St Louis Simply Put

Blues vs Stars 10-2-10 in pics

2010-10-03T14:12:00.000-07:00

Meet the New and Imroved RRVS in Fargo, ND a 3/8th's mile track

2010-04-03T09:35:00.000-07:00

If only I lived in 1928...

2010-02-10T10:40:00.000-08:00

Opening day in Sweetish Style..

2009-10-03T12:07:00.000-07:00

The Blues got the season started off with Jay Mac's 1st goal of the season. Instead of waiting 22 games, he got the monkey off his back in the 1st. The game then shifted to the Deadwings, as they scored 3 unanswered goals. Then it was the Blues turn to score 3 unanswered goals. The game winner went to Paul Kariya, as he dished it to TJ Oshie, then Osh gave it back to PK as they went in on a 2-0 break, PK beat Os(notso)good on the blocker side again for his 2nd goal of the game..

Good 1st game back for PK as he only played 11 games last year. He was averaging over a pt/game. And it looks like he'll continue that pace.

Jay McClemment is the Leading scorer in the NHL! Who'd a thunk? Not me.. But then again it's early..

Chris Mason, looked steady, and definitely pulled off some huge saves for the win. Ty Conklin will get his piece of his old team today.

Brian Engblom loves TJ Oshie. (He's the Versus TV network in studio analyst. Last night he called out that Osh must be doing something right, since the 2nd year youngster is put out 1st on a 5 on 3 against the most deadly power play in the League last year.... Engblom goes on to talk about how great of an all-around player Osh is, and how Murray must have lots of confidence in the youngster.

Let's plan for a "SWEEDISH SWEEP"

I couldn't but help to laugh when I saw this pic up on http://www.stltoday.com/ the fans on the right, and the Blues on the left, as they're both on their way to eat lunch together.. As you can see someone probably woke Jax up from a nap.

Dirt Track wear updated

2009-07-20T20:41:00.000-07:00

Edited again 9-8-09 Some drivers better look out, cause someone is getting together a ride for 2010...

2009 Racing Season about to Start..

2009-05-06T15:24:00.000-07:00

Let's start it off with a big shoutout to our 2008 Champions.. They earned it..

Onto some predictions of sorts..

Streets: Last year rookie Lance Schill won 5 heat races, and swept 1 night.. He's moved up to the Midwest Modified ranks now. Shockingly, Joe "Spiderman" Potter won 2 heats last year, but just couldn't catch a break on bringing his car to Rydell GM Auto Center Victory Lane. The Champ brought home 4 Heat wins, and doubling that number of Feature Wins. Geringer took home 6 Heat wins, and 2 features.

photo credit http://www.joepottermotorsports.com/

This class is always uber-competitive, but I'm going to go with Spiderman to dust off the cob webs (no pun intended) and get back to the checkered flooring.

MWM's: The biggest class at River Cities saw 53 different drivers race at the famed 3/8 mile bullring. And a bullring it became. 19 different drivers won heat races, but one youngster stood the tallest winning 8 Heat races, 5 Features, and 4 sweeps yielding Dustin Strand his 3rd Points title at what he calls his home track. (Also quick shoutout to his Crew Chief Josh, it's a tough job)

(Nice trophy)Photo credit http://www.strandracing.com and www.ornesscreations.com

Strand's biggest competition throughout the season at more then one track was that of "Iron" Ryan Schroeder who took 2nd not only in points at RCS but in Devils Lake Speedway as well to Mr Strand. Schroeder won 2 Heats and 2 Features last year having his Career Best year, I do believe he's bought a new chassis mount, and looking to improve on last years performance.

Strand's teammate Flyin Bryan LePier won 4 Heat Races, and 1 Feature last year, but was a threat on any given night.photo credit http://www.bryanlepierracing.com/

Also Todd Johnson got back in the saddle of a modified and wheeled himself to 3 Heat wins, and a Feature win. Another shocker to last year was Bryan Dyrdahl winning 4 Heat races, but unable to get to the checkers 1st in the Features, but having won numerous features in 2007 I look for him to rebound in 2009. 2007 Rookie of the Year Patrik Sobolik made it through the Sophomore "slump" (is what they say) but 2008 was a great year for the 2nd year driver winning 4 Heat races and finishing 4th in Points. He's going to be due for a Feature win this year. Lastly, the Rookie of the Year for 2008 was Zach Naastad of Hatton, ND. Winning a Heat race in his 1st year against stiff competition helped boost his confidence, and having a teammate with over 100+ Feature to ask questions helped vault him to 7th in points and earned him Rookie of the Year honors..

photo credit www.strandracing.com

Moving onto some predictions for the http://www.hawkshobbyheaven.com/index.phpWissota Midwest Modifieds (I have no clue who or what the sponsor is all about but happy it's their :))

I see that Dustin Strand sold his 2007 mount that won him over 66 races in 2 years leaving him with his 2009 mount: I see he's added some wheels, and maybe might Flinstone it around the track... But then I see that Ben Adams from is going to help him with a powerplant again this year. And since the last time he debuted a new car in 2007 he went on to win over 50% of the races he entered.. Can he repeat that performance 2 years later?? Since he hot lapped last weekend in MN I say he's ready to defend his title for the 4th year. But look for above mentioned drivers plus a few street stock drivers that have upgraded to one of them Millenium Nightmare Chassis'. In Lance Schill, Adam Thompson, and a mystery guest...

photo credit www.strandracing.com The above picture is of Lance Schill's new Millenium Nightmare Chassis, powered by Millar Engines. I think he's a strong pick to win the Rookie of the Year honors, and also maybe a Feature win or 2?

Onto the NLRA Late Models:A fond farewell to the 2008 NLRA Points Champ Mr. Multi Time Champ Mike Balcaen. With over 16 different drivers winning Heat Races. Joey Pederson won 4 Heat Races and 3 Features earning him the 2008 Points title. BUT there is a driver who WON more races then Mr Pederson... Brad Seng topped ALL drivers with 5 Heat Races and 4 Feature Wins... I don't have all the stats, but I'm assuming Brad Seng missed a night or two... Also 2008 saw the comeback of Tom T1 Corcoran who went on to win 4 Heat races and a feature on his way to a 3rd place finish in points, but was even more impressive on the NLRA tour. Maybe the excitement of winning brought the young T1 back to his racing roots, and might entice him to travel more and entertain even more crowds. (I hear his car is pretty sharp this year) Troy Schill was able to take his #11 back to Victory Lane twice last year, and also picked up a Heat win on his way to taking 5th in points at RCS and 6th on the NLRA tour. Lastly, Steve Anderson, Doyle Erikson, and Ryan Corbett picked up Feature wins last year at the Action Track.

My prediction:I think Brad Seng had a great campaign last year, and Friday night will be the 1st of many Feature wins. As for rookies?? I have no idea who's moved up to late models this year?? Any help?

Onto the Dobmeier show:If Mark is too busy bonding someone and misses the feature (it could happen), but considering only 2 other drivers won Features at River Cities, I can pretty much get away with saying that.. The shocking stat though in my mind is that Dobby won 7 heat races, 9 features, but only swept 5 times. That means that 2 times he won a Heat race, and failed to win the feature!? A rare occurence, but hats off to Jason Linnell (1 feature win) and Bob Martin (3 Feature Wins) But the even bigger shocker is that Wade Nygaard won the points w/out winning a Feature.. (Granted all my stats I'm getting are updated as of 8/29/08) but still...

My Predictions:Dobby led heat wins with 7, but Scotty McDonald and Nygaard were in 2nd with 4 Heat wins.. I'd like to see McDonald get back to the winner's circle, but with Dobmeier already having raced this year, Nygaard, Kennedy's and Grosz having raced as well, it'd be a stiff task.. So I'll take Lou Kennedy just to be different

Oshie Celebrity Golf Tournament is coming fast..

2009-05-06T14:43:00.000-07:00

Don't forget to check out this event held in Grand Forks, ND. It's always a great time, and helps out a great cause..

Oshie Sports Celebrity Benefit and Golf Tournament July 29-30, 2009 Grand Forks, ND

On Wednesday, July 29th and Thursday, July 30th, 2009, the 3rd Annual Oshie Sports Celebrity Benefit and Golf Tournament will be held.

The event will feature a "Celebrity Shoot-Out" on the afternoon of July 29th, where Business leaders and fans can play amongst the Celebrities. Later that night, "A Meet The Celebrities" autograph session will take place from 6-8 p.m. at the Rydell GM Auto Center Cadillac Showroom in Grand Forks, ND.

The 3rd Annual Oshie Sports Celebrity Golf Tournament will be held on Thursday, July 30th, at the magnificent links-style King's Walk Golf Course. This Arnold Palmer designed golf course is one of the best courses in North Dakota.

There will be only ONE flight of 36 teams in the tournament. They anticipate a 12:30 p.m. shotgun start for the golf scramble. Due to the very high demand for teams, they will fill the 36 slots on a first-come, first-served basis.

If you have any questions regarding this event please contact:

Timothy Oshie at (360) 722-1784 or (701) 757-1080 or simply e-mail to oshiesports@gmail.com.

How the West was Won:

2009-04-09T07:59:00.001-07:00

Well since I've been sucking as of late on posting, you can scroll down 2 or 3 posts, and see what I predicted with 10 games left in the season or just click here.

I'm actually pretty happy with myself, because my NCAA Hockey Tourney prediction was really really brutal!! To be able and bounce back with these predictions is gratifying, as I only watched a handful of NCAA hockey games this year, and probably watched over 200 NHL games this year.. It's been a great year for me..

Here's what I predicted for the Blues with 10 games left: (if red= wrong, blue means true!)
vs Los Angeles: 2 points (Osh's hit on the Capt. towards the end of the game was great)
vs. Vancouver: 2 point (Osh's goal against Roberto is getting voted as goal of year on nhl.com)
vs. CBJ: 2 points (Did you see that hit on Nash? Ohh my)
AT CBJ: Win (I predicted Loss, and Nash also predicted he'd lay out Osh from last nights excursion, turns out we were both wrong, as the Blues beat the Jackets, and Osh laid Nash out again)
AT Chicago: 0 point(I'm not happy to predict losses but no way do the Blues go 5-0-1 against their heated rival this year, the Hawks needed the win so they could help destroy Anaheim, and Nashville and help the Blues, see it all happens for a reason!)
AT Detroit: 1 points (I didn't think Backes would score 5 goals in a game, we all know it's 5 not 4.)
AT Dallas: 2 points (Really, the Blues dominated, and should've had 2 points, but lost in OT, Modano's still got talent left in the tank.) (I've give myself half a point)
AT Phoenix: 2 points (Blues put an exclamation point on that win)
April 10 vs. Columbus: 2 points
April 12 AT Colorado: 2 points

So far, I've got 5.5 out of 8 right, and I'm thinking I might go 7.5 for 10... Not bad.. The best part about it though is that I predicted the standings to be this:
1. San Jose
2. Detroit
3. Calgary
4. Chicago
5. Vancouver
6. Columbus
7. Edmonton
8. St Louis
(I'm off on Edmonton, as Anaheim's in their spot but still 9 out 10 not bad...)

With the current standings looking like this:

I'd really like to see Columbus lose to the Blues, and Wild. While the Blues beat Colorado, leaving the Jackets and Blues tied at 92 points! Then if Anaheim wins out too, it's a 3 way tie, boosting the Blues since they've got the best head to head record against the 3, boosts the BLUES INTO 6th place!!!!!

Who would've thought that the team who before the season when they had all their players healthy were picked to FINISH LAST IN THE CONFERENCE, and 30th in the LEAGUE by the "experts". For them then to lose their #1 and #2 defensemen for the year, then they lose their #1, #2, and #3 forwards for over 30 games.. It's a testament to the coaching staff, and the whole team. I do believe the Blues (or as I like to call them the Red Cross) have the 2nd most man games lost to injury in the entire league.

The Blues are in control of their destiny to make the playoffs, and if they do, it's mission accomplished 1 year ahead of schedule.. I hate to even think about what this team's going to be like next year, and in 3 years. As every reporter or person who has watched this Blues team will tell you the Blues are being led by 22 year old Oshie (rookie), 25 year old Backes (3rd year), 20 year old Perron(2nd year), 20 yr old Berglund (rookie), but also they've had some great goaltending coming for Chris Mason.

I guess I'd like to see the Blues square off in the playoffs against either San Jose, or Calgary in the 1st round. Both teams they match up well against.

Therefore, sorry Nashville, and Minny, those teams miss the playoffs this year..

That's all for now I need to get back to work..

Sorry Readers....

2009-04-09T07:53:00.001-07:00

It's been 13 days since my last post, and I've been VERY VERY busy with the Blues, Life, Ex girlfriends and her family, watching the best 16 year old hockey players in the country play in the National Tier 1 and 2 Tourney, work, even more work, trying to get my taxes prepared, oh and attempting to watch some sort of college basketball.. (After all the Women's Final Four was in my city, I couldn't help frolic around a little??)

So I'll try to break down as much of the last two weeks as possible, starting with my next post about the Blues, and the NHL's most exciting race of all....

THE RACE TO THE PLAYOFFS!!

The Big bad Flood.... Redux

2009-03-27T14:54:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I was born bred Grand Forks... North Dakota style.

Since I live in the Lou, many whom know me around these parts keep asking how's my hometown doing? How's my mother, father, and family doin? To most of their questions I can only say, "Well they say they're doing ok, and that they're going to trust the National Weather Service, whom couldn't tell you the right thing if it hit them in the face.. Much less predict when a god damn river that flows north will crest! But, I guess I'll regress and have to take their word for it, and say they're doing fine.."
So finally I decided you know what I'll just go ahead and tap into that flood cam that they put up on the Grand Forks Herald web site... Just to put me at ease.. Afterall my dad's house is literally a drunk stumble into that damn flood wall..(It hurts, trust me, you don't want to try and bounce off it)

So yesterday I peaked in, and now today, I'm firewalled since I'm at work... So I decided to google up some pictures, and wouldn't you know it, I cyber stalked some rando's pictures of the events right now... Oh and did you know President Barak Obama declared North Dakota a State of Federal Disaster, or something like that?? I think what he was trying to say was that he wishes the UND Hockey team makes it to the D.C., and then to the White House, as he had a lot of fun in the Alerus last year.. Without further ado, since you probably don't want to hear any sappy story, about what my friends and I went through in 1997.. Let's all stay positive, I mean afterall the Blues are on a winning streak, my NCAA BBall bracket isn't all but a bust quite yet (it will once UNC decides to lose), and I'm sure if you didn't already know Obama doesn't think the fighting sioux nickname is hostile or abusive..

This picture below was taken on March 25, 2009:Onto Sand Bag Central shall we:
This brings me back to when I was 13, at Sand Bag Central, unfortunately and shockingly this picture was taken around 4am on March 26th, 2009.. Wowza
That's some good team work there.Here is a picture of Minnesota Welcoming their visitors with a HUGE WALL! lol, it always cracks me up:By the time this blog went to press, this was the latest picture, and YES the Sorlie Bridge pictured above is UNDER WATER...
Here's the link to the guy's flickr site. From what I can deduce, he's a college student at UND, and a bartender, that is a foreigner maybe? Who fly's a lot, prolly a prophead.. Anyway 4am sandbagging is pretty impressive.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrottler/3387292054/

GOOD LUCK GRAND FORKS, I WISH ALL NORTH DAKOTANS WELL.

March Madness..... Baby Bragadocious!! Baby!!

2009-03-24T13:52:00.001-07:00

Basketball Thoughts:
I entered into a pool of about 25, whom are probably the most knowledgeable college bball fans I know, and still as of the other day I was in 3rd place.. Having never watched a single game this year, I probably can only name 3 players in college right now, err check that, probably could name four.. Every year I just google NCAA Bracket Stats, and break it down by the numbers. But 1st is always first go with the gut feeling. Like I had the KU would demolish NDSU.. Then I figured we owe my bro for his services in the War in Iraq. So I picked the cliche' team of UNC, winning it all, and Tyler Hansboruough (I know 4 players, but I didn't say I knew how to spell their names) would raise the cup, errrr I mean cut the "net" (I think that's what they do when they win a title..)

Needless to say, Psycho T, and his weirdness, will climb on the ladder??(That's even more weird when they do that, and the crowd is on the bball floor, and here is this ladder all these people are climbing up and down to "cut the net") Needless to say, it's why I don't watch it all..

Back on topic, I broke my bracket up 1st by going by my gut, then I went with some statistical things that always happen, like the 5v12 "upsets", that happen a lot.. Then some other stuff, mix it all up, and you got yourself a bracket that could SUCK, like my brothers ha ha ha, or ROCK, like mine.. Happy Trails (ps Shame on my bromo for not even picking his KU to repeat! You fair weather fan!! Rock Chalk biyatch)

NHL MARCH MADNESS:
So the Western Conference is the tightest it's ever been, well tighter then anyone can remember.. I'm talking so tight, it's borderline teenager barely legal amateur porn tight.. (Ya you know what I'm talking about you sick pervert!)

Here are the standings with 10 games to go:
6 COLUMBUS 72 Games/ 38-28-6/ 82 points
7 EDMONTON 72 Games/ 35-28-9/ 79 points
8 NASHVILLE 72 Games/ 35-30-7/ 77 points

9 ANAHEIM 72 Games/ 35-31-6/ 76 points
10 MINNESOTA 72 Games/ 34-30-8/ 76 points
11 ST LOUIS 72 Games/ 33-30-9/ 75 points
12 DALLAS 72 Games/ 33-31-8/ 74 points

The Blues have no games remaining against the four competitors now immediately ahead of them in the standings (Edmonton, Nashville, Anaheim and Minnesota). When you look at the remaining schedules for the Western Conference teams fighting for playoff spots, it seems like the Blues have a chance at dragging Columbus back to the pack, since Columbus has 3 games remaining with the Blues (2 of them in St. Louis).

The TARGET according to previous years means you need to get to 90 points to make the playoffs. Assuming the Blues pick up those 15 points, let’s forecast where they’ll come from:
Tonight vs. Los Angeles: 2 points
Thursday vs. Vancouver: 2 point
Saturday vs. Columbus: 2 points
Sunday AT Columbus: 0 point
April 1 AT Chicago: 0 point
April 2 AT Detroit: 1 points
April 4 AT Dallas: 2 points
April 7 AT Phoenix: 2 points
April 10 vs. Columbus: 2 points
April 12 AT Colorado: 2 points

There is my prediction of their 90 points a TALL TALL Task..

Edmonton has two games against Anaheim, two against Calgary to close out the season, plus one game each against Detroit, Minnesota, Phoenix, the Kings, Vancouver and San Jose. Only 3 of the Oilers last 10 games are on the road (Phoenix, Anaheim & Calgary). My prediction they stay in the playoffs.

Dallas has 2 games against the Kings, and one each against Florida, Vancouver, Phoenix, Calgary, St. Louis, Minnesota, Anaheim, and Colorado. They'll stay out of contention.

Nashville plays two each against Detroit, Chicago, and Columbus, with single games against Anaheim, San Jose, Los Angeles, and Minnesota. This team loses to Detroit, Chicago, San Jose, and Columbus. Wayyy too tough of a task for them to stay in contention..

Anaheim has 2 each against San Jose, Edmonton and Colorado, and one each against Nashville (R), Vancouver, Dallas and Phoenix (R). Losing to San Jose, Edmonton, and hopefully Vancouver. Meaning their win against Nashville, Dallas, Phoenix, and Colorado puts them short.

Minnesota has 2 games against the Flames, with single road games versus Rangers, Islanders, Oliers, Red Wings and Columbus, with single home games against Dallas, Nashville and Vancouver. The Wild just lost their leading scorer, and even if the "weak one" Mary Anne Gaborik comes back, this team won't make the playoffs. Causing some heads to hopefully roll for all my friends up in the North Country..

So the Western how I'd like to see it play out:
1. San Jose
2. Detroit
3. Calgary
4. Chicago
5. Vancouver
6. Columbus
7. Edmonton
8. St Louis

With a game 7 in 1st round b/w San Jose and St Louis..

Happy Week everyone..

An email I get...

2009-03-20T19:22:00.000-07:00

Nice article on ESPN online!!!! Be sure to read that last line, in bold and green.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=3992254&sportCat=ncb

**click on the Midwest tab**, but here’s the article:

North Dakota State (14)

Best Case: After hordes (well, some) Bison fans pour across the Red River and descend upon Minneapolis for a semi-home game, they're treated to an epic upset of Kansas on a 25-foot 3-pointer by Ben Woodside. Gov. John Hoeven hails this as the greatest sporting moment in state history, non-ice hockey division. With a 1-0 all-time NCAA tournament record, team doesn't even bother with second-round game against West Virginia. Goes shopping at Mall of America instead.

Worst Case: Kansas shows the Bison exactly how vast the difference is between the Big 12 and the Summit, rolling to a 20-4 lead. NDSU squad that went 0-3 against teams in the field of 65 turns the ball over repeatedly, gets in foul trouble, cannot get open looks for Woodside and loses by 30. Meanwhile, North Dakota goes on a run to win national hockey championship.

Let's rid the Bison, in a way my ancestors did....

2009-03-17T09:59:00.000-07:00

Let me 1st say, Welcome to March Madness!!!! BABY!!!!!!! (Enter Hooter's tv commercial featuring Dicky boy Vitale and his "new" friends at every one's favorite Restaurant)

I've heard a lot of debates going on the radio the past few weeks, about the "mid-major" teams not getting their fair shake to get into the Men's NCAA Basketball tourney..

I say who gives a sh-t. I mean really if you're one of those teams battling for that 65th spot, do you really think you're worthy of even making it? Much less make a run??

I mean go join a crappy conference like NDSU did, and win that tourney to get an auto-bid...

