Return of the Ramblings

Yeah, not going to say I'm back or promise more postings since it seems to be 2 weeks between my postings. Anyway, onto the Ramblings:

This is now my 9th season of fantasy football, and I have yet to figure out why I am still wondering why I keep kicking in money every year.

It is 2 days away from my favorite time of the year, as college football officially starts on Thursday.

Has anyone watched any of team USA’s games in the FIBA World Championships besides what they’ve seen on Sportscenter?

Can we please stop talking about T.O. sometime soon? Please?

Congrats to the Little League team from Georgia for winning the World Series yesterday with a 2-1 victory over Japan. The Americans scored the winning runs on a 2 run home run in the 4th inning, which would have been a 3 run home run if (winning pitcher) Kyle Carter would have stopped at third base like his coach was telling him to. Instead, he ran through the stop sign and the play wasn’t even close. A great play by the Japanese left fielder and catcher.

Is there anything more delightful than sitting on a boat having a beer on a beautiful Saturday afternoon? Oh yeah, going on 3 brewery tours while having a beer on a boat on a beautiful Saturday afternoon is more delightful. And the most delightful thing of all; paying just $25 to go on three brewery tours while sitting on a boat having a beer on a beautiful Saturday afternoon with a good crowd.

I don’t understand why “Wanted Dead or Alive” is such a popular Karaoke song, but it is, and I won’t complain because it gives me reason to do an impression of Mike Rowe discussing Sig Hansen’s strategy every time I visit Barley Pop Pub.

The softball season officially came to an end recently for Dufrense & Associates. 2 things stick out from this season, Schwai hitting an inside the park home run on a shot that should have led to a double at most. Strange thing is, I don’t know if an error even would have been awarded to anyone, they were just lazy getting the ball back in and Schwai is really fast. The other thing is something I had never seen before and really didn’t think I would ever see in softball. With 0 out and 2 on during one of our games, the batter hit a sinking line drive between short and third. The runners took off as it looked like it would be a sure hit, but the shortstop made a great play, caught the ball and immediately threw to second to double off our runner there. After having seen the ball get caught, the runner at first base headed back to first, but lost his footing and slipped just enough to get beaten back to the base by the ball for a triple play. Yeah, that’s right, a triple play in softball.

As you all know, I went pig wrestling for the first time this year. I’m thinking that a great promotion for this event would be to have midgets wrestling little pot bellied pigs.

“Shanks for Nothing” is a great follow-up to the book “Missing Links” by Sports Illustrated columnist, Rick Reilly. If you are a fan of entertaining, easy to read books about golf, pick this one up.

I recently picked up NCAA Football 2007. Here’s what I like, the kicking is more difficult this year, and you actually have to aim your kick with the right analog while pulling back for power instead of having it all set prior to kicking. Also, you can play the spring game and help your players improve. I don’t know why they brought back the “momentum meter” which was an addition to the last PS1 platform edition of the game. In that edition the momentum meter swung wildly in either direction even if the game was 53-3 in the 4th quarter and the team with momentum would invariably play out of their minds. The new momentum meter doesn’t swing as badly; only on turnovers and only if the game is still close. Also, the team with the mo doesn’t make ridiculous plays, which is nice. It is another solid game by EA Sports.

Prison Break on Fox started its much anticipated 2nd season last week and it went pretty much as expected. The acting has pretty much stayed the same, but the writing and dialogue has gotten worse. They did make one good move during the break by bringing in William Fichtner, on the ballot for the Holleywood “That Guy Hall of Fame”. He was the jerk commander in Armageddon and has a few other memorable roles. Fichtner is a capable actor and with the rest of this group, he should compliment Stacey Keach and Peter Storemare nicely as the top actors on the show. Never the less, I will continue to watch until it gets to The O.C. proportions in horrible acting and ridiculousness.

Speaking of bad acting, Entourage ended its third season this week with an episode featuring the firing of one Ari Gold. I will say this, if Jeremy Piven is off the show (which I doubt) I will give it one more episode to prove itself and then I will be done. The only reason I could possibly think of for the gang firing Ari is that Piven owns this show and Jeremy Piven hasn’t owned anything since he was in P.C.U., and he was almost overshadowed in that film by David freaking Spade. Piven shouldn’t be blowing other actors off the screen at any time. He is more than capable, but when you are sharing screen time with guys who combined have the theatrical range of a toaster (the guys playing Eric, Vince, and Turtle), it isn’t too tough to be a star.

What is with the Brewers? They sweep the Rockies and pretty much knock them out of contention and sit only 4.5 games back in the Central headed into the weekend and then lose 4 straight to the Marlins to drop to 62-69 and are now 8.0 games behind in the Central. I don’t get it, I’m done cheering for them this season.

Only 5 months until we realize how important ABC was to college football and the way the BCS games are presented as FOX takes over and will absolutely ruin the way we watch college football.

Recently, ESPN Classic was running replays of the best games from last season. I watched the Rose Bowl again and am just in awe of what a great game that was. You really can’t put into words what happened on that evening in January. Perhaps we will be able to in 10 years like we are now starting to be able to put into perspective what Tiger Woods has done for golf.

-Until next time…