Dynamite

Just wanted to share that I just gave in to temptation and made a big purchase. I couldn't help it. It was staring at me, asking to come home with me. I had already experienced it before, but couldn't pass up the chance to be able to have one and call my own. The first night, I used it once, the second night again. By now, I'm almost tired of it, but I love knowing that it's sitting right there waiting for me to use again. Napoleon Dynamite has to be one of the stupidest movies I've ever seen, but I had to buy it!

Big Dance

I was thinking about making all my selections known for the NCAA tournament, but decided to wait until we're down to either 32 or 16 teams. My bracket is already messed up, seeing as how I always like to pick the teams with some appeal to them. Or the teams that were on ESPN the night before. So here's my first round mess ups...

Nevada over Texas---Call me a homeboy, but I figured the Horns could pull it out.

Milwaukee Wisconsin over Alabama---I actually had Bama going to the sweet 16, can you say overrated.

UAB over LSU---Another team I had going to the sweet 16, overrated again, The SEC needs some help.

Pacific over Pittsburgh---Never even heard of Pacific, or much about them. I didn't have Pitt going much further though.

West Virginia over Creighton---I like the bluejays, didn't know much about WVU.

Utah over UTEP---I figured it would be a nice upset

So there are 6 games I've already messed up on, that's why I wait until the next round...Stay tuned....

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

We're quietly sneaking up on one of the best days of the year. It is a day that some might not enjoy, but sports enthusiasts such as myself can't wait for this one day to roll around. What day is it? Well the opening day of the MLB season of course! While I consider myself an all around baseball fan, the team that I fancy the most is of course the Houston Astros. There are a long 20 days and 7 hours until the the Astros first pitch against last year's NL Central champs St. Louis Cardinals. It looks as if this season might be a step down from last seasons wild-card winning team. However, I feel that everyone might be in for a bit of a surprise.
The 'Stros lost Jeff Kent who led the team in RBI's, and also Carlos Beltrán who was the catalyst in the team's surge towards the end of the season last year. Those are two huge holes to fill. Somewhere in the middle of the off-season, the team switched General Managers. I was hoping that as a result the Astros would go into a spending spree, or make some blockbuster trade after Beltrán left. I'm glad I wasn't holding my breath. Instead of bringing someone new in, they decided to rely on their farm system. Let's hope that Chris Burke and Willy Taverez can take the place of the two guys we lost. I feel that it is good to get these new guys into the rotation now, instead of holding on to some older veterans whose production declines every year. From what I hear, Burke could be a serious Rookie of the Year candidate if he can prove himself more worthy of the second base position than Craig Biggio is. Taverez evidently is also a speed demon. He stole 76 bases last season in AA ball. That's the bad thing though, AA. He's never played higher than AA. The Astros believe that he has every tool he needs to be a big leaguer, but is lacking only the ability to switch hit. Even if he's not ready this year, Taverez is definitely the Astros center fielder of the future.
The line up doesn't look like it'll have near as much pop this year as it did last year. Instead of having to rely on the long ball to bring in runs, Phil Garner will have to steal some bases, and play a little small ball to produce. I think that this kind of baseball is more exciting as a whole to watch. Of course there is nothing more exciting to watch than a guy hitting the ball 350 feet over the outfield walls, but home runs are few and far between. If you've got a couple of guys who can swipe more than 50 bags a year, I'm all for it. With some of our older vets getting on up there in age, the addition of these young guys might might provide the Astros with some unexpected speed.
The rotation looks really good 1 through 4, if and only if they can stay healthy. The ace will be Roy Oswalt. Who I feel is one of the better pitchers in all of MLB. Hopefully he's looking at another 20+ win season, with a low ERA. After him is probably the biggest question mark, after the number 5 starter. Andy Pettitte, if healthy is one of the most dominate post-season pitchers of all time. If he can bring that into the regular season, and stay healthy, the Astros have a chance to have at least three, 20 game winners. Behind Pettitte is hopefully the rock of the Astros rotation (or should I say ROCKET). If Clemens can have a season anywhere near as dominant as last season was the Astros will be looking alright. If Brandon Backe in the 4th spot can do what he did for the last two months of the season last year, for the entire season this year, the Astros will look great. The 5th spot is a different story. Who will it be? No one actually knows. I prefer a young left hander by the name of Carlos Hernandez. I saw this guy make his first professional start in person. He was dominating. If he hadn't had so many health problems he might have already been locked in at the #4 spot in the rotation.
If the starting pitching can make it seven innings or so, it'll be nice to have a good set up guy and a closer. It looks as if the set up man could be Chad Qualls, or Dan Wheeler. Regardless, all these guys have to do is hold onto it for one inning until the big bopper can come in. Perhaps the best, and most underrated closer in the game is the Astros closer, Brad Lidge. He made a name for himself last year in the playoffs, but this year will really be his year to become one of the most dominant closers in the game. I feel that he can be up there, if not better than guys like Gagne, Rivera, and whoever else you want to throw out. If Lidge gets the ball in the 9th with a lead, go ahead and pack those bags.


