The Miami Heat

I definitely did not see this Miami Heat late-season cohesion coming at all. All year they looked like a good team that had no shot at getting to the NBA Finals. But now all the talent is coming together. Everyone from Antoine Walker to Gary Payton to James Posey has accepted their role. Add in Shaq playing solid basketball and a superstar like Dwayne Wade and you've got the makings of the 2006 NBA Champions. Yeah, I said it. I'm picking the Heat to beat whoever comes out of the west (most likely the Mavs). They've got the best player in the playoffs in Dwayne Wade (no offense to Dirk, who has been playiong out of his mind as well), and a center who can still dominate for small stretches of time. They have made a good team like the Pistons look silly in the eastern conference finals, and been playing great basketball since about a month left in the regular season. These playoffs have established who the three best players in the NBA are, and Kobe is not one of them. 1. Lebron 2. DWade 3. Dirk.

First Natties Game of the Year

Jeremy and I made our long awaited return to the friendly confines of RFK tonight. We had some sick seats...second row right at third base. I wanted to yell at Frank Robinson that I know about his girl on the side, but we weren't that close. Great game in which Roy Oswalt of the Astros pitched a gem through 7 innings, only to see it vanish after he balked in the tying run. By the way, great managing by Frank. Originally the balk went uncalled, but Frank made sure the umps conferred about it, and they reversed their no-call. This forced the 'Stros to pinch-hit for ol' Roy the following inning, sonce they were no longer up 1-0. And then, for the second night in a row, the Houston bullpen collapsed allowing 4 runs in the eighth. That makes it 4 wins in their last 5 for the Nats. Things look like they could finally be turning around. Although, the news wasn't all good. Making his return to the lineup, Jose Guillen left the game after striking out in his first at bat. Hopefully, he'll be back soon. In other news, the Nat Pack at RFK is still bush, and doesn't throw out enough free t-shirts.

Preakness Weekend Continued

Friday- My memory is a little unclear on this day. But I know I went to Fu Shing...which was delicious. But, I didn't want to see Da Vinci code with everyone else. That evening, at Chod's house, Jeff and I came up with the great idea of holding a draft to see who goes in each car. It wasn't as controversial as the top-10 friends list...but it came close. Skip to the night where everyone kind of took it easy because of the big day on Saturday.

Saturday- After lecturing everyone about being at Chod's house promptly at 720am, guess who was the only person to arrive late. I am such a douchbag. Lemme tell ya...we had a lot of beer. We got to Preakness and finally settled into our spot around the final turn at around 930am. From there, the entire day is a big blur. I have been comparing it to Hash Bash in that I can't give you many details, but I know I had a lot of fun. Some vivid memories from the day were seeing Russ Grant absolutely wasted, finally meeting Zac Shapiro's boyfriend Graham Brown and then watching later in the afternoon as Graham Brown struggled to even stand up straight, standing next to Rob as he shouted Barbaro about 50 times in a 5-minute span right before the race, and that's pretty much it. Next year...we get a bus!

Sunday- I had to work at Carderock once I woke up, so I didn't really get to say bye to all the people who left. Oh well. That evening, me, Kovel, Reagan, and Pete got some crabs and beer for my place. Funny story, when me and Dan walked out of the beer store four cops walked into Fu Shing, which is next door. That night, Jeremy, Pat and Matt came over and we all got wasted. Chod and Wicker joined the fun too. We were all sitting around my outside table, and I got to enjoy about 15 minutes of every single person at the table just rail on me for my "inconsistent" storytelling. It wasn't enjoyable. Later that night , we all got wasted playing liquor pong in my basement. Pedro Krauss made an appearance and pissed on Matt's leg in the middle of the night.

All in all, I would say it was a pretty memorable weekend. I think I would have enjoyed it more had all the drinking occurred at someone else's house. But what are you gonna do?

Tomorrow I will have a post giving out the inaugural Busch League Awards to those who had some bush league moves over the weekend. ALong with that, I will also hand out the first ever Michael George Battey Memorial Award to the person who most exemplifies what being not-Busch League is all about.

Preakness Weekend

Well I haven't blogged in awhile, but it was because I was hosting about 15 Michigan kids for Preakness weekend. And I think most of the people who actually read this thing were with me for the weekend. But, it quite an eventful weekend. I'm just gonna go through each day starting with Wednesday.

Wednesday- The Rios arrived. Always good to see Rob, especially now that he's gonna be goin out into the working world soon. That night we drank in my house. I got pretty drunk, but my little bro stole the show. The kid got fucked up big time courtesy of some Bud Light and Clark.

Thursday- So, clearly my little bro was not gonna be able to attend school on time Thursday morning. SO , at around 1030 i wrote him a note and took him to school late. The kid had a monster hangover but he was real pumped to tell all his friends he got hammered with a bunch of college kids on a Wednesday night.

