My Favorites

Here are some pictures of my favorite people in Sports. Some are my favorite announcers (Kirk Herbstreit, Clark Kellogg), and some are my favorite players. Think of it as my Christmas Wish List this year. I want to meet all of them!

Rondo is my boy! He's the cutest-and the best-point guard in the NBA! A great Kentucky boy.

Kirk Herbstreit. Even though he's a Buckeye, he's still my favorite football analyst. I always listen to his predictions. Plus, he is the most attractive man ever!

Lamb and Jones. my favorite freshmen. Lamb is so cute, and Jones is such a presence in the paint.

Clark Kellogg. The best color commentator in college basketball! And he definitely loves UK :) I was so glad when he took over Billy Packer's job.

Andy Roddick. Let's be serious, he hasn't won a major in a while, but he's still smokin' hot! The other people I mentioned I like for legit reasons, but I just like the eye candy for this one, ha ha.

There are other athletes I really like, but I thought I'd limit it to these guys for now.

Things That Would Make My Sports Life Better

Well today started out horribly with a UK loss to freakin' UNC, but things could look up if the Auburn Tigers beat the Gamecocks in the SEC championship game. When they do, they'll represent the SEC in the BCS title game, resulting in the fifth consecutive season where there has been an SEC team in the championship.

Something else that would make sports better is if Clark Kellogg was the color commentator for all the UK games. He's seriously my favorite. Even though he's a Buckeye, he's the best! Plus you can definitely tell he likes UK basketball :)

Also, along the same vein of Kentucky basketball, I would like the NCAA to make a decision-the right decision-to FREE ENES! Geez, he'll pay back the $$, and then he'll help my Cats do well this season.

Finally, scoring a date with Rajon Rondo-that would pretty much be the best thing ever.

There are myriad more occurrences that would make my sports life better, a lot of which involve bad things happening to athletes and coaches I strongly dislike, but I need to stay positive. Plus, there's only so much you can ask for before you start getting greedy.

Pearl is Punished

As the timeless idiom goes, cast Pearl before swine and he'll fit right in! I can't fully describe the complete happiness and satisfaction I receive from Bruce Pearl being suspended from his first eight games. Not only do I despise his ridiculous orange sport coat, but the irony and corruption is almost too much to handle.

Before delving into the reason behind the suspension, let us take a jaunt down a Pearl-laden memory lane...

Twenty years ago, Bruce Pearl was an assistant at Iowa during a battle with Illinois for the star recruit Deon Thomas. Thomas committed to Illinois. Pearl, whistle in hand, got Thomas to admit to receiving a car from the Illini and turned in the tape recording into the NCAA. Although they could not back up his claim, they found other violations by further investigation which resulted in a one-year postseason ban. From that moment onward, Pearl carried around the label of a whistle-blowing rat like it was inked across his wide forehead in red. His fellow coaches shunned him with an impenetrable silence. Pearl kept telling himself and others that he did the right thing. It took three years for the tainted coach to get a job-back to Division II-at Southern Indiana. Nine years and a stellar winning record later, he was finally let back into Division I at a mid-major program: Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Three seasons later he was hired at Tennessee.

Now after such a history and a tough row to hoe, you would think that he would be the epitome of a corruption-free coach. Well, well, well...not so fast, Pearl. It turns out that Bruce has some dirt on his hands, too. He has it on his hands, his program, and his recruits. Quite frankly, when you move the orange rug you can see that he's been tracking in dirt all over Rocky Top Tennessee. The violations include excessive phone calls to recruits and use of unauthorized phones. More than the violations is the evident misinformation Pearl provided to the NCAA. Bold move from a one-eyed fat man. Covering your tracks is almost worse than performing the wrong deed! Pearl said, "It's serious what we did, it's worse how we handled it." You can say that again.

It's funny how a once goody-two-shoes is now the bad apple.

The punishment makes the matter curiouser and curiouser. He'll miss the first half of the SEC season, and will return for his Jan. 22nd game against UConn. Then he will continue his suspension and make it back to the court in time for the game against Kentucky and rival Calipari. Interesting indeed. I guess sports are more similar to politics than I thought. At least he is exposed and receiving some punishment. I can't wait to see the signs UK fans make on that Feb. 8th game.

What did I do?!

Miami Can't Take The Heat

Notice: bringing in three huge stars does not immediately yield success. Just ask the Miami Heat. I realize it's the beginning of the season, and the franchise didn't promise a glitch-free season. However, I can't help but feel a little satisfaction in seeing the Heat struggle to find their footing. What a sweet victory for the Jazz! Maybe best of all is that Miami lost twice to the Celtics-a team who has a tangible magic they clearly wanted to bring the South Beach.

