smith like a wet bar of soap…ballgame. I don’t think I had any particularly pronounced reaction to the play. There was no shoe-throwing or cursing fits of rage. While I hadn’t predicted that exact sequence of events, I had predicted the outcome of the play. I don’t think I said anything else after that. I simply slumped down into my sofa like a deflated balloon. So much for hedging my bets…
The Redskins are more than likely to finish well below 0.500 this year, and likewise I’ve picked them to lose more often than not. With that being said, I think I’ve only picked about half of the Redskins games correctly this year. Such is the nature of a mediocre middling team: they are just as likely to win some games they’re not supposed as they are to choke away games that they should win. After saying everything I said in the last paragraph though it’s still pains me whenever I pick them to lose. I’ve rationalized it the following 3 ways. 1st, like I already said, it’s nothing personal…it’s just business. 2nd, if it came down to winning the pot or the Redskins winning, I would sacrifice my winnings for the Skins to win. 3rd, I’ve come to find that picking against your team actually takes the sting out losing…and that goes for watching your team lose and losing the pool. It’s basically the equivalent of emotionally hedging your bets. In this situation, nothing would be worse than picking your team to win only to have them lose. Then, you have to deal with your team losing and your incorrect pick. If you pick your team to lose and they win, then at least your team won. If they lose…hey, at least you picked the game right. This probably falls under the category of stuff that gives you bad karma as well, but until this organization fields a team that you can actually believe in, I don’t see my psychology changing anytime soon. The aforementioned Kevin is actually the one that we turn our weekly picks in to. If I happen to pick Washington to lose and he notices, I will soon hear a, “You picked against them again,” accompanied with a look of disbelief, to which I usually just sigh and nod my head in shame.
Anyway, this week I picked Tampa Bay to beat my Skins. Coming off the week where Albert Haynesworth was finally sent his walking papers after a listless loss to the Giants, I could actually envision the Redskins winning this game. Sure, the Bucs still actually have playoff aspirations, but I thought maybe the last week would have given the team some kind of spark. Combine that with the fact that you had a warm weather team coming to play in what was forecasted to be a cold rainy December day in the nation’s capital, and this was scripted as one of those games that the Redskins could win despite having no business winning (similar to when they won in Tennessee a few weeks ago). This would only further serve to tease and torture Redskins fans with the possibility that maybe this team isn’t that far away from being good after all. Still, I just didn’t have the guts to pick them to win. My prediction was some kind of ugly 17-13 loss filled with turnovers, mistakes, and missed opportunities.
My prediction turned out to be not that far off. The final box score showed the Bucs winning 17-16, but that didn’t begin to tell the story. Donovan McNabb, who apparently had no business conducting a 2-minute offense earlier in the season, efficiently marched the offense down the field for a game-tying drive. After a short touchdown pass to Santana Moss on 4th down, I could only think of one thing. They’re going to miss the extra point. I think I even said it out loud. Maybe that was some kind of reverse-jinx I was trying to pull off, maybe it’s what I really thought, or maybe it was some combination of both…but I did say it. The kicker, Graham Gano, had missed 2 chip shot field goals earlier in the game and had very nearly yanked an extra point wide of the left upright as well. Shaky didn’t begin to describe his game up to that point, and if he had made those 2 earlier kicks, the Redskins might not have even been in that position to begin with. What actually happened wasn’t even within the realm of possibilities I had gone through in my mind.
I have been a Redskins fan my entire life. The 1st team I ever followed as a kid was the 1991 Redskins, a team that dominated the league on the way to 14-2 and a Super Bowl win. Really, there hasn’t been much to cheer for since then. In the past 2 years alone, the Redskins have found more embarrassing ways to lose then it would probably take for most franchises in an entire decade. From the shalackings the Skins got courtesy of the Eagles and Giants over the course of the past month to the overtime loss to the eventual Super Bowl champion Saints last year (where aside from missed field goals, a Redskins defensive back intercepted a pass only to have the ball stripped and returned for a touchdown on the same play), I thought I had seen the full spectrum of losses that was possible…until yesterday. On that extra point attempt, the ball and the field were soaked, as a cold drizzle had persisted throught the whole game. The snap was high, but catchable, yet the ball skipped through the hands of holder Hunter Smith like a wet bar of soap…ballgame. I don’t think I had any particularly pronounced reaction to the play. There was no shoe-throwing or cursing fits of rage. While I hadn’t predicted that exact sequence of events, I had predicted the outcome of the play. I don’t think I said anything else after that. I simply slumped down into my sofa like a deflated balloon. So much for hedging my bets…
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Dollar Dollar Bills, Y'all
Every day that I come into work I have a little ritual that I go through. Unless I have an early meeting or something like that, I logon to my computer, and immediately sift through a couple of websites (Gmail, ESPN, Yahoo! Sports, etc.). I have to do this before I start any actual work. It’s such a reflex at this point that even though I probably only spend 10 minutes a day on ESPN in the morning at 8am, if my work started to just block ESPN from our computers, I probably would be psychologically paralyzed for the rest of the day, and would get no real work done at all.
Anyway, one of the big headline stories on each sports site this morning had to do with the upcoming labor agreement (or disagreement potentially) in the NFL. One of the sticking points of this upcoming collective bargaining agreement is switching from a 16 game regular season to an 18 game regular season. At first glance, who wouldn’t want that? The NFL is the most popular sports league in the country. Mo’ games would be mo’ better, right? But the timing of this couldn’t make the NFL look worse. The only thing that would be more hypocritical is if a pot literally called a kettle black. Every year, more and more rules come out that prohibit certain kinds of hits (helmet-to-helmet hits, leading with the helmet, horse-collar tackles, blows to the head, etc.), and this year more of these rules have been legislated than ever before. Whether these rule changes are actually good for the game or not is a debate for another day. Some say that tackle football is moving closer and closer to flag football all the time, but you can’t really argue that the rules have been put in place to help protect player safety. So, someone remind me again how lengthening the season will promote player safety.
Listen, this issue has already been debated by people much, much smarter than me, but the NFL, the king of all sports leagues in the United States, has a real public relations problem here. Not only does it make it look like the league and its owners don’t care about the players at all, but it makes them look like liars to boot. While the league continues to chug along without any real competitor in the world of sports, they have been called out on this kind of hypocrisy before. When the league’s legislators first started looking at putting rules in place against helmet-to-helmet hits some years back, some wondered how the NFL could do so with a straight face, as hits where players were getting “blown up” were still celebrated. The NFL was creating rules against these hits, and then still making money off them at the same time by putting out videos and DVDs for sale chronicling the NFL’s hardest hitters…which brings us to the real crux of the issue: money.
The fact of the matter is that the NFL is a business, and all businesses are in the business of making money. While the further they stretch themselves out (whether that means lengthening the season, adding more franchises, or whatever) will probably hurt the overall product, the NFL still hasn’t saturated the market yet. Football isn’t like other sports. In football, teams don’t play seasons that last close to or over a hundred games. Each NFL team hosts 8 home games a year, and most franchises sell-out all those games (or come close to it). Television ratings for professional football dwarf those for all other sports. The fact is that for those reasons alone the move to an 18 game season was always inevitable. But hey, NFL owners, do us a favor…don’t tell us about an 18 game season, and then mention player safety to us in the same breath. We’re not stupid. We know what the deal really is. And since this expanded season is coming like a runaway train, at least do us one other thing: cut the NFL preseason in half…please. We never needed 4 preseason games per team. No one likes watching games where the real teams play about a quarter (if that), and then we get to watch a bunch of practice squad players, most of which will never see the field in an NFL regular season, for the majority of the game. But then again, we know what that’s all about as well. I hope you know what you’re doing, NFL. Just like how I feel about the NCAA tournament expanding to 68 teams, you don’t mess with perfection, and March Madness and the NFL are as close to perfection as we get in sports. The old Wu-Tang lyric still rings true though: cash rules everything around me…
Anyway, one of the big headline stories on each sports site this morning had to do with the upcoming labor agreement (or disagreement potentially) in the NFL. One of the sticking points of this upcoming collective bargaining agreement is switching from a 16 game regular season to an 18 game regular season. At first glance, who wouldn’t want that? The NFL is the most popular sports league in the country. Mo’ games would be mo’ better, right? But the timing of this couldn’t make the NFL look worse. The only thing that would be more hypocritical is if a pot literally called a kettle black. Every year, more and more rules come out that prohibit certain kinds of hits (helmet-to-helmet hits, leading with the helmet, horse-collar tackles, blows to the head, etc.), and this year more of these rules have been legislated than ever before. Whether these rule changes are actually good for the game or not is a debate for another day. Some say that tackle football is moving closer and closer to flag football all the time, but you can’t really argue that the rules have been put in place to help protect player safety. So, someone remind me again how lengthening the season will promote player safety.
