Here I go, here I go, here I go again (now imagine a guitar just kicked in)
133 - I don't know why you would want it, but here's the inside scoop on Tacoma, Washington. http://www.exit133.com/
Everyone say hi to Zach Johnson. Zach, say hi to the world. Johnson is a native of Iowa and since I'm from Iowa I have known about this guy for years ... yeah, right. No one knew Johnson could win, not his parents, not his coach, and if he had a choice, the smart money would have been on Tiger Woods coming back to beat him. But the course beat everyone except for Johnson.
Johnson was born in Iowa City and is currently living in Cedar Rapids. This is his second win ever in his nine year career. In 2007, his best finishes were 9th and 14th before his Masters' win. His final round of -3 tied for the lowest of the day and he finished at +1.
Sunday offered some good golf, especially considering Saturday, where a 7-foot putt had no chance of going in.
Rich Hill and Carlos Zambrano pitched back-to-back gems, with Hill having a perfect game through five innings. Then Wade Miller came along and messed up the possibility of the sweep against the Brewers.
But more importantly ... I am going to opening day. The pitching match-up is Woody Williams vs Ted Lilly (currently a Cy Young contender, but then again, aren't we all). More importantly, the high today is 40 degrees. I already saw snow this morning. I have two pairs of pants, two pairs of gloves, two pairs of socks, a hat and hand warmers ready to go. I will not be cold.
*Want to find an R2D2 mailbox? Here is a map of the current locations. click here
*Premiere has the 20 coolest cameos in movie history. But they forgot to list Samuel L. Jackson in "Out of Sight." click here - any other cameos they missed?
132 - When counting in binary with fingers, expressing 132 as 0010000100 results in the isolation of the middle fingers of each hand, a gesture generally considered rude. The corresponding one-handed gesture is the representation of 4 ... I have no idea what this means, but I believe I just insulted computer geeks everywhere.
Movie Review
"Grindhouse"
If there is a god, clearly he likes laying on the couch, sipping a beer or two, eating some chips, having the remote in one hand and the other tucked just under his belt ... I'm talking about the best lazy sports weekend of the year.
The Reasons:
1. Baseball is in full swing for the first weekend of the year. The games don't matter (still 158 to go) but you still get to check out your team and take in the new faces.
2. A tradition, unlike an other ... It's the Masters on CBS
3. Random NBA game that might matter but you don't have to start watching until the 4th quarter.
4. If your name is Mark, then you are probably spending most of the weekend gearing up for the NFL draft ... The Chicago Bears ... are on the CLOCK.
I was talking to a friend last night and both of us decided golf is the one sport that you really don't need/want the underdog coming through. Does anyone really want to see an unknown put on the green jacket Sunday afternoon? I want Tiger (4 shots off the lead at +1) and Phil (+4 after the first day) ... so maybe I want Sergio. So, in other words Brett Wetterich, you need to stop playing well right now.
It's still too early to get addicted to the Cubs (1-2). But that will probably end after this weekend. Expect a Monday feature on the Cubs every week.
*Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie is the man the Kentucky Wildcats will introduce as the head coach. I'm glad I can stop attacking like I cared about this story. I am one of the few that doesn't need Kentucky to be good to enjoy College Basketball.
*Daisuke Matsuzaka (Dice-K from now on) won his first game of the season for the Red Sox. Struck out ten.
*With Gilbert Arenas out for the season with a knee ... now I wish the Bulls would play the Wizards in the first round, whether it meant home court or not.
*I just wanted to thank "The Office" for coming back. I missed you so much. And I could listen to Dwight talk about heroes all day.
*Want to go to a summer festival? Rolling Stone is here to help - click here
*There is a new album of Joni Mitchell covers. You can listen to the original and the cover. Artists include Sufjan Stevens and Prince. click here
123 - a pretty creepy looking Web site - http://123.org/.
First off, just an amazing comeback by Georgetown. North Carolina was nailing their free-throws, but nothing else. They were 1 for 23 from the field over the last 15 minutes of the game. And I loved every minute of this simply because I had Georgetown over North Carolina in my bracket ... a brack I had left for dead, which was terribly wrong of me ... by the way Mike D - how did that feel? You still going to try and find a North Carolina National Championship hat?