Ahhh, moving to my next point.. NCAA is awesome about getting crappy teams in over good teams due to their auto-bid selection.. I don't care if you're talking Hockey, or Basketball. Crappy Conferences produce Champions who automatically get in to the tourney, but in a way it all evens out, I mean the top teams need to get their practices in on someone..

But on occasion you just might witness an upset, a la #1 Minnesota vs #16 Holy Cross upset or what I call the Miracle at the Ralph in 2007. Let's hope something of that nature happens again in either the Basketball or Hockey Tourney..

I've also heard on the radio shows these media guys crying about how they only fill out 1 bracket for each sport, and that's it. Meanwhile other people who aren't the "experts" fill out numerous brackets, and then one of their 100 different brackets is almost perfect and then they brag about it..

I laughed at this because I thought it was funny they would bring something like this up on air, but since they did I laughed even more, because you know every year they probably get like a bazillion emails from guys who made more then one bracket and are rubbing it in at how great they are!

Last year, I participated in the Slice's NCAA basketball bracket challenge. The brackets were hosted on CBS, and I thought it was very entertaining to watch me climb the charts with my bracket.. The only thing I was looking to do was hold my own, and beat my bro's, at a sport I can't play, and barely watch.

Leading to my next point...

The only NCAA Basketball game I'll watch from start to finish will be.....

NDSU vs Kansas

Why: BECAUSE NDSU needs to get CRUSHED!

Why the hatred: I'm actually more pissed that these no talent ass clown reporters in Fargo, ND are trying to say that this teams entrance into the NCAA tourney is one of, if not the GREATEST sports story to come out of North Dakota!

HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHA

Wow!! I'm not going to get into this debate, but let me just say a few things:

When you ask people about North Dakota Sports, they'll probably mention our Hockey Palace, or maybe our Numerous amounts of National Championships in Hockey, maybe even Phil Jackson..

What they won't say is:
"OH YA, they were the state that had that NDSU Bison team that played in the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament in 2009"

"but then got crushed by the defending Champ Jayhawks! By a score of 150-10 making them the biggest losers to ever play in the NCAA tournament!"

Well maybe they might say that..

80 degrees and I tell that ditch please..

2009-03-06T12:22:00.000-08:00

So this morning I woke up and realized it's going to be a heck of a great day! Don't you just love waking up, and hearing the birds chirping almost like they are sitting in your window sill? (I have birds that have made a nest above my window at my apartment, which just so happens to be 3 stories up, so its next to impossible to get them to leave, quite annoying they can be)

Anyways, moving on I woke up this morning, and heard yesterday that today was going to be in the 70's with a tad bit of wind. So I googled the closest golf course and driving range. ZING! I'm hitting driving range balls at around 9am.. I found a brand new range facility that's about a mile from my apartment...(last summer I was traveling pretty far to a crappy facility to get some practice in..) So I get to this nice place and they're rocking laser guided distances. So you can track which pin is what yardage, and which ditch(sand less bunker) was at what yardage.. It was actually pretty cool. I've played golf for numerous years, and never once have I been to such a tech'd out driving range.. Even the ball dispenser was technologied up... You have to go inside the pro shop, and pay for whatever amount you want, then you go out to the machine type in the code, and the balls go into your bucket that's hanging on a hook.. It was pretty cool. I also wanted to know what this little clubhouse was all about that was perched about 100 yards in the air on the other side of the fencing?? The owner said he pays kids to sit up there and lookout for other kids that try to hit balls over the fence, and into traffic or the nearby ditch.. I laughed, and told him numerous stories of my rangering days at Ray Richards.. I think I'm a fortunate kid who was able to grow up playing golf at one course looking up to all the college athletes that worked their as a "Ranger". (aka A person who slept in a golf cart most days on the golf course nestled behind some trees nursing a hangover that they got at some huge house party on campus the night before..)

I only know of 1 guy who actually was fired from Ray Richards in all of my years of being there everyday from ages 8-14... That man was Chad B. (to disclose his identity) I don't remember his story but all I remember were the days he'd ask me to drive him out to the trees behind #2's tee so he could sleep, while I was able to go and look for golf balls along the trees.. Needless to say he would show up late a lot, and one day or two he missed his whole shift, and then good 'ol Nancy had to give him the axe.

Through the numerous years of growing up there eating Subway daily (it used to be the clubhouse's only food next to the pro shops delicious Pugsley's sandwich's) we became basically free workers for the staff doing almost anything for something free like soda, range balls, golf, old rental clubs, or free clubs out of the "$3,$5,$10" bins that were actually lost clubs that have been lost for more then a few weeks so in turn they sell them!! (What a great racket that's got to be)

Moving on, I remember the numerous amounts of putting tournaments with all of us kids gambling, and then the winner would take on the ranger on duty at the time, and the stakes could be very high, for an example: If the kid lost, he had to pick the driving range fence alongside #1, BUT if the kid won he could be entitled to a bucket of range balls, or free use of the chipping range ball pickers, or maybe a golf club from the aforementioned bins? One never knew what was on the line.. But every put was a PRESSURE COOKER..

Ahhhhh yessss, this morning up until about noon I sat on the driving range stroking balls out into the range remembering many things in the past like the great child rivalries we had to the stupid things we did as kids at the course (hitting balls at rail cars, to dumping rocks into the stream) every memory in the past, but smiling all day today I couldn't help but think about the past and the future.

TONIGHT's Sports Docket:
Sioux vs Badgers:
My friends piled into a bus this morning at 6am to make the trek east to the Cheesehead state. Visiting the Kohl center is a must on anyone's list. Tonight's game will have more people in the stands watching then the Blues game in Tampa Bay, not because it's the Blues fault see below..
The Sioux will win at least one game this weekend to win the Cup, whether they do it today or tomorrow doesn't bother me..

Blues vs Lightning:
The Blues have sold out 22 times at 19,806 people in the Scottrade, BUT because it's Hockey in Florida tonight's attendance might be 12,000!! LOL, look at what's in Florida right now, the MLB, radio shows in Orlando, and all that stuff, way too many distractions.. Only the die-hard Lightning fans are going to be in attendance to watch the surging Blues take on the bottom dwellar Lightning.. My thoughts are the Blues handily beat the bolts, and hopefully solidify there run towards making the playoffs.. Only 2 points out with a win tonight!

Trade Deadline... Blues Style

2009-03-03T08:45:00.000-08:00

I'm so sick of the rumors about Chris Pronger, all year I hear this blow-hard "Blues" fans yell and scream at "ka-choke" and "Boo-er" (Keith Tkachuck and Eric Brewer).. It's been very disturbing to say the least..

A little background Eric Brewer and Jeff Woywitka plus a draft pick were acquired by the Blues and sent Chris Pronger away. And some still have a bad taste in their mouth's about it.. I wasn't here when it went down, but at the time the Blues weren't playoff contenders, and were wanting to lower their salary cap, so they sent their highest paid player away. (Makes sense to me)

Now the Blues have a stock pile of young talent available in return as I think they may become buyers before the deadline. The Blues need help on defense especially in the scoring column. (With Erik Johnson and Eric Brewer out their #1, and #3 defenseman respectively out for the year, but have contracts on the books for next year.)

Enter Anaheim because the Ducks appear to have a choice between trading Pronger or trading Scott Niedermayer. Anaheim has tons of questions as to what their team will look like next season because they have a flood of players are free agency bound.

I think the Blues are looking to add an impact player, whether it's a defenseman or a forward. They also are looking for a No. 2 or, more likely, a No. 1A goaltender. Manny Legace will get claimed off re-entry waivers by Ottawa or another team, so the Blues know they either have Holt, Bishop, or make a splash and pluck someone like Craig Anderson of the Florida Panthers? Maybe Curtis Sanford, who's in the Canucks' minor-league system, would be a good fit in a Blues sweater once again. (But again I'm opposed to dealing off players, and then keep bringing them back, if they were great for the team they wouldn't of been dealt..right?..)

If Ducks GM Bob Murray has an eye on the future, he could swap Pronger, an aging veteran with a high salary, for a similar defenseman with a lower salary. Word from Anaheim says Niedermayer likely will stick around, so Pronger is the odd man out. The first trade chip St. Louis could use to get Pronger is Alex Pietrangelo, the No. 4 overall pick last June. It would seem outrageous for the Blues to move Pietrangelo, who is expected to be a first-pair defenseman when he's ready for full-time NHL duties. But with the Blues needing to make the playoffs, and with other defense prospects believed to be closer to NHL duty.

They also could move David Perron, since the Coaches seem to keep him in the dog house almost like a colt they are trying to break. (For you fellow Equine enthusiasts out there.) Perron looks good at times but takes undisciplined penalties at others. Perron is totally out of place as a fourth-line player. He is best when playing with the Blues' top two young forwards Berglund and T.J. Oshie. That line made major contributions in Thursday's game, scoring on consecutive shifts and nearly scoring on their next shift. And on Saturday, Perron scored a great goal to help beat the Coyotes.

The Blues appear to believe collegian Aaron Palushaj rivals Perron, and Palushaj could jump from college hockey at Michigan to St. Louis. He's the Blues' best college forward prospect. They also have Brett Sonne of WHL Calgary, who had 41 goals and 43 assists in 52 games and is capable of replacing Perron's scoring. As for young defensemen, there's Ian Cole at Notre Dame, Cade Fairchild at Minnesota, Jonas Junland at AHL Peoria and Russian prospect Nikita Nikitin, who turns 23 this summer and is ready to make the NHL jump.

Also, Roman Polak is a lock to stay on the roster. Don't forget, the Blues also have Erik Johnson, who is making excellent progress from knee surgery. Pronger has a season left on his contract. Brewer will be back next season with time left on his contract. There's your top two. Johnson and Barret Jackman would be the No. 2 pair. So as good as Pietrangelo figures to be, he could be in play for Pronger.

Or could he be in play for, say, the Montreal Canadiens? The Blues could use a scoring left winger and might pitch a deal for Christopher Higgins, whom the Canadiens are shopping. We see Perron as the more logical fit.

The only way Walt (Tkachuck) leaves St Louis, is if some team goes Vito Corleone style on JD "an offer you can't refuse" which could be the Canadiens. It also could be the Pittsburgh Penguins. Here's a sure sign of interest by the Penguins: They've had a scout at seven of the Blues' past eight home games.

My Analysis:
I like the idea of adding a scoring Defenseman, but not Chris Pronger, I'm think Jay Bo. Also I don't think Higgins is a good fit for St Louis. Walt stays here, or IF the Bruins come calling I say he goes back to his collegiate turf. A goalie to help Mason would be great, how about Clemenson who just got sent down now that the big bad Marty is healthy in Jersey?

Whatever the moves, the Blues are a team on the rise. (Have you checked their stats since January?) They might not make deals at the deadline, but as desperate as they are to make the playoffs, I can see at least one big trade by them happening before Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET.

McDonald's where art thou...

2009-03-02T12:07:00.000-08:00

McDonald's what are you doing with yourself!? Are you trying to lose my future business?!?!?

1st off, I love McD's, but only once a week at most.. If more then that, it starts to get to me..

On Saturday I found it was one of my coworkers bday on sunday, so we all planned to pitch in, and buy him a cake and a gift... So this morning I roll in with all the goods, and as I'm going around to everyone to have them sign it, I go to our intern in the service department, and he asks when is Pete's bday? I say oh, it was yesterday, but were having cake, and we got him a name plate for his desk. He then says, sweet! His Bday is on the same day as me!

I replied, "oh really? Are you serious??" He goes on to say ya, and then walks away after scribbling on the card.. Just pissed.. (The kids 20, and spent it alone, I mean what am I going to do about it now?)

So moving on, I feel bad later on, as I bought candles, a cake, a card, and a gift for one person, and not the intern in back..

It hits me! I'LL BUY THE YOUNG LAD A MCD's BDAY CAKE!!
How great is McD's Chocolate Bday cake?!?!? It's to die for! I tell you what, I bought a marble shitty neutral bday cake for all of us today, and paid $20! It sucked, compared to what the sugary sweetness of McDonald's Bday cake... Mmmmm Mmmmm

Every little bite brings me back to the old days of the jungle gyms, and the ball pits that we used to hide in, so our parents couldn't see us, because we didn't want to leave!!

So about 20 minutes ago, I decide I better call the local McD's to make sure they can have one ready for me for tomorrow.. (2 Bday cakes in 1 day is a bit much.. 2 Bday cakes in 2 days on the other hand is just right)

In my dismay, this tween-ager tells me uhhhhhh, we don't have the Birthday cakes anymore.... and our store in Red Bud, and Columbia won't either because were owned by the same peeeeople...

I reply back to this kid who probably makes $5.15/hr ... "Are you kidding me?? What don't you have birthday parties anymore?? Is this the same McDonald's that was geared toward kids, and fun while eating??"

He replies back, "uhhh I don't know let meeee ask myyyy manager.."

I then say, "Dude, forget about it, McDonald's has gone corporate, hell they're going after all these yuppies who'd rather drink some mocha choca coffee all damn day then eat.."

He then says in his best stoner version, "Dude!! Riiiighhhtt on mannn, you'rrrree awesommme."

I then say, "No man you're awesome."

The last thing I heard before I hung up was, "ha haa Rigghhhht onnnn man.." CLICK

After hanging up with the tweedager, I decide to go to McD's locator, and call all the McD's on my route to work tomorrow.. In all I pass a total of 5, I repeat 5 McDonald's... How many McD's?.. 5, yep not a single one carries the ever so delicious chocolate bday cake..

Ronald McDonald is rolling over in his grave right now.. How am I suppose to show my kids what life was like when I was a kid, if they don't have a McD's bday cake!!!!???!?!?!?!!?!??!?!!?!?

What a terrible start to my month, knowing that when my bday comes along, there will be no way of having a little slice of Chocolate McD's heaven...

Saturday morning thoughts...

2009-02-28T07:47:00.001-08:00

It's the last day of the month, and for me work's been crazy great! Also it seems my good fortunes have also come with others great fortunes as well.

My big bro's new career has taken him to some pretty great places around the country. Thus, congrats to my brother, who was able to make it the "Big Apple" before any of my family.. While there he was able to take in numerous sights that one can only dream of.. Madison Square Garden, Central Park, Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, Memorial Walls, hell the whole god damn area is a sight in itself! (All I have here is an Arch, two big rivers, and a botanical garden.)

Moving on, while talking to him last night since he was again sitting in an airport being the traveling business man he is, he asked me about the Match Play Event going on.. I gave him the run down on the matches, and also peppered him with hope and confidence that there was no one left to be able to topple his boy Justin Leonard.. In lieu of this I aslo stumbled upon telling him my thoughts on ol McIlroy err young young McIlroy.. The kids still a teenager, and his name is Rory McIlroy, not to be confused with Roy McIlroy who stole the hearts of many on that glorious 18th hole at the US Open..

I mean this is what the PGA needs when Tiger Woods doesn't make the cut.. (Which never happens, but when it does you'll find more people watching the NBA, then you will a golf event without Tiger. Ya, that's how bad it gets)

But just think what if this young McIlroy shows up to a tourney embracing a Tin Cup shirt, think of the ratings! Think of the hype! I bet my mom might even set her DVR on it, just so she can maybe catch a glimpse of Rory's own version of Rene Russo, urging Rory to "GO FOR IT" while laughing, "let the big dog eat!"

McIlroy, and his lady friend can have great talks, and maybe do some swinging lessons and what not, maybe even invest in a driving range... I don't know but you get the idea..

Good for the Government to crack down on them Bankers, I mean first they go to the gov't begging and pleading to them that they need some money to bailout their companies or else all of us American's will lose all of our money?? (In theory that's what they were projecting, afterall don't you remember the WildCat Banking back in the 1800's? Thanks Danny Owens for your crazy Econ classes at UND) Could you imagine people running the banks and pulling all their money out!? LOL, first we need to have money in there to pull, and much of my generation doesn't, it's mainly them big ass baby boomers who have it all..

Sorry for the tangent, but I was happy to hear that Northern Trust, who decided to take $1,600,000,000.00, if you're keeping track at home that's roughly $7/per tax paying citizen in the US. Responding to lawmakers who chastised the company for its lavish sponsorship of parties and concerts at a professional golf tournament, Northern Trust Corp. said Friday it will pay back a $1.6 billion federal bailout loan as quickly as possible. They say it's unfortunate that people are overlooking that the tourney they sponsor has helped raise $50 Million since its inception... (I know that's a big number, but since it's inception? Really?? I'm sure they tried really hard to make that as big of a number as possible...) Also on this Northern Trust company, I will give them credit they did earn $794.8 million in 2008, but since they didn't break the billion dollar profit line, they are going to cut 4.5% of their employees which is about 450 people.. Stay Classy San Diego...

ONTO BIGGER AND BRIGHTER THINGS:

RIDERS>>>RIDERS>>>GO BIG RED>>>

That's right folks, this guy graduated from the BEST High School Institution in North Dakota! PERIOD, no need to debate that at all. As this '02 Alum ran the most profitable School Store North Dakota has on record.. (that's right kids, and yes, we still gave out some 5 finger discounts, but it wasn't a shit show like it used to be. lOl)

So the Red River Roughriders walk into Ralph Engelstad Arena tonight for the North Dakota State High School Championship. This will be for Red River's 14th State Title Banner making them the winningest school since its inception. Also tonight is the 17th straight year that a Grand Forks High School Team will be in the championship game.. (Type in Red River High School Grand Forks, what do you get... a hot chick, an alumni shirt, and some pics of Rider Hockey Players scoring goals.. 'nuff said)

I wish the Boys well tonight.. As they are facing off a Bismark team, which is the 1st team out of the west to make it to the Championship game since 1992.. (Do you believe in Miracles? I don't! ha)

HEYyyy SIOUXxx SIOUXxx.... SIOUXxx YEAaa YEAaa:

That's my best version of what I still yell out in and around the Scottrade Center when I'm at the Blues game.. Ironically, it's helped me link up with numerous amounts of UND supporters..

So today, and tomorrow afternoon if the Sioux sweep the Tigers, which by the way hopefully its ironic Tiger lost in the 2nd round this week, because hopefully the CC Tigers, get swept in Grand Forks. That'll gurantee the Sioux the McNaugton Cup, which goes to the best Regular Season team in the WCHA, the last time they won that was in 2004, with one of the best teams I'd ever seen put together... (we lost a lot of good men after that year.. No Wedding Crashers reference there at all.. wait yep.)

So Sioux let's win two for the sake of all them band wagon jumpers that scrutinized and wrote you off when you were in 9th place out of 10 teams... lol

LET'S GO BLUES! LET'S GO SIOUX?

Ahhh one of my other favorite things to do at a Blues game is to yell Sioux, instead of Blues, and the home of theeeeeeeee SIOOOOUUUUXXXX! It blends in so well with the Blues, it's just meant to be.. So I remember when the Blues were sitting in 2nd place in the Western Conference, then the injuries stock piled.. Plummeting to last place (15th) in the Conference...

Last night I reminded my brother that if the Young Blues win tonight in Phoenix, that'll put them 1 point out of the PLAYOFFS!!!! PLAYOFFS!?!? (that never gets old)

So yes, let' just realize what kind of GREAT DAY I"M HAVING TODAY!! If it all goes well, I might hit up the Strip Clubs and drop some Washington Bombs all over them lubed up Vanilla smelling plastic fun bags!

But if everyone starts losing, it just might be the end of this guy.... Actually not, because my bday's coming up, and with it brings way more fun then I'll have tonight..

HAPPY LAST DAY OF THE WEEK/MONTH!

Western Conference glance...

2009-02-17T12:50:00.000-08:00

The NHL has a great schedule make-up currently with thier 82 game schedule..

You play 6 games against your division rivals, and you play 1 game against EVERY team in the NHL. That helps sells seats, and in my opinion is for the Fans.. I truly appreciate the ONLY MAJOR Sport that allows it's players to settle the shit talking amongst themselves.. (And no, they don't use guns, or weapons of any kind, sorry NFL fans)

I'm getting almost as excited for the Blues this year, as I get for the Fighting Sioux every year.. This year, if the team hadn't lost all it's key players that make up over 50% of its salary cap, they would definately be called the most under rated team at the beginning of the year!

BUT, since they somehow wished some bad voodoo onto themselves, they've had to field half an NHL team, and plugged in the other half with an AHL team.. Making for some great efforts, full of heart, as their rookies/young players were the only ones showing skill out there..

Moving on, the Blues have been able to get points in 11 of last 13 games!!! That's pretty huge consider they were in last place in the Western, here's a look as they sit this afternoon:
Team-Games Played-Pts=Avg Pts/game
1. dSan Jose-54-83=1.537
2. dDetroit-57-82=1.439
3. dCalgary-56-71=1.268
4. Chicago-54-70=1.296
5. Vancou-56-62=1.107
6. Dallas-56-63=1.125
7. Colum-57-62=1.088
8. Anahei-58-61=1.052
Edmont-55-60=1.091
Minnes-55-59=1.073
Nashvil-57-57=1.000
LA King-54-56=1.037
StLouis-56-55=0.982
Phoenix-57-55=0.965
Colorado-57-53=0.930

With 26 games remaining my guess is to make the playoffs they'll need to average over 1.12 pts/game.. So currently they're at .982, meaning they'll need to take 32 points over the next 26 games to secure a spot in the playoffs if the rest of the conference stays the course...

Meaning the Blues will need to win 16 of their next 26 games. Or the least they could lose is 1o games. Or tie 20 games and win 6???

Either way this team is a team that has grabbed more in the past 13 then any would have expected and Andy McDonald has returned, and rookie D-Man Roman Polak will be returning soon, giving the Blues their 2nd best D-Man that's somewhat healthy!

It's going to be an exciting February and March!

Playoffs!... Playoffs!??

2009-02-17T12:11:00.000-08:00

Ahh yes, it's that time of the year folks...

Teams in all sports are starting to get riled up, and starting to think about the big P word....