Listen, this issue has already been debated by people much, much smarter than me, but the NFL, the king of all sports leagues in the United States, has a real public relations problem here. Not only does it make it look like the league and its owners don’t care about the players at all, but it makes them look like liars to boot. While the league continues to chug along without any real competitor in the world of sports, they have been called out on this kind of hypocrisy before. When the league’s legislators first started looking at putting rules in place against helmet-to-helmet hits some years back, some wondered how the NFL could do so with a straight face, as hits where players were getting “blown up” were still celebrated. The NFL was creating rules against these hits, and then still making money off them at the same time by putting out videos and DVDs for sale chronicling the NFL’s hardest hitters…which brings us to the real crux of the issue: money.
The fact of the matter is that the NFL is a business, and all businesses are in the business of making money. While the further they stretch themselves out (whether that means lengthening the season, adding more franchises, or whatever) will probably hurt the overall product, the NFL still hasn’t saturated the market yet. Football isn’t like other sports. In football, teams don’t play seasons that last close to or over a hundred games. Each NFL team hosts 8 home games a year, and most franchises sell-out all those games (or come close to it). Television ratings for professional football dwarf those for all other sports. The fact is that for those reasons alone the move to an 18 game season was always inevitable. But hey, NFL owners, do us a favor…don’t tell us about an 18 game season, and then mention player safety to us in the same breath. We’re not stupid. We know what the deal really is. And since this expanded season is coming like a runaway train, at least do us one other thing: cut the NFL preseason in half…please. We never needed 4 preseason games per team. No one likes watching games where the real teams play about a quarter (if that), and then we get to watch a bunch of practice squad players, most of which will never see the field in an NFL regular season, for the majority of the game. But then again, we know what that’s all about as well. I hope you know what you’re doing, NFL. Just like how I feel about the NCAA tournament expanding to 68 teams, you don’t mess with perfection, and March Madness and the NFL are as close to perfection as we get in sports. The old Wu-Tang lyric still rings true though: cash rules everything around me…
Monday, December 6, 2010
Supplement Soup
When I started getting a little bit more into lifting, I never thought I’d be one of those people that took a ton of supplements. I mean, I have been taking post-workout protein shakes for awhile, but I always thought that the shakes combined with simply making sure you had enough protein in your daily diet was enough as long as you were putting your time in at the gym. I guess I am sort of living proof of that, as in the past couple of years I’ve gone from one of the scrawniest guys in the gym to…still pretty scrawny, but at least not the scrawniest! Still, in the last year or so it’s gotten more and more difficult to continue to add on weight in most exercises, and because of that I have been in the process of researching (and when I say researching, I mean asking my personal trainer friend, Scott) various supplements. Fast forward to this morning, where as I was packing my gym bag for after work, I found myself packing not only protein powder but these “Con-Cret” creatine capsules (Con-Cret is short for “concentrated creatine) and these BCAA (branch chain amino acid) chewables as well.
There are a couple of reasons this has given me pause…1st, I generally don’t like putting stuff into my body. In fact, Krissy has made fun of me because I usually won’t even take Advil unless I feel I absolutely need it…as if the Advil would be laced with PCP or something. Now, when I step back and look at, I probably take more stuff than most people I know. I’ve always taken a daily multivitamin, but now when I wake up in the morning in addition to the vitamin I take a fish oil tablet (for heart and joint health) and a zinc tablet (for…actually I know zinc is good for you, but I’m not sure what the exact reasons for taking it are…basically, my Mom told me to take it) as well. Krissy and I had also been taking niacin tablets at the suggestion of my Mom, but one of the side effects of niacin is this weird hot, tingly, blood-rushing-to-your-head type feeling…needless to say, we stopped taking the niacin a while ago. But add to that the performance supplements like protein, creatine, and the BCAAs, and sometimes I feel like a walking pharmacy. On the other hand though, it’s not like I’m snorting cocaine or pumping my body with steroids. Other than the fish oil, this stuff is all naturally occurring in your body anyway, and I’m not sure there are any bad sides to taking these. (I mean, I guess if you take too much of any of it, you could probably make yourself sick, but I’m going strictly by the recommended serving sizes.)
The 2nd thing is that once you add all this stuff up it starts to get kind of pricey. I mean, I think it’s like anything else: if you’re even somewhat serious about anything, you’re probably going to end up investing a little bit of money in it. Even though I am signed up to get discounts from GNC, the Vitamin Shoppe, and FitFuel.com, the creatine, BCAAs, and protein (and a pre-workout energy supplement that Krissy takes) definitely starts to add up. It’s enough that I think other than the protein, I think I’m only going to take one other thing at a given time. For example, the creatine that I have been taking is running out, and I didn’t re-up with more of it this past month. Instead, I opted with the BCAAs. If I want to go back to the creatine (or even try something different like glutamine or something else), I will drop the BCAAs for awhile…otherwise, it’s just too much money, not to mention too much stuff. I will start to need one of those pill holders that old people use that helps keep track of the different medicines they are supposed to take on certain days of the week.
The 3rd thing just goes back to what I said right off the bat: while I won’t deny that all of the supplements out there have value, I’m not sure any of them are a substitute for eating right and working hard in the gym. There are some guys in the gym that should be known as “2-baggers”…a gym bag for their gym clothes, and a 2nd bag for all the supplements they’re taking. These guys are taking everything I’m taking plus some type of weight gainer or mass builder, some type of pre-workout drink that gets you so amped up that you start bouncing off the walls, and maybe even a couple other things as well. I guess some people want every advantage that you can get, but if you’re spending more time in the gym mixing up different concoctions by the water fountain or your duffel bag than actually working out, that’s probably not the best way to maximize your gym time…but that’s a discussion for another day.
There are a couple of reasons this has given me pause…1st, I generally don’t like putting stuff into my body. In fact, Krissy has made fun of me because I usually won’t even take Advil unless I feel I absolutely need it…as if the Advil would be laced with PCP or something. Now, when I step back and look at, I probably take more stuff than most people I know. I’ve always taken a daily multivitamin, but now when I wake up in the morning in addition to the vitamin I take a fish oil tablet (for heart and joint health) and a zinc tablet (for…actually I know zinc is good for you, but I’m not sure what the exact reasons for taking it are…basically, my Mom told me to take it) as well. Krissy and I had also been taking niacin tablets at the suggestion of my Mom, but one of the side effects of niacin is this weird hot, tingly, blood-rushing-to-your-head type feeling…needless to say, we stopped taking the niacin a while ago. But add to that the performance supplements like protein, creatine, and the BCAAs, and sometimes I feel like a walking pharmacy. On the other hand though, it’s not like I’m snorting cocaine or pumping my body with steroids. Other than the fish oil, this stuff is all naturally occurring in your body anyway, and I’m not sure there are any bad sides to taking these. (I mean, I guess if you take too much of any of it, you could probably make yourself sick, but I’m going strictly by the recommended serving sizes.)
The 2nd thing is that once you add all this stuff up it starts to get kind of pricey. I mean, I think it’s like anything else: if you’re even somewhat serious about anything, you’re probably going to end up investing a little bit of money in it. Even though I am signed up to get discounts from GNC, the Vitamin Shoppe, and FitFuel.com, the creatine, BCAAs, and protein (and a pre-workout energy supplement that Krissy takes) definitely starts to add up. It’s enough that I think other than the protein, I think I’m only going to take one other thing at a given time. For example, the creatine that I have been taking is running out, and I didn’t re-up with more of it this past month. Instead, I opted with the BCAAs. If I want to go back to the creatine (or even try something different like glutamine or something else), I will drop the BCAAs for awhile…otherwise, it’s just too much money, not to mention too much stuff. I will start to need one of those pill holders that old people use that helps keep track of the different medicines they are supposed to take on certain days of the week.
The 3rd thing just goes back to what I said right off the bat: while I won’t deny that all of the supplements out there have value, I’m not sure any of them are a substitute for eating right and working hard in the gym. There are some guys in the gym that should be known as “2-baggers”…a gym bag for their gym clothes, and a 2nd bag for all the supplements they’re taking. These guys are taking everything I’m taking plus some type of weight gainer or mass builder, some type of pre-workout drink that gets you so amped up that you start bouncing off the walls, and maybe even a couple other things as well. I guess some people want every advantage that you can get, but if you’re spending more time in the gym mixing up different concoctions by the water fountain or your duffel bag than actually working out, that’s probably not the best way to maximize your gym time…but that’s a discussion for another day.
