November 4th, 2013

Wasn’t Mike D’Antoni’s coaching only supposed to get better this year?  We were told that he now has a handful of new players that are a “better fit” for his ridiculous system.  We were also told that he has a full training camp to figure out his rotations.  Funny, because through the first four games of the season, his coaching is far worse than last year!  Going into Sunday’s game against Atlanta, four of the Lakers five starters were shooting under 30% from the field.  It shouldn’t be hard to understand that Shawne Williams should never play, while Nick Young, Steve Nash, and Steve Blake shouldn’t be getting as much playing time as Jordan Farmar, Xavier Henry, and Jordan Hill.  Similar to last year, the Lakers season will probably be over by the time D’Antoni figures this out.  It’s a damn miracle that the Lakers are 2-2 after last night’s win against the Hawks.  Once again, in a game the Lakers should have put away in the first half, they nearly blow because Mike D’Antoni has no idea how to get his big men the ball inside.  Thank god for the Hawks ineptitude.

Meanwhile, the Clippers look about as solid as they did last year in the first week of the season.  JJ Redick and Jared Dudley are spacing the floor nicely for CP3, and the Clipps picked up two nice wins after their shocking opening night loss to the Lakers.  I still can’t really tell if Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan have learned how to play basketball yet though.  Tonight will be a good test for them against the new and improved Houston Rockets, who are 3-0 so far in the early going.

How angry must the Philadelphia 76ers front office be right now?  They were obviously trying to tank this season to secure another lottery pick, and they are off to a 3-0 start, including wins over Miami and Chicago.  I guess they didn’t expect Michael Carter Williams to look like the 2nd coming of Oscar Robertson.

On to college football where the Bruins rebounded on Saturday at the Rose Bowl.  Well sort of.  They defeated Colorado, which barely qualifies as a Division 1 football team these days.  Nevertheless, the Bruins can feel good about finding the win column after two tough weeks against Stanford and Oregon.  Brett Hundley returned to greatness throwing two touchdown passes, and rushing for two more.  Sure would be nice if the the Bruins could support Hundley with some improved play from their running backs though.  UCLA controls their own destiny, but has no margin for error left.  If they win their remaining games against Arizona, Washington, Arizona State, and USC, they’ll earn a trip to the Pac-12 championship game.  That’s no easy task, but I think it will confirm what we’ve all suspected:  UCLA has a good football team, not an elite one yet.

As for USC, they handled Oregon State easily on Thursday night, and now appear to be putting together a respectable season.  Whenever you’re talking Trojans and Beavers it just sounds dirty, so I’ll just get straight to the point.  USC is playing far more inspired football under Ed Orgeron than it did under Lane Kiffin.  The defense is playing with more energy, and the offense looks more confident.  SC will likely have to settle for a 2nd tier bowl game, but 8 wins is very realistic for a team that looked like a train wreck a month ago.  On the coaching front, rumor has it the Trojans have already interviewed Lovie Smith, and have Steve Sarkisian and Jon Gruden on their radar.  Smith is a big name, but has no college coaching experience.  The chances of Gruden being the next coach are about as good as the chances of me landing the gig.  That leaves Sark.  The question is whether or not he’s willing to abandon the progress he’s made at Washington.  He seems like an SC guy, and it makes perfect sense for both sides.

Let’s go to the ice where the LA Kings are about as hard to figure out as a jigsaw puzzle.  They flat out sucked on the road against Phoenix, they come up with a huge statement win against the best team in hockey, the Sharks, then they laid an egg against Nashville.  To make matters worse, Jeff Carter and Jarret Stoll are going to be out of the lineup for a while with injuries.  The penalty killing has been awful of late, and Jonathan Quick looks bored and uninterested, which is costing the Kings at inopportune times.  This looks like a team that is absolutely dominant at times, and totally unmotivated at others.  Maybe they are pacing themselves, but they are going to have some ground to make up in the standings if they keep it up.  Ugh…..at least Tyler Toffoli is back in the lineup.

Then there’s the Ducks who keep losing forwards, but keep finding the win column.  Anaheim has lost Jakob Silfverberg, Teemu Selanne, Dustin Penner, and Saku Koivu, yet they’re in 1st place in the Pacific Division.  Even more amazing is the fact the Ducks are doing this with terrible special teams.  Their powerplay is 29th in the league and their penalty killing is 30th.  Still, they’re finding a way to win on the road and dominate at even strength.

Speaking of the Kings and Ducks, I’ve been a little torn of late on what to do about this outdoor game at Dodgers Stadium in January.  I’ve been bitching for years about how the NHL needs to do an outdoor game in So Cal, and was very excited when I found out we were awarded one.  Naturally, I thought it was a no brainer that I had to attend.  The problem, the best seats in the house are going to cost me nearly $300, and that’s going to be like watching a hockey game from the 300 level at Staples Center.  On the other hand, for the same price, I could watch the Kings take on the Penguins at Staples Center just 5 nights later, and practically be sitting on the glass.  It’s no easy choice folks.  But will anybody be able to see anything at Dodgers Stadium? You tell me?……

The baseball offseason is upon us, and the Dodgers are working hard to sign their ace Clayton Kershaw to a long term deal.  However, Dodger fans should be experiencing shortness of breath after Kershaw said he was starting to get “curious” about testing free agency as it approaches.  LA simply can’t let this guy test the market.  The entire league will be bidding on him, and Arte Moreno proved a few years ago, it only takes one moron to pay up and you lose your star player.  Even Kershaw seems uncomfortable with the idea of a 10 year $300 million deal.  If he wants a shorter deal, give him a shorter deal, but don’t let him test the market!

Some quick thoughts on Week 9 of the NFL.  Texans coach Gary Kubiak must be able to see the future.  He collapsed at halftime of last night’s game against the Colts.  His team was leading 21-6 at that point, but then collapsed in the 2nd half, and lost 27-24.  In all seriousness though, the NFL needs to consider putting a limit on how much time these coaches can spend in the office.  Broncos coach John Fox collapsed a few days ago as well, which should tell you that NFL coaches work loads have to be addressed by the league.

And finally, Season 4 of The Walking Dead continued on AMC last night with episode 4, called “Indifference”.  Spoiler alert for those of you who haven’t seen it yet.  To quickly summarize: Daryl, Michonne, Tyreese, and Bob, succeed on their run for the medicine.  However, it’s revealed that Bob simply came on the run to find booze, and satisfy his alcoholism.  This revelation makes Daryl the angriest we’ve seen him in a long time, and he lets Bob know he should have never joined their group at the prison in the first place.  Meanwhile, Rick and Carol go on a supply run of their own, and along the way, they meet a couple that has come together during the zombie apocalypse.  Sadly, the couple doesn’t survive long after we are introduced to them.  Rick eventually expresses his disapproval of Carol’s actions, in which she killed Karen and David, to prevent others from getting sick.  Rick then explains to Carol that Tyreese will kill Carol when he finds out what she did, and that he doesn’t want to lie about her actions.  Thus, he banishes her from the group.

