Surprisingly enough, no one had a problem with me suggesting a third team go to New York City last week. This is obviously because I rule.
I spent this past weekend in DC. I don’t know how many people have actually spent time in DC, but it’s an odd thing. You can be as angry with your government as anyone can be, but for some reason touring the monuments and seeing the memorials can almost make you feel happy with being an American again. It’s like a pilgrimage to restore your faith in the country. I finally got to see the Franklin Roosevelt Memorial, which really doubles as an insane monument to American Political Correctness. Fights to sanitize this monument ran amok, from removing a cigarette case from the his statue’s design, to removing fur from the statue of Elenor Roosevelt, to whether or not Roosevelt should be shown in his wheelchair. Somehow, when all of this stuff settled down, the man who wanted nothing but a desk-sized patch in front of the national archives ended up with a 7-acre sprawl on the Mall. The monument is beautiful and it’s as large and sprawling as his presidency. However, I feel like Roosevelt would be embarrassed by the attention. Not only in its size, but in its display of a disability he spent most of his presidency hiding. The final statue, him with his dog, has small wheels visible on his chair from behind. This itself is a strong enough symbol, and would have represented a good duality between the front (the strong image that Roosevelt portrayed) and the back (the wheelchair that he hid from view). At the very least, it would have been honest, but we can’t really have honesty in sanitized America, can we?
I digress.
‘Dem Ponies
For the second straight year, I’m a couple hundred dollars richer thanks to that lovely American Tradition down in the Bluegrass state. Last year, Mike Smith and 50-1 longshot Giacomo netted me me good cash on a $5 win bet. I’m still bitter over the fact I had written down a bet for the Giacomo/Closing Argument exacta but decided to not waste the money on the 50-1/70-1 exacta. The $9000 missed payoff last year was fresh in my mind when I was setting up bets this year. Last year, when I bet on Giacomo, I figured that on a field of 20, the best jockey on a good horse will walk through the field. This year, Edgar Prado was the big name in the big field and, for the second year in a row, the theory didn’t let me down. Edgar Prado and Barbaro lead me to the promised-land, extending my Derby winning streak to four years.
What does this mean for the Preakness? Not a whole lot other than the fact Barbaro will be in the race. Six out of the last nine years, the Derby winner has won the Preakness. Other than that, we’ll wait till May 20th gets a little closer to make predictions.
‘Dem Playoffs
The first round of the playoffs have finished up and they managed to do something to me that I haven’t felt in a long time.
They made me care about NBA basketball again.
Like, really care about what’s going on. I watched Kobe Bryant make a face turn, the Clippers win a series, Shaq shut people up, and LeBron showing he can raise his game when the game’s on the line.
Both conferences went as planned. All the higher seeds beat all the lower seeds, minus the Daniels’ Upset Special Selection of the Clippers over the Nuggets in six. The Clips went over in five. I gave them six because I expected two victories out of Carmelo Anthony. I didn’t know that Melo was not going to show up. Well, that’s kind of an unfair assessment. Carmelo Anthony showed up for the playoffs, he just went home early. A wise man once said that a team’s shortcomings get exposed in the playoffs. In this case, the Nuggets’ shortcomings was the fact that, once Carmelo was double covered, there wasn’t another Nugget on the floor who could make a shot from twenty feet. I wasn’t upset so much by the Nuggets losing, which I predicted, I just wanted them to win one more game so my “Clippers in six” prediction would have been spot on.
And speaking of face turns, the Kobe Bryant that showed up for these playoffs was a Kobe that nearly restored my faith in the Lakers. I am a Lakers fan from the days of Magic and Kareem. I watched basketball a lot with my dad through school and with my roommates through college. I slipped out of it during college and never really got back. Later, when Kobe was getting a little too full of himself vs and aging Jordan, he got me away from the Lakers. This year, I was almost ready to believe he could be the next coming of MJ.
One couldn’t have found themself in a better situation than if you were Kobe. He brought the series to 3-1. He did it being unselfish and spreading the ball around knowing he couldn’t single-handedly outscore the Suns. He gets Raja Bell tossed out of Game six with the chance to close the deal at the Staples Center and couldn’t get it done. After the Game Six loss, the game seven loss was already in the bag, sending the Suns through to face the infinitely more solid Clippers.
I also didn’t know how fun it was to say Smush Parker. Seriously… say it. Smush Parker.
However, after watching the playoffs through now, I have to make one adjustment to my picks. I originally picked the Suns to beat the Clippers. Now I’m not so sure. After watching the Clips completely disassemble the Nuggets, I have rethought this pick.