Friday, December 3, 2010
We Can Quit While We're Ahead
I hate to do two straight fantasy football posts. Like I said before, it’s one of those things that if you start talking about your fantasy team, you induce everyone around you to fall into a deep coma…but all those people would similarly love nothing more than to talk about their fantasy team. Still, I documented past fantasy teams in blogs, and (I don’t know if I can stress this enough) this team is actually good. I have had a history of lousy fantasy teams, so much so that I considered not doing a league at all this year. As a reasonably intelligent person and someone who at least considers himself to be a pretty knowledgeable sports fan, there’s not much that can make you feel dumber than having a bad fantasy team. It doesn’t really matter that at least half of a fantasy team’s success is basically decided by luck. Sure, you can make shrewd draft picks, trades, and waiver-wire pickups, but it’s just about impossible to account for freak injuries (not just in terms of the effect of the player who got hurt but the guy who replaces the injured player as well) or guys having great years out of nowhere. Exhibit A is my team this year, where 2 of my best players were my 9th and 10th round draft picks, respectively. Still, it’s hard to swallow when your team is barely treading water, and some guy who doesn’t know the difference between a tight end and a shortstop has the best team in the league.
My fantasy history is nothing short of mediocre. I’ve done a handful of leagues powered by ESPN and Fox Sports, but for the most part all of my leagues have been on Yahoo. If you go to my “Yahoo Fantasy Profile” page, it’s not much to write home about. All told, it lists me as having played in 21 leagues (including the league I’m in right now) dating back to 2006. 10 of those were football leagues, 6 were basketball, and 5 were March Madness pick ‘em pools. My overall fantasy rating (however that’s calculated) is 38 out of 100. I’ve won a fantasy league exactly once, and it was like the 1st league I ever played in. As I mentioned before, I believe that was a team that was the lowest seeded team to make the playoffs, and my team made some incredible New York Giants-esque run to win the whole league…the best part about it is that that was a league where I think I only knew 1 or 2 other people, my team looked like it was out of it early on, and I lost interest in checking it about halfway through the season. I didn’t even bother to adjust my lineup the last few weeks of the regular season and the entire postseason, and I somehow still managed to win. I don’t even think I realized I was the league champ until like a couple weeks later when I randomly stumbled on the league page…classic proof that it’s better to be lucky than good in all things fantasy sports related. My best finish other than that was 3rd place in a 10 team league back in 2008. Other than that, I think I’ve only finished in the top 50% of a league’s standings twice…not great, but at this rate once this league is over I could bump my Yahoo fantasy performance rating up to, I don’t know, 41 out of 100 or something!! I don’t know what’s sadder: the fact that these sites track you entire fantasy history or the fact that I actually went to the page to check my stats before writing this. I guess the point is that as soul-crushing as it is to have a bad fantasy team, it kind of reaffirms what made you think fantasy sports would be fun in the first place when your team is actually decent…so simple it’s got to be true.
My fantasy history is nothing short of mediocre. I’ve done a handful of leagues powered by ESPN and Fox Sports, but for the most part all of my leagues have been on Yahoo. If you go to my “Yahoo Fantasy Profile” page, it’s not much to write home about. All told, it lists me as having played in 21 leagues (including the league I’m in right now) dating back to 2006. 10 of those were football leagues, 6 were basketball, and 5 were March Madness pick ‘em pools. My overall fantasy rating (however that’s calculated) is 38 out of 100. I’ve won a fantasy league exactly once, and it was like the 1st league I ever played in. As I mentioned before, I believe that was a team that was the lowest seeded team to make the playoffs, and my team made some incredible New York Giants-esque run to win the whole league…the best part about it is that that was a league where I think I only knew 1 or 2 other people, my team looked like it was out of it early on, and I lost interest in checking it about halfway through the season. I didn’t even bother to adjust my lineup the last few weeks of the regular season and the entire postseason, and I somehow still managed to win. I don’t even think I realized I was the league champ until like a couple weeks later when I randomly stumbled on the league page…classic proof that it’s better to be lucky than good in all things fantasy sports related. My best finish other than that was 3rd place in a 10 team league back in 2008. Other than that, I think I’ve only finished in the top 50% of a league’s standings twice…not great, but at this rate once this league is over I could bump my Yahoo fantasy performance rating up to, I don’t know, 41 out of 100 or something!! I don’t know what’s sadder: the fact that these sites track you entire fantasy history or the fact that I actually went to the page to check my stats before writing this. I guess the point is that as soul-crushing as it is to have a bad fantasy team, it kind of reaffirms what made you think fantasy sports would be fun in the first place when your team is actually decent…so simple it’s got to be true.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Final Fantasy
I fully support the Bill Simmons theory that there are 3 things in life that everyone loves talking about their own, but nobody wants to hear about anyone else’s: your bad beats in poker, your kids’ accomplishments, and your fantasy football team. If you think about, it’s true. We don’t have kids, but I can imagine that when we have little Chris Jr. and Krissy Jr., all we will ever want to talk about is their latest basketball game or concert or report card or whatever. Still, when I hear someone talking about their own children’s amazing feats, all I can think is, “Please…I’m 99% sure your kid stinks,” just as I’m sure other people will think of me the same way when the day comes that I brag about my own kids. The same is true with poker. To the person telling the story, nothing is better than talking about the time you went all-in with trip-aces, but lost when another player made a full house on the river…meanwhile, everyone else in the room had probably checked-out by the 1st sentence out of the person’s mouth. Likewise, when someone starts spouting off about their fantasy football team, my eyes immediately start to glaze over, but there are few things I would rather talk about than my own team’s recent conquests. Fortunately, the beauty of a blog like this one is that A) basically no one reads it anyway, and B) if you are reading it and don’t want to read about this, you can stop reading whenever you want!
Anyway, I have talked about past fantasy teams in past blogs, but 11 weeks into this year I haven’t mentioned this team until now. This is partly because I have just been busy enough that I haven’t gotten the chance to write period, but also because this year I actually have a decent team and didn’t want to jinx it (so much for that). I’m only in 1 league this year, and for the 1st time I am the league commissioner (which has been an interesting experience). This has been the most fun fantasy league I have ever done by far. Not only does pretty much everyone in the league know everybody else, but we are all pretty much family! It’s a 12 team league split into 2 divisions comprised of Krissy and I, Krissy’s Dad and brothers, my brother, Krissy’s cousin DJ, our friends Mac, Pat, Lauren, and Allen, and Pat’s little brother. I have gone through entire leagues where I didn’t interact with anyone else in the league once. Those are the leagues that you eventually lose interest in and don’t even bother checking after a while. Inevitably, you forget to check your lineup one week, and you eventually notice that you had an empty spot in your lineup while your stud running back sat on your bench. Those leagues are no fun at all…this league has been the complete opposite, as there has been constant trash talk, taunting, and trades (even somewhat controversial disputed trades). People even vote on who is going to win each matchup from week to week…who even does that?!? The only thing that would have made it more fun was if I was able to get everyone to put in $10-20, but I just couldn’t seem to get the money part of it organized fast enough. It’s also been an interesting league because there were some weird things going on earlier in the year. Certain teams were having some strange luck, but now it seems like some of that is starting to balance out. The teams that pass the eye test (you just can look at the roster without knowing their record and tell they’re one of the better teams) are proving out to be the teams with the better rosters…but some of them had such bad luck in the beginning that they are still in catch-up mode, which could make for an interesting finish to the season.
My team is currently 7-4, good enough for 1st place in my division and 2nd in the league overall. I’d like to think my team definitely passes the eye test, and I’ve got the stats to prove it (as of right now, I’m the league leader in total points scored for the season among all 12 teams). My team has taken somewhat of a strange journey though…I had one of those teams that I was talking about that kind of fell on hard luck earlier in the year. I started off the year only 2-3, and it looked like I was headed for another mediocre fantasy season, but somehow I got my guys to rally, and I’ve won 5 of the past 6 weeks, including the last 3 overall (sorry for the bad sports coaching pun). If you look back at my draft though, it’s a wonder that my entire team isn’t a complete bust!
