The Block

Earlier today, I wrote an article for the website that I work for AOSN and it dealt with JayVaughn's block. Did you see it / Here is the story: The Block

Kentucky Wildcats Shine

The University of Kentucky basketball team dominated their competition on Tuesday night. They played the # 5 team in the nation (Kansas) and took them to the woodshed.

They have done it by implementing a platoon system. I am writing for AOSN and you can find my insights on the system and game there.

Renteria Say No to Party

From Yahoo News ...



Because of all his big league heroics and huge moments in the Fall Classic, Edgar Renteria(notes) has long been considered a hero in his home country of Colombia.
But on Tuesday, the World Series MVP showed why the adulation is deserved past his exploits on the field.

Given the chance to be welcomed back to the city of Barranquilla MacArthur style, Renteria instead asked that any planned parties or parades be nixed.

The reason for the shortstop's request was simple: His hometown — an industrial port city in northern Colombia — has been ravaged by recent floods and Renteria prefers that all available money go toward helping the estimated 900,000 people who have been left homeless.

The shortstop made his request about the tribute from Miami on Tuesday. He is expected to arrive Thursday in Barranquilla, where his family lives.

Renteria says there are "more important things back home" and that it's critical to tend to the needs of those left homeless by the recent flooding.

Good on Renteria being in tune with the suffering going on in northern Colombia. After hitting that big three-run homer last week to help lift the San Francisco Giants to their first World Series title, Renteria could have opted for the hero's welcome. His chances for such an ovation (and calls from Hugo Chavez), after all, may be running out after the Giants' declined his contract option for 2011.

Instead, he used his platform as a way to draw more attention to and raise more money for what's going on in Barranquilla and other Colombian cities. Excellent move, Edgar.

Nava: 1st Pitch = Grand Slam

From Boston (AP) via Yahoo Sports

Red Sox outfielder Daniel Nava has hit the first pitch he faced in the big leagues for a grand slam.

Nava became only the fourth player to connect for a slam in his first major league at-bat—and second on the first pitch. Cleveland’s Kevin Kouzmanoff(notes) did it on Sept. 2, 2006, against Texas, according to STATS LLC.

Nava accomplished the feat in the second inning of Boston’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday when he sent Joe Blanton’s(notes) fastball into the Red Sox’s bullpen in right field.

The lefty hitting Nava was called up from Triple-A Pawtucket before the game. Outfielder Josh Reddick(notes) was optioned back to Pawtucket.

Nava is the 10th player in Red Sox history to homer in his first at-bat, and just the second to hit a slam. Rip Repulski hit a slam on May 10, 1960.

I think he should retire ....

Jacob & Blood

In the soccer game Saturday, Jacob was trying to make a defensive stop. The offensive guy from Northwestern was about 6 feet away from him and gave a powerful kick. The ball connected on Jacob's face. A great defensive play, but Jacob was hoping for a chest block stop, not a face :) There are two pics below, one of the impring of his glasses and another of us at the house after the game with his blood stains. He was proud of the battle scars.

Imprint of the Glasses



Blood Stained Clothes


Btw, they lost 2-1 in a hard faught game.

WVU: Final Four

WVU is going to the Final Four and even though I picked them to go to the Final Four, I am stunned and shocked. I still have a hard time believing that they are this good. Of course, I should have believed Huggins.




The above is contributed to the following:

Bob Huggins wants to give something special to West Virginia and isn't ready to celebrate just yet. (Jim McIsaac / Getty Images)

Dan Wetzel from Yahoo sums it up in the following manner:

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – On his first day as coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers in 2007, Bob Huggins told his team he was here to deliver a national championship to the school and the state he loves so dear.

That was it. That was the goal. All or nothing; a standard that clashed with history (no Final Four appearances since 1959), logic (no in-state recruiting base) and geography (West Virginia is one of our smallest, poorest states).


Bob Huggins wants to give something special to West Virginia and isn't ready to celebrate just yet.

“Why can other people say it and we can’t,” Huggins argued.

So there was Huggs up on a make-shift, mid-court NCAA stage Saturday night. The NCAA East Regional trophy was in one hand, mighty Kentucky was in its locker room weeping from a 73-66 defeat and the stands were full of West Virginians singing, “Country Roads.”

