Monday, July 25, 2011

Games I Can't Wait to Lose All My Money On

First off, I apologize. Somehow, someway, in the weirdest turn of events ever in the history of this blog, I don't think I pointed out or addressed the fact that the Golden Nugget released early Game of the Year lines. Here they are.

I'm pretty sure I posted these on facebook and twitter, but not on the blog. Which means I didnt have a chance to analyze them.

I'd like to go through a few of them that I have circled with the distinction being "extreme interest." That means, ones that I can already tell I am going to want to bet on. Im going to go through this chronologically, but there should be more early on in the season, and by the end of the season, none, for obvious reasons (shit changes).

Looking at all the early spreads, we can also figure out what Vegas thinks about a few teams, which is worth more than anything you'll ever hear on ESPN. Lets jump in the deep end here:


Week 1:

I like Georgia and LSU right away. As the article indicates, UGA is a team that is getting some sharp love early on. Phil Steele came out and proclaimed UGA to be the SEC East favorite, which may be surprising to some who had South Carolina pegged as the favorite. UGA had a pretty unlucky year last year with several close losses, all the while playing with a freshman QB (albeit a good one). But the team started 1-4 and finished 6-7. They have 12 starters back. And best of all, the game is in Atlanta.

Here's the thing. I like to try and figure out who the sharps are betting on, and follow them. Why? Because theyre the sharps. It would be like following what an insider trader is doing in the stock market. Or, conversely, think of it this way. You know the 60 year old guy you meet at the bar who has nothing better to do than to talk to you about football and pull out a computer printed sheet of his weekly NFL survivor pool that leaves the bar every 20 minutes to smoke a cigarette and by half time of the 4 PM EST NFL games is so drunk he is hitting on a waitress 1/3 his age? I try to do the opposite of that guy.

Also, I try to do the opposite of anything Bill Simmons does.

Picture Joe Public in Las Vegas in June and July. Joe Public goes to Vegas. Joe Public plays blackjack. Joe Public plays in a $180 Caesar's Hold Em tournament, and usually doesnt know when it is his turn or that his hand is shaking when he throws chips into the middle of the table. Joe Public may go to the sportsbook and bet on a 3 - 11 team MLB parlay, the team to eventually win the World Series, and the team to win the Super Bowl and BCS title.

THAT IS IT.

Joe Public does not go to Vegas to bet on Georgia in the first week of the season. They want to bet on their hometown team or a team they think has a good chance to win the title at 20+ - 1 odds to win the title in the hopes of "hitting it big." They dont bet on individual games the same way they would if they were visiting Las Vegas in October.

Therefore, when the line moves from Boise State -6 to Boise State -1.5, it is obvious that the sharps are the ones on Georgia. The eventual outcome of this is obvious too. In 4 weeks, when Joe Public starts to look at the Week 1 games in NCAA, they will first see that Boise is playing Georgia. They will seeBoise, who went 12-1 last year, "always wins an early game against a BCS team" (even though they lost to UGA by 100000 points in 2005), is always involved in the national title race, against an underachieving UGA team, with their coach on the hot seat, who lost to UCF last year, and insert any other illogical irrelevant argument here, and will bet HEAVILY on Boise. Therefore, as is always the case, Las Vegas wins. Just make sure you're on the side of the sharps.


To a lesser extent, I like LSU against Oregon in Week 1. If a game moves off a "key" number, such as 3, it is significant. *** The idea here is that some numbers are more important than others. You can guess that 3, 7, 10, 14, are all key numbers, while 4, 5, 12, are not. Simmons calls the non important numbers 'the vegas zone,' but no one else does. So if the game is on a key number such as Oregon -3, and it moves to Oregon -2, there must have been significant action to move it off a key number, despite it moving only one point.

Theres a very good chance that LSU was just as good as Oregon last year, despite them going "only" 11-2 and playing in the Cotton Bowl while Oregon was the runner up. Whats always important early on is returning starters, and LSU returns 15 while Oregon returns 11. LSU also has a better defense, which usually wins out early in the year. I feel like this could be a Joe PUblic game as well, as many will be quick to pick Oregon as "only" a 2 point favorite when they all realize that the Ducks played in the title game last year.


