April 20th, 2014

What the hell have I been watching from the LA Kings?  I could swear I stepped into a time machine, and I’m watching the 1980’s Kings teams taking a beating from the Oilers and Flames.  Where the hell is the team that was the #1 defense in the NHL this season?  LA is making the Sharks 3rd and 4th line players look like the 2nd coming of Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier.  Where are the Kings goal scores? Paging captain Dustin Brown?  Hello Mike Richards?? Care to show up Anze Kopitar?  I realize the Kings were down 2-0 to the Blues in the first round last year, but keep in mind, they narrowly lost those games.  If the Kings are going to come back in this series, they are going to have to start by being more physical.  The Kings have been knocked around more than if they were dating Bobby Brown.  We better see a completely different Kings team on Tuesday night at Staples, or their season will be over on Thursday night.  Yesterday my nieces nephews went searching for eggs.  Meanwhile, the Kings laid one.

Meanwhile, the Ducks haven’t had too many problems with with Stars.  Anaheim jumped out to a big lead in game 1, got a brief scare, but held on for the win.  In game 2, the Stars tried to bring the heat, but the Ducks had too much fire power.  I think it’s safe to say Ryan Getzlaf has had a wild week.  He took a slap shot to the jaw, attended the birth of his third child, then scored a goal to help the Ducks win game 2.  Then there’s Frederik Anderson, who is refusing to give the starting goaltender job back to Jonas Hiller.  Anderson has been pretty solid through the first two games, and as long as the Ducks keep winning, there’s no way Bruce Boudreau can go back to Hiller.  The Stars may be able to steal a game in Dallas, but this series shouldn’t take longer than 5 games.

Those LA Clippers sure know how to disappoint.  Here they were on Saturday afternoon, with a chance to completely steal the Jock Talk LA headlines, as well as the LA sports spotlight.  Instead, they drop game 1 to the Warriors in disappointing fashion, losing home court in their best of 7 first round series.  I realize that Blake Griffin and Chris Paul were in serious foul trouble, but that wasn’t the problem.  The Clippers execution at the end of the game looked a lot like the last two seasons. In other words, give the ball to Chris Paul, and hope for the best.  The Warriors knew this, and immediately double teamed CP3 every possession in the last minute.  Now that Doc Rivers is the Clippers coach, I think most of us thought the offense would be a little less predictable down the stretch.  With game 2 at home and down 1-0, it’s really a must win for the Clipp Show.

Thank god the Lakers season is over.  Can anyone really blame Kobe Bryant for leaving a day early to go on vacation with his family?  Maybe he should apologize to his all his bum teammates, most of whom won’t even be on the team next season?  Not really.  Jim Buss has proclaimed that if the Lakers aren’t contending for championships within 3-4 years, he will step aside from basketball operations.  I’ve got news for you Jim, if you don’t fire Mike D’Antoni now, make a fantastic lottery pick this summer, and find a way to acquire a superstar or two, they’ll need to find your replacement.

My goodness…..what has happened to the Indiana Pacers?  Five road teams ended up winning game 1 of the NBA Playoffs.  This is starting to feel like the NHL Playoffs.  Then again, maybe the higher seeds are a little overrated this year.

On to baseball, where the Dodgers keep rolling, and abusing the Diamondbacks.  The Dodgers took another two out of three from Arizona over the weekend.  Yesterday was the Yasiel Puig show, when the Cuban sensation made a spectacular play by throwing out a runner at 2nd base, and then hit a 3-run home run.  None of the Dodgers outfielders have really gotten it going yet. When that happens, LA is going to run away with the division, because they have a war chest of pitching, that has been lights out.  The Dodgers even got 5 shutout innings from Josh Beckett yesterday.  There are 5 guys on the Dodgers who are capable of winning and MVP.  As long as everyone is healthy, there’s no reason this team shouldn’t be contending for a World Series crown.

As for the Angels, they had a tough weekend, losing two of three in Detroit.  The starting pitching hasn’t been all that bad, but the bullpen is pretty horrendous.  It’s going to be all about the offense for this team, and that is something to feel good about.  They lead the majors in slugging percentage, and are 2nd in runs scored.  Unfortunately, 12 of the next 15 games will be against the Nationals, Yankees, and Rangers. The fans are giving Mike Scioscia a lot of heat these days, but I’m still not really sure why.  He’s doing the best he can with the cards he’s been dealt by Dipoto and Moreno.  It’s gotta be awkward for Scioscia to be managing a team that doesn’t have a pen, not a lot of team speed, and isn’t great defensively.  It just isn’t part of his identity.

