All Over the Place on this One

I'm going to jump from place to place on this one so be ready...

The Hamline baseball team went 1-2 in the NCAA Midwest Regional this past weekend at UW-Whitewater. They won the first game against St. Scholastica in 13 innings. They then face the #2 seed UW-Whitewater and took a tough loss, 7-6, in 10 innings. They lost their final game to #1 seed UW-Stevens Point 5-0 to end their season. Whitewater ended up winning the Regional and is headed to the D3 College World Series. They finished their season at 29-15 with the program's first even MIAC Championship as well as setting a school record for wins in a season. Congrats to a great group of guys that really busted their tails all year long.

Apparently we had some tornadoes touch down in the Twin Cities area today. Pretty bad damage over in Minneapolis but nothing happened here. I heard the tornado siren but actually mowed my lawn about a half hour after hearing it. The only tornado I want to see is the 'Texas Tornado' Kerry Von Erich from professional wrestling fame.

As most people in the sports world know, former NY Ranger and MN Wild player Derek Boogaard died last week at his apartment in Minneapolis. He died from a mixture of alcohol and oxycodone. The coroner labeled it as an "accidental death." I don't think I'm going on a limb here but I don't think it was by any means "accidental." He knew what he was doing by mixing those to potent substances. That's like someone saying that Heath Ledger died of an accidental overdose of druge. It's not accidental, it's far from it. For whatever reason, something was that bad in their lives that they decided to end it. They knew the consequences beforehand and had little regard for the people that are close to them and that was obvious with their actions. It seems like Boogaard was an all around good guy but don't call his death 'accidental.'

I'm so sick and tired of people "thanking God." after their performances. God doesn't give two poops about the basketball game you are playing. He has more important things to worry about than your basketball game. Look, I go to church on a pretty consistent basis but I'll thank my teammates before I thank God. It was the same way in college when one of my teammates consistently preached about God and lived a lifestyle that wasn't on par (or bogey for that matter) with his preaching.

Just this past week Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany talked about giving student-athletes extra money for their scholarships. The money could range from anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 per year for extra spending money. The idea behind it is that these players potentially generate millions of dollars for their respective universities. So, now a roughly $100,000 or more education isn't enough? What sports will get this extra stipend, all sports or revenue sports? What about the non-BCS conferences that don't have the extra money that the SEC, Big Ten, or Pac-10 have?

Way too many factors in this decision. It could cause major problems within the NCAA if passed. Do many people know that these student-athletes (specifically men's hoops and football) get roughly $1,000 a month for their scholarship checks to cover their room and board? On top of that money, they can get a significant amount of money from their Pell Grant. Another way to get money is to file for independence from their parent(s) and since they technically don't make money, they live in Section 8 housing for super cheap. They can also file for food stamps. So, with minimal expenses their scholarship check goes a LONG way. I know a bunch of guys at WVU would immediately head to the cell phone store and get the newest phone or buy the newest video game as soon as they got their check. They have plenty of leftover money. They don't need to get paid extra.

What's with this whole Rapture business? Why and how did that idiot that came up with it even become relevant? Even the priest at my church joked about it today. It's amazing how these idiots get a little following and all of a sudden it blows up and people are talking about the whole deal. And me talking about it right now doesn't help but like 15 people read this on a consistent basis.

Could the Kyle Korver and Mike Miller matchup here in the Eastern Conference Finals be any more of a prototypical white shooter matchup. Both are small town America white shooters, weird. I wish I had some of Miller's tats though. They might be worse than some of the tats the guys on our team have.

Could Carlos Boozer and Chris Bosh be the most overpaid spotup jumpshooters in NBA history. Don't get me wrong, both are very good at what they do but neither can create a shot for themselves. Both are notorious for yelling after making a decent play that was initiated by someone else. It doesn't help that Boozer is a dookie, so I can't like him, ever.

The NBA Playoff commericials are awful. A talking basketball? You couldn't come up with someone better? The "Where Amazing Happens" and this one below are my all time favs.



I told you this would be all over the place. As usual, I was true to my word.