It was a heck of a moment, perhaps the greatest in the program’s history. Yet he wasn’t about to get all sentimental or satisfied at making some measly Final Four. After thanking the people of West Virginia he got right to it.

“I talk to these guys about being special,” Huggins said. “Two more would really be special.”

WVU is two games away from being National Champions, can they do it ? In my mind, I go NO WAY. In my heart, I go, I hope so. Of course, I have doubted them all season and they keep proving me wrong. They won the Big East Conference Championship and made it into the Final Four by defeating Kentucky, a team that many thought was poised to win it, especially after Kansas got bounced in the second round.

Alabama Wins

The hit that sealed the victory



Texas QB Garrett Gilbert fumbles the ball as he is hit by Alabama linebacker Eryk Anders in the fourth quarter.

From the AP, on the sack and fumble:

Alabama 24, Texas 21.

The game that was seemingly lost was now a three-point contest. The Texas defense held again. Alabama punted and with 3:14 remaining, Garrett Gilbert walked out on the field, the same field he played so poorly on, huddled up his teammates, the same ones who couldn’t be faulted in doubting his ability, and told them they were about to drive down the field to either tie or win the BCS title game.

“We’re going to take it down there,” Gilbert said.

They believed him.

From the sideline McCoy saw the blitz coming from Gilbert’s blind side. Gilbert said he felt it too. Alabama linebacker Eryk Anders was coming fast, faster than Gilbert realized. Anders crushed Gilbert, springing the ball loose. For a split second, before he got buried into the turf, Gilbert saw the comeback, the game, the championship bounce away.

He prayed one of his guys would get it. They didn’t. Alabama did on Texas’ 3-yard line. A few plays later the Tide scored. Later they scored again. The game ended with Alabama taking a knee and Nick Saban getting a Gatorade bath and a crimson-and-white confetti shower.

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It was a great game and I am glad that the boys and me got to stay up till 12:30 in the morning watching it. Jacob was a hoot to watch at times, he was really rooting for Alabama ----- when we moved to Alabama, he quickly picked them as his team.

The Tribe Game

We went to the Cleveland Indians vs. St. Louis Cards game yesterday. The Cards won 3-1 on 2 Pujols home runs. Here are a few pics. If you want to see more, check out my facebook page.

Bee @ T-Ball

Bethany had her first t-ball game last night. We had a great time. It is really fun to watch 5 & 6 year old boys play the game of t-ball. I am coaching the team and am having a good time coaching and cheering them on.

Lebron James

I thought this was a good photo that the photographer got during last nights blow-out win:

Calipari Goes to University of Kentucky

From ESPN:

After over a day of deliberation, John Calipari is headed to Kentucky.

The coach accepted an offer to leave Memphis to resurrect the Wildcats' program on Tuesday, ESPN's Dick Vitale has confirmed. The move was first reported by the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

ESPN.com's Andy Katz reported on Monday that the deal would be for eight years and approximately $35 million dollars, making Calipari the highest-paid coach in the college ranks.


John Calipari has decided to leave Memphis to jump-start Kentucky's program.
Sources told ESPN.com that Kentucky began planning for a Wednesday announcement earlier Tuesday. The Lexington television affiliate that has the school's athletic broadcast contract was told to prepare for an announcement in the late morning or early afternoon, and plans were made to transport Calipari by private plane to an airport near Lexington

I am a BIG UK fan and I am glad that we are bringing a BIG TIME coach in. At first, I was hoping for someone who bleeds BLUE. However, I think Calipari and his attitude, confidence and cockiness will bring the fire back to UK.

Go Cats !!

March Madness

It is here !

Over the next 4 days, they will go from 64 to 16 teams. I am looking forward to taking some time to watch the games. I will be watching majority of the games. I will be doing work while I am watching it. But, it is a time to take a few breaths and relax in the midst of business.

I have filled out a few brackets - 2. I have entered in a few free polls through yahoo and espn with fellow friends and youth ministers. For the fun of it, in one of them, I picked an all BIG EAST final four.