March brings us March Madness (the only time college basketball is important in my household. As it's a time to prove to my brother and his friends that one doesn't even need to watch a single game, to beat half of them in picking out a bracket for the 64 teams or however many it is that make "the tournament")

March brings my Birthday, a huge event that it is.. (this year for my bday party I've invited 18,460 people to my party to watch the Blues play the Wild, and also the Scottrade Center is picking up the Food tab!...... and yes, if you're reading this you're invited just pick up a ticket to the game!)

Also March brings me NCAA Men's Hockey Playoffs!! And more importantly for the 5th year in a row, the University of North Dakota's men's hockey team is surging through second half the year like they're men amongst boys..

Or as Gopher player RJ Anderson put it back in January, "They came to a war with guns, and we came with butter knives."

Many may remember when people were doubting the Sioux, and jumping ship when the Sioux were in 9th place in the standings.. I simply disagreed, it doesn't pay to win the 1st half of the season, it pays to be on the giant title wave that is Fighting Sioux Hockey.. (Right Brandon ;) )

But anyway Sioux are in 1st place in the WCHA, and of course sorely overlooked in the National Polls being ranked as high as 7th.. (I think they should be higher, but that's why I'm not an "expert")

UND is 13-6-3 = 22 games played earning 29 points (Left to play: @ #9 Alaska Anchorage, Home vs #4-CC, @ #2 (in my book) Wisco) Avg. rating of teams left to play~5

Denver is 13-7-3 = 23 games played earning 29 points

Wisconsin is 13-7-2 = 22 games played earning 28 points

Works firewall is blocking me from getting Denver's and Wisconsin's schedules.. So my blog post ends here.. Untill I get them, and then I will analyze and predict who will fall where...

You heard it here first!!!!! ha ha ha

2009-02-14T11:35:00.000-08:00

It's been tough to be able to put something on here, so stay patient all.. My last post I started on Feb. 6th, and it was going to be a grand story about how I was able to watch a Blues game, watch a girl be a bartender in 5" stilleto's and wearing what looked to be my boxers cut into a small v-piece around her lower torso, and 2 patches on her upper torso, then after we were able to drink ourselves sober we finished by getting so disgusted we fled the state...

In a nutshell it's been 8 days, and to be honest work has devoured my life..

Can't judge the players by their sport...

2009-02-06T10:21:00.000-08:00

Last night was an excursion of sorts....

1st off it's very ironic that I blasted a certain type of Professional Athletes in my last post on this blog (that I've been neglecting lately, not my fault, I'm trying to get my tax stuff together, works been crazy yada yada yawn...)...

So last night, I'm meeting up with some friends to have some dinner, while watching the Blues game from one of my favorite spots in the Scottrade Center. (It's in the Bud Light Zone balcony, which is the same floor of the suite level, to kind of give you an idea on where my ideal game watching position is, it gives you the ability to watch the play develop.)

I get introduced by my friend to 2 of his friends.. So were eating and watching the game, I'm sitting next to this cat named Brandon, he's a little shorter then me, but the first thing I noticed was his watch that had me dub him as a rapper through and through in my head.. I mean this guy's watch when rotated to catch the light, damn near blinded me, I mean it's like he put one of Flavor Flav's clocks around his wrist, and frosted it with diamonds.... So it's at the beginning of the game, and he's texting, I'm texting, a sport's agent were sitting with is texting, a Blue's players dad is texting, and our mutual friend is pounding his Red Bull, when a sports writer that covers the Rams comes over and says hi to Brandon, saying "congrats on the signing!"

I'm thinking sweet, this dude signed something..... Then we set our phones on the table to partake in the Blues game.. Then his Blackberry starts blowing up a lil wayne song... Ironically it says: "lil wayne" then his #....... So I tell my neighbor his phone is blowing up, and it looks like it's lil wayne... My friend says who was it?? Then Brandon says Lil Wayne.. Then my friend says as in the rapper? He says Yes....

SOLD! This dudes a rapper!! I knew it!! So I play it cool, and thank god my sissy country music that plays when someone blows me up with a text is turned on vibrate..

So then midway through the period a players wife comes over to join us, and it turns out the sports agent I'm sitting with just started repping the Blues #1 goalie (at the time hint hint, his last name rhymes with Ecstasy)... So his wife is up there talking with us, were having a great time, it's a close game, and then period break comes, and finally, she asks who Brandon is? (I'm thinking yes, I'm finally going to figure this out... Turns out it's Brandon Williams and I guess he just signed on a new contract to play with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but according to his agent who we were sitting with, he tried getting him on the team the week before the Super Bowl! haha LOL (that was his joke not mine)

So the Blues end up losing in the Shootout, in what turned out to be a gut wrenching game...

Later that night though, I find out that a Sport's Cabaret has what they call:

THE BEST CHEST IN THE MIDWEST!

It takes place at 4am in that bar, and trust me, there were only 2 good chests of the 14 that were there.. I was actually disappointed because this sports cabaret is entrenched in between STL's hottest Strip Clubs! I knew we'd see a few of the girls come over to snatch up the $200 top prize, but shockingly only 2 showed at the last minute, pretty much nixing the extremely intoxicated women (except for that one bigger one, she was just sober and loving the attention) on the stage.. You should have seen their faces.. priceless...

Next thing I know it's 4:20am and were running back to the hotel so someone can make their red-eye to Vegas...

NFL Players + Money + Guns + HBO = Crazy

2009-01-27T13:29:00.000-08:00

On Inauguration Day, HBO aired a new edition of Real Sports, the first for 2009 and its 14th season of its Emmy Award-winning sports news magazine.In this edition, there were three new stories and one update from 2006. Let's look at the only segment I watched:

Guns & The NFL:

This story is on the debate over NFL players who carry guns. Bernard Goldberg looks into the story. It starts with Bernard talking with former defensive end Marcellus Wiley who grew up in the violent streets of South Central Los Angeles. Wiley says he saw people getting shot. He saw people shoot others and he saw people who were killed after getting shot. Wiley says not even the football field was safe. He says in 9th grade, shots were fired at the football field from a building across the street. Wiley said he had to hit the deck to avoid getting shot.Wiley says he never touched a gun during that time. He never looked at a gun and didn't buy one until he joined the National Football League. (Right, and a frog doesn't bump it's ass everytime it hops?)

But Wiley says eight seconds after he was drafted into the NFL, he bought one.This is not uncommon in the National Football League. Players feel invincible on the field, but once they leave the sanctity of the stadium, they feel they're huge targets.

Daunte Robinson of the Houston Texans did not have a gun until his home was invaded which was situated in a gated community. The invaders stuck a gun in his face, right in front of his two children, then tied him up with duct tape and robbed him.

New York Giants receiver Steve Smith was held up at gunpoint outside his New Jersey home which was also in a gated community.

Richard Collier of the Jacksonville Jaguars lost his leg after he was shot 14 times and is paralyzed.

But the two incidents that hit closest to home for NFL players were the senseless murders of two young players. First it was the drive-by shooting of Derek Williams of the Denver Broncos outside a nightclub. Then the killing of Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor in his Miami home really caused players to think about protecting themselves.

Marcellus Wiley says he now knows he's a target. He went from having zero in his bank account to having two commas and several zeroes. Wiley says being a millionaire made him a big target in the eyes of some people. And it also stems from where he came from. Compton in South Central Los Angeles. Wiley says many players came from rough neighborhoods and it's there where they become marked men because people know how much money they make. It's for that reason why many of them have gravitated to guns.

And Wiley goes on to say black players come from New Orleans, Southeast DC, places Wiley calls "murder capitals". And he says his whiteplayers come from places like Palo Alto, affluent neighborhoods. Wiley says his Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are spent in the murder capitals and that is what he has to deal with. (Right, so because it's the holiday's you the millionaire in your poverty stricken family, YOU the player has to travel back to Compton for every holiday?!? Obviously if this guy was smart, he'd simply pay for his family to come to him.. I mean afterall he does have a nice house right?)

Adewale Ogunleye of the Chicago Bears says you have to be crazy to think that you're not a target. Ogunleye lives in South Florida in the offseason, not far from where Sean Taylor was murdered. He believes Taylor might be alive today had he had a gun and not a machete. Ogunleye says players around the league talk about incidents like Taylor and are careful. Even when encountering a fan with the best intentions, players feel they still have to be on the alert in case someone is looking at them in a negative light. It's for that reason why Ogunleye owns a gun and keeps it in his house. Ogunleye bought that weapon from a former teammate on the Miami Dolphins, Jay Williams. He tells Bernard that he doesn't go anywhere without a gun. Williams played in the NFL for ten years and since his retirement, he's become a seller of guns. When he retired, Williams sent out a mass mailing to players letting them know he was in the gun business and said he knew what they were going through and would help to keep them safe.

There are no hard statistics on the number of NFL players who owns guns, but Williams says it's a lot. He thinks the numbers are close to 85% of all NFL players who own a weapon. The NFL tells its players that any handguns must be registered and cannot be anywhere near a league facility. But Williams said he brought a gun to practice every day against the rules. He says when he leaves practice, he's in the real world and if he stops for gas, goes to the store or just gets out of his car for anything, he's going to have his gun on him. (Bad Boys.. Bad Boys.. Whatcha gun do!)

Williams says the fear factor for athletes is not crazy paranoia, it's for real. He says criminals want to get near the athletes for their money and possessions. But Bernard argues that anyone in society can make that argument. Williams counters that the criminal element sees NFL players as the alpha males in the trenches playing a physical sport who make a lot of money, so the element wants to go after them and take what they have.While the player may feel safer, in reality, he may not be. Marcellus Wiley was asked if someone comes up to him pointing a gun, would he pull out his gun? Wiley replied that once a gun is at your head, it's too late, but players don't like the element of surprise. They like to see the play materialize in front of them and then take action. Adewale Ogunleye he understands by having two people with a gun in a confrontation, things could go horribly wrong, but he says having a gun at least gives him a chance of survival. And sometimes owning a gun puts the player in more danger than any potential assailant.

Enter Plaxico Burress who's gun was never registered. Because of that, Burress faces a potential prison sentence. Williams says that incident gave players who carry guns legally a bad name because it was obvious to him that Burress was not mature enough to handle a gun. (Right, and 85% of the NFLPA is mature enough to carry a gun?)

The incident made Wiley think that it could have happened to him. That the gun could have slipped from its holster and cause it to go off. (Right, because players carry their guns in their holsters, and not in the front or in back of their beltline!? C'mon on son, 50 Cent is goin to teach dat wangsta a lesson!)

Like most players, Wiley carried his weapon for peace of mind. But it snowballed from peace of mind to paranoia. He says the gun changed his perspective and what he saw. Instead of seeing a person who wants directions, Wiley was wondering if the person was a carjacker. And when he went to clubs, he would see people staring at him possibly looking for an autograph as people who would want to rob him. But then Wiley began to ask questions that many players may not. Would he be ready to pull a gun if confronted? Could he handle a potential attempted murder charge? Could he handle a murder charge? Even if he pulled the gun and didn't use it, could he handle the legal ramifications? Could he handle if he pulled the gun on the streets, the person he pointed the gun at was coming back? So when he was with the Buffalo Bills, Wiley decided he no longer wanted to own a gun. As he was driving near Niagra Falls, he felt something bad was going to happen the longer he held possession of the weapon. So he threw the gun into the falls and Wiley says he felt a 270 pound gorilla lift off his shoulders. (Dude, you do realize you just tossed your supposed registered hand gun into a river, or worse, it could be picked up by a child or criminal, and take human lives!?!? Way to think that one through... Real mature and responsible, how about taking it in to the local Police Department, and properly relinquishing the gun, I guess if you went to Hunter's Safety, or Weapon's training you'd know that..)

But even with his revelation, Wiley feels the trend is more guns in the NFL. Mostly because of the Sean Taylor incident and because players are making more money and getting more attention.While there's a war mentality on the field, there's one off the field as well. Jay Williams says it's down to who has the biggest advantage, the criminal or him? If the criminal has the gun, he has the advantage, but with Williams and his training, he feels he has the advantage. In the transition, Bryant and Bernard had a lengthy discussion on guns. Bryant asked Bernard if there was any evidence of players being attacked and Bernard replied you don't hear about NHL or baseball players feeling this type of pressure. Perhaps some NBA players do, but it's mostly with the NFL. Bryant wants to know if this is an NFL athlete problem or a black athlete problem. Bernard says it's an economic problem and players come from murder capitals. And in those neighborhoods, guns are a normal part of life. Bryant says the athletes are rich enough to hire bodyguards so why not use them? Bernard says if they do that, the prevalent feeling is that the players are not taking care of their own problems and they're a punk. Crazy story. But as Wiley says, the trend is more guns. Grade - A+. Very disturbing.

Hextall Mind Fluck's the Pio's

2009-01-24T06:45:00.000-08:00

Last night was the 1st time I've ever seen a player get inside an opposing team's head and its coaches head so bad that, the whole team lost it's composure.

Also last night was the 1st time I'd ever seen a player mind fock a team to the point the team had to sit 4 players in the penalty box, all in the same sequence of events.

Hat's off to Brett Hextall, he took a huge elbow to the head, then was drug to the ground by another player after the whistle, and penalty was called. Then after that settled out play was supposed to resume, BUT the Denver Pio's goon's weren't done yet.

The ensuing faceoff didn't happen as another Pio Goon, decides to start slashing Hextall before the faceoff even occurs, sending that goon to the penalty box, plus an additional for what I'm sure was unsportmanslike, or delay of game, as the puck hadn't even dropped yet.

The story of last nights game should've been about the Sioux DOMINATING the current #1 team in the WCHA in a convincing manner by a tally of 8-3. But, it'll probably be known more for the DU MENTAL BREAKDOWN..

People love to talk about the Sioux being goons, but what I watched last night, was DU's numerous attempts to goon up the game. I understand when you're getting your butts handed to you by a team that's not supposed to be good, because the guys that do the polls say so. You get frustrated and want to start slashing, face washing the team that's making you look silly.

A few more things stick out, like when the DU players decided that since there was a stoppage in play and the Sioux players were trying to seperate themselves from the Pio players, the Pio players on the bench decided to stick their arms out and start punching the Sioux Players.. Classy..

I wish this was the NHL, as these tactics that the Pio's pulled last night would have never happened if the players were held accountable for their actions.. I mean that little Maini kid that tried to dog collar choke Hextall to the ground from behind after the play was whistled dead, would've put him as the #1 on any NHL Enforcer's List of people to go out and beat down the 1st second they hit the ice! lol (I'm reminded of Cam Janssen this week pointing at Cam Barker after his boarding/checking from behind/interference 5 minute Major on David Backes, it looked ugly, and Cammer was leaning over the dasher pointing and yelling, and the best part was the audio picked it up, and to keep it PG, he mainly just said that he's #1 on "the list", and that's how Pro Hockey settles it)

NCAA hockey, just lets it elevate, so the ensuing 5x3 powerplay the Sioux have DU sends out its goon line, and tries to injure the Sioux's top 3 forwards... I mean Coach Gwoz "knows the code" which obviously means when you're the coach that's up 5 goals, and on a 2-man advantage powerplay, you don't send out your best forwards, you send out your 5 goons to match up with his 3 goons..

Nice....

But hey, at least I get to watch round #2 tonight! So far with me watching the Sioux live, they're averaging 8 goals/game.. If they win by a blowout again tonight, like say 8-1.... I wonder what excuse some will come up with next??

Siouxper Sweep!?

2009-01-23T10:39:00.000-08:00

Tonight will be my first chance at watching the Sioux team live! Weird I know, but many times the Sioux have played at the same time as the fabled Blues. So I've had to watch the Sioux games via Internet after I've found out who scores and everything, kind of taking the fun away, but in reality I try my hardest not to go on the Internet till after I've watched the games... It's been a tough season for this guy..

SO, getting to the point, if the Sioux get swept, I'll never watch this team live on the Internet again... (notice I left myself an out, just in case I come home this year and watch them in person, or in the cities)

BUT, if they SWEEP the Pio's (I always love saying PIE-O, and then follow it up with CRAP/Shit the latter when I'm drunk... yes I'm still bitter from the West regional in '04 when Bochenski and Parise were told by Blaiser not to leave the ice until they scored. {Dean their was like 5 minutes left in the game!?}) sorry, if they sweep the Pio's they move into the #1 spot in the league! It'll be the 1st time probably ever that the #1 team in the WCHA will be ranked lower in the polls.. Showing once and for all the people who do the polls are that useless..

If they split, it's like sister kissing. I hate ties, and ties should be settled via shootout! Or in the case of a split, they should play a 3rd game on Sunday! That would be awesome!! Wow, am I getting way off topic..

Well I wish I was at Buffalo Wild Wings in G-Forks right now, as I'd be pounding Beers, and eating up all them O-rings with that sauce add in some boneless Mild's and you got yourself one great pre-game party!

1st day in Office.. Thanks Obama

2009-01-23T10:23:00.000-08:00

Well its always nice to know that the media hasn't ran with this "SPECIAL" story....

I mean afterall, every American knew how much the Republican party spent on clothing Sarah Palin?! (It's not her fault, she lives in Alaska, which is similar to Grand Forks, only nicer, which means she shouldn't have designer gowns, and dresses it's freaking COLD PEOPLE)

So Republicans spend $150k on clothing Palin family.

OBAMA's 1/2 day in office he spends $140 MILLION on his inauguration security detail..
And not a peep out of the media?? C'mon that's rediculous. If this guy is going to save the world and turn apple trees into money trees. Why did he need to outspend the last President, President George W Bush, by about 4 times. (George Bush spent $40.2 Million on security, after winning one of the closest President's elections.)

Also has anyone noticed that since Obama's took office the price of gas across the nation has increased $0.35.. That's 3 days folks!

God.. err I mean Allah Help This Country!

Sorry Wheeler... Oshie is King

2009-01-19T20:34:00.001-08:00

Thanks to Endo for that text, as I was busy still working and didn't watch the game yet tonight..

Also just took a look at Oshie's minutes for this game...
Oshie time on ice tonight was 21:21 ranking him 1st on the team for forwards a distant 2nd was David Perron with 19:38... Even better was the Bruins top forward at 20:52 was Marc Savard... I think the NHL Young Stars game better start figuring in an injury clause as this rookie is on FIRE!!!!

Although I do have to say MSU-Makato should induct David Backes into their Hall of Fame. All-around great gee, and a pretty good hockey player:

Oh ya, and I think the West has a lot better teams then the East in the NHL and College.. 'Nuff said..

Rivalries are a great thing

2009-01-17T08:27:00.001-08:00

Since I grew up in Grand Forks, ND I've been privy to a few rivalries in my day:

Sibling: My brother and his friends used to play smear the queer (also known as the kickoff game) where my brother and his buddies (usually 1-2) would stand in the neighbors yard and throw the football to me standing in our driveway. The object of this great game for me was to somehow make it past my big brother and his big friends. (IF I ever made it, it was sweet glory, and something I loved trying to prove to the older kids on the block.) My brothers objective: Simply try and make as ridiculous, and painfully looking tackles as possible, BUT also they had to watch my face, as whenever contact to my brittle nose was made GAME OFF, Brett would start to tear up, and my brother and friends would tell me to, "DON'T WAIT TO FEEL THE PAIN!" and proceed to stuff cold snow on it.. Hoping to return to this glorious game of them laughing and high-fiving each other after every throw..(rarely if ever did I make it to the touchdown aka the imaginary line between the neighbors trees.)

GF Elementary School All-City Track meet:
Is it just me, or when you came back the next day to school after the track meet, our P.E. teacher Mr. Palmoscino would tell us the great news that our school did indeed win the All-City track meet! (Every year the Ben Franklin Road Runners won the All-City track meet, weird.. I know... no double dipping, thanks Dr. Randklev)

Red River vs Central:
Any sport every sport, it's going to be a battle..

Sioux vs Gophers:
Having one of the nicest Hockey Facilities in North America, it truly is a spectacle

My newest rivalry I've experienced was of the Professional sorts:

St Louis Blues vs Chicago Blackhawks:

My 1st experience was on Oct. 18th. The setting was sort of surreal. Former Sioux Capt. Chris Porter puts the Blues on the board 1st. Then former Sioux Jonny Toews puts up a goal for Chicago. Later in the 3rd period we witness a huge scuffle going on in the nose bleeds, and all of a sudden shirts and clothes are flying from the upper deck down to the lower deck. Turns out the on ice fights translated into the stands! (Ahh yes, reminded me of college days.) The game goes into OT at 4-4. Still no one scores pushing the game into a SHOOTOUT! A Blue scores, and then Jonny T goes out and ties it up. Then on the 3rd round Tj Oshie scores the Game Winner! It was his 1st career NHL Goal that wouldn't count. Needless to say it was an intense game, one I'll never forget as to whom I was with that night, and the partying that ensued surely was a great night! The Blues went on to play the Hawks on Nov. 14th and again the Blues Andy Macdonald put in the game winner in OT.

Tale of the Tape JT vs TJ part 2:
It's no secret the former line mates will do battle tonight in what hopefully will be a battle of who will showcase the most. The captain of the Hawks since the new year is riding a Point/Game over the last 8 games. His career over a 106 game span he's averaging .86 points/game.

On the other side TJ Oshie after having come back from his ankle injury is averaging a Point/Game in his last 7 games. Though Tj's career has been short, he's played in 19 games, and scoring at a rate of .23 pts/game. Although his last game he put up 1 goal and 2 assists against the Av's a night ago. Here's his celebration:Let the rivalries begin.....

wuhwhat...... That just happened!

2009-01-14T07:11:00.000-08:00

If you fall asleep when your team is tied in a game at 1-1. Then wake up the next day, does it matter really if they won or lost? I mean they were tied when you were watching them? So what if in the 3rd period the other team scores a few more goals, and your team loses. I say since I fell asleep, the rest of the game really didn't happen...