There is definitely some important to TV shows to recap this week, starting with Game of Thrones. In the aftermath of the death of King Joffrey, we see Sansa escape courtesy of Lord Peter Baelish, and we find out that he was involved in the plot to kill the King.  Margery wonders if she’s still the queen, and Lady Olenna convinces her that she still is, while showing some sympathy for Joffrey’s family.  Joffrey’s little brother, King Tommen is lectured by Tywin about what it’s going to take for him to be the next great King.  Meanwhile, as Cersei weeps over the loss of Joffrey, Jamie tries to console her, and ends up returning to his incestual ways by screwing Cersei right by the coffin.  Aarya and The Hound find shelter, then The Hound mugs the farmer the took them in.  The Wildlings wage war against Northern peasantry in hopes of drawing The Night’s Watch away from the wall.  Then Danaery’s gives the speech of a lifetime in an attempt to win over another community.

This episode was a bit slower after the death of Joffrey.  Clearly, Lord Baelish was in on the plot to kill Joffrey, but it couldn’t have been just him.  I still think Lady Olenna helped him do it.  There’s plenty of incentive for Baelish to want Sansa by his side, and for Lady Olenna to want a new King by Margery’s side.  King Tommen has the feel of a better King than Joffrey, but he’s a Lannister, which still makes him a villain in most people’s minds.  We also see a return of the unlikeable, incestual version of Jamie Lannister.  Danaery’s still feels like one of the last few “good guys” in the show, but she has the same leadership qualities as Rob Stark, and we all know what his fate was.

Mad Men also returned for the 2nd episode of the final season last night.  To recap this Valentines Day themed episode, Peggy is greeted by flowers at the office, and she thinks they are from Ted.  Later on she discovers the flowers weren’t for her, and after some other secretaries claimed the flowers weren’t for them, eventually Shirley admits they were from her fiance, which angers Peggy.  Sally loses her handbag, and eventually looks for her dad at the office.  She awkwardly learns he isn’t at the office, and wonders what happened.  Eventually she meets him at home, and then confronts Don about his lies about his job.  The two eventually go to dinner and have a good heart to heart.  Don drops Sally back at school, and they are both pleased with how the evening went.  Other office drama during the episode included Lou being upset that Sally came by to inquire about Don while Dawn was out.  Peggy asks Joan that her secretary be removed, and Pete starts to feel useless.  Don is also attracting interest from other firms.

In many ways this was really a feel good episode.  It started out looking like like a bigger fallout between Sally and Don was coming.  However, by the end of the episode, not only is their relationship strengthened, but you wonder if its a moment that actually help Don get his life back on track.  Meanwhile, Peggy simply can’t work with any of these secretaries, let alone Shirley, after her complaint to Joanne.  I’m beginning to find the Peggy story less and less intriguing as the show goes on.  It’s been a slow first two episodes, but I’m curious to see how Don’s character evolves as the show winds down.

April 14th, 2014

The Dodgers look pretty damn good.  The Boys in Blue swept a 3 game set from the Diamondbacks over the weekend.  Adrian Gonzales is killing it, with homers in 4 straight games.  Dee Gordon looks like the best 2nd baseman in baseball right now.  Dan Haren has been a very solid starting pitcher, and the bullpen has practically been lights out.  Wait until Matt Kemp starts hitting home runs on days of the week other than Sunday.  Oh, and who could forget that LA is off to a 9-4 start with Clayton Kershaw and Brian Wilson on the DL.  This team is very good, and probably going to get a lot better.  Oh, and don’t be fooled by the Giants 8-4 start.  Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, and Ryan Vogelsong have had their problems in the early going.

Meanwhile, things aren’t so bad for the Angels either.  They took two out of three against the Mets over the weekend, including a 14-2 beat down of New York yesterday.  The Halos are an unspectacular 6-6 so far.  However, the good news is that they are scoring plenty of runs, and nobody else in the American League is setting the world on fire right now.  The bad news is that their ace, Jared Weaver, is declining faster than Tom Cruise’s acting career, and the bullpen is still terrible.  Here’s to the Halos continuing to light up the scoreboard, because I doubt their pitching is going to hold up.

