November 17th, 2014

They are bums I tell you……bums!  I think the Lakers slogan should be pretty obvious at this point.  “WE’RE GOING TO SUCK, BUT AT LEAST KOBE WILL ENTERTAIN YOU!”  Most Laker fans are smart enough to realize that entertainment doesn’t matter.  Winning does, no matter how boring it is.  What Kobe is doing is remarkable at his age, but it simply doesn’t matter because the team is so atrocious.  Even Kobe knows that.  Can you actually stand watching these stiffs play ball?  Can you actually endure another 72 games of this garbage?  Kobe deserves better than this.  The fans certainly deserve better than this.  Especially since they are paying some the highest prices in the league for tickets.  The Lakers should start handing out free shots of tequila when they shoot under 40%.  Since the fans aren’t going to get too many free tacos this year, at least that might help them get through watching these games.

The Clippers haven’t played too much basketball in the last week, but they sure did look out of their league against the Spurs on Monday.   The Spurs were playing back to back road games, and the Clippers had a chance to show they were among the best in the West.  Instead, they let the old geezer Spurs come in and show them that the West still goes through them.  Even on Saturday against the Suns, the Clipps struggled to get the win.  People are actually picking this team to go to the Finals?  People are thinking this team is one of the best in the NBA?  What am I missing?  It may be early, but where is the defensive brilliance of the great Doc Rivers?  Sounds pretty overrated to me.

To College Football where suddenly, UCLA and USC are going to have a huge showdown next week at the Rose Bowl.  This looked to be another rivalry game between two disappointing teams.  Now UCLA has a chance to win the Pac-12 South if it wins its last two games.  Even SC can still win the Pac 12 South by winning and having Arizona beat Arizona State the following week.  I can’t remember a matchup between these two teams in recent memory where it felt like both teams were evenly matched and could easily beat the other.  The one thing the Trojans will have to contend with however, is Brett Hundley, who’s mobility has given USC problems over the last two matchups.  For that reason alone, you gotta like the Bruins to take this one.

Elsewhere around College Football, Notre Dame is wondering if there is an NIT Tournament.  The remainder of the Irish season is meaningless, after getting upset by Northwestern on Saturday in South Bend.  Once again, the Irish know how to make their fans lose their minds.  The defense couldn’t stop a period with a tampon.  The team is completely undisciplined, and has more turnovers than Betty Crocker.  These guys make you want to just burn your jersey when they lose. Meanwhile, Florida State may still be #1 in the rankings, but listening to coach Jimbo Fisher talk is hilarious.  It feels like he made a deal with the Devil:  “you can either coach a winning team, or sound like an intelligent person.”  We know which one he picked.  408 yards rushing for Melvin Gordon?  He caused more suffering in Nebraska than cholesterol.  I’m still not really sure how this whole playoff works when TCU is ranked ahead of Baylor after losing to them.

College Basketball really snuck up on us.  UCLA is already 2-0 after this weekend, and even though they didn’t play anybody, they looked a little better than I thought they would after losing a few key contributors to the NBA.  Freshman forward Kevin Looney has been very impressive so far, and he’s averaged nearly 20 and 10 in his first two games.  I’ve even gotta give credit to Bryce Alford, who’s looked good, even though most of you hate him because he’s Steve Alford’s son.  The Bruins don’t really play anybody until the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament the week of Thanksgiving, so we can at least pretend like they are going to be good until then.

As for USC basketball, this season started the same exact way last season did: with a loss.  The Trojans were a turnover machine against Portland State on Saturday night.  What exactly is considered a success for Andy Einfeld in his 2nd season?  If he wins more than 2 games in conference play?  That’s all he won last year.  USC basketball has gone relatively unnoticed the last few years, however, it shouldn’t be that difficult to put together a respectable team given their location.  Then again, I’m not sure SC alums really care that much.

To baseball, where they both earned it.  Angels center fielder Mike Trout and Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw were named MVP’s of the American and National League, respectively, this week.  The irony of Mike Trout is that he won the MVP in a year where he was actually far less impressive than the previous two seasons.  Trout was still great, but in a much different way.  His batting average and stolen bases were down, but his home runs and RBI’s were up.  Trout is still the best all around player in baseball, but if the Angels had gotten the Mike Trout from the previous two years in the playoffs, they might have gone a little further.  As for Kershaw, he is clearly the best pitcher in the game, and his impact on the bullpen and the rest of the pitching staff when he pitches demonstrates his value.  The only knock on him is his inability to beat the Cardinals in the postseason.  I’m sure that both of these guys would gladly trade in their MVP’s for a World Series appearance.

On to Week 11 of the NFL.  The Colts still aren’t there yet.  They got destroyed by the Patriots last night at home, and Rob Gronkowski and Jonas Gray looked like Godzilla on the football field.  Mark Sanchez turned back into Mark Sanchez yesterday against the Packers.  The Chargers may have beaten the Raiders, but they’ve blown their chances at the post season.  The Bears actually won a game at home?  That’s unfortunate, because I was really looking forward to Brandon Marshall tearing Jay Cutler apart in the post game.  I think JJ Watt has more touchdowns than the entire Oakland Raider team this year.  I think Eli Manning just threw another interception.  The Saints can’t even win at home anymore, while the Redskins can’t even beat the Bucs.  Fat guy touchdown alert…..

On the ice, the Kings and Ducks seem to play one great game after another against each other.  On Thursday, the Ducks beat the Kings at the Honda Center 6-5 in a shootout, after the Kings were up 5-3 in the final minutes or regulation.  On Saturday, the Kings turned the tables by defeating the Ducks 3-2 in overtime, and had a comeback of their own in the 3rd period.  After last spring’s seven game series between these two clubs, the rivalry is becoming one of the NHL’s best, and one of SoCal’s best.  Both teams are dealing with their own respective injury (and illness) woes, but when they are at their best, they are easily two of the best in the league.  Hope to see these two meet again in this spring’s post season.

Finally, we inched closer to the Winter finale of The Walking Dead last night on AMC.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  This episode was all about Daryl and Carol.  We see a flashback to when Carol sees the fire at the prison following the Governor’s death.  Then we move forward in time to see Daryl and Carol in the car, following the Grady Memorial Vehicle.  Daryl fills Carol in on Beth.  They follow the car and eventually see the guards coming out of it, but decide to delay their attack and spend the night at a Shelter for abused children.  The facility was overrun with Walkers, and several young children had already turned.  The next morning Daryl puts down the young Walkers, and even gives them a burial.  When they resume their pursuit of Beth, they ran into Noah, who ambushed them with a gun, and stole Daryl’s crossbow.  Later on, they ambush Noah, and get the weapon back, while pushing a bookcase on top of him.  A Walker threatens to eat him, but eventually, Darryl decides to save Noah.  Shortly after, Daryl and Carol discover that Noah knows Beth, and they strategize to get her back as the guards show up.  In the chaos from running from the guards, Carol is run over by their car and taken to the hospital. Noah holds Daryl back from chasing them down, and instead carefully plans an attack to get her back.

This episode was really the perfect blend of character development and action.  The dynamics between Daryl and Carol are one aspect of the show that viewers have been wanting for quite some time.  While there doesn’t appear to be anything romantic between these two, at least yet, the similarities between the two of them are very fascinating.  Both of these characters give off the impression that they are not affected by the horrors of the world they live in.  However, in this episode we are reminded how noble each of them are.  We see this when Daryl dispatches of the bodies at the shelter, so Carol doesn’t have to deal with the trauma of it.  Carol and Daryl also show some humanity and let Noah live too when he is trapped under the book shelf.  I also found it interesting that Carol didn’t want to talk about what happened with the girls, but when she was about to confess to killing Lizzie, Daryl said he didn’t need to hear the details but understood.  In other words, he knows that her nobility is much greater, than whatever it was she did.  There’s something about this episode that makes me think that Carol or Beth may not live through the rescue attempt.  In any case, can’t wait for the final two episodes of the first half of the season!

November 10th, 2014

Congratulations to Charles Barkley!  Charles you can finally eat a meal, now that the Lakers won their first game of the season last night against Charlotte.  Good thing too, because if they didn’t win last night you might have died.  Not only did the Lakers win, but the fans got tacos too.  That may never happen again this season.  The more I watch this team, the more I wonder whether or not the front office actually had any intention of putting a competitive team together this season.  On the bright side, it is remarkable that in his 19th year in the league, Kobe entered yesterday’s game leading the league in scoring.  Even more impressive is the fact that he’s playing every game like his house is on fire.  Although this is entertaining, it’s also somewhat stupid.  The Lakers are wasting the remaining good basketball Kobe has left, and they are also running him into the ground with the amount of minutes he’s taking on.  If you’re going to spend $48 million on someone, you should probably take good care of the investment, which the Lakers aren’t.