But hey, it's now the 2nd half of the season, TJ Oshie will show the team how to go on a 2nd half run.... (It's Sioux Nature)
Also props to TJ Oshie (4 points in 4 games since coming back from injury), as he through a shot on net, and Dan Hinote banked his rebound attempt off a Calgary defensemen and in, giving Hinote his 1st goal in 37 games, dating back to last season! (Hey Dan you're a nice guy, had some good talks, but please score more, so the Blues can get something for ya at the trade deadline..) {Some think I'm mean, but it's the business, he just doesn't fit the Blues long-term agenda}

SIOUX/Gopher OT:
Last night, I finally got around to reading some of the message boards in regards to College Hockey's Biggest Rivalry. Since the 2 game beatdown was so baaaaddddd (6-3,6-1), clearly many many Gopher fans have hit their holes, and packed it in until maybe the end of the week if they can win against St. Cloud. BUT, some huge jersey chasers (I'm talking man on man stuff) are still talking trash on the Sioux Message boards, as well as others. Not surprising, but what is surprising is the reasoning Gopher fans are repeatedly typing why they LOST.....

Gopher fans claim, because their head coach (whom didn't even want to go to N.D. due to some unknown medical condition that has taken over his body since Dec. 27th, and they still don't know what it is. Oh ya, by the way the Gophers have played without their coach before, so has UND) back on topic, because the Gopher players were missing their ever so GREAT COACH, who hasn't brought a team to the Frozen Four in over 5 years; wasn't on the bench the Gopher team was "missing" soooo much they decided they'd let the Sioux steam roll them for 12 goals..

Am I the only one that laughs at rebuttal?? What ever happened to the ol' Win ONE FOR THE GIPPER? (or Gopher) Shouldn't players want to play even harder when a player/coach is going through something personal??? Evidently the Gopher fans think when your face is rubbed in the dirt, you go home cry to your parents, and hope that they take care of whatever it is at home that's bothering them.. lol

Dick Vitale would be going CRAAYYYZZZYYY BABBBYY for North Dakota?:
Last night Jodie Meeks put up 54. Meeks broke Dan Issel's 39-year-old record of 53 points set at Mississippi. The Southeastern Conference's leading scorer was only the second player this season to surpass the 50-point mark, according to STATS. North Dakota State's Ben Woodside had 60 against Stephen F. Austin in a triple overtime loss on Dec. 12. Didn't hear about that one... Oh wait it's North Dakota State, see previous lezzy post.. (I apologize ESPN, and FSN)

Also turns out the Courier Journal agrees with me: "If Jodie Meeks were doing this at Duke or North Carolina, you'd have to cancel your cable subscription to keep him off the screen. You'd have to have Dick Vitale surgically removed from him." there's only 64 comments on that article, but it's only 9am...

The best part about it, is that now everyone at UK will be crying about how Psycho T, UNC, Duke, and KANSAS (don't think I didn't forget about the Defending Champs bromo, nice job beating up the boys from Manhattan, KS, would it have been a better game if Beasley was still there? ) are always in the spotlight on ESPN, well UK fans, welcome to what it feels like to be a fan of Hockey college or Pro... And in some sad and pathetic way, the NBA, as they can't seem to fill any of their buildings.. except for Boston, LA, and what? Cleveland, yep thank King James for that.

2010 NBA All-Star Game:
The 2010 NBA All-Star Game will be played at the new Cowboys stadium in Arlington, and the seating capacity will be at least 100,000. If the game sells out, it will have the largest attendance in basketball history. A crowd of 78,129 attended a game between Michigan State and Kentucky at Detroit’s Ford Field in 2003. The NBA attendance record is 62,046 for a Bulls-Hawks game at the Georgia Dome in 1998.

My take, it's the NBA All-Star game... 48,000 max.. wouldn't be surprised if it's around 38,000.. I could be way wrong though too..

Let's go back to the 2004 NFL Draft:
Storyline: Eli Manning is the consensus #1, only bad thing is Chargers have #1, Archie & Eli, don't like San Diego.. So:

Giants trade up from #4 to #1 getting Eli Manning.

In return

Chargers receive:
Rights to 2004 4th Overall Pick, Philip Rivers.
2005 1st Round Draft Pick - Used to draft and sign Linebacker Shawne Merriman.
2004 3rd Round Draft Pick - Used to draft and sign Kicker Nate Kaeding.
2005 5th Round Draft Pick - Traded to Tampa Bay Buccaneers for Left Tackle Roman Oben.

All that for little Eli.. Let's divulge into that draft year:
Philip Rivers went 4th, the next Qtrback went 11th to Pitts. in Big Ben, next was #22 from Buffalo Bills Selecting JP Losman.

Story of this draft: #24 pick to St Louis Rams, Stephen Jackson, currently is the highest paid from this draft.

Analysts say Eli's new contract to the Giants will put him at $120Million, for a few years, making him the highest paid player in the NFL, 2nd place goes to older brother Payton at $98.9Million..
Hey Archie how many women ask how much it would cost them for you to pregnate them?? Just askin.. I may know a few ladies..

Monday Morning Moments

2009-01-12T09:02:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of posts over the holidays, and recently. I've been busy with end of year work, and other stuff, so the blog was neglected.. Sorry it won't happen again..

OLD NEWS:
Last week the "George" started shooting his new movie all over STL (he'll be here for 5 months, also turns out that the best place to shoot a movie that has an abundant of abandoned buildings, also an empty airport is right here)... Judging by the comments section in this STL Blog about what he should do while he's here (there's only 154 comments, mainly guys proclaiming that their wives want him over for dinner, and pretty much the other 100 or so comments are girls just getting a little too excited in their pants about the thought of El Jorge coming to their house) I would say Clooney is the shizz, hell if I ran into him at the Casino, even I would be excited, I mean he shook Sinatra's hand... (well he said it in a movie, so it has to be true....)

Also last week saw the Colts go down in OT, to a team I don't want to even talk about. As they are cockier then the UofM "Golden Gopher" program...(or lack thereof, read on..)

So onto my NFL analysis:
I'm not going to lie about this, my playoff bracket is defunct... I had the Colts going to the Super Bowl... Not that I'm a homer, but I just thought Payton was healed and ready to meet lil bro maybe in the biggest game of their lives.. (How cool would that be? Prolly good for the ratings and the sport too)

Also just looking over the bracket, who predicted that the 2 #6 seeds would make the Super Bowl.. I know it hasn't happened yet, but it could happen.. I feel bad for Panther fans, they simply wrote off the Cards, and I heard about here in the Lou (yes, people are still in love with Kurt Warner, "he's the whole reason why the Rams won, and now they suck"-quoting every ram fan there) But as Jacobi wrote to me over on the Slice, DEFENSE can get you very very far in the playoffs.. Just ask Philly, as they somehow got past the GIANTS?? And I'm sure the Titans are still feeling the pain, but 3 turnovers, and some huge goal line stands helped the Ravens get past Flacco's uni brow, oh and the Titans.. (Yes, I agree with many, and Ray Lewis needs to teach Flacco about uni's, I mean after all Ray Ray is the only leader on that team..{who really would want to try and be a leader over him?}) Oh, ya in regards to Defense wins Championships, you still need to score, so in turn Offense wins you that Championship Game..

I'm done with the NFL for the year, as I don't really like anyone left in the playoffs.. I'd say Pittsburgh, but I dislike Hines Ward that much..(I'll still pick them to win the Super Bowl, over the Cards) I'd go with the Ravens, but as much as they love to talk about Joe Flacco and him being a rookie QB, you'd think someone would mention the uni brow JUST ONCE!! Just ONCE!! So I can laugh and get over it, instead they hide it, and it makes me hate him more... If the media embraced it, I'd let it go.. The Cards have Kurt Warner, who the STL papers love to lick his armpits, that's how much everyone is in love with the guy.. Making me irritated with him, just because of the sole reason he gets wayyyy tooooo much love here.. (Nice reasoning I know, as he does a lot for the community, and his story about who he was pre-NFL is a good one.. Maybe I'll change my look on him) Lastly, the Philly Eagles, and Donovan (his mom), Andy Reid (his belly) have been on my blog before, and I don't need to bash them even more.. I simply dislike them...

Moral of the story, they just don't have good guys I want to root for...

Blog Shout out: Well my deep sympathy goes over to my BoaDM, as his Day of Awesome, wasn't the greatest when it came to his favorite teams. BUT, when you can still fill your pockets with a little bit of coin, it helps maybe cover up the bitterness for a while...

BLUES Shout out: Fellow Sioux Alumni, and current Blues Rookie Standout TJ Oshie, has returned to the NHL after his injury, and now is averaging a point/game... Too bad he was injured in the 1st half of the year, otherwise media and analysts said he was a lock for the NHL young-stars game. As fellow Sioux Alumni, and current Blackhawks standout Jonathan Toews was voted in by the fans to start in the NHL All-Star game.

SIOUX Shout out: BIG BIG BIG Props, to the Sioux Hockey team over the weekend. As they dominated their Biggest Rivals the Gophers by Sweeping the weekend series in a very convincing manner scoring 12 goals in 2 games. Oh ya Minnesota was ranked #3 in the nation, and the Sioux were unranked...

Comedy Clubs: I just went to my first Comedy Club on Saturday Night.. I have to say, it impressed me. I went to a place called the FunnyBone, and the hallway is lined with numerous pictures of guys/girls that actually performed their before they made it big: Chris Farley, Chris Rock, Woody, and about 10 others that I'm brain farting with that I recognized. Either way it was a fun experience, and I was expecting an old routine, but Robert Hawkins (might be the guys name) was the headliner, he's appeared on HBO, comedy central, and other places, but he had some great current jokes about commercials like the Sham Wow, and $5 foot longssss... LOL I'm still laughing about them. It's the 2nd time in my life (next to the time in college when Endo and I couldn't stop laughing in Global Climate, and the teacher made a mockery of us, because he thought we were laughing at him, but we weren't...Needless to say I think we both dropped that class) back on topic, it's the 2nd time in my life where I couldn't stop laughing for more then a minute or two.. I mean the guy rattled on and on these jokes that were hilarious (you're prolly like "ya Brett that's his job, and you're supposed to laugh.. ass clown") but still I've never been to a comedy club, and watched some on tv, and they don't make me laugh.. (Maybe it's the beers we had, that came in a 5 pack chilled on ice in a bucket for $18) Either way, great experience, in which I encourage all to get one in their lifetime.. Now if only I could remember some of them jokes..

Mizzou Shout out: I'm sold on the idea, that if you're a Hot Chick, and you live in either Missouri or Illinois, it's a must that you go to Mizzou.. I've met 3 girls in the past 3 days, and they are drop dead gorgeous, and yes ALL are attending Mizzou. It reminds me of UND vs NDSU, and yes we all know the answer to where the ugly lezzy's go? (sorry mom, she's the only exception) Right bro? (My brother made it through 1 semester at NDSU, then wised up, and went on to graduate from UND) Thus, I must make a trip to see a Mizzou Football tailgating party, could care less about the game, because the girls I talked to say, they hardly make it past the gates!!! (Take it for what it's worth... I did)

Still recovering from Dec. 30th... and New Years..

2009-01-07T19:31:00.000-08:00

Ahh yes.... the Free Booze Free Food will do a number on a guy, so here's some pics our new Chicago Blues Fans that came and sat with us in our Club Seats....

The above picture is about 5 seconds before Osh lines up Zajac...

Some more pics of the 3 Former Fighting Sioux Alum's

Above the two are talking about how they could go for some pretty sweet Breakfast Buffet down in Squires Hall at UND.... Or they might've been talking about how UND might not make it to the NCAA tourney for the first time since either of them left the team?

Still boozing it up at 3:30am at Dubliner's with the Paddy O's girls, Osh, and the Chicago Bro's:

Below is the picture that my Chicago Bro's took when they were at the Winter Classic

The game for Goon and B.o.a.D.M...

2008-12-22T14:54:00.000-08:00

Being as I was way too intoxicated at Saturday night's game (Blues vs Wild) with FREE Beer, Food, and the love for the game of Hockey, I didn't take any pictures from the club seats I received Free again from my old college friend Mark, whom now works for the Blues. BUT on a plus side, a fellow Blues Talk Forum friend did call me on Sunday to ask me if I wanted to sit 5 rows off the glass for the Bruins vs Blues game.

So in lieu of that, here's some photos from the game: (and no I'm not quiting my day job to take action pictures at hockey games with my shitty camera phone)

(This was taken during the 2nd period, my hangover was just starting to remove the fog in my vision)
(I can see clearly now the fog is gone... Not really just my camera sucks sometimes)
(the start of the 3rd, and the Blues are getting to the net hard, Bruins fan population: 1 ) (You know Blake Wheeler was a big baby when he was in college, I don't know what happened to him, maybe he hit puberty, but he's huge now, and looked really good last night. Sorry that's just a rarity for me)

Congratulations.... Graduate

2008-12-19T12:35:00.000-08:00

In honor of my Brother completing a great chapter in his life, I'm dedicating this post to the newest of College Grads from the Accredited University of North Dakota. (Fighting Sioux) This man is an Iraqi War Hero, a veteran of almost all drinking games, and a soon to be Certified Public Accountant doing International Tax for Deloite (after all the man has visited quite a few countries it just fits).

In lieu of this great honor I'm going to talk about one of my brother's favorite baseball players:

I went searching online for some funny Rickey Henderson quotes and anecdotes. Who doesn’t love Rickey? I know Rickey loves Rickey. My brother loved Rickey. I found what I was looking for at chiefsplanet.com.

Here are five of my favorites, but you can check out Chiefs Planet’s Top 25 by clicking on the link above. Well, onto Rickey:

1. In 1996, Henderson’s first season with San Diego, he boarded the team bus and was looking for a seat. Steve Finley said, “You have tenure, sit wherever you want.” Henderson looked at Finley and said, “Ten years? Ricky’s been playing at least 16, 17 years.”

2. Trying to get back into baseball, Henderson reportedly called San Diego GM Kevin Towers and left the following message on his answering machine: “This is Rickey calling on behalf of Rickey. Rickey wants to play baseball.”

3. A reporter asked Henderson if Ken Caminiti’s estimate that 50 percent of Major League players were taking steroids was accurate. His response was, “Well, Rickey’s not one of them, so that’s 49 percent right there.”

4. Rickey was asked if he had the Garth Brooks album with Friends in Low Places and Henderson said, “Rickey doesn’t have albums. Rickey has CDs.”

5. When he was on the Yankees in the mid-1980s, Henderson told teammates that his condo had such a great view that he could see, “The Entire State Building.”

Well brother my gift to you was a little humour of sorts, and a few ladies have a couple words to say to you as well:
Marissa says, "Don't forget your ipod you borrowed to me before you leave to Minny"
(Can't you see she's really excited for you, and sad all at the same time?)
And Jen says, "Eric you really should wear this tie to your 1st day of your 'Big Kids Job'"
(No Jen, I'll be happy to take that tie off your hands....)
Congratulations again Graduate!

I am NUMBER ONE..

2008-12-14T14:13:00.000-08:00

HEY.... HEY... WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE NUMBER 1......So Last year a team went 14-2 in the NFL. Another team went 4-12. So one team decides that their Quarterback is too old, and they want to start with a fresh young Quarterback.

Well if I was a Packer's fan, (which I'm not) but I'd be kicking myself right now. I mean the Pack is 5-9, and are on a 4 game waterfall.. Does anyone remember when people were laughing at Brett? Do they remember when they were praising A-Rod (the NFL version) about how he was the next one? I do.. The reason for this post is simply the folks on the racing forums back home whom called me out at the beginning of the season, saying that the Pack's going places, and that the Vikes will be good, but will struggle when the games get bigger.(I have no problem with that assessment on the Purple Queens, I mean they deserve 10-15 years of bad luck for making that horrible song about going to Miami, remember that circa '01?) (I still laugh every time I see this video game cover)

In lieu of today's games. The Pack is stumbling, and the Jets went from a 4-12 team to now 9-5 and PLAYOFF BOUND.. Does a Quarterback make that big of a difference?? In this case yes..
Happy Sunday, Hope everyone catches T.O.'s team playing the Giants tonight. I hope Dallas loses so there can be more Drama for "America's team". Tony Homo is just going to run home to Jessica Simpson in her Daisy Dukes. (I mean I know I would. Fuck it I got paid)
Payton Manning is giving the Cowboy's 2 more games until they dismiss their coach, shop T.O. to another team, and maybe Romo might actually grow some balls..

When your coaches voice goes hoarse...

2008-12-13T10:17:00.000-08:00

It's tough when you're coaching a team plagued with injuries, but yet you're still proving the media pundits wrong. The media in almost every publication basically declared the Blues a top 3 pick in the '09 Draft. Not a bad deal considering who's going to be up in that draft. But I didn't think the Blues would stay down there at all. With 3 scoring lines, and some freshy's that can and will make a huge impact I thought this team was going to scare and make a lot of people eat crow. They did for the 1st 6 games, then the injuries started, and its been treading at .500 ever since.

ONTO THE FACTS:
Did you know the last team to take San Jose (who's currently on a 26 game home unbeaten streak) in OT at home, was the St Louis Blues (Nov. 6th'08). Which brings me to my next hopeful thought:

"THE BLUES WILL TAKE SAN JOSE INTO OT." Garnering a point. I say the King's are the Blues Kryptonite, and the Blues are the Sharks Home Ice Kryptonite. (Or I could be dead wrong about my gut feeling, and watch the blues tonight get demolished by the Fish Eating Beasts.)

Last thought on this topic, "the Blues will have a huge uplift when everyone returns to the lineup from injuries, thus making it so much easier to watch a team barely lose, win, and then get demolished by teams." Also tonight is the Blues 6th game in 9 nights.. (hope they have better recharging machines then my energizer one I plug into the wall, cuz that takes at least a day and half..)

COLLEGE NEWS:
I'm excited to see my patience with the Fighting Sioux start coming to fruition. As they have scored lots of goals in the past the 5 games. They are on a winning streak, and a second consecutive sweep with a win tonight will prop them into the national rankings again. Hopefully all the people who were jumping off cliff's earlier this year, landed in those huge foam pits (god, I loved going to my ex-girlfriends sister's gymnastics practice to pick her up, because every time they'd let me jump from the trampoline into the foam pit.... ahh... to be a 16-18year old again...sigh...) For more info on the UND Men's team check out Goon's World, Sioux Yeah Yeah, and The Great Hockey Blog over on my dailies tab...

Best League in the NCAA is....

2008-12-12T11:33:00.000-08:00

In lieu, of my previous post I decided that since UND, or a WCHA team wasn't on the top of the list, I devised a way to show a different perspective. Scroll to the bottom for quick analysis..

WCHA had 81 players, playing the NHL in 07-08, having all 10 of the teams contributing:
18(Wisconsin)16(North Dakota)13(Minnesota)12(St. Cloud State)8(Denver)8(Colorado College)4(Minnesota State)4(Minnesota Duluth) 3(Michigan Tech)1(Alaska Anchorage)

CCHA 71 players, with all 12 teams contributing:
22(Michigan)6(Bowling Green)3(Alaska)1(Ferris State)5(Lake Superior State)13(Michigan State) 5(Miami)4(Nebraska-Omaha)1(Northern Michigan)5(Ohio State)4(Notre Dame)2(Western Michigan)

Hockey East 58 players with all 1o teams contributing:
15(Boston College)12(Boston University)10(Maine) 2(Massachusetts)5(New Hampshire) 1(Merrimack)3(UMass-Lowell)6(Vermont)3(Providence)1(Northeastern)

ECAC 32 players, with 9 of 12 teams contributing:
8(Clarkson)4(Colgate)4(Cornell) 5(Harvard)3(Dartmouth)2(RPI)2(Princeton)2(St. Lawrence)2(Yale)

AHA 2 with 2 of 10 teams contributing: 1(Holy Cross)1(Army)

CHA:1(Bemidji State) Only 1 team of 7 teams in conference contributing.

DIII Hockey: 2(Norwich,VA)

1st: WCHA has 2 less teams, which is averaging sending 8.1 players per team to the NHL. CCHA has 2 more teams, and is averaging a bleak 5.9 players into the big show per team... So CCHA saying they're "close"... Are they really?? If the WCHA expanded to 12, they'd probably put out 97 players.. (I can't wait to see what this looks like at the All-Star break or at the end of the year.. )

2nd: Is it just me or is the AHA and CHA getting better street cred, then the EZ league?? Look at these stats, and you'll see why the WCHA doesn't want to add BSU to the WCHA (They'd obviously bring down the avg's and I'm not talking attendance levels..) and why was Air Farce getting wrote up as the Next NCAA Tourney Champs?!?!?!? Looking at this, it's embarrassing to have thought that.. (Good thing I never did)

3rd: Norwich? 2 Kids played D3, and went on to the Big League.. Air Farce, has yet to do that, oh wait there's 18 other D-1 schools that can't say they've ever progressed a kid into the NHL..

4th and Final thought:
How bad-ass would the WCHA still be if they still had Michigan, Michigan State, and Notre Dame?!? Granted to take these 3 back, they could deal away Alaska, and keep it a 12 team League. But the NCAA needs a little bit of parity..... so we'll never see that happen again..

Happy Friday, Sioux will sweep the Cloudy Red HuskyWolves or whatever.. (How are they ranked over the Sioux?.. Guess we'll find out if its the truth or if every one's dead wrong about the tribe)

So the NCAA isn't a place to develop into the Pro's?

2008-12-09T12:05:00.000-08:00

In lieu of some idiot that told me the NCAA isn't the best place for future NHL players, and then for the sole argument of which school has developed more players into the NHL? I decided to compile some stuff. Now keep in mind this list is of NCAA Schools that had the most players who played in the NHL in 07-08, which by the total of players is 253! 253 players, meaning I could field 11 and half teams in the NHL with former NCAA players :

22(Michigan) Andrew Ebbett, Matt Hunwick, Aaron Ward, David Moss, Eric Nystrom, Danny Richmond, T.J. Hensick, Marty Turco, Andrew Cogliano, Mike Van Ryn, Mike Cammalleri, Jack Johnson, Mike Komisarek, Josh Langfeld, Jed Ortmeyer, John Madden, Mike Comrie, Andy Hilbert, Jeff Tambellini, Mike Knuble,Mike Brown,Brendan Morrison (Most NCAA titles, but haven't won lately, I'm kind of miffed at this... Maybe 4 great NHL'ers in this crowd?)