Let’s go to the hardwood, where there is a critical basketball game in the NBA tonight in Utah.  The Lakers will be taking on the Jazz, in what I would definitely call “a must lose” for both teams. That’s right folks.  The Jazz and Lakers are tied for the 4th worst record in the league, and both of these teams badly need to lose this game, to improve their chances at getting the top pick in this summers NBA draft.  Hopefully LA won’t do anything stupid, like try to win tonight’s game.  I’m sure the players will be trying very hard, but good thing Mike D’Antoni will be coaching, or the Lake Show might have a real shot to win tonight.

Classy move by Lakers center Robert Sacre last night.  The first thing he said in his post game interview was, “I have to thank the fans, because our games have still been sold out despite our tough season.”  That’s nice of you to say Robert, but we’re actually a bunch of suckers, who bought our tickets at the beginning of the season, but just haven’t been showing up to most of the games.  You probably didn’t notice because you’re just excited to be getting minutes in the NBA, let alone for the Lakers.

As for the Clippers, they are gearing up for the playoffs, and have the #3 seed locked up in the Western Conference.  The Clipp Show will match up against either Dallas or Golden State in round 1, but it probably won’t matter, as they’ll likely dispatch of them quickly.  The real test will begin in round 2 vs Oklahoma City, which we got a taste of last week.  The Clipps came up on the short end, but LA has to like its chances if Blake Griffin keeps elevating his game.  Speaking of Blake, he will likely get screwed out of a 1st team all NBA selection, since you can only vote for two forwards and 1 center.  That means Lebron James and Kevin Durant will take it, and the center will go to Joakim Noah or Dwight Howard.  How does the NBA let the fans vote for 3 front court players of any kind for the all-star game, but not for its all NBA selections?  Blake is clearly an MVP candidate this year, and should be a first team all NBA player.

To the ice, where the Kings are ready for their playoff matchup with the Sharks this week.  LA won’t have the benefit of home ice against San Jose this year, but something tells me they won’t need it.  The Kings forwards are far bigger, and more physical than the Sharks defense, and I expect LA to impose their will several times.  The Kings will also have a huge advantage in goal, not just because they have the new Jennings Trophy Winner, Jonathan Quick, but because Anti Niemi has been pretty crappy of late.

The Ducks managed to clinch the top seed in the west, with a shootout victory over the Kings on Saturday.  I don’t see Anaheim getting upset in the first round this year, with their matchup against Dallas.  The Ducks are simply too skilled, and too talented, to get upset in the early going.  Great to see Teemu Selanne get a nice farewell tour in his last regular season game yesterday against the Avs.  Selanne’s role has diminished quite a bit this year, however, he deserves to be honored for his brilliant career.  Although Teemu has become the Brett Favre of hockey with his constant retirement talk, part of me wants to see him have some playoff success in his last year, because he just seems like a pretty good dude.

Game of Thrones and Mad Men are on DVR.  Boy do I have a lot of TV to catch up on!

April 7th, 2014

The start of the 2014 baseball season has a similar feel to it as last season for the Dodgers.  Despite last night’s win, the Boys in Blue came out of this weekend black and blue from their battle with their hated rivals, the San Francisco Giants.  LA lost two out of three.  Pitching is supposed to be the Dodgers strength, but Hyun-Jin Ryu was sliced and diced like sashimi on Friday, and Paul Maholm got knocked around like a battered housewife on Saturday.  Some early injuries combined with that trip to Australia, could make this a very slow slow start for LA.  It’s no wonder the Dodger players were bitching about the trip to Australia.  The trip gave Clayton Kershaw a back injury, which he’ll need a month to recover from.  It gave reliever Brian Wilson and elbow injury, and it clearly fatigued Ryu.  On top of that, Josh Beckett can’t even walk through the clubhouse without slamming his thumb in a door, adding to the injury woes.

Then there’s Yasiel Puig.  As great as this dude is, he’s got more drama surrounding him than a high school teenage girl.  He shows up late on opening day and gets benched, then suffers an injury the next day, and earlier in the week was calling team meetings to ask his teammates how he can be better.  I’m suddenly getting “Puig fatigue” from this circus.  This whole week is just more proof that the Dodgers need not 4, but 5 solid outfielders on their roster.  You never know what the Puig circus brings, nobody really knows if Matt Kemp can stay health and beast like he used to, Andre Ethier can’t hit lefties, and Carl Crawford is still pretty fragile.  In any case, there’s plenty of at bats for all of these guys, but hopefully they start making the most of them, or the Dodgers will be playing catch up in the division against the Giants.