I have 3 of 4 teams left, and though I can't win, when Florida meets Ohio State in the championship, I will finish in the top 5 and respectability will be MINE!!! Plus, I've seen the prize and I'm kind of glad I am not winning.
The driver's seat belongs to Andrew Edwards (AE, bad shoulder, Elijah's little brother, UFC Fan, Sondre Lerche fan). Later this week I will crank up the senario generator and get WAY too involved in over-analysis.
Georgetown vs. Ohio State. Florida vs. UCLA. Big men are the key to three of these teams.
*Kobe Bryant is off his game, only getting 43 points last night, and ending his streak of 50-point games are 4. Let the embarrassing comparisons to Ricky Davis begin, this guy has clearly lost a step.
*Tiger Woods is good. He won at Doral for the sixth time. Again, logic says to take him against the field for the Masters.
*Joe Thiesmann is gone on Monday Night Football. In all likihood, Ron Jaworski will replace him.
*Anthony Adams is a Bear. The DT from the San Francisco 49ers just signed with the Bears for 4 years. ESPN.com had him ranked 25 on the list of free-agent veterans. Until he plays I really have no feelings about this. Though I do like that Tank Johnson can now rest comfortably in jail, knowing his position is taken care of.
*I haven't finished watching Peyton Manning on SNL, but so far, it looks like a thumbs up. The United Way commercial was just amazing. Click here to watch
*Monday Box Office
1. TMNT - $25 million - the top three seem about right. Lots of action at the box-office.
2. 300 - $20
3. Shooter - $14 - I gave it a C-, but I am starting to think I want to watch it again ... so I can laugh at it.
4. Wild Hogs - $14 - if you people make me go see a sequel I will KILL. Stop spending money on this movie!
5. The Last Mimzy -$10
*Premiere Magazine just released their list of the best 25 movie posters of all time. And only "Silence of the Lambs" came out in my lifetime. Click here to read
Perhaps I will find a moment tomorrow, but otherwise this could be my last post before the Bears win the Super Bowl (I'm not positive that they will win, nor is any other human being, I just really hope they do).
I believe the final score will be ...
Bears 31, Colts 21
- Manning makes the Manning face.
- The Bears are actually down early in the game.
- Grossman doesn't suck.
- Phil Simms will talk WAY too much about Peyton Manning, brother Eli and dad Archie.
- Jim Nantz will say, "The Super Bowl, an experience like no other," twenty times, forgetting he is not covering the Master's ... on CBS.
- Prince will not lip-sync his halftime show (more of a hope than belief)
- Billy Joel will not be a fan of high-definition TV, having more women exclaim, "I can't believe how old he looks."
- Brian Urlacher is the MVP.
- Dallas Clark and Bob Sanders (Iowa alums) both have big games -- just not big enough.
- I will make many, many, many Super Bowl bets ... and break even.
Tomorrow is my own personal run at the play-offs.
Chicago's audition for the World Series of Pop Culture. The WSOPC is game show on VH-1, which tests you and your two teammates' knowledge of movies, music and TV.
My teammate John (flying in from Atlanta) assumes we will be done at about 10:15 a.m. and can enjoy the rest of the weekend. I still have hope.
I won't be able to talk about details of the audition for a while, but I plan on doing a story for it for Beep.
Tiger could clearly do any sport if he wanted to ... including the sport of tackling caddies.
click here to watch
Can you imagine if he would have got injured filming this? From what I hear, the caddy had many stitches in the chin.
*Camera Obscura - Saturday night - Logan Square Auditorium - $15
*Final Harry Potter book is out July 21.
*Ed Helms is now a series regular on "The Office" - hopefully he won't always be as annoying as last episode.
*iConcertCal is brilliant (if you like your iTunes and concerts). And it's free.
I'm not talking about the weather. It's my brain. After about 112 hours in Las Vegas and 16 hours of sleep, I'm back. My pocket is lighter but only because of expenses, I broke even in the gambling department. And the way I broke even? Making a two-game parlay on the only available NBA and college basketball games late Sunday night. Didn't even know I won until the next morning.