Miami -3.5 on the opening Monday seems like a big trap. Miami, with all its history, should be attractive to joe public as they play a team that replaces their coach and only lost to Miami by 6 in the Orange Bowl last year (covering the 8). What people will of course forget is that Miami themselves has a new Head Coach. This is the only game on Monday night too. Whenever that happens, there is even more action on a team, and all the more likely a trap occurs.

Week 2

The Mizzou ASU game will be interesting. Thats all I have to say. Every day I flip flop on my outlook on ASU. I dont think theyll be as great as everyone says they are going to be, but that doesnt mean they wont be good...(considering I was the only person who liked them last year).

Alabama -9 at Penn State may be the right number after all. I would have thought sharps would have bet this down to about 7.5, but they didnt. I still feel as if the public will be all over Alabama (who will be ranked 1 or 2), but it shows that there is still respect for Penn State and their home field. 9 is a ton of points too.

MSU +1 @ Auburn. MSU played AUburn as close as anyone last year (I took MSU and followed the game on my phone in class on a Thursday night. I lost the bet, but got an A in the class, go figure). I talked about MSU on this blog earlier. They are interesting because they return 16 starters from a 9 win team. Any other world this would be enough to rank the team in the top 10 in every preseason poll (for close examples: FSU returns 16 from a 10 win team in an easier conference, and A&M returns 18 from a 9 win team in a worse conference. Each of those teams is getting much more love than MSU). But, Miss State plays in the SEC west. Their schedule features no less than 5 swing games.

None of this should affect them being better than Auburn, however. Auburn figures to be poor this year. Why? Because their over under is set at 6. BEcause of movement in this game. Because of movement in the UGA game. Because of the movement in the Clemson game. BEcause of the movement against So Carolina Because they return SIX starters.

But, does the public know this? Sure they know Auburn is down, but "they wont lose to Miss State." Not so fast. Basically everyone in Las Vegas is betting against Auburn this year. They figure to still receive financial backing from Joe Public, as they DID win the title last yera.


Air Force +1.5 TCU. This is my favorite game on the board. First the line movement of 5 points. Re-read all the stuff I wrote about how public wouldnt bet on a UGA Boise game. Now, imagine them betting on TCU Air Force..... Who bet that line down? Thats right, the sharps.



Air Force is considered one of the most underrated teams this year. They return 14 starters while TCU only returns 8. BUt of course, Mr. Public will rememeber that TCU won something called the Rose Bowl last year.

I think the fact that ND went from +2 to -3 is a misprint. Otherwise that doesnt bode well for the Irish. Michigan figures to be improved this year as well. They are at home and have won 2 straight years. If it moved 5 points, across the zero-line, and now features Michigan as an underdog at home against a rival, then I am sorry, but I have to lean Michigan.


The OU -3.5 FSU week 3 sounds about right. ND -6 against MSU seems a little high, as nine of the last eleven have been decided by single digits, and the home team is just 3-7 in last 10.


Going beyond this would be dumb, as so many things will change. Notably, public perception. BUt I can point out a few things here.

- How are TCU, AM, AF related? AF is basically even against TCU. SMU is +17 early against A&M, and SMU is +12 against TCU. So A&M is a bit better than TCU. But is TCU bad, and that is why they're only a bit better than AF? Or is AF that good? In other words, are these teams are ranked in the teens and twenties? Or is AM's early ranking in the top 10 valid, and AF is legit a top 15 team? The fact that AM is a big -6 against Okie State tells me that maybe AF is for real.

- Stanford is going to be a disappointment. They are only +1 at home vs Oregon (while LSU is +2 at a neutral). Their line moved down at home against ND. Theyre only -2 at USC. All of these lines are oddly low. While they were playing as well as anyone LAST YEAR, they only return 11 starters, and only 1 offensive lineman.