That night we had a bbq in my backyard. Midway through the bbq, Graham and Pete made an appearance, arriving from the great city of Buffalo. We were just chilling drinking some brews. Later that night the real party started in my basement. BY this point a car with Greg, Becca, Jess, Linds, and Tim had arrived after a 10-hour ordeal through I dunno how many states. We had liquor, we had beer, we had wine, and we had a shitshow. Over 20 people packed into my basement, and a good 15 of them were extremely drunk. SOme of the highlights of the night were blackout Greg talking to my Mom about boozing on her plane ride back from Spain, when she actually didn't booze. Then there was blackout Greg breaking an expensive wine glass in my bathroom right in front of my Mom. Then blackout Chod and blackout Krauss wrestling and knocking over another glass of wine in my basement.

An Ode to Clark

This little poem was waiting for me as I returned home from work and sat down at the computer. It was left by none other than Jess Epstein.

There once was a bong that had no name, he sat on a shelf and his life was lame. Then one day he found a friend in need, of some good chillaxin and a device to smoke weed. Mark brought him home for all to meet, they christened him and it was sweet. A weekend bong they decided he would be, but maybe one more night or two or three. They soon became familiar with this kickass bong, and they decided that any time with him couldnt be wrong. Clark they named him for it suited him well, he would always be by Mark's side as we could all tell. Then the year ended and it was time to say goodbye, saying bye to Mark was fine, but to Clark it was hard to even try. The only hope they have for now is a chance to reunite, so it looks like may 20 is the date its gonna be outta sight!!

Larry Brown

It's really sad to see Larry Brown in the state he is in now. Imagine if he had simply stayed with the Pistons, or retired from coaching after the Pistons. His legacy would be so much greater than it is now. People viewed him as a coaching legend after he won that NBA title. He is the only coach to win both the NCAA Championship and the NBA Title. Many NBA onlookers probably overrated him a bit because of that one title with the Pistons. We all seemed to forget those 5 or 6 seasons he spent with the Clippers. But now those memories are being drudged up again because of his job with the Knicks. The way he speaks to the media, you can tell the guy regrets coaching the Knicks. And his pride is forcing him to continue coaching the Knicks until the get better. He wants that great coaching aura (like Phil Jackson has) to return. Because of this season's debacle in New York the legacy has been tarnished. To add on to that, the Pistons great season has shown that maybe it wasn't all Larry in 2004. Flip Saunders is an alright coach, but not a 60-win a year kind of guy. The players on the Pistons is what makes them so good. It's Joe Dumars who should get the majority of the credit considering he re-built that team from the scrap heap after Grant Hill left.

The Friends Question

So, I've had this long standing dilemma that I've gone over in my head many times. Only a few times have I actually verbally comunicated it. In like October '05, Dan Kovel brought up the interesting question of when do your college friends become better friends than your high school friends. Now, I think this is a really interesting question. Because when I hear adults talk about their younger days, it is almost exclusively involving friends from college. Nowhere do you ordinarily hear about high school friends. And I was real close with certain dudes from high school, but I always catch myself wondering whether we will ever lose touch. I remember in the spring at some point during a late night visit to Pizza House with Jess and Becca I brought this up with them. ANd both were adament that the high school friends will remain fixtures forever. Personally, I think they are being short-sighted on this one. And I think the key reason for this is that you never actually live with your high school friends. There's a certain bond when you share a home or an apartment with someone. I know I will remain friends with my high school boys, but for some reason I got this feeling that, in the end, my lasting relationships will be from college. Now my question to you or to whomever is: Is this a bad thing? Am I turning my back on people? Something for you to chomp on right there.

Illegal Aliens

So I've been keeping my eye on all these protests by immigrants who are against the tag of being an illegal alien. They claim there should be no such distinction and that we are all human beings. I see their argument. It makes some sense. And I can totally understand the protesting. But c'mon, how am I supposed to take a Mexican seriously while he parades around the street in a multi-colored sombrero? I mean, way to live up to the stereotype. Next thing you know they are gonna protest in a park by riding around in circles on their lawnmowers. This would be like SAE going out into the street and asking people to view us as sensitive, understanding human beings while we beat up some GDI in the Mudbowl because he looked at us the wrong way. And besides, if we let every person who wanted to be here come to America, we would turn into the Phi Psi of the world. And I sure as hell don't want to be known as a country that throws lame parties and gets with even worse girls. ZING!

