Beach Muscles

What are beach muscles?

The look good on the beach but...

I used to teach my brother about having them too.

The Next LeBron???

14 years young?

Wow!!!

Why Couldn't It Have Been LeBron???

Sorry.  Celtics fan here...

Bracket Buster

Did ya'll see that kid's leg snap in the NCAA Tournament yesterday?

Well now you have!

You are most welcome.

You know there was a time when I could name the starting fives AND the benches of almost all the top 30 college basketball teams.

But those days are long gone.

In fact before this weekend (I watched 3 games) I couldn't name a SINGLE player in the entire country (outside of Lawrence Funderburke and Jeff Lebo).

Boston, Bailed Out?

I harbor a strong belief that if the Boston professional sports teams hadn't done so well over the past 13 years...

That the New England area would have suffered a significantly larger population decline.

Think I'm nuts?  Think I'm a Moron?

Well I'm most certainly not a Moron.

Look, I grew up there and I remember what it was like when the Patriots sucked royally and when the Red Sox were chronic chokers (a la the Philadelphia Eagles!).

The Red Sox are looking to BLOW for a long time now.  The Celtics are about to begin *rebuilding*.  And Tom Brady can't have more than 2-3 magical years left.  So then what?  What is everyone going to treat their misery, their SAD with?

Yes.  Those stubborn 'old coots' are moving to Florida.  And I'll bet a bunch more decided recently.

This winter has been harsh.  I saw a pic of reader Private Caller in his Central Massachusetts driveway....and the snow bank was nearly up to his eyeballs.  And he's a big guy too, measuring 6 foot 3.

Yes it would have to be a very bad winter to get some of those rock heads to move south.  But here's some proof that it's been a *hell frozen over* situation:

....my biological father actually started paying someone to plow his driveway!

Two Sets of Rules - EVERYWHERE

Remember when Michael Jordan burst into the NBA?

I don't either. Bird and Magic were A LOT better.

But after a few years, this ball-hog was granted a license to repeatedly break the rules.

He was traveling and carrying the ball almost EVERY SINGLE TIME he dribbled.

The NBA didn't care. And all of a sudden poseurs on the playground took to those big loopy, ILLEGAL dribbles and that extra half step when driving.

Now take a look at Lebron James today.

Every single time he bounces the ball, he pushes the defender away with his off-hand. He's actually quite adept at it - does it almost in one rhythmic motion.

I mean the guy is a monster, tall and strong. And the ability to commit offensive fouls on each drive makes him even more of a monster on the court.

Now that I think of it....Shaq was allowed to step over the free throw line after each attempt/miss back in his day too.

Sports Biography - Andre Agassi

I just enjoyed another can't-put-it-down biography - Open - tennis star Andre Agassi's autobiography.

It's a pretty amazing story. The guy is only a few years older than me and I remember vividly how he burst onto the scene with all sorts of hype - only to underachieve tremendously.

His lesser-touted peers Michael Chang, Jim Courier, and Pete Sampras all surpassed him.

Then, and I didn't even realize this because it happened in my later, self-orbital years when I had stopped following tennis, Andre finally turned the corner and won something like 8 Grand Slam events. (I had no idea! I thought he just won Wimbleton that once.)

Well it turns out that Andre suffered a lost childhood at the hands of his hard-charging father. And that he HATED TENNIS for many, many years.  His chronicles of depression and self-loathing will definitely shock readers.  I mean, how could he possible HATE tennis?

A hard-charging father myself I found this aspect of Andre's story to be of particular interest. I mean...his father was completely wacko in every regard.

Of course, ultimately, in Andre's climb to the top of the world rankings Mr. Agassi enjoyed the precise results he had been striving for.

Yeah there were some bumps and some *costs* along the way...

But there's plenty of downside to soft-charging parenting as well!

I'd bet anyone around the age of 40 and with a slight interest in sports will thoroughly enjoy this read.

ADDENDUM - Oh yeah, almost forgot. In one part of the book Agassi tells how he introduced Steffi Graf's hard-charging ESL father - his future father-in-law to his own ESL lunatic father.

Well, through broken English these two 'old coots' started fiercely arguing about the proper way to raise a tennis star - backhand techniques and whatnot - took their shirts off, challenged each other's manhood and just about came to blows!