I know I wrote this disjointed. If you were a media analyst, you would say that the disjointed writing reflects the euphoria and excitement one has when first viewing betting lines for a week. Your pupils move up and down the board, looking at yellow and green lights in an attempt to decipher hundreds of numbers in 5 minutes. Somehow, someway, you memorize every line in 5 minutes, after looking at each thing once. If you said that's why my blog was written so poorly, I would agree.


What else do you see from the early lines that jumps out at you?

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Women's Sports, Nationalism, Mass Hysteria, and Globalization

This recent women's run in the World Cup has been fascinating on so many levels. Forget about the legitimately exciting, competitive games against Brazil and Japan. To ESPN, the mass promoters of this fiasco, the great games were just cherries on top to what they needed - the US women's team to be successful. Instead, what I found so interesting is how much people rallied to support the women's team, and why in 2011, there is really no reason we should be. This article does not apply to every single person who was watching the Women's team. In fact, most likely 99% of my readers would fall into the category of who this article doesn't apply to. That being said, read the fucking thing anyway.

Lets start with some facts that are irrefutable (this is where I say that this article may not apply to everyone, so if you fall into the minorites here, just ignore it. I believe you).

- A large majority of the American population thinks soccer is boring. They watch every 4 years to see what America does in World Cup.

- A large majority of people thinks womens sports are a joke. Nobody watches the WNBA, womens college basketball, or anything else.

Therefore, a logical conclusion would be that soccer + women = the most hyped sporting event of the Summer (sans NBA finals). Does that make senese? Well, there is of course one ingredient that is missing.

- Americans will watch anything that has America in it, and that will become the end all be all of human existence for 24 hours. So much so that we get this formula:

Nationalism > Disgust of womens sports + Disgust of Soccer

This is obvious. If you disagree, ask yourself if the womens world cup would be as popular or as watched today if it were Japan vs Brazil.


Why dont people like women sports? Certainly, most of it is based out of ignorance or arrogance, where most men say "I am better than them." This isn't true. Period. So I am not going to pretend that I don't watch the WNBA because I can beat all the WNBA players. I don't watch the WNBA because there is a better product out there; namely, the NBA and College Basketball. It is the same game, and there are two products out there that do it better.

To illustrate this, consider two examples. One, I personally enjoy softball and womens volleyball on TV. Why? Because there are no better products. There is no Mens college softball, and while Men may be better at volleyball, it isnt on TV enough for me to compare. Two) Comparing apples to apples, think of the XFL. It had nothing to do with gender, and the league failed. Why? Because it was inferior to the NFL (and probably college). That is why womens sports fail.

So I was watching the women's final like anyone else. I admit, I was swept up in the nationalism (and I would be one of the people not watching if USA were not in it). When Morgan scored in the second half, I was excited for approximately 5 minutes. Then, when the announcer pointed out that Morgan's father used to bribe her with a Lexus car in high school based on her goals, I lost all interest. Why would I continue to root for this person/team? If this were a film, Morgan would be in the fraternity with Niedermeyer, not the Delta House. She'd be hanging out with David Spade in PCU, not Jeremy Piven. She would be closing down Zachary Ty Bryan's friends' dads junkyard in "Slammed." She would be the archetypal, rich, spoiled girl bad guy in a lot of films. I slowly came to realize that I probably had more in common with the Japanese team than I did with the American team.

There is a lot to say about this. 1) It would be unthinkable that 50 years ago anyone could identify with another nation. But in this day and age of globalization, it is more than possible. I feel that the Olympics have become less popular as a result of this. Back in the 40s/50s/60s, we were at war with several countries, and had no idea how their countries or people behaved. We didnt know anything about daily life in USSR, Germany, Japan, etc. When you don't know something about someone other than "they are your enemy," you're going to want to beat them. I think it is safe to say that the US vs Japan game would be more amped up if it were 1942, and they had just destroyed Pearl Harbor, or 1946, and we just dropped an atomic bomb on them. Now, we have people traveling to Tokyo every day. I know people whose parents live in Japan. The greatest film director of all time hails from Japan. I eat sushi once a week. Sofia Coppola made a film where somehow a beautiful young woman and Carl Spackler connect with each other in Tokyo. All in all, the more we understand about the country's culture, the less we hate (sounded like such a hippie there). International sports competition reached an apex in 1980 with the Miracle on Ice, continued through 1984 with the reciprocal boycott by the USSR, and by 1989, when the wall came down, nobody cared anymore.