18(Wisconsin)Curtis Joseph, David Tanabe,Rene Bourque, Adam Burish, Jake Dowell, Jack Skille, Chris Chelios,Brian Rafalski, Tom Gilbert, Sean Hill, Ryan Suter, Steve Reinprecht, Brian Elliott, Kyle Turris, Dany Heatley,Andy Wozniewski,Robbie Earl,Joe Pavelski
(Not surprising they've won a NCAA title recently, but today's day and age, they're over recruiting, and it'll start to show later I'd give them 6 Great NHL'ers in this crowd)

16(North Dakota) Drew Stafford,David Hale,Ryan Bayda, Jonathan Toews, Matt Greene, Brady Murray, Brandon Bochenski, Zach Parise, Travis Zajac, Jason Blake, Matt Smaby, Ryan Johnson, Matt Jones, Brian Lee, Mike Commodore(Shocked at the low count, but understandable they rebuilt from their last championship, and 11 of them joined the NHL within the past 4 years. I'll go with 7 Great NHL'ers in this crowd)

15(Boston College)Andrew Alberts, Bobby Allen, Chuck Kobasew,Patrick Eaves, Marty Reasoner,Brian Boyle, Jeff Giuliano, Peter Harrold, Brian Gionta, Mike Mottau,Bill Guerin,Ryan Shannon,Scott Clemmensen,Brooks Orpik,Rob Scuderi (3 Great NHL'ers)

13(Minnesota) Phil Kessel, Thomas Vanek, Jordan Leopold, Wyatt Smith, Paul Martin, Barry Tallackson, Johnny Pohl, Erik Johnson, Jeff Taffe, Alex Goligoski, Keith Ballard, Ryan Potulny, Kyle Okposo (Shocking with how many times this teams considered a contenders, they don't have more? 6 Great NHL'ers)
13(Michigan State)Drew Miller, Jim Slater, Ryan Miller, Rod Brind'Amour, Duncan Keith, John-Michael Liles, Justin Abdelkader, Shawn Horcoff,David Booth, Bryan Smolinski,Mike York,Adam Hall,Mike Weaver (4 Great NHL'ers)

12(St. Cloud State)Casey Borer,Tim Conboy, Matt Cullen,Bret Hedican, Joe Jensen, Tyler Arnason, Jeff Finger, Duvie Westcott, Mark Hartigan, Mark Parrish,Ryan Malone, Joe Motzko (Who would've thought that a school that has never won an NCAA game would put out more NHL players, then a team that has won numerous titles? (No offense Denver) 4 Great NHL'ers)
12(Boston University) Joe DiPenta, Adrian Aucoin, Jay Pandolfo, Shawn Bates, Rick DiPietro,Tom Poti, Chris Bourque,Keith Tkachuk, Ryan Whitney, Chris Drury, Freddy Meyer,Mike Grier (4 Great NHL'ers)

10(Maine)Brett Clark, Ben Guite, Jim Howard,Dustin Penner, Ted Purcell, Keith Carney, Greg Moore,Mike Lundin,Doug Janik,Paul Kariya (Weak they've only put out 1 Great NHL'er)

8(Denver)Kevin Doell, Paul Stastny, Gabe Gauthier, Wade Dubielewicz, Ryan Caldwell, Matt Carle, Connor James, Matt Pettinger (With that many titles recently you would have thought more right? Me too, only put out 2 Great NHL'ers)
8(Colorado College)Brett Sterling, Colin Stuart, Mark Stuart, Curtis McElhinney, Toby Petersen, Tom Preissing, Noah Clarke,Jack Hillen (1 Great NHL'er)
8(Clarkson) Kent Huskins, Todd Marchant, Todd White, Craig Conroy, Erik Cole, Randy Jones,Willie Mitchell,Chris Clark (Shocking Clarkson is in this group? No NHL Greats, sorry Conroy)

6(Bowling Green)Ken Klee, Rob Blake, Greg De Vries, Mike Johnson,Alex Foster,Kevin Bieksa
6(Vermont) Eric Perrin, Tim Thomas, Patrick Sharp,Aaron Miller,Martin St. Louis,Torrey Mitchell

Flying 5... Getting close to becoming top tier:
5(New Hampshire) Mark Mowers, Darren Haydar, Garrett Stafford,Daniel Winnik, Ty Conklin
5(Lake Superior State)Doug Weight, John Grahame, Brian Rolston, Jim Dowd,Bates Battaglia
5(Ohio State)Rod Pelley,R.J. Umberger, Nate Guenin,Dave Steckel,Ryan Kesler
5(Harvard)Craig Adams, Noah Welch, Tom Cavanagh,Craig MacDonald,Dominic Moore
5(Miami)Kevyn Adams, Andy Greene, Randy Robitaille,Dan Boyle,Mike Glumac

Four's a group:
4(Colgate)Joey Mormina,Cory Murphy, Jesse Winchester,Andy McDonald
4(Minnesota State) Ryan Carter,Tim Jackman, Steve Wagner, David Backes

4(Minnesota Duluth)Matt Niskanen, Craig Weller,Junior Lessard,Mason Raymond
4(Nebraska-Omaha) Jeff Hoggan, Dan Ellis, Greg Zanon, Bill Thomas
4(Cornell) Matt Moulson, Ryan O'Byrne,Doug Murray, Mike Iggulden
4(Notre Dame)Brett Lebda, Rob Globke,Mark Eaton,Yan Stastny

Three's company:
3(UMass-Lowell)Ron Hainsey,Dwayne Roloson,Ben Walter
3(Michigan Tech) Clay Wilson, Chris Conner, Andy Sutton
3(Providence)Fernando Pisani,Hal Gill,Jay Leach

3(Alaska)Jordan Hendry, Aaron Voros, Kyle Greentree,
3(Dartmouth)David Jones, Tanner Glass,Lee Stempniak

Dynamic Duos:
2(Massachusetts)Jonathan Quick,Thomas Pock
2(St. Lawrence)John Zeiler, Rich Peverley
2(Norwich)Keith Aucoin, Brad Winchester
2(Western Michigan)Joe Corvo, Jamal Mayers
2(Yale)Jeff Hamilton, Chris Higgins
2(RPI)Matt Murley,Bruan Pothier
2(Princeton)George Parros,Jeff Halpern

Lastly, the Lone Rangers, where the schools have dedication walls setup for these individuals:
1(Merrimack)Matt Foy
1(Holy Cross) Pat Rissmiller
1(Northeastern)Michael Ryan
1(Army)Dan Hinote
1(Alaska Anchorage)Curtis Glencross
1(Northern Michigan)Dallas Drake
1(Ferris State) Chris Kunitz
1(Bemidji State) Andrew Murray

Also I'll update with how many teams currently have the most NHL draft picks. Also one thing to remember is this is just last year only, not overall the years. I'm sure it's going to be a lot different by the end of this year..

Bad Publicity is always good publicity...

2008-12-05T12:42:00.001-08:00

This afternoon I had a great thought come to me as I was typing away on the Blues forum..

If a reporter were to come up to you and say they had some BREAKING NEWS about a player in the _____ League, I could probably guess what the issue is going to be based on the league...

If it's the:

NFL: It's there weekly run-ins with players getting shot or arrested. (type in a google image search of nfl player and the 1st 20 images will be players mugshots)
Baseball: It's always their drugs (Its their kryptonite)

(If you look closely this guy looks like Lance Armstrong before he competes in the 2018 Tour De France)

NBA: According to the Sports Law Blog I just read NBA player's love Marijuana, assaulting females, crack, more marijuanna, and a little battery to go along with it.

(Kobe Wants you to know, that he just wanted to say, No.)

And all the NHL can muster up is: "SLOPPY SECONDS?" How weak is that..

(Type in NHL Sloppy Seconds, and this is the 1st pic)

Sicks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me...

2008-12-04T14:54:00.000-08:00

I guess Avery's comment of "sloppy seconds" in the locker room, is worse then some player shooting himself in the leg at a night club.
Weird that my mom told me to get thick skin when it came to people cracking jokes towards me. Gary Bettman's mom obviously had the kid who made fun of him expelled from school..

I think there must be like a secret society of NFL Players that's so secret you can't join and be happy until your initiated by getting arrested. See look Deion Sanders said it was one of the best days of his life:

NBA Fans are just ticked...

2008-11-27T19:34:00.000-08:00

Well I guess it's starting to make waves, sports bloggers are getting into arguments and the stats are backing up the NHL...

It's a good read, it has NBA's debate on it too..

You got PEPSI to mix with Morgan?? What the..

2008-11-26T15:44:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I wish I was a NHL Hockey player at a nice young age of 21, temporarily hurt and having to do autograph signings at stores and different locations.. I mean I like to talk to people, I'm a people person damnit!! Here's a nice pic sent in from my friend who I told to run an errand to the Walmart down the street from my house.. Hopefully he starts skating this week, and the Blues can get their scoring back on track..

Blues gutted out a win last night, by not scoring any goals in the game, or in overtime, but instead decided to put on a show in the Shootout to get their 9th point out of a possible 10 pts. So they've won 4 of their last 5 games. Mainly the goaltending duo has carried the load.

Like I tell all my college buddies who are freaking out in Sioux country right now. "If your team doesn't score 2 or more goals, your team won't be in contention most nights." So don't blame the goalie. Hockey isn't like Football or whatever those sports that have them coaches that says: "Defense wins championships!" Last time I checked a 0-0 game is always decided by someone scoring. Goalies aren't given points for saving so many shots.. (Although the NCAA, and WCHA, should look into that, as a way of getting more points on the board! HA HA... Every 40 Shots per game = 1 goal?) Maybe then "defense might win you something???"

ANYWAYZ, back on topic... This heated trade, that to me isn't much to talk about.. But to some Blues fans, they're acting like the team just traded of Sid the Kid for a couple of has been's!! Get real folks! Whoever thinks the Maple Leafs got a great deal is sadly mistaken. And now more and more these high paid sports writers are starting to agree with me.. Bernie thinks its a great move for the Blues, and Damien the Leaf's writer thinks the Leaf's soon to be fired GM is screwing the franchise in more then 1 way.. So again my take is it's win win for both teams.... But the Blues have a better opportunity in the future.

Tonight, the Blues are going to get them some Nordiques! Errr Colorado Avalanche's..... With the help of their 2 newly acquired players in Alex Steen and that Coli guy (I'm too lazy to copy and paste his name. Carlo Colaiacovo There I did it.) I found it humorous that the Pred's got beat by 9 rookies last night.

And tonight, will be a mile stone for Sr. Tkachuck (Walt's great, but this is kinda cool)... You know you’re getting old when . . .

Tkachuk played with Thomas Steen, Alex’s dad, in Winnipeg.

Tkachuk has played in 1,074 NHL games. The combined total of the other 11 forwards in Tuesday’s game at Nashville . . . 1,105.

Here’s the breakdown: Brad Boyes (265), Jay McClement (248), David Backes (140), Cam Janssen (125), Brad Winchester (122), David Perron (80), Yan Stastny (66), B.J. Crombeen (26), Steve Regier (22), Chris Porter (6) and Cam Paddock (5).

Onto the analysis of the game tonight:

It's tough to say the Av's are on their heals, and the Blues have momentum, but have 2 new players in the lineup..... Brother's Paul and Yan Statsny play against eachother for the 1st time ever in the NHL.. Yan the elder, and Paul the younger.. I'm reminded that this morning my brother and I faced-off against eachother for the 1st time in Wii, and the younger got the better of the elder.. I'm going to say the elder gets the better of the younger tonight.. JR interviews the 2 here, and the closing of the interview has some nice sibling rivalry:

Any last words for each other?
Yan: “Keep your head up.”
Paul: “I will.”
Good Stuff.

Blues continue to win, as Manny Legace is 12-3 against his former team..

Brother vs Brother, an epic battle

2008-11-26T07:52:00.000-08:00

When Holidays come around, and family and friends come together, the best tool any host can have these days is simply one word: Wii

That's right, the shit talking that has gone on for over 24 years between my brother and I, when it comes to sports the shit hit its pinnacle last night... errr this morning..

Everyone is aware my older brother has kicked the crap out of me for years when it comes to most sports. He's taller, older, stronger, faster, quicker, smarter, etc etc... So times are tough for this young guy when it comes trying to compete with the Iraq War Hero..

Then last night happened.. Time of day close to midnight my brother and mother pull in to mi casa for the week.. My sister and I earlier that day went out and bought some Super Fresh Budweiser Products for the family..(That's what the Literature folks call "Foreshadowing")

Well needless to say my mom decides its really late, and she's off to bed, but my sister's still up for some boozin with her brothers. Then my brother decides its time to bust out the Wii, and get our games on.. First on tap was "Big Brain Academy" and needless to say, my Wii IQ is better and quicker then brother's... (A 3 game domination of him, he's cussing and ready to play Wii Golf)

So we move on to Wii Tennis, and it's just more of me giving him a thorough beat down.. So we move on to Wii Golf. (FINALLY, my brother's been claiming he can school me in this game, and I concur because I SUCK ROYALLY, at Wii Golf, its my kryptonite..)

Mind you we've been playing Wii and pounding beers for a three hours, yep it's 3am and I work at 7am..

I start getting the hang of Wii golf, and the shit talking is getting pretty serious, were busting out lines from way back when we were teens hustling each other for Subway food on the putting greens. Finally after about the 3rd round, I'm finally shooting somewhat close scores to him.

Enter the 4th 9-Hole Contest.... It's getting serious, and this time I'm not screwing around.. Brother's confidence is back up after dominating me for 3 rounds, when I seriously outclassed his ass in Tennis, Brain Buster, and Boxing (Forgot to talk about the 2 times I knocked his ass out)..

Moving on... This 9 hole contest should've aired on ESPN, as it would've made All-Time Greatest Golf Grudge Matches ever..

The First Hole I get off to a bad start and bogey, 2nd hole brother birdies, and I struggle to save par... I'm getting a little down, so I turn up the shit talking and see if I can knock my brother off his game like I can do so easily when playing REAL Golf..

Brother doesn't disappoint, and he double bogeys and I par the 3 hole! "What's that, you're 2 stroke lead is now nothing!? That's right bitch move the fuck over I've got honors."

So were both 1 over going into Hole 4, and I continue to barrage my brother with my ever so great shit talking.. He bogeys again on a "Pressure Cooker Putt".. And boogow's lips out, after he started his premature fist pump... I sink the par putt, and that puts him at 2 over, and me still holding strong at 1+.

Here comes that damn par 5 #5. Brodog birdies the bitch, and I continue on the Par Parade.. Shit talking picks up in his corner as were back to tied.. Then he goes and birdies #6 and I par, and then we both par #7.
Hole #8 is the worst par 3 ever!!!! It's like we go from 0mph winds to #8 and its 80mph winds on an island green that you use damn near a driver to make it over the water!!! I bogey, and brother pars!

I somehow went from being 2 strokes in the lead to now 2 strokes down entering the last hole.. I'm actually excited because its probably the closest I ever got to beating him the whole night.. So here it is the last hole.. Brother's shit talking, and might have been busting out Rick Flair "WWWWHHHHHOOOOOAAA's" like it wasn't 4:30am, and we weren't drunk...

Hole #9 is a Par 5 445 yards of pure pressure, and you can either play like David Simms in Tin Cup (Play like a pussy and don't go for it, play it safe protect your lead, "just make Par Roy"). So Brother has honors, and decides to lay up on the lower island, and not press his luck to try and make the green in 2... (At that point I was pulling out Tin Cup lyrics mixed in with some Baseketball lines. Mainly calling my brother a panzy.)

(Brother playing it safe)

So I'm down 2, and if you know me when it comes to golf, I ALWAYS GO FOR IT! Playing it safe is not even in my mind, I don't know the definition... I LET THE BIG DOG EAT!

Brother's next shot is a nice solid lay up... (Way to puss it up brodog, did you forget to clean the sand out of your vag?)

So I'm next, and it's a nice 219 yards to the pin..... With a crosswind of about 17mph.. I decide to pull a few pieces of carpet out of my floor to help me adjust for windage... Take my 3 practice swings (Yes, we had to set a limit of how many practice swings at one point, it was a gong show.) and I just give her smoke...

The ball is in flight, looking good, looking good.......

Ball lands just in front of the green then another hop, and then..

KER PLUNK!!!!! WWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

THE TV ERUPTS!!! : DOUBLE EAGLE!!!! DOUBLE EAGLE!!!!! CHIP IN!!!

My brother's gigantic mouth drops to the floor, a silence becomes us!!!!

I stop to really think???? "DID THAT JUST HAPPEN??"

Yes, yes it did!!!! After about 5 seconds of nothing we both start uttering something I don't really recall....

All I know is that brother just had a 2 stroke lead disappear, and is now down a stroke!
He hits his 3rd on the green, and misses his birdie putt!

ITS ALL OVER FOLKS!!!!!!!

Happy Tin Brett HAS DONE IT!!! Happy Gilmore ain't got shit on me!! Tin Cup, who's he???

(Here's the proof, and yes that really is a 2!)

After that round, we both pretty much blacked out, but I do recall we ended up bowling, and playing Baseball. (I won in bowling, and we tied in baseball)

Well everyone it's the holiday's so in lieu of that I'm sure there will be more to come...

It's not that the NHL is that Cool, it's just that the NBA isn't..

2008-11-25T07:57:00.001-08:00

So, stop me if you've seen the graph on your right before. Oh you have?

Everywhere, you say?

Yeah, me too.

And since everyone and their mom feels the need to comment on it, that's what I am prepared to do. It's easy to give in to peer pressure so, what the hell, let's do it. There aren't any drugs or pop music involved, so it can't be that bad to post about.

Anyway, last week the folks over at Supersonics Soul posted up the aforementioned graph on the right. It caused quite a stir in the blogosphere (Imagine that - bloggers riled up about something). The story even, eventually, found it's way to Deadspin. I guess that's a good barometer for how many people are riled up (i.e. a lot).
So hey, hockey is more popular than another sport. That's news now-a-days. What with MSN declaring us irrelevant and what not. Good times, really. I don't really see what all the fuss is about.

OK, so the NBA isn't doing so hot. And, as a hockey blogger, I should be happy about that?

Frankly, as a hockey blogger, I don't really care what the NBA is doing. Now I shouldn't have my head in the sand either, but I'm not about to start some kind of victory parade. Remember, it wasn't so long ago that my sport was, um, sitting out an entire season.

And what's the most concerning thing about this graph? That the NHL's attendance line hasn't soared as much as the NBA's has dropped. The reason we're winning this attendance is battle is because, yeah, the NBA's attendance has declined so sharply. Meanwhile, the NHL's attendance is kind of puttering along. Getting a little higher here, a little lower there.

The crazy thing too, is that I'll occasionally find myself watching basketball. (Pistons vs. Celtics) I have watched 2 qtrs this year, up 200% from this time last year. That's what happens when AI gets traded to the Pistons (they should be good), and then they play last years 3 Champions (Granted Rondo, and that Powe fellow or whoever had good games during the championship run).

But untill EA Sports comes out with a NCAA Men's Hockey Video Game, hockey will never get the recognition it deserves as a major sport.. (Please EA Sports, make my dream come true!)

My monday melting pot

2008-11-24T11:45:00.001-08:00

Where to start, since I took the weekend off to get my house ready for my first ever attempt to have the family for the Holidays.

Let's start with Saturday:

I thought for sure the Blues were going to get worked by the Wild... Turns out if you play half your minor league team, and tell them if they don't produce for you, they will never play in the "Big Time" again for as long as they live!!

So the Blues continued their assault on the league taking 7 of 8 possible points the past 4 games.. As The Wild were simply out Boyes'd.

Meanwhile, the sister-kissing Sioux, took it to a new low, and just flat-out lost.. Don't worry I'm not in a panic, because it's still in the 1st half of the season. But the next 2 weeks, they need to beat their non-conference EZ League teams.

This morning Blues traded the under-performing Lee Stempniak for 2 young raw players. A center Alex Steen, and a defenseman. The reasoning behind the trade was to make more money, and playing time available to Rookie Standout TJ Oshie. (They're thinking big picture. Because right now he's hurt, and is locked in with his contract for 2 more season's but still...) Also, the Blues want to be deep at Center, and their D have been under the microscope as being "overpaid and overplayed." This is Steen's happy face:Also how about the NFL. I love to watch the Rams get dominated, mainly because these players are overpaid CLOWNS! And guess what? The STL Today's Post Dispatch #1 Sports Journalist agreed with me!!!!! Bernie is telling everyone in the Lou to "Send in the Clowns" (I guess he did like my email about "putting a tent over that circus".) The best part about the Send in the Clowns article, is that he called Richie "Immature-O", but to Richie's defense, he did call out the STL fans this past week, and when they boo'ed him, he decided to show all the Hulka-maniacs that he still CAN'T hear them! Brutal..
As Incognito left the field, one of the signs hoisted by a fan above the tunnel read: "Richie, I Don't Cheer For Bums."

It's just tough, very tough love here in St Louis... (Just can't wait to start hearing all the bashing of Stephen "overpaid/underplayed/out of shape" Jackson and Marc "I'm scared to play/overpaid because I had 1 pro-bowl year" Bulger) Ha Ha, the things I look forward to...