What was Steve Nash thinking?  Nash decided to post a video on Instagram of himself hitting golf balls last week.  Once he saw the criticism he was receiving through social media, he immediately went into damage control and wrote an open letter to Laker fans.  In the letter, he claimed that swinging a golf club is a lot different than playing NBA basketball every night against great players. I’m no golf pro, but I’m pretty sure you need to have a healthy back to be able to swing a golf club, which makes Nash look really bad here.  He probably can’t remain healthy on a weekly basis in the NBA, but he looks like he came back to do nothing more than collect a paycheck, while starting his retirement early.  He’s also guilty of just plain stupidity.

Meanwhile, the Clippers are still an unimpressive 4-2 after beating Portland on Saturday.  Everyone seems to be under the impression that the Clipps were this young team on the rise, that was improving with every game they played.  However, that’s only because most of you are comparing them to the laughing stock across the hallway.  The reality of it is, other than Blake Griffin, the Clippers look like a good team that has reached their ceiling, and not a championship contender.  They got blown off the floor against the Warriors, and have struggled against some very mediocre teams.  Look it’s early, and we always tend to overanalyze what we see in the NBA. However, the Clippers have given us nothing to make us think things are any different from the last couple of seasons.

Speaking of the Clippers, Gillian Zucker was introduced last week as the new president of business operations.  Gillian proclaimed that “the Clippers are well on their way to becoming Los Angeles’ team.”  That’s cute.  She’s spent the last 9 years in auto racing, so she started watching the NBA last week.   Gillian obviously hasn’t walked into Staples Center and seen the 16 championship banners that belong to the LA Lakers.  You should probably take an NBA history lesson first Gillian.

To college football, where Bruins are exactly who I told you they were.  A good team, but not quite a great team.  For really just the 2nd time this season, UCLA looked like an elite team by taking down Washington on the road.  The hot again, cold again, Brett Hundley got hot again, throwing for 302 yards and 2 touchdowns, while running for two more.  If you didn’t expect these guys to be a national championship contender a few months ago, you might actually be impressed.  Dare I say it? UCLA is peaking at the right time.  They have two weeks to prepare for USC at home, then host Stanford.  Two very winnable games, while needing Arizona State to lose one of its last three, in order to play for the Pac-12 title.  Before it’s over, UCLA could still find themselves in a pretty good bowl game.

Elsewhere around college football, Notre Dame had its hopes and dreams for the playoffs shattered after losing to Arizona State.  Nobody beats Notre Dame like Notre Dame.  Everett Golson threw 4 interceptions, and lost a fumble, and the Irish were toast by the end of the 1st half.  Amazing how unprepared that team looked against an ASU team that everyone knew was going to blitz on nearly every play.  I suppose the Irish can still go to a pretty good bowl game, but you can kiss the playoffs goodbye.  Too bad because the Auburn, Michigan State, and Kansas State losses would have vaulted ND a long way up the rankings.  Great game between Alabama and LSU, and what a comeback by the Crimson Tide to win it.  That’s gotta be the best thing to happen in the state of Alabama since incest was downgraded to a misdemeanor.  Oh and this actually happened in that game……
There was also this bonehead play in the Utah vs Oregon game……..

To baseball, where the Dodgers must have more people in their baseball operations department than any franchise in the history of the league.  They hired Farhan Zaidi as their GM last week, who used to be Oakland’s assistant GM.  They also hired Josh Byrnes as Senior VP of Baseball Operations.  Weren’t both of these guys supposed to be GM candidates?  Wasn’t Andy Friedman supposed to be a GM candidate too?  And isn’t Ned Colletti still somewhat of a GM as well?  All of a sudden, the Dodger front office looks more crowded than their outfield.  Although I’m going to reserve judgement until I see what moves are actually made, the fact that all these guys seem like Moneyball jocks has me concerned.  The Dodgers don’t need to spend $300 million a year to win, but they also shouldn’t be operated like some small market team like Tampa or Kansas City.  Whatever happens with Hanley Ramirez in the next few weeks will be a big sign of what these guys plan to do.  I say give the man a 3 year $45 million deal, and buy some time to develop a replacement.

On to week 10 of the NFL, where someone must have told Andy Dalton that Thursday was a playoff game, because he played terrible, and the Bengals got pounded by the Browns.   Last night, Jay Cutler was about as accurate as Helen Keller playing darts, and Chicago was “emBEARassing” against the Packers.  Just when you think the Steelers are elite, they completely embarrass themselves by losing to an embarrassing Jets team.  I can just imagine how loud NFL gamblers screamed when they saw Jimmy Graham push off on the final play of regulation against the 49ers, which negated his hail mary touchdown.  Great acting job by the 49ers defensive back on that play.  Just as Dr. Jerry Jones told us, Tony Romo played, and the Cowboys dominated the Jaguars.  Things haven’t been this bad for the Dolphins since Snowflake was stolen and they had to hire Ace Ventura to find him.  The Cardinals may have lost Carson Palmer to an injury, but John Brown’s celebration was even better than the TD he scored….

To the ice, where the Kings pounded the Canucks on Saturday night, but have some issues to work out.  Drew Doughty and Dustin Brown make $7 million a year, and they have a total of 2 goals in 15 games this season.  Would they just let Slava Voynov play already!  Either charge the guy and let the legal process take its course, or let him play again.  The Kings will have their first showdown of the season with the Ducks on Wednesday night at the Honda Center.  Anaheim is rolling, and doing it with defense.  They had the best record in the league coming into Sunday, and they were tied with the Kings for having allowed the 2nd fewest amount of goals in the league.  After John Gibson’s injury, it looks like Frederick Anderson is firmly the teams #1 goalie as well.

And finally, another interesting episode of the Walking Dead last night on AMC.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  Let’s recap quickly.  Abraham, Rosita, Glen, Maggie, Eugene, and Tara have taken a short bus, leaving the rest of the group behind to get to Washington, DC.  The bus mysteriously crashes, and the group must fend off Walkers.  Throughout the episode we see flashbacks of Abraham’s life as a father and husband.  The group gets to an abandoned bookstore for refuge.  Eugene is peeping and perving while Abraham and Rosita have sex.  When Tara catches him, he admits that he caused the bus crash, by putting crushed glass in the fuel line.  Tara promises to keep his secret.  The group finds a firetruck and heads out of town, but not before killing another herd of Walkers.  Finally, the group faces another herd on their drive and is forced to stop.  When the group argues what to do, Eugene admits that he isn’t a scientist, but was just using everyone to get to DC, where he believes their best chance of survival is.  He also believes he is smarter than everyone else.  Abraham proceeds to beat the crap out of Eugene.  The final flashback shows Abraham’s dead wife and son, and just before Abraham is about to kill himself, he saves Eugene from Walkers.  Eugene then convinces Abraham to help him get to DC.

Ok, this episode was much slower than the first 4 episodes of the season.  It was bound to happen.  However, we’re so used to complete chaos, and things falling apart around the group.  In this episode, we actually see the group getting closer, which is a nice contrast.  In the end, in a much more subtle way, Eugene is a dangerous character.  People have died trying to protect him, when he is offering nothing in return.  He’s a fraud.  There’s also a great deal of symbolism in this episode, like when Eugene is in the bookstore admitting his lie to Tara.  He’s actually in a row with a book called “We All Fall Down” by Nic Sheff.  The symbolism goes even further.  Maggie mentioned a riddle to Eugene, which involved Sampson telling a riddle, which was really a lie that caused a great deal of death.  Symbolically, Eugene is like Sampson, in that his lie, ultimately caused a lot of death.  These types of episodes really make you think about the plot, but they are still enjoyable, albeit a lot slower.

November 3rd, 2014

Yup…..the Lakers are a disaster.  The NBA clearly does not feel bad about the Chris Paul trade, because they just screwed them in the first week of the NBA season.  LA has played 4 games in 5 nights, and is 0-4, their worst start since your parents were born.  You think it’s bad now? Look at the schedule.  They might win 2 games in their first 10.  Their season is over before it even starts.  Kobe still looks like Kobe.  Jordan Hill and Ed Davis are serviceable, however, everyone else stinks.  Jeremy Lin is not a starting point guard in the NBA, and Carlos Boozer is totally past his prime.  The development of Julius Randle was going to be the only glimmer of hope this season, but now that he broke his leg, this season is pointless.  This has the makings of a very long and painful rebuild.

