March 24th, 2014

It wasn’t aways pretty, but they got it done.  The Bruins are headed back to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2008.  UCLA took down Tulsa and Stephen F Austin this weekend to advance to the round of 16.  UCLA was very fortunate to avoid a team like VCU during the first weekend, but in any case, they took care of business.  The only impressive thing about this weekend was the fact that UCLA won with many of their players playing far below their potential, including Kyle Anderson on Friday and Zach Lavine, in both games.  Lavine has disappeared like that Malaysian airline, and Anderson played so bad on Friday, it looked like he was shaving points.  In any case, now comes the real challenge.  The Bruins will finally have to beat Florida to get to the Elite 8.  If they can do that on Thursday, then I i will gladly give UCLA Coach Steve Alford his due.  I know you probably think the Sweet 16 is great for Alford’s first year, but UCLA is all about championships.  Otherwise, Steve Lavin and Ben Howland would still be coaching the team.

How is your bracket looking?  I think I’m going to be picking the NIT bracket next year.  The amount of upsets we’ve seen so far shows you how screwed up college basketball is.  It doesn’t matter how talented your freshman are, because they don’t seem to understand how to win in the tourney like many of the mid-major teams with veteran talent do.  That’s a big reason why teams like Duke, Ohio State, Kansas, and Oklahoma State were eliminated.  Good thing Kentucky beat Wichita State yesterday.  Had they lost, Kentucky fans would have been more upset than when they found out they were dating their own cousins.

Now that is the Clayton Kershaw we all know!  The Dodgers awkwardly opened the 2014 regular season against the Diamondbacks over the weekend, and swept a pair of games, led by Kershaw. Kershaw dominated the D’Backs on Saturday, and the bullpen was brilliant after that in a 3-1 win.  Then, Hyun-Jin Ryu followed up with another great performance on Sunday, and Yasiel Puig finally came alive to lead the Dodgers to a 7-5 win.  There’s some questions about the bench, and parts of the lineup, but this team is going to be good.  With a $225 million payroll, I’m sure there are many teams that would love to have LA’s problems.  I still don’t understand why Major League Baseball thought it would be a good idea for these teams to open the season abroad.  Baseball has slipped to third among the four major sports, and is having its own issues keeping fans here.  I’m thinking it should probably focus on regaining its success in the U.S. before marketing abroad.

Back in the USA, the Angels are nearing their last few days of spring training, and Joe Blanton’s days could be numbered.  Blanton got shelled on Saturday against the Brewers, which could make him a strong candidate to be released, and would force the Halos to eat his $8.5 million salary.  With the emergence of Hector Santiago, Tyler Skaggs, and this week’s acquisition of Jose Alvarez, there’s simply no reason to keep this human launching pad on the roster.  As for ticket sales, the LA Times reported this week that season ticket sales are down by more than 20% in the last two years, and this years renewal rate was in the low 80% range.  So much for Arte Moreno’s theory that you have to have star power to sell tickets.  When will owners like Moreno and Jim Buss realize the big picture?  People don’t care how you win, as long as you do win.  You can be entertaining, but if you lose, people aren’t showing up.

To the NBA, where I’m pretty much obliged to mention the Lakers in this blog, even though they stink.  Actually, the Lakers probably don’t stink enough right now to get themselves a top 3 lottery pick.  LA found the need to defeat Orlando last night, in a game with critical lottery implications on the line.  Thank god the Lakers have a stiff like Mike D’Antoni as their coach, otherwise, they might be winning even more of these meaningless games and further damaging their lottery positioning.  Pau Gasol actually sat out the second half of last nights game, after he felt nauseous and dizzy, which caused him to spend the night in the hospital.  This proves what we’ve all suspected for quite some time, that Gasol just isn’t tough.  I mean, watching this entire Lakers season has made me nauseous and dizzy for months, and you don’t see me checking into a hospital!

As for the Clippers, they continue to build momentum towards the playoffs.  They’ve won 12 of their last 13 games, appear locked into 4th place in the Western Conference, but keep something in mind.  LA is now 6th in the league in defensive field goal percentage.  This is very important because 6 of the last 7 NBA champions have finished in the top 6 in defensive field goal percentage. (Are you listening Mike D’Antoni and Jim Buss??).  The Clipps half court offense also appears to be improving rapidly, with Blake Griffin’s game ascending to new levels.  San Antonio looks amazing, but don’t count the Clippers out yet as a team that could come out of the West.  That still might not give them the headlines the deserve.  They were barely noticeable in the Sunday morning edition of the LA Times.  LA is like a super nerdy girl in high school that shows up at your 5 year reunion smoking hot, but for some reason, still can’t get anybody to talk to her.

I don’t know about you, but I thought for sure my phone was broken on Saturday when I looked at the Kings box score.  It was telling me that Trevor Lewis, Mike Richards, and Dustin Brown all scored against the Panthers.  It feels like the odds of winning Warren Buffet’s $1 billion bracket challenge were better than that happening.  Brown and Richards have had a pretty terrible offensive season, but the Kings better hope they can get their games together for the playoffs, or else they might not last long.  When the Capitals came to town to play the Kings earlier this week I took a peek at Alex Ovechkin’s numbers, and he’s scored 45 goals and is a -31.  Holy crap! -31?? Do you know how terrible defensively you have to be to have a -31?  Congratulations to Jonathan Quick for passing Roggie Vachon for the most wins by a goalie in Kings history.  Even though Roggie didn’t have the benefit of shootouts, Quick is still on his way to being the best goalie in franchise history.   What a great save he made Saturday on Tom Fleischmann….

With just 12 games left to go in the regular season, the Ducks have lost their grip on the Pacific Division title.  Anaheim must now overtake the Sharks to reclaim the division title.  Make no mistake about it, the Ducks want to win the Pacific, and avoid the Kings in the first round of the playoffs.  Anaheim would much rather take on the likes of Phoenix, Minnesota, or Dallas,  in the 1st round of the playoffs, where they will not be faced with such a rugged style of play.  The good news for the Ducks is that 9 of their last 12 games will be against teams that are not currently in the playoffs.  Anaheim has cooled off quite a bit, playing .500 hockey over their last 10 games, but this last stretch gives them a chance to regain some momentum before Bruce Boudreau’s annual playoff collapse.

No Walking Dead recap this week folks, as I have yet to catch up on my DVR.  However, with the season finale coming up next week, I’ll have a lengthy recap and analysis coming soon!

March 17th, 2014

Sorry Laker fans, time has run out.  Jim Buss, and the Lakers front office, blew any slim chance they had remaining to be a championship contender in the near future when they let Phil Jackson take a front office job with the Knicks this week.  Not even last ditch efforts by Laker greats Kobe Bryant and Magic Johnson could stop Jim Buss’ ego from running the Laker franchise into the ground.  Laker general manager Mitch Kupchak has done a phenomenal job rebuilding the Lakers roster multiple times over the last five years.  However, Jim Buss has single handedly undermined those efforts in recent years with his moronic coaching hires.  Some might say the Lakers made great moves that simply didn’t work out, like the Chris Paul and Dwight Howard trades, but that’s not the issue.  They didn’t work out because Jim Buss ego prevented him from using all of the resources around him to put the team over the top.  Expect more of this in the near future.

The Lakers are focusing most of their efforts into free agency over the next two summers.  Now, they’ll have to compete with Phil Jackson and the New York Knicks for big names like Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Love, and Rajon Rondo.  Who do you think they are going to be more intrigued by: the chump with the hat on that can’t connect with people, or the greatest basketball mind with 11 championship rings? At this point, one has to wonder if Jeanie and Jim Buss will ever see eye-to-eye and run the Lakers successfully.  It’s gotten so bad that even Congress agrees that these two sides are far apart.  They better figure it out quickly, or else they are going to change the Lakers acronym of “LAL” to “LOL”.

Meanwhile, there’s this other team in town called the Clippers that’s actually won 11 in a row, and in a chase for the top spot in the Western Conference.  Everything you need to know about the Clippers, is the fact that sports radio in So Cal was dominated this past week by Laker talk.  The Clipps look like they are ready to blow by OKC for the #2 seed, but locking up #1 won’t be easy with the Spurs holding it down.  The irony is that Spurs probably don’t need home court anyway, since they currently have the best road record in the NBA, while the Clipps are just 4 games above .500 on the road.  I admit it, the Clipps are improving rapidly, and they might very well be ready to take down OKC in the playoffs.  However, it’s usually the old geezers like the Spurs, that beat young upstart teams like the Clippers come playoff time.

On to the college ranks, where the Bruins pulled off a big upset on Saturday afternoon in Vegas, taking down #4 Arizona to win the Pac-12 conference tournament.  For those of you that think I’m ready to bow down to Steve Alford think again!  I said last week that the Bruins had a great chance to win the Pac 12 tournament, which they did.  However, Alford has won 4 previous conference tournament titles in his college coaching career, and his teams have always collapsed by the sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.  If Alford takes this team beyond the sweet 16, I will give him his due. However, Jordan Adams deserves his due for making this clutch shot in the final moments on Saturday…..