On a positive front:
If you give my favorite NFL player/Future HOF'er the last 90 seconds of a game to put some points on the board he's going to do it everytime! (It was that much sweeter, because Philip Rivers is the biggest D-Bag in the League. Never should the QB's be allowed to talk shit, because you lay your finger on them, and your team/coach/ref's will be all over you.) Ahhh yes, did you hear out in Philly, finally Coach Reid decided he's had enough of Donovan McNabb?
Finally we'll stop hearing his mom's damn commercials! Maybe that's a good thing for all parties involved??? I think they need to get on the bandwagon with the Swami, and get some Nutrisystem commercials... YOU CAN DO IT TOO!!

It's simply ironic last night..

2008-11-22T10:49:00.002-08:00

I went home from work, and decided to not go to the Blues Home Game. (The 1st one I've missed this season)

I decided to take in the tv version, and see what the crying was all about this Bernie feller..

As I was watching the game, I was getting great text updates from my buddy Abar. (He decided to partake in UND's travel to Duluth, I believe its his 1st endeavor at the DECC.) The ironic thing was he would text me that the ref's were horrible, and I laugh, but noticed the ref's were horrible last night for the Blues as well.

Then a minute or two later he texts:
Sioux GOAL!

As I receive his text, the tv erupts,
"Backes down low, feeds it to the net, GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLL!"

Blues go up 1 simultaneously with the Sioux going up 1.

Then later he texts:
1-1

As I receive that, the tv bellows:
"And the Ducks get one by Manny!"

I laugh as I text him back, ya same here. Weird....

Next text I get, I just focus on the tv, and sure enough GOALLLLLLLL!!!

I laugh, and open the text, and sure enough Abar's telling me Gregoire gets the Sioux up 2-1.

Then I get a text from him saying the Bulldogs tied it up with the Sioux, and I start cursing.. Thinking and knowing the Blues are now going to lose the lead..

BUT then with about 1:45 left in the game, the refs call a BS call against the Blues. I'm now cursing at the tv, and my phone. Looking for my bad call brick!

Knowing in the back of my head, this team should have lost, and that they actually led the game is good for the team. But the game is going, and the Ducks, are sucking it up, and there is :45 seconds left in the game, and I'm thinking they can get it done..

With 10 seconds left the Ducks are putting great pressure, and with .09 seconds left and about 6 bodies on top of Manny and laying in the crease, and the net off its moorings, the Refs whistle a goal for the Ducks to tie it up!!!!!! UNNNNNNNNNNBELIEVABLE!

I'm even more pissed because tv replays and replays and replays the goalie interference and player in the crease when the puck isn't.....

I mean how terrible of a missed call is that.. Don't even get me started about the missed call about a minute before that.

Well OT starts, and then Stempy scores! So the Blues win, unlike the Sioux who decided to Sister Kiss the Bulldogs. (I wish the WCHA would go to shootouts, it guarantees someone leaves with a smile on their face.) That was the game winner in OT, right between the legs of the "Great Pronger" (I'm so sick of reading about how this guy shouldn't have been traded in the Blues Forums.. It's sickening.

Check out the Blues New 3rd Jersey in action here. I like them.

And the injuries keep coming...

2008-11-21T16:46:00.000-08:00

Scroll down three posts, and you'll see the latest decimation of the St Louis Blues. Well were going to need to add more to that list here shortly..

Add the Capt. Eric Brewer, and Rookie Forward Patrick Berglund, and of course Paul Kariya was supposed to come back a few games is now out for another week or two...

I've tried to grasp this and try to explain it in terms of football so here's my best way:

You're starting QB is out. (Paul Kariya)
You're starting #2 Line Backer is out for the year. (DJ King)
You're #1 Draft pick #1 overall in the draft that year Safety/Dback is out for the year. (EJ)
You're #1 Draft pick Running Back who dominated the games is out (TJ Oshie)
You're #1 Wide Receiver is lost for the immediate future (Andy McDonald)
You're #1 Draft Pick Tight End is lost and you don't know when he'll return (Patrick Berglund)
You send your other #1 draft pick Quarter back down to college after playing in 9 games (if it was possible) so he can develop and get his strength up to play in the big league.. (Mainly because this team is decimated with injuries so his coming out party would be better next year?)
You send your #1 Point producing Full back(Chris Porter) down to the practice squad to make room for a veteran because the coach likes vets (Dan Hinote)
Your #2 Fullback (Dan Hinote) is injured so you sub in your Fullback who barely made the practice squad (Reiger, I don't even know the guys 1st name that's how unheard of he is)
Now you're Captain who's your#1 Line Backer goes down in practice(Eric Brewer)
Move you're #5 Dback, and turn him into your #3 wide out (Steve Wagner from Defense to Wing)

I think I covered them all, I'm sure I missed 1 or 2, but as of now that's the way the Blues go in to tonight's game against the Ducks! Quack! Quack!!

You might as well call them the Peoria Rivermen (Blues Minor League team)
Here's the chart for tonight barring anyone else gets hurt while getting to the game tonight..

Regier(Started in Peoria)-Tkachuk-Boyes
Stempniak-Backes(Hasn't played center since College~4years ago)-Perron
Winchester(Started in Peoria)-McClement-Stastny(Started in Peoria)
Crombeen(Didn't even play with this team till this week, was picked up off waivers)-Paddock(Started in Peoria)-Janssen

Not to slam this team at all, but I'm pretty sure some AHL teams have more skill on their team then this team does.. Oh wait that might be a bash..... Wait.... Truth hurts...

I mean the Blues have 4 legit forwards playing tonight:
Tkachuck, Backes, Perron, Boyes/Stempniak (These 2 together make 1 legit player)

Oh well, I'll still watch, and hope they make it a game..

"Media Malpractice... How Obama Got Elected"

2008-11-17T19:44:00.000-08:00

Here's a great piece on media malpractice that was conducted for a forthcoming documentary on how the news media impacted the 2008 election.

Please, click the link, and just watch the video. You'll laugh a lot, and realize how manipulated people can be from the news, and maybe find out some things you didn't know or were wrong about..

"Promote then as an object of primary importance, Institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened."
George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

I make $50k/yr to jack a racecar

2008-11-17T14:32:00.000-08:00

NASCAR is getting ready to layoff over a 1,000 in the industry..

Not that it got out of control, I mean the pit crews back in the 60's-90's like these:

Took 30 seconds to change 4 tires, fill it up with fuel, and get the car back out. These guys worked at Auto repair shops during the week, and by weekend they were helping their buddy maybe win a race or two on the weekend.

Then NASCAR got big, and now they have crews like this:
Each crew member has 1 job to not screw up. Most make anywhere from $40k-50k depending on how crucial their job is. For an example Front tire carriers are also responsible for checking tire pressures before they get put on the car. But after its the tire specialists who examine the tire. Totally different guy. Plus add in the actual tire changer. All this for just 1 tire.. I just read this article about this, and that's why I'm fired up. A jackman makes $50k a year traveling 40 weeks a year all over the country, and his one job is to just jack the car up using 3 quick motions up and down. Sometimes doing it twice in sub 14 seconds. His job's biggest pressure is on raceday, and the rest of the week, they say is for practice and working out..

Did you also know that pit crews also have pit crew coachs.. That's right they pay a coach anywhere from $25k-$75k just to coach their pitcrews on how to do their one job better and faster!! AMAZING!!

I knew about how many people were apart of this, but I didn't realize they were getting paid handsomely while doing it.. Makes me rethink college education for my kids..

Oh ya so to justify spending a few million a year on pit crews NASCAR came up with the Pit Crew Challenge:

Just another great way to justify spending more money on top notch athletes..

My take, all these guys are getting fired, and those that stay are going to have to be able to multi-task, like change tires, be a tire specialist, cook on the grill, build the pit box, organize the trailer, and fabricate or fit in somewhere back at the shop. No longer will they have 6-8 extra guys just changing and making pit stops.. They'll need these guys to pony up, as the sport goes through this recession..

Ouch, I wonder what that guy's going to do with his resume that only says:

"I can change the right front, and left front tire on a racecar in under 14 seconds"

Or that poor bastard, who relied heavily on his ability to carry a jack around a car, jack it up on both sides of the car in under 14 seconds...

Well the democrats are in office, so the unemployed will be taken care of..

OT on loss', and I'm not talking games

2008-11-17T09:19:00.000-08:00

Here is the picture of Kovy beating Manny in the OT Shootout last night. The story about the game is here.

My 1st rant, will be about Manny, everyone seems to love this guy here in STL, but I've watched him let in weak after weak goal. Not bashing, as I've been able to meet Manny, his wife Gi, Chris Mason, and his wife Courtney. All are great people. But right now Mason has looked a bit more solid, lets try to give him more playing time as Manny recovers from his injury and stuff..

Not that this hasn't been dead more times then Eight Belles.. But is it really possible to have this many injuries?!?!

Right now fans in the Lou are ranting and crying about how STL teams have the worst injuries in all of sports... I didn't think it was all that bad, but now its getting ridiculous..

1st, the Blues #1 Defenseman tears both sides of his knee up exiting his golf cart on the team bonding golf outing before preseason. 2nd, the Blues lose their #1 Right Winger to a knee injury in preseason. 3rd, the Blues #1 enforcer/best fighter pops his shoulder off his body checking someone. Then here comes an emergency appendectomy to our #2 Goalie, the next night the #1 goalie is injured. So now were starting our #3 and #4 goalies, and low and behold the #3 goalie is injured in his game as he was proned for a shotout..

Then a few weeks later the Blues #1 Rookie Center is injured. A few games later their #1 Left Wing (who's #1 on the payroll might I add) is injured. The next game their 4th line Grinder/Vet is injured (no shocker as he's always injured).

Which brings us to last night, where in the 1st period the Blues lose their #1 Center/Forward/Point Producer with a fractured leg out for 2-3 months..

For those keeping track that's:

7 - #1 players in categories.. For those that don't know a lot about hockey, only 5 players are allowed on the ice and 1 goalie. Also you're only allowed to dress 20 players.

Plus a #2, #3, and a #4.. According to depth charts... Every player lost so far were starters in previous games...

That's 10 players of 20. Exactly half the team...
Here's the list:
Currently out:
EJ-#1 D
Kariya- #1 Forward
King- #1 Enforcer/Figher
McDonald- #1 Forward
Oshie- #1 Forward/Rookie

Recovered/ing:
Stempniak #1 Forward
Legace #1 Goalie
Jackmann #1 D (Due to injury)
Pietrangelo #1 D (Moved to #1 due to above)
Mason #2 Goalie
Berglund #2 Forward/Rookie (Now moved to #1 due to above)
Woywitka #3 D
Bishop #3 Goalie
Hinote #4 Forward
Stastny #4 Forward
Junland (off team due to injury)

And people wonder why they're in last place. They're not a hockey team, they're a freakin' M*A*S*H* unit!

Can someone say ouch!?

I typed St Louis Blues Injury in my search on Google Images, and this popped up:

Gotta love the internet on Mondays....

A Dynasty.... And he's not even my favorite driver..

2008-11-17T08:57:00.000-08:00

Jimmie Johnson is unbeatable under any points scenario. Let me divulge a little:

And while Johnson’s dominance in the Sprint Cup Series has called for changes to the way the champ is determined, it really wouldn’t have made much of a difference this year.

Whether it was the Mulligan plan lobbied for by owner Jack Roush, the old points system or a radical playoff idea thrown out by Texas Motor Speedway director of media relations Mike Zizzo, new ways of determining the champ wouldn’t have changed the outcome.

In fact, the most competitive Chase of all would have been not to have one. In the old points system, Johnson’s lead heading into the season finale would have been 57 points over Carl Edwards.

Under the new way of doing things, Johnson lead by 141 points and had to finish 36th or better to clinch the title regardless of what Edwards does.

Here’s a look at how the race for the title would have looked going into the final race under five different systems.

The Chase
1. Jimmie Johnson 6,561
2. Carl Edwards 6,420
3. Greg Biffle 6,358
4. Jeff Burton 6,292
5. Kevin Harvick 6,233
6. Clint Bowyer 6,226

The simple plan
43 points for first, 42 for second, etc.; 1 point for leading lap, 1 point for most laps, 1 point for pole
1. Jimmie Johnson 368
2. Greg Biffle 340
3. Carl Edwards 324
4. Jeff Burton 316
5. Kevin Harvick 309

The No Talladega Plan
Keep the points system the same, but take out Talladega and make it a nine-race Chase.
1. Jimmie Johnson 6,418
2. Carl Edwards 6,339
3. Greg Biffle 6,262
4. Jeff Burton 6,127
5. Kevin Harvick 6,125

The Mulligan Plan
Once the Chase ends, a driver gets to pull his lowest Chase finish and use the points from the other nine races.
1. Jimmie Johnson 6,443
2. Carl Edwards 6,356
3. Greg Biffle 6,262
4. Jeff Burton 6,183
5. Kevin Harvick 6,125

The Old Plan
Points are not reset and all 43 drivers are in the hunt for the title. The 10 bonus points Chase drivers received for winning races would also be eliminated.
1. Jimmie Johnson 5,097
2. Carl Edwards 5,041
3. Kyle Busch 4,878
4. Jeff Burton 4,666
5. Greg Biffle 4,638

The Zizzo Plan
A playoff with 16 cars cut to 12 after three races, then to six after six races, and four heading into Homestead. The points reset after each cut, with five points being awarded for seeding and five points for victories during previous round.
1. Jimmie Johnson
2. Greg Biffle
3. Kevin Harvick
4. Clint Bowyer

In conclusion, well done Jimmie, no matter how you look at it, no one can say you shouldn't have won your 3rd consecutive Championship..

Also props to my favorite driver Kevin Harvick, as he finished 4th in the points in every scenario this year. This was his 1st year since 2001 (won 3 races as a Rookie) that he went the entire year without winning at least 1 race.. Also coincidentally, this was the highest he's ever finished in the standings.. Weird..

4 Goals 4 Fights all in 1st period of this Rivalry matchup:

2008-11-15T08:55:00.000-08:00

Blues won here's the story here. Brad Boyes is the worst forward at defense I've ever seen. He reminds me of Brandon Bochenski circa 2002. Where all he does is sit around and wait for the other forwards to pass him the puck, so he can shoot. Since Andy Murray is quoted as saying, "Brad needs to get the puck more, so he can shoot it, he's got the best Shooting %age.." I've witnessed Boyes get dominated way too many times at both ends of the ice in the corners... Just disappointing..

Well I predicted defeat. My reasoning:

Chicago's just going to out University of North Dakota the Blues...

The Blues have Oshie, who is hurt, and they have Porter waiting in Peoria... So going into last nights games, the Blues need to fill 3 Forward spots, as Hinote-4th line, Karya-1st line, Oshie-1st/2nd line are injured...

Instead of calling up Porter who scored his 1st Career NHL goal against the Hawks, while playing wing on the top line that night.. They decide to put in both enforcers, and call up Cam Paddock, a career AHL'er who's played some 6 years in the AHL, never playing a single game in the NHL.

So the Blues do the exact opposite of what they've done all year, which was play good in the 1st period. McD scored a shorty to start it off, and the Blues led 3-1 going into the 2nd period. Where they played crappier and crappier as the game went on.. I fell asleep in the 3rd as I have a bad flu, but the Blues went on to win in OT... I guess I predicted wrong, I thought Toews was going to breakout, and walk all over Manny.... (Giving him nightmares, that's how bad)

Yan Statsny battles with Sharp, I dislike Statsny mainly because everyone thinks he's great because he's from St Louis, and his brother is Paul... Also doesn't help he's taken up Port's spot on the roster from what JD and JR tell me... Grrrr....

So for those keeping track:

Blues may have a crappy record overall right now, but have a 2-0 record against the Hawks who are 2nd in the division.

When it rains it pours

2008-11-15T07:21:00.000-08:00

I'm back from my extremely long hunting trip. Moral of the story:

When it rains in North Dakota in November, it pours. I wish it was snow, as the hunt would've been a tad bit easier. Instead almost every good hunting road was impossible to get down. My brothers 4-wheel drive truck, doesn't have the tires, or the ability to go where we wanted to go. Thus, I was the only one of 11 hunters to harvest a deer on Friday. That's right of our 28 tags we needed to fill. 1 was filled on Friday, which according to our beer drinking records on Friday night, might be take the cake as the shittiest 1st day effort my Great Uncles can remember. Even more weird was Friday morning my brother and I went to sight my rifle, dad's rifle, Abar's rifle, bro's rifle, and my backup rifle in, and we saw 10 deer that morning!!!!! All were gone come noon.

So for those keeping track:

Deer 1 --- Brett 1 --- Hunting Party 0

Saturday morning, we saw nothing, walked a few places, and nothing. Later at night, we saw maybe 1 or 2 all were out of reach. (And when I say out of reach I mean if they are over 600 yards, because if they are within 600 yards I'm shooting at them) Oh ya, we did spot a Moose, and its calf, when the Moose finally stood up, and the calf started walking, they kicked up a Buck that was bedded down about 15 yards away.. Weird I know..

Deer 2 --- Brett 1 --- Hunting Party 0

Sunday brings about new life, and many are thinking today's the day we start filling tags.. Well that became a dream. Saw nothing in the morning, and so I take command of the hunting party. That day we had about 14 hunters with us, and around 30 tags to fill. So I bring us to a place where I think we should push. Sure enough we walk it, and kick out one of the nicest bucks we've seen in the past 10 years. So what does the Buck do?? He runs straight at the truck that has the only single shot rifle, and it's my uncle who has the worst Buck Fever Shakes you'd ever seen. So I hear 2 shots, obviously they missed, and give chase, but said it was long gone, by the time I get done with the push.. We went back and pushed where I saw that Moose and calf, and Buck lay down. But nothing was there, as the Moose was across the road today.. That night, my cousin shot a doe late at night.. So we only have about 28 tags left to fill..

Deer 3 --- Brett 1 --- Hunting Party 1

Monday Morning ahh yes... My dad decides he's not going to get up real early, and so my brother hops into my truck, and we blaze on. That morning I see 2 deer about 500 yards off the road, and so I shoot 3 times at each deer (they were about 200 yards away from each other).. Since it's just me and my bro. We decide were going to walk this big half mile square grass land, because I know I hit one of them deer... Well we decided to walk it, and sure enough we kick up 2 deer. But these deer were in a different area then where I was shooting at. So we walk on, and I spot a huge blood trail. This must have been the 1st one I shot. So we tracked it, and you could see where it stopped to lick itself, and tracked and tracked, and without any avail, the trail went cold.. That deer was gone.. The rest of that day sucked, as we did see about 10 more but they were all on posted land... Later that night I ended up kicking up a doe that one of our hunting party members shot, and tagged..

Deer 4 --- Brett 1 --- Hunting Party 2

Alas, my final day back home. I woke up around 5:45am. About a half an hour earlier then I had all week. I knew that today was my last shot at getting my buck, and filling both my doe tags... Never, would I have thought that I would have gone 4 days and only harvested a doe... Never has that ever happened to me.. This deer season has been brutal!!!
So Tuesday I'm on a mission. If it has a white tail, and is moving I'm killing it.. Plain and simple. So my brother and party can't seem to wake up early, and I venture it alone. Within the 1st 10 minutes I'm already shooting at 7 deer. I get my doe early in the morning. Later we walk and I shoot my buck.. Then we go back to a place where we saw a nice buck Friday morning, and I walk the cat tails, and I shoot 2 more does. Then we get 2 trucks stuck, and that eats about 4 hours of our day, as we had to get a Farmer, and his big 8 wheel tractor to come pull them out. Everyone decides to call it quits, but not me, I convince my bro, and dad to continue the hunt. So we do, and low and behold we get stopped by our friend the Game Warden. Gary knows my family pretty well (not in a bad way) we chit chat, and drive on. Only seeing a few deer out of range we call it a day. My deer season has ended..

Deer 5 --- Brett 5 ---Hunting Party 3

Bad news.. Then Good News..

2008-11-05T07:24:00.000-08:00

Well the people wanted change... Change is what we've been given:

This is what buying an election looks like:

OBAMA'S OCT 1-15 SPENDING = $105,599,963.76
That's more than $293,000 an hour

It's also 49% of EVERYTHING McCain has spent the entire time he has been running for president ($216,769,840)

By contrast, McCain's Oct. 1-15 spending was $9,246,618.70 (or $26,000/hr).

As Allah at Hot Air notes, spending $293,000 an hour means you have to be taking in three $25 contributions every second.

Which seems, well, pretty ludicrous to me. And when we add in to the mix the fact that Obama’s online contributions forms have had some serious security problems letting in all sorts of fraudulent contributions, and that about 50% of Obama’s total fund raising is under the threshold for required disclosure you run into a situation which would seem to require someone, somewhere to be asking some pretty serious questions.

You’d expect that someone to be a member of the media, but they’re all too busy covering Palin’s wardrobe.

Well call me sour grapes or not, but I ask all Obama supporters. Please tell me how much did he spend? Where did he get his money from?? Many add up the projected value of all the ads he placed, and cities he visited, all come up with around $5.3 BILLION Dollars was spent to win this election compared to McCains $0.216 Billion!! (Ouch you'd think if you spent that much you'd at least win by more then 6% of the popular vote..)

Also I saw Obama's downtown Chicago party.. I wonder who's paying for that? Oh wait... We are.. Welcome to Change.

Some more bad news. Turns out this Decker guy out in Wisconsin harvested the world record buck with his bow this past week... I'm not too entirely disappointed as I don't try to compare my bucks to others in different states, that "juice" their deer.. I go for all-natural North Dakota style.. Here's the pics:
Onto some good news! Tomorrow morning I'll be back home in the land of the Sioux! So in lieu of that I'll post some pics from last years hunt..

From Left: My Old Buck, Me, Dad, Bro, His little Buck (with longer horns)

I shot the older buck, and that thing led us around on one of the wildest deer chases of my life for a good 3 hours that day. Then hit the stream and swam away from us, but thank god my brother was back from Iraq and still in shape to run about a mile down stream.. Later we found out that I did shoot it about 6 times...
Notice the weapons of choice: My .270 Tikka T3, and my bro's Winchester 30-30.
I think these two are related because we both harvested them within the same 3 square mile. And according to the stuff I read. That means they are in the same core area.