As for the Clippers, they are 2-1, but they’ve looked rather underwhelming in the first week.  They barely got by an Oklahoma City Thunder team that was missing its two best players.  Then they barely beat the Lakers, which would have been an embarrassing loss, then lost to Sacramento. The good news for the Clippers is that Blake Griffin looks like he improved his offensive game.  Dude can actually shoot a free throw, make some 3 pointers, and even be a go to guy late in the game.  The bad news is the team’s shooting, defense, and rebounding has been bad, which is never a recipe for success.  Wasn’t Doc Rivers supposed to be a defensive genius?  Sure seems like that genius actually came from Tom Thibodeau.  It’s early, but the Clippers have a lot to clean up if they are truly contenders.

The contracts extensions that are being handed out in the NBA are completely ridiculous.  Where was I when NBA GM’s were handing out money?  Nikola Vucevic has nobody on his team, and that makes him a $48 million player for the next four years.  Ricky Rubio couldn’t even shoot a basketball last year.  I’m sure he’s a great bull fighter in Spain, but for some reason he’s making $54 million for the next 4 years.  The Jazz were one of the worst teams in the NBA last season, but locked up Alec Burks, Gordon Hayward, and Derek Favors for $154 million over the next four years.  What the hell is going on here?  Do all NBA GM’s drink on the job?  It just proves that the real NBA stars are grossly underpaid, while most role players are badly overpaid.

Let’s go to college football, where our unimpressive theme continues with the UCLA Bruins.  UCLA was good, but not great in a win against Arizona on Saturday night at the Rose Bowl.  Ok, I’ll give the Bruins defense some credit here.  They held the Wildcats to a season low 272 yards, which would be extremely impressive if Arizona wasn’t as Jekyll and Hyde as the Bruins.  UCLA had 118 yards in penalties, and it felt like they should have put up about 40 points.  At times, the offense was about as ugly as the jerseys the Bruins were wearing.  They really need to get rid of these ridiculous recruiting gimmicks.  Their running game looks great sometimes with Paul Perkins and Brett Hundley, but their receivers just can’t seem to take the offense to the next level.  Neither can Hundley’s passing.  UCLA is still alive for the Pac-12 South title, but it’s still going to take some more losses from Arizona State and Utah, with the Bruins winning out.  A trip to the San Francisco Bowl (whatever the hell that is) seems much more plausible than another trip to the conference title game.

Meanwhile, the Trojans had no problem at Washington State, blowing them out 44-17.  Admit it, even you die hard Trojan fans fell asleep on your couches by halftime.  This wasn’t exactly like playing Arizona State or Utah, and having to worry about them actually mounting a comeback.  Especially not when Connor Halliday got his leg broken early in the game.  The Trojans won’t actually have to leave Southern California for the rest of the regular season, but they’ll have to avoid the trap game against Cal in two weeks before the big showdown against UCLA and Notre Dame.  SC will need to win it’s final two conference games, and hope ASU starts losing to have a chance at the Pac-12 South title.  That’s a tall order, but one that should make all the Trojan fans feel pretty good about Sark’s first season if it actually comes to fruition.

Notre Dame fans nearly had a heart attack over the past few days.  First, Florida State nearly lost to Louisville, then the Irish had a close call against Navy.  I appreciate the university’s strong affiliation with our armed forces, however, playing the Sea Men does nothing for the Irish other than make them look really bad if they lose.  This college football playoff committee has me skeptical that the Irish can actually make it in the playoff, even if they have only 1 loss.  They already slipped two spots in the AP, so I’d hate to see what the next playoff poll is going to look like.  These SEC teams are so overhyped it’s disgusting.  The difference between #1 Mississippi State and #2 Florida State is that Mississippi State has been struggling against garbage like Arkansas and Kentucky.  Meanwhile, FSU has “struggled” against solid teams like Notre Dame, Louisville, and Clemson.  The SEC love fest is killing me.

On to week 9 in the NFL, where the Jets should start taking auditions from their fans for their starting quarterback job after getting smoked by KC.  Their entire team would have been great……5 years ago.   Yesterday’s Manning vs Brady showdown felt a lot like those beat downs Tom Brady used to lay on the Colts when Peyton was with Indy.  Suddenly, the Pats are in the divers seat for home field.  The Chargers got blown off the field yesterday against Miami, and now they face the toughest part of their schedule.  Typical San Diego.  The 49ers and Seahawks are nothing like the teams they used to be, while the Cardinals have emerged as the class of the NFC. The Steelers are suddenly rolling, but I don’t trust anybody to emerge as an elite team in that division.  I’m not sure why the Redskins didn’t wait until after the bye to start RG III.  This is the kind of thing that could only happen to the Jets…..

To the NHL, where the Kings just can’t seem to win on the road.  After going 6-1 at home to start the season, LA’s road trip has been filled with injuries, penalties, suspensions, and a lack of scoring.  When you lose 4 in a row in the West, you can quickly find your way toward the bottom, and that’s what happening to the Kings.  Even though at times it seems like the Kings don’t give a crap about the regular season, it’s a dangerous way to play hockey, in a conference that’s so competitive.  Meanwhile, the Ducks aren’t slowing down, racing out to another 1st place start after last night’s win at Colorado.  Anaheim is actually doing it with defense for a change, as they have the 2nd best goals against average in the league.

Finally, an interesting episode of The Walking Dead last night.  Spoiler alert for those of you who haven’t seen it yet.  This episode was all about what happened to Beth.  She wakes up in a hospital in Atlanta, and a creepy cop tells her “you owe us”.  The hospital is made up of Dr. Steven Edwards, a creepy cop named Goreman, who keeps checking out Beth, as well as an orderly named Noah.  Then there’s the crazy cop Dawn, who runs the show, and seems to just slap Beth whenever she gets major mood swings.  After having her life saved, Beth is forced to work at the hospital for a little before being able to leave.  She has to hold down a patient while her arm is amputated with a sharp wire.

She later on poses the question to Dr. Edwards “why do you stay when you can leave whenever you want?”  He takes her downstairs to see a bunch of Walkers to show her the world is better in here than out there.  Later on Beth accidentally kills a patient by giving the wrong medication to a a patient.  We later find out Dr Edwards facilitated this because he knew the patient was a doctor, and he wanted to be the only doctor alive at the facility to remain valuable.  Beth and Noah try to escape the hospital, and when Beth gets the key she is cornered by Goreman, who tries to rape her.  Beth knocks him out with a bottle, and he is bitten by a patient that turned into a Walker.  As Beth an Noah try to escape, Beth is caught.  At the end of the episode, Carol is wheeled into the hospital on a stretcher.  Based on the end of the last episode, that probably means Noah is in the woods with Darryl.

This was a very different episode, but one that was still very interesting.  It’s become pretty hard to trust any new character in The Walking Dead, so I didn’t believe for a second that Beth was actually safe in the hospital.  It also became pretty obvious when they started dumping dead bodies down an elevator shaft.  I love how Beth totally went into “Uma Thurman Kill Bill Mode” when she was about to be raped by Goreman.  I’m thinking Carol infiltrated the hospital on purpose to save Beth.  This crazy cop Dawn has no idea who she is messing with, and it’s about to go down at the hospital.  Can’t wait to see where this goes next.

October 27th, 2014

You didn’t really think Steve Nash was going to stay healthy and play again did you? Once you have nerve damage in any part of your body, I’m pretty sure that you don’t just heal from that over time.  Nash knew he had no chance to play this year, but simply came back to collect a $9 million social security check from the Lakers.  This is actually a good thing the way I see it.  Jeremy Lin is now going to get a ton of minutes to pump up his stats and increase his value by the trade deadline, which can return some valuable assets for the team.  It’s a sad way to go out for Nash, but it’s still a trade that at the time, it was a no brainer to do.  Thanks for the little you contributed to the Lakers Steve, and the little value you might still bring before it’s over.

I’ve gotta address that stupid article that ESPN writer Henry Abbott wrote about nobody wanting to play with Kobe.  This is a very tired storyline, that people have unsuccessfully tried to write about for twenty years.  Abbot wrote a story just to get some clicks without any balance, and lacking some critical information.  He uses Shaquille O’Neal, Andrew Bynum, and Dwight Howard, as examples of players that had issues with Kobe.  He also failed to mentioned that Shaq had issues with Penny Hardaway and Dwayne Wade, Bynum had issues wherever he went after the Lakers, and the fact that Dwight Howard had accountability issues in Orlando and Houston.  It’s also funny that he got unnamed agents as sources for his story, yet he didn’t ask Pau Gasol, Matt Barnes, Steve Blake, Derek Fisher, or Rick Fox how they felt about Kobe.  That’s because all those guys loved playing with him.  Even Paul George and Carmelo Anthony, free agents that didn’t sign with the Lakers, thought that the story was ridiculous.

Also, for Abbott and everybody else that keep focusing on how “terrible” the Lakers decision was to  pay Kobe $48 million over two years, you are all missing a valuable piece of information.  The Lakers TV contract with Timer Warner includes a provision that says the ratings must remain at a certain level to receive a certain share of profitability.  Without Kobe Bryant, those ratings drop immensely.  In fact, they would drop to a level that ultimately make it much more costly to lose him, than to pay him the $48 million.  It was just as much as basketball decision as it was a business decision.