Get ready to fill out those brackets!  The Bruins do look set up nicely for a run to the sweet 16, but they’ll probably lose to a very familiar foe at that point: The Florida Gators.  The Mountain West Conference got completely disrespected on Selection Sunday.  How does San Diego State get a #4 seed, when they defeated both Creighton and Kansas, who both had better seeding than them?  New Mexico also got a #7 seed after winning the Mountain West Conference Tournament.  Florida is by far best #1 seed, and has a great chance to make the Final Four, while the Midwest looks like the toughest region with Wichita State, Michigan, Duke, and Louisville as the top 4 seeds.  Louisville and Michigan State are probably the most dangerous teams, and Wichita State has got to be the most overrated team.  My Final Four prediction: Florida, Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Louisville.

It’s becoming more and more apparent that none of the Dodger players want to go to Australia.  Zach Greinke complained, and is now milking an injury to avoid the trip.  Dan Haren claims he’s “tired”, and Carl Crawford’s wife is expecting.  Ok, I suppose Crawford has a real excuse, but most of these guys are acting like they will be traveling to Australia on some slave trade slow boat, when we all know they will be traveling in extreme luxury.  I’m sure this will be the last time the MLB asks the Dodgers to do anything international, because they sure aren’t acting like great ambassadors for the game.  I sure don’t hear any complains from the D’Backs.

On the field, Yasiel Puig is struggling more than Tom Cruise at the box office these days.  Last year, Puig hit a scorching .517 in spring training.  This year, he’s hitting a measly  .152 without a home run.  I don’t like to put a lot of stock into spring training games, however, I get the feeling the Dodgers could be starting slow this season.  Puig looks like he’s trying to find his game, Kemp and Crawford could be out action early, and LA will be relying on Dee Gordon at 2nd base.   All that combined with the jet lag from Australia, and LA seems poised to come out of the box pretty slow.  As we learned last year though, it’s a long season and things can turn very quickly.

As for the Angels, right now they appear to have the makings of a good team, based on what we’ve seen in spring training.  Hector Santiago and Tyler Skaggs look pretty solid, and the team figures to score some runs.  However, are these dudes really going to be able keep their game together every five days for the next 6 months?  Everyone seems to have their doubts.  As long as Joe Blanton is still on the Halos roster, and as long as there’s a possibility he could be getting some starts, there’s a good chance the Angels will suck.

Is there any team in the NHL that has been screwed by the referees more this season than the Los Angeles Kings?  In general, I don’t really like to blame any loss on referees, but this is getting ridiculous.  The Kings got badly screwed in Detroit earlier in the year, which sent them in a bad tail spin.  On Saturday night, they got screwed again, when Anze Kopitar’s apparent tying goal was disallowed.  The Kings ended up losing to the Ducks 2-1 at Staples Center, and LA fell further behind Anaheim in the Pacific Division standings.  It looked like the Kings were starting to build momentum, after winning 8 in a row, but in the last two losses, LA has looked more like the team that was struggling to score before the Olympics.  At least the powerplay has been better.

As for the Ducks, they may have lost their grip on the Pacific Division title, but something interesting is happening with this team.  Anaheim is now finding a way to win those tougher, low scoring, playoff style, grind it out games.  That’s exactly what they faced on Saturday night at Staples Center, on the 2nd night of a back-to-back.  This is something that isn’t very characteristic of Bruce Boudreau hockey teams, so it has to make him pleased.  This is probably much more significant than the fact that Anaheim has lots its grip on the division, because they could be playing the Kings in the 1st round, and will be playing this kind of hockey for a 7 game series.  Home ice advantage didn’t mean much in round 1 last year, when Anaheim lost to Detroit in the 7th game at home.

And finally, The Walking Dead returned for another episode last night.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have not see last night’s episode.  To recap this absolutely shocking episode, it started with Carol, Tyreese, Lizzie, Mika,  and Judith, as one happy family (or so it appeared).  The five of them find a pecan grove, and at one point appear to be settling in quite nicely.  We soon find out that Lizzie is crazy, and has been feeding Walkers, as far back as when they were at the prison, and even playing games with them.  Lizzie is so determined to prove to Carol and Tyreese that it’s ok when Walkers come back, that she actually kills her sister, Mika.  She says “don’t worry, she’ll come back.  I didn’t hurt her brain.”.  If that wasn’t shocking enough, Carol is forced to kill Lizzie, believing that there is no saving her, and that she can’t be around other people.  Then, she confesses to Tyreese for killing Karen and David, although Tyreese forgives her.

This episode was absolutely shocking.  During the first 30 minutes, this looked like it was going to be a very slow episode, without much happening.  Then it took an  unbelievable turn.  Carol once again, proved that she is able to make the very tough decisions in the cruel world they live in, but it is excruciating for the audience.  Lizzie was concerned that Carol would be mad at her for what she did, yet had no idea that Carol was actually going to kill her.  This incident was difficult for Tyreese to be a part of as well, but he knew it had to be done.  When Carol confessed to Tyreese that she killed Karen and David, it was probably the events that took place just moments earlier that prevented Tyreese from killing her.  He understood the difficult decisions that have to be made in the world they live in.  Now I’m really scared to find out what’s in store for the last two episodes of the season!

March 10th, 2013

The clock is ticking Jimmy Buss!  That’s right buddy…..you’re running out of time to bring back your future brother-in-law, Phil Jackson, to the Laker organization.  The New York Knicks have offered Phil exactly what he’s looking for: a front office role, in which he has the final say in all basketball decisions.  Jackson says he will give the Knicks an answer in the next week.  It’s no surprise that Phil’s camp is leaking these rumors.  He’s trying to put pressure on Jim Buss to offer him a role with the Laker organization, which we all know is the job he really wants.  For those of you who have forgotten, Phil’s fiance, Jeanie Buss, is now co-owner of the Lakers.  If Jim let’s Phil get away, the fans will simply never forgive him, and the Laker franchise will likely slip into years of losing.  I realize that Phil has never had a front office role, however, I have a feeling he knows a thing or two about putting together championship teams, since he’s only won 11 of them.

As for what’s happening on the floor, the Lakers had a completely wild week.  Somehow, they managed to beat Portland and Oklahoma City, while getting humiliated by Clippers and Nuggets.  I’m sorry, but no NBA team should ever lose to another by 48 points, and especially not at home.  The fact that this happened to the Lakers, at home, and against the Clippers, should be completely unacceptable.  Before that game ended, the entire coaching staff should have been fired, the entire team should have been placed on waivers.  I’ve been a big advocate for the Lakers tanking, but I don’t want to see this franchise embarrassed.  Jodie Meeks obviously took my advice to a whole new level yesterday, as he decided to do his best Reggie Miller impression, with a career high 42 points.  Great professionalism by Meeks, but the same can’t be said for Kent Bazemore, who decided to bust out the airplane after making a big layup at the end of the game.  This dude does realize his team is 20 games under .500 right?

As for the Clippers, Charles Barkley believes that they are currently the best team in the West, followed by Oklahoma City.  That pretty much insures that neither one of those teams will be coming out of the West this year.  Funny, because when I woke up this morning, the standings told me that the San Antonio Spurs had the best record in the west, and they don’t even play their star players every night.  Don’t get me wrong, Blake Griffin and the Clippers are much improved, however, I don’t see them beating the Oklahoma City or San Antonio in a 7 game series.      They’ll likely have to go through both of them, in order to get to the NBA Finals.  Sorry Chuck, but your picks are “turrible”.

I had the privilege of going out to Arizona this past weekend, to check out some spring training games.  I’m usually not a big fan of watching pre-season sports, however, I would encourage all baseball fans to experience it.  It’s very fan friendly, the tickets are cheap, and you can get pretty close to the players and coaches, and I’m not talking about really good major leaguers here.  Going to Camelback Ranch was pretty exciting, and I got to see a very entertaining game between the Dodgers and Mariners on Saturday night.  Unfortunately for LA, Josh Beckett got pounded, and their pitching in spring training hasn’t been all that great, especially considering it’s supposed to be the team’s strength.  Even Clayton Kershaw has been underwhelming in three spring training starts.  On the bright side, I think Alex Guerrero is going to be a good major league hitter, and Matt Kemp says he’s getting closer to returning.  That means the Dodgers lineup is going to be explosive.