2) To continue with the Lexus comment. Blue collar sports, which soccer isnt really part of in America, are usually driven by necessity. Think of boxing. In the 1930s and 40s, you had LaMotta, Marciano, Dempsey. Now, you would be hard pressed to find any Italians or Jews in the ring. In the 60s and 70s, you had Holmes, Ali, Frazier, Foreman, but today there are less African Americans in boxing. Instead, the sport is populated by Russians, Mexicans, and as the case with Pacquiao, Filipinos. The point is that any person who would subject themselves to the brutalities of boxing at an early age must be doing so for economical gain. If a child didn't need to make money, they wouldnt be boxing. The sport shows the progress that racial and ethnic groups have made over the past century. Can you imagine a young Jewish kid training to be a boxer in today's day and age?

That being said, there are of course sports that reflect a white collar background. Lacrosse, crewing/rowing, polo, sailing are all examples of this. As you already know, these sports are about as popular as a beesting! In all seriousness though, their popularity, or lack there of, stems from an inability to connect with the participants of the sport. In 2004, in an attempt to show that he was a man and a sport fanatic, John Kerry was pictured riding on a boat. This did not go over well. I have never been on a horse (not that I ever really wanted to). Therefore, how could I appreciate the game of polo, which I presume are just a bunch of rich northeasterners riding around all day waiting for their trust fund to kick in?

I'm not saying soccer is a white collar sport. In fact, it may the sport that least exemplifies those qualities. Children play in back allies in Argentina, Peru, Brazil, as well as England, Germany, and Spain. That is what makes the game great. When Ian said today "I think Obama's children play soccer too," I sarcastically said "yeah, so do 99% of children less than 12," I was saying this in truth (in addition to disdain regarding Obama). That is the whole point. But it is the ones who are catered to, nurtured, and who go to private universities that are rewarded and make the Women's National team. The three goalkeepers for the US went to U Washington, Stanford, and Villanova. The aforementioned Morgan went to Berkley. Cheney - UCLA. The captain, Rampone, went to Monmouth University, a private university in New Jersey. I could go on, but I think you get the feeling that there are no young men from West Texas who live with their grandma working their ass off to get a scholarship to Texas Tech, and then going on to the pros. Or the youngest of 8 children growing up in Detroit going on to get a scholarship from MSU basketball.

I AM NOT saying that the women did not work hard in their lives. Im not saying they aren't talented. I'm not saying they arent good. As I mentioned through the whole article, Im not hating on women or their talents. My point is is that with the makeup of the women's roster, and US women's soccer specifically, the sport belongs in the group of polo, crewing, archery, and lacrosse, not football and basketball.

So what wins over when talking about commonalities and fandom? I'm assuming that commonality is the reason that people root for teams, otherwise we wouldn't root for our hometown teams and alma maters. The idea is that I like Illinois because all the players live in the dorms, go to the same bars, take the same classes, breathe the same air that I do. But does this apply to national products? Do Morgan and I share a commonality because we each have a Social Security card, despite the fact that she drove a Lexus in high school and I drove a Dodge Shadow? Why wouldn't I root for the Japanese IF (and I dont know), they were from a more similar socio-economic background? They would theoretically have more in common with me, and that is what its about, no?

Share your thoughts.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Summer 2011: The Worst Episode in the Box Set

I had originally intended to write an article about how there was nothing to write about in the sports world (and by originally, I mean 35 minutes ago when I thought of it). I stand by that statement, and will address it. But, the more and more I thought about it, the more I realized that there is nothing going on in the world.

Many of you may have thought my blog was dead, or I was dead, or somewhere in-between those two extremes, but it remains that there is simply nothing to write about. I grew a tiny morsel of respect for sports writers these past couple of weeks, as I realized it is probably difficult to write an article anywhere from 3-7 times a week. Usually I read some of their stuff, and I say "this is what they come up with? Could there be anything more useless," etc, but now I can understand why they resort to that level.

