Los Angeles Dodgers, Clippers, and Buccaneers Fan

DODGERS CLIPS WEEKEND

2006-04-17T12:11:00.000-07:00

So on Saturday, I went to the Dodgers-Giants game. My seats were so awesome. My boss has had season tickets for like 15 years, but this year he upped them to aisle 35 and with the boxes. It was AMAZING compared to last year. Because my comfort issues were washed away I was able to focus on the game, and what a good game it was. Odalis Perez pitched wonderfully, seems like he might be back on schedule for his good every even year thing. It seems like the Dodgers have the worst luck in the world; first our offense is doing great but our pitching can't stop anyone, then our offense dies out and our pitching starts doing well again. Why can't we get them at the same time??? Anyways, had a lot of fun at the game, Navarro got lucky with his 2 RBIS, but I guess he deserves the credit.
PS. Got James Loney's autograph, NICCCEEE!!

On Sunday I went to Fan Appreciation Day at Staples, had a great time although the clips got blown out. That was the first game I went to this entire season but I know now I should have gone to more. Got some tickets for 10 dollars each, definitely worth the 10 bucks, and my section got a free mousepad. YEAHHH!! Besides that, I got myself a blue Mobley authentic jersey for half off, 87.50. Great deal. It was quite fun, especially to find out that they should be set to face the Nuggets with home-court advantage.

Opening Day Review

2006-04-04T14:55:00.001-07:00

We Dodger fans have been waiting for this day since, say, around last September, when they fell out of the race. And for a team missing their projected #2, #5, and #8 hitters, I'd say they did pretty well to score 10 runs.

POSITIVES
Rafael Furcal - OH YEAH! This is what they needed all last year, a dependable leadoff man
Bill Mueller - Nice Defense at third and on base 60% of the time. Seems like he'll be a dependable hitter the entire year, even through the slumps because of his ability to work the count.
Danys Baez - liked his outing, althought it wasn't much of a pressure situation.
Cruz, Kent, and Drew - Seems just like last season. In my opinion, Cruz is vastly underrated and Kent is just amazing. Hopefully David Jonathan will stay healthy.

NEGATIVES
Derek Lowe - Of course you expect some rust on Opening Day, but come on! Besides the horrible choice of pitches to Hudson and Jones (I could have hit that pitch out) there was a shot of him laughing it off later in the dugout. Most of us fans hated Weaver because of his attitude, but whenever he got shelled, he was pissed. Seems like Lowe doesn't care.
Olmedo Saenz - Not against tough righties! Good thing Loney will be called up soon.

OTHER THOUGHTS
- Get someone up in the pen after that lollipop to Hudson, Grady!
- Ehhhhh on Alomar. Seems veryyyy slow, a la Phillips.
- Bullpen needs to work on selection of pitches, maybe Alomar's fault, hopefully we will find out today.

Not a bad first game, hopefully they can get their first win of the year tonight with Penny against Smoltz. Penny should be able to turn in a good start, so it will depend on the offense against the tough Smoltz. I think the Dodgers will pull it out, 6-4.

'06 Clippers Playoff Hopes

2006-03-30T15:23:00.002-08:00

This year's Clippers, as everyone knows, are the best version in decades. But how far can they really go in the postseason?
In my opinion that depends on their seeding. As much as most of us won't like to admit it, we would rather our Clippers play Denver with homecourt advantage and then potentially Phoenix as opposed to Dallas/San Antonio at their house and then if they pull of an upset have to face the other one. Against Denver I believe the Clippers would be the favorites. Let's look at the lineups Dr. Jack style:

PG
Sam Cassell
17.4 ppg 6.4 apg

Andre Miller
14.5 ppg 8.5 apg

EDGE: SLIGHT CLIPPERS

SG
Cuttino Mobley
15.5 ppg 3.2 apg 4.6 rpg

Ruben Patterson
(w/ Denver) 13.4 ppg 1.7 apg 3.5 rpg

EDGE: EVEN

SF
Corey Maggette
17.9 ppg .67 spg 5.2 rpg

Carmelo Anthony
26.7 ppg 1.13 spg 5.1 rpg

EDGE: NUGGETS

PF
Elton Brand
25.2 ppg 10.0 rpg 2.6 bpg

Kenyon Martin
13.3 ppg 6.5 rpg .94 bpg

EDGE: CLIPPERS

C
Chris Kaman
11.6 ppg 9.5 rpg 1.43 bpg

Marcus Camby
13.2 ppg 12.1 rpg 3.35 bpg

EDGE: SLIGHT NUGGETS

BENCH
Shaun Livingston
Quinton Ross
Vladimir Radmanovic
Zeljko Rebraca

Greg Buckner
Reggie Evans
DerMarr Johnson
Eduardo Najera
Earl Boykins (for the playoffs)

EDGE: CLIPPERS

COACH

Mike Dunleavy

George Karl

EDGE: NUGGETS

OVERALL EDGE: CLIPPERS

PREDICTION IF THIS SEEDING OCCURS: CLIPPERS IN 6

So there you have it, I'll be doing breakdowns on other teams the Clippers may potentially face so come check it out.