So my thoughts on the upcoming season....

AL West- As the Rangers guys get more experience and a little older, they'll get much better. I feel that they are still several years away though. Seattle really improved themselves too, but there is only one team to beat in this division. The Angels are the team to beat in my mind.

My pick: California/Los Angeles/Anaheim Angels

AL Central- The Tigers look to be much improved, but the race here will be between the Twins and the White Sox. When all is said and done, it'll be close, but the Twins will be a couple of games better than the Sox.

My pick: Minnesota Twins

AL East- Once again, a two team race. Should Tampa Bay and Toronto even have teams anymore? It looks like Baltimore might cause fits for the Red Sox and the Yankees when they get hot, but in the long run, they won't be able to keep up with the big dawgs of the East. The Red Sox are the defending World Champions, but they were the Wild Cards last year, and that's where I like them to finish this year. The Yankees will win this one by around 10 games.

My pick: New York Yankees

AL Wild Card: Boston Red Sox.



NL West- This could be a very exciting division. The top 3 teams are all good enough to take this division. I also think that Arizona will be somewhat improved this year (even though they lost their unit). The Giants made some great off-season moves, but they are too old. Los Angeles made some good moves too, but they also lost Beltre. If it weren't for their two big off season pick ups, Jeff Kent, and JD Drew, their line up would not be too impressive. The Padres match up well with all of the other teams in this division, and if they start to actually gain some homefield advantage in PETCO Park, then they'll win this division.

My Pick: San Diego Padres

NL East- My biggest hope of the season (not having to do with the Astros) is that the Mets have a flop of a season. Sure, call me bitter, I don't mind, I am. I look for the Mets to finish towards the bottom of this division, right above the Nationals/Expos. They are an intriguing team, the first year in the nation's capitol. I don't expect anything great out of them yet, but in a few years when MLB doesn't own them anymore, they might be a team to be reckoned with. So that leaves us with the Braves, Marlins, and Phillies. The fish are a good team, but I don't think they have the support of the city of Miami. While that doesn't seem like that big of a deal, I think it'll account for something. The Phillies are an explosive offensive team. I don't think the pitching will stack up though. So as much as it pains me to say it (I hate the Braves), Atlanta will be the team to beat. With Smoltz back in the rotation and Kolb as the closer, it might be lights out for the other NL teams.

My pick: Atlanta Braves

NL Central: What was the best division in baseball last year is now probably has only one team at the top. The Cubbies are overrated, Pittsburgh, and Milwaukee won't get too far. I think Cincinatti will hold on until a little after the All-Star break. In the end though, it'll be St. Louis at the top, and a battle between the Cubbies and my Astros for second. Don't forget the old No Fear Shirts "2nd place is the first loser". That may be the case usually, but not when the Wild Card is at stake. St. Louis is a team that I can't hate. They are of course in the same division as the Astros, but are all in all a classy team. They have by far the best line-up in baseball, and their pitching is great. They'll probably sweep the Astros in the first series of the year.

My pick: St. Louis Cardinals

NL Wild Card: Houston Astros (who else?)



Post Season...

AL
Divisional Series
Yankees over the Twins
Angels over the Red Sox

AL Championship
Yankees over Angels

NL
Divisional Series
Astros over the Braves
Cards over the Padres

NL Championship
Cardinals over the Astros (in 7)

World Series

Cardinals over the Yankees in 6

It's the Cardinal's year....

Of course I am by no means an expert, but check back on these in October...

The Answer for M.J.