I ended up picking 6th in the draft, and at that point most of the stud running backs had already been taken. I had told myself that if I found myself in a position where I couldn’t take a running back I was satisfied with to stockpile wide receivers early on, and to try to get a bunch of mid-level running backs in the middle rounds hoping that at least a couple of those hit-or-miss picks would hit. I figured this wasn’t a bad strategy if I couldn’t get a top flight running back like Chris Johnson or Adrian Peterson since it’s a passing league now more than ever, and so many teams are using two-headed or three-headed monsters at running back. Anyway, I took Andre Johnson with my 1st pick, and even though he has battled through a bad ankle for most of the year (even missing 1 game) he has been pretty solid. He has had a couple of sub-par games, but he has thrown in a couple monster games as well. My 2nd round pick was Pierre Thomas, which I was really happy with at the time, but an ankle injury of his own has sidelined him since like week 3! My 3rd pick was Greg Jennings, who started off slow, but has carried my team the last couple of weeks. My 4th round pick was Dwayne Bowe, which made 3 wide receivers in my 1st 4 picks…pretty unconventional, but every time my pick came up there was no running back available that I thought deserved to be drafted that high. In the 5th round I finally took my 2nd running back with Matt Forte. I had Forte in a league the year before, and he was a bust for me, but I figured getting him in the 5th round was a pretty good value for him. In the 6th round I took Pierre Garcon. That meant out of my 1st 6 picks, I had taken 4 wide receivers. In the 7th round I took Joe Flacco. It was pretty late to draft your 1st quarterback, but I had targeted Flacco from the beginning. I just felt like he was going to have a breakout year. I followed similar reasoning in taking Chris Cooley in the next round. He hadn’t been rated as high among tight ends as in past years, but I thought he could bounce back with McNabb coming to the Redskins.
That meant through my 1st 8 picks I had only taken 2 running backs…now was the time to utilize part 2 of my plan, which was to gobble up the remaining quality running backs while everyone else was probably focused on other positions at that point. The other part of my theory was that every year there turns out to be a Cedric Benson of that year’s draft…a running back drafted in the middle to late rounds that was pretty much an afterthought, but turns in a career year out of nowhere. Either way, my season was going to make or break depending on whether my draft night strategy worked or not. In the 9th round, I took Arian Foster (remember that pick). In the 10th, I took Fred Jackson, and in the 11th I took Clinton Portis. My last 4 picks of the draft were used on (in order) Mohamed Massaquoi, Julian Edelman, Miami’s defense, and kicker Shayne Graham. I have used a dozen kickers and defenses this year so far, so those picks were pretty inconsequential.
I mentioned before that I started off the season 2-3. Part of that was bad luck like I mentioned, but part of that was also the result of some poor *ahem* personnel decisions. Early on in the year, Thomas and Portis both got hurt. Portis I didn’t expect much from anyway. I mean, I took him in the 11th round, and he was a longshot to make it through the year as a productive back. Garcon, Bowe, Jackson, Massaquoi, and Edelman were doing nothing as well. Even though it meant already cutting ties with half of my receivers, I cut Edelman, Massaquoi, and Garcon right off the bat in search for replacements. I don’t remember the exact circumstances, but I wound up needing to make a decision on whether or not to cut Bowe or Thomas as well. Thomas had an ankle sprain, and figured to be back in a couple of weeks. Bowe hadn’t done anything through the 1st 3 or 4 weeks. I felt I was stronger overall at receiver, so I decided to cut Bowe and hang on to Thomas a little longer. I was able to rent some decent running back help with Mike Tolbert, Willis McGahee, and Carnell Williams (none of whom are still on my roster) that were productive for me, but Bowe immediately started blowing up as soon as I cut him. In fact, to this point in the year he is rated as the 3rd best fantasy receiver in the league, which of course is higher than the ranking of all of my receivers. I usually am overly patient with guys who start out slowly, but for some reason I was the exact opposite with Bowe. To compound the problem, I still have Thomas on my roster. I guess I figured if he ever comes back, he is good insurance. Plus, there is no one else on the waiver wire that I really want, and I would hate to drop him only to have someone else pick him up if and when he finally is game-ready again.
After reading all that, you would think my team was doomed from the outset. 3 out of my top 6 picks were complete busts for me, and my would-be number 1 wide receiver was prematurely cut. (I still think the curse of Dwayne Bowe is going to hang over my head for the rest of time.) A couple of things let me tread water until my team finally started to get hot though. 1st, Foster, my 9th round pick, has been the overall number 1 rated player in all of fantasy so far this year. Honestly, I didn’t completely luck into him. I had my eye on him all through preseason, and he was in my draft queue for like 3 rounds before I finally picked him…but I still did pick him in the 9th round, so I guess I lucked out at least a little. He’s pretty much saved my season. Forte has been somewhat inconsistent, but he’s still been good enough to be the 12th rated running back so far this year. Jennings and Johnson have been steady all year, and they are respectively the 9th and 13th rated receivers in the league up to this point as well (with Jennings really picking it up lately). Two Buffalo Bills have given me a big boost. I drafted Jackson in the 10th round, and even though the Bills backfield was crowded earlier in the year I had a feeling he would eventually have the starting job all to himself, and picking Steve Johnson up off the waiver wire almost completely made up for dropping Bowe. Johnson hasn’t had quite as good of a year as Bowe statistically, but ranked as the number 7 fantasy wide receiver he isn’t far behind. Cooley has been steady at tight end (ranked 8th among tight ends this year), and Flacco has improved as the year has gone on (ranked 12th among quarterbacks). The sneakiest pickup of the year for me was Roethlisberger, who would probably be a top 5 fantasy quarterback this year if it hadn’t been for his 4 game suspension. Flacco and Big Ben have formed a pretty good quarterback platoon for me, and there have been a couple of weeks where I wouldn’t have won if it weren’t for Roethlisberger.
It has been a fun year so far for fantasy. Like I said, this is the most fun league I’ve been a part of, and it doesn’t hurt to have a good team for once as well. I’ve had decent teams before, and I even won a league once (it was somewhat fluky, as my team entered the playoffs as the lowest seeded team), but whether my team advances deep into the playoffs or not I can say this has easily been my best fantasy team so far…of course, luck always plays a part in that. Like my Dad always says, “It’s better to be lucky than good.” Hopefully, I can be lucky for a couple more weeks…although I wouldn’t bet against Dwayne Bowe coming back to haunt me again before all is said and done.
Anyway, I have talked about past fantasy teams in past blogs, but 11 weeks into this year I haven’t mentioned this team until now. This is partly because I have just been busy enough that I haven’t gotten the chance to write period, but also because this year I actually have a decent team and didn’t want to jinx it (so much for that). I’m only in 1 league this year, and for the 1st time I am the league commissioner (which has been an interesting experience). This has been the most fun fantasy league I have ever done by far. Not only does pretty much everyone in the league know everybody else, but we are all pretty much family! It’s a 12 team league split into 2 divisions comprised of Krissy and I, Krissy’s Dad and brothers, my brother, Krissy’s cousin DJ, our friends Mac, Pat, Lauren, and Allen, and Pat’s little brother. I have gone through entire leagues where I didn’t interact with anyone else in the league once. Those are the leagues that you eventually lose interest in and don’t even bother checking after a while. Inevitably, you forget to check your lineup one week, and you eventually notice that you had an empty spot in your lineup while your stud running back sat on your bench. Those leagues are no fun at all…this league has been the complete opposite, as there has been constant trash talk, taunting, and trades (even somewhat controversial disputed trades). People even vote on who is going to win each matchup from week to week…who even does that?!? The only thing that would have made it more fun was if I was able to get everyone to put in $10-20, but I just couldn’t seem to get the money part of it organized fast enough. It’s also been an interesting league because there were some weird things going on earlier in the year. Certain teams were having some strange luck, but now it seems like some of that is starting to balance out. The teams that pass the eye test (you just can look at the roster without knowing their record and tell they’re one of the better teams) are proving out to be the teams with the better rosters…but some of them had such bad luck in the beginning that they are still in catch-up mode, which could make for an interesting finish to the season.
My team is currently 7-4, good enough for 1st place in my division and 2nd in the league overall. I’d like to think my team definitely passes the eye test, and I’ve got the stats to prove it (as of right now, I’m the league leader in total points scored for the season among all 12 teams). My team has taken somewhat of a strange journey though…I had one of those teams that I was talking about that kind of fell on hard luck earlier in the year. I started off the year only 2-3, and it looked like I was headed for another mediocre fantasy season, but somehow I got my guys to rally, and I’ve won 5 of the past 6 weeks, including the last 3 overall (sorry for the bad sports coaching pun). If you look back at my draft though, it’s a wonder that my entire team isn’t a complete bust!