The Angels have to feel really good about what they are seeing so far from their new pitchers. I don’t like to make a big deal about spring training performances, however, Tyler Skaggs and Hector Santiago have looked like quality middle of the rotation pitchers, which the Halos desperately need.  Albert Pujols hasn’t shown too much power though, and he’s also a little cranky.  He was asked earlier in the week if he feels pressure to put up big numbers because of what his teammate, Mike Trout, is doing.  Pujols was so disgusted with the question, he responded by implying that Trout is not as proven of a commodity as he is, since he’s only been in the league for a couple of seasons.  I think the better question for Albert would have been if he feels pressure to put up “Pujols numbers” since he is making $240 million over the next decade.

On to college basketball, where March Madness has arrived.  The conference tournaments start next week, but UCLA managed to blow it again on Saturday, losing to lowly Washington State on the road.  UCLA is still the #2 seed heading into the Pac-12 tourney next week, but their inconsistency, lack of focus, and lack of defense makes me think they won’t be playing for very long.  This sounds like a team coached by Steve Alford.  That’s right…..they are coached by Steve Alford!

Let’s go to the ice, where it looks like the Olympic break did wonders for the LA Kings.  LA has won 7 in a row, and it feels like they’ve scored more goals in the last week, than they have all season.  Suddenly, Alec Martinez is scoring like Bobby Orr.  I also love the trade for Marion Gaborik, that they made at the deadline.  I realize that Gaborik is capable of getting injured when air hits him, however, he is one of the most skilled players in the league, and could provide a big boost to a team that sometimes struggles to score.  It’s a low risk, high reward move, and the team appears to be responding well to it.  The bad news for LA is that they will likely be playing without home ice advantage in any playoff series this year, so they’ll have to hope they can build the kind of momentum they did going into the playoffs in 2012.

Meanwhile, the Ducks made quite a few moves at the deadline, and are still playing well.  Even though Anaheim lost back-to-back shootouts, they dominated for long stretches against Montreal and Pittsburgh.  The bad news is that the Blues have passed them in the standings for the top seed in the West.  Coach Bruce Boudreau doesn’t seem too worried, which is good, because he probably forgot that his teams have sucked in the playoffs for years.  I was a little surprised that Dustin Penner was traded, because he usually brings it during playoff time, but Anaheim felt like his play was deteriorating after a strong start.  It was quite fitting that Penner was traded to Washington on National Pancake day!

Finally, the NFL off-season moves have begun.  In a surprising move, the Saints cut running back Darren Sproles, while the New York Jets have released defensive back Antonio Cromartie, which saved them $9 million.  Cromartie is notorious for having fathered 10 children, with 8 women, in 6 different states.  After being released by the Jets, his text inbox looked something like this…..

March 3rd, 2014

This Pau Gasol vs Mike D’Antoni battle is about the only thing left that’s interesting about the Lakers season.  These two are like an old married couple, except, its starting to look like they are about to get a divorce, and at least one of them will be moving out come July.  Last week, Gasol complained to the media that the Lakers were playing very selfishly, and lacked discipline.  Mike D’Antoni had no idea what Pau was referring to with the part about discipline, and told the media that he should have kept things in-house.  Funny, because D’Antoni hasn’t seemed to keep things in house during his entire time coaching the Lakers, as he has repeatedly called out Pau for not fitting into his stupid system.  The more I watch D’Antoni coach, the more it’s becoming obvious that no superstar wants to play for him.

The Lakers have one of the toughest remaining schedules in the NBA, which is great news for those who want the team to tank.  However, it’s going to take a lot more than just one great draft pick to put this team back in contention.  The Laker front office needs to stop fooling themselves into thinking they don’t need to rebuild.  The sooner they embrace this concept, the sooner they can get back to contending for titles.  Otherwise, they will fall into the black hole of a 7 to 10 year rebuild.  Just ask the Chicago Bulls after Jordan retired, or the Celtics after Larry Bird retired.  Speaking of retiring, Steve Nash appears to be moving much closer to that.  If you haven’t seen it, check out the 2nd episode of Grantland covering his attempted comeback from injury.  Sad to see, but he can definitely sense the end is near….

As for the Clippers, they most certainly won the buyout battle with the addition of Glenn Davis, and now Danny Granger.  Granger hasn’t been all that impressive since returning from a knee injury, however, he doesn’t necessarily need to return to all-star form to be effective for the Clippers.  He simply needs to make a few open shots, and play some solid perimeter defense.  The real beauty of this addition is that Jamal Crawford will return to the bench, and provide more fire power in the 2nd unit.  Of course, in typical Clipper fashion, Doc Rivers forgot to add Granger to the active roster on Saturday night, making him ineligible to play that night.  It was like Doc was saluting the incompetence of the franchise over the last 30 years with that move.

It’s on to baseball, where the Dodgers have begun spring training play, and Zach Greinke must be thrilled.  Greinke sustained a strained calf injury in his first spring training start, which gives him the perfect excuse to not travel with the team to Australia for their first regular season series.  Interesting that Greinke developed this injury immediately after telling the media that he was “not excited at all” for the trip down under.  I’m not saying he’s faking an injury….but I’m saying, he’s probably faking an injury.  I’m also a little disappointed in 2nd baseman Alex Guerrero, who’s performance thus far has been underwhelming.  You would think a 2nd baseman who was due to make $28 million over the next 4 years, would be able to lock up the job over a bunch of past their prime players.  Apparently that’s not the case, and LA could have a major hole at that position.

I’m amazed at the ignorance of people, who are bitching about the Dodgers launching their own channel on Time Warner Cable.  Look, I get it…..the cable industry sucks, and it’s frustrating when our favorite teams like the Lakers and Dodgers go to a more expensive channel.  However, it would be foolish for these storied franchises to pass up such an opportunity, when billions of dollars in profits are at stake.  You guys want competitive products on the field, but the reality is, this is how you get the money to support that.  Unfortunately, most people are too short sighted to understand that, when they can no longer find their favorite team through their crappy cable provider.  This is the one, very rare moment, that I’m glad I subscribe to Time Warner.

The Angels and Mike Trout continue to work toward an extension.  Still no resolution, but at least the team settled on a $1 million contract for this year.  Amazing isn’t it?  Mike Trout made less last year, then Max Kellerman did working for ESPN!  No matter what Trout does, the Angels hopes will rest with their pitching, and they have to like what they’ve seen in the early going from Hector Santiago.  Even Joe Blanton didn’t completely suck in his spring debut, which has to give the team hope.

Still no word on why UCLA starters Kyle Anderson and Jordan Adams were suspended for Thursday night’s game vs Oregon.  My guess is that they were caught smoking weed at the Sigma Nu fraternity house, while simultaneously complaining about Coach Alford playing his son too many minutes.  Coach Alford actually said recently that his son, Bryce, was actually just as good as Anderson.  This makes me think that it’s actually Coach Alford that is doing drugs at one of the fraternity houses.  Thursday night’s loss to Oregon was a sad glimpse into the future of Bruins basketball, when Anderson, Adams, and Zach Lavine enter the NBA draft this summer.  Get used to the Alford family, because they are going to have this program wallowing in mediocrity for years.

I was a little underwhelmed by watching the Oscar’s last night.  This could be because I have only seen two of the movies that were nominated, but still, I was hoping for more.  Ellen DeGeneres was ok as a host, but really didn’t make me laugh much.  I realize that fitted suits are a little more in fashion now, however, when did wearing suits that were 3 sizes too small for you become cool?  I’m also unsure why Pharrell thought it would be ok to wear tuxedo shorts, especially when he was nominated.  I was shocked American Hustle and Leo DiCaprio came away empty handed as well.  This is probably the only time a selfie is ok….

And finally, The Walking Dead returned last night for another episode.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  This episode was all about Darryl and Beth.  The two of them were constantly escaping walkers, and in between, Darryl wept about losing the others, while Beth was looking to have her first alcoholic drink and keep things positive.

I am usually a big proponent of episodes in which more character depth is provided.  However, this episode was completely useless.  If I never saw the episode, I could probably watch the next episode without a problem.  I suppose the moral was that Beth is more of a happy drunk, while Darryl is an angry drunk, but other than that it was pretty useless.  Hopefully the last 4 episodes will bring a little more to the table.

February 24th, 2014

I’m really confused.  The NBA trade deadline was on Thursday afternoon, but somehow, Pau Gasol, Jordan Hill, and Chris Kaman all appeared to be playing basketball for the Lakers on Friday night.  That’s impossible though, isn’t it?  I mean, why would the Lakers hang on to these three guys when they are trying to lose games, collect some assets, and cut salary to get below the luxury tax?  Then I remembered that the Lakers are now run by Jim Buss, so these moronic moves, or lack thereof make total sense.  Mitch Kupchak spoke with the media right after the deadline, and he said that the team had an opportunity to unload players for just to cut salary, but the team declined because “there were no basketball components and that’s unacceptable within this organization.”