My "Old Bast" that wouldn't die, 5X5 on left, and my brothers "Youngster" 4X4 on the right..

Breaking the law!!!! Breaking the Law..

2008-11-04T13:54:00.000-08:00

So this morning Starbucks decided they would give out Free Tall Coffee's to people wearing "I voted" stickers. Ben & Jerry's said it would give away a free scoop of ice cream from 5 to 8 p.m. today. California Tortilla, said they would give out free food and sweets today to customers displaying an "I Voted" sticker. Krispy Kreme was giving away Free Donuts to anyone wearing the sacred sticker..

Well around noon today, the U.S. Gov't decided that this was highly illegal to compensate and reward people for voting.. I mean how many millions of dollars did Obama spend on buses running from the shelters to the polls, then off to all 3 companies! I mean talk about Christmas coming early for these guys!!

But such freebies might be a violation of election laws -- they could be viewed as bribes even after a vote has been cast.

Leave it to the law to spoil all the fun for the voters..

To comply with similar election laws nationwide, businesses have devised a work-around.
For instance, Krispy Kreme has tied its voting promotion to its famous "Hot Doughnuts Now" signs that glow in store windows when the circular treats roll off the assembly line, freshly bathed in warm glaze.

"Anyone who visits a participating Krispy Kreme shop today and simply mentions our 'Hot Vote Now' promotion will get a free doughnut," company spokesman Brian Little wrote in an e-mail today. "No one is required to show an 'I Voted' sticker."

Ben & Jerry's said it would give away a free scoop of ice cream from 5 to 8 p.m. today to customers displaying the sticker, but then learned about the law. "Originally, we planned to give free scoops away just to those who voted," said Walt Freese, chief euphoria officer of the wacky Vermont ice cream maker. "We found out afterwards that certain laws may not allow it. So instead we're celebrating our election with a national party," he said.

At Starbucks, which promised a free "tall" coffee today to anyone displaying the "I Voted" sticker, free joe now flows for all, voter and non-voter alike. "To ensure we are in compliance with election law, we are extending our offer to all customers who request a tall brewed coffee," Starbucks spokeswoman Diana Fullerton wrote in an e-mail. "We're pleased to honor our commitment to communities on this important election day."

So today's lesson is: Vote or don't vote -- either way you get free food. Probably not quite the message the companies had hoped to impart. See Jim, even if you don't vote, you still get perks.

Now go out and get your freebies IT'S THE AMERICAN WAY!!!

I'm starting off my night with a coffee:

Then swinging by to grab a donut:

Drive home to drop off my dry cleaning, and grab my list of errands I need to run, oh and stop by here to grab dinner (free of course):

Then follow it up with desert:

You want a SWING state?

2008-11-01T08:52:00.000-07:00

Do you realize how terrible it is to live in a SWING STATE!??!?!#!!$%^&&^*

Can I blow my head off now!!!! When I drive to work in the morning, and all I hear is:

"I'm Barak Obama and I approve this message.."
"I'm running with Barak Obama.."
"We'd like your vote Missouri..."
"Missouri don't elect the same..."

One might ask, "Brett just listen to a cd or your mp3 player?" Well I don't buy cd's anymore, and my mp3 player broke, because I was trying to do some stupid diving play at Tennis Cardio, and my fat ass landed on it, and its never worked since! Plus St Louis has 14 preset stations I listen to ranging from Hip-Hop to Rock, and you'd think 1, just 1! would play music instead of talking and commercials in the morning and evening!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!!? Nope, it just doesn't happen!

When I read the newspaper everyday (online of course its free, and besides who pays for the newspaper anyway, its usually yesterdays news today) the 1st picture to load is this:

Notice how BOTH their mouths are still open from doing their ad campaigns on the radio!

Not that it bothers me or anything, but honestly Barak, your supporters are all about giving you money to blast your name across every avenue their is, and yet you talk about how you want to redistribute the wealth!? All you've shown me is that you're spending A TON of money Frivolously!!! I mean did you really need to spend $5 million on those ads to show up for online gamers on XBOX360!??!?!?

Not only do I drive home from work, and every radio commercial is a damn political campaign for someone. But when I arrive home, and just want to watch a little tv I get bombarded with MISSOURI the SWING STATE! Like I didn't know that before, but now I get to see Barak's Tax Cuts web site, that he spent $30 million on, oh but so far over 1.5 million people have went there!! I went there as to find out who was in charge of completely blacking out every channel with that garbage turns out......

It was Barak again! My man, how much money are you going to spend!! PLEASE GIVE IT A REST!!! I can't even watch tv to relax and get away from this damn election!!! (Since my TV package includes 80 channels plus 4 HBO channels, and its free to all in our complex, I'm going to stop bitching, but just let it be known that this election is a pain to go through..)

So now me and my Wii are like best of friends.. Right now, I have an intense Franchise going on Madden '08 I'm the Colts, and Manning, Wayne, Harrison, Addai + Play Action = 600 yd games, I'm debating on going to some Wii tourney's here in STL, as I don't think I can be stopped, and for a $5 buy-in, to wreak havoc on a 10 year old?? I think that just might solve my anger issues with this election and the DAMN SWING STATE! (Reason I know of this is because the Gamestop located about 200 yds from my place delivers flyers every friday night of what games they have going for the tourney on Sundays, a way for you to do some "sessions" before the big dance..) ha ha, I learned this all one day talking to the neighbor kid, who told me to pick out a cool "name" before I go there, as it might help my gamer street cred! Then he said, "ya but you're pretty big, so you might have the whole old guy lives with mom in her basement gamin it up and shiz" I laughed it off, and told him "I was in your ma's basement last night!" (totally off the subject, but this little d-bag is about 10 or so, and he's messed with me way too many times out at the pool, but his mom is really is hot, so I put up with it.. I haven't asked her age yet, but I'm assuming she's 28-30)

On a more positive way of getting my anger and frustration out:
5 DAYS TILL I'M HOME FOR DEER SEASON!!!

Let it be known that you'll be seeing pictures of this little boy laying in the back of my brothers pickup:

Of course I'll have to shoot it..

Hopefully Bambi's daddy and I will have our rendezvous again:

Only this time he doesn't get away... Here's to watching the Bambi movie to get me into my Hunting spirit!

It's too cold to cancel school

2008-10-29T08:28:00.000-07:00

On Monday many school children who attend Centerville Schools, a suburb of St Louis, were allowed to take the day off.

Why you ask?

Well it was just too COLD!

The temperature on Sunday and was around 65 degrees, and it dropped on Monday morning to around 34 degrees..

WOW, talk about freezing! Oh wait that doesn't happen until you hit 32 degrees. I'm not trying to sound like a badass because I'm from a small town in North Dakota. But 32 degrees, that's good weather.

Some even wear shorts to class when it gets that hot in the winter time! Granted those guys are still drunk from the night before, but I have seen girls going to the bars in mini-skirts at below 0 temperatures, bundled up in their car, but strip down as they run into the club... (Doesn't that defeat the point?) It's like ordering an extra large fry, a double qtr pound cheeseburger, and a DIET Coke..
Obviously people love to make fun of how cold it gets back home, and crazy we are to have lived there, but in reality I'd take not being a big pussy over getting made fun of for being from the north.

Maybe you didn't watch the movie The Day After Tomorrow where this little thing called "Global Warming" completely reverses the global climates of many countries, and freezes the top half of the globe? Turns out because of this movie there actually is a site designed when its going to happen. Ya, that's right all you babies who couldn't handle the cold, or the wolves that escaped the zoo, you all died. Meanwhile us from the North were cool with it.. We now had more places to go snowmobiling, and skiing.

Holy that looks cold, we better cancel school!

So what I'm trying to say is cheers to babying the kids of the future even more..

Employee of the month goes to...

2008-10-25T10:52:00.000-07:00

The idiot who couldn't do the 1 job he was paid to do... Here's the picture of Manny Legace getting hurt on the carpet that some idiot couldn't keep his foot on to hold.. (For you Basketball lovers, its like the guy in charge of pregame ceremonies and his one job is to just watch the camera chords from getting in the way when Lebron James comes out, and whamo, Lebron trips, and he's now hurt..)

On a positive note I heard he just hit the un-employment office this morning... (Do they work on Saturday's?)
Thank god they cut this dudes head off the picture because there are about 20,000 people right now that are looking for his head... How tough of a job is it to put your foot on a piece of carpet!? If you read the story which is here, Manny even said the guy told him to watch his step as their was carpet layed of for Sarah P..... Why every one's so mad is that the Blues Backup who gets paid $3 Million a year is out for a week due to an emergency appendectomy, and so the Blues will be dressing 3rd string and 4th string goalies, (actually their AHL's goalies, meaning the AHL team has recalled their minor league goalies from Alaska.) Coincidence??? Gov. Palin from Alaska still is giving back to her fellow Alaskans, oh and I do believe they call that multi-tasking.

I still love Sarah P, just because I bet she gives a pretty sweet "Nosey" you know the kind of kisses with your nose... Take a minute to laugh or not, then have a great weekend!

Secret Service + ND Plates + Me = Terrorist

2008-10-25T08:33:00.001-07:00

So last night, was kind of a bust. The Blues lost badly, but that's ok, they are a young team. On a better note I became better friends with Brandi. She sat with us at the game, and hilarious she was. I found it weird to have met a girl who knew more racial, and wittier jokes then I. Although I'm not that funny, but I do know a few good ones. Here's her showing how funny my jokes were:

Ouch, I know I'm bad but did you really need the thumb action.. Also last night was pretty sweet as I got my first glimpse of what it's like to be a Secret Service Guard/No Personality/Machine with no sense of fun. We all met at Paddy O's to pregame it up, but since I had the ticket hook-ups I had to run to the Scottrade twice to pick up every one's ticket. Therefore, every time I had to pass by the Westin, which had the priviledge to hold the Palin family overnight. To top it off that same hotel just happened to be on the same street I needed to pass through, and Secret Service was all over every vehicle that drove by. Stopping and searching vehicles (mainly trucks like mine that had North Dakota Plates on in the State of Misery--suspicious?? very) for car bombs or truck bombs, you know stuff like that.. The second time I went through they were really careful and questioned me again saying they remembered me, and wanted to know why I needed to go get "more" tickets. I told them I understand it probably looks like I'm suspicious, but really I do like Sarah Palin, and her family, I then told them to look up my blog, as I'm no Barraky fan. Still unamused I told them to lighten up, as I'll be going back this way in a few minutes.....

So we got to the game just in time for the huge amount of cheers for the Palin Family to drop the puck. Many people thought there would be boos, but I'm going to say about 90% cheers to about 10% boos, and its the 1st time in MY LIFE! Of the thousands of hockey games I've been to, never have I seen Political Signs busted out! People had Obama Biden signs, to McCain Palin.. Weird, I felt like I was at a political rally for a minute, and not a hockey game:

Sorry the picture is crappy, these are from my phone..

Another cool thing, was that the whole Palin family decided to take over the 3 suites right above my section. The only bad thing was every time you left your seat the Secret Service would raise hell, and wanted to escort you to your seat.. I understand that place was a logistical nightmare for the Secret Service..

That's her in the White Jacket. Also take note the folks in "Blue" ya that was the cops, and the Secret Service "trying to blend in" you know like a Chameleon does with a plant..

So we decided to just drink the beer the beer man brought down, since he too was searched because crazy colored guys yelling: "GET YOUR BIG BOYS!, 24's out of the Refrigerator Door!, 9 DOLLA 'make you HOLLA!!" Great stuff beer seller man... I tipped him a bone for every one, and asked if he could give us a rap too.. He said he would spitt some mad game down for Brandi, and asked her if she wanted to listen to his demo.... At that point she then asked, "Could you take our picture of us beer man?" I thought, quick witty answer to the creepy gangsta beer man..

Thanks Beer Man... As my vision has slowly become more hazy...
As the game wore on, the Blues couldn't convert or start, or hit anything. So we drank more, and more... I thought the Palin family would bail out early like they did for that Philly game, so I turned around, and sure enough she was still there...

Notice how the booze managed to take over my camera as well?

Great talk everyone, here's to knowing the Blues will come out tonight and dominate!

For those who want the hockey post scroll down, for those who want to know about the election go somewhere else.

2008-10-22T08:47:00.000-07:00

Here's my rant on Obama:
Obama has not authored a single bill or resolution as a senator. He is a socialist. He is anti-capitalism. He wants to eliminate secret ballots for unions which will force hundreds of businesses to close or move out of the country. He wants to promote welfare and free health care which has never once worked in any other nation. He has voted present or no vote as often as yes or no since becoming a senator. He has no credibility, respect or experience in politics around the world. He is against hand gun ownership.

Thats all off the top of my head and it is all fact and it is all things I have researched before making up my mind. Tell me one good thing about him or why he should lead this country that you found out for yourself, not from his commercials or the released talking parts. I left out the stuff that is subjective like his credibility, his associations with criminals and terrorists and his anti-america as we know it stance because they arent political policy issues but they are a factor in the man himself.

The only argument Obama fans make is that he isn't Bush. Bush has become the biggest liberal president since FDR over the last 3 years and everything has gone to #### since and you want more of the same only to the Nth degree.

In 2003 George Bush proposed that more over sight was needed on the Mortgage and Banking industry, specifically Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He reasoned that there was too much leeway for too few people and the potential for exploitation and greed was too high. He was assured by Dodd and Frank that that was nonsense and his proposal was defeated by the Democrats. Had they been honest and allowed that extra over sight there would be far less of a crisis in the economy than there is now. What is the punishment that the fraud commiting Frank and Dodd were handed out? None, in fact they were rewarded and are high level Obama advisors and will have a high place in his adminiostration instead of being in jail where they belong.

My second point of distress is Obama publicly saying Health Care is a right. He does not grasp the concept that a right comes with responsibility and that rights are inarguable. This means that if someone claims the right someone else has to claim the responsibility. It also means that no person, under any circumstances can be denied that right.

So one of a million possible scenarios is this. Johnny Dogood pays his taxes and works hard and has a nice retirement account and great benefits. He works a long career but in his 60's he gets cancer and can no longer work. He files a claim for treatment but because there are only 10 available shares of cancer treatment in his block (blocks and shares are how socialized health care works but it too long to fully explain) and there are 12 cancer patients requesting help Johnny is delayed in getting his treatment because he is older and his cancer is terminal. After 40 years of paying in he gets nothing. He dies at 61 years old because the delay is more than his system can handle. Meanwhile Francois Foreigndude has been in this country for a year and never had a job but is only 21 years old. He also has cancer and his treatement is expedited because of his age and that fact that health care is a right meaning you can not discriminate. Francois has never paid a penny but gets the treatment, Johnny paid all his life and gets nothing.

Another scenario is this. Good old Brett works hard and pays his taxes and each week extra money is deducted for national health care. He doesn't care because for the first time in his life he has health care and it's "free". Meanwhile, Todd is out sharing needles. He contracts all kinds of illnesses and has no money. Thank goodness for the Messiah Obama and his free health care. Todd has coverage and runs up a couple $100 grand in hospital bills. Guess who has to pay for that, Brett and all the other hard working tax payers. Why? Because Todd has a right to health care and Brett has a responsibility to pay for it. Each month or so your check gets a little smaller as the debt for free healtch care gets higher.

Obviously these are simplified for lengths sake, but they are accurate portrayals of real scenarios that have happened in other countries with national health care.

That is but two of the myriad of reasons why I am so anti Obama.

Thanks for the calm and logical debate. It is appreciated.

For the Love of the Game

2008-10-22T08:12:00.000-07:00

Hi, my name is Marian Hossa, last season my team lost in the Stanley Cup finals. It was a heart breaker. So I did what any band wagon jumper would do. When my Pittsburgh Penguins fell to Detroit in the finals last June, I turned down an eight-year, $70 million-$80 million contract from Edmonton and a seven-year, $49 million deal in Pittsburgh to take a one-year, $7.4 million offer from the Red Wings and win my 1st cup!

Obviously, when you're good, money will follow you where ever you go. But he definitely just went from being on the good side, to the dark side.

My thoughts today are about tonight's game that has last years champs facing the leagues youngest team. Anyone would agree that last years champs with the highest payroll is about a 10-1 favorite, against the leagues youngest and one of the worst teams last year...

Well it's a new year, and a new NHL. The Blues are tops in the league when it comes to goals, power play, and penalty kill. Also the Wings are currently looking up at the Blues..

A few major pieces of note about tonight's game:

Enforcers: Blues decided to acquire another heavyweight. They now have 2 fighters on their roster to supposedly "protect the kids". I think it wastes a spot for Rookie Chris Porter, who brings more to the table then an enforcer does. Also note the Champs don't have any enforcers because they roll 4 great forward lines, probably the most talented in the NHL. They impose the "Wolf Pack" mentality of if you decide to take liberties on us, we'll take liberties on the board.

Special Teams: I think this might be the first game in a long time the Wings don't have a better power play, or a better penalty kill then their opponent. Speaks volumes for the Blues and their young young team who was picked to be in the bottom of the basement by every media writer who covers the NHL. (Who's laughing now)

Goalies: Legace gets the nod, and the wings are starting their backup.. Hopefully the Wings will learn this isn't a bottom feeder team anymore.

Z-Factor: I'll be pretty bummed if Henrik Zetterberg doesn't play tonight. If he plays and the Blues win, the Blues will be dubbed legit. If he doesn't play, the media will blame it on him, and the fact they didn't start their #1 Forward and #1 goalie...

My prediction: 4-3 again. Blues Walt, Boyes, Oshie, Perron. Wings Liddy, Hossa, Datsyuk.

Oh ya, did you know there was an election coming up?

I recently had a discussion (now she's mad, because I told her, her vote doesn't even count) with a friend who is in love with Obama. I think we will be in trouble if he takes the White House. No I won't get into his race, terrorist ties, religion, name and its resemblance to a guy's country we just invaded, or his Anti-American stance on the pledge, and star-spangled banner routines.. I will get into his policies I read on his website.

I better just start this as its own post..

Cause Escasty's got me standing here next you..

2008-10-21T09:05:00.000-07:00

After getting home late from work, I cranked on the tube, to see A&E had some documentary of Jose Canseco titled something like "Last Shot" turns out I guess it was an hour long... I only watched the part where it showed him driving his crotch rocket into a minor league baseball game which had like 100 people in the stands, and he decided to walk all the way up to the top of the stands and sit by himself in complete obscurity... He then talked about how he wasn't allowed in any other baseball stadium, in the country... Then it showed all these fans coming up and over to him ask for auto's and pics and he obliged, it was his first time ever sitting at a baseball game since the big debacle.. It made it out to seem really sad for Canseco, who wishes he would have never wrote his book, or named names... How it cost him more then anything... blah blah blah... Then the last few minutes of the show an LA County Server of Papers (I can't remember what its called right now) showed up, and served Jose his papers saying how the owners of the Team and stadium he was sitting in was suing him! lol What was turning out to be such a great day, ended with a lawsuit... ouch Jose.. "The biggest mistake I made was, I should have not written (Juiced)," Canseco says. "The more I think about it, the more I regret mentioning these players in my book."

I think Jose was a whistle blower for sure, but he also opened a can of worms, and showed the reality of what Athletes really go through on a daily basis to keep their jobs... Now whenever an athlete has a breakout year, he's ridiculed and demoralized as to the only reason he's doing a good job is because he's on HGH or roids.. Which is plain silly. Some athletes have good years some bad... I'm no super fan, but I like to think some athletes are just that good, and physically healthy..

"Not me Brett, I'm a DFL" (Doper for Life)

1,500-meter runner Yelena Soboleva

Blues Clues?

2008-10-20T08:52:00.000-07:00

What a great game to witness. For those who don't know I went to the Blues vs Hawks game on Saturday night.. It had some definite resemblance of home. Two years ago was the last time I saw Chris Porter, TJ Oshie, and Jonathan Toews play on the same ice at UND. And Saturday night I was able to witness history that the boys will always remember. Toews is the 3rd youngest captain in NHL history, and he took the faceoff on Saturday against a line that featured Porter on the left wing. Well about 40 seconds in Toews struck first, assisting on the
goal to put the Hawks on the board..

(Sorry I couldn't find a pic of Jonny yet from the actual game)

I thought it ironic in a way. Jonny came to UND when he was 17, and was always considered the younger of the 3. Since he truly was. He also turned pro a year before Osh and Ports, and is now considered more of a veteran. Well he showed it right away. Hawks then go up another goal
2-0. Then Ports decides he's going to show the fans, he's here to stay by putting the biscuit in the oven.

"Obviously your dream in college is to make it here," said Porter, a former Fighting Sioux captain who didn't miss a game in four years of college. " I played with Jonny his freshman year quite a bit, and then Oshie his sophomore year. But to have us all three on the ice is pretty special."

Congrats Ports on your 1st NHL Career Goal

Then Osh decides to he'll help the former Sioux standouts all make the score sheets, by making a a beauty of a no look pass to Tkachuck to cut the lead to 3-2. (Tkachuck is 10 pts away from 1,000 in his career) It reminded me when he put it between his legs to Duncan for a goal.