I ended up picking 6th in the draft, and at that point most of the stud running backs had already been taken. I had told myself that if I found myself in a position where I couldn’t take a running back I was satisfied with to stockpile wide receivers early on, and to try to get a bunch of mid-level running backs in the middle rounds hoping that at least a couple of those hit-or-miss picks would hit. I figured this wasn’t a bad strategy if I couldn’t get a top flight running back like Chris Johnson or Adrian Peterson since it’s a passing league now more than ever, and so many teams are using two-headed or three-headed monsters at running back. Anyway, I took Andre Johnson with my 1st pick, and even though he has battled through a bad ankle for most of the year (even missing 1 game) he has been pretty solid. He has had a couple of sub-par games, but he has thrown in a couple monster games as well. My 2nd round pick was Pierre Thomas, which I was really happy with at the time, but an ankle injury of his own has sidelined him since like week 3! My 3rd pick was Greg Jennings, who started off slow, but has carried my team the last couple of weeks. My 4th round pick was Dwayne Bowe, which made 3 wide receivers in my 1st 4 picks…pretty unconventional, but every time my pick came up there was no running back available that I thought deserved to be drafted that high. In the 5th round I finally took my 2nd running back with Matt Forte. I had Forte in a league the year before, and he was a bust for me, but I figured getting him in the 5th round was a pretty good value for him. In the 6th round I took Pierre Garcon. That meant out of my 1st 6 picks, I had taken 4 wide receivers. In the 7th round I took Joe Flacco. It was pretty late to draft your 1st quarterback, but I had targeted Flacco from the beginning. I just felt like he was going to have a breakout year. I followed similar reasoning in taking Chris Cooley in the next round. He hadn’t been rated as high among tight ends as in past years, but I thought he could bounce back with McNabb coming to the Redskins.
That meant through my 1st 8 picks I had only taken 2 running backs…now was the time to utilize part 2 of my plan, which was to gobble up the remaining quality running backs while everyone else was probably focused on other positions at that point. The other part of my theory was that every year there turns out to be a Cedric Benson of that year’s draft…a running back drafted in the middle to late rounds that was pretty much an afterthought, but turns in a career year out of nowhere. Either way, my season was going to make or break depending on whether my draft night strategy worked or not. In the 9th round, I took Arian Foster (remember that pick). In the 10th, I took Fred Jackson, and in the 11th I took Clinton Portis. My last 4 picks of the draft were used on (in order) Mohamed Massaquoi, Julian Edelman, Miami’s defense, and kicker Shayne Graham. I have used a dozen kickers and defenses this year so far, so those picks were pretty inconsequential.
I mentioned before that I started off the season 2-3. Part of that was bad luck like I mentioned, but part of that was also the result of some poor *ahem* personnel decisions. Early on in the year, Thomas and Portis both got hurt. Portis I didn’t expect much from anyway. I mean, I took him in the 11th round, and he was a longshot to make it through the year as a productive back. Garcon, Bowe, Jackson, Massaquoi, and Edelman were doing nothing as well. Even though it meant already cutting ties with half of my receivers, I cut Edelman, Massaquoi, and Garcon right off the bat in search for replacements. I don’t remember the exact circumstances, but I wound up needing to make a decision on whether or not to cut Bowe or Thomas as well. Thomas had an ankle sprain, and figured to be back in a couple of weeks. Bowe hadn’t done anything through the 1st 3 or 4 weeks. I felt I was stronger overall at receiver, so I decided to cut Bowe and hang on to Thomas a little longer. I was able to rent some decent running back help with Mike Tolbert, Willis McGahee, and Carnell Williams (none of whom are still on my roster) that were productive for me, but Bowe immediately started blowing up as soon as I cut him. In fact, to this point in the year he is rated as the 3rd best fantasy receiver in the league, which of course is higher than the ranking of all of my receivers. I usually am overly patient with guys who start out slowly, but for some reason I was the exact opposite with Bowe. To compound the problem, I still have Thomas on my roster. I guess I figured if he ever comes back, he is good insurance. Plus, there is no one else on the waiver wire that I really want, and I would hate to drop him only to have someone else pick him up if and when he finally is game-ready again.
After reading all that, you would think my team was doomed from the outset. 3 out of my top 6 picks were complete busts for me, and my would-be number 1 wide receiver was prematurely cut. (I still think the curse of Dwayne Bowe is going to hang over my head for the rest of time.) A couple of things let me tread water until my team finally started to get hot though. 1st, Foster, my 9th round pick, has been the overall number 1 rated player in all of fantasy so far this year. Honestly, I didn’t completely luck into him. I had my eye on him all through preseason, and he was in my draft queue for like 3 rounds before I finally picked him…but I still did pick him in the 9th round, so I guess I lucked out at least a little. He’s pretty much saved my season. Forte has been somewhat inconsistent, but he’s still been good enough to be the 12th rated running back so far this year. Jennings and Johnson have been steady all year, and they are respectively the 9th and 13th rated receivers in the league up to this point as well (with Jennings really picking it up lately). Two Buffalo Bills have given me a big boost. I drafted Jackson in the 10th round, and even though the Bills backfield was crowded earlier in the year I had a feeling he would eventually have the starting job all to himself, and picking Steve Johnson up off the waiver wire almost completely made up for dropping Bowe. Johnson hasn’t had quite as good of a year as Bowe statistically, but ranked as the number 7 fantasy wide receiver he isn’t far behind. Cooley has been steady at tight end (ranked 8th among tight ends this year), and Flacco has improved as the year has gone on (ranked 12th among quarterbacks). The sneakiest pickup of the year for me was Roethlisberger, who would probably be a top 5 fantasy quarterback this year if it hadn’t been for his 4 game suspension. Flacco and Big Ben have formed a pretty good quarterback platoon for me, and there have been a couple of weeks where I wouldn’t have won if it weren’t for Roethlisberger.
It has been a fun year so far for fantasy. Like I said, this is the most fun league I’ve been a part of, and it doesn’t hurt to have a good team for once as well. I’ve had decent teams before, and I even won a league once (it was somewhat fluky, as my team entered the playoffs as the lowest seeded team), but whether my team advances deep into the playoffs or not I can say this has easily been my best fantasy team so far…of course, luck always plays a part in that. Like my Dad always says, “It’s better to be lucky than good.” Hopefully, I can be lucky for a couple more weeks…although I wouldn’t bet against Dwayne Bowe coming back to haunt me again before all is said and done.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
All Dogs Go To Heaven
So much for my last post (which was a month ago)! Despite Griffin (16 points, 10 rebounds, and about 3 “wow” plays per game) and Landry’s (tied for 4th in the league in tackles) individual successes, the Clippers are currently 1-10 and losers of 6 in a row, while the Redskins just got housed on Monday Night Football this week…to top it off, Landry is now being accused of spitting on opposing players during games…not a good week for my man-crushes. Anyway, yesterday I got a call from my parents, and sadly they had called to tell me that the family dog, Dayton, had passed away.
Dayton had definitely lived a full life, and it was definitely her time. She was 17 (going on 18) years old, which might not be uncommon for little dogs, but Dayton was a lab-retriever mix. Relatively speaking, she was a big dog, and that is a long, long time for a bigger dog to live. Honestly, I had kind of been prepared for when she would pass for a while now. You had the feeling that it could have happened any day now every day for the last two years, but Dayton just somehow kept hanging in there. She could barely get around anymore, and she was constantly having accidents in the house. In fact, she had had so many accidents that for the last year or so my Mom has half-jokingly vowed that whenever Dayton did happen to pass away she was immediately ripping up the family room carpet and getting all the carpeting redone. When our whole family went to the beach for a week in August, we all wondered how Dayton would deal with it, but she survived…the two long car trips, being carried up and down 2 flights of stairs in a giant Rubbermade tub several times a day just to go to the bathroom, and everything else. I think we all started to get the feeling that, as fragile and feeble as she had become in her old age, Dayton was just going to go on living forever. Unfortunately, time catches up with us all though at some point.