Gee whiz Mitch…….that sounds great and all, but last year, when you had a championship roster and your boss forced you to hire Mike D’Antoni instead of Phil Jackson, there sure didn’t seem like there were any “basketball components” associated with that move.  The Lakers held on to Gasol way too long, and now, he’s going to help them win games and hurt their draft status, while also screwing them this summer by leaving to take a bigger payday elsewhere.  It’s really beginning to look like next year will be just as rough as this year for LA, because Kupchak added that the team “may take more than one year to build”.  Laker fans are smart.  Many even smarter than Jim Buss.       A rebuild is perfectly acceptable at this point to fans, but it’s pretty hard to do anything when your owners are still trying to figure out their own identity.  That is what’s unacceptable.

Meanwhile, the Clippers stole a big win on the road against Oklahoma City yesterday.  The Clipps played well down the stretch, but they took advantage of the fact that Russell Westbrook is still trying to find his game after coming back from his knee injury.  The Clippers nearly made a poor decision at the deadline, by trying to trade for Knicks shooting guard Iman Shumpert.  Although Shumpert would have moved Jamal Crawford back to bench, he can’t shoot the ball to save his life  this season, and acquiring him would have opened up another hole by trading Darren Collison.  This year’s trade deadline was about as exciting as watching paint dry, as nobody wanted to give up 1st round picks in this years draft.  So the Clipps were smart to sign Glen “Big Baby” Davis to beef up their front court.  I wonder if they’ll be interested in Metta World Peace.  He’s a former Laker, so it makes sense the Clippers would want him for that reason alone.

What a complete disgrace the US Men’s hockey team was in Socchi.  Jonathan Quick probably bought one of those “I flew half way around the world for this shit” T-Shirts, in the airport, since he got even worse offensive support then he gets from the Kings.  They didn’t have the offensive fire power to beat Canada, but the showing against Finland in the bronze medal game was outrageous.  Patrick Kane and Zach Parise should have their US citizenships revoked after just quitting half way through that game.  The entire team played like their girlfriend just broke up with them.  So much for pride.  Dan Bylsma benched Dustin Brown in the last game because he wanted to play the guys he thought could score.  I guess it didn’t work because the US went the last 119 minutes without a goal.  Thank you to NBC for putting on a soccer game right after, so we could see more scoring.

As for the rest of the Olympics, can you imagine what the next 4 years are going to be like?  We’re going to have to hear from the Canadians how they just own us in hockey, after taking the men’s and women’s gold medals.  There could not have been a more devastating way for the US women to lose that final game.  Honestly, if it wasn’t for some of the newer and more obscure sports, Team USA would be a complete failure in these Olympics.  Our speedskaters flopped harder than Anchorman 2, and our biggest stars, like Bode Miller and Shaun White, didn’t bring home much hardware.  The bottom line is that the US earned 10 fewer medals than in 2010, after sending a record number of Olympians to the games.  Amazing the US is now being outclassed by a number of socialist countries like Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands, both in athletic competitions, and in education!  So much for all of our financial backing.

It’s the early part of the baseball season, and that means once again, Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke is saying or doing something stupid.  Greinke was asked about his thoughts on starting the season in Australia against the D’Backs, and he’s not very happy about making the trip. “I would say there is absolutely zero excitement for it.  I can’t think of one reason to be excited for it.”  Naturally, the Australian organizers of this event were not happy about the comments, and wanted an explanation from the Dodgers.  It’s understandable that Greinke may not be thrilled about disrupting his routine with such a long trip abroad, but that doesn’t mean he should express that moronic comment.  Major League Baseball is trying to grow the game abroad, and Greinke doesn’t get it.  It’s safe to say that the Australians will not be throwing another “shrimp on the barbee” for Zack during his trip.

The Angels and Mike Trout look like they are gaining momentum toward an extension, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports.  According to Passan, the deal could be around 6 years and $150 million.  Trout is eligible for arbitration next season, and is 4 seasons away from free agency.  So essentially, the Angels would be paying Trout an extra $10-$15 million per year, to lock him up for an extra two seasons.  Although an 8 year deal would be more ideal for the Halos, this would still be a pretty good deal for both sides.  This would definitely make Angel fans feel a little bit better about what’s going on in the organization these days.  Well….at least until the season starts.

Disappointing loss for UCLA yesterday.  These guys just continue to disappoint with a chance to catch Arizona for first place in the Pac 12.  It’s the third time this year that UCLA has won the opener of a weekend set, and then lost the 2nd game.  It’s two steps forward and one steps back for this group, and that kind of play won’t keep them around long come March Madness.

No Walking Dead review this week, so I’ll be catching up on DVR tonight!

February 17th, 2014

The weekend started off pretty lame, but finished strong.  Yesterday’s NBA all-star game featured the usual dunk fest and no defense early on, but got competitive in the 4th quarter, before the East outlasted the West 163-155.  We got to see what most basketball fans wanted: Lebron James and Kevin Durant go one-on-one.  We also learned that Kyrie Irving  isn’t completely overrated, as he earned MVP honors, and we witnessed a solid showing from a handful of the league’s upcoming stars.  Say what you will about the players “on-again”, “off-again” competitiveness in the All-Star game, however, it’s still arguably the best all-star game of the four major sports.  The game is for the fans, and the players usually put on a great show.  The Clippers were well represented with Blake Griffin and Chris Paul, however, the Lakers were not, since Kobe Bryant sat this one out with a knee injury.  Although if you count Kevin Love as a future Laker, they had good representation.

Speaking of Kobe, his comments to the press regarding his recovery from his knee injury are very concerning for the Lakers.  In his press conference he said, “maybe this is the end.  But then again, maybe it’s not.”  What?  This is Kobe Bryant we are talking about.  The man who has forever believed he is completely indestructible, one of the most confident players on the planet, and now he is questioning he basketball mortality?  Gee wiz….. this probably would have been good to know a few months ago, since the Lakers just invested $48 million in him for the next two years.  What free agent is going to want to sign with the Lakers when Kobe might not even be healthy enough to play?  Kobe might not play again this season, and if he doesn’t, he would have played just 6 NBA games in 18 months.  Even if you’re Kobe Bryant, and you’re healthy, it’s not very easy to play at an elite level, after taking that much time off.

Speaking of injured Lakers, if you haven’t seen the Grantland piece on Steve Nash, it’s a must see.  I’ve ripped on Nash quite a bit, but after watching this, you can’t help but feel bad for him.  It isn’t that Nash’s skills have deteriorated at all.  It’s simply that his body can no longer endure playing NBA basketball 4 or 5 nights per week.  Take a look for yourself….

As for the rest of All-Star weekend, I’m not sure what the hell they were thinking when they re-did the format for the dunk contest this year.   The “free-style” round was just ridiculous, and the end of the contest was very anti-climactic, without any real heal-to-head between the two best dunkers.  On the bright side, they did actually get some names in the contest this year, and they eliminated the ridiculous props, as well as sped the time between dunks.  Now, they need to simplify the format more next year.

Moving on to the Olympics, where Southern California NHL players are dominating.  The average person watching the Olympics would think that the Kings probably never lose, since Drew Doughty, Jeff Carter, Dustin Brown, and Anze Kopitar have scored a combined total of 9 goals in international play.  It’s almost like the Kings players have decided to troll their fans.  One can only wonder if these guys will start scoring goals when they return to NHL hockey in about 10 days.  Jonas Hiller and Cam Fowler have been representing the Ducks pretty well too with their play.

What an amazing game between Russia and the US on Saturday.  The US was very fortunate to have won that game, and I was surprised Vladimir Putin wasn’t referring the game by the third period.  He probably had somebody executed for disallowing Russia’s third goal.  Jonathan Quick was brilliant, and so was TJ Oshie in the shootout.  Although, I still don’t know why any coach would pick one player to shoot 6 times a shootout, however, I can’t blame Dan Bylsma now, since it actually worked.  A re-match between these two teams in the gold medal game would be phenomenal, although, I’m a little upset that Canada and the US can’t meet in the gold medal game this year.  American hockey fans want their revenge from 2010.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to give a special shout-out to all the morons that said that Claude Giroux should be on the Canadian Olympic team instead of Jeff Carter, and especially the buffoons that thought Ryan Miller should be starting over Jonathan Quick for Team USA.  I realize that many of you east coasters are in bed while NHL games in the Western Conference are still going on, but just so you guys know, there is actually this portion of the United States known as the west coast, where some really good hockey takes place.  You should try experiencing it sometime.

As for other Olympic action, I’m a little disappointed in what we saw from Shani Davis, Shaun White, and Bode Miller.  These guys are supposed to be the stars of the Olympics for the US, but they have just one medal between the three of them at this point.  One has to wonder if Davis was affected by his back and forth changes in skating suits, or if Miller was impacted by his knee injury or loss of his brother, or if White’s wrist injury was his downfall.  However, sometimes we forget the real issue with these Olympic athletes trying to make history.  They are old by Olympic standards.  These three athletes have been dominating their sport for nearly a decade, which is why making history is so difficult for them.  You don’t find many athletes who can dominate any sport at the highest level for a decade, and that is exactly what each of these guys is facing.  There’s no shame in that.

