Common Sense

Take me out to the ballgame

Being a sports clerk, you might wonder why it is that I never seem to write about sports. It's pretty simple, I'm so busy with sports at work, that politics and other things take my mind off of it when I'm at home.

Still, I do love sports, sports of all kinds. And since I didn't even bother to follow the NBA or fill out a bracket for the NCAA Tournament, I thought I should take swing at following baseball this season. It's just the right time to get into it, since today was the season opener.

That leads me to a predicament, I don't have a team to follow. Never having been a big baseball fan, I never got really excited about any one team. I've always had a natural affinity for the Red Sox, but it was as much a hate the Yankees thing as a like Boston thing. Even though I did get pretty excited watching them through the postseason in 2004.

I have two major league franchises to choose from here in Texas: the Astros and the Rangers. The problem is, I haven't bothered to watch a Rangers game since Nolan Ryan retired and making fun of Houston is more fun than rooting for them.

So, I'm a man without a team. I'm interested in what you nice readers have to say, so that I know who I should follow religiously this year. And if Evil Clerk reads this and says "The Mets" I will just totally ignore him the entire season.

Your bracket is all wrong

I don't know if you noticed or were paying attention in anyway, but the brackets for the NCAA Tournament got thrown quite a loop this weekend.

My very own, hometown Lady Bears got beat down by Maryland Saturday and 1-seed UConn lost to George Mason last night.

I didn't join the office bracket pool this year, not after last year. I managed to come in dead last for both brackets, even though I did pick Baylor to win the championship. And all because of Seton Hall! And a number of other teams.

Anywho, we're coming down to the wire and the end of March Madness just in time to pay attention to a special session.

Why you gotta be hatin'?

Is there any particular reason why people would be jumping all over Vince Young and his alleged 6 on the Wonderlic test? Oh, I know, because he kicked some ass during the Rose Bowl and everybody knows he is the top prospect in the NFL Draft this year.

Bitches always hatin' cuz they can't do anything about it on the field.

Nooooooooooooo!

Michelle Kwan has had to pull out of the Olympic Games due to injury. The one thing that made me actually care what was happening in Turin, and now it's gone.

Did the Olympics start or something?

Just let me know when the hockey team is playing and when Michelle Kwan is skating (God she's a hottie).

Winter Games 2006

The Super Bowl is over

The Steelers emerge victorious, 21-10.

To be honest, I only watched the first quarter and a half, I listened through the end of the second quarter in my car, then I got to work and had to do other things. Sadly, it is other sports related work, but I didn't really have the time to stand over at the TVs and really watch. Not like I would have if I had been over at Spacemonkey's house watching the game on his new 42-inch plasma screen TV.

Here in the newsroom there were no nachos, no pizza and no beer. That's like blogger hell. It sure would have been fun to have liveblogged the game, but blogging isn't self-sustaining just yet. So I have to go to the day job (or should I say night job) to pay the bills instead of being entertaining for you good folks.

Coaches catching up

I just thought this was so cool, coaches using text messages to help with recruiting.

Back when Carter quarterback Michael Crabtree thought Kansas might be the place for him, he punched a few keys on his cellphone and sent a quick, powerful message to the coach who was trying to recruit him there.

Crabtree was letting him know the Jayhawks were on his mind.

"WHA UP COACH"

"Not much – U? Hws THE man doing?"

"Doing great!!!"

In today's high-tech world, coaches and recruits increasingly communicate by text messages. It's a quick way to keep in touch, and while it didn't help Kansas with Crabtree – he orally committed to Texas Tech last week – it still let a coach show a recruit that he was trendy, too.

It is a brave new world, and we just live in it.

Young going pro

Vince Young is leaving the Texas Longhorns to enter the NFL Draft, and can you blame him?

After putting on a performance like last week's Rose Bowl, there isn't much left at the college level. If he gets his degree, I don't see what the problem is. He'll go in the first round, maybe even the No. 1 pick overall, and start making millions before he even puts on pads and warms up in spring training.

I would like to offer this: Vince Young deserves those millions. He's obviously worked hard to get from the shadow of Chris Simm's failures to leading the Longhorns to a national championship. Not an easy task. Good luck Vince. Hook 'em Horns!

Victory is sweet

Vince Young certainly has reason to celebrate tonight. He has finally proven, without a shadow of a doubt, that he is the top college football athlete. He may not have gotten the Heisman, but he wowed them with his performance tonight.

I'm going to get up early and head into Austin to get myself some Rose Bowl swag at the Co-op. I think a t-shirt and a sweatshirt should cover it. I don't want to blow all my money so no hat.

USC vs. Texas

I don't know if any of you are watching the Rose Bowl right now, but amazingly Texas got away with a touchdown after a lateral pass near the end zone. They got the extra point kick off before it could be reviewed (which he shanked) so Texas took the lead.

This game is already very exciting and it's not even halftime yet.

UPDATE: Halfway through the 3rd quarter Texas leads 23-17. If Texas wins, I'll consider it a birthday present from Jesus. If not, then God will have made a powerful enemy this day...

UPDATE 2: More than halfway through the 4th and Texas is down 37-26. What the hell?

UPDATE 3: A HAHAHAHAHAHA! Can you feel that? Can you feel Vince Young stickin' it in and breakin' it off. It is now a 5-point game with 4 minutes left to play. Can Vince be the one to bring back the glory to Austin? I hope so.

LAST UPDATE: Holy fucking shit!!!!! Texas wins 41-38. Texas is the national champion. I don't know about you people, but I wish I was getting plastered in Austin right now.