My ballot: heart not head

Chipper Jones is having an amazing season – hitting almost 400.  David Wright is one of the best third baseman in baseball.

But neither got my vote on my All Star ballot.  I voted for Nomar.

It hasn’t exactly been easy to be a Nomar Garciaparra fan lately.  He’s my favorite player of all-time, but that’s getting harder to admit to people.  He’s been hurt much of the season, his career is stumbling, and this article on ESPN.com is about the least flattering thing I’ve ever read. 

But I don’t care.  To me – he’s still the best.  And as long as he’s on an All-Star ballot, he’ll continue to get my vote.

The rest of my ballot:

AL:  Kevin Youkilis, Ian Kinsler, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Jason Varitek, Josh Hamilton, Manny Ramirez, Grady Sizemore, David Ortiz

NL:  Lance Berkman, Chase Utley, Hanley Ramirez, Nomar Garciaparra, Brian McCann, Matt Holliday, Carlos Beltran, Ryan Braun

    kevin

Photo courtesy: AP Photo/David Zalubowski

The Bobcats: A National Joke

After watching some of the NBA Playoffs – and kinda enjoying it – I thought it might be fun to try and get back into the NBA.   I’d need a team to root for, and climbing on the Celtics bandwagon would be super-lame at this point.   So why not root for the Bobcats?  After reading various articles after yesterday’s NBA Draft, it seems obvious that being a Bobcat fan isn’t much fun.

From The Sports Guy’s column at ESPN.com

Do you think Charlotte’s war room is located on the ninth hole at MJ’s golf course? Like, it’s basically him on his cell phone and two other guys on Treos trying to rush the pick in before they sneak in nine more holes? The Bobcats might be the worst-run franchise in the league. And that’s saying something.

From Peter Schrager at Fox Sports.com

Augustin joins a team of college standouts that includes Sean May, Felton, Emeka Okafor, Adam Morrison and Jared Dudley. That squad could make up the greatest college squad of the past ten years. As a pro team, they might be competetive in the NBDL. Maybe.

Tom Sorenson of the Charlotte Observer:

The Charlotte Bobcats have a tough assignment tonight. They have to become relevant.

My buddy Justin live-blogged from the draft for sportscracklepop.  He completly ignored the Bobcats first pick and about the second pick said:

Alexis Ajinca: “Before the draft I talked to my agent and I said, ‘well, I want to play for Bobcats.” That’s how you know he’s foreign.

A quick recap: they are the worst run team, as bad as a NBDL team, not relevant, their first round pick wasn’t worth mentioning and the second round pick must be foreign because he doesn’t know how bad the team is.

So – bottom line – the Bobcats are a complete joke to everyone everywhere.   Maybe that’s a sign I should look for a different team.

     kevin

I don’t even know what to say about the video.  Sadly, it speaks for itself.

my stained shorts: $5

Someone paid $35,000 for the shirt Doc Rivers was wearing when Paul Pierce dumped Gatorade on him when the Celtics won the NBA Championship.  Ummm…that’s a lot of cash.

Its tough to criticize too much – all the money goes to charity (with an additional $20,000 from Gatorade and some other guy) – but who spends that much on something like that?  How much disposable money do you have to have to decide – ’sure, I’ll spend $35,000 on a stained shirt.’.

I can play that game too.   I’m officially auctioning off my shorts that have a cake stain on them from my grandpa’s 92nd birthday today.  The cake is Strawberry Shortcake from Henry’s (which if you live in Wilmington and haven’t had yet – leave the computer right now and get some).  

FEEL LIKE YOU WERE THERE!!  BE A PART OF HULL FAMILY BIRTHDAY HISTORY!! ITS THE FIRST TIME GRANDPA HAS EVER TURNED 92 – WILL PROBABLY BE THE LAST!!  OWN THESE SHORTS – RELIVE HISTORY!!

I’ll even sign them.  I’ll get grandpa to sign them too.   All money goes to a charity.  I’ll let the winner pick.

Bidding starts at five bucks. 

  kevin

Photo courtesy: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images via boston.com

wet wilmington

For my Boston readers – I’m sure you’ve seen this by now. 

But for everyone else – this video seems appropriate with all the rain we’ve had the last few days.

   kevin

my issue with nascar

I think there are a lot of problems with NASCAR, but the biggest is that the same guys win every week.

There’s no suspense.  Before the race starts, you could write down 10 drivers names, and there is about a 95% chance that one of those ten guys would win.  That wouldn’t be too big of a deal, but ten guys is less than 25% of the field.  That means 75% have no shot each week.

Why is this?  I find it hard to believe that its just because those guys are that much more talented than everyone else.  I think it has more to do with the teams and their finances.  Put Jimmie Johnson in a HAAS car, does he win?  I don’t think so.

More importantly – how do we fix this?  Or – does NASCAR even think its a problem?  Maybe they like it this way.  I wonder.

   kevin

Photo Courtesy: (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) via yahoo.com

kevin loves rocco

I’ve always had a problem really getting into golf because I never had a guy to root for.  I just liked watching and rooted for whoever.  I felt like if I had “MY GUY” it would be a lot more fun to follow.

I picked some guys - Aaron Baddeley, Adam Scott, Luke Donald - but none of them really stuck. 

But now I may have found him:  Rocco Mediate.

How could you not like him after his performance this weekend?  He was fun to watch, took Tiger to the limit, and always had something clever to say in all the interviews.  Most of all – he just seemed like a good guy.