But if you read my blog, you understand that I try to write about things other than sports, or at least, beyond the black and white headlines of "the yankees won last night." Thats why the lack of material for my blog is even more alarming.

In a long series of uninspiring years from Hollywood, we may have hit rock bottom with this years crop of films, at least in terms of originality. No one ever equated Summer Films with quality films, at least, ever since 1975 and 1977 when Jaws and Star Wars reinvented the film industry and caused the advent of the Summer Blockbuster. Summer films are expected to be big budget, action packed, bring the kids in from the streets during their summer break, etc, and are supposed to be nothing more than a mindless way to spend two hours. I dont expect the studios to roll out "Tokyo Story," "The Godfather," "Citizen Kane," etc, but I expect for them to roll out something that keeps me entertained.

I was watching Independence Day the other day (on Independence Day), and I found myself thoroughly entertained, despite the film being 15 years old, starring my mortal enemy in Wil Smith, me knowing what happens in the end, and it being a summer blockbuster. So what happened? Last year, "Inception" was the big hit. While I enjoyed the film a lot less than everyone else on the planet, I can at least acknowledge two things: 1) it was something different, 2) it was an event - everyone was talking about it, everyone saw it, and it was culturally relevant.

This year, it seems the idea machine broke down at all the major studios. What do we get? Well, when all else fails we can do this. How about we have a film where someone old goes back to college and falls in love with their teacher, transformers 18 when no one liked the last 16, Rob Schneider/Adam Sandler/Kevin James in a film where they turn into an animal or can communicate with animals, and something that people liked 30 years ago, only in 3-D! (talking about the Smurfs). And for you adults out there, a romantic comedy about being friends with benefits, which has only been explored 1000000 times before. I think well call it.......Friends with Benefits.


I don't know anything about music, but I know this. There is no landmark song for the Summer. Again, I'm not expecting the current artists to write and sing "Imagine," "Stairway to Heaven," or "Smells Like Teen Spirit," but I would like something that you could turn the volume all the way up on as you drive and pound the steering wheel to. This includes songs that would be totally embarrassing to be seen singing. As I said, I know nothing about music, I know nothing about new artists, I dont even know whos singing half the time, but I listen to the radio a fair amount. How then, can I easily remember that in 2006 "Hips Dont Lie" came out? Was it a good song? no. Will it be the lexicon of the greatest songs of the year, let alone the decade? Probably not. Would it be embarrassing if I was singing along to it at a stoplight, and anyone pulled up next to me? Yes. All that being said, I have memories of the song being on ad nauseum, my friends and I singing along to it, pounding the steering wheel, and driving place to place. We would bet on whether it would be on during a short trip. On longer trips, it would be how many times. We would listen to it on one channel, and then turn to the other pop channel, and see how long it would take before they played it there. Thats all Im asking for. Now, I turn on the radio, and 90% of the female singers sound like Edward ScissorsHands scratching his hands on a chalkboard, with no rhythm, no recognizable lyrics, and not even anything worth making fun of.

In the news, we of course have Casey Anthony. This story has already run its course with me, so Ill spare you everything I was thinking when the verdict came out. I will say this though. I never understood why in this day and age, people were tried by a jury of their peers. Have you walked outside lately? Gone grocery shopping? Gone to the 7/11? Sat next to someone at a sporting event? Why would you want any of those people deciding anyone's fate? I wouldn't trust 12 people to come together and tell me what shirt to wear or what to eat for lunch, let alone determine if someone killed and threw their child in a swamp.

And as soon as the verdict came out, people said "oh, maybe the jury is infallible." No fucking shit they're infallible. They said "its hard to convict someone when they know they may be facing death" and "they might have been upset that it took so long and they missed their holiday weekend" no FUCKING SHIT.