To college football, where the UCLA Bruins are finding new ways to embarrass themselves.  The Bruins blew a 17 point lead against Colorado, yet pulled out a 40-37 win in overtime.  Colorado?? You can’t be serious right?  These guys shouldn’t even be in Division I football, let alone the Pac 12.  UCLA is setting themselves up for some serious failure over the final month of the regular season.  They appear to be in serious decline, and are putting themselves in position to be embarrassed in their final four games of the season, including a game against the Trojans.  Not only do they have to win out to have a chance to win the Pac 12 South, but they need to hope Utah and Arizona State start losing some conference games as well.

Meanwhile, those Trojans really know how to break your heart right?  USC gave up another lead late, and lost at Utah 24-21.  The Trojans got some good luck at Stanford and Arizona.  This game felt a lot like those games, but USC was due to come up on the short end of one of these road games in conference after those two lucky wins.  Most of you Trojan fans want to murder Sark, but it’s really on the players to make more plays and win more of these close games.  Sark did the right thing by going for it late in the game, since Andre Heidari was banged up.  Heck, if Nelson Agholor stayed in bounds, the Trojans probably would have won.  I also don’t understand why Utah fans rushed the field after winning the game.  They do realize they were actually ranked ahead of the Trojans coming into the game right?  You could even see one of the Utah players utter the words “we’re going to a bowl game” when it was over.  That guy would get slapped if he were playing in a lot of programs.  It just goes to show you the vast difference between these two athletic programs.

On to the NFL where after 7 weeks, the story lines have completely flipped.  I guess Tom Brady and the Patriots aren’t that old and washed up anymore.  Gronk hadn’t done that much damage since the last time he was in Vegas.  I guess that Chargers might not actually be able to compete with the Broncos after.  I guess the Rams and Falcons are actually that bad.  The Seahawks may have beaten Carolina, but their locker room problems suddenly make them nothing like the team we thought.  Can anyone actually take control of the AFC North?  Ben Roethlisberger is the first QB with multiple games of 500 or more passing yards and only two rapes.  Meanwhile, the Saints are filing a petition with the league to play every game at home.  And finally, the Bills and Jets are just full of laughs.  Sammy Watkins cracked the champagne a little too soon on this one…..

Quick thought on the Dodgers and their managerial situation this past week.  When Joe Maddon left the Rays this week, everyone immediately thought it was a foregone conclusion he was going to the Dodgers.  I’m sure Andy Friedman knew all along that Maddon could leave the Rays.  The fact that he immediately told everyone that Don Mattingly was going to manage the Dodgers next year tells you everything you need to know here.  If he thought that Maddon was a better fit than Mattingly, he would have immediately hit the eject button on the LA skipper.  Friedman made the correct choice here.  Don Mattingly may still be improving as an in-game manager, but he is absolutely the best person to manage the egos of the Dodger players, rather than Maddon.

Let’s go to the ice, where the Kings are rolling, but they got a huge scare yesterday.  Anze Kopitar left the game after a collision behind the net.  Make no mistake about it, the Kings cannot actually lose Kopitar for any length of time, or else they will suffer at both ends of the ice.  Coach Darryl Sutter downplayed the injury, but then again, he downplays everything.  Oh yea, the team has also won six in a row, and for the first time in history, they had a 6-0 homestand.

Finally, another great episode of The Walking Dead last night.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  Quick summary: Bob tells Gareth and his friends that they are idiots because he’s been bitten, so they ate infected meat.  Gareth and his friends leave Bob in front of the church where Rick and the gang find him.  Bob tells Rick what happened.  Gareth and the cannibals try to ambush the group at the church, but Rick is ready for it.  Rick and the crew kill Gareth and his entire group.  Sadly, Bob dies.  Then, Michonne finds Darryl at the end of the episode in the woods.  She asks “where is Carol?” Darryl says “come out.”  Except we don’t know who he is telling that to when the episode ends.

I definitely thought the Gareth saga would last a lot longer than it did.  I gotta admit, he had kind of a charismatic side to him that we saw early in the episode.  On a more disgusting note, he is basically a cannibal “foodie”, as he talks about his taste for women.  His fate had to be celebrated by all fans of the show.  I’m actually shocked that Gabriel is no mastermind, and is actually just a really big pansy.  I also don’t really know why Bob had such a long ceremonious like death.  There were other characters in the show that had more significance, yet their deaths were not as long and drawn out.  Lastly, I’m not really sure why Maggie acting so cool since her sister was kidnapped by a bunch of strangers.  I guess we’ll find out more on that in the next episode.

October 20th, 2014

The Dodgers have taken quick and sudden action after being eliminated from the playoffs just over a week ago.  As we expected, Ned Colletti paid the price, as he was demoted to a special advisor, while Rays GM Andy Friedman was hired as director of baseball operations, and he will hire a new General Manager.  Ok, I get it.  Friedman accomplished a lot in Tampa with few resources, and at face value, this could be a good move.  However, I think the LA front office is badly overreacting to this entire situation.  Just because the Royals are a small market team that made it to the World Series, that doesn’t mean the Dodgers need to operate like one to get there.  The Red Sox and Tigers have consistently been in the hunt the last few years, and they’ve been spending plenty of money.  It’s about spending money in the right places, while also developing your farm system.  Hopefully Friedman and the rest of the Dodgers see it this way before blowing up the team, otherwise the Dodgers could be a lot further away from winning the World Series than they are now.

On to some college football, where watching UCLA football makes you want to jump off the Santa Monica Pier.  The Bruins barely beat a horrendous Cal team in the Bay Area on Saturday by a measly two points.  Cal Quarterback Jared Goff clearly lost his mind at the end of the game, putting the ball in the air and throwing an interception, when all his team needed to win the game was a field goal.  We’re halfway through the season and it’s very clear now, UCLA’s talent is much better than the level of football it actually plays.  Four of their five wins have been close games against teams they should have blown off the field.   They’ve only put together one complete game, which was against Arizona State.    Even Brett Hundley looks overrated, as he should have shredded this crappy Cal defense to pieces.  His 330 yards are deceiving, because we didn’t see much of a vertical attack, against a defense that had the worst secondary in the nation.

Over at the Coliseum, Cody Kessler threw a ridiculous 7 touchdown passes in a blowout against Colorado.  The last time he did that, he was playing Playstation against his roommate in his dorm room.   This win was fools gold for the Trojans, and Kessler in particular.  Since I was there in person, I can’t think of a single one of those long passes that wasn’t lobbed up in the air, that wouldn’t have been intercepted by a halfway decent defense.  Then again, that probably explains why Kessler has only one turnover on the season.  Sark simply doesn’t let the guy throw down the field, and wants him to be more of a game manager.  Kessler isn’t going to single handedly win games for USC, but he’s solid enough to be their starter.  The Trojans still haven’t had their annual slip up in conference play against an opponent they should beat.  That would make me weary going into their games against Utah, Washington State, and Cal.

There’s no doubt the best game of the college football season thus far was Notre Dame vs Florida State.  Apparently, none of you had any idea that Notre Dame was capable of beating FSU, and should have.  That’s also probably because most of you forgot that Everett Golson is 16-1 as a starting quarterback.  I know most of you Irish fans want to strangle the referee that made that offensive pass interference call at the end of the game, but it was the right call, even though you hate to see a great game end that way.  Besides, as long as ND wins out, they should absolutely be in the playoff, and who wouldn’t want to see a re-match at the Rose Bowl in January?   I can’t tell you how much I laughed out loud when i heard Jimbo Fisher tell the media how much of a “high character” program he has.  Still, this Jameis Winston autograph scandal doesn’t make any sense.  How is he supposed to sign autographs if he can’t even spell his own name?

To the NFL, where my hopes and dreams have been shattered, because the Jaguars actually won a game by beating the Browns yesterday.  Was that Sunday Night Football on NBC last night? Or an SEC non-conference game?  The Seahawks are probably ready to send Pete Carroll to the Jaguars for a 9th round pick after losing to the Rams.  Meanwhile, Percy Harvin is still weighing the pros and cons of being traded to the Jets.  The pros include no more touchdowns being called back.  The cons include no more touchdowns.  Southern Californians needs to do everything they can to make sure the Raiders do not move back here.  Apparently nobody wants to win the NFC South.  The Cowboys are making it really tough to keep making jokes about them.  At one point in that Charger-Chiefs game, I was wondering why Alex Smith is even on the field. The Chiefs might as well have been snapping the ball directly to Jamal Charles.  Still, the Chargers faced a real team for the first time in a month and failed.  The Jay Cutler implosion is in full effect in Chicago.  Are the Redskins really going to start Colt McCoy next week?  Terence Newman made the worst tackling attempt I have ever seen in an NFL game yesterday too….