Then the Blues tie it up with 18 seconds left in the game. Sending it into OVERTIME!
In overtime the only highlight was up in the upper bowl where a few Hawks fans decided to instigate a fight which led them to get escorted out of the building one guy was actually bloodied up, and a straggler who wasn't hand cuffed yet, decided to give the one finger salute to everyone, and right at the bottom of the stairs when he turned the corner, the police had handcuffs waiting. I also heard from a few fans later that the police had asked about 20 or so people in for questioning. Well overtime finished with the teams still at a stalemate. This is why I love the NHL, it went into the shootout! Blues go up a point on the first attempt, and Toews gets the nod, and of course he scores. (I think he can do his move with his eyes shut) Khabi, and Manny both stop 2 out 3 shooters. Sending the Shootout into the 4th. Where Andy Murray calls on the young Osh to step up for the Blues.
"Once I came in, it's my go-to move from high school, so I stuck with it," said Oshie, a former All-American at the University of North Dakota who pulled the puck back before beating goalie Nikolai Khabibulin. "It's a move I've been doing for a long time now, I actually learned it when I was a sophomore in high school and have been critiquing it ever since." But this wasn't high school hockey in Oshie's native Minnesota. This was NHL hockey between bitter rivals with a sellout crowd of 19,150 standing and roaring. "Ever since they moved to the shootouts, I've been waiting to get a chance to do it and I finally got it tonight."

Well said, and lets hope this season, since the Blues were picked to finish at the bottom of the entire League can be somewhat of a Tampa Bay Rays story.. Lots of youth, and lots of talent that has been given no respect. Well the Blues are at the top of almost every stat column in the NHL. Here's to a great year, and maybe a dance with her??? :

Oh ya, and the Rams have a losing record, but beat the Cowboys, so all of a sudden they are good?? Ah, they'll finish with a losing record... They are 2-4, and I think they'll still chalk up more in that right side column.

Saturdays in St Louis

2008-10-18T07:58:00.000-07:00

Quick thoughts going into tonight's excursions:

Thursday Recap:
I went to the game, and of course why wouldn't I be sitting next to a bunch of Wisc. Badger fans, who drove down... Who does that?? Also I had the privilege of sitting in front of the drunkest student (It was student night, where college students showed their id and paid $20 for a $119 ticket) and he wouldn't stop yelling.. It wasn't like he was yelling cool stuff like at the goalie, he was yelling stupid stuff like a guy 2 rows in front of me was wearing a cowboy hat, and he was mocking him... Finally he was escorted out. I attempted to write down cheers for him to shout out instead of acting like an idiot, but it was too late.. Security had enough...

Well after the 1st period I was shocked to see Coach Osh was in town, and so we reminisced about the good times we had at UND games. We then went back to his seats where I met up with Berglunds sister and Father who were in a great mood having just flown 19 hours to get to the hockey game that night. I don't know about you, but I'm going to take up Swedish... It's a pretty sweet language..

Notice the tongue out, its because I'm drinking the white
wine, after all that beer.. wine not a good choice!

The game went well for the Blues 6-1 Stomping of the Stars. After the game we went down to congratulate the boys on a job well done. The 1st player in the family room was Manny, and then it was the bday man Paul Kariya, whom no one knew or remembered it was his bday, so scrambling for a moment, after he was done talking with his wife, I went over with a bottle of wine I picked up off the table said happy bday, and he smiled and laughed I told him I hadn't planned on meeting him tonight, so I just grabbed the bottle from over there... After that the rest of the room went over and wished him a happy bday.. Everyone was in a great mood since they won so we decided we better celebrate the win by heading out to the bar!!

Well needless to say I'm not 21 anymore and I'm now just feeling a lot better! BUT JUST IN TIME FOR TONIGHT!! As its going to get even rowdier tonight!!

Well I feel kind of bad, because there was a big race going this weekend at the dirt track, and I was torn between the 2, but one can't pass up hockey, and the partying that goes on with it!

So here's my prediction for tonight:
Oshie vs Toews might get into their 1st NHL Fights tonight. As close as they are I don't think either one of them wants to fight anyone else. I think the Blues will win in a good battle 4-3. Osh (1st on his career), Tkachuck, Boyes, Brewer or McD get goals for Blues, and Hawks will be powered by Toews (1st on the year), Kane, Havlat.. Also Skille will get thrown in the box, and Blues capitalize (that one just for fun)

Also for tonight:
1.) Hopefully the Sioux Hockey team rebounds and gets a win tonight.. They got thrashed pretty good last night by Mankato. They have plenty of talent its all about chemistry, and Hak will find it, even if it takes half the season..

2.) Steve Arpin starts on the pole for the big mod race as does Will Vaught in the Super Lates. I'd enjoy seeing them both win, as I won't be there tonight, my guess is they will win.

3.) Poker night has returned for Sunday nights, so now I'll be able to watch football, Napcar and gamble as if I wasn't happy with the status quo! This is my happy dance....

4.) Still debating on going to the Cowboys vs Rams game..... Still debating... Well we'll see how I fare at the bars tonight... And if my energy level is up to it... it might just happen..

Starting is always half the battle...

2008-10-15T14:15:00.000-07:00

Well the NHL season is 2 weeks in, and NCAA hockey is a week into what hopes to be a great fulfillment of my time untill March. March is the month of my birthday, also its the same day the St Louis Blues will be honoring all in attendance at the Scottrade Center for my birthday FREE FOOD!!!!!! I repeat if you go to my birthday party at the Scott, food's on the house!! lol

Well my new team: St Louis Blues, and my old favorite team: UND Fighting Sioux got off to great starts in the 1st games. Both won, convincingly. They both went on to lose their next... (Not so great, especially since I watched the Blues lose on tv, and watched the Sioux lose on the net.. )

But the 3rd game is what sets these teams apart. The Sioux were playing in an ice breaker tourney out in Boston, and completely dominated in shots, with over 40+ shots on net they only managed to score twice.. Oh well it's their 2nd game, and only 1st week working together with their coaches.. In the NHL they have preseason for that. In NCAA, they have an exhibition game. Many Sioux fans went hysterical at the thought of their beloved team losing 2-in-a-row.. But I don't worry as Coach Hak loves to turn his teams into momentum builders for the second half of the season. I wonder if he actually hopes they lose and are sparatic at the beginning of the year, so he can then build momentum for the end??? Consiparcy?? Anyone?? Buehler??

I was at work on Monday, Thanksgiving day.. Oh I forgot to mention that I told all my colleagues at work that since I used to live in Grand Forks, ND, were so close to the border that we celebrate Canadian National Holidays.. My boss actually bought it, but I decided to work anyway, I mean its monday, and I have a big vacation coming up.

So I'm pumped that my computer at work is able to listen to the hockey game on the net. Most things are firewalled for me. But sure enough the Blues find themselves down 3-0 in the first period. I went over to the Blues 'Boards, and sure enough there are like 100 posts under the game day thread about how the 'old Blues are back, and a bunch of garbage, I just started to laugh.. How quick everyone was to jump ship, and bail to make themselves sound smart!! Well with incredible plays, and defense by former Sioux, TJ Oshie shows how incredible he can be.

They eventually go on to win the game in an OT shootout 5-4, and media scribes here in STL are calling it Monday Afternoon Miracle.

This week it's going to be a great week for me. I get to watch the Dallas Stars, with Sean Avery, who everyone thinks is gay, but he's not, he definately likes chicks, and gets many models all guys dream of, but I wonder if he'll sign my ex-girlfriends Coach purse I never gave her?

According to the New York times he's quoted as saying his fantasy career would be:

"I’d like to be an editor of a fashion magazine. Creatively and artistically, it is something I’d like to do, and I think I have a lot of ideas that would be good on paper."

Also on Saturday I get to see my man-crush from UND, no not Zach Parise, no not Travis Zajac, no not Matt Greene, but Jonny T! As Abar knows, I've been preaching that this kid is the real deal, and everyone should have worshiped the ground he walked on at UND. Remember Abar, when we saw him at REA doing our routine walk-around, and he was just standing there in his Suit, chatting it up with some players moms? LOL, good times....
Here's to him going up against Oshie and Porter, for the first of hopefully many for me!

Ask me if I'm still bitter that Duncan won the Hobey? No, I'm not, he benefited from those two lads to his right in this picture, and all 3 know it..

Till I'm BLUE in the Face

2008-10-11T12:53:00.000-07:00

Well preseason is over for my new team I will be following, the St Louis Blues. This franchise has a great storied past, but like all things that's the past, and this is the present.

Having moved here about a year ago, this town I've come to realize is all high and mighty on pro teams that are winners, and when you're a loser, they'll heckle you until you leave. How you can come to this town, and like a different baseball team other then the Cardinals is almost an impossibility. As if you don't admit your a Cards fan, you might get "wacked" (ya there is a mafia here.)

Last winter I was able to attend a few NHL games, what I saw was eye-opening. I come from a small town of about 50-65,000. I also was able to attend the great UND for the best 5 and half years of my life, where I fell in love with watching UND Fighting Sioux Hockey. Week in and week out, the greatest palace on ice fills up with 11,000+ giddy fans ready to watch their team pummle their opponent. I don't think I've ever walked into that building thinking my team is going to lose. NEVER, as weird as that sounds, and you can call me a "Homer" all you want, but its college hockey, anything and anyone can win, and therefore never have I walked into that building expecting a loss. Especially the talent that has went through their the last 6 years.

Well on to my story, last winter I had the privilege of watching the Blues play Dallas, Colorado, Chicago, Nashville, and a few others. What I saw is what was so shocking..
1.) The Scottrade Center is nice, but the Ralph Engelstad Arena truly is in a league of its own. I knew it was nice having been to the Excel Energy Center, and the Pepsi Center. But still I was expecting more then that.
2.) Attendance at some NHL games last year the crowd was as low as 7,500 people! (Capacity is 19,150) Where are the season ticket holders?? I just couldn't believe how since the team was on a skid their fans would give up so quick. (Granted this team hasn't been to the playoffs for a looooongg time, but still)
3.) Crowd energy, and music was nothing to what I was accustomed to in college. Maybe its just me, and I've been graced with so many great thrillers in college, but most games I went to even the MC, and the music is depressing. Granted they stay with tradition, and an organ, but still. I think people like a little bit of a change, but mainly their music just didn't seem to get me or my girlfriend pumped up..

That's hopefully in the past, as the 2008-2009 Year for the Blues has been labeled by their Managements Promotion as: "WHATEVER IT TAKES" :
1.) Whatever it takes to win- The Blues are one of the youngest teams in the league, and have been pinpointed by every writer and "expert" in the sport as the worst team in the league. And as high as 3rd worst in the league! Laughable I say, its time to prove the doubters wrong.
2.) Whatever it takes to fill the stands- Great promotions of name your price for whatever seat you'd like to sit, and if it's reasonable they'll accept! Also add in free ticket giveaways for Meet the Team events, and thats Free tickets to anyone who shows up their! I give mgmt big props in their efforts to reduce ticket prices down to the same price of going to the movies! The more people watch this sport of hockey, the fights, the plays, the ridiculous goals, the more they'll realize how great it is to watch.

Also check out March 15th my birthday, they're going to honor my birthday by giving away FREE food to everyone in attendance!!! How many places do that for a fan!?!?!?! lol

Onto my predictions for the team:

Biggest Breakout Rookie:
It'll be tough between Oshie and Berglund, but like the story in Shytown last year between Kane and Toews whoever stays healthy wins it. I'd like to see Oshie win it as he'll play against the opponents best line night in and night out, and also is the #2 forward on the penalty kill. Whereas Berglund is positioned against the opponents weakest scoring line, and also plays on the Power Play.

Darkhorse: Chris Porter, even though he originally was cut at the beginning of the year (I think it was due to the Salary Cap) he'll eventually win over Murray, as he played with his son Brady back in college (Come on Andy that should mean something, I know Brady didn't pan out the greatest but that doesn't mean you have to take it out on all the current and future Sioux players). Chris always seems to impress me with his work ethic and the drive to want to play the game. I mean after all he holds all them NCAA records for longest streak of playing in every college hockey game throughout his whole career. Plus all them Ironman awards beating out other NHLers back in college. This kid will be a great power forward grinder in the NHL.

Goalie:
Manny Legace, and Chris Mason (former starter for Nashville) will be the 1-2 goaltenders, the brass signed Mason this off season for $3Mill for the next 2 years. Meanwhile Manny's on his last year and gets paid less, and has been the best goalie for STL over the years he's been here. The writing on the wall doesn't look good for Manny, as the Blues also claim Ben Bishop is ready down in the AHL, and will most likely get signed next year. I feel bad for Manny, but hey its opportunity time for him, he plays extremely well, he can look at a lot of great offers to go elsewhere and put the Blues in a pinch.

Vet Forwards:
Paul Kariya has 2 years left on his big $6Mill/yr contract. Last year he didn't play up to his potential. Keith Tkachuck is on his last year of his contract. Rumor is he might retire, and move into the Blues Office somewhere. I think if they do well, all the kids on this team will invigorate him into maybe playing another year or two. Brad Boyes will need to keep his goal production up, having a breakout year last year, they just don't want him to fall into a slump. Andy McDonald is looking to breakout of his slump he endured last year at Anaheim, and I think the small (For you Sioux Fans, he reminds me of Ryan Duncan) forward can maybe get er done.

Defense?:
The biggest question mark. Not because every ones man crush on Erik Johnson is so overly depressing. (If you didn't know he's hurt again, and my guess he'll be one of those NHLers who are valued as a commodity, but are always fighting to stay of the IR) EJ's out for the year, but even with him on the Blue Line this year, they still only have about 3 good D-Men.

The Future:
It's bright, because when you're in the leagues doghouse at the bottom every year for 3 straight years you tend to get high draft picks. Hopefully all those draft picks come through, if they do this team will make the playoffs this year, and hopefully contend for a Stanley cup in the next 2-4 years.

Who needs the Orange County, when you have the South County

2008-09-30T08:18:00.000-07:00

Having finally recouperated after my weekend, looking back this city can be fun if you know how it works.

I start out with Friday morning. I arrive to work, and start my day like I normally do.. Read a whole bunch of internet message boards about: Dirt Track racing in STL and back home, Blues and NHL, NASCAR, of course fellow bloggers, I enjoy reading different city's sports sections.. Well that takes up just about 3-4 hours of my day..

Moving on, I decide that I'm going to head out to the dirt track races with a co-worker, but later on I read that Blues Exhibition and Season tickets are so cheap you name your price you want to spend on said ticket, and they'll notify you if they'll accept.. So I decide to check up on the boards about this, and these guys are laughing about how they picked up front row tickets behind the goalie for $4!! And then another guy complains about how he paid $190/ticket for the whole season and got screwed because of this promotion! lol So I decide to purchase these $4 tickets, well low and behold they try charging me an extra $16 in fees to deliver it to will call, since I'm doing this at 6pm for the 7:30pm game. So I just print off the screen not having paid for anything yet, but it sure looks like I did!

After I get back from grabbing my printout off the work printer, a customer decides at 6:15pm that they would like to test drive a car!? I thought to myself go figure I actually want to do something fun tonight, and some deuche bag thinks he wants to buy a newer car then what he's driving... So 8pm rolls around (We close at 7:30pm and the game started at 7:30pm) and turns out the dude just bought his Mustang from another dealer and he's welded in his car so bad its going to take him half his life to pay it off.

So I make the mad dash to my truck, and downtown here I come! I drive up to the corner where I think I might be able to buy a scalpers ticket hopefully for pennies on the dollar, but to my dismay their are no Scalpers to be found! Granted the games half over, but I'm trudging through this because its Hockey Season, and I need to show some support! I then look and see that the premium $25 parking lot is half empty and nowhere to be found is anyone to collect my money so I just pull in and park it about 20 yards from the front door of the Scottrade Center!

I get to the will call lady and show her my printout of the $4 ticket and she is searching desperately trying to find my ticket somewhere... I then tell her to call her manager or someone to see if they might know? She decides to call her manager after a few minutes on the phone she comes back, and says she has no idea where it is... I then get desperate and pull out my UND Id, and my North Dakota drivers license, and start name dropping TJ Oshie, and Chris Porter, and told her I went to college with those guys, and that I just came here to watch these guys (For those who don't know Sports or Hockey these are 2 rookies this year for the Blues, and were great hockey players at UND).. She looks at me with even more despair, and I can see inside her eyes she feels really bad for me.. Then 2 drunk 30 year olds come in, and show off these free ticket passes they got at fan fest last week, and the belligerent one who is kinda decent for a 31 yr old (I found later how old she was read more) and she asks if I need a ticket and if I want to sit with them!? I laughed and said ya they can't seem to find my ticket.. The drunk lady then can't find her extra ticket, and wants to know if I can just go in with them?? The will call lady then in all the comotion decides to hand me a $169 ticket (thats what the value the ticket said) and so I walk in with the drunk ladies who let me know they clearly need another drink, and offer to buy me one! I laugh and say sure why not, lets just get wasted and try watching hockey tonight! They laugh and tell me they're good at it!

So after the brews they decide to tell me they are going up to their seats, and I tell them I'm in the lower level, and they said they'll see me at the end of the period right here for another beer! I agree and we part ways...

Here comes the shocker.... I'm watching the hockey game, and all of a sudden the 2 drunkens decide to stroll right past me, and park it right in the middle of a group about 4 rows in front of me.. I begin to laugh because I know its going to be a great night with these drunken ladies screaming all night! After the period they walk past me, and so I decide well I'm out of beer I might as well see if it was really truly meant to be...

I stroll up to our spot where we indulged in some of ABInbev's finest, and sure enough Cindy(when I was drunk she looked like an older Vanessa Marcil, petite 31 year old)
and Melissa (larger not anywhere near cute, but knows hockey so I give her props 30 year old) are there waiting for me, and do the whole arms way up in the air yelling my name as if I didn't see them. I laugh and walk over to them, and again they just hand me a 32 oz of Bud Select, and they tell me I have to meet their friends, and tell me I must come and sit with them. So I do, and many shenanigans later between the whole group, because the Blues dominated 9-4..

Cindy either drinking herself sober, or just playing like a champ, decides to tell everyone we must get on the metro-link and go to the casino! I'm thinking its like 10pm, and I have to work the next morning, but hey how many times can you party with older ladies and have fun doing it!?

So we decide to head there, and on our way our group turned from about 15 to 8 on the Metro-link.. As were on the Metro-link everyones exchanging stories, and I found out that Cindy's in real estate, and Melissa married into money.. So the casino was fun, and these girls love their alcohol, and fun.. I stopped drinking at the casino, even though it was free I just decided to have some Red Bulls, so I could stay awake.. After about 2 hours in the casino, I noticed our group was down to just me and the drunks.. I decide to do the old, well I better get going I have to work in the morning, and so awkwardly Melissa tells me good bye and nice meeting you, and the drops the line, "I'll let you and Cindy have a good rest of the night." and smiles and walks away...

My jaw drops as if I just got suckered into either:
A.) Taking care of her drunk friend for the night thats going to start puking any second
B.) The kind of good night that only 2 adults can have
C.) She is expecting me to give Cindy a ride home because she lives about 20 miles closer to me then Melissa?

So Cindy comes over to me with arms wide open, and if I would've been a lot drunker maybe, just maybe this story would've been better... But I wasn't drunk, as opposed to Cindy. So she gives me a hug, and as she whispers in my ear that she still knows how to party back at my place.. I then giggle, and tell her maybe I could get her number, or she can get mine, and maybe we can do this again sometime??

She then does the ol stand up grind on my body, and licks the side of my face! I quickly have flashbacks to Wedding Crashers, when Owen Wilson is up in his room, and Dr.Quinn medicine woman with her boob job wants him to touch her, and call her kitty cat.. I break out with a smile, and my face is pitch red.. (thinking in my mind wow is this really happening to me right now?)

I break ourselves apart give her my business card, and tell her to call me as I hop into my taxi cab!

On my taxi cab ride back to my truck all I could think about was weird movies, and the Desperate Housewives of Orange County, and how this would've made a great episode!

If only I would've went to the races... Will post later my 1st ever visit to an NFL Football game.

So I've been to a dirt track race....

2008-09-21T10:25:00.001-07:00

In lieu of some fellow bloggers posts. I too have decided to flaunt some of the merchandise I have been able to pick up when I'm enjoying some of my facorite hobbies.

Well without further ado, I give you in order of purchase: (Keep in mind I have others just ones I have unpacked! lol)

The 1st on the list is Trent Follmer in 2005 he won the Harvest Bowl race at River Cities Speedway, this race is now named after the late John Seitz.

In 2006 I picked up a few from Dustin and Brian Strand shirts and Sweaters:

As well as Dustin Hapka's Shirts and Sweaters:

In 2008 I picked up a lot down in Daytona Speedweeks:

You have to appreciate my efforts to get Tony Stewarts and Donny Schatz's autograph while they were arguing about helping Kraig Kinser's team out.. I believe I'm the 1st person to get a TSR shirt with Donny's and Tony's autograph, as well as a t-shirt at the location the big announcement was made about joining forces: (This one is autographed to my dad)

While down there I met a lot of great race car drivers, and fans. Here are some of the St. Louis drivers I met:

Tim "Big Block" Hancock:

Kenny "Herm" Wallace:
Ken Shrader:

Austin Dillon:

Then I went back home and picked up a new Strand Racing Shirt:

Then I was able to pick up some more T-Shirts at I-55:

As well as most recently picked up some T's at the UMP Modified Mania in Tri-City:

I want a Hybrid vehicle?

2008-07-23T13:25:00.000-07:00

With gas prices soaring around $4.00/gallon and higher, "how to save at the pump" is swiftly moving to the top of the purchase-decision list for many Americans...

Naturally, an increasing number of americans are considering a hybrid vehicle. The perception is hybrid equals fuel savings, right? True.

BUT is hybrid the right choice for everyone?

If you answer yes to any of the following choices the Hybrid isn't the right vehicle for you:
1. Do you drive 80% of the time above 25mph?
2. Do you drive more then 20% of the time on the highway?
3. Do you run the A/C on max often during the summer?
4. Do you want good acceleration for highway and interstate driving, especially when merging into traffic?
5. Do you have a commute that is a mix of city and highway driving?
6. Do you spend most weekends, especially during the summer, taking road trips with friends?

If you answered yes to 5 or 6 then a 4 cylinder is your best bet. If yes to 1-4 then a V-6 is what you should look for..

Question of the day, which shows more dirt dark colors, or light colors?