The first set of games are on, I am getting the LSU and Butler game. It is nothing too exciting, so while I am watching it, I am giving a blog post and then working on flyers for up-coming youth events. I made a post announcement (first post below) on the Rock & Roll Worship Show; I think we will try to go to it in Columbus; it is on a school night though ...OUCH

Another Reason to like President Obama

Bear with me, the Super Bowl is in 8 days :)

A Great Steelers Song

These kids do a great job and I like it much better than "Here We Go Steelers"

BTW, these kids are 11-13 yrs old .... unbelievable

Steelers to the SB

I am sorry ESPN but this has to be the dumbest caption under a photo. The Ravens offense came no where close to solving the Steelers D. They (Steelers) had some bad special team penalties and two pass interference (one really bad one) that led to the scores. Check the numbers:

The Ravens had a total of 198 yards for the game ... that is not solving the Steelers defense.

The Steelers are off to the Super Bowl again. It is because of the defense. Our offense did not play that well. Big Ben did good. Parker and the running game though was no where to be found.

The Gators Win

Yes.

I love SEC football and I am a huge fan of TEBOW.

Congrats.

To my "Big 12" folks, wow, it was a rough bowl season for you. Oh, I know that you were 4-3 but, come on ....

3 of those 4 wins were against the Big 10 (who was 1 and 6) and the other one was against Clemson. You were 0-3 against the SEC and PAC 10. Texas Tech and Oklahoma, if you played in the SEC you would be at least 3-loss teams.

Yeah, I know that with me living in the SEC for 10 years, I am bias but c'mon, admit it; they can play and they outplay you on a regular basis.

I will tip my hat to Oklahoma, they played a great game but they played a great game and still lost by 10. Maybe next year, you can stop your losing streak - 5 straight BCS games.

Ohhh, I hear you that you say, "hey, at least we make it to the BCS game". That is true, congrats. One last stab though *cough*, you would not make it to the BCS games if you played in the SEC.

Story of Hope

The following post is a "stolen" post from ESPN the magazine. Please take a few minutes and read the story. Yes, it is about football but it is about so much more .. HOPE ... and we, as individuals, need hope and we need to hear stories of individuals who give hope.

Here is the story:



They played the oddest game in high school football history last month down in Grapevine, Texas.

It was Grapevine Faith vs. Gainesville State School and everything about it was upside down. For instance, when Gainesville came out to take the field, the Faith fans made a 40-yard spirit line for them to run through.

Did you hear that? The other team's fans?

They even made a banner for players to crash through at the end. It said, "Go Tornadoes!" Which is also weird, because Faith is the Lions.

It was rivers running uphill and cats petting dogs. More than 200 Faith fans sat on the Gainesville side and kept cheering the Gainesville players on—by name.

"I never in my life thought I'd hear people cheering for us to hit their kids," recalls Gainesville's QB and middle linebacker, Isaiah. "I wouldn't expect another parent to tell somebody to hit their kids. But they wanted us to!"

And even though Faith walloped them 33-14, the Gainesville kids were so happy that after the game they gave head coach Mark Williams a sideline squirt-bottle shower like he'd just won state. Gotta be the first Gatorade bath in history for an 0-9 coach.

But then you saw the 12 uniformed officers escorting the 14 Gainesville players off the field and two and two started to make four. They lined the players up in groups of five—handcuffs ready in their back pockets—and marched them to the team bus. That's because Gainesville is a maximum-security correctional facility 75 miles north of Dallas. Every game it plays is on the road.

This all started when Faith's head coach, Kris Hogan, wanted to do something kind for the Gainesville team. Faith had never played Gainesville, but he already knew the score. After all, Faith was 7-2 going into the game, Gainesville 0-8 with 2 TDs all year. Faith has 70 kids, 11 coaches, the latest equipment and involved parents. Gainesville has a lot of kids with convictions for drugs, assault and robbery—many of whose families had disowned them—wearing seven-year-old shoulder pads and ancient helmets.

So Hogan had this idea. What if half of our fans—for one night only—cheered for the other team? He sent out an email asking the Faithful to do just that. "Here's the message I want you to send:" Hogan wrote. "You are just as valuable as any other person on planet Earth."

Some people were naturally confused. One Faith player walked into Hogan's office and asked, "Coach, why are we doing this?"