We established this system 220 years ago when we left England, and we were so afraid of tyranny that we went out of our way to make sure everything was fair. That meant, everything was going to be decided by peers. Thats bullshit now. I don't like anybody enough to decide anything in this day and age. Trials should be decided by a panel of judges. Why would I want some idiot getting paid minimum wage to be there who is upset that theyre missing their 4th of July cookout, when I can have a panel of judges who went to law school, studied law, know it like the back of their hand, were so accomplished that they became judges, and then have practiced law/being a judge for years. Its so fucking stupid.


And finally, we have sports. Or do we? The NFL and NBA are in a lockout. Great start. College Football has a new criminal seemingly every other day. Great. Baseball is offering its usual package, which may be as exciting as baseball can be in July, but as we know, that isn't very exciting. Before we talk about sports though, lets talk about me.

I sit in my apartment from day to day, and I realize, "I havent written a blog in a while." Why? a) there hasn't been an impetus to do so. b) even when I tried, I failed. I had writers block. I was going to write a college football blog that would show what the Top 25 would be in January, based on preseason rankings, how good I thought they'd be, and schedules. Then I realized, no one wants to read that. What can I say that you cant read in a magazine (you guys hear about this Saban? him and Bama are gonna be pretty good this year). Additionally, I realized I'd just turn into a Todd Blackledge, Mark May, or even worse, a Jesse Palmer. So I scrapped that idea.

I was so strapped for ideas that I even started (shield your eyes), to watch PTI and Around the Horn. Painful stuff. That's all I'll say. That, and I didn't get any inspiration from seeing J.A. Adande, Kornheiser, or any other schlub on the shows.

I went back and started watching all the 30 for 30s again. Great stuff. I think subconsciously, it is me trying to grab hold of something that doesn't exist anymore - cool sports. Consciously, it didn't give me any more ideas.

Did I remove myself from the sports world? Hardly. I still check ESPN every day. I still read pages of Steele's magazine every day. As I mentioned, I submerged myself even further by watching ESPN (although you could probably argue this is counterintuitive when it comes to being creative). I am as excited as ever for college football this year. Did I lose my wit, my ability to write, and all the great qualities that make me me? Doubtful. So I started to examine what actually went down this summer in sports.

The summer started off nice enough, with a game 7 victory by the Bruins, and an NBA finals to remember. But that cant be the only highlight of the Summer. Since then.........nothing. The U.S. Open will be memorable for the margin of victory in which McIlroy won, but not for any drama. And it won't be remembered for Woods playing in it. Nor will the British. Hate to sound like everyone else, but golf does benefit when he is involved. So that's a strike against golf.

As mentioned before, NFL and NBA in a lockout. Lets talk specifically about the NFL. WHile I realize they haven't lost any games yet, the idea that there could be a loss is planted strongly enough in us for us to lose excitement. Camps would be starting soon. We could turn on the TV and read about who the break out rookies are gonna be, whos gonna win it all, who the surprise team is going to be, etc. INstead, any NFL story boils down to one question: "will it exist this year?" Not good. Another example of this is fantasy football. I don't even like fantasy football, but I do it every year. So when I go to ESPN.com the other day, and I see their mock draft and power rankings are out, do I click on it? Of course not. Why would I waste my time reading about the power rankings when it isnt even certain there is gonna be a season? In years past, I would have at least glanced at it. While this doesnt sound exhilarating by any stretch of the imagination, I think you can appreciate that that this contribute to a build up fans would have, leading up to Week 1. Instead, I feel like a goth teenager. My mom brings me home a puppy, and I say "whats the point, its gonna die anyway." "Whats the point in reading the rankings, they're not gonna happen anyway." Not good.

If you could ever get a highlight out of tennis in a single season, it is a bonus. So far, none. Lets leave it at that.

College football is guilty of the same thing year after year. They talk about two things around this time of the year. 1) the schedules 2) anything and everything other than personnel. So while college football live doesn't offer me anything insightful, I am not shocked by this. There was big news at the beginning of the summer with OSU, and there SHOULD be big news with Oregon (it seems to me that hiring someone to go out and persuade kids to go to Oregon is wrong, but what the fuck do I know?) So I don't expect a lot out of college football this time of the year, and I dont get it. I usually turn on college football live, roll my eyes, and thats that. Then, college football ends up kicking ass, so I have that to look forward to.

