Ricky Williams was given another chance. He played the second half of the 2005 NFL season, and he looked good in the public eye. NFL fans were starting to come around once again. Ricky was popular, at least for a while.
Now, Ricky has blown it again.
It’s been seven years since that pesky bunch of Gonzaga Bulldogs entered the NCAA Tournament as a number ten seed, and stunned the college basketball world by making it to the West Regional final against Connecticut. Now, in 2006 Coach Mark Few’s squad is receiving more national attention that ever, thanks to All American Adam Morrison. But yet, for one reason or another, many are still overlooking this dangerous team. For whatever the reason is, it’ll prove to be a mistake. When the Final Four assemblies in Indianapolis in six weeks, the Bulldogs will be there.
Everyone loves to say that records are made to be broken. So when someone like Cal Ripken comes along and breaks what is believed to be an absolutley, positively, your-so-dumb-if-you-think-anyone-will-ever-touch-it unbreakable record, it should be celebrated and appreciated forever. Or at least until someone breaks that record.
So, without sounding like a broken one, let’s talk records.
The NBA All-Star game is here again, so you know what that means? Its midseason awards time! As an avid reader of the popular sports websites out there, which I’m sure most you aspiring writers are, I have been beaten over the head with award prognostications. Nash or Kobe for league MVP; Chris Paul for Rookie of the Year, and Sam Cassell for Biggest Pair which he is so fond of telling us. Been there and read that. I’m up for something different, so in the tradition of ESPN’s Page 2 let me mix in a little pop culture with our sports. What would happen if the NBA got Lost?
Well, looks like the Powerball didn’t pan out for us again. Dog it, anyway. Maybe next time. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have 146 million years to wait for the jackpot, so I’ll take the next sure bet: winning at fantasy baseball.
I get a warm and fuzzy feeling this time of year. Winter will be wrapping up it’s tired-ass act soon, pitchers and catchers report to somewhere warmer than where we’re at, and those beloved fantasy baseball magazines start popping up on newsstands, like pimples on the forehead our sporting culture.
Last season, it was widely believed that Steve Nash won the NBA’s MVP award almost as much for what he didn’t do. This year, he’s showing that he deserves it for what he is doing. Remember the buzz last winter when Phoenix went into the tank for eight games while Nash was out with an injury? It showed the voters just how valuable the Suns point guard was to his team, and the voters chose accordingly.
Houston Astros 2006 Outlook: Pitching
By Mark Cooper
[Part 1 of 2]
The Houston Astros have had a successful run the past few seasons. Last season the team went 89-73, and went to the World Series, only to be swept by the White Sox. The season before they came one game away from reaching the World Series, but they lost to the Cardinals. The key to these teams has been Roger Clemens, who joined the team prior to the 2004 year. His past two seasons have been phenomenal, especially for a guy his age. However, Houston could not resign him and that leaves a hole for a young pitcher to fill in 2006. Overall, the consensus is the Astros are worse this year, and that they won’t make the playoffs.
After fighting through injuries and bad press, Kyle Vanden Bosch fought on and became one of the best stories of the last NFL season.
What do sports writers and lazy journalism majors do when they have a deadline and no real story to turn in? Well, first they go to the bar. Then they fall back on the old standby: The “notes” column, or as some of our more clever ilk might call it, “Random Thoughts From a Random Mind.” Just string seven or eight different topics into one column. The suckers, er, I mean readers eat it up every time.
So this is the time of the year that I reflect on what has been in the first half of the NBA season. Like most sports enthusiasts I would say that the NBA is working out just like most everyone thought. Detroit and San Antonio look like they are up for Round Two in the Finals, Kobe takes an ungodly amount of shots a game, and Isaiah Thomas is the worst GM ever. But there are some things happening in the league that intrigue me. Take for instance the Phoenix Suns. They don’t have one of the five best players in the league (Amare) and they have only 2/5 of the starting lineup they had last year and they still lead the Pacific and are a two seed in the West. LeBron James is a man-child, but we all knew that. However, it actually looks like the Cavs are not going to have a melt down and we get to see the King do his thing in the playoffs.