I had talked to my Mom and Dad over the phone a couple of times last week, and they had informed me that Dayton hadn’t been doing very well the last few days. Through all her problems (her lack of balance, the loss of some of her senses, her accidents, her loss of strength in her legs), Dayton was still able to do a couple basic things necessary to survive. She could get up and move when she really had to or wanted to, and she was still eating food and drinking water! Anyone who has grown up with dogs knows that as long as the dog at least still does those things, they are still going to be alive and kicking. Well, last week Dayton had stopped doing all of those things. She couldn’t get up, she didn’t eat, and she didn’t drink any water. On Thursday of last week, my Dad said that as he was making himself a sandwich or something, he saw her perk her ears up little. He offered her some lunchmeat, and she took a few nibbles, but that was all she could manage to do. Amazingly, despite not eating or drinking, Dayton kept hanging on. My Dad said that every morning he would come downstairs and wonder whether or not Dayton would have made it through the night, and each morning she was still alive...but on Tuesday afternoon, she apparently couldn’t fight anymore. She died peacefully in the same room that she had spent the majority of her life.
It’s hard to justify comparing the death of a pet to that of a human being, but in many ways it is just as sad. It is a different kind of sad, and it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what is different about it, but it’s sad none of the less. I’m 25 years old. We got Dayton the year we moved into our new house, almost 18 years ago. The math isn’t all that tough…that’s the majority of my life, as well as my younger brother and sister’s lives. It is, after all, just a dog, but it’s not hard to see how something or someone becomes a part of your life after 17 or 18 years. Everyone who has ever had a pet could list a hundred things that they will always remember about that pet, so I will leave that part of the story out. It’s one of those things where every pet story is both unique and similar to everyone else’s at the same time. If I started down that road, I don’t think I would ever stop! Naturally, everyone thinks their own dog is the greatest dog to ever live, but Dayton really was a good dog, and she will always be my family’s first dog as well. I know my parents’ house will be a little emptier the next time we go over to visit. I do believe though, much like the title of that kid’s cartoon movie from back in the day, that all dogs go to Heaven. (I was always a sucker for that movie.) I think my Mom said it best when she said, “Dayton, Nonna will be waiting for you with a nice piece of Italian bread when you get there”…and Dayton will devour the bread, tail wagging all the while.
Dayton had definitely lived a full life, and it was definitely her time. She was 17 (going on 18) years old, which might not be uncommon for little dogs, but Dayton was a lab-retriever mix. Relatively speaking, she was a big dog, and that is a long, long time for a bigger dog to live. Honestly, I had kind of been prepared for when she would pass for a while now. You had the feeling that it could have happened any day now every day for the last two years, but Dayton just somehow kept hanging in there. She could barely get around anymore, and she was constantly having accidents in the house. In fact, she had had so many accidents that for the last year or so my Mom has half-jokingly vowed that whenever Dayton did happen to pass away she was immediately ripping up the family room carpet and getting all the carpeting redone. When our whole family went to the beach for a week in August, we all wondered how Dayton would deal with it, but she survived…the two long car trips, being carried up and down 2 flights of stairs in a giant Rubbermade tub several times a day just to go to the bathroom, and everything else. I think we all started to get the feeling that, as fragile and feeble as she had become in her old age, Dayton was just going to go on living forever. Unfortunately, time catches up with us all though at some point.
I had talked to my Mom and Dad over the phone a couple of times last week, and they had informed me that Dayton hadn’t been doing very well the last few days. Through all her problems (her lack of balance, the loss of some of her senses, her accidents, her loss of strength in her legs), Dayton was still able to do a couple basic things necessary to survive. She could get up and move when she really had to or wanted to, and she was still eating food and drinking water! Anyone who has grown up with dogs knows that as long as the dog at least still does those things, they are still going to be alive and kicking. Well, last week Dayton had stopped doing all of those things. She couldn’t get up, she didn’t eat, and she didn’t drink any water. On Thursday of last week, my Dad said that as he was making himself a sandwich or something, he saw her perk her ears up little. He offered her some lunchmeat, and she took a few nibbles, but that was all she could manage to do. Amazingly, despite not eating or drinking, Dayton kept hanging on. My Dad said that every morning he would come downstairs and wonder whether or not Dayton would have made it through the night, and each morning she was still alive...but on Tuesday afternoon, she apparently couldn’t fight anymore. She died peacefully in the same room that she had spent the majority of her life.
It’s hard to justify comparing the death of a pet to that of a human being, but in many ways it is just as sad. It is a different kind of sad, and it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what is different about it, but it’s sad none of the less. I’m 25 years old. We got Dayton the year we moved into our new house, almost 18 years ago. The math isn’t all that tough…that’s the majority of my life, as well as my younger brother and sister’s lives. It is, after all, just a dog, but it’s not hard to see how something or someone becomes a part of your life after 17 or 18 years. Everyone who has ever had a pet could list a hundred things that they will always remember about that pet, so I will leave that part of the story out. It’s one of those things where every pet story is both unique and similar to everyone else’s at the same time. If I started down that road, I don’t think I would ever stop! Naturally, everyone thinks their own dog is the greatest dog to ever live, but Dayton really was a good dog, and she will always be my family’s first dog as well. I know my parents’ house will be a little emptier the next time we go over to visit. I do believe though, much like the title of that kid’s cartoon movie from back in the day, that all dogs go to Heaven. (I was always a sucker for that movie.) I think my Mom said it best when she said, “Dayton, Nonna will be waiting for you with a nice piece of Italian bread when you get there”…and Dayton will devour the bread, tail wagging all the while.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Man-Crush
From time to time, I have been known to develop some man-crushes, but there are 2 dudes that I am swooning over like a teenager right now. One of which has been an on-and-off 3 year relationship, and the other has just kind of snuck up on me recently. The man-crush that just recently surfaced is LaRon Landry, safety for the Washington Redskins. Landry had an up-and-down 1st couple of years in the league. He suffered through the typical period of adjustment that NFL rookies who crack the starting line-up go through, and for much of the last couple of years he played out of position a lot at free safety. That was mostly the cause of the tragic death of Sean Taylor, who was only already the best young safety in the whole league at the time. If Landry and Taylor had been able to play alongside each other for four, five, eight, or however many seasons, they might have been eventually regarded as one of the best safety tandems of all time. Lofty praise, but how many great safety combos can you think of in NFL history? Great cornerback duos maybe, but I don’t ever remember a team having two All-Pro caliber safeties. I’m too lazy to do any actual research, but somebody correct me if way off base here. Anyway, Landry’s 1st few years were memorable for some big plays and huge hits, but mostly for costly missed tackles and blown coverage assignments. This year, Landry has been moved back to his more natural position at strong safety, where he has more freedom to roam the field, blitz the quarterback, and play downhill around the line of scrimmage, and it has really paid dividends up to this point. Through 5 weeks of the NFL season, the Skins defense is ranked last in the league in yards given up per game, but that’s through no fault of Landry, who seems like he is all over the field knocking down quarterbacks, blowing up runners and receivers, and causing turnovers. Tackles are not an official statistic in the NFL, but Landry is the unofficial league leader in that category at this point in the year, and he also has a sack, a forced fumble, and a pick. He looks like a supersized Troy Polamalu…which brings me to the other reason for my man-crush. The dude is friggin’ ripped. Everyone has their own personal workout goals. Mine are not to get so huge that I look like a beached whale. I have said before that I would like to look something like an NFL safety…but trying for Landry’s physique might be asking for too much. The guy is listed as my height (6-0), but he weighs 220 pounds, and he looks like he could be 240, easy.
I mean, come on, man…that is ridiculous. Nevermind that poor excuse for a dishcloth that Landry is using as a shirt here. Show me the workout plan to get guns like that. He’s one of those guys (like Julius Peppers and Andre Johnson) that are so jacked that you can practically see their pecs and delts through their freaking shoulder pads.
And as big as he is, he seems like he’s usually the fastest guy on the field. I’m sure even at whatever weight he’s at that he runs like a 4.4 forty yard dash, and if you got him on a basketball court he can probably throw down pretty easily as well. Landry is apparently a workout legend, as he has gained notoriety for his obsessive weight lifting routines as of late. Landry has confessed that he even sneaks training sessions in on the nights before and after gamedays, when even the most dedicated gym rats are trying to catch some extra shut-eye and nurse injuries…hard not to like a guy like that. If I wasn’t in my anti-jersey phase, Landry would be the one current Redskin whose jersey I would wear.