Quite obviously its another busy day here at work. My co-worker and I have been jamming out to classical rock all day trying to guess who sings each song. I'm currently getting my butt kicked, but if it were anything other than classic rock I'd be tearing it up. How am I supposed to know that Scorpion sings "Rock Me Like a Hurricane" (is that the title?) Anyway if you haven't caught the sarcasm from my first sentence, it's been a pretty bum-friggin' boring day here in God's country. I did get to give one hombre the tour of the camp, and he signed his kid up on the spot. I like to think that maybe it's my master business skills that made him decide this was the place for his kid, but I know the facilities speak for themselves.
I have many skills you know, master business skills is just one set. I also have lazy skills, eating skills, and gum chewing skills. As a matter of fact, I can do all of the last three at the same time. That's talents kids...
I don't know about anyone else, but I am extremely tired of all this Michael Jackson b.s. that's going on. Let me start by saying, I'm not his biggest fan. I do like some of his songs though. Early stuff though, nothing lately. The most ridiculous video that I've ever seen is Scream, wow, what a waste of the 5 minutes and however many millions of dollars that was spent on that video.
Back to his court case though..The fact that he's been accused of "funny business" with children several times is enough for me. How many times do you let a guy go because he can afford good lawyers. I say being accused as many times as he has is no coincidence. I do realize though, that there are people out there in the world who will do anything for a dollar, and look for the richest people to try to swindle money from. However, look at the guy, and look at his track record, something is extremely wrong with him, and I'm not sure that he is a functioning member of society as it is. My best advise, since I'm such an expert on things, throw him into Neverland Ranch, put electric high-fence all around it, and no gate. Once a week throw in a load of food, and some nudie magazines...Problem solved. Surely he has enough entertainment inside to keep him busy for the rest of time.
Maybe I should run for office someday. I'm such an expert on the way things should be, and what to do in compromising situations that I'd be perfect for any elected office. Anything from dog-catcher, all the way to the President! Morriss 2016, don't forget...

Travelin' Man

I am very happy to report that all of my college travels are finished. I must say I was extremely impressed with several of the campuses, and not so impressed with others. This last week I did a trip all the way through Louisiana and back. My first day was in Lafayette. Not so impressive. The school is nice, and actually has a student body of around 16,000. The showing though was horrible, I only talked to about 10 people.
The afternoon after that was finished, I headed to Baton Rouge. Super impressive. LSU is a wonderful school. One of the guys who was traveling from another camp graduated from LSU and he told me to make a trip around the Greek area of the campus that afternoon. The Greek area lies along a lake, and I happened to hit it around the time that everyone was around their houses. The showing went well too.
After that showing, I headed to New Orleans. I really wanted to party it up on the town, but I'm not much of a solo-partier. So I hit the Wendy's and chilled in the LaQuinta for the night. The next day was Tulane-Loyola N.O. summer job fair. The area of New Orleans that the colleges are in is awesome. Old Colonial style houses that were huge. The camp fair was great. It seems that the students here were a bit more ambitious than those at any other campus we went to.
The day after that job fair there was one at Southern Mississippi, but I didn't make it far that west. There was a monster of a bachelor party waiting for me back in Texas. I left New Orleans around 5, and didn't pull into my house here in Ingram until 3:45 in the morning. I was a tired, tired man.
My main point of all of this rambling is that I wish I had looked around more when I decided on a college. My first year I went to Texas A&M Corpus Christi. It was a great school, but the city wasn't my style. Being allergic to humidity (I break out with major pit-stains) I decided to transfer to Texas Tech. I can't say I regret going to Tech, but maybe during my senior year of High School I should have looked around more. Or after deciding to tranfer I should have looked at a few other schools. I probably could have gotten in about anywhere after my first year of college, I should have taken advantage of it!
The schools I was most impressed with during my travels were Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, LSU, and Tulane. I'd been to the University of Texas before, but I was still impressed by it. Oklahoma State was probably one of the best times. I'm afraid if I ever went to that school I would become a raging alcoholic. There was really nothing much to do in that town other than go to classes and hit one of the eight-million bars lining the streets! The campus was great though, beautiful buildings, and nice grounds. Their students were probably also the most outgoing of all.
I more than likely would have ended up going to Tech anyway, but it would have been nice to know what all was out there. So here's my message, always know all of the possibilities you have. Check things out, and then make your decision. Don't make the decision first. You'll feel much better about yourself afterwards.
I do wonder often though, if things would be the same had I gone to another school. I feel pretty lucky right now with the way things are going for me. I've got a full time job, I've got a fantastic girlfriend, and I'm well fed (0ver-fed would be more accurate). It weird to think that my life could be completely different know had I gone to another college. I imagine I would always be well fed, but as far as the job I have right now, and the girlfriend I don't know. I'm not wanting a different outcome to my life, I'm just curious about what might have been.