Maybe it’s a case of outthinking myself. It could be a case of bandwagon jumping. It could even be a case of a Mets’ fan feeling sympathy for a citys’ second-class citizenry. I’m not sure. Either way, I think the Clippers match up against the Suns better than I originally thought. They’re also playing with a fire I haven’t seen anywhere else in the playoffs, and it certainly seems like they’re rolling. Meanwhile, while it almost seems like the Suns have played at the Staples Center enough to negate any of the Clippers’ home court games, I’m instituting another Daniels’ Upset Special. Clippers over the Suns in six, replacing the earlier pick.
‘Dem Draftees
I didn’t do a draft column because there’s no point. Plenty of other places do plenty of other draft previews. I have no ability to do a mock draft (though, if I ever get the job at NFL.com I applied for, there will be a mock draft contest next season) so I decided I wasn’t even going to attempt to cover ground better covered elsewhere.
Oh, I also hate draft predictions because they’re generally boring.
Regardless, the Giants did basically the same thing they do every year, just multiplied this season. The current GM went on record as saying he wasn’t planning on moving around the draft at all this season because this is his last year. He decided he didn’t want to leave the next administration with a mess in next year’s draft. The only trade the Giants made were letting the Steelers trade up in the first round for an extra pick later in the draft. The Giants chose four defensive players, one offensive lineman, and Santana Moss’s little brother. I was hoping for another offensive lineman (so someone can put Luke ‘False Start’ Petitgout out to pasture) to fill in the gaps they’ve had at the line for the last few seasons. The Giants’ line seems like it drops to injury every season, so it seems like it’s about time to start plugging it with some younger, sturdier talent.
The one of those picks I’m most excited about is Sinorice Moss. At 5-8, he doesn’t seem like a guy the Giants will put out at Wide Receiver every play, but he could be a good return guy, which has been lacking on the team for a few years. Even Tiki s 5-10, and he looks like a dwarf on the field. Moss’s problem with being a WR will probably be getting smothered by a linebacker or a corner, but coming around on a reverse or returning a punt could be key for him.
As for the Jets, they spent their first two picks on new offensive linemen who they will be able to immediately drop into the lineup and have for the next ten years. With Leinart and Cutler still available at this point, the Jets really put an emphasis here that Pennington is going to be their guy for at least another year. Good or bad, this year we get to put an over/under on how many games Pennington plays this year before finding some new and creative way to ruin his throwing arm.
And the Texans… I just don’t know what to say about the Texans. OK, maybe they think they don’t need Vince Young or one of the other three Quarterbacks. Maybe they think their 73.7 Rated, 48/53 TD/INT Quarterback is right there and ready to turn the corner. Maybe they think if they plug up the holes in their line, David Carr will do just fine. If you wanted to sell me that, I could almost buy it. But you also want me to buy that they can’t find a spot for a guy who is probably going to be a thousand yard back out the gate? It baffles the mind. It’s one of those picks where you just sit back and wonder who’s managing the team and know why some teams are just bound to be perpetually awful.
Speaking of perpetually awful, the Cardinals grabbed Matt Leinart. They also picked up Edgerrin James in the offseason and have a few good guys out on the corners. As much as it amazes me to say it; keep on eye on these guys. They’re actually putting together a little arsenal.
Quick Hits
- LeBron psyching out Arenas was one of the greatest psyche outs since Coop drank the bag of liposuctioned fat
- Jeff Francoeur has apparently decided he only likes playing baseball on the Lord’s Day. 9 RBIs and 2 Homers on the last two Sundays vs the Mets
- Victor Zambrano blew out his elbow in Saturday’s game against the Braves. Reports of my involvement in this are greatly exaggerated
- They guy the Mets gave away for Zambrano is now 4-2 and sat down 10 Red Sox in one of those victories. I wish there was someone to blame but that guy doesn’t work for the Mets anymore
Stuff That Happens In Manhattan DC
I’m generally not an early riser. This weekend, though, I took a trip to DC with the girl and one of my old college roommates and his wife. We decided we’d get an early start on touring Capitol Hill and the surrounding stuff. We also decided we didn’t really need to do the interior tours of the monuments or the buildings since most of us had seen them at some point in our lives and, generally, a tour guide just ruins the experience. If you already know the history of the buildings, just drinking in the scene and feeling what you feel tends to be better.
By 10:30, we’d gotten to the Supreme Court building and there were a group of protesters out on the steps. Mind you, it’s Saturday morning. Not only are the justices not there, but people aren’t really even around yet. There were, in all, about 10 people standing, staring up at the Supreme Court with red duct tape over their mouth.
Overheard:
“What are they protesting?”
“I’m not sure, go ask one.”
“They have duct tape over their mouth.”
“That doesn’t seem like the makings of a very successful protest.”
In better news, I found a new favorite beer. He’Brew, The Chosen Beer, brewed in my hometown. Oddly enough, I had to go to DC to find a beer that’s brewed in my home town.