It’s hard to imagine that this is the last we have seen of Carol.  The question is: where will she turn up next?  I could easily see her teaming up with what remains of The Governor’s group, or even the Governor himself.  You’ve also gotta wonder how Daryl is going to feel about what Carol did, and her departure.  I suspect he’ll be pissed, but mostly because he thought he was going to get laid for the first time in forever.  The most powerful moment of the episode actually turned out to be the opening scene, where Carol said goodbye to Lizzie.  We hear Lizzie say “One day you just change; we all change.”  This mirrors exactly what we’ve seen from Carol since season 1.  She has transformed from a battered housewife, to a woman willing to recklessly save the lives of everyone she cares about.  In many ways, this mirrors a major theme of the show, which is how almost all of the main characters have changed.  A slower episode, but still a powerful one.

October 28th, 2013

Ok, how many of you Laker fans are really excited for the NBA to start?  If you are, your excitement should go away once they tip off on Tuesday night at Staples Center.  This team is going to be bad.  Far worse than you think.  8th place in the West is the goal, 7th place is a dream, but 10th place is far more realistic.  The way I see it, if the Lakers end up with a lottery pick, and Kobe comes back to show he can still play at a high level, that’s a successful season.

There’s recently been some talk about the Lakers trying to bring back guard Shannon Brown, who will likely be waived by the Washington Wizards in the next couple of days.  Although Shannon would be a very nice addition to the squad, many people are forgetting why this may not happen.  Back in 2011, the Lakers had some serious locker room issues, when it was rumored that Brown had slept with Pau Gasol’s fiance at the time.  It’s still hard to know whether or not that story is true, however, the mere possibility that it could have happened might be enough for Mitch Kupchak  to avoid signing Brown.  The Lakers had plenty of locker room drama with Dwight Howard last season, and I suspect they wouldn’t be willing to take on more just for the sake of adding another role player.

Meanwhile, the Clippers have to be feeling good about themselves heading into the season.  They’ve added some quality shooters with JJ Redick and Jared Dudley, and definitely upgraded their coach, with Doc Rivers in the mix.  Seeing him on the sidelines is just going to be weird.  I’m still shocked that Sterling ponied up the money, and think someone needs to launch an investigation as to how Donald was convinced to pay him.  The only unsettling feeling for the Clippers right now has to be Chris Paul’s recent comments to HBO Real Sports, in which he mentioned that he could see himself retiring a little early to spend more time with his family.  Paul just signed a new 5 year deal with the Clippers, so a lot can happen between now and then, but this isn’t really something I want to hear from the best player in the history of the franchise, when he’s in the prime of his career.

On to college football, where the Bruins got punked by Oregon on Saturday night, by a score of 42-14.  The Bruins were hanging with the Ducks for 3 quarters, until they got blown away in the 4th.  Playing against Oregon is like playing Madden against someone that never punts.  UCLA tried to control the tempo of the game by running the football, but when it was time to throw the ball, the Ducks were ready for it.  The Bruins fell to #17 in the AP poll, and just 2-2 in the conference, but they still control their own destiny.  Their margin for error is slim, but if they win their final five games, which they should, they’ll get another shot at Oregon or Stanford for the right to go to the Rose Bowl.  Still, the Ducks appear to be too fast, and the Cardinal appear to be too strong up front.  It’s gonna be a tough road ahead for UCLA, but they aren’t out of it yet.

Meanwhile, at the Coliseum, the Trojans beat up on Utah by a score of 19-3.  Watching these two offenses at work was like watching two uncoordinated morons trying to juggle chainsaws.  The Trojans managed to score just one TD on the day, but their defense was simply dominant.  They forced four turnovers, and yielded just 201 yards of total offense.  Amazingly, the Trojans are 5-3 overall, and they also control their own destiny in the Pac-12 South.  Unfortunately, they’ll still have to deal with Stanford and UCLA.

The baseball offseason is here for the Dodgers, and they have put themselves in an awkward situation with Don Mattingly.  I’ve been screaming from the mountain tops for months that the Dodgers were waiting to see what happened with Mike Scioscia before deciding whether to retain Mattingly.  Of course, in the process, they completely alienated him, and now that Mattingly has a little bit of leverage after making it to the NLCS, he’s demanding an extension.  The Dodgers need to realize what the Lakers and UCLA basketball failed to realize:  you don’t fire your coach unless you know you have an even better replacement for him.  There are simply no available managers out there that are better than Mattingly.  The players like him, and he still he can still improve with more experience.  Sure his in game strategy needs work, but unless Scioscia or Tony La Russa are replacing him, which they aren’t, then LA is better off sticking with Donny Baseball.

Week 8 of the NFL left no question in my mind that the two best receivers in the NFL are Calvin Johnson, followed by Dez Bryant.  Great finish in that Lions and Cowboys game.   Watch out for those Carolina Panthers.  Their defense is looking good, and Cam Newton looks like he has his act together.  Does anybody realize that if the playoffs started today, the Chargers would in? I guess I didn’t realize how much Houston and Pittsburgh stink up until this very moment.

Speaking of the NFL, commissioner Roger Goodell informed the media a few days ago that getting a team in London and Los Angeles are top priorities for the league, “in no particular order”.  Sounds like the league has more interest in bringing a team to LA than anybody else in Southern California.  I’m still not sure why the league is so determined to put a team in London.  This will simply be a logistical nightmare.  What free agents will want to join a team living in London?  How much will it suck for west coast teams to travel over there?  Why does Goodell think this will succeed when NFL Europe failed?  The idea is simply mind boggling.

Finally, another fantastic episode of the The Walking Dead aired last night.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have not seen it yet.  A disease is spreading in the prison camp, and two of the casualties were Karen and David.  These two were kept in isolation because of their symptoms, and their bodies were found burned.  It was strongly suggested that they were burned by someone within the camp to prevent the disease from spreading.  Tyreese becomes angry that his girlfriend and friend were killed, and even more frustrated when his sister, Sasha, becomes ill too.  He wants justice for their deaths.  However, by the end of the show, we find out it was Carol who was responsible for their deaths.  The rest of the show consisted of Tyreese taking his anger out on Walkers, and discovering that Glenn is ill too.

The irony of the episode is that Carol had been the glue that held the group together.  Now, in order to protect the ones she loves, she has taken an action that could cause a major divide within the group.  It was a very shocking end to the episode to learn what Carol did.  At the same time, I’ve gotta think that The Governor is just waiting to attack the group again.  He’s a threat that is just waiting to rise up once more.  It may not happen until later in the season, but it’s gotta happen at some point.  I have a hard time believing that Glenn is going to die from some “glorified cold” as he described it, but I’ve got a feeling it could end up killing Hershel, who is obviously willing to risk his life so save as many as he can.  And what’s up with Bob?  That guy has to be evil.  I’m waiting for him to betray the group in some way, maybe to help The Governor?  Looking forward to more episodes!

October 21st, 2013

It couldn’t have come at a worse time.  It was the biggest game of the season, and the biggest game of Clayton Kershaw’s career, and he had one of the worst outings of his career.   Kershaw was rocked for 7 runs and 10 hits in 4 innings of work, during game 6 of the NCLS, and the Dodgers were obliterated by the Cardinals 9-0.  The way the Dodgers lost was incredibly disheartening.  Kershaw looked human, and Yasiel Puig came crashing back to earth, as he made a fielding and throwing error, while going hitless in three at bats.  The Dodgers lineup felt like it was being held together by chicken wire, but they finally collapsed.  Hanley Ramirez’ broken ribs made him ineffective, Andre Ethier’s ankle caused him all kinds of problems, and with Puig struggling, nobody was left to protect Adrian Gonzales.  Michael Wacha owns the Dodgers, and is going to be a stud.  And with that, the Dodgers season is over.