Skeleton? Luge? Or ski jumping?  If I told you that you had to do one of these insane events tomorrow, what would you choose?  I’d probably go with Luge.  I’d would break both of my legs on my first ski jump, and no way am I sliding down some ice slide at 80 miles per hour, while going head first.  I am really wondering if that was the best men’s curling team we could possibly put out there.  Really?  Out of 315 million people, we can’t do any better?  I’m sure there were many drunk conversations taking place in people’s living rooms this past weekend, where many people wondered the same thing.

With spring training opening up, there are a few stories that surfaced last week regarding our local squads.  Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp proclaimed that he’s “no 4th outfielder”, and will return to his all-star form.  I’m sure that if all 4 outfielders are healthy, Matt Kemp is probably not going to be sitting.  However, Kemp has dragged himself out there repeatedly while not healthy, and his performance has suffered.  I’m suddenly getting the feeling there’s this tension building between the Dodgers front office and Matt Kemp.  If Kemp isn’t producing, that tension is only going to get worse, and be a disruptive force for LA this season.  At some point, one of LA’s four outfielders may get traded, but let’s hope its not because one is being a pain in the ass.

As for the Angels, there’s talk that the team is talking extension with Mike Trout, which is good news.  The real question is how much the Halos can afford to give this guy.  On the open market, he’s probably going to get 10 years and $300 million, and I’m sure he knows it.  Are he and his agent willing to compromise, especially if it means buying out his first few years of free agency?  The fact that the Halos have been so reluctant to exceed the luxury tax makes me question whether or not this will get done.  However, Arte may have to suck it up and give him what he wants, or see his franchise crumble.

And finally, The Walking Dead continued the 2nd half of Season 4 last night on AMC.  Last night’s episode gave the the audience a little more of what we expected in last week’s episode, which was learning what happened to all the characters after the prison war.  Spoiler alert for those of you that have it on DVR.  Daryl and Beth run from walkers, and then try to track down the rest of the group.  We also get a peek into Beth’s diary, and her constant belief in “hope”, which is why she urges Daryl to help her find the rest of the group.  We find Maggie with Sasha and Bob, and they battle a bus full of walkers, in their attempt to find Glenn and others.  Tyreese is with Lizzy, Mika, and Judith, and fending off another group of walkers.  Things get really interesting when Carol meets up with them, and we remember that Tyreese still has no idea that Carol burned the bodies of his loved ones back at the prison.  And finally, Glenn is back at the prison, and teams up with Tara to escape from the walker infested area.   When the episode ends, we are introduced to three new characters: Abraham, Rosita, and Eugene.

This was a pretty solid episode, and the most intriguing part had to have been where Carol and Tyreese meet up.  I do wonder how the relationship between those two will transpire from here, and if eventually, Tyreese will find out what she has done.  Interestingly enough, in the comic, those two have a romantic relationship, but the show seems to be straying away from the plot line in the comic.  Also, you didn’t really think the writers of the show were going to kill off baby Judith did you?  I sure didn’t.  Another major question of course is whether the three new characters at the end of the show are now friend or foe.  Things may have slowed down a bit, but you have to appreciate the little things on this show to really enjoy the ride.  Looking forward to the last 6 episodes of the season.

February 10th, 2014

It’s gotten really bad for the Lakers, but it just hasn’t gotten bad enough.  Early last week, it looked like the Lakers were well on their way to free falling all the way to the third worst record in the league.  This is exactly what they needed, to continue to lose to position themselves for a top 3 pick in this summer’s NBA draft.  However, several players foolish pride took over, and LA came away with wins agains the floundering Cavs, and 76ers, before losing to the Bulls yesterday.  So how’s that rebuilding job going in Cleveland?  They couldn’t even beat the Lakers, when LA was down to 5 players.  That situation could only occur in a game where Mike D’Antoni was coaching against Mike Brown.  That game reminded me of a bad horror film.  I’m thinking worse than Freddy vs Jason.  Obviously, there are several teams taking their tanking efforts far more seriously than the Lakers.  Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss had better start shipping out a few more players, if they are serious about their own rebuilding job.

It’s one thing for the older players like Kobe, Nash, and Gasol to suffer injuries at this point in the twilight of their careers.  However, aren’t most of you wondering why younger players, like Jordan Farmar, Xavier Henry, and Nick Young are getting injured as well?  Do you really think this is just one big ugly coincidence?  Far from it.  Mike D’Antoni’s ridiculous, run and gun style, is driving his players into the ground.  He wants to play at a furious pace, which is taking a toll on both his older and younger players.  That’s not even taking into account the horrendous defense that results from his silly style of play.  The players are so tired of D’Antoni, Steve Blake’s was thrilled he ruptured his ear drum against Cleveland, so he wouldn’t have to listen to him anymore.  D’Antoni’s act has become very old with the fans, it’s simply a matter of when it wears out with the front office.  Oh, and as I predicted, Nash is injured again, less than one week after returning.

Meanwhile, the Clippers got Chris Paul back yesterday, and then demolished the 76ers.  Blake Griffin has been killing it, and could even be making a case to be an MVP candidate.  As Blake continues to take his game to new levels, some ridiculous rumors began surrounding the Clippers last week, especially with the Miami Heat coming to down.  ESPN writer, Brian Windhorst, who has been sniffing Lebron James jock strap since he entered the NBA, wrote a piece about how Lebron could consider forcing a sign and trade to the Clippers this summer.  Windhorst explained that sources close to Lebron have told him that this summer, all 30 teams are an option if he wants to play for any one of them, and that his close friendship with Chris Paul could be the deciding factor.  Windhorst suggested that Blake Griffin could be headed to Miami in that sign and trade.

So let me get this straight Brian Windhorst.  Lebron James is going to leave a team that has won two, possibly three straight NBA titles, and force his way way out of Miami, just to play with his buddy?  I’m sure he’s just going to walk into Pat Riley’s office in June, and say “look Riles, you better trade me to the Clippers right now, or else I’m going to sign with Milwaukee or Cleveland!!”  I’m sure Riley will fall out of his chair laughing at that point.  Just because Lebron’s people use Windhorst as a mouthpiece, doesn’t mean that Windhorst is excused from using his brain when writing.  Go back to HomeTown Buffet Brian, and stop wasting our time with your ridiculous columns.

On to the college ranks, where the Bruins and Trojans battled it out at the Galen Center on Saturday night.  UCLA defeated USC for the 2nd time this season on the hardwood, by a score of 83-73.  Norman Powell exploded for the first time since he was playing high school ball, with 21 points, and the Bruins maintained their grip on 2nd place in the Pac 12.  This was a reminder of what we’ve been seeing all season long from these two squads.  The Bruins can score in bunches, but they are still allergic to playing defense, and their coaching is mediocre at best.  Sometimes it feels like Steve Alford and his two sons were sent by the Trojans to sabotage the program. As for USC, the Trojans simply lack the talent on their squad right now, and one has to wonder whether Andy Enfield was hired any reason, other than for all of us to stare at his hot wife during the games.

USC may have lost the battle on the basketball court this weekend, but they did win the football recruiting battle with UCLA last week.  The Trojans somehow, pulled off the 10th best recruiting class in the nation, while the Bruins had to settle for the 18th best class according to rivals.com .  The fact SC was able to do this while hiring Steve Sarkisian at the end of the season was remarkable.  Sark just finished putting together his coaching staff a few weeks ago, yet he still managed to steal 3 of Southern California’s top high school players away from UCLA: Serra’s Adoree’ Jackson (defensive back), Long Beach Poly’s JuJu Smith, and St. John Bosco’s Damien Mama (offensive lineman).  The Bruins should have had a top 10 recruiting class, and they are a year away from going back to a program without a quarterback.  UCLA will likely have a better football team than USC next year, but Sark has made a statement that it may not be long before the Trojans turn things around.

Speaking of football, I’m not really sure why everyone is making such a big deal about Rams owner Stan Kroenke purchasing 60 acres of land in LA recently.  This is nothing more than another attempt by an NFL owner to use LA as leverage for a better stadium deal with the city their team currently resides in.  The sixty acres of land isn’t even enough to build a new football stadium on, and even if it was, I’m sure the FAA would have something to say about it, since the stadium would be right in the path of all those LAX flights.  Kroenke is the 2nd wealthiest owner in the NFL, and he’s asking the city of St. Louis for public funding for a new stadium, which the city refuses to give him.  Look Stan, if you want to move the Rams back to LA, go right ahead, but you won’t see a single dollar from the tax payers for a new stadium.  You’ll also have to deal with a hefty relocation fee from the owners.  Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me 10 times, shame on me.  The NFL isn’t coming back to LA anytime soon.