Lawyers Ruling Spineless Morons

Would y'all believe me if I told you that our town's baseball league has decreed that all players (age 7) have to wear a *heart-guard*???

Not just catchers or pitchers, but everyone.

This is flat-out ridiculous!

They also say that all the boys need to wear cups. Whatever. I can guarantee you that the cups would CAUSE more injuries, by a factor of 100, than they would prevent.

A few years ago I blogged on kids in San Diego having to wear helmets(!) while they play soccer...

But I think the heart-guards top that in terms of insanity.

See also - Over-Protection Run Amok.

Messing With Mean Little Guys...

It's about time, really. After 30+ years of rooting for my beloved Boston Celtics....the green team finally has a young guard who plays defense like I did!

Avery Bradley = Yet another draft steal by mastermind Danny Ainge...

BTW, the kid (age 21) is only 6'2.

A Tale Of Two Nines...

Wow!

For those of y'all who don't know how to keep score (honestly)....Sergio Garcia, the 'Rory McIlroy' of yesteryear, shot a sizzling 5-under on the front and a disastrous 8-over par on the back nine.

I've certainly done that before, in a manner of speaking. But I usually do it the other way - 10-over on the front, 1-over on the back. I reckon I've done that a bunch of times.

UPDATE - Check out the OCTUPLE BOGEY:

After eagling the first hole too!

Mr. Clutch?

Only 6'1 and 170 lbs, my alma mater UPenn's Zack Rosen may not be NBA-bound....but apparently he's had a pretty impressive season:

As Penn heads to Princeton Tuesday night, trying for a share of an improbable Ivy League title and a playoff date with Harvard, Palestra regulars come up with their own ways of calibrating the sensational play they have seen from Zack Rosen all season.

"People sometimes think coaches have more control than we do. His ability to just make plays sometimes even amazes me," Penn coach Jerome Allen said of his senior point guard. "I can maybe count on both hands how many times this season he's had open looks. Not too often."

Stu Suss has sat by Penn's bench since Chuck Daly was the Quakers coach - during the Nixon administration - always coming up with numbers that don't appear on the stat sheet. Ask Suss if he has any interesting Rosen stats beyond his Ivy-leading 18.5 points per game or his 5.3 assists, and he answers, "As a matter of fact . . . "

In the last five minutes or in overtime of Ivy League games in which the score was within eight points - "in that specific clutch situation," Suss explained - Rosen had played 48 minutes, which happens to be the length of an NBA game.

Rosen's box-score line in those 48 clutch-situation minutes: 53 points, plus 6 assists, 1 rebound, 1 blocked shot, 1 steal, 2 personal fouls and 2 turnovers.

Asked if he can think of a player carrying a team as Rosen has carried the 2011-12 Quakers, Phil Samko, the Quakers' basketball trainer since 1985, goes away from basketball and back to his own youth in Worcester, Mass. "Not since Yaz and the '67 Red Sox," referring to Carl Yastrzemski's Triple Crown season.

I'll pull one more little quote from that article:

"I don't believe in talent," Rosen said.

Hah! That seems to be the theme wherever I look these days...

Rocky Was A True Story?

Thanks to reader Kevin for posting this clip in the comments of Dos Movie Recs.

Moron, Immortalized By YouTube!

Jump ahead to the 30 second mark:

Still On A Roll...Enjoying It While It Lasts

Hah!

It's been almost unfair though - how consistently good the Patriots have been over the past 10 years.

If the Pats and Red Sox hadn't been so successful over the past decade....I bet the region's population would have shrunk 5% over that time period. Seriously - think a horrible economy AND skyrocketing energy prices. Those people up there have very, very little going on outside of a pagan obsession with their teams.

(The Patriots just destroyed Tim Tebow's Broncos in a playoff game, 45-10, and are playing the Ravens this week for a berth in the Super Bowl.)

The Next Tim Tebow?

His name is Bud Cauley and it's okay if you can't remember that. Because he most likely will be reminding you shortly with his performance.

Last year, he was quietly only the 6th golfer EVER to qualify for the PGA Tour by circumventing the Qualifying School - joining the likes of Phil Mickelson and Eldrick Woods.