Colbert

I'm not sure where I got the link from, but I came across Stephen Colbert's speech at the White Houre Press Correspondents Dinner. It was absolutely hysterical. The guy literally tore into Bush with him sitting no more than 10 feet away.

http://www.collegehumor.com/tags/Colbert+roasts+Bush/

Pretty solid night for sports

Well obviously I'm a little peeved over Game 6 Wiz-Cavs, but what are the Wizards gonna do when they don't know what the word defense means. I think the series was summed up in one play and it wasn't Damon JOnes' game winner. With 45 seconds left in regulation and the Cavs down 4, Flip Murray glided in for an uncontested lay-up to bring the Cavs within one basket. Why was he untouched, and why was there no help in a playoff game?

By the way...I'm sure Graham is peeing himself over that Sabres-Sens game. I mean, what a game. I didn't watch part of the Wizards game because of that. And to add on to it, they had my favorite hockey announcer, Joe Benninati, calling the game. That thing went back and forth and is the definition of what the new NHL is all about. For real, if you haven't checked out the NHL playoffs yet, you should. Every game is so unpredictable, and no team plays soft like the Wizards.

Game 5 Aftermath

My question is that after Lebron put in 43, how do you match him up with Michael Ruffin with 3.6 seconds remaining in OT? Wizards coach Eddie Jordan was trying to out-think the Cavs and it backfired. With 3.6 seconds there isn't time to try somethin new like putting a 6'8 neanderthal on a superstar. I realize he was expecting some switches on picks, but you gotta make a player like Lebron win the game with something more than a lay-up. Great comeback by the Wizards at the end of the fourth quarter, but they came up short because they don't know how to play defense for more than a few minutes at a time. Although the Cavs have the best player in the series in Lebron, the better team is the Wizards. Charles Barkely said at halftime, "How can you let a one-man team beat you. The fact that Gilbert Arenas had 44, Antawn Jamison had 30+ and Caron Butler rebounded from a poor half to have 20 and 10 does bode well for the Wizards as this series returns to the Verizon Center on Friday. I must say, though, I hate Lebron so much because he is so good. Some of those fadeaways over Jared Jeffries in the fourth quarter were absolutely absurd. That was a Stephon Snowden I-270 basketball-esque performance (I think only Matt Brown truly knows how good that is).

P.S...This is gonna make Pete Krauss the happiest man alive...the Tigers are legit.

If you wanna read something real sweet...

My friend Battey, who came and visited a while back, also just began his own blog. I found his initial post to be real quality stuff, so I thought I'd direct to his "Classic rock will never die" blog.

http://michaelbattey.blogspot.com/

I'm also gonna be blogging during tonight's pivotal game 5 Cvas-Wiz. I'll have a little running diary up once the game ends.

If you wanna read something real sweet...

My friend Battey, who came and visited a while back, also just began his own blog. I found his initial post to be real quality stuff, so I thought I'd direct to his "Classic rock will never die" blog.

michaelbattey.blogspot.com

NFL Draft

I watched a good portion of this year's NFL Draft because I had a fever, so I thought I would jot down my thoughts:

1. Poor Gabe Watson...I don't know if fourth round money is gonna pay for that big black hummer that Drew Rosenhaus fronted for you. Maybe if you and the entire Michigan football team didn't decide to take half the season off last year you would have been a late first round pick. Overall a horrible year for the Wolverines was followed up by a horrible year for the team in the draft. Avant went fourth round to the Eagles, and Tim Massaquoi went seventh round to the Cardinals.

2. Matt Leinart is a steal at #10 for the Cardinals. The guy was 30 seconds from winning three straight national championships. But he lost a boatload of money staying in school. He was a lock to be a 49er if he came out last year. I mean, c'mon Alex Smith. That guy will be out of the league in five years.

3. Michael Irvin has some pretty good knowledge of the game, it's just too bad it gets lost in all of his other nonsense. Seriously, the guy doesn't know how to speak English. But he did have some pretty good analysis on the various wide receivers.

4. I'm sick of Chris Berman. He'a awful. Period. And people need to stop calling him "Boomer" or "Boom" or whatever.

5. What the hell is wrong with the Buffalo Bills? I mean Marv Levy has got to know that JP Losman is not the man to lead the Bills back to glory. Jay Cutler was the PERFECT fit for that team, but instead they reached and got Donte Whitner.

6. Why the hell were so many Florida State players picked so early? The past four years have represented the Seminoles steady downfall from perennial power to just another D-1 school. Guys like Broderick Bunkley underachieved in college and chances are they will in the pros too.

7. Was just flipping through the channels and landed on NFL Live. Here's a little factoid about number 1 pick Mario WIlliams. Against the five BCS conference schools that made bowl games last season, Mario WIlliams had zero sacks. And three of his sacks came against Maryland, which Matt Brown will tell you isn't something to toot your horn about. This kid has Courtney Brown written all over him.

8. I can't believe New England stole Chad Jackson in round 2. That guy is gonna be good.