I will refrain from being a complete critic because I still believe the team will eventually get in a rhythm and go on to have a solid season.

A quick note about my recent birthday. I felt so special for receiving a birthday email from ESPN.com, which included a free code for the Sports Center ringtone. Now every time anyone calls, I go into my anchor mode and pretend I'm opening the show...then I answer the call, ha ha. The second great gift I got was from my good friend, Michael. Thanks to a little prompting from yours truly, he sent me a Celtics shirt that is the definition of perfection. It reads: "I only date Boston Celtics fans". I'm going to wear it 24/7!

Family, Food, Football

This past weekend I was lucky enough to watch glorious college football with my wonderful family. My dad and I were able to surprise my sister and mom as I flew in late Friday night to see them. Needless to say, it was just what I needed :)

There are two things that are necessary for viewing football: family and food. I had both! My sister and mom made some awesome bruschetta, along with about a million pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting that I devoured. We ate great Thai food for dinner and some delicious frozen yogurt for dessert. And that's just the food. The big games (mainly SEC ones) were riveting...and my picks weren't all that bad for once! Auburn remains unbeaten-but they dropped to # 2 in the BCS standings, Oregon surpassed them for the #1 spot. UK lost like usual-Mike Hartline sucks.

All in all it was a day well spent (as in I didn't do anything except plop myself on the couch and gather around the t.v. with my amazing family). Can life get any better than this?

I Love the Smell of UK Basketball in the Fall

The countdown is over...Kentucky basketball's season has begun! I love college football, but let's be serious, UK football isn't anything to write home about. UK basketball, on the other hand, is the most important thing in the world. While other kids watched cartoons or other shows, I was glued to the Kentucky basketball games. Yelling, cheering, crying, high-fiving...Kentucky basketball has always been my obsession.

Tonight marks the start of a new season. Our team in no way compares to last year's squad, but a team like that only comes along once in a Kentucky blue moon. However, being a true fan does not entail cheering solely during the victorious stretches, but rather it demands loyalty through thick and thin.

Midnight Madness is a great tradition in NCAA basketball, especially at UK. I remember going every year to watch it in Memorial Colosseum, after camping out to get tickets for it (which are free, but sell for hundreds). I remember witnessing Rajon Rondo win the dunk contest during that year's Midnight Madness, and I was blown away by his explosiveness. I knew right there that he was destined for great basketball endeavors (he is now probably the best point guard in the NBA).

I wish I were able to be there tonight, but thank goodness for espn3.com. In honor of the tradition that is Kentucky Basketball, I watched the 1998 NCAA Championship game vs. Utah. Yes, I frequently watch the classic games that took place during my lifetime, and it never gets old. I love seeing Utah crumble and the Comeback Cats triumph. Envy our past, fear our future.

UK basketball stirs in me emotions that nothing else can. A combination of pride, enthusiasm, hopefulness, and love fill me to the core. Some call it over the top, I call it passion. And life without such passion, is no life at all.

So until the next post, I'll leave you with some highlights of that glorious 1998 championship game:

-Doleac struggling to get down the court towards the end of the second half, as his bowl cut is matted to his forehead.

-Wayne Turner never making two consecutive free throws (consistent with his 56% free throw average).

-Scott Padgett and Jamaal Magloire always looking Bad A with some sort of bruise or cut near the eyes.

-Rick Majerus rumored to have burned his "lucky" sweater after the game due to its failure to bring luck as well as its pungent odor and yellowed armpit regions.

-Cameron Mills being the man and making two threes when UK was, up until that point, 0-7 on three point attempts. As the final buzzer sounds, he then becomes the man that falls to the ground in tears (prompting pal Jeff Shepard to follow suit).

-Kentucky wins its seventh NCAA title. 'Nuff said.

The Hunt for a Reds October is a Success!

FINALLY!!! 1990 was that last year in which the Cincinnati Reds won the World Series, and 1995 was the last year they made it into the post-season. Now the fifteen year drought is over!

I have many fond memories of going to the Reds games and eating soft serve ice cream out of the plastic helmets. Some real greats have played for them over the years, like Ken Griffey Jr., Sean Casey, Adam Dunn, Austin Kerns, etc. Although many times they started out the season with a bang, they always trailed off in the NL Central race, and year after year failed to make it to October.

But this season was different! They have remained in the lead, or a few games off the lead, for a while...and have stayed at the top! I hope they can make the most of this long awaited post-season appearance and win the World Series in what has seemed like a long twenty years!