Craps and poker are now going to be my Vegas games 80 percent of the time, with black jack making up the remainder. For those that know craps (it was my first time), I rolled at a table for 30 minutes straight. People were happy. I was happy. Las Vegas is a great place (this time).
And our ultimate frisbee team (ihurt - Iowa Hawkeye Ultimate Reunion Team) finished 8th out of 20, going 3-2 and being content with how we played.
*Roger Federer is the Tiger Woods of tennis. Because of my friend John, a die-hard Federer fan, we watched the final match at a ... gentleman's establishment. Federer is just too good. He dropped something like four points in the final two sets on his serve ... I still want them to go back to wooden rackets.
*Tiger Woods is the Roger Federer of golf. He won the Buick again and also recorded his 7th straight win on the PGA tour. Second best streak of all-time.
*The Suns finally stopped winning every single game. The Timberwolves beat them last night to stop the 17-game win streak. They are 33-2 in their last 34 games.
Happy Fun Ball (John, Kenzie and me) will be auditioning for the World Series of Pop Culture on Friday morning. If it was today, I would be saying, "It's on the tip on my tongue," every single question. Now, I'll probably just say it every third time.
*I get home at 11 p.m. last night, and decide to watch the SAG awards from my Tivo. "Little Miss Sunshine" won for best overall cast. It might be gaining speed for an Oscar run. I still can't believe "The Departed" isn't winning everything.
*Want to buy a t-shirt for charity designed by Rilo Kiley, Stars, or others? click here
*Indiana Jones starts production in June.
The Bears are back! The Bears are back! The Bears are back! They tossed the Seahawks aside last night 37-6. I haven't been this excited about a Bears team since I was convinced we would win the Super Bowl in 1986, 1988, 1991 ... and then started to realize it just wouldn't be happening. Hope is coming back to Chicago ... yes, with hope resting on the shoulders of Rex Grossman, I'm still a little nervous.
The Best
QB
Drew Brees: 349 yards, 1TD
Mark Brunell: 329 yards, 3TD, 1INT
RB
LaMont Jordan: 128 yards, 1TD
Laurence Maroney: 125 yards, 2TD
WR
Roy Williams: 139 yards
Santana Moss: 138 yards, 3TD
The Unbeaten (no losses): Colts, Ravens, Bears
The Beaten (no wins): Lions, Buccanears, Titans, Raiders
Even though Tiger Woods has said his streak of consecutive wins is over (because of a match play tournament), the PGA says otherwise. Woods won the AmEx tournament by eight shots to win his sixth tournament in a row. The record is 11, held by Byron Nelson who recently died.
The Hawkeyes kept it close. Thanks to Mr. Cannon for the text messages. I wasn't able to watch the Iowa vs. Ohio State game on Saturday night because I was at a wedding. Not a big deal since Ohio State controlled almost every aspect of the game. Now I am just hoping we only have one more loss (at Michigan).
Bold team has home field advantage (more tomorrow)
AL:
Oakland vs. Minnesota
Detroit vs. New York
NL:
Los Angeles vs. New York
St. Louis vs. San Diego
j NCAA: 3-0 (Season 7-4-1)
billy z NCAA: 2-1 (Season 7-3-2)
j NFL: 2-1 (Season 8-3-1)
mike d NFL: 1-2 (Season 7-5)
Sunday's Best
QB
Jon Kitna: 342 yards, 2TD, 1INT
Brett Farve: 340 yards, 3TD
RB
Willis McGahee: 150 yards
Willie Parker: 133 yards, 2TD
WR
Andre Johnson: 152 yards
Roy Williams: 138 yards, 1TD
The Still Undefeateds:
Chicago, Seattle, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Indianapolis. San Diego is 2-0 and on a bye. MNF tonight has the Falcons (who look great at 2-0) and the Saints (who are looking ordinary at 2-0) playing.
The Defeateds:
Tennessee, Houston, Cleveland, Tampa Bay, Detriot. Oakland and Kansas City are 0-2 on a bye. But we can assume Oakland will be going 0-3, and 0-4 and so on.
Game of the Week:
I'm giving it to the Bears. They beat the Vikings 19-16, just like the spread said they would. After Rex Grossman threw a terrible toss to the Vikings are a touchdown, logic was not on the side of the Bears. But they later forced a fumble, and Grossman hit Davis for the game scoring touchdown.