As for the Angels, I’m thinking they should have been the team to sign a new cable deal, so that 70% of their fans couldn’t watch their horrendous games.  I realize “it’s early”, but I also said this after seeing the same crap early on the last two seasons.  After 6 games, the Halos are already in last place in the AL West, and their team ERA is in the bottom third in major league baseball.  It’s one thing for the back of the rotation and the bullpen to stink, but if Jared Weaver and CJ Wilson are going to get lit up, then the Halos season will be over by the end of the month.  The pitching isn’t the only problem either.  Albert Pujols and David Freese have yet to produce at the plate, and to really rub salt in the wound, Mark Trumbo leads the majors in home runs and RBI’s in Arizona.  Sorry Angel fans, we’ve seen this movie before, and it doesn’t have a happy ending.

On to the NBA, where it baffles me why ESPN and TNT continue to put the Lakers on national television, when the team is nothing more than a pile of bird crap.  The Lake Show got dominated once again by the Clippers yesterday at Staples Center, 120-97  The Clippers need to finish the season strong, to be sure they maintain at least the #3 seed in the West.  If the Clippers were to fall to the 4th seed, they would likely face San Antonio in the second round of the playoffs, and probably get taken to school.   The Clipps stand a much better chance against Oklahoma City in round 2, and might even get lucky, and have Houston knock out the Spurs before the Western Conference Finals.  Then again, Tim Duncan will probably make Dwight Howard cry before that series is over, so it’s probably wishful thinking.  Good thing the Clippers have another week to get Jamal Crawford and Danny Granger healthy.

As for the Lakers, they have just over a week left in their disastrous season.  With only 5 games left, LA will be very fortunate to finish with the 5th worst record in all of basketball.  It’s a virtual certainty that the Lakers won’t finish with a worse record than Boston, Orlando, Philadelphia, or Milwaukee.  However, their battle with Utah in a week will be critical for lottery position.  This means the Lakers will have to get lucky in order to get one of the top 3 picks in the draft.  Off the floor, most season ticket holders should be outraged at the fact that the Lakers are asking for renewal payments in mid May this year.  This is even before the lottery, before free agency, and possibly in the midst of a coaching search.  Usually, these payments happen in July, so the fans have even more to complain about, in addition to Jimmy Buss.

Yesterday, JR Smith broke the NBA record for 3 pointers attempted in a game, with 22.  Honestly, I’m shocked that it took him this long to attain the record.

On to the ice, where the Kings have clinched a playoff spot, but have lost their last two games.  With 5 games left, this is the point of the season, where I’m going to be unhappy with the results whatever happens.  If the Kings are winning these meaningless games, I’m going to be wonder if they are peaking too soon.  If they lose these games, I’m going to be pissed because they aren’t building enough momentum for the playoffs.  These last 5 games also make me extremely nervous that some of LA’s key players could go down with some injuries, which nearly happened when Drew Doughty suffered a shoulder injury the other night.  Fortunately, the injury wasn’t serious.  What was amazing Saturday, was the fact Slava Voynov scored.  The last time that happened, Malaysian plans were still landing at their destinations.  This Matt Greene injury looked painful…

Meanwhile, the Ducks have two games in hand on the San Jose Sharks, so they will probably hold them off to finish 1st in the Pacific Division.  However, this team has looked very unimpressive the last 3 games.  They were down 4-0 against Winnipeg, and needed a miraculous rally to win.  They needed to rally from 2 goals down to beat the Oilers, and they got destroyed by Nashville, then lost to the Oilers last night.  The Ducks aren’t going to be able to come from behind against playoff teams.  We’ve seen this time and time again from Bruce Boudreau’s teams: amazing regular seasons, followed by late season collapses and playoff failures.  I’m not saying this is going to be another year of the same story, but I’m saying it might be another year of the same story.

Kentucky vs UConn?  Yes, I’m sure we all had that in our brackets.  I’m taking the Wild Cats tonight.  Shabazz Napier has been phenomenal, but the Kentucky freshman have been gelling at the right time, and I trust the experience of John Calipari over Kevin Ollie.

