Thursday, March 13, 2008

I don't know what to name this post so you make up something

Well, I guess the best place for me to start would be to say that the internet is finally running correctly. It was fixed a couple weeks ago and it seems that everything has been running fine since. From what I've gathered Comcast is upping the price for everything they offer.... internet, tv, phone. Glad we have Dish so we could watch the Big Ten Network... if I had really any desire to see the sorry Illini play this year. I don't understand why people think Weber's a great coach. He's not. His two best years were when he had Bill Self's recruits (Williams, Brown, Head, etc). After that, they've gone progressively downhill. Weber cannot recruit. He can't. And that reminds me... Illini fans need to get over the fact Eric Gordon didn't come to Illinois. So what he decided to go to Indiana... you were only going to get him one year anyway cause the only reason he's even in college this year is because of the NBA rule that players have to be one year removed from high school.

Staying with the topic of college basketball... I think the tourney is setting up to be a good one this year. I've missed filling out the brackets the last two years but when I was a freshman I had the best year I ever had with I think three of my four Final Four teams actually getting there and having Illinois vs. UNC in the title game.. I did have Illinois as the winner though so I messed up on that one. My grandparents, my dad, and myself all used to fill out brackets and see who the winner was. My Grandpa won that year with his choice of UNC as national champs but I did have the distinction of getting both of the last two teams correct. So this year it looks like there are about six or seven teams worthy of a #1 seed. I think North Carolina will be the #1 overall seed with two other seeds being UCLA and Memphis. The fourth #1 seed is somewhat up for grabs but I think Kansas will end up nabbing it.

This baseball year promises to be dandy in the AL East and the season is over three weeks from starting. Between George Steinbrenner's son mouthing off insults every chance he gets and Joe Girardi's pathetic complaints and also (alleged) actions in yesterday's Yanks/Rays game it's shaping up for a very interesting year. In the NL central, the obvious favorites are the Cubs (for some odd reason). It's been 100 years since the Cubbies won and a lot of fans think it would be great for them to win this year. No I don't think so. I think the Cards need to win a couple more championships first. I can honestly say however that I am NOT in favor of changing Wrigley Field's name. The place may be falling apart, but there is no way that the Cubs should play their home games at a park not named Wrigley Field until they finally decide to put the safety hazard out of it's misery and build a new stadium.

So continuing with the sports theme of this post I was very sorry/upset to hear Toyota won it's first race in NASCAR last week at Atlanta. I have nothing against Toyota (I think GM owns them in fact) but they are a foreign company. I don't care if they actually build the cars here and the Big Three don't that's not the point. They are a FOREIGN company... nothing has changed there. But alas! they are here now so I'll just have to get used to it. I'm still not completely sold on this new car but I like it more than I did before Daytona. The so-called Hendrick dominance has been non-existent through four races in terms of wins but they have had at least one car in the top five every week. Junior has gotten off to a great start with a top 10 and two top 5's and probably would have a third if he hadn't gotten screwed at California. Jimmie Johnson and Casey Mears have had some struggles this year and Gordon's DNFed two races so actually Junior's gotten off to the best start for Hendrick. Tony Stewert's complaints about the tires was probably warrented but taken a little too far. That said however, Goodyear needs to get a tire figured out for this car and they need to use different sets of tires for all three series. This new car is some 400 pounds heavier with less downforce than the old car. It's between 10-15 mph slower in the turns than the old car but still manages to attain over 200 mph like the old car. I love the FOX broadcasts but I get sick of all their praise for the car and also Kyle Busch as well. The car hasn't been all that bad but like I'm still not completely sold on it. I am really tired of hearing about Busch though. They give him more TV time than any other driver. I still like FOX broadcasts a lot but just lay back a little on Busch and the new car and I'll be fine.