We’re just two weeks into the NBA pre-season, and people are already freaking out about the Lakers and how bad they might be.  I never said they were going to be good, however, I’m not going to draw any big conclusions after the team was blown out in their last three pre-season games.  I don’t see anybody commenting on the fact the Clippers and Spurs have the same preseason record as the Lakers either.  Byron Scott is absolutely right: this team shouldn’t be jacking up a bunch of three pointers every night.  They don’t have the shooters, and they are going to be much more effective slowing the pace of the game down, while focusing on the defensive end of the floor.  Their personnel doesn’t lend itself to playing any other style folks, regardless of whether or not it’s more entertaining.

On the ice, the Kings are off to a very impressive start, and they are hardly playing their best hockey.  LA is taking advantage of a cushy 6 game home stand early on, and they’ve won 4 straight.  I always say, the sign of a great team is one that can win when they aren’t at their best.  The Kings are winning with dominant play from Jonathan Quick, and one line that is scoring, better known as “That’s 70’s Line”.  They are also allowing more shots than a UC Santa Barbara frat party, and can’t seem to do much on the powerplay.  All that and they’re still off to one of the fastest starts in the conference.  Also, good job by Dean Lombardi to re-sign Jake Muzzin, except I’m not sure where that leaves Alec Martinez, Justin Williams, and Jarret Stoll when their contracts are up at the end of the season.

Great news guys!  I finally got the IPhone 6 Plus.  It looks like this…….

On to The Walking Dead, which turned out to be way better than I thought it would this week.  I was completely expecting a much slower episode, but this episode was intense.  Spoiler alert for those of you that haven’t seen it yet.  Let’s summarize quickly.  The group is out in the wilderness and back in survival mode when they run into Gabriel, a priest who was being ambushed by Walkers.  The group saves Gabriel, who then led them to a Church, and later on a food bank, where they had to fend off some more Walkers.  Rick and the rest of the group do not completely trust Gabriel and his motivations yet, and make it clear to him by telling him “You’re hiding something.”  Near the end of the episode, Bob is letting some emotion out in the woods, and is attacked by Gareth.  Bob is tied up, and when he regains consciousness, Gareth admits that he and his group and cannibals.  Bob’s leg is also missing, as Gareth and his group have begun bbq’ing and eating him (wow, writing that was even more disturbing than reading it).

I don’t trust this Gabriel guy at all.  There’s no way anybody could live in a world with Walkers for this long and be afraid of them, so Gabriel has to be a villain.  I’m thinking he might have made a deal with the cannibals.  I’m still trying to figure out why Bob was crying in the woods, prior to being attacked by Gareth.  I think it might have been because he was actually bitten by a Walker while he was in the food bank.  I wonder what that means for Gareth’s group, since they might be eating infected meat.  Wow, that Gareth guy makes you want to punch him in the face when you listen to him talk.  I’m also dying to find out what happened to Beth, and who is in the mysterious car that swooped her up.  This season is getting good real fast!

October 13th, 2014

If you’re a Dodger fan, you’re probably in the latter stages of grieving.  Be prepared to grieve some more, as we kick-off Monday Morning Coffee by discussing the Dodgers disaster last week.  LA was eliminated from the playoffs by the Cardinals, and the reality of it is, the blame starts with Clayton Kershaw, the $215 million man.  He knew he needed to win games 1 and 4, and collapsed in the most critical moments of the Dodger’s season.  The Cardinals simply own Kershaw, who has lost his last 4 playoff starts to St. Louis.  Then there’s the useless pile of crap that is the Dodger bullpen.  The Dodgers spent a total of $45 million on Brandon League, JP Howell, Brian Wilson, and Chris Perez.  Not a single one could be trusted late in a playoff game, which forced Don Mattingly to stick with his starters as long as possible.  Mattingly isn’t off the hook either, as he benched his most dynamic player in Yasiel Puig in a must-win situation, in favor of a guy who probably doesn’t even remember how to play baseball, Andre Ethier.

Spending lots of money guarantees you get to the playoffs, but that’s it.  The playoffs are a crapshoot in baseball.  Rumor has it that Ned Colletti could take the fall for the Dodgers playoff failures, which is absurd.  This is the same general manager who should have been arrested for shoplifting in the McCourt era, as he had limited resources yet put together playoff caliber teams.  Many of the most critical personnel decisions like the Hanley Ramirez and Adrian Gonzales trades were all done at the ownership level.  The Dodgers have plenty of money to fix some of the easier problems to fix: A bullpen and a better defensive shortstop.  That’s it.  After that, it’s on the players to step up and get it done.  Yes, I’m talking about you Yasiel Puig and Clayton Kershaw.  If those guys do their jobs, the Dodgers are still playing, and ownership isn’t arbitrarily assigning blame to Colletti.

So the Angels and Dodgers were eliminated and on Saturday, the Bruins continued the Southern California losing streak that has taken place for more than a week now.  Things haven’t been this bad in SoCal since the Real Housewives of Orange County started airing.  The Bruins got destroyed by Oregon, in a game that was not nearly as close as the final score.  The worst part is, the Bruins had plenty of chances to score, but Oregon controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.  This was exactly my fear at the end of last season.  The Bruins quickly went from a team that was on the rise, to a team that is overrated and can’t compete with the big boys.  They are no better than last year, possibly even slightly worse.  Brett Hundley is a good quarterback, but still has moments of inconsistency, which doesn’t make him a Heisman Trophy candidate.  This is who the Bruins are: a good team, but not the great team for some reason everyone thought they could be.  There’s still time to win the Pac-12 and take down their cross-town rival, but even that would be amazing for this group.

Then there’s the Trojans, who were one Southern California team that actually came up with a victory on Saturday.  USC got by Arizona 28-26, in a game that looked like the Trojans were going to lose by another devastating last second loss.  For all the moaning and groaning most of the USC faithful has experienced over the last few weeks, the Trojans are actually in 1st place in the Pac-12 South, and actually have a decent chance to go to the conference championship game.  The next four games will also be the softer part of USC’s schedule, before taking on UCLA and Notre Dame.  Sark needs to make sure he’s putting the ball in the hands of Javorius Allen as much as possible the rest of the season.  Allen has been running wild of late, and he’s SC’s best chance to win the conference.

Elsewhere around college football, The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame survived a trap game against UNC, with a 50-36 win.  Everett Golson is beginning to solidify himself as a Heisman Trophy candidate.  That sets up a huge showdown next week against #2 Florida State, in Tallahassee.  The Irish undefeated string will likely come to an end, but I fully expect a close game against FSU.  Mississippi State looks like the most complete team in college football.  That Baylor-TCU game looked like an arena football league game.  The Big Ten stinks, but don’t sleep on Michigan State climbing back into the playoff, as all those SEC teams beat up on each other.

To the NFL, where it was a tough night for the Giants last night against the Eagles.  New York fans hadn’t been that embarassed since early Sunday afternoon when the Jets played.  The Bucs should be demoted to the Big Ten.  I’m thinking Jacksonville has an excellent chance to go 0-16, but they are really going to have to do something to keep that morale down, or else my hopes and dreams will be shattered.  In case there were any doubts, Tom Brady and the Pats still run the AFC East.  If the Chargers had lost to the Raiders, most San Diegans would be getting ready to jump off the Coronado Bridge.  Branden Oliver looks like the Chargers best running back, and it took 3 others to get hurt to learn that.  The Steelers are more terrible than their towels.  I think we all owe the Cowboys an apology until they find a way to collapse in December.  The Redskins are taking a beating like our forefather’s gave them years ago.  While Jay Cutler did a nice job hitting the referee in the nuts with this left handed pass….

I’m not a big believer in extracting anything significant from pre-season games.  However, I have to say that in limited action, Kobe Bryant still looks like a very good player.  That’s great to see, but that’s just about all the enjoyment we will get out of Laker games this year.  As great as Kobe looks, he still won’t have the ability he used to have in controlling a basketball game at both ends of the floor.  That is the Kobe this Laker team will need to have any chance of even making the playoffs.  Not to mention Julius Randle becoming the next Tim Duncan.

It’s amazing that the NHL Season has already started up again.  In typical opening night fashion after raising their Stanley Cup banner, the Kings laid an egg against the San Jose Sharks.  How pissed was San Jose? They get beat by the Kings after taking a 3-0 series lead last spring, they have watch the Kings raise their banner on opening night, and wait for a whole extra 37 minutes for the game to start.  Of course they were angry.  Glad to see the Kings finally find the win column last night.  It already looks as though “That 70’s Line” with Carter, Toffoli, and Pearson have left off where they were last spring.  Meanwhile, the Ducks have a brutal schedule to open the season.  Their 4 game east coast trip to start the season feels like the ultimate screw you from the league, and coming back at .500 would be a reasonable goal.