'06 Dodgers

2006-03-29T22:25:00.002-08:00

When I look at this Dodgers team this year, I wonder if they can be successful. They have the potential to be great, if only they would stay healthy. With Kent just signed to an extension maybe it will give him a little more motivation, as if he needed it anyway. But when you look at this lineup, don't tell me it doesn't show the possibility of being top 5 in the league.

SS Rafael Furcal
CF Kenny Lofton vs. RHPs/ Repko, Werth, Cruz, Ledee vs. LHPS
RF David Jonathan Drew
2B Jeff Kent
1B Nomar Garciaparra
3B Bill Mueller
LF Jose Cruz Jr
C Dioner Navarro

1-6 this lineup kicks some serious ass. then you add in cruz who is very underrated for his OBP last year, and Navarro, a guy who was quite successful in less than half of a rookie season, you can see this team's potential.

Then you look at the bullpen with guys like:

Gagne
Baez
Carter
Brazoban

^That's 4 guys who were closers for at least a significant amount of time in the bigs

Then you add in guys with potential like

Kuo
Osoria
Hamulack

and we have a GREAT bullpen to fall back on.

Of course, I'm big on the Lowe and Penny bandwagon this year, as I feel both of the them will vastly improve on last year's stats, especially Lowe with his distractions out of the way. On the other hand, I'm not too high on Odalis Perez being the #3 starter, I actually feel more confident in Jae Seo as a starter. Tomko isn't too bad of a pitcher, especially when you add in the Dodger Stadium factor.

That's my take on this year's Dodgers.

Prediction: NL West Division Winners

High School Rivalries

2006-03-29T22:21:00.000-08:00

High school sports are much more competitive than they were many years ago. There has been known to be random explosions of tension that were previously uncharacteristic to events, but lately it has become nothing out of the ordinary to have a great game elevate into a fight between schools. Recently, at an after-game riot at De La Salle High School in Northern California, a student from the losing school slammed a skateboard on a student from De La Salle, causing brain damage and putting him in intensive care for two weeks. Although the recent Saugus High incident is nothing near as serious, the coming home game on February 9th made Saugus sports history.
Saugus withstood an early 16-0 run by Burbank to come back and stay close the rest of the game. Although they were without leading scorer DJ Smith, teammates Kyle Folsom, Robert McIntyre, and James Weber picked up the slack. After being down by 5 points at halftime, Saugus hung around throughout the 3rd and 4th quarters. Late in the game, Saugus’ “never give up” attitude forced some mistakes, and with 14 seconds left to play Folsom was bringing the ball up the court with a chance to win the game. Burbank had other plans however, and star guard Arno Mardyan pressured Folsom and got the steal and was fouled. With 4 seconds left Mardyan sunk both free throws; Saugus had a prayer of hope but could not get a shot off in the final seconds.
After the game, however, was when history would be made. Burbank’s few dozen fans in attendance ran onto the court and celebrated with their teammates as soon as the clock struck 0. Saugus students were not exactly pleased by the turn of the events, and in the commotion caused by the dramatic loss, Principal Bill Bolde was hit in the head by a Saugus student. This supposedly led to the cancellation of the dance after the game on the Saugus campus, because school officials did not want the possibility of any more trouble at Saugus that night. However, instead of stopping the riots altogether, all the cancellation of the dance did was take the fighting to new locations, such as Central Park and In-N-Out. Students from both schools were hurt in the skirmishes.
In the Saugus riots, even worse events have or are rumored to have occurred, like the stabbing of Juan Aguilara and arresting of Jacob Bielman. No matter which way you slice it, there are no positive results of high school sport rivalries escalating into riots.

Fantasy Football

2006-03-29T22:13:00.000-08:00

Fantasy football has been a rising “sport” over the last decade. Started by a group of frisbee players in 1996, it has now become a popular activity for light gamblers, because it is possible to win quite a bit of money, and people looking for a fun way to waste time. It can be used in a different way too, like Saugus sophomore Glen Pfaucht. Pfaucht says he does take it seriously, “because last time I won a cool prize.” At the same time, he “totally wings it” when it comes to having a specific strategy while playing. Fantasy football, “FF” for short, is known to become somewhat addicting, especially when one can become so absorbed in something so unreal. Mike Davidson, a CEO making loads of money, says on his website, “Fantasy Football is a terrible addiction. For the last 17 weeks, I’ve wasted almost all of my Sundays watching NFL games I otherwise wouldn’t have watched, all for the sake of a small amount of cash and some bragging rights.”
There are two major activities in the process of playing fantasy football: the picking of the teams, and the managing of the teams. The picking of the teams is usually the part that attracts the newcomers to the game, as it is quite interesting to choose any NFL player you wish to be on your roster. In fact, Pfaucht said the only reason he plays FF is because “it’s fun to pick the teams.” However, the part that sometimes makes people rethink their decision to join a fantasy football league is that you are supposed to check up on your team regularly to make the changes needed to account for injuries. This can become tedious, and as always, when one is not doing well, there is no motivation to go check up the latest injuries of one’s team. Only 13% of 109 Saugus students polled who own an FF team regularly check and keep up with the roster’s problems, so this seems to be a problem shared by the Saugus student body with Americans in general.
Students who do play fantasy football agree that it can be cheap fun. But if taken too seriously, it can escalate into a little more than just a fun activity into a sort of addiction. Either way, fantasy football has its interesting qualities and its tedious quirks, but it can still be a fun game to play occasionally.