Hump Day Rant

Rant #1

Oh man, where do I start?

I played golf yesterday at the Newport Beach Golf course. It's a crappy little course but I like it. I don't lose too many balls and I can walk it. I must have used 9 different balls, including three I found while playing mostly in the Rough. But I have a point, I honestly almost got hit three different times. Probably three shots landed within ten yards of me. Not once did anyone ever say 'Four' or even 'Watch out'. All three times I pointed to the ball and told them that their ball was right next to me. I didn't even get one 'Thank you' or 'Sorry'. I was truly amazed!

I was almost as amazed as I watched the Brewers/Cubs game last night. The Brewers scored three runs and left 8 runners on base in the first four innings to go up 3-0. The Cubs committed three errors and issued five walks in the first six innings. Brewers ace pitcher, Yovani Gallardo, threw seven innings striking out a season high 10 batters while allowing just three hits including a solo-homerun in the seventh inning. For some reason, rookie manager Ron Roenicke pulled Gallardo and put in journeyman reliever Marco Estrada (1-3, 4.65 ERA). Estrada, who started the season as the Brewers emergency fifth starter and had been pounded in his last three relief appearances, promptly allowed three extra-base hits (two doubles off the wall and the tying HR). The last of those lasers was a Aramis Ramirez bomb to tie the game at 4-4. Exit Estrada and the lead. The Brewers would put runners in scoring position in the next two innings with only one out, but would fail to score again. After rookie defensive replacement Tony Campana hit a bloop double to lead off the tenth inning, the Cubs bunted him to third with one out. Genius manager Roenicke decides to pitch to the Cubs top hitter, Starlin Castro--who hits a shot deep into the right center gap to score Campana. Why not walk Castro? If you are scared of Ramirez hitting behind him--then walk him too. Pena follows Ramirez and is hitting .216 and strikes out a ton (including twice already). Better yet--why are you throwing scrub Tim Dillard and not closer John Axford, who has 40 strikeouts in 30 innings this year.

They could have played this game ten more times and the Brewers never would have lost one of them. Roenicke is an idiot--I was aware of that. The Brewers are a putrid 14-21 on the road this season. But allowing Estrada to blow the game was insane. I guess he was saving Latroy Hawkins (0.55 ERA) for later. Thank you Roenicke!

NBA Finals Recap

The Mavs won because Dirk Nowitzki was the best player in the series...by far!

LeChoke James looked scared. Dwayne Wade had his moments but never shot consistently. Chris Bosh will always be their third option. Mike Miller and Joel Anthony completely disappeared. Mike Bibby is worthless. Eddie House should have gotten more PT...but didn't. Spoletra got outcoached. The Heat got outplayed.

Jason Terry was the KEY (as we predicted). He played sensational. He carried the Mavs when Dirk couldn't hit his shots.Tyson Chandler and JJ Barea were huge in this series. I was disappointed by Jason Kidd and Shawn Marion, but they still were alright.

Our Results:

2 Miami Heat Wins---both UNDER the Total in games 1 & 3 = Our Winners
3 Mavs Wins with the OVER = Our Philosophy came through
The Game 4 Mav Win/Under combo was the only game that our Parlay Philosophy (Mavs&Over or Heat&Under) was wrong on, but I still liked the Mavs in Game 4 at home being down 2-1 in the series.
We really thought that the Heat would win Game 6, but Charles Barkley was right again--Miami didn't deserve it. The Heat weren't ready to win it all. We all weren't ready for those cocky bastards to win it.