Finally, last night was a phenomenal season premier of The Walking Dead.  What an edge of your seat first episode.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  To recap quickly, the episode begins with a flashback to Gareth, the somewhat sadistic leader of Terminus, trapped in the same train car as Rick’s group is in the present.  He explains to the others in his group that “we were trying to do something good.  We were being human beings?”  One of Gareth’s friends responds “What are we now?”  We come to find out that Terminus was once a “good” community that was twisted into deceit and cannibalism.  In the present, Rick, Glenn, Darryl, and a few others in the group are taken inside, and 4 group members throats are slashed over a trough.  Before anyone else is killed, Carol shoots a propane tank from outside Terminus, causing an explosion, and Walkers overrun the area.  Rick, Glenn, and Darryl, get free amidst the chaos, kill a bunch of Walkers and free the remaining group members.  The group escapes to meet up with Carol.  She then takes the group to meet Tyreese and Judith, who survived a violent struggle of their own.

Last season they eased us into things.  This season is the total opposite.  It also gives me the feeling that this season is going to be far more gruesome and dark than other seasons.  I love that after Rick escaped, he immediately transformed from “farmer Rick” to “everyone must die Rick”.  This episode was also another reminder of what kind of transformation Carol has made since the start of the series.  She began as a battered house wife, now she’s practically a war hero.  The moment where Carol and Daryl meet and embrace is also one of the most emotional moments in recent memory for the show.  Seeing 4 throats slashed in the first five minutes, gruesome Walker scenes, along with some really unappealing pictures of human flesh, all made this an episode that probably can’t be topped for a while.  In any case, can’t wait to see what else is in store this season.

October 6th, 2014

What a terrible weekend it was for our Southern California sports teams.  The Angels were swept, while the Dodgers, Bruins, and Trojans suffered losses that were the equivalent of getting kicked in the balls.  What did LA do to deserve this?  Is it because we have palm trees, fake large breasted women and nice weather? (Which really isn’t that nice right now because it’s 100 degrees).  For the most part, it was just a reminder that being a sports fan requires enduring 99% kicks to the balls, and only 1% glory.

In just one quick weekend, the Angels flushed their wonderful season down the toilet.  You all thought playing the Royals was going to be like an NBA team playing a WNBA team.  You were badly mistaken.  Apparently, all CJ Wilson is good for now is selling cars at his dealership.  Wilson and his $77 million contract couldn’t even make it out of the first inning of yesterday’s elimination game.    That game was over when Alex Gordon blasted a three run double off CJ.  After that the Angels continued to come up empty at the plate.  Mike Trout flopped like a fish out of water, and Josh Hamilton played like he just got hammered at the bar.  It’s pretty tough to win when three guys who are supposed to be your best players don’t show up.  In the end, this series was lost in Anaheim off a few great defensive plays that the Royals made, while the Halo sluggers disappeared like David Copperfield.

It hurts.  However, this season went way better than we thought it would for the Angels.  They found pitching, they fixed their bullpen, and throughout the season they had the majors best offense.  Now that the Angels are back to an elite team, they need to consider how to put themselves over the top.  That means without Arte Moreno making some stupid emotional, and irrational decisions.  Getting Garrett Richards healthy, adding another starter, and finding some more production at 3rd base should be top priorities.  The bad news is that the Angels are stuck with the contracts of Hamilton and Wilson for the next couple of seasons, and potentially little production for them.  Prepare for an off-season of pissing and moaning Halo fans.  This is going to hurt until your team gets back on the field in spring training.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers may be headed back to St. Louis with a split, but they should be up 2-0 after Friday nights collapse.  What the hell was Don Mattingly thinking?  You have managers so that they can manage players, especially superstars.  Mattingly failed to do that on Friday night by letting Clayton Kershaw stay in the game when he started to come unraveled.  As great as Kershaw is, he couldn’t just bully his way out of the inning.  Even he has his limits, and with the amount of innings he has thrown, you have to wonder if he’s starting to wear down, or if the Cardinals just own him.  Even Saturday night was a near disaster when JP Howell blew a 2-0 lead in the 8th.  When Don Mattingly actually does use the pen, he can’t even use the right reliever.  If it hadn’t been for Matt Kemp, who you all wanted to trade for a peanut butter & jelly sandwich, the Dodgers would be planning their trips to Cabo……

I can’t say I like the Dodgers chances heading back to St. Louis.  Hyun-Jin Ryu hasn’t pitched in a month, which means the Dodgers will have to go deep into the pen, which is trash.  Will they go back to Kershaw in game 4?  He sucked on three days rest last year, and wasn’t even good on plenty of rest in game 1.  Then again, do you trust Dan Haren?  At least the offense is clicking.  I like how AJ Ellis suddenly looks like the 2nd coming of Johnny Bench after a crummy regular season.  However, I hate how Matt Carpenter looks like the 2nd coming of Ted Williams, and has been the devil against the Boys in Blue.  It’s going to come down to which bullpen can hold their shit together.  Poor Ken Rosenthal.  His nice suit took a beating while interviewing Matt Kemp after game 2……

In other baseball news…..the Baltimore Orioles sweep of the Detroit Tigers marks the first time in history that the city of Detroit has actually been swept…..

Then there was the disappointment at the Rose Bowl for UCLA.  The Bruins went back to being the team that plays down to their competition, and it finally caught up with them against Utah.  Yes, that’s right…..Utah.  UCLA had no business even having a chance to win the game, since they played so poorly throughout.  Utah did whatever they wanted on offense.  Somehow, the Bruins had two chances to win the game on field goals in the final seconds, yet blew them both.  The Bruins can now kiss their hopes of a National Championship or football playoff goodbye.  UCLA badly needs to beat Oregon next week at home, which won’t be an easy task considering the Ducks had their own disaster against Arizona last week.  At the moment, UCLA football looks like nothing but a bunch of hype.

Over at the Coliseum, the Trojans choked harder than the Dodger bullpen.  USC was up by 9 points with less than three minutes to go.  When I checked my phone 10 minutes later, I thought it was broken because it said the Trojans had lost 38-34 to ASU.  Unbelievable.  USC’s defense got torched all game, giving up 541 yards, including a 46 yard hail mary to Jaelen Strong to win the game.  It was devastating for Trojan fans, but this is who USC is.  They aren’t some national championship or even conference championship contender.  The loss to Boston College shouldn’t have happened.  The loss to ASU should have happened, just maybe not in the way that it did.  Sark is rebuilding, and it’s gonna take time.  I know when I saw this I was thinking “Fight Oh…hahah”….

Elsewhere around the college grid iron, it was black saturday for teams in the top 10, as 5 of the top 8 were upset.  That means that after my Fighting Irish of Notre Dame got by Stanford, they are now 5th in the country.  The Irish can make you bang your head into a wall for the majority of the game, only to make you wanna chest bump that same wall when its over.  Katy Perry on ESPN’s College Game Day was actually pretty hilarious for those of you that missed it.  Equally hilarious were the losses by LSU, Michigan, Alabama, and Oregon.  I think this sums up the weekend…

On to the NFL, where we had another Thursday night beat down with Minnesota getting destroyed by Green Bay.  Vikings fans hadn’t seen a beating that bad since they let Adrian Peterson babysit their kids.  The Chargers might be one of the best teams in the NFL, while Jets fans are longing for “the glory days” or Mark Sanchez.  I guess the Giants and Cowboys might not be as bad as we thought.  The Saints are a sorry bunch for barely getting by Tampa Bay at home.  The 49ers have definitely come back to the rest of the pack, and much of it has to do with the players getting tired of Jim Harbaugh.  And last night is a perfect example of why you shouldn’t write off the Patriots from winning the AFC East once again.

Great start to training camp for the Lakers.  Nick Young tore ligaments in his thumb, and he’ll be out for the next 6-8 weeks after having surgery.  You do realize that Nick Young is actually going to be the Lakers 2nd best player this year right??? No really, this is what it has come to.  On the bright side, Steve Nash hasn’t gotten injured in the last five minutes, which has to be some kind of record.

The NHL season begins this week for the Kings and Ducks.  I see the Ducks having another great regular season and coming up short again in the playoffs, in typical Bruce Boudreau fashion.  The Kings will pace themselves during the season, since they partied their asses off all summer, and be a force to be reckoned with come playoff time.  However, all of those playoff games the Kings have played over the last three years will likely catch up to them and hurt their pursuit of another cup.

