Sports Views

I am thankful that I live in an area that has 4 major sports franchises. The Stars are getting things together this season and if they continue to improve, they promise to be very competitive in the playoffs. The Mavs are off to a great start and will only get better as they gel under Avery Johnson. The Cowboys are among the top teams in the NFC and have a good shot at winning the NFC East. The Rangers are in the middle of what promises to be a very eventful off-season.

One interesting note in the first half was that Yao Ming, once considered the best player to come out of his draft class, was a major liability against the Suns. There were more than a few times that we saw the Suns score only to see Yao Ming just enter the picture on the television screen. In the second half (and maybe the first half) Ming started “cherry-picking” on defense during free throws. Instead of having him try to get the rebound on a Rockets free throw miss, he was down at the other free throw line so he might be able to play defense. If I were a Rockets fan, I would be very upset about his lack of skills.

The entire offense isn't that old... just the offensive line. Willie Roaf (LT) is 35, Casey Wiegmann (C) is 32, and Will Shields (RG) is 34. But also consider that Brian Waters (LG) is only 28, and Jordan Black (RT) is even younger at 25. Take a look at the receiving core too. Eddie Kennison is getting up there at 32, but Sammy Parker is 24, Dante Hall is 27, Chris Horn is 28, and Marc Boerigter (who is way under utilized) is only 27. Granted, the face of the offense is Trent Green, who is 36... but quarterbacks can have much longer careers than your typical offensive linemen. What about running back? Sure Priest Holmes is getting up there, but Larry Johnson is doing fantastically in his place and he's only 26. Tony Gonzalez is only 29, and he's having a pro bowl season again this year with no signs of slowing.

I came across an editorial on CNNSI.com on, among other things, the play of Baron Davis and how he's helped turn the perpetually bad Warriors around and get them off to their best start in the franchise's history.

I mean, “Alito”? It’s a fantastic name for crosswords — a mere five letters long but brimming with regularly used consonants and vowels (and how generously alternating they are!). Alito, if confirmed, might find himself as the next Eero Saarinen (for years, the hottest architect on the crossword scene) or the next Ernie Els (the hottest crossword golfer, although Michelle Wie is creeping up on him).

Paul is a big guy and, on an American Airlines flight back in1986, I sat beside and chatted with a famous Dallas Cowboys football player. Unbeknownst to me, the player was 11-year career Cowboys player and three-time super bowler (1976, 1978 & 1979), Drew Pearson. During the flight, our conversation was interrupted numerous times. Various people came to say hello and wanted to see Drew Pearson’s ring – I thought Drew was a businessman. At the end of the flight, I asked Drew, “What’s all this business about your ring?” and “Are all these people friends traveling with you on a convention or something?” As embarrassed, as I was to learn of Drew’s celebrity, Drew seemed equally grateful that I hadn’t a clue, and no; these guys were not traveling with him on a “convention or something."

Now, I'm not into sports, but this is complete BS. The White Sox won their first World Series in a generation, but Monday Night Football (which is the main cover photo) is more important? A big FU to SI!

Hard as I tried, I couldn't really get into the game. For one thing, aside from Jason Kidd, there really wasn't any other player I wanted to root for. At the beginning of this year, I talked about how I had fallen off the wagon with basketball. Watching the other players on the court tonight, made me miss Stockton even more. I'm not impressed with these super tall, slam-dunking kids. Do you think it'll get to a point where they have to increase the height of the basket because players are getting too tall? It's all so ridiculous!

9. In some (maybe all) Asian countries, the family name is written first and the individual name written second (opposite of the America method). That’s why Asian athletes like Yao Ming and Ichiro Suzuki have Yao and Ichiro written on their jerseys. Those are their family names and in America their names are written Ming Yao and Suzuki Ichiro.

That said, you know one of those teams interested has to be the Raiders. A combo of Owens and Randy Moss may be so potentially exciting yet combustable, it may get Al Davis to shift in his chair during a game.

For about the first half of my life, I was a a baseball fan (New York Yankees since the mid 1980s). For the second half, I’ve been a football fan (Washington Redskins since the 1991 season). Usually, when someone learns about my taste for football, I’m confronted with a confused gaze and pressed to explain how I can follow such barbarity with such interest. An article about football as the American national pastime encourages me finally to summarize me these points:

I’m so used to searching for information by searching for web sites that contain the information I’m looking for. Search -> browse the results -> guess at which site might have what I’m looking for -> open the site -> start over if it isn’t there. Quite the time consuming process if you don’t make the right guesses. Today I was wondering what the current stats are for my old home town team, the Denver Broncos. I also wanted to know who they would be playing this weekend and when.

Walt "Clyde" Frazier just mentioned before the Knicks-Warriors telecast (ok, not "just" because I'm watching it delayed, but whatever) that Baron Davis is 6'3". Please! I know he's officially listed at that height, but if Teen Wolf has two inches on Derek Fisher and an inch on Stephon Marbury, then I'm listing myself at 5'11" from now on.

Then came the outliers, and the world was tossed into chaos. Two outliers in particular, Annika Sorenstam, and Michelle Wie, were two of the biggest stars in golf. One, an established star who dominated her sport, and the other a young phenom with an impressive drive. Some PGA tournaments desperately wanted to include these two players, for the notoriety they would bring, and because they could legitimately compete.

I said last year that T.O. was just another… (read above) and he should go. I seemed to be proven wrong when he came back to play in the Superbowl and I was, at the time, happy to be apparently proven wrong. Philly ultimately lost the game, but it was by no fault of any person on that field - we were outplayed and New England did a good job of exploiting Philly’s many screw-ups. But you watched the game and know that already.