Spring is right around the corner, and that means one thing: pitchers and catchers have begun reporting for spring training.  You know….pitchers?  Those critical players that are vital to a baseball teams success, which the Angels can’t seem to find any of these days.  With pitchers and catchers scheduled to report on Thursday, the Halos are going to be relying heavily on the likes of Garret Richards, Hector Santiago, and Tyler Skaggs.  The odds of one of them being pretty successful is reasonable.  The odds of two being successful is fair.  The odds of all three being successful are the same as the odds of a successful Kardashian marriage.  The Angels really don’t want to take their chances with signing either Chris Capuano, Joe Saunders, or even Johan Santana?  The Halos seem to be in “win-now” mode, but they also seem to be caught between not wanting to exceed the luxury tax and winning with the group they have now.  When you consider that Mike Trout needs to be paid big bucks really soon, it’s scary to think this team can’t even afford a real #3 starter right now.

Let’s go to the ice where mercifully, the LA Kings have reached the Olympic break.  The Kings salvaged a win on Thursday against Columbus, but they’ve only won two of their last 10 games, and are barely holding onto playoff spot in the West.  The Kings are the best defensive team in hockey, but they are almost the worst offensive team as well.  Dean Lombardi is feverishly scrambling for goal scoring help, but acquiring the likes of Thomas Vanek, Matt Moulson, or even Michael Cammalleri will be challenging given the team’s salary cap restraints.  LA will have 23 games left to get their shit together, and keep in mind, 7 of the last 13 are on the road.  Hopefully when the Kings return to action, Mike Richards, Dustin Brown, and Justin Williams start scoring, because right now, the team is about as exciting to watch as monkeys slinging poo at each other in a zoo.

Meanwhile, the Ducks cooled off quite a bit at the Olympic Break, losing 4 of their last 6 games.  That also included a 2-0 loss to the Blackhawks earlier in the week at the Honda Center.  Anaheim enters the break with a 3 point lead in the Western Conference, and they will need home ice advantage to give themselves every edge they can come playoff time.  With seven Olympians, a key question for the Ducks will be how much fatigue plays a factor during the rest of the NHL season.  Make no mistake about it, Canada and the US will be playing deep into the Olympic tournament, and at a playoff level intensity.  Will the three extra weeks of hockey take its toll on the likes of Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, and Cam Fowler?  I suppose the same question can be asked for any team sending key players to the Olympics, but since the Ducks have had their recent share of playoff futility, it’s a far more critical question.

As an American whose uncle won a bronze medal during the 1952 Summer Olympics, I absolutely love watching both the winter and summer games.  I thought the opening ceremony on Friday was masterfully done, and did a great job incorporating numerous elements of Russian history and culture.  I realize that each of these opening ceremonies tries to “out-do” the previous one, however, each one should be evaluated on it’s own merit.  I was extremely disappointed that the NHL did shut down their season a few days earlier to allow the players to walk in the opening ceremony.  I get that the league was reluctant to let the players participate, but if they were going to let them play, then at least let them get the full experience.  Despite the greatness of the opening ceremony, I’m shocked as to how unprepared the city was for the games, and the hotels in particular.  If we are going to continue to award the games to these 2nd world countries, then the IOC better be damn sure they are prepared.  Here’s just a small taste of some of the athletes complaints about the hotels….

February 3rd, 2014

We waited two weeks for that?  The Seattle Seahawks dismantled the Denver Broncos last night in Super Bowl XLVIII 43-8, in what was probably the worst championship game I have ever seen.  The only thing that kept me from turning the game off was reading Twitter while it was going on.  When it was over, it felt like Peyton Manning was really the Seahawks so called “12th man”.  Manning just couldn’t get it going against the Seattle defense, which was in his face all game, and extremely physical with the Broncos wide receivers.  Denver picked a bad time to have its worst game of the season.  Peyton Manning will still be considered a top 5 quarterback all-time, but without more Super Bowl rings, will never be unanimously considered the best.  As for Seattle, they  proved that once again, defense wins championships (are you paying attention Mike D’Antoni?), in an NFL era that revolves around offense.  Congratulations to Pete Carroll as well, who completely turned Seattle around in 4 years, and now has a chance to contend for many more titles with his young core of players.  Looks like he knew what he was doing when he left SC.

In addition to the game being a complete snoozer, the commercials were underwhelming too.  There’s usually a commercial or two that gives me a good laugh, but I can’t recall a single one that was funny this year.  By far the strangest commercial was the Maserati advertisement, which featured a narration by Oscar nominee Quvenzhane Wallis.  You would think this was a trailer for a new horror film, but instead, it was an ad for the entry-level Ghibli model ($67,000).  That was probably the most important part of the commercial, which was never even explained.  However, the funniest thing I saw yesterday was prior to the Super Bowl, which was Frank Caliendo’s “30 for  30” mockumentary on Richard Sherman.  Take a look for yourself…..

On to the NBA, where the Lakers have completely thrown in the towel on the rest of this season.  How much more uninterested can these players possibly look?  They took a beating from Charlotte on Friday at Staples, and Al Jefferson completely destroyed him in the paint.  Once again, Mike D’Antoni complained about his team’s defense in the paint, but that’s like Jack The Ripper complaining about street crime.  Things should continue to get worse with the news last week that Kobe will likely be out for another month, and Nash tweaked something again while playing with his kids (I’m not even joking about that).  LA isn’t just taking a beating on the floor, but off as well.  TWC SportsNet ratings are down 37.5% through the first 40 games of the year.  I’m surprised they haven’t asked the Lakers for a refund on the season.  Magic Johnson decided to take my advice and stop “publicly” complaining about the team, but we know how he really feels at this point.

Once again, the Pau Gasol rumors have started too.  This latest rumor has him being traded to Phoenix for Emeka Okafor.  The Suns are loaded with 1st round picks, so LA will probably ask for one of those in the deal, if they are really going to trade Gasol.  Time is running out to move him. His value is low, but the Lakers had better realize it’s time to get something for him before he leaves them for nothing this summer.

Meanwhile, the Clippers are at it again.  The Clipps will reportedly sign Sasha Vujacic to a 10 day contract sometime today.  Was there really any reason to sign this guy, other than the fact he is a former Laker?  Once again, the Clippers moronic front office is trying get under the skin of the Laker franchise.  There’s simply no need for this guy on the roster, especially considering he hasn’t played in the NBA in almost 2 years.  On the floor, the team continues to roll, winning 7 of their last 10 games, and doing it  without the injured Chris Paul.

I’m very surprised that Indiana signed Andrew Bynum for the rest of the season.  It almost feels like they signed him just to keep him away from Miami.  The Pacers have plenty of people on their team that want to be there, and I don’t think he is one of them.  Bynum has demonstrated that he simply has no interest in playing basketball, and I still wouldn’t expect any less from him in his new home.

Get used to it Dodger fans:  this week ticket prices went up by as much as 140% for certain seats.  The Dodgers cited “unprecedented demand” for the raise in prices.  This is what happens when you have a $250 million payroll.  Frankly, if you put a winning product on the field, I have no problem with it.  On the other hand, when you’re the Lakers, and you put trash on the floor for a full season, and the fans are getting rapped on season ticket prices, then we bring out the pitchforks and tiki torches and start the riots.

Things could not be any worse for the LA Kings right now.  The Kings were shut out for the third time in 5 games on Saturday afternoon, as they lost to the Flyers 2-0.  Fans are so upset, someone threw a Louis Vuitton handbag on the ice in protest.  I agree that this team needs a little bit of a shakeup, but those of you who are suggesting that captain Dustin Brown be traded, or Daryl Sutter be fired, need to have your head examined.  It was only a month and a half ago that this team was playing some of the best hockey in the league.  It was just last spring that they were in the Western Conference Finals for the 2nd year in a row.   The Kings are defensive team, and the best in the league at that.  That’s their identity.  They aren’t suddenly going to open things up and play a faster tempo when they don’t have the personnel to do it.  We’ve seen the Kings go through scoring droughts before, and then they turn it around.  I expect the same, but it might not come until after the Olympic break.

As for the Ducks, they are also looking toward the Olympic break.  They lead the NHL with 85 points, but they’ve suddenly lost 3 of their last 5 at home, after Saturday’s loss to Dallas.  The way things are going, the Kings may end up sliding all the way back to the 8th seed, which may result in  a Kings vs Ducks 1st round playoff matchup.  As exciting as that would be for Southern California, that’s probably not a matchup that Ducks would want in round 1.

UCLA really blew it yesterday.  If they had handled business against Oregon State, they would have been just one game out of 1st place in the Pac 12.  In typical Bruins fashion, their defense got exposed after going cold from the field.  UCLA gave up an 18-2 run to the Beavers late in the 2nd half, and shot a pathetic 39% from the field for the game.  Sometimes, this team thinks it’s much better than it really is.  I guess that’s what happens when Steve Alford is your coach.