One thing that cannot be overlooked is the loss of internet poker. True, this would take up a great deal of my summers in the past, but beyond that, it ruins a lot of excitement for following the WSOP. First off, Ivey isnt playing (admirable and right move on his part). Secondly, it is so difficult to watch and follow something, and then not be able to do it. Think about this. This is what makes sports so great (pretend poker is a sport for a second). When you were 5, you'd watch a morning football game and then, youd go out and play football. You would watch MJ jump from the free throw line or switch the ball 3 times in midair, and then, you'd go outside, stick your tongue out, and yell "jordan" as you tried to mimic the moves. Now, I'm supposed to watch people play poker, and then say "i wanna go play," and then go to play, and get the screen of death?
The whole law is ridiculous too. For years they advertised those sites during the ESPN broadcast. Even if you didnt put money in, you could win money in freerolls and other tournaments. Ivey, being a spokesman for FullTilt, who has yet to refund all the money, is sitting out the WSOP in protest. Lederer, who is a founder of FullTilt isnt, and I hear that he's a marked man (no joke). It's also funny because I was watching the Jimmy the Greek 30 for 30 the other day. In it, they made the point that they NEVER said the point spread on air. They never said Baltimore is favored by 7. Instead, they went around this to say "itll be closer than people think", or "baltimore big," or just say it "Baltimore, but only by 5." Now, they clearly say the spread on air (not just Musburger either). Fowler (who learned from burger), says "who you got, Clemson is a 3 point favorite," or "Penn state, the higher ranked team, is actually an underdog in this one." On top of it all, you have Chad Millman for ESPN.com openly write about gambling on the website. No charades or smoke and mirrors, clear, black and white print, talking about gambling. On college sports too. This coming only a couple of years after the NCAA's ad campaign of "Dont bet on it." Despite all this conversation and the fact that gambling has moved into the every day lexicon, its illegal. Go figure. And Chad Millman, whos articles were never based on any sort of logic, is now editor of ESPN magazine. I'm not saying, I'm just saying...................

I probably could have just summed up this article with this anecdote. 3 days ago, Derek Jeter returned from injury. He's closing in on 3,000 hits, and thats great. But 3 days ago, he had around 2994, or 2995. He came back, he went 0-4, and the Yankees lost 6-3 in a forgettable game. Nevertheless, ESPN.com dubbed it the "Highlight of the Night." Wow. Ive heard of East Coast/Yankee Media Bias before, but thats a little ridiculous. Today, go to the front page, and the main article is about..........what else? How the Boys and Girls Club of America remembers "The Decision." Simply put, could there be a slower news day?

So for now, the Summer of 2011 will be remembered for two things. 1) the Casey Anthony trial, and 2) the time period that everyone in the world realized that Facebook was dumb, and was nothing more than a forum for everyone to brag about their job, their niece or nephew, or post what they had for lunch, talk about how good their weekend was with their friends, post their liberal bullshit, or point out the fact that it is Friday, which means they will be off of work in a few hours (amazing how that works). So don't blame me for the lack of blogs, blame the world. That's what I do every day for anything that goes wrong in my life. But realize, I will be back , with a vengeance, once College Football starts, or once anything happens in the world. Until then, I recommend you follow and contribute to my posts on namesake.


P.S. I dont believe in curses or jinxes, but, I should point out that this is the first Summer in about 11 years where I haven't watched Dazed and Confused. I normally watch it within 48 hours of school being over, but in an odd set of circumstances this year, I was busy at this time, which led me to put it off and ultimately not do it. I realize that this could be the reason everything sucks so bad. I'll let you know if I watch it, because if I do, expect the next day to feature the NFL lockout to end, Oregon to get probation, the internet gambling law to be repealed, a full out riot at a baseball game, Woods to come out and embrace his inner villain and admit he uses steroids and will fuck whatever he wants when he wants, and in a weird twist to save money for the NBA and avoid a lockout, they announce that the Miami Heat are broken up, and the big three have to be split up amongst Minnesota, Sacramento, and Charlotte. That would be worth writing about.