On the bright side, I won’t have to spend $1,000 on a World Series ticket, since the Dodgers won’t be playing in it.  Should we feel good about the Dodgers season because the future is bright and the franchise is revived? Or should we feel like they blew an opportunity to win a championship?  I say the latter.  Just ask the Washington Nationals or the Texas Rangers, who had great opportunities the last few years to win the World Series, and now they are struggling to get back there.   This series was blown in game 1, when Mattingly mismanaged the lineup, and put Michael Young in for Adrian Gonzales.  In any case, the Dodgers do have the resources to put themselves back in the same position next year, but hopefully a healthier team, a more experienced Puig, and some smarter managerial decisions by Mattingly will put them over the top.  They’ve already improved their team this morning by signing Cuban 2nd baseman Alex Guerrero to a 4 year $32 million deal.

On to college football, where the Bruins just couldn’t hang with the big boys this weekend, losing to Stanford 24-10.  UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley was under pressure all day, and the Bruins just couldn’t get much offense going.  Meanwhile, Stanford racked up 419 yards of total offense, while UCLA had just 266.  The bad news, the Bruins still have to deal with Oregon next week, and they’ve been unable to solve the Cardinal, who have now beaten them 6 straight times.  The good news however, is that UCLA only dropped to #12 in the BCS standings, and as long as they take care of the games their supposed to win, they should get another crack at Stanford or Oregon in the Pac-12 championship game.  In other words, the Bruins have figured out a way to consistently beat the crappy teams, but still can’t get to the next level…..yet.

As for the Trojans, they were outlasted by my Fighting Irish of Notre Dame by a score of 14-10, this weekend in South Bend.  This game was sloppier than a Friday night at the Linebacker Lounge, as both teams couldn’t put the ball in the end zone to save their lives in the second half.  When I showed up in South Bend on Saturday night, I thought I would have the displeasure of seeing just two crappy quarterbacks, and instead I managed to see three! After Notre Dame’s Tommy Rees left the game with an injury, Notre Dame was left with Andrew Hendrix, who couldn’t even complete a pass.  At least the Irish had the excuse of having one horrendous quarterback being replaced by an even more horrendous quarterback.  What was USC’s excuse?  I suppose it’s the reality setting in that they don’t actually have a real football coach yet.  It was cute to see the Trojan fans pretending like their season was revived after the win against Arizona, but the season was thrown out when Kiffin was fired.  On the other hand, it may not be long until SC is good again, if they hire the right coach.

I also had the privilege of attending the Colts and Broncos showdown last night in Indianapolis.  The Colts fans are unbelievably classy, with the standing ovation they gave Peyton Manning before the game.  This franchise has to be the luckiest team in sports.  The get one of the greatest quarterbacks of his generation, then immediately, get another quarterback who might be the next greatest of his generation.  Andrew Luck definitely showed that could be the case with his performance last night.  I also don’t understand why Jim Irsay keeps saying moronic things to the media.  Maybe he should appreciate the fact that Peyton put his franchise on the map, instead of talking shit on him.  This is probably what Peyton Manning’s text inbox looked like after the game…..

The Colts have a beautiful stadium, but I don’t understand all these ridiculous banners they have hanging in Lucas Oil.  Seven of their banners say “AFC Wild Card” on them.  Are you kidding?  That’s like putting up a banner just for making the playoffs!  The Colts are a great franchise, but that makes them look pathetic.

Speaking of banners, I can’t believe that it actually took this long for the Clippers to decide to cover up the Laker championship banners during their games.  I don’t find this offensive at all to Laker fans.  If you were playing in your home building, you would probably feel pretty awkward about having another teams championship banners and retired jersey’s above your floor.  It’s not like those banners and jersey’s are coming off the wall folks, they are just being covered up until the Laker games.  Besides, it’s not like the Clippers have any championship banners of their own to cover them up with.

Finally, some strong starts in the NHL for both of our local squads.  The Kings have won 6 of their first 9 games, which is impressive for a few reasons.  First, many of their early games were on the road.  Second, their top two centers, Anze Kopitar and Mike Richards, have yet to score a goal.  It’s always been about defense and goaltending for these guys, but the dudes that need to score have got to put the puck in the net.  At least the Kings can say they are getting a “balanced attack” from their top two center.

Then there’s the Ducks, who have won 7 in a row, and are off to another great start.  This is so typical of a Bruce Boudreau coached team.  Only the Sharks and Penguins have scored more goals than Anaheim so far.  Even Victor Fasth looks as brilliant in goal as he did at the beginning of last season.  Let’s see what these guys look like in a few months before we start planning that Stanley Cup parade at Disneyland.

October 13th, 2013

It was just less than a week ago that things were looking great for the Dodgers, and they looked like the favorites to make it to the World Series.  Now, after going down 0-2 against the Cardinals in the NLCS, things look pretty bleak for the boys in blue.  Hanley Ramirez and Andre Ethier are black and blue, and aren’t even healthy enough to play.   There’s no way to sugar coat this.  The Dodgers got brilliant pitching performances from Zach Greinke and Clayton Kershaw, yet ended up losing both games in St. Louis because they haven’t scored a run in their last 18 innings.  Now the Dodgers have to come home to play the Cards with Hyun-Jin Ryu going up against ace Adam Wainwright.  So to review, the Dodgers have had both of their aces beaten, they can’t hit anymore, they’re banged up, and they still have to go up against the Cards best pitcher.  I think it’s safe to say that LA is toast.

This can’t all be blamed on injuries folks.  Don Mattingly has single handedly blown two post-season games in one week.  By pinch running Dee Gordon for Adrian Gonzales in the 8th inning of game 1, and then using Michael Young in his spot for the remainder of the game, the Dodgers lineup was completely neutralized.  Somebody on the Dodgers should have had the balls to hit Carlos Beltran too, after Hanley Ramirez was nailed by a pitch in the ribs, whether it was intentional or not.  Then there’s Yasiel Puig, who has disappeared like David Copperfield.  Puig is hitless in the NLCS, with 6 strikeouts.  The Cards are just daring Puig to beat them, but his inexperience is now showing.  Mattingly thinks everything is ok though, saying “The series doesn’t start until you lose at home, like in the NBA.”  Too bad in the NBA, your best players play every game.  The Dodgers have already used Kershaw and Greinke, which means this series will be over in 5.

Sticking with baseball, I think the Angels made a poor decision this week to bring back both Mike Scioscia and Jerry Dipoto.  No matter what these guys say, it’s obvious they haven’t worked well together, and a change of some kind was needed.  More importantly, the players need to be re-energized, but this just looks like we will see more of the same next year, both on and off the field.  After hearing about this news, I was expecting the Angels to announce that Joe Blanton would be their opening day starter, and that they were planning on giving Robinson Canoe a 10 year deal.  One bad decision deserves another right?