So – for now - Rocco is my guy.   We’ll see if it sticks.

    kevin

Photo courtesy ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images via yahoo.com

No card for dad.

My dad isn’t getting a Father’s Day card this year.  Its not because of anything he’s done.  In fact – its the exact opposite.  My dad is a wonderful father, a great support figure, and my best friend.  But I’m not getting him a card. 

And its because all the cards are terrible.

I was shopping for cards earlier this week for both him and my grandfather – and every card had one of the following themes:

• dad watches too much tv
• dad sleeps too much
• dad sleeps while watching tv
• dad farts too much (I couldn’t believe this one)
• dad smells
• dad fixes things with tools
• dad fixes things with tools, but does a bad job
• dad yells at his children all the time
• dad mows the lawn
• dad is fat and out of shape
• dad likes to fish and its annoying to the family
• dad is thinks he’s smarter than everyone else

And it goes on and on.  There isn’t one single funny card that I would even dare send to my dad.  My dad is just a normal guy.   Why isn’t there a funny card for a normal dad?  Can’t someone come up with this card?

Anyways – Dad, you’re not getting a card this year.  But don’t take it as a slight…complain to Hallmark.  I can’t possibly be the only one with this problem.

   kevin

wide open…

With the U.S. Open set to begin tomorrow, here’s my fantasy picks for the week.  Keep in mind, after winning by a fairly large margin last year, I’m way back in the standings this year.  I have plenty of excuses, but in the end, I just blow.

That being said, here’s my lineup.  The Starters will be in italics.

A group: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson
B group: Justin Leonard, Ryuji Imada, Stuart Appleby, Stewart Cink
C group: Luke Donald, Steve Marino

I just realized I have to guys with the same first name.  Hopefully at least one of them will be around for the weekend.

Bought the girls an inflatable pool today.  Nothing big, but big enough for two one-year olds to play in.  I about passed out trying to inflate it.  Madison and Kaitlyn will have to wait until I break out the tire pump tomorrow or daddy will be hospitalized with a brain hemorrhage.

moving on…

After a little more than a week away from work, I’m back.  Sadly, it wasn’t much of a vacation, but at the same time it will be a week that will stay with my family for the rest of our lives.

If you’re a reader of The Couch you know my our daughter’s turned a year old on May 30th.  A great day of family, fun, and tears of joy.  That was followed up by a larger get-together of family and friends on June 1st which included a little alcohol and a turn on the slip-and-slide (Roger, it will make a return appearance this summer!).  When the festivities were over on Sunday, so too was our time at our first house.

Kelli and I closed on a new house on June 2nd ending a very hectic four-day period.  While the move wasn’t geographically a long one, it was still something very big for us.  We were leaving the house where our lives together really started and where we became a family. 

Luckily, that’s where the house will stay.  In the family.  My brother-in-law Gordon will do what he wants with it and move in sometime this summer.  Hopefully long enough into the summer that I can finally clear out the attic and garage.  Regardless of when it’s finally clear of our belongings, that house will always be full of our memories.  They weren’t all good ones, but they were all ones Kelli and I went through together, so it’s nice that piece of us remains very close.

As for the new house and the move, it was a very long week capped off with a very warm Saturday.  After four days of painting bedrooms and bathrooms (mom, couldn’t have done it without you) Saturday’s heat wasn’t what we needed.  Roger (Kaitlyn’s Godfather) is a firefighter at Camp Lejeune and mentioned the term “Black Flag” which basically means the weather is too extreme for training at the base.  We were moving during “Black Flag” conditions, and believe me, I’m no Marine.  The fact that we moved in the 100-plus degree weather proves I’m not smart enough.  All in all it was a good day and couldn’t have been done without Roger, Gordon, Mike, Kate, Corina and my wife Kelli.

Another chapter of our life is begining.

Still kickin’ in KC

This is the third blog entry by Connor Barth who is trying to land a spot on the roster of the Kansas City Chiefs.  The Hoggard grad is giving us an inside look at his experiences at training camp.

 

The first couple of weeks that we have had practice it went really well. I was on point making all my field goals, but there are always going to be days that you don’t perform as well as you like. Last week I was not as consistent I missed a few more than I would like, but its not how you start, but how you finish. Off the field a lot of fun things have gone on. We had a bowling night with the Red Coaters, which is a non-profit organization that helps to sell season tickets and help with charities. It was a great time and some great bowlers. We also had a total access day at the YMCA and a bunch of the players came out and we signed autographs and played some games with the kids. It was fun to go out and get introduced to the fans. One of the best moments I have had since I have been in KC was being able to practice in the stadium this past Saturday. It is one of the best places to play in the NFL.

About 11,000 fans came out and they were very supportive and loud. I now know that this stadium can get really loud and there is great home field advantage because the fans are great and they love their football here. Thank you to the fans for all the support.

 

     I played in a charity golf tournament yesterday and it was a lot of fun, but I was probably the worst golf player out there. Thank God I can kick the ball straight because if I kicked the way I hit a golf ball their would be problems. If anyone can give me some good advice on a place to get some golf lessons, that would be great, haha. It was fun though to get out and not think about football for a day.

 

     We started back practice today and it went very well. I got back on track and kicked well today, but there are still two more days of practice left. It is a very tight race and it has been a lot of fun competing everyday with Nick and Billy. They are two great kickers and its been great getting to know them and watching them kick. The days are counting down till we find out who makes it to training camp, so I am trying to finish up strong.

 

     Hope everyone back in Wilmington are doing great and I will post more later. Thanks.