Undefeated Iowa will play undefeated THE Ohio State Univeristy this Saturday night. Again, I'll be at a wedding (happily) and the groom is still debating whether to put a TV in the bar area or not, stay tuned.
Notre Dame beat Michigan State. The Spartans had a 17-0 lead and a 27-17 lead. Final score was 40-37. The Irish outscored them 26-6 in the 2nd half. When will teams STOP going into prevent with the lead? Playing a completely different gameplan than the one that got you the lead is ignorant.
I need someone to do some sort of analysis on why Americans suck at international competitions. The Americans got smacked around 18.5 - 9.5. Tiger posted a 3-2 record which actually improved his overall record. Europe isn't even a team (just golfers we force to join together for this competition) and they killed us. Basketball, Baseball, Golf ... these are the sports we are currently proving we aren't the best at. Well done. Just like Hulk Hogan I'm proud to be an American.
Ouchtown, population 3. Life has decided reality needs to be back in the lives of j, billy z, and mike d.
NCAA
j: 0-2-1 (season 4-4-1)
billy z: 1-1-1 (season 5-2-2)
NFL
j:1-1-1 (season 6-2-1)
mike d: 0-3 (season 6-3)
I guess mike d was right, you don't mention a no-hitter while it's going on. Now we have to be that crafty old veteran and work ourselves out of the jam.
Every team has about ten more games to go. So, with about 90 percent certainty, I can state the following ...
In the playoffs for the AL
Yankees, A's, Tigers, Twins (with the last two deciding between the division and wild card)
In the playoffs for the NL
Mets, Cardinals ... then it's still a toss up between the Dodgers, Padres and Phillies. And the Giants or Marlins still could have a chance (they are 3.5 & 4 games behind the wild card right now).
Speaking of the Marlins, Dontrelle Willis pitched into the ninth inning helping beat the Mets, but more importantly he did it with his bat. Willis hit TWO home runs, and even added an RBI single. After that, he was humble. So that's a pretty big list of things you don't normally see a MLB pitcher do.
OK. The White Sox are done, and I really didn't like the idea of following and slightly cheering for them this year. I did that last year, and as a Cub fan some people feel like I spit on a grave or something. With that said, whoever wants me (and the power of this column) I'm yours. Just leave a message in the comments section and I will be a _________ fan for the playoffs. The best comment wins my support. Support = a little exicitement, a little space on the column. If wondering, yes, I'm, very nervous that NO ONE will leave a comment, proving that my time is not well spent.
Don't make Tiger angry, you won't like him when he's angry....
"My wife, yes, she has been a model prior, and she did do some bikini photos," Tiger Woods said. "But to link her to porn Web sites and such is unacceptable, and I do not accept that at all. Neither does our team."
The AP reported the above quote. If you haven't heard, an Irish tabloid linked photos of his wife to various porn sites. They have apologized and didn't think anyone would take them seriously. Once again, Americans overreacting to porn. It's amazing Woods is this upset about the whole thing, and that fact that he says his team is upset as well is just icing. Is this going to be their motivation? It's already hard to believe Woods is on a team that is considered an underdog. It just seems like a tough rallying cry, "We'll kill foreigners in golf because their tabloids are ogling our trophy wives (in golf, they're called trophy wives because you only see them if her man wins the tournament)!!" Couldn't we just go back to hating the Soviet Union and communism? That was so much easier.
Friday is coming which means very quick movie reviews ("Jackass Number Two" and "All The King's Men") and as always PICKS. Remember we (me, billy z, mike d) are 19-4-1 on the season. Which means if you would have bet $1000 on each game, you'd be up $354,000 so far on the season, drinking margarita's by the pool ... or something like that.
Tiger Woods is playing in the World Match Play Tournament this weekend. He's currently down 3 to Shaun Michael after 18 holes. They have 18 more to play. When Tiger was an amateur, there was tons of talk about how dominating he was in match play. This hasn't shown up in Ryder Cup or Match Play tournaments. The PGA has decided this tournament does not affect his five tournament win streak.