On to college football, where the UCLA Bruins football team has vaulted themselves into the top 10 in both the AP and the coaches.  The Bruins defeated Cal easily on Saturday night 37-10 at the Rose Bowl, and Brett Hundley looked like the second coming of Dan Marino.  Hundley threw for a career high 410 yards and three touchdown passes, and looked like the Heisman trophy candidate the UCLA faithful envisioned.  However, shit’s about to get real.  UCLA will travel to Stanford next week to take on those damn tree loving, chardonay drinking, corporately financed Cardinal.  This is now looking like a much more winnable game for the Bruins, after Stanford dropped one to Utah over the weekend.

As for the Trojans, their offense looked a little better under Ed Orgeron, in their 38-31 win over Arizona.  It’s still gonna be tough for Trojan fans to get excited for much else this season.  Next week, USC will visit Notre Dame, whose fans are equally as frustrated with what they’ve seen from their teams quarterback play.  I’m headed to the game next week, and I sure didn’t think when I got my tickets a few months ago, that the game would be about as meaningless as the girl I dated for about 30 minutes in the 8th grade.

The beginning of the NHL season has left me very confused. I realize the Kings have won 3 straight games, but why can’t Anze Kopitar score some freaking goals already??  Why has everybody in the Kings division managed to score at least 6 goals against the Rangers and win, while the Kings can only get 1 and lose? And why the hell haven’t the Kings brought up Tyler Toffoli to play on their 2nd line?  LA has already used three different players at left wing on that line, and none of them have anywhere near Toffoli’s skill or upside.

As for the Ducks, it’s early, but it doesn’t look like they’ve missed Bobby Ryan’s offense so far.  Only 6 teams in the entire league have averaged more goals per game than the Ducks heading into Sunday’s game.

Meanwhile, the Lakers are over in China for a few exhibition games.  I can’t believe Chris Kaman actually hurt his finger while tobogganing down the Great Wall.  Do you realize how dumb that is?  Kaman was going to get bumped from behind by teammate Shawne Williams, and he put his hand between the two sleds.  I’ve went down the Great Wall on these toboggan sleds two years ago, and I was bumped from behind several times, but the last thing I ever thought about was trying to put my hand behind the sled.  These types of dumb injuries can only be a bad sign of what’s to come this year for the Lake Show.

A few quick thoughts on week 6 of the NFL.  It’s hard to understand how the Patriots are 5-1.  It feels like they’e struggled through just about every game.  Great shootout yesterday against the Saints, in what could actually be a Super Bowl preview.  The Texans fans got what they deserved yesterday.  Matt Schaub left the game with an injury, and the fans start cheering in a classless manor, then TJ Yates comes in the game and throws a pick 6.  It’s unbelievable that up until Saturday, there were 9,000 tickets available for the Chargers and Colts Monday night game.  Fortunately for Charger fans, there will be no blackout, because some of Dean Spanos’ friends and a few corporate sponsors bought the remaining tickets.  Still, this is just embarrassing.  It’s obvious that the city just can’t support this crummy football team, and that they won’t be getting a new stadium.  Just move the team to LA already Dean!  Otherwise, somebody might beat you to it.

There were some very tough TV watching decisions that had to be made last night.  Homeland or the season premier of The Walking Dead?  Thank god they invented DVR because it was definitely needed.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have not seen last night’s episode of either show.  What the hell did they do to Homeland?  The show had a phenomenal first season, got a little off-track with some love story in the 2nd season, and now the show doesn’t appear to be going anywhere in  the first 3 episodes of season 3.  The threat of terrorism and stoping it usually provides the most entertainment value on that show, and thus far, the show has slowed to a crawls pace.

As for the Walking Dead, the season premier was exciting.  I like how they have added a ton of new characters to the show, and they immediately show us completely different dynamics between them from when the show last season ended.  Rick is no longer the leader of the group, and instead, we see more of a leadership by committee.  It seems like half of the characters are now in some sort of relationship.  I guess people do need love if zombies are about to bring the world to an end.  There’s also quite a bit of action in this first episode.  The group fights off some walkers when a department store roof collapses, but in the process, they lose Beth’s new boyfriend (he wasn’t alive long enough for me to learn his name).  The action gets even more intense when Carl’s friend Patrick dies of a fever, suggesting that the group is even more vulnerable to a virus.  An exciting beginning to the new season, and looking forward to more episodes!

October 7th, 2013

What a slug fest that took place at Chavez Ravine last night.  The Dodgers overcame a rough start from Hyun-Jin Ryu, and then hammered the Braves 13-6 to grab a 2-1 series lead.  Let’s be honest, this series should really be over by now.  I’ve been a big supporter of Don Mattingly, however, he made some very questionable decisions with his relievers late in game 2, which cost LA a win.  I’m really not sure why he thought one of his most inexperienced relievers would be better off facing Jason Heyward instead of Reed Johnson.  Fortunately, the Dodgers won last night, to take the pressure off Mattingly.  I’m sure many of you think LA should give the ball to Clayton Kershaw for game 4, but Ricky Nolasco should get the chance to close it out.  Nolasco has pitched very well since being acquired by the Dodgers, and even though his last two starts were crummy, they were meaningless.  Kershaw should be saved if there is a deciding game 5, or for game 1 of the NLCS.  Ryu’s start was not as rough as that of Braves starter Julio Teheran.  If the Dodgers hadn’t bombed Teheran, I’m sure the Republicans would have.

Meanwhile, there’s already rumors from ESPN’s Buster Olney, that the Dodgers could make an off-season trade for Rays ace David Price.  A deal like this would likely cost the Dodgers their top 2 or 3 prospects in their system, but they would then have a lethal rotation of Clayton Kershaw, Zach Greinke, and Price.  If the Dodgers have learned anything from this year, it’s that the saying is really true: you can never have enough pitching.  Price seems like a much better investment than an aging Robinson Cano, and one that the Dodgers can afford.  It’s just money, and the Dodgers have plenty of it.

On to college football, where the Bruins remained undefeated after hanging on to beat Utah 34-27 last week.  That was definitely a game that last year’s Bruins would have lost.  Actually, if it was not for the 6 turnovers forced by the defense, UCLA would have lost.  Next week’s game should scare the hell out of Bruins fans.  UCLA will be hosting Cal at home, in a classic trap game.  The Bruins know that they’ll be tested in the following weeks against Stanford and Oregon, so they could easily be overlooking Cal, as they did last year.

The Trojans had the week off, but here’s a few quick thoughts on week 5 of the NFL.  Remember when Matt Schaub used to be a good quarterback?  The Texans have to be kicking themselves for not trying harder to sign Peyton Manning last year.  Last night’s loss to the Raiders is another example of why the Chargers make their fans want to abuse prescription medication.  It’s definitely time to stick a fork in the NY Giants.  The Broncos are so good that on a bad day, they still rack up 51 points agains the Cowboys and remain undefeated.

I’m excited that the NHL season has started, but after watching the first two Kings games, I’ve got one major question.  How long will they keep their young stud, Tyler Toffoli in the minor leagues?  Are the Kings just going to pretend that Matt Frattin can be a top 6 forward for the entire season?  This reminds me of the Dodgers situation with Yasiel Puig.  If the kid can help you, then bring him up, and let him play.  The Kings need more scoring, more youth, and Toffoli can give them all that.