Finally, the season premier of Homeland took place last night. Spoiler alert if you haven’t seen it yet, but it had what appears to be a very promising story line.  I was skeptical of the show without Brody and his family, however, it’s looking like it will pull fans back in.  As disturbing as this scene was, when Carrie momentarily thought about drowning her baby, I felt like that demonstrated a great deal about her psychological state.  Why haven’t Carrie and Quinn hooked up yet?  You know that is coming next.  I’m looking forward to seeing how the plot develops now that Carrie is once again going back to Pakistan.

September 29th, 2014

At this point in the year, when most of you hear about baseball, you think “those guys are still playing?  It felt like the season started ages ago!”.  Not this year though for SoCal baseball fans. The Dodgers rolled through the final week of the regular season by clinching the NL West behind more mastery from Clayton Kershaw, and finished strong by winning 5 straight.  The offense has been on a tear the last two weeks, and the next five days will give Hyun-Jin Ryu a chance to get very healthy and be a contributor in the next two weeks.  Hopefully it also gives the veterans in the bullpen time to think about how they can avoid sucking like they have been of late.  With a $220 million payroll, it’s World Series or bust for the Boys in Blue.

As for LA’s matchup against the Cardinals, this is going to be another classic playoff showdown between two of the NL’s best.  This year, with home field advantage, along with a healthy and productive Matt Kemp and Hanley Ramirez, the Dodgers should win this series in 4 games.  The real question for St. Louis will be whether or not Michael Wacha can start a game in this series, and how effective he will be.  Wacha had the Dodgers number last year, but he’s been glued to the disabled list all season.  However, in a short series, Kershaw is likely to start twice, which is trouble for the Cards.  If the Dodgers face the Nats next, it’s a very different story.

Meanwhile, the Angels post season hopes are practically a mirror image of the Dodgers.  The Halos are also concerned about the health and effectiveness of their own #3 starter, Matt Shoemaker.  Just as the Dodgers could have trouble with the Nats, the Halos could have trouble if they run into Baltimore.  They should have no problem with Oakland or Kansas City, who are both just happy to make the playoffs at this point.  Ultimately, the Angels have to continue to score runs, and hope their bullpen can continue to be dependable.  If that happens, there’s a good chance the Halos will be in the World Series.

Switching over to college football, where i’m still trying to figure out what the hell got into the UCLA Bruins on Thursday night.  That looked like the Bruin team most people thought they would see at the beginning of the year.  I don’t care if the defense gave up 600 yards either.  Three weeks ago, everyone was complaining UCLA’s offense was trash, and they hadn’t played anybody yet.  ASU can play, and the Bruins’ offense is now looking great.  Think of it this way:  The Bruins are 4-0, and they haven’t even put together a complete game.  That’s the sign of a good team: one that can win when they aren’t at their best.  Besides….you didn’t really think that Brett Hundley was going to this one out with a wimpy little elbow injury right?

As for the Trojans, I’m not sure who was more nervous in the game vs Oregon State: Sark or the fans?  If the Trojans had lost this game, their fans would have demanded Sark’s head on top of that flag pole the fans kick on their walk to the Coliseum.  Luckily for both parties, that wasn’t necessary.  I was also really concerned that much of the talk for this game would revolve around lame “Trojan” and “Beaver” jokes, and how the game will be won with “penetration” at the line of scrimmage.  Fortunately, the talk was really more about the improved USC running game and Cody Kessler’s steady play.  Now here comes the always dangerous Arizona State next week, which will go a long way in determining whether or not USC is a player in the Pac-12 south.

A few other close calls for some top teams around college football over the weekend.  That included my Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, who had to overcome 4 turnovers to take down Syracuse.  The Irish have put up at least 30 points in all 4 games they’ve played this year, which is a far cry from what we saw in 2012 when it was all about the Irish defense.

In the NFL , it was a very unusual week 4 that was filled with surprises.  I now realize why  native Americans get offended by being called “Redskins” after watching Washington get destroyed by The Giants.  The Packers and Texans got their acts together at least temporarily, the Colts and Ravens are starting to look really good.  Shouldn’t the Jets be starting Michael Vick by now?  The Steelers mediocrity came crashing back to reality after losing to the Bucs.  The Chargers continue to look solid.  Miami and Oakland should fold both of their franchises, and it’s amazing the NFL sent those two teams to London. the 49ers are still a threat to come out of the NFC, while the entire NFC South should just move to the Big 10 after the Saints were beaten down the by the Cowboys.

Finally, NBA training camps open up starting today, and that means Laker fans get hit with the reality that their team just isn’t that good.  However, speaking of LA, I’ve heard a lot of comparisons of Kobe Bryant and Derek Jeter this week since Jeter is retiring.  While there are certain aspects of each of these guys careers that are very similar, I have to point out some of the stark differences that people failed to mention.  Jeter is a great player, a great leader, and known for his clutch play.  Kobe has similar qualities, but differs in that he is arguably the greatest player to ever play for the greatest franchise in NBA history.  Jeter on the other hand is arguably the 6th or 7th greatest player to ever play for the greatest franchise in MLB history.  Let’s keep all that in mind before we get too crazy on our comparisons.

September 22nd, 2014

This week’s Monday Morning Coffee is actually coming to you from Cairo, Egypt, where I’m attending my cousin’s wedding.  Since I’m on Egyptian time, it’s more like mid morning coffee over here.  Being over here has made me realize that the United States is really the only country in the world where it is very uncommon for people to take a month off of work.  Even though many of us have three weeks of vacation or more per year, it is frowned upon to leave your job for that long.  In just about every other country in the world, taking a full month off is very normal.  Then again, the fact your employer works you to the bone is probably a big reason why the US economy is where it is relative the the rest of the world.

Speaking of vacation time, the Angels can take a vacation for the next week until the playoffs start after clinching the AL West title last week.  It’s strange that it was just 9 months ago that we were talking about how terrible the Angels pitching staff was, how Mike Scioscia’s act was wearing thin, how Jerry Dipoto was the worst general manager in Southern California, and how Albert Pujols was declining faster than the Middle East.  Suddenly, none of that matters.  The Halos found pitching, fixed their bullpen, and actually have one of the most explosive offenses in baseball.  Now they are poised for a big run in the playoffs, and have a great chance to make it back to the World Series for the first time since the magic of 2002.

The Oakland A’s do realize that they are still in a playoff race right?  It seems like all these veteran rentals the A’s picked is for nothing since their collapse is continuing.  Good thing for the A’s the Mariners couldn’t take advantage of playing the lowly Astros this weekend.

As for the Dodgers, they are now on the verge of clinching the NL West with the Giants coming to town tonight.  I’m sure most of you guys wanna freak out since LA blew a huge lead on Saturday, but reality is, the pen has been overworked in the past week, so that was bound to happen.  On this road trip, the offense finally appears to be clicking on all cylinders.  Matt Kemp is in beat mode, Yasiel Puig is snapping out of his funk, while Agon and Hanley are coming through as well.  Ironically, it’s the pitching of late that could be concerning for LA.  Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw were inefficient in their last starts, Hyun-Jin Ryu’s health is in question, and the middle relief appears to be a roller coaster ride at times.  The Dodgers likely won’t have home field advantage in the NL playoffs either, but they do have the best road record in the NL, so they shouldn’t feel too bad about themselves

I’m still convinced somebody in the Dodger organization hates Matt Kemp.  Kemp and Puig got in “an argument” earlier in the week because Puig wasn’t running hard on the bases, and somebody in the Dodger organization called the environment “dysfunctional”.  Wow, two teammates having a disagreement and the clubhouse is going to hell?  Sounds really likely for a team in first place in their division and battling it out for home field in the NL.   Even if that were remotely true, you don’t have to like your teammates, you simply have to be professional enough to play with them and do your job on the field.

It was a quiet weekend of college football as far as I’m concerned: UCLA, USC, and my Fighting Irish of Notre Dame all had a bye week.  Are the Bruins really ready to go on the road to play ASU on Thursday?  My feeling is no, but Jim Mora is capable of pulling off some magic with some extra time to prepare.  USC should bounce back against Oregon State, and Notre Dame should handle business against Syracuse next weekend.  As for the weekend in college football, how annoying is Jameis Winston?  I was so excited to know that he was suspended for his game on Saturday so we wouldn’t have to hear about him for a whole weekend, but instead, he pretty much stole the show from his teammates with his antics on the sideline.  Meanwhile, Michigan has updated their logo…..