The Twins' Francisco Liriano is done for the rest of the season. After resting for five weeks, he pitched into the third inning before slumping over. He said he heard a pop. Now Tommy John surgery is possible, plus the Twins are now only 1.5 games up in the wild card race. Liriano being done might not affect the Twins hopes for the playoffs, but now they won't have the edge in a 5-game series.
Did you hear the one about a 3rd string punter stabbing the 1st string punter in his kicking leg? The Northern Colorado Bears are finally getting some press, the worst possible kind. Have fun being the running joke that comedians beat into the ground for the next couple weeks.
I can't wait to be a parent. Here's a news video about a parent having the guts to attack a kid, cause his son was blocked on the football field. Dad of the year just got a little easier to win with this guy out of the running.
Whitney and Bobby have seperated. It's a shame we know these two people based on their first names.
Weird Al is still alive. And better than ever, or at least better than he has been the last 10 years. He's posted a free song called Don't Download This Song.
It's picks, picks, picks!
I will go up against mike d in NFL picks and newcomer billy z in NCAA picks.
College Football is back. Which means the NFL is moments away, and men everywhere finally can start ignoring their families/yard work/the rest of the world on the weekends ... Monday nights, some Thursday nights and random moments during the week while they are updating their Fantasy Football teams.
So what did we learn?
*Texas has the greatest name for a quarterback ever (Colt McCoy - 177 yards passing, 3 TD).
*Ohio State is potent on offense and impotent of D. And either THE Ohio State University or Texas will be out of the national championship picture after they play next weekend.
*Notre Dame is perhaps, just perhaps, slightly overrated. They eeked out a victory over Georgia Tech, 14-10. Next week - Penn State.
*It's always amusing to listen to local guys. During the Iowa vs. Montana game, they were talking Drew Tate as a Heisman candidate. The only way this is happening is if Iowa doesn't lose a game all season, and if Tate's new receiver Brodell actually hangs on to the ball. He dropped four by my count.
*Miami's season is now dependent on playing perfect football for the rest of the season and hoping that everyone else messes up at least once. Perhaps playing a highly ranked opponent early in the season isn't the smartest path, even if it's more entertaining for the viewers. The rest of college football knows this. Which is why only two ranked teams (Miami and Cal) lost this week.
The Cubs are a half game away from being the worst team in the worst league ... But, if Dusty had his horses healthy, I'm sure it would be a completely different story. Zambrano might be done for the season, so they can stop pretending he had a chance at the Cy Young. With less than a month left in the season, it's time to make some pointless predictions that are sure to go wrong ... But if they're right, you won't hear the end of it.
AL MVP: Derek Jeter
NL MP: Ryan Howard
AL playoffs: Detriot, Chicago, Oakland, New York
NL playoffs: St. Louis, New York, Florida, Los Angeles. World Series: Yankees vs Mets. Yawn.
Tiger Woods won his 5th in a row at the Deutsche Bank Championship. He is tied for second with Ben Hogan for 6 in a row. Byron Nelson won 11 in a row. This streak is just as impossible as Joe DiMaggio's 56. But here's the difference, NO ONE in baseball is as good as Tiger is in golf. The sport is fairly boring when Tiger is winning every third tournament, but this streak is now becoming must watch for sports fans.
Andre Agassi is done with tennis. I can't imagine a reason I watch the sport now. He lost to Benjamin Becker in a four-set match that was much closer on paper. Agassi was a shell of his former self. I was just hoping he could pull a Jimmy Connors and make a run. After the match, Agassi sat and sobbed in his chair, soaking up the center court moment for the last time. That was a much better moment than his prepared speech to the crowd. But he deserved whatever he wanted to do after his final match. If it wasn't for his personality, tennis would have been very boring the last 21 years.
Good Day: Andy Roddick rolled over Becker and gives hope to America tennis, for at least one more day.
Bad Day: QB Jeff George was cut by the Raiders after just six days. Making this article, from ESPN Page 2's Jason Whitlock VERY pointless.
Worse Day: Cubs Catcher Michael Barrett was hit in the groin by a ball. He had bleeding inside his scrotum. Amazingly, he took an at-bat before stopping play. If you were curious, a bleeding scrotum takes about two to three weeks to heal.