Do USC fans even pay attention to their basketball team?  The team is simply terrible.  They have no fundamentals, and their so called “run and gun offense” doesn’t really have much running involved right now.  Right now, the Andy Enfield hire looks like a science experiment gone terribly wrong.

Finally, very sad to hear the news about Philip Seymour Hoffman.  Hoffman was found dead in his apartment in Manhattan yesterday, in what appeared to be a drug overdose.  Most will remember him for the Oscar he won in “Capote”, however, I will remember him for many of his other phenomenal performances.  Hoffman was one of those actors who the average person probably didn’t know, but every actor in Hollywood could tell you how amazingly talented he was.  He could be brilliantly serious, or he could make you laugh.  He could do nearly anything he wanted to on screen.  Ironically, my favorite movie he was involved in was “Along Came Polly”, in which he provided plenty of laughs.  RIP Philip.

January 27th, 2014

It was an amazing experience, but a lackluster game.  On Saturday night, the Kings and Ducks played the first outdoor hockey game ever in California, and it was the Ducks coming away with a 3-0 victory.  The Kings showed that they can’t win indoors or outdoors these days, and the Ducks showed why at the moment, they are the best team in the NHL.   Anaheim has won 21 of their last 24 games, and really gave the Kings a taste of their own medicine in this one.  The Ducks matched LA’s physical play, sending lots of bodies to the net, and scoring ugly goals against Kings netminder Jonathan Quick.  It felt like the Ducks had the Kings right where they wanted them all game long: on the powerplay.  The Kings are 0 for their last 11 powerplay opportunities, and simply could not finish.  If i really wanted to spend a lot money, stay up late, and not score, I would have gone back to my Senior Prom instead of that game.  Thanks a lot LA Kings.

I felt very fortunate that I had “good seats” to this game.  There were very few.  If you were sitting on the field level, you really couldn’t see anything.  If you were sitting in lodge level, you probably had a decent view, except if you were by the foul poles, which obstructed your view.  Otherwise, if you were sitting any higher, the players looked like ants.  Dodger Stadium felt about as unprepared for this game as the Kings were.  The lines just to get in the fan zone were outrageous, and even longer just to get a beer once you were inside.  Many of the concession stands ran out of food, and they even ran out of beer in the Pavilion.  Some folks over there had to settle for warm Coors Lights with ice.  The performance by KISS was lame and outdated, but Five For Fighting was great.   Overall, the concept of the outdoor game here was great for hockey, and they should do it again, but hopefully they’ll improve on these things moving forward.  Here’s one of “the better seats”…..

On to the NBA, where the Lakers are continued their rapid decent down the NBA standings, after finishing their annual Grammy Road trip with a 2-5 record.  Things have gotten so bad that the Lakers are now losing to Eastern Conference teams that don’t even want to win.  Even Pau Gasol, who is one of the most soft-spoken and politically correct athletes out there, ripped into his teammates yesterday, and questioned their effort.  Mike D’Antoni is demanding better defense out of his team, so yesterday, he resorted to starting rookie Ryan Kelly on Carmelo Anthony.  That’s like putting a guy wearing jeans and flip flops on him.  D’Antoni really amazes me.  He’s bitching about the defense and toughness in the paint, yet he keeps putting smaller and smaller lineups on the floor, and wants his team to just jack up three point shots all day.  After all these years in the NBA, has he really not noticed that none of his teams play defense because of the way they play offense?  If only it was Jim Buss who could see this.

Meanwhile, Blake Griffin is still beasting, and the Clippers haven’t had much of a problem winning without Chris Paul of late.  After outlasting the Raptors on Saturday night, 126-118, the Clipps are now 8-3 without CP3, and 4-2 on their current 7 game road trip.  Although the team has climbed into the top 10 in defensive field goal percentage, they somehow let the Raptors score 126 points, and let Terrence Ross break loose for 51.  When was the last time Terence Ross had 51 points in a  game?  The 7th grade?  They’ve stayed afloat without Chris Paul, but the team has a way to go defensively, before they are a championship squad.

As for the NBA All-Star voting, the league definitely failed in its attempt to get the most deserving players in this year.  Previously, fans could vote for two front court players, and a center in the starting lineup.  This year, the fans voted for the three best front court players.  This meant that Dwight Howard was snubbed, which I found rather amusing, as was Roy Hibbert.  Both of those guys will still probably get voted in by the coaches, as they should.  However, people like Charles Barkley, who are calling the fans “idiots”, should keep this in mind: the all-star game is about the fans.  If the fans want to see Kevin Love and Carmelo Anthony over Dwight Howard and Roy Hibbert, it’s because they are simply more entertaining.  The other deserving players will get selected by the coaches.  The same can even be said for Kobe Bryant, who may not be deserving, but the fans want to see him if he’s healthy.  In any case, props to the Mamba for telling the fans not to vote for him because he’s injured, even though they didn’t really listen.

Have the Dodgers actually reached the limits of their payroll?  LA was outbid by the Yankees last week in their efforts to land Japanese ace Masahiro Tanaka.  LA offered “a measley” $100 million mult-year deal, while the Yankees offered a $155 million deal over 7 years.  How can this be?  I thought the Dodgers were now made of money? I thought Tanaka would be introduced at a Dodger press conference while diving into a pile of money?  I thought the Dodgers were so intent on not giving up prospects, which is why they were all about spending money?  Ok, I know I’m being dramatic here, but it does make me wonder.  Stan Kasten did come out and say the team hasn’t reached it’s payroll limit, which leads me to believe LA didn’t think Tanaka was really an ace, while everybody else did.  I guess we’ll find out if and when the Dodgers go after Rays ace, David Price again.

The Tanaka sweepstakes did tell us that the Angels have definitely hit the limits of their payroll.  The Halos did not have any intention of coming close to the $100 million + offers of their competitors.  Further hurting their search for pitching is the fact that Matt Garza signed with the Brewers for 4 years and $50 million.  The Angels had serious interest in Garza, but he turned out to be out of their range as well.  At this point, there isn’t much left on the market for the Angels to improve their pitching.  They need to hope that Tyler Skaggs and Hector Santiago become the next Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale.

To college hoops, where the up and down Bruins were back up again this weekend, with a pair of wins against Stanford and Cal.  David Wear put together a nice game with 18 points, and UCLA is now 2nd in the Pac-12.  I’m not so sure that says all that much about the Bruins, but more about how poorly the rest of the conference is performing.  I mean even USC beat Cal, and that was the Trojans only win in conference play so far!  Up next for UCLA and USC is a trip up north to battle the Oregon schools.

You know, considering the NFL is the top sport in this country, they sure have some dumb ass ideas.  For instance, why have they not done away with the Pro Bowl?  Does anybody actually watch that thing?  The players don’t even care, and now we’ve resorted to a couple of former players picking their teams.  Just get rid of it already!  I think there was more physical contact at the Grammy’s last night than the Pro Bowl.  The only thing dumber than keeping that game around, is having a cold weather Super Bowl, which will be the case next week.  Seriously, I hope Roger Godell gets hypothermia next week and freezes his ass off in the stands.  NY is a great city and all, but not the place for a Super Bowl.  The players don’t work their asses off all year to play in 20 degree weather, and be impacted by the elements in the biggest game of the year.

Finally, I was a little underwhelmed watching the Grammy Awards last night.  I still don’t get why CBS forces everyone on the west coast to watch the tape delayed version.  This is 2014 CBS….tape delayed broadcasts are out! The performances were pretty underwhelming.  Beyonce and Jay Z kicked things off nicely with their performance, but everything dropped off after that.  Katy Perry was too gothic, Lorde did an obvious lip sync, and she couldn’t have looked any more weird.  Kendrick Lamar and Imagine Dragons kept me entertained for a little, but they don’t sound quite as good live, however, Daft Punk was pretty good.  Just think how many guys there were at bars in LA last night claiming they were Daft Punk?  I also thought the controversial, same sex couple weddings during the show were simply a way to deflect attention off of these lackluster performances.  Here’s to a better Grammy show next year.

January 20th, 2014

When the Lakers and Celtics get together, it’s usually pretty exciting.  Except on Friday, it wasn’t.  With both teams improving their lottery position by the day, the winner of Friday’s game was really the loser.  That loser, was really the Lakers, who came back to beat Boston in the final minutes.  The remaining Lakers games should be televised on Comedy Central, because it’s getting comical.  I mean Ryan Kelly is even starting now.  Yes, I know the Lakers are on a whopping 2 game win streak after beating Toronto, but they still stink.  Even more embarrassing were Nick Young’s teammates, who didn’t even stand up for him when he threw a punch at Phoenix Suns Center Alex Len earlier in the week.  Kendall Marshall claimed the Lakers couldn’t come to his aid because they only had 9 healthy players left, but so what? I’m not really sure why Young was so surprised nobody rushed to his defense.  After all, that would require the Lakers actually defending somebody.