The Lakers already have two preseason games under their belt after this weekend, but the focus remains on Kobe.  Did it feel like a big deal when he decided to go to Germany again for more treatment on his knee?  It sure seemed so to me.  Why did the Lakers feel the need to conceal the nature of his visit?  In any case, it sure seems like he isn’t going to be in the lineup anytime soon.

Finally, I love how the harsh realities of Obama Care are now setting in.  Last week, I was listening to KFI in LA, and 10 different people were interviewed regarding their thoughts on the new healthcare legislation.  More than half of them said they were fooled into thinking they were actually receiving free healthcare, and now some of them are forced to buy disgustingly expensive health insurance plans.  Keep in mind, many of these people are the same morons that voted for the first time in their life when Obama ran for his first team.  They are also the same morons who bought houses like they were groceries, sending our economy straight to hell.  Let’s hope these guys stay home during the next election.

September 30th, 2013

As promised, here is a recap, and my thoughts on the series finale of Breaking Bad.  As usual, spoiler alert for those of you who have not seen the episode yet.  I knew there was never going to be a happy ending for this show.  Walter White had caused so much collateral damage to his relationships with his family and the ones he cared about with his transformation into a criminal mastermind, you knew an unhappy ending to the show was going to take place.  Still, I think most viewers were left very satisfied with what they saw, all things considered.

In the final episode, Walt leaves the cabin to take revenge on Jack and his entire crew, but not before handling a few personal matters.  First, he sneaks into the house of his old business partners, Elliot and Gretchen Schwartz, and tricks them into getting his remaining money to his son when he turns 18 years of age.  This was sweet revenge, since the Schwartz family took credit for Walt’s work early in his career, and made a fortunate off of it.  Walt also demonstrates his criminal genius alter ego here, as he gets Badger and Skinny Pete to flash red laser pen lights at Elliot and Gretchen, to make them think they are being stalked by hit men.

Then, Walt goes to visit Skyler in her new home.  Walt says he is there to give her a proper goodbye, but he also gives her a gift.  He supplies her with a paper with GPS coordinates on it, which has the location of his remaining buried money, as well as the site where Hank and his partner were buried.   Skyler can now exchange this information for her freedom.  Several very interesting things happen around this scene.  Just prior to Walt entering the room, Skyler is on the phone with her sister, Marie, who tells her that Walt is in town, but she believes he will be caught by the authorities.  She naively says, “He thinks he is some criminal mastermind.”  Skyler knows better than this by now.  Moments later, her amazing, criminal mastermind husband appears in front of her.

Also during Walt’s encounter with Skyler, he admits why he did everything that he did.  “I did it for myself.  I liked it.  I was good at it.  It made me feel alive.”  This makes perfect sense.  Walt has spent the last few months dying of cancer, and he knew that if he was going to die, he wanted the last portion of his life to be exciting and meaningful.  Something he never seemed to feel up until that point of his life.

In the finale scene, Walt confronts Jack and his entire crew, and kills them all by setting up a machine gun in the trunk of his car, which popped up at the press of a button on his remote control.  Interestingly enough, Walt, Jesse, Todd, and Jack are still alive after all the machine gun fire.  However, Walt shoots Jack, and Jesse strangles Todd.  With Walt and Jesse left standing, Walt slides a gun along the floor to Jesse, and asks him to shoot him.  After hesitating, Jesse tells him “If you want it, do it yourself.”  At that point, we also find out that Walt poisoned Lydia with the ricin, by slipping it into her drink at the coffee shop.    Jesse then drives off, and even cracks a smile, relieved that he survived, and that it’s finally over.  Meanwhile, Walt takes a walk through Todd and Jack’s meth lab, and reminisces about his glorious drug empire, just before collapsing and dying from his gun shot wound, which he suffered in the shootout.  The police arrive on the scene, but it’s clear that Walt is dead.

Ultimately, Walt is unable to fix things with his family.  His son hates him, and his wife will probably never forgive him either.  Despite that, Walt triumphantly gets revenge on those who crossed him, which symbolizes the greatness of his criminal empire.  In some ways, the scales of justice tipped toward the two men, Walt and Jesse, who weren’t quite as evil as Jack and his crew.  Jack and his crew were men who killed people for sadistic pleasure, or even convenience.  Walt and Jesse can be considered agents of justice here.

Still, every character in the show is forced to live with some degree of guilt for their sins.  Walt’s only consolation with his family is that he was able to keep them alive, but consistently put them in danger, and can be blamed for Hank’s death.  Skyler will have to live with going along with Walt’s plan as well.  Interestingly enough, Jesse was the only character from the shootout who survived, and it can be argued that he lived because he only killed people that needed to be killed for him to survive.

As for Walt, his fate was inevitable.  He had cancer, it went away and came back.  He was going to die, but in his mind, he went out the way he wanted to.  One of the most powerful scenes of the episode was when Walt was watching his son come home from school from a hiding spot near the house.  It was clear at that point he had major regrets about his actions, and how they destroyed his relationship with Walt Jr.  Then again, in the final scene, we see how much Walt valued the legacy he built and left behind.  A great show, and a pretty good ending.  It’s been fun Breaking Bad….you will be missed!

September 30th, 2013

The Trojans shocked the college football universe on Sunday morning.  Coach Lane Kiffin was fired just hours after losing in embarrassing fashion at Arizona State.  I can just hear all those wealthy SC alums screaming with joy from their mansions in Newport Beach and Beverly Hills.  Instead of calling athletic director Pat Haden everyday, urging him to fire Kiffin, instead they’ll be calling everyday urging him to hire Broncos defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio.  We all knew Kiffin was probably going to get fired eventually, but the real shock was getting rid of him in the middle of the season.  Haden deserves credit for such a bold action at this point in time, which should give him time to save his recruiting class, and find a great coach.    The constant drama that Kiffin brought to the USC program had become unbearable for Trojan fans, as was their performance on the field.

Kiffin’s final debacle was a 62-41 beat down at the hands of Arizona State on Saturday night.  Weren’t the Trojans supposed to be a good defensive team?  Quarterback Taylor Kelly carved up USC like a Halloween pumpkin for 351 yards, while the Sun Devils racked up a total of 612 yards.  By the 4th quarter it was clear that the defense had simply quit on Kiffin, and he had lost the team.  Oh yea, and the offense was still terrible too, as they turned it over 4 times, and Marqise Lee injured his knee to make matters worse.  Good luck to interim head coach Ed Orgeron!  He’ll need it to put out this dumpster fire.

I love how sports fans on the east coast seem to think that people in Southern California don’t care about their local sports teams, and are simply fair weather fans.  If that were the case, then the decision makers wouldn’t have succumbed to the public pressure to fire Kiffin, Mike Brown, Terry Murray, Randy Carlisle, Rick Neuheisel, and Ben Howland, over the last two years.  Heck, Mike Scioscia might be fired in the next couple of days, Mike D’Antoni is going to be fired any minute, and Don Mattingly isn’t safe yet either.  If you’re a coach in the LA sports market, you better win or your job isn’t safe.