From Wiki:

After finishing his junior year at Alabama, Cauley qualified for the 2011 U.S. Open and decided to turn professional, foregoing his senior season.[1] In his short professional career, Cauley did not miss a cut in the first four PGA Tour events he played. which included a T4 at the Viking Classic. He also finished T4 on the Nationwide Tour's Utah Championship. Cauley made the cut at the U.S. Open, finishing T63 and guaranteeing himself a bypass to the second stage of Q School.

Cauley also finished third at the 2011 Frys.com Open, earning himself $340,000 and a start at the McGladrey Classic, since Cauley used his last exemption and non-members who finish in the top ten in a PGA Tour event are guaranteed a start in the next tournament. During his limited time on the PGA Tour, Cauley earned $735,150 in eight starts. He finished the equivalent of 116th on the 2011 money list...

So how is Bud the *next Tebow*???

Well, just like Tim, Bud was HOMESCHOOLED by his parents.

It's just very hard to get those magical 10,000 hours critical to subject mastery in without *active parents*.

Bud shot 4-under yesterday at the Sony Open - good enough for a T5 early standing at this his first event of 2012.

See also - 10 Celebrities that Give Homeschooling a Good Name.

Nobody Likes Pittsburgh Anyway

My kids were cheering for the *homeschooled* quarterback today in that American tackle football contest.

I was rooting for him because Denver will be an easier opponent for my Patriots next Sunday.

Though it's too bad New England doesn't have a good defense anymore....

Back in the days of Teddy Bruschi and Rodney Harrison a horrible quarterback like Tebow wouldn't stand a chance.

Hey Rush Limbaugh, maybe your Steelers losing is an omen?

Soccer Moms And Hockey Dads - Insane?

A few weeks ago I found out my cousin's son (my second cousin?) has soccer practice 3 days a week on top of a Saturday game.

Big deal, right?

Well the boy is NINE!

Then the other day I found out that one of my son's local age-mates started playing youth hockey.

Guess what....he's at the rink 5 DAYS PER WEEK.

I just don't get it.

There's no way this is time and energy wisely spent. Whether the child likes it or not....whether you think they like it or not....even if the whole town is doing it.

By committing so much to one activity they are inherently narrowing the kid's life experience. What about the other things they might like even more - things that by default they won't get any exposure to?

And I say this as someone who laments how much of their youth was wasted on organized sports.

I should have been computer programming, running a lawn business, learning a musical instrument, or dabbling in something else that could have paid lifetime dividends.

It does suck that kids can't go down to the park and get their fill of stickball soccer or whatever these days. (No one is there to play with!)

But parents need to open their eyes and push back a little.

I started soccer and basketball at age 8 and I was STILL overly committed.

My freakin' daughter started local soccer last year when she was 4!

Though when my son had the opportunity to start traveling team soccer this fall my wife and I passed - without even the tiniest afterthought.

Meanwhile many of the boys in town not only opted for the traveling team (Saturdays)....but they are also co-enrolled in the intra-town league on Sundays.

And on the sidelines all they do is grumble about *chauffeuring* kids all over the place!

All I'm saying is that there certainly are diminishing returns to youth sports and the point at which they start descending is probably a whole lot earlier/lower than the lumpen masses are aware of.

As Big As A Pachyderm...

From halftime of last week's New England Patriot drubbing of the Jets:

But sans the *thick skin*!!!

(Fan yelled, "Rex, Belichick is better than you...)

Retro Fighting

Someone told me about this *comeback* today - jousting!

Is it more Moronic/dangerous than UFC and whatnot - getting skewered?

Apparently there's a new show devoted to it on color TV too:

I have to admit....I've started getting into the UFC stuff - as gruesome as it is.

Over-Protection Run Amok!

I caught a bit of a middle school soccer game last week and was shocked to see the goalies wearing helmets. What a ridiculous precaution!

Then Googling for images I came across the outrage above. Everyone on the field wearing freakin' helmets?!?!?!

I think in Massachusetts soccer players have to wear mouth-guards as well.

With all this padding the nannies are turning a terrific manly sport in a sissy-game  a la American football.

If I was a kid again I probably wouldn't play soccer....or ride a bike if I had to wear a stupid helmet!

Categorically speaking I'm dead-set against buying or wearing protection.