On to the NFL, where the Chargers are actually impressing me.  Definitely a game I expected the Bolts to have a let down in, but they came up big against the Bills and overcame the injuries.  As for the Seahawks and Broncos, I’m sure Denver fans are really upset over that loss, but most of them were too busy smoking weed in their parents basements since it’s legal in Colorado.  Kirk Cousins is killin it, and he’s going to win the Redskins some games despite yesterday’s loss.  The Rams are still the Rams.  The Raiders are still the Raiders.  The Jags are still the Jags, and Ryan Fitzpatrick suddenly remembered that he is Ryan Fitzpatrick.  The Saints finally found the win column, the Vikings may be moving on from AP, which is terrible news for my fantasy team, and possibly great news for Jerry Jones.  The Packers have protection problems, the Bengals have been impressive,  the Ravens kicker is their best player, and the 49ers are crumbling.  I’m still not sure who the Steelers are after three weeks, but I still know the Dolphins and Chiefs are two teams that won’t make the playoffs.

Finally, on to some puck, where training camp opens up this week for the Ducks and Kings.  The Ducks training camp is headlined by Teemu Selanne’s book that was just released, where he rips Bruce Boudreau for reducing his role at the end of last season.  Teemu was a great player, but this is just another example of a great player who hung around a little bit too long.  Of course Boudreau isn’t going to play a 43 year old when he’s got younger studs to develop.  The book just looks like sour grapes from the future hall of famer, which is sad.

As for the Kings, reports are they are all coming to camp in great shape.  I’m not really sure how this is possible since they probably all partied their asses off all summer.  The Kings were also nice enough to send me some game used water from game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals.  Can we define “game used”?  Did Dustin Brown swish it around in his mouth?  Nice gesture for Kings season seat holders I suppose, but an interesting one.  What was a really nice gesture was allowing season ticket holders to take a picture with the Stanley Cup last week.  It was a very well organized event that took about 15 minutes to get done.  Nice job LA Kings!

September 15th, 2014

You thought they were toast.  I thought they were toast.  Instead, the unthinkable happened.  Neuheisal saved the day.  No, not Rick Neuheisal…..it was his son Jerry.  I think most of us were thinking the same thing: He’s still on the team?  UCLA may have played a terrible Texas team, but they managed to remain undefeated without their best player, and on the shoulders of a miracle performance from their backup quarterback.  Now, their bye week couldn’t have come at a better time.  They’ll need plenty of time to hopefully get Brett Hundley healthy, and prepare for a showdown with Arizona State.  There’s no doubt this team looked like crap in the first three games, and they seem extremely overrated, despite their 3-0 record.  The Bruins will need to be much better in conference play, or else they are going to be toast.  However, assuming Hundley will be ok, they have time to regroup.  That may be the best thing they have going for them.

Meanwhile, USC fans haven’t been this upset since they last tried to watch their basketball team play.  The Trojans got upset by Boston College on Saturday, in a game that horrifically resembled the team we saw last year.  The Eagles completely dominated the line of scrimmage on Saturday night, piling up 452 yards rushing, while also managing to sack Cody Kessler 5 times.  This was a serious let down after the big win at Stanford last week.  Clearly the Trojans needed an off the field distraction to focus, since it worked the last two weeks.  Maybe in the next two weeks one of the football players will get drunk and fight with one of the Sigma Chi fraternity members at Del Taco because he wasn’t served first.  Sark can only hope.  I had concerns about the offense coming into this week.  Now they should have concerns about the defense too.

Elsewhere around college football, it feels like Purdue plays well once a year, and it only comes against Notre Dame.  The Irish managed to win and crack the top 10 in the polls, but the Boilermakers gave the Irish all they could handle again.  Still, considering all the academic issues and injuries that are testing their depth, Notre Dame is in good shape.  How overrated is the SEC? 7 teams are ranked in the top 15.  Do these guys every play anybody in their non-conference schedule?  I find it hysterical that Ole Miss is #10 after beating Louisiana-Lafayette.  I’m also sick of all these southern rednecks pretending like their conference is some alternate form of the NFL, when most teams in the middle of the conference would get exposed if they didn’t play cupcake teams.

On to baseball, where the Dodgers came up with some big wins this weekend in San Francisco, against the Giants.  The Boys in Blue have a 3 game lead in the NL West with 13 games to play.  For those of you that think Clayton Kershaw shouldn’t win the MVP because he is a pitcher, think again.  Kershaw has faced 693 batters this year, while no other NL hitter has had more than 666 plate appearances.  There goes the theory that pitchers don’t do enough work pitching every 5 days.  He also has an MLB leading 19 wins, and that’s after sitting out the first 5 weeks of the season with a back injury.  More importantly, the offense came around at the right time, exploding for 17 runs on Saturday, and some more power hitting from Matt Kemp yesterday.

The major concern for the Dodgers is Hyun-Jin Ryu, who re-injured his shoulder on Friday night.  Ryu sounds like he’s going to be missing the rest of the regular season.  Even if he’s ready to go for the playoffs, should LA risk throwing him out there without knowing if he’s on his game?  It’s either that or Dan Haren, who has pitched well of late, but probably not somebody you want to give the ball to starting a playoff game.  It’s true what they say: you can never have enough pitching.  The other concern the Dodgers should have is Yasiel Puig.  Is this guy just an ordinary player now?  He made a few big plays this weekend, but the power is gone.  The magic is gone.  I think it’s time for Don Mattingly to give Andre Ethier some more time in the outfield to see if he can get some more productivity.  It’s becoming obvious though that Mattingly won’t do it, because the Dodgers have too much invested in Puig both on and off the field.

Then there’s the Angels, who actually lost yesterday.  No really….they had not lost in 10 games, and they had dominated their opponents by outscoring them 86-34 in that stretch.  Their magic number is down to 4, but as far as I’m concerned, they might as well start celebrating.  The Halos can actually win 100 games by simply going 7-7 in their final 14 games.  Funny, how it was just a few months ago that everyone was calling for the firing of both Mike Scioscia & Jerry Dipoto.  Dipoto has successfully rebuilt the bullpen, and Scioscia has successfully managed a team that has been hit with key injuries and crappy play from Josh Hamilton and David Freese.  With Baltimore losing Chris Davis, Oakland sinking like the Titanic, and Detroit floundering, the Angels are a serious threat to make it to the World Series.

What a really nice week it was for the NFL.  I’m sure Roger Goodell is reserving judgement on this whole Adrian Peterson incident until he sees the TMZ tape of him beating his kid with a stick.  Oh sorry….a “switch”.  How many of you just learned what that was last week?  I’m all for disciplining your kids and spanking them when needed, but beating them with a tree branch feels like taking it to another level.  As for Ray Rice, I can’t believe how badly Goodell mishandled the whole thing.  Did he not suspend him at first because he didn’t lead with his helmet when he hit his fiance in the elevator?  Goodell won’t be fired by the owners because he’s making them boat loads of money, and that is all they care about it.

Last week really put the sporting world into perspective, especially with all the race related discussion happening in the NBA to go along with the NFL criminal activity.  We are supposed to be watching sports because it’s an escape from reality.  Instead, all of this ridiculous activity, much of it cause by social media, brings all of these social issues to the forefront of the discussion at times, defeating our entire purpose of watching sports.  So to sum it up, the NFL has a bunch of criminals and the NBA has a bunch of racists.  Your move MLB.

As for the actual NFL action in week 2, in a completely not surprising game, the Chargers defeated the Seahawks.  This is what they do folks.  They beat the teams they aren’t supposed to, and lose to the teams they aren’t supposed to.  Richard Sherman got schooled yesterday, and he knows it, which is why he panzied out and didn’t wanna face the media.  Instead he sent some wussy little tweet.  I feel bad for RGIII, but I think Kirk Cousins is going to win the Redskins some games while he’s gone, although he’s probably not the long term solution.  RGIII may not be either anymore.  The good news for the NY Giants is……actually nevermind, there is no good news.  Nobody beats the New Orleans Saints like the New Orleans Saints.  Those Panthers are looking good.  The Rams vs Bucs should have been televised on Comedy Central.  Only the Jets could lose a touchdown by calling an illegal timeout.  Those Broncos love to let teams back in the game, and a gutsy effort by the Bears last night.

There’s a good chance your fantasy football season blew up this weekend, if you had RGIII, Knowshon Moreno, Adrian Peterson, AJ Green, or DeSean Jackson.  I’d also like to give a special thank you to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, who proclaimed that Bears wide receiver Brandon Marshall was “very likely to be sidelined” for yesterday’s game.  Turns out Marshall played and had 3 touchdowns, so of course he was sitting on my bench.

Finally, I’m amazed by the fact that the IPhone 6 Plus is already sold out, rather than the IPhone 6. The IPhone 6 Plus and it’s 5.5 inch screen won’t even fit in your pocket, especially if you are wearing skinny jeans.  However, the fact that people are buying it tells me that consumers are interested in the novelty of what Apple is selling, and not the practicality of their products.  It’s also ironic because Steve Jobs used to be so critical of those very large screens produced by Apple’s competitors.  Good luck to those of you trying to get your hands on one anytime soon.