On to baseball, where the banged up Dodgers have wrapped up the regular season, and are limping over to Atlanta for the start of the NLDS vs the Braves.  Yesterday, the Dodgers discovered that Matt Kemp will miss the entire post season, after re-aggravating his ankle injury.  LA is already dealing with an ankle injury to Andre Ethier, who will probably only be able to pinch hit in the NLDS.   Even Hanley Ramirez and Yasiel Puig feel like they are being held together by duct tape at times, with the amount of days off they’ve been given recently.  The good news however, is that they will be facing an Atlanta team that has cooled off just as much as the Dodgers have in the last month.  The Braves starting pitching is also no match for LA’s trio of Kershaw, Greinke, and Ryu.  If the Boys in Blue can score a few runs, which they’ve done without Kemp, I see no reason why they can’t put this series away in four games.

Meanwhile, the Angels season is over, and it’s decision time in Anaheim.  Will Arte Moreno fire general manager Jerry Dipoto? Or will it be skipper Mike Scioscia?  Both?  Or even keep them both.  Dipoto seems to be planning on being around in 2014, because he recently told the media about his off-season plans to upgrade the pitching.  Of course, part of his plan included the possibility of keeping underachieving Joe Blanton, who is owed another $7 million next year.  That comment probably didn’t help his chances of keeping his job, and should get him a slap on the back of the head as well.  If Arte Moreno is serious about turning this around, he needs to get rid of both Scioscia and Dipoto.  It’s the only way to re-energize the team, while giving them the best chance to hire a great GM and skipper.  More importantly, it will send a message to Mike Trout that the team is serious about keeping their franchise player happy.

The Lakers opened training camp on Saturday afternoon, and much to my disappointment Mike D’Antoni was still the team’s head coach.  Of even greater concern is the fact that Kobe Bryant admitted that there was no exact timetable for his return to action.  Bryant sounds hard pressed to be ready for the season opener on October 29th, when he isn’t even able to run on his surgically repaired achilles tendon yet.  Thanksgiving, or even Christmas sounds like a possibility, but the Lakers season could be over by then for all intents and purposes.  D’Antoni said he isn’t sure yet who 3 of his 5 starters are going to be to open the regular season.  That’s probably because most of your players shouldn’t be starters in the NBA Mike.  Stay tuned…. this could be a spectacular failure just a few weeks from now.  Here are some of Kobe’s comments from media day….

Kevin Durant seems like a great guy and all, but he must have been sitting out in the sun too much this off-season.  Durant claimed that James Harden, his former teammate, should be in the top 10 NBA player rankings by Sports Illustrated.  Durant said that Dwayne Wade should be removed from the top 10, and Harden should replace him.  Look I get that Dwayne Wade has been banged up of late, but Harden has never been better than Wade at any point.  Besides, Durant should stop calling out dudes that have three championship rings, and have beaten him in the finals, especially since he probably won’t be winning anything in OKC.

Speaking of failures, Time Warner Cable is a joke in case you haven’t experience it for yourself.  I decided to go with these guys over Direc TV, only because they have the Pac-12 network, and won’t be at risk to lose the Dodgers at the beginning of next year.  First, they charge the hell out of you.  $15 a month for Showtime? Then, they didn’t even give me all the channels I originally ordered, so I had to call them and have them correct my order.  As if that wasn’t bad enough, they were one hour late for the appointment, they don’t even have 1080 p high definition channels, and they send me a technician who is a shit talking Anaheim Ducks fan.  Look TWC, you’re on thin ice. Nobody comes into my home installing crappy cable service, and talking shit on my LA Kings.

A few quick thoughts on week 4 of the NFL.  The NFC East is a joke this year.  The Chargers are so fortunate they get to play against that crummy division this year, because that should pad their win total.  The Texans are softer than the Pillsbury Dough Boy.  So much talent, and so little toughness when things get tight.  The Broncos are just murdering people, and should just get bye weeks until the Super Bowl.

With the NHL season ready to start on Thursday, I think Kings and Duck fans should have their concerns.  For the Kings, if Jonathan Quick goes down with an injury, can Ben Scrivens really play goaltender?  Or does he just make cool Vine clips?  And for the Ducks, did they just catch lightening in a bottle last year, or can they keep scoring goals without the whiney Bobby Ryan?

If the government shuts down tomorrow….who will spy on me and continue to pile up our country’s debt?

How does McDonald’s make their coffee so damn hot? What do they do to that thing, stick it in a nuclear reactor?  It takes a good 15 minutes for it to actually be drinkable.

I was unable to watch a live version of the series finale of Breaking Bad last night, however, there will be a full recap and breakdown coming shortly here on Jock Talk LA.

September 23rd, 2013

What a boring weekend of college football it was!  At the Rose Bowl, UCLA hammered New Mexico State 59-13,  The Bruins looked somewhat disinterested at times, and even the great Brett Hundley thew two interceptions.  Even so, the Bruins realized they were playing New Mexico State, and piled up 692 yards of total offense, including 164 rushing yards from Jordan James.  James also added 2 touchdowns, and the Bruins defense looked strong.  Great tribute to Nick Pasquale too, when they ran 11 men out on the field, then sent one off to run a play with just 10 players.    The Bruins will return to playing real people in about 10 days when they begin Pac-12 play against Utah.

Speaking of being uninterested, the Trojans looked even more bored against Utah State at the Coliseum.  USC escaped with a 17-14 win, and Cody Kessler looked more like the dude who couldn’t complete a pass in the first two weeks of the season.  The fans looked just as bored all afternoon, as the streets around the Coliseum weren’t nearly as crowded as usual.  The chemistry isn’t there, and even Marqise Lee couldn’t seem to get it going.  The Trojans are an ugly 3-1, but things are going to get tougher with a showdown against Arizona State next week.

Moving on to baseball, where the Dodgers are on their way to the playoffs for the first time in 4 years.   I loved the clinching celebration by jumping in the pool in left field.  The D’Bags asked the Dodgers not to celebrate on the field, and the Dodgers did not celebrate on the field.  If they have a problem with how LA celebrated, then maybe they should have done a better job in not allowing LA to beat the crap out of them over the last 3 months.  Oh yea, screw you John McCain!  Don’t you have better things to do than bitch about the Dodgers celebrating in the pool?  How about you focus on things like lowering our taxes and cleaning up the economy, which is in the crapper?

As for what’s happening on the field, the Boys in Blue took two of three against the Padres over the weekend, but they still don’t seem to be pushing too hard for home field advantage.  It’s completely understandable to try to get some guys a little rest down the stretch, but some of the games we’re seeing are practically spring training lineups Don Mattingly is putting on the field.  This may very well cost the Dodgers a shot at the World Series, especially if they have to play a game 5 or game 7 in a place like Atlanta or St. Louis.

A few quick thoughts on week 3 of the NFL.  The Chargers simply make their fans want to puke.  They come off a big win on the road against Philly, and they can’t even beat lowly Tennessee.  What the hell happened to San Francisco against Indy?  That was a beat down.  The Saints are pretty damn good, but they’ll need home field in the playoffs to have a chance against Seattle.