Speaking of jerseys, a couple of months ago my one brother-in-law, Franky, got someone to hook him up with authentic jerseys for like 20% of what their retail value is. Franky copped himself and everyone else whatever they wanted…some wanted Yankees jerseys. Others wanted a Wade or LeBron jersey (from the Heat of course). What did I want? A Los Angelos Clippers Blake Griffin jersey (hence, my other man-crush). I’ve wrote about Griffin before, but he was one of my favorite players coming out of college ever. In fact, he is probably my favorite college player who isn’t a local kid of all time. For example, I root for all the former Terps – Dixon, Blake, Wilcox, etc. – to have successful NBA careers, but I usually don’t care much about anyone else. Every once in a blue moon somebody from a team that I have no rooting interest in catches my attention, but after watching Griffin play a couple of times at Oklahoma I was immediately hooked. Yea, he has great ball-handling skills and great touch on his shot for a guy his size, but Griffin is no Euro-style big guy or AAU big guy, who really just want to shoot jumpers and play like a guard…no, no, no, Blake Griffin is a true power forward, a rare bread in modern basketball. He’s a solid 6-10 and 260 pounds. He looks as if he could break your fingers if you shook hands with him. He runs the court like a deer, and he explodes off the floor like a young Shawn Kemp. And with all that athletic ability he still has great touch and footwork around the basket. He also possesses other intangibles that make it hard not to like him. He seems like he is 1st class work ethic, has a good head on his shoulders, and doesn’t seem like he has much of an ego. In college, he was obviously the centerpiece of those Oklahoma teams, but he looks like the type of guy who can average 20+ points per game without having a single play called for him just by running the floor and crashing the boards…hard not to like that in a world full of “me 1st” guys.
When he had to miss all of last year with a knee injury, I was legitimately bummed-out. I will always be a college hoops fan 1st anyway, but I don’t remember ever being depressed over anything NBA-related quite like that. I was actually looking forward to seeing this guy play in “The League.” When he was drafted, my thoughts were that even the Clippers couldn’t screw this one up…Griffin was a lock to be a multi-time All-Star…after he got hurt I thought we were going to be robbed of watching Griffin’s career progress the way it should, and instead he was going to be just another entry on the list of many careers gone South because of the most cursed franchise in sports. This year, he looks like he’s back to 100%. I know that no predictions should be based on summer league and preseason games, but by all accounts Griffin is on a mission. In games that don’t even matter, he’s playing like a man possessed. Check out his box score from the other night in a preseason game against Denver: 36 minutes, 7 for 13 from the field, 10 for 12 from the free throw line, 24 points, 14 boards, and 4 blocks. The one question mark on Griffin as he was coming out of college was his defense, but he appears to be a stud on the defensive end as well. My explanation is this: if you look at Griffin’s college teams, he was not only the most important player on those teams by far, but he was also one of their lone big guys. Griffin couldn’t afford to get himself into foul trouble stupidly trying to block shots and jump over people’s backs for rebounds. Without Griffin on the floor, those were some very average Oklahoma teams. People mistakenly wondered about his defensive intensity when really he was just smartly doing what he had to do to make sure he was able to stay on the floor.
Anyway, this year everyone’s eyes will be on the “super friends” in Miami or on the Lakers or the Celtics…but I’m going to keep an eye on Griffin and the Clips. If he stays healthy, he at worst puts up an 18 point per game, 8 rebound per game kind of season…but I could also see him putting up some monster numbers in the neighborhood of 22 and 12. John Wall has superstar written all over him, but I think Griffin (while flying somewhat under the radar because of missing all of last year) has to be the odds-on favorite for rookie of the year. I’m also wondering if Griffin is one of those players that comes along once every 5 years that is just so good that he alone is worth 15 or 20 wins for a team. The Clippers only won 29 games a year ago, but with Griffin and an improved Eric Gordon could they bump that number up close to 50? That might be tough to do in the ultra-deep Western Conference, but take Duncan or Durant or Kobe out of the their respective lineups for an entire season…how many games do those teams win without them? I think (and hope) Griffin is that kind of player.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Ladies and Gentlemen...I'm Baaaccckkk
It’s time…time for a couple things. 1st, it’s time to start doing this whole blog thing again. As corny as it is, I have to say that I’ve missed it a little bit. It’s been a couple months since I have posted a blog on MySpace, when that one fateful day after hitting “submit” a notification appeared saying that my work had blocked people from making MySpace posts of any kind. I never bothered to logon at home because…well, just because. When I did post things, it was almost always around lunchtime at work, around a time when I needed a break and a distraction from what I was doing. Doing it at home just seemed like a waste of time…but I liked having a forum to jot down my random thoughts every once in awhile. I can still email. I will still email. But I always felt bad for some of my boys (Pat, Mac, Allen, etc.) when they would email me trying to stir up a short-and-sweet conversation, and I would reply back with what looked like a 5,000 word essay. They probably thought I was a little off my rocker, not to mention long-winded. If I have some other outlet to write every now and again, maybe that will curb my need to expound on various subjects for hours on end in other places…like a Bill Simmons wannabe or something.
Why am I switching websites altogether? Why not just stick with MySpace? I mean, I have some history with that site (I think I 1st created my account in 2005), and I probably have 3 or 4 years of blogs in there as well. But it’s MySpace for Pete’s sake. Almost no one still has their MySpace. Everyone has switched over to Facebook or Twitter or something else entirely. I mean, Krissy and I are 2 of the only people I know who deleted their Facebook accounts, but we kept MySpace? How does that make any sense? MySpace is a virtual wasteland. At this point, it is almost entirely made up of musical acts, spam-bots, and people who just forgot their account existed. One time a few months ago I got bored, and I actually logged on to just **gasp** look at my friends’ pages. It was a pretty sad and pathetic experience…like if you went back to visit a house you used to live in, and when you got there the place was abandoned and falling apart…and there were hookers living in it…and dealing crack. The page layouts were dated, everyone’s info wasn’t current, no one’s pictures had changed in years, and most people hadn’t even logged in for over 2 or 3 months. To be honest, I couldn’t even remember what my page looked like, and when I saw it I asked myself, “What were you thinking?!?” For the last three years, I only logged on for 2 purposes: to check it in the rare once-every-6-months occurrence of someone actually leaving me a comment and to blog. Honestly, the only reasons I kept it at all were for nastolgia’s sake (same reason Krissy was keeping hers) and to write. Once I couldn’t get on it to post a blog every now and again, what was the point? I copy and pasted all of Krissy and my old messages back-and-forth to each from when we were still just dating (basically 21st century love letters), saved the pictures that I wanted that I knew I didn’t have already saved somewhere at home, and deleted my account. It’s time to start fresh. I give it like a few months before anyone even notices my page no longer exists.
How I wound up picking BlogSpot (or “Blogger” or “Google Blog”) for my new page is kind of funny actually. I was looking at Mark Titus’ “Club Trillion” blog, and I noticed that was what he was using. I already like a lot of Google’s stuff, I use Gmail as my main email account, and the way his page was set up was simple and effective…so I go to create an account, and apparently I already had one!! Whhhaaaa…??? Turns out back in May of 2008 I had created a Blogger account. I wrote 1, count ‘em, 1 post. I had titled the blog “Post-It Notes,” and my URL was http://kristinasboy4ever.blogspot.com. Wow…not only is “Post-It Notes” incredibly cheesy and not all that clever, but “kristinasboy4ever?” I mean, I’m all for giving shoutouts to my wifey, but that was pretty weak. And writing “forever” as “4ever”…my gosh, what was I thinking? Curiously, I glanced at how many times my page had been viewed in the 2+ years of its existence, and mercifully that number was “0.” So, I thought of maybe editing that existing blog, but seeing as how I had 1 post from May of 2008, I figured why not just start over. (Also, I now vaguely remember being blocked from MySpace at work before, only to have it get unblocked soon after…that must have been the reason for me creating that account.)
Anyway, I chose the name “B-Court All Star” as a kind of homage back to my college pickup basketball days. Back at the RAC at UMBC, there were (and still are) 3 courts on the recreational side of the building. They are all-purpose courts, but you can play full-length hoops games on all 3. We (as in the RAC regulars) nicknamed the 1st court the “A-Court” because that’s usually where the higher skill level, more competitive pickup games took place. The “B-Court,” which was the middle court, was a step down from there. The skill level and competition was still decent, and if the A-Court was too crowded you could probably still get a decent run on the B-Court, but if you were an A-Court player playing on the B-Court you were usually the best player there by far…hence the name “B-Court All Star.” (I know that if you have to explain a joke that probably means it’s not funny to begin with, but oh well…) Today, I still consider myself a B-Court All Star in a way…do with that what you will. The C-Court was a place that a good basketball player would never want to find themselves. Located at the far end of the building, it was usually filled with random people, like stray cats that had just wondered into a dark alley. Professors, kids wearing jeans and skater shoes, hipsters with their weird hipster girlfriends…it was a scary place. Sometimes, we would call the C-Court the “Asian Court” or the “Middle Eastern Court.” That probably sounds incredibly racist, but hear me out…sometimes, usually on a slow Friday night, a group of 10 to 15 Asian or Middle Eastern dudes would stroll into the RAC all at once and get a game going. These games were filled with tons of unintentional comedy, ranging from the incredibly bad level of play to the same guy wearing the same full-on Tracy McGrady outfit every week (the matching Houston Rockets jersey, shorts, T-Mac headband, socks, wristbands, and shoes). This isn’t to say that there aren’t any good basketball players who are Asian or Middle Eastern (or professors for that matter) because I knew plenty of really good players from all different backgrounds, but it was hard to miss these congregations of really bad basketball players.