And Hogan said, "Imagine if you didn't have a home life. Imagine if everybody had pretty much given up on you. Now imagine what it would mean for hundreds of people to suddenly believe in you."

Next thing you know, the Gainesville Tornadoes were turning around on their bench to see something they never had before. Hundreds of fans. And actual cheerleaders!

"I thought maybe they were confused," said Alex, a Gainesville lineman (only first names are released by the prison). "They started yelling 'DEE-fense!' when their team had the ball. I said, 'What? Why they cheerin' for us?'"

It was a strange experience for boys who most people cross the street to avoid. "We can tell people are a little afraid of us when we come to the games," says Gerald, a lineman who will wind up doing more than three years. "You can see it in their eyes. They're lookin' at us like we're criminals. But these people, they were yellin' for us! By our names!"

Maybe it figures that Gainesville played better than it had all season, scoring the game's last two touchdowns. Of course, this might be because Hogan put his third-string nose guard at safety and his third-string cornerback at defensive end. Still.

After the game, both teams gathered in the middle of the field to pray and that's when Isaiah surprised everybody by asking to lead. "We had no idea what the kid was going to say," remembers Coach Hogan. But Isaiah said this: "Lord, I don't know how this happened, so I don't know how to say thank You, but I never would've known there was so many people in the world that cared about us."

And it was a good thing everybody's heads were bowed because they might've seen Hogan wiping away tears.

As the Tornadoes walked back to their bus under guard, they each were handed a bag for the ride home—a burger, some fries, a soda, some candy, a Bible and an encouraging letter from a Faith player.

The Gainesville coach saw Hogan, grabbed him hard by the shoulders and said, "You'll never know what your people did for these kids tonight. You'll never, ever know."

And as the bus pulled away, all the Gainesville players crammed to one side and pressed their hands to the window, staring at these people they'd never met before, watching their waves and smiles disappearing into the night.

Anyway, with the economy six feet under and Christmas running on about three and a half reindeer, it's nice to know that one of the best presents you can give is still absolutely free.

Hope.

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From me to you, here is a "challenge". Let us reach out to individuals and give folks hope. There are a lot of individuals that are out there who are feeling "hopeless". Let's give them hope.

Here is the direct link to the story:

The Story

Tommy Tuberville to WVU

Hey, let me be the first to start the rumor.

Bill Stewart is out and even though Tuberville had a rough year, he has a great track-record at Auburn.

So, Coach Bill resigns at the end of the year and Tuberville comes in. Tommy, leave your current offense guys behind and come and bring back the offense that you had down in the 2003-2006.

We can have a nice guy and a great coach.

Coach Bill, you seem to be a fantastic guy, but you are not a BIG TIME coach.

Let's get the ball rollin' and try to turn WVU ball back around.

Turning In My WVU Fan Card

After the Colrado game, I stated that we should fire Coach Bill: Here

Today, I think that I am going to turn my WVU football fan card in.

Yeah, I know it is only sports. Yes, I know it is just one year.

But, man, this season has been pathetic. I really believe that it has to do with the new coaches. Maybe they have the "scheme" that will work for the future BUT they definitely did not use the talent that they have this season in the right way.

As I watched them struggle and then lose to Pitt, I was absolutely shocked and in disbelief at the play-calling. The play-calling was below average all game and the play calling on the 2 - 1st and Goal series that we had were just plain AWFUL.

We may end up with a .500 record this year. We could very easily lose vs. South Florida and then the bowl game. And to think that there were quiet whispers of a National Championship after we dismantled Oklahoma in the bowl game and had most of the fire-power back.

Now, who to root for to play in the National Championship game ?

Browns, You Need A Defense

As a Steelers fan, I always love to see the Browns lose. However, I was rooting for Brady tonight and he did a good job. When Isaiah came in and asked who I was rooting for, I told him the Broncos in a close game with Quinn having a great game .. prophecy, I tell you.

The announcers I believe were giving Winslow a hard time. Yes, he did have the interference, a fumble and a dropped pass to end the game ... BUT ... he also had 10 catches, 111 uards and 2 TD's ...

Let's talk about the Defense. They blew the lead again. Their defensive backs can not cover and they can not tackle.

McDonald, your pass deflecting stat might look nice (3) but, man .. you got burnt.