NBA training camp opens up in 5 days for the Lakers.  The LA Times felt the need to re-hash the hiring of Mike D’Antoni over Phil Jackson by writing a few excerpts from Jeanie Buss’ new book.  Jeanie described the entire saga, as “betrayal”.  After reading this, the first thing I thought was how unbelievably foolish Jim Buss is.  He actually had to ask Jeanie for Phil’s cell phone number, and had apparently never been to Phil and Jeanie’s house.  It just goes to show you how strained the relationship is between Phil, Jim, and Jeanie, and this is still a major question moving forward for the Laker franchise.

The Emmy’s were BORING……

And finally, Breaking Bad slowed things down a little in the next to last episode of the series.  I’m surprised this episode was so slow considering it was 75 minutes.  Once again, spoiler alert for those of you who have not seen it yet.  To quickly recap:  Walt checks out the chaos around him by going all the way to New Hampshire in an isolated cabin.  He has no phone, internet, or cable television.  By episodes end, he is motivated to go back home and help his family by getting them money, and killing Jack and his crew.  Jesse tries to escape from Jack’s crew, however, he is caught, and then punished by being forced to watch the crew drive to Andrea’s house, where they shoot and kill her.  Meanwhile, Skyler is under pressure from the feds to give some information on Walt’s whereabouts, but she is no help.  If she doesn’t give them any info, she could be in serious legal trouble.  Also, Walt tries to make contact with his son, but junior gets angry at him for the death of his Uncle Hank, and hangs up on him.

Creator Vince Gilligan has left us with no clues, as to how this will end.  One thing is becoming apparent:  Jack’s crew appears far more immoral than Walt, Skyler, and Jesse.  In the final episode, I have a feeling that in order to take Jack down, Walt and Jesse will end up joining forces one last time.  Still, it’s hard to envision which way the scales of justice will tip.

September 16th, 2013

There is much to discuss in this edition of Monday Morning Coffee, starting with the Bruins big win over Nebraska.  The Bruins are 2-0, and Saturday’s win was quite a statement for the program and head coach Jim Mora.  Mora spent the entire week consoling the Pasquale family, after the 20 year old sophomore was killed last weekend after he was hit by a car.  Simultaneously, Mora put together a brilliant game plan against the Cornhuskers, in which he continued to run the ball until the Bruins broke through.  The Cornhuskers were out for revenge from last year’s loss to UCLA, but the Bruins exploded in the 2nd half.  The Bruins are now 13th in the AP Poll, but how the hell are they ranked behind South Carolina?  Typical college football nonsense.

As for the Trojans, their blowout win over Boston College seems to have temporarily quieted down Lane Kiffin’s critics, who were about ready to burn his house down.  Kiffin finally selected Cody Kessler as his starting quarterback, and decided to take the reigns off Kessler instantly.  The results were astoundingly different, as he threw for 237 yards and 2 touchdown passes.  The real question though: Why does Lane Kiffin create more drama than a teenage girl on her prom night?  He refused to tell the media who his starting quarterback was, even though he already knew it was Kessler.  Then the players organized a players only meeting last week, which he denied ever happened, despite several players insisting that it did happen.  When you deliver wins, you can live with some occasional drama.  However, when you underachieve, it isn’t tolerated for long, and I’m sure Pat Haden is well aware of this.

I was very disappointed watching the Alabama vs Texas A&M game.  I was really hoping Johnny Manziel would take much more physical punishment, and frankly, he deserved it for simply behaving like an idiot the last couple of months.  Still, I gotta admit the kid can play.  Speaking of disappointing, Notre Dame was horrendous against Purdue, and the weekend was almost a complete disaster for them with Michigan nearly losing to Akron.  The Irish averted disaster this weekend, but even Touchdown Jesus can’t seem to make Tommy Rees a good quarterback.

On to baseball, where the Dodgers appear to be mailing it in.  The Boys in Blue have a magic number of just 4 to clinch the NL West with 13 games to go, but they looked about as interested as you would be in sleeping with Rosie O’Donnell.  The Dodgers lost 3 of 4 to the Giants over the weekend, including a 19-3 beat down by San Francisco on Saturday.  I’m not sure why Don Mattingly has decided to turn many of these final games into spring training games, filled with a number of players who will likely not be in the playoff roster.  This is troubling since the Pirates and Cardinals have blown by the Dodgers in the race for home field advantage in the playoffs.  Get it together Donnie Baseball.  Your job may depend on it!

Meanwhile, the Angels, have quietly won 17 of their last 23 meaningless games.  Don’t be fooled kids.  We’ve seen this movie before, and when it ends, you always end up saying “If only we had a better start we would be in good shape.”  The reality of it is the pitching is still a pile of crap, and they’ll need a general manager who is going to overhaul the starters and the bullpen.  Oh, and they’ll probably need a new general manager too.

A few quick thoughts on Week 2 of the NFL.  Can anyone beat the Broncos?  They look like they are going to cruise through the AFC.  Impressive road win by the Chargers against the Eagles, especially after choking last week against Houston.   The Cowboys are still the Cowboys. They get a big win against the Giants, and follow it up with a pathetic loss to the Chiefs.  The NFC East looks weak.  The Seahawks are going to be tough to beat with home field advantage, and are the only team that has figured out the 49ers.

As rumored here on Jock Talk LA a few weeks ago, TJ Simers has officially left the LA Times.  Simers is controversial and has his critics, but one cannot deny that he is entertaining.  Simers will now write columns for the Orange County Register that will appear on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sunday’s.  He also took a shot at the Times on his way out the door, calling it “a dead newspaper”. TJ, if you think the LA Times is dead, you have no idea how crappy the OC Register is!

I feel sorry for anyone that actually paid $54 to watch Floyd Mayweather dominate Canelo Alvarez on Saturday night in Las Vegas.  “Mayperview” has become a joke, and so has boxing.  This sport is on life support, and they can’t even present people with the best possible product to keep the sport going.  We all know Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao makes the most sense, and is the only fight worth watching.  Make it happen, or boxing will be dead faster than the OC Register!

Miss America was crowned last night, and the winner was Nina Davaluri of New York, who is of Indian decent.  Before I get in my usual beauty pageant jokes here, I have to say that I’m shocked at the ignorant racist reaction on twitter, and other message boards that took place last night after the pageant.  Davaluri was born in the United States, and has lived here her whole life.  Memo to you morons dropping racial bombs:  This country was actually built by immigrants.  Half of your comments make reference to her being a Muslim, which isn’t even true.  It’s just unfortunate that most of the people making these comments are uncultured buffoons.  Still, with all that being said, I’m disappointed there were no idiotic statements in this pageant, as there was from Ms. Teen South Carolina a few years ago.

And finally, Breaking Bad had by far it’s most shocking episode last night.  Earlier this week, I heard the show described as “the last 15 minutes of sex, for a whole hour.”  I think that accurately describes the third to last episode of the series, called “Ozymandias”.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have it on DVR.  To summarize things, Hank and Gomez are killed in the aftermath of the shootout, Todd’s Uncle Jack takes most of Walt’s money, Walt Jr. knows the truth about his father, and Jesse is being held captive by the white power Nazi’s and forced to cook meth with Todd.  Also of significance, Skyler slashed Walt’s hand with a knife, and Junior calls the police on his dad.  Shortly after that, Walt runs away and takes Holly with him, only to leave her at a fire station later on with her address pinned to her baby clothes.  The episode ends with Walt getting in the vacuum cleaner man’s red van, presumably to start his new life.  However, based on some of the flash-fowards we’ve seen, we know this isn’t true.