There was always an interesting hierarchy to the RAC courts as well. My friends and I talked about the court dynamics because we were there all the time, and it was like observing animals in a zoo, but I think to everyone else the hierarchy was more of an unspoken code of the court. Generally, most players naturally gravitated to the courts of their appropriate skill level. Every once in awhile you would get an “outlier,” but for the most part people knew the natural order of things. Depending on how crowded it would get, sometimes a trickle-down effect would occur where the A-Court players would spill onto the B-Court, causing the true B-Court to be the C-Court, and then maybe the Asian Court would get bounced to the main gym…or if it wasn’t crowded the opposite would happen, and the Asian Court would become the B-Court, for example. This “phenomenon” is probably only remotely interesting to me and a small handful of people, but to us it was like sociology class in real life…and it also explains the story behind “B-Court All Star,” so there you go…
I’m dragging on, so I will end on what I think is an appropriate B-Court All Star topic. In the coed touch football league Krissy and I play in, the website for the league creates like this mock magazine cover with an action shot from the previous week’s games. We have been playing in this league for like 2 years, and no one from our team ever even being snapped in a picture before, but Krissy actually made the cover on the homepage. If that’s not B-Court All Star, then I’m not sure what is.
My baby’s going out for a pass there, but she looks like a safety breaking on a receiver as she’s about to take their head off! Talk about “utilizing strength!” And I love the fake bar code at the bottom…classic. Almost as good, but not quite, I had a picture in like the 20-pic slideshow they made for the week. Welcome to the gun show, everybody.
I would love to say that I sped around that dude and raced off to the end zone like Chris Johnson…but that would be a lie.
Why am I switching websites altogether? Why not just stick with MySpace? I mean, I have some history with that site (I think I 1st created my account in 2005), and I probably have 3 or 4 years of blogs in there as well. But it’s MySpace for Pete’s sake. Almost no one still has their MySpace. Everyone has switched over to Facebook or Twitter or something else entirely. I mean, Krissy and I are 2 of the only people I know who deleted their Facebook accounts, but we kept MySpace? How does that make any sense? MySpace is a virtual wasteland. At this point, it is almost entirely made up of musical acts, spam-bots, and people who just forgot their account existed. One time a few months ago I got bored, and I actually logged on to just **gasp** look at my friends’ pages. It was a pretty sad and pathetic experience…like if you went back to visit a house you used to live in, and when you got there the place was abandoned and falling apart…and there were hookers living in it…and dealing crack. The page layouts were dated, everyone’s info wasn’t current, no one’s pictures had changed in years, and most people hadn’t even logged in for over 2 or 3 months. To be honest, I couldn’t even remember what my page looked like, and when I saw it I asked myself, “What were you thinking?!?” For the last three years, I only logged on for 2 purposes: to check it in the rare once-every-6-months occurrence of someone actually leaving me a comment and to blog. Honestly, the only reasons I kept it at all were for nastolgia’s sake (same reason Krissy was keeping hers) and to write. Once I couldn’t get on it to post a blog every now and again, what was the point? I copy and pasted all of Krissy and my old messages back-and-forth to each from when we were still just dating (basically 21st century love letters), saved the pictures that I wanted that I knew I didn’t have already saved somewhere at home, and deleted my account. It’s time to start fresh. I give it like a few months before anyone even notices my page no longer exists.
How I wound up picking BlogSpot (or “Blogger” or “Google Blog”) for my new page is kind of funny actually. I was looking at Mark Titus’ “Club Trillion” blog, and I noticed that was what he was using. I already like a lot of Google’s stuff, I use Gmail as my main email account, and the way his page was set up was simple and effective…so I go to create an account, and apparently I already had one!! Whhhaaaa…??? Turns out back in May of 2008 I had created a Blogger account. I wrote 1, count ‘em, 1 post. I had titled the blog “Post-It Notes,” and my URL was http://kristinasboy4ever.blogspot.com. Wow…not only is “Post-It Notes” incredibly cheesy and not all that clever, but “kristinasboy4ever?” I mean, I’m all for giving shoutouts to my wifey, but that was pretty weak. And writing “forever” as “4ever”…my gosh, what was I thinking? Curiously, I glanced at how many times my page had been viewed in the 2+ years of its existence, and mercifully that number was “0.” So, I thought of maybe editing that existing blog, but seeing as how I had 1 post from May of 2008, I figured why not just start over. (Also, I now vaguely remember being blocked from MySpace at work before, only to have it get unblocked soon after…that must have been the reason for me creating that account.)
Anyway, I chose the name “B-Court All Star” as a kind of homage back to my college pickup basketball days. Back at the RAC at UMBC, there were (and still are) 3 courts on the recreational side of the building. They are all-purpose courts, but you can play full-length hoops games on all 3. We (as in the RAC regulars) nicknamed the 1st court the “A-Court” because that’s usually where the higher skill level, more competitive pickup games took place. The “B-Court,” which was the middle court, was a step down from there. The skill level and competition was still decent, and if the A-Court was too crowded you could probably still get a decent run on the B-Court, but if you were an A-Court player playing on the B-Court you were usually the best player there by far…hence the name “B-Court All Star.” (I know that if you have to explain a joke that probably means it’s not funny to begin with, but oh well…) Today, I still consider myself a B-Court All Star in a way…do with that what you will. The C-Court was a place that a good basketball player would never want to find themselves. Located at the far end of the building, it was usually filled with random people, like stray cats that had just wondered into a dark alley. Professors, kids wearing jeans and skater shoes, hipsters with their weird hipster girlfriends…it was a scary place. Sometimes, we would call the C-Court the “Asian Court” or the “Middle Eastern Court.” That probably sounds incredibly racist, but hear me out…sometimes, usually on a slow Friday night, a group of 10 to 15 Asian or Middle Eastern dudes would stroll into the RAC all at once and get a game going. These games were filled with tons of unintentional comedy, ranging from the incredibly bad level of play to the same guy wearing the same full-on Tracy McGrady outfit every week (the matching Houston Rockets jersey, shorts, T-Mac headband, socks, wristbands, and shoes). This isn’t to say that there aren’t any good basketball players who are Asian or Middle Eastern (or professors for that matter) because I knew plenty of really good players from all different backgrounds, but it was hard to miss these congregations of really bad basketball players.
There was always an interesting hierarchy to the RAC courts as well. My friends and I talked about the court dynamics because we were there all the time, and it was like observing animals in a zoo, but I think to everyone else the hierarchy was more of an unspoken code of the court. Generally, most players naturally gravitated to the courts of their appropriate skill level. Every once in awhile you would get an “outlier,” but for the most part people knew the natural order of things. Depending on how crowded it would get, sometimes a trickle-down effect would occur where the A-Court players would spill onto the B-Court, causing the true B-Court to be the C-Court, and then maybe the Asian Court would get bounced to the main gym…or if it wasn’t crowded the opposite would happen, and the Asian Court would become the B-Court, for example. This “phenomenon” is probably only remotely interesting to me and a small handful of people, but to us it was like sociology class in real life…and it also explains the story behind “B-Court All Star,” so there you go…
I’m dragging on, so I will end on what I think is an appropriate B-Court All Star topic. In the coed touch football league Krissy and I play in, the website for the league creates like this mock magazine cover with an action shot from the previous week’s games. We have been playing in this league for like 2 years, and no one from our team ever even being snapped in a picture before, but Krissy actually made the cover on the homepage. If that’s not B-Court All Star, then I’m not sure what is.
My baby’s going out for a pass there, but she looks like a safety breaking on a receiver as she’s about to take their head off! Talk about “utilizing strength!” And I love the fake bar code at the bottom…classic. Almost as good, but not quite, I had a picture in like the 20-pic slideshow they made for the week. Welcome to the gun show, everybody.
I would love to say that I sped around that dude and raced off to the end zone like Chris Johnson…but that would be a lie.
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