And finally, the season four premier of Game of Thrones took place last night on HBO.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have not seen it yet.  To recap quickly, Tywin Lannister begins the episode by melting Valerian steel onto a sword.  We learn that this sword belonged to Robb Stark, who was murdered in the last season.  Jamie Lannister’s ability to remain in the Kings Guard is questioned by Tywin and King Joffrey.  Cersei is angry with Jamie for leaving her for so long.  Sansa is still miserable, and a maid discovers there is drama between Tyrion and Shae, and the maid reports this back to Cersei.  In the north, the wildlings are planning to march on Castle Black, and we are introduced to the Thenns, who are cannibals.  Jon Snow faced some type of discipline for his actions, but is spared his life.  Daario tries to get back into Khaleesi’s good graces, and Arya gets revenge by killing the man who killed her friend, with the help of The Hound.

It’s great to have the show back.  This episode really made the viewer have to re-evaluate where all the threats to the Lannister’s empire were coming from.  Interestingly enough, there aren’t too many people in the Lannister family that can see these threats, other than maybe Tyrion.  The threats seem so far away at this point, that its very difficult to see how this is going to play out.  Khaleesi seems a world away from everyone, and Stanis Baratheon doesn’t even have an army anymore.  I often struggle to follow what is going on in the North, but that also seems like a world away, so it’s hard to even imagine a war taking place with the Lannisters and the far North.  It’s a great start to the season, and looking forward to the next episode.

March 31st, 2014

The Bruins got exactly what they paid for in Steve Alford.  They got a Sweet 16 appearance, and no further.  Not too long ago, it was Steve Lavin who was delivering such consistent mediocrity.  Just a few years later, another Steve has been hired, and the mediocrity is back.  Of course UCLA rolled over the #12 and #13 seeds to get there, before once again, getting owned by Florida.  The Bruins defense was completely non-existent, Alford made no halftime adjustments, and his rotations were completely bizarre.  The Bruins closed within a point of the Gators, and Alford pulled out Kyle Anderson, his best player, in favor of his son, Bryce.  This is exactly why Alford gets no credit from me.  He’s playing with Ben Howland’s recruits, and when he had the chance to take the Bruins to the next level, he reverted back to the coach we all knew he was: A post season underachiever.

Now, for the next few months you’ll get to hear things like, “wait until Alford gets his own recruits in there, and the program will really take off!”  That’s gonna be tough now that Zach Lavine and Kyle Anderson are leaving for the NBA, and the Wear Twins are graduating.  Alford’s “own recruits” will mostly consist of his two kids getting more playing time, which should keep the Bruin basketball program from being elite anytime soon.  Say what you will about how Lavine not being ready for the NBA, however, he knows it’s going to be hard for him to develop with Steve Alford playing his son more minutes than him for the next few years.  In any case, the NBA and the NCAA need to agree to increase the age limit for kids to turn pro.  It will only improve the NBA game, and the college game.  I’m not sure it will help Steve Alford be a better coach though.

On to baseball, where the Dodgers had their season opener in the U.S. last night, and boy was it disappointing.  The Boys in Blue wasted a perfectly good performance by Hyun-Jin Ryu, and lost to the Padres 3-1 at Petco Park.  Not only did Ryu pitch well, but so did every other Dodger pitcher, except Brian Wilson.  Wilson might have left his game in Australia last week, but hopefully he’ll figure it out soon, since LA is paying him $10 million this year.  Wilson isn’t even the biggest pitching concern LA has right now, as their ace Clayton Kershaw is on the disabled list for the first time in his career.  Even if this seems like a minor injury, any time your $215 million pitcher gets a scratch on him, Jock Talk LA is going to freak out.  If you just bought a Ferrari, and it got just a small scratch in it during the first week you owned it, you’d be pissed.  The Dodgers can’t be happy their new Ferrari just got dinged up.