For those of you wondering what the hell “Ozymandias” is, it’s a poem written by Percy Shelly about the downfall of a kings.  The meaning of the poem is that all people who are in power, will eventually lose their power.  That is exactly what we witnessed in this episode.  Walt had built a huge drug empire, with more money than he could ever spend in a lifetime.  And all in one episode, his brother-in-law dies, and the rest of his family has turned against him.  I found the most powerful scene in this episode to be when Walt was on the phone with Skyler, condemning her for telling Junior the truth.  Walt channeled his inner “Heisenberg” at this moment with his threatening tone, but he is really doing this to protect Skyler from the police, who are listening to this conversation.  Skyler eventually realizes this before she hangs up the phone.  We see Walt doing this with tears in his eyes, which is a moment in which he looks more like the cancer stricken Walter White, who was simply trying to provide for his family, rather than the mastermind criminal Heisenberg.  There’s just two more episodes left.  Will Walt kill Todd’s Uncle Jack?  Will he kill Jesse?  I’m not sure how they can top this episode, but it figures to be an amazing finish.

September 8th, 2013

We’re only 2 games into the 2013 college football season, and we’re already on Kiffin Watch.  USC athletic directory Pat Haden insisted that Kiffin was not on the hot seat last month.  However, after Saturday night’s debacle at the Coliseum, he’s gotta be thinking about replacing his head coach soon.  The Trojans lost their home opener in pathetic fashion to Washington State by a score of 10-7.  Kiffin has completely micromanaged both of his quarterbacks thus far, and the Trojans scored their fewest amount of points in a game in the last 10 years.  Do you hear that sound Trojan fans?  No, it’s not the fans booing Lane Kiffin off the field on Saturday night.  It’s the sound of USC free falling out of the top 25.

If the Trojans can’t beat WSU at home, then who can they beat?  As much as UCLA and Notre Dame fans are enjoying seeing USC suffer, it’s going to hurt their strength of schedule big time.  After Notre Dame lost to Michigan in the Big House on Saturday, the Irish are going to need some quality wins to get back in the BCS race, and beating up on a crappy Trojan team won’t be one of them.  Same can be said for the Bruins, who have BCS aspirations as well.

Speaking of the Bruins, they’ll be playing with heavy hearts against Nebraska next week, after wide receiver Nick Pasquale was killed in a tragic accident on Saturday morning.  Pasquale spent the weekend back at home in San Clemente, and attended his alma matter San Clemente High’s football game on Friday night.  On Sunday morning at 1:27 am, he was struck by a car on the corner of Camino De Los Mares and Calle Nuevo, in San Clemente.  The accident is still being investigated.  Pasquale was a 20 year old, redshirt freshman, and appeared in the Bruins season opening win against Nevada.  As someone who grew up in San Clemente, it’s certainly easy for me to imagine how a pedestrian could be hit in a neighborhood that is not very well lit at night.  My thoughts and prayers go out to the Pasquale family after this tragic loss.

Here are my thoughts on the NFL season after week 1.  The Steelers are going to be terrible this year.  Colin Kaepernick singled handedly defeated my fantasy team this week, and he might make the 49ers even better this year.  The Cowboys season opening win against the Giants was very predictable, as will be their collapse come January.  Are there any good running backs left?  Shane Vereen was the only running back in the league to rush for 100 yards this week.  My fantasy football team desperately needs help at wide receiver!

On to baseball, where Don Mattingly and the Dodgers have certainly taken their foot off the gas pedal over the last 4 games.  The Boys in Blue were swept by the Reds over the weekend, and after losing 3 straight one run games, they’ve lost four in a row.  Since LA has an 11 game lead in the division, and a magic number of 10 with just 20 games left to play, this doesn’t seem like a big deal.  However, there’s some unsettling trends taking place of late.   The Dodgers are just 2 games behind the Braves for home field advantage throughout the NL playoffs.  However, Don Mattingly doesn’t seem to have any interest in home field, because he started Edison Volquez on Wednesday at Coors Field, and rested his 4 best players.  Then against the Reds, he managed without any sense of urgency, refusing to manufacture runs in tight, one-run games.  The Reds were a far more desperate team, and even though they needed the games more than the Dodgers, LA can’t just sit back and wait for the 3-run homer to bail them out.

Meanwhile, Matt Kemp hasn’t given up on a return this season.  Even after straining his hamstring during this rehab assignment, Kemp is still trying to get back into the lineup.  Don Mattingly said Kemp will need at least another 10 days to get ready, and that’s if he doesn’t suffer any more setbacks.  That would leave him just 11 games to convince the Dodgers he’s ready for the playoffs.  Knowing Kemp, he’ll probably break his wrist signing an autograph for a fan, which will effectively end his season.

We’re only a month away from the start of NBA training camp.  My friend Eugene Kim informed me that after several years on the waiting list, he has finally become a Lakers season seat holder.  Eugene told me he plans on attending only “the crappy games.”  Well Eugene, I guess you will be attending all the games this year, because when Mike D’Antoni is your coach, every game is going to be a steamy pile of crap.

What an amazing cliff hanger Breaking Bad left us with last night!   Spoiler Alert for those who have it on DVR.   Before I get to the cliff hanger, I’ve got to mention how the tables finally turned on Walt.  Hank tricks Walt by taking pictures of a barrel of money, and making him think that Jesse is going to burn all of his money that he buried out in the desert.  In the process of Walt racing out to the desert, he is on the phone with Jesse, and incriminates himself by discussing all of his previous criminal activity.    I certainly did not see this one coming.  Jesse is a rat!  He broke the code among criminals, and turned on Walt by rating him out to Hank.  Then again, I never imagined that Walt would ever hire someone to kill Jesse.

Hank slaps the handcuffs on Walt, in a moment that suddenly made the show seem like a modern western.  The good guy forces the bad guy to surrender, and come out slowly with his hands up.  For just a moment, morality and righteousness was prevailing.  Hank calls his wife Marie to celebrate his capture of Walt, and I suddenly got this uneasy feeling that this may be the last time these two may ever speak, and that something bad might happen to Hank.  Moments later, a car shows up with Todd, Uncle Jack, and his band of thugs.  Both sides opened fire, and a gun fight ensued.  Walt and Jesse are both hiding in the cars to avoid the flying bullets, while Hank and his partner Gomez are hiding behind the car during all the gun fire.  That’s when the episode ended!

In addition to the tables finally turning on Walt, it also seems like he’s becoming overly emotional.  He didn’t want to kill Jesse, and reluctantly agreed to it, then called it off at the last moment.  When Uncle Jack shows up, Walt pleads with him not to open fire and klll Hank.  Of course the irony of this is that if Hank is killed, many of his problems are probably solved, and he can be free again.  Thus, it seems like Walt is emotionally conflicted.  With just three episodes left, I get the feeling this is rapidly moving toward an explosive ending.  Walt participated in all this horrific criminal activity to secure his family’s financial future.  Now it seems possible he could lose his family and everyone he cares about before it’s over, which would leave him with a pointless pile of money for a man with only a few months left to live.  This means when it’s over, there will be no winners.  Just one loser.