Meanwhile, Magic Johnson decided to chime in earlier this week on the state of the Lakers.  Magic basically ripped Jim Buss apart, questioned his leadership, criticized his last two coaching hires, and called him out for letting his ego get in the way of building a championship team.  There’s probably very few people out there that disagree with Magi’c assessment of what is going on in the Laker front office right now, but that doesn’t mean publicly expressing his opinion on it is the right way to go.  The Lakers are at a very critical stage right now, especially with what they are going to do this summer and next, to potentially attract some major free agents.  Magic’s comments don’t exactly inspire the confidence of Laker fans in Jim Buss, or the potential free agents that could make a difference on the Lakers.  If Magic really cares, he should think twice before he speaks.

I will never understand the rationale of the Clippers front office.  It’s almost like they decide to pursue every player that has either played for the Lakers, or they think the Lakers might be interested in, just to get under their skin.  For instance, even after Chris Paul was injured, there was no reason to sign Darius Morris, since they already had enough guys that could handle the ball, as Morris played a whopping 6 minutes the other night.  Then they signed Hedo Turkoglu, which is just bizarre.  I can just see Donald Sterling talking to his front office now: “I know what we need guys! Another player that plays 25 feet away from the basket, can’t defend or rebound, and is way past his prime!  This will really piss the Lakers off, since I heard they were interested in him!”  Once again, the Clippers looked like a 2nd tier team when they faced a real championship contender on Saturday, in Indiana.  Paul George was just nasty…..

On to baseball, where the Dodgers finally locked up ace Clayton Kershaw to a massive deal last week.  Kershaw signed the largest deal ever for any pitcher, inking a 7 year $215 million contract.  A 7 year deal is a long deal for any pitcher, but Kershaw is the best pitcher in baseball, and is definitely worth it.  He’s only 25 years old, he probably hasn’t even reached his peak, and the Dodgers are now going to have him under contract for the prime of his career.  Look, it’s just money, and clearly this franchise has plenty of it.  They might even add Japanese pitching star Masahiro Tanaka to their staff this week, which shows you how deep their pickets really are.  The pieces are now in place for the Dodgers to make a World Series run for the next few years, now it’s up to the players.  Meanwhile, down in Anaheim, all eyes are on the Angels to see if they can also lock up the cornerstone of their franchise, Mike Trout.  Otherwise, the natives will burn down the Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland.

To the college hardwood, where the Bruins basketball program went straight to hell on Saturday against Utah.  UCLA fell to 3-2 in conference play, after losing to Utah, and after it looked like they had turned the corner one week ago, they were badly exposed over the weekend.  Jordan Adams is far less efficient than last year, Norman Powell can’t buy a basket, and both Bryce and Steve Alford stink.  Who misses Ben Howland?  At least the team would play defense and have a better chance to win the Pac-12, than with what we are seeing now.

We’re not seeing anything from the USC basketball program under Andy Einfield.  So far the Trojans coach looks way over his head in conference play, as USC is 0-5.  Einfield was a completely out of the box hire, who was supposed to bring an exciting run and gun style to the program.  Instead, his team looks like a talentless group of chumps, that are allergic to defense.  Einfield had better have some magic up his sleeve when it comes to recruiting, or his USC coaching stint will be as short as the career of Vanilla Ice.

There was some serious bull shit that took place in Detroit on Saturday night during the Kings and Red Wings game.  The Kings got completely screwed when the Red Wings tied the game in the last few seconds of the 3rd period on a controversial call.  The puck bounced off the netting above the glass, then came back into play and hit Jonathan Quick in the back before ending up in the Kings net.  The Red Wings went on to win the game in a shootout.  The referees ruled that since they didn’t see the puck go out of play, the goal counted.  Amazing!  These four moron referees didn’t see what everyone else in the building saw.  This is equivalent of a fan throwing the puck into the net from the stands, and having it count as a goal.  It’s even more offensive that the Red Wings coaches and players didn’t have the class to admit the goal shouldn’t have counted at the time.  I’m really looking forward to the Kings losing home ice advantage by 1 point, and bitching about this game again in the spring.  So typical….the city of Detroit steals something again.  It’s an embarrassment that this is actually a goal…..

As for the Ducks, they are rolling.  They’ve won 19 of 21 games, and they have the best record in the NHL.  However, I’m amazed at how many people are suddenly picking them to win the Stanley Cup.  I guess nobody realizes that 8 of the last 10 Presidents Trophy winners failed to win the Stanley Cup.  I’m not trying to rain on the Ducks parade here, but they’ve still got some major questions to answer come playoff time.  Can they beat Chicago on the road in a 7 game series?  Do they have enough grit and toughness to win in the playoffs? Anaheim isn’t exactly going to be pounding teams 9-1 in the post season, like it did against Vancouver last week.  It’s going to come down to matchups, and if the Ducks get the wrong one, they could be badly exposed, like they were last year.

Other interesting NHL happenings include the massive brawl that took place at the beginning of the Canucks vs Flames game on Saturday night.  2 seconds into the game, all 5 players on each side squared off, an engaged in a line brawl.  200 penalty minutes were handed out in that game, along with 8 game misconducts.  Canucks head coach John Tortorella was so mad that he got into an altercation with a Flames coach and player outside the locker room in the first intermission.  This whole incident prompted long time baseball analyst Peter Gammons to tweet it.  He said “Calgary and Vancouver last night re-iterated why the NHL is a minor sport.”  Good one Pete!  News flash buddy: this isn’t the 1980’s anymore.  Your sport is in the toilet because its filled with cheaters, and has been surpassed in popularity by nearly all 3 other major sports (including hockey).  I guess Peter didn’t notice the 100,000 people that showed up on New Years in the freezing cold to watch Detroit and Toronto go at it.  Here’s a look at the crowded penalty boxes after Saturday night’s brawl….

What a great championship Sunday it was yesterday in the NFL.  The Broncos showed why they were the best team in the NFL all season, handling the Patriots 26-16.  Peyton Manning threw for 400 yards and a pair of touchdowns.  This may be Manning’s final season, and he played the game with that kind of desperation.  I’m sure Papa John himself was waiting for the Broncos in the locker room, naked and covered in pizza sauce.  As for the Patriots, in many ways they are wasting some very good years of Tom Brady’s career.  They constantly strip the team down of talent on both sides of the ball, and think they can get away with it because they win their crummy division and end up in the AFC Championship game every year.  They have definitely left a few Super Bowl titles on the table because of their ridiculous “Patriot Way”.  Poor Tom Brady.  What does he have left after this loss, other than his good looks, super model wife, and amazing life and hall of fame career?  This is probably what his text inbox looked like after the game…..

In the NFC, the Seahawks held off the 49ers 23-17, to advance to the Super Bowl.  The 49ers looked like they had this one in control, but Russell Wilson made some big plays down the stretch, while Colin Kaepernick had some critical turnovers with the game on the line.  The big story after the game was Richard Sherman and his thug-like interview with Erin Andrews.  We get it Richard:  You are the best cornerback in the game.  But at this point, you should let your game do your talking for you, instead of yourself.  Skip Bayless is going to have a field day with Sherman this morning.  Stanford University must be so embarrassed that this dude is actually one of their alums.  Why is he so angry?  It’s like he had a series of bad sexual experiences with nerdy girls at school.   I’m sure Sherman is a smart dude, but it’s moments like this make people just dislike pro athletes…..

Did anybody actually go see Anchorman 2?  I haven’t seen it, nor have I driven a Dodge Durango, but after watching a little TV, I feel like I have done both extensively.  I’ve gotta admit that I was pretty excited to see it when it first came out, but word of mouth killed this movie quickly.  The plot sounded stupid, and the amount of media exposure in the weeks leading up to it, just wore me out.  The real mystery here is how the film even ended doing as well as it did, raking in $115 million so far.

With the Winter Olympic games coming up, ESPN released a 30 for 30 film called “The Price of Gold”, which looked back at the 1994 scandal involving figure skaters Tanya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan.  This documentary was riveting, and I still find it amazing that to this day, some people actually believe that Harding had no knowledge that Kerrigan was going to be attacked.  One of the most interesting parts was one interview with Harding, after the U.S. Championships, and well before anyone connected her to the plot to injure Kerrigan.  In that interview, she was speaking as though it was a foregone conclusion that Kerrigan would miss the Olympics due to her injury, which was even before any doctors suggested that she could miss the Olympics.  Her tone itself suggested she was hopeful Kerrigan wouldn’t compete, and in my mind, implicates her in the plot.  Well, Kerrigan did compete, and showed she had way more skill, class, and grace than Harding ever had, by winning the silver medal in the 1994 games.  Meanwhile, Harding, a total white trash loser, tried to cheat and took a pathetic 8th place.  Too bad the U.S. sent a total gutter rat to represent our country that year, and that should have never happened.