As for the Angels, they have several reasons to celebrate on the eve of their season opener against Seattle.  First, they finally locked up Mike Trout, to a 6 year, $144.5 million contract.  This is a great deal for both sides, and if anyone tells you otherwise, they need their head examined.  Mike Trout has now guaranteed himself more than $145 million for the next 7 years, regardless of whether he gets hurt or not.  He also sets up himself up for another massive payday at 29 years of age, when he can become a free agent again.  The Angels get themselves some cost certainty, and don’t have to worry about hurting Trout’s feelings in arbitration hearings for the next 7 years.  As if that isn’t exciting enough, the Halos released pitcher Joe Blanton, who has been complete garbage for more than a year.  This guys fast ball wouldn’t get a speeding ticket on the highway right now, and he was simply too much of a liability to put on the mound.  The city of Anaheim should be throwing a parade for the Blanton news alone.

Let’s go the NBA, where the Lakers are finding all kinds of new ways to disappoint their fans.  The Lake Show continues to win meaningless games, and hurt their draft status, as they have now have only the 7th worst record in the NBA.  What the hell are these guys doing?  Mike D’Antoni is probably telling his players “ok guys, let’s just keeping winning these games.  It will be great for morale, even though none of us will be here next year!”  On the bright side, Laker fans must be thrilled at the fact Marshall contacted D’Antoni recently about their vacant head coaching spot.  I was so excited when I heard this, I will even volunteer to pack D’Antoni’s things, and drive him to the airport as well.

With the Lakers visiting the Timberwolves earlier in the week, Kevin Love was again a hot topic.  ESPN’s Marc Stein reported that the Lakers will try to flip their lottery pick this summer, in a package for Love.  If this is true, this would be a terrible decision.  The Lakers are more than one player away from winning a championship, and more than one year away too.  With that being said, acquiring Kevin Love and pairing him with Kobe might improve the team, but not enough to be a championship contender.  LA desperately needs young talent, so keep the pick, then try to find other assets to trade for Love.  Besides, if he really wants to come to LA,  he can sign here as a free agent in the summer of 2015, and the Lakers don’t have to give up any assets.

As for the Clippers, they got a big scare on Saturday night when Blake Griffin left the game with back spasms. Griffin has been an MVP candidate this season, and the Clipps have no chance in the playoffs without him.  Actually….nevermind.  They have no chance in the playoffs with him either.

The Kings are on fire right now.  Winners of 6 straight games, as well as 8 in a row on the road, which ties a franchise record.  Frankly, I’m surprised the Kings aren’t British, because they have completely owned Canada all season long.  LA isn’t likely to move up or down in their last few games of the regular season, so Anaheim and San Jose are battling hard to win the division, and avoid the Kings in the 1st round.  Anybody see Jonathan Quick’s “scorpion save” on Saturday night? Wow was this a thing of beauty…..

And finally, the season finale of the Walking Dead took place last night.  This episode kept me on the edge of my seat, and was exciting and terrifying at the same time.  To recap quickly: Daryl’s new crew holds Rick and Michonne at gunpoint, and they threaten to rape Carl.  Daryl tries to save them by telling the captors they are “good people”.  The crew doesn’t care, and they start beating Daryl.  Before they can beat him to death Rick snaps, grapples with his captor, then bites right through the guys jugular zombie style.  While everyone else is shocked in disbelief, Michonne grabs her captors gun, and shoots him.  Rick then stabs Carl’s captor.  The next morning, Rick, Michonne, Carl, and Daryl go to Terminus, and it’s exactly what most viewers predict: a cannibal fortress.  The crew eventually realizes this, and tries to run, but eventually they are captured.  The episode ends with the four of them placed into confinement with Glenn, Maggie, and the other group of survivors.

This episode symbolized the re-birth of Rick.  Honestly, prior to this episode, I felt like the show could stand to lose Rick, because the strength of his character was fading.  However, he showed he was willing to go to whatever lengths necessary to protect Carl, Michonne, and Daryl.  He suddenly transformed into the bloody, ruthless hero, that is necessary to survive in this world.  After discovering that Terminus is a place of cannibalism, I think the one thing that is very clear after four seasons is that there is no sanctuary in the world of The Walking Dead.  There was no sanctuary in Woodbury, at the Prison, or even that research center at the end of the first season.  It’s presumed that Tyreese, Carol, and Judith are still on the road, and I suspect they will eventually meet back up with Rick and his crew if and when they manage to escape Terminus.  I’m still not really sure about the fate of Beth though.  It appeared as though her character was building quickly, but it may have been to make her death more dramatic.  The answers won’t come until the fall, but I am excited for Season 5!

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.