Hooray For Saturday!

Shaving Forward

Pau Gasol, dude, if you need to borrow my razor, I will overnight it to you.  Just let me know.

Playoff beards in hockey, cool.  Playoff beard in basketball, not so much.

Busy Busy Busy

I know, it's been a while.  We've been spring breaking off the coast of where was it?  Not really.

I've been super busy putting together the 2009 Kentucky State Disc Golf Championship Tournament.  I'll be back after this weekend.

In the meantime, if you ever need any electrical work done in the Cincinnati area, call Edgewood Electric, go buy yourself a pair of Keen shoes, go throw some Innova Discs purchased from The Nati Disc Golf or Disc N' Dat, stop at the Ameristop convenience store in Burlington, KY for a beverage and candy bar, go eat some good food at Florence Y'all Gyros & Wings, check out the selection of discs at Prime Discs, if you ever come across Lee Stephens or Keith Dailey buy them a beer and last but not least, enjoy the outdoors in Boone County, KY Parks.  All of these people or places have helped out to sponsor this event.

Even more important, check out the Team In Training link to a friend of mine, Nick Thomas.  He's trying to meet his fund raising goal, as he trains for his personal goal of finishing a triathlon.  You can find his story and donate to the cause here.  Any amount will be appreciated and help him out.  Tell him Kevin sent you his way.

LB

Whew, at least the New Orleans Saints did one thing right.  They re-signed middle linebacker Jonathan Vilma.  He is coming off a pretty good season, it was his first with the Saints.

Now, if they could just find a free safety and a cornerback. 

I wish football season was starting next month.

Indoor Drag Racing

For a period in my life, when I was a little kid, I would spend Saturday nights with my grandmother at her house.  It was always a treat, seeing that almost every week my grandmother would have a new miniature die cast car for me.  My mom would drop me off at her house, I would open the coat closet and on the top shelf would be a new car.  It is a great childhood memory.

I went through a phase in my adult life where I started collecting Hot Wheels, because I always thought it was kind of cool to collect things.  Now I have kids and can't afford to do that so much.  It was perfect that I had a few plastic totes full of these cars waiting around until the kids came along.  Every once in a while I'll go out in the garage and bring in a new car for the kids for times when they have impressed me from being nice, sharing, keeping their room straightened or whatever reason.

Both kids enjoy playing with the die cast cars and their imagination runs wild when we race them, on the pieces of plastic track.  Now we have a new drag strip that our son received over the holidays.  It's cool.

 

You place four cars on a starting line, then by pressing a button the four cars take off down the ramp to the finish line with the fastest car pushing up there lane number, into the winner's circle.  We have taken every miniature car in our house, placed it in a bucket and raced them four at a time.  The fastest two of the four went into the winner's bucket, the slower two were immediately found worthless and weak, then thrown in the garbage can.  Not really, but they were put in the slow bucket.

 

We continued this format until we got down to the final four and what type of vehicle do you think won?  The Funny Car with racing stickers all over it?  The Solar Panel Racer?  Speed Racer's car?  A Dune Buggy?  The Hot Seat (a hot rod that looks like a toilet)?  The Porsche 928?  The '69 Pontiac GTO?  The Zotic?  The purple school bus with butterflies on it?  Tired of guessing?

I give you the winner of the 2009 Great Hooray For Saturday Indoor Drag Race.

 

Nobody beats the Minivan.  Fear it!  Sure it doesn't look all that sporty, but it's practical, fast and can seat eight.  Kind of like our Honda minivan.  Makes me not feel so square for driving one after all.  Who am I kidding, I love our van.  Love it.

Motor City Kittens

I could possibly be the only person in the country watching the Saints vs. Lions game right now.

It is so quiet in the stadium, there is not even crowd noise coming across on the television audio.

The Detroit Lions are really bad, but the Saints don't really look much better on defense.

Disappointing Season For My Team

The New Orleans Saints season is over.  Not officially over, but basically they are playing the remaining games on their schedule only to be spoilers.

They have suffered many injuries on the defensive side of the ball, but even without injury I think the season would have turned out the same way. 

Their biggest loss of the season wasn't a game decided on the field, it wasn't even a loss due to an injury.  It was a loss that occurred even before the season started, the loss of much needed draft picks in the next NFL draft that were traded away to the New York Giants for tight end Jeremy Shockey, was the biggest blow to the team.  Jeremy Shockey has not lived up to the hype that was surrounding him, has dropped key passes throughout the season when he has been on the field, has whined throughout the season and I would be surprised and upset to see the team resign him.  So basically, they have given up two much needed draft picks for a guy that didn't produce any better than the other tight end they already had on the team, Billy Miller, who has played just as well or better.

Another reason for the Saints losing games this season was from them simply being out coached.  Sean Payton, who has a great mind for offensive plays, was guilty of bad clock management, risky play calling with wrong personal on the field and not running the best running back, Deuce McAllister, on team in key situations.  I'm a simple fan that watches all the Saint's games and can see the mistakes sticking out like a sore thumb, so hopefully in his film review during his long off season Payton will learn from his mistakes.  I fell off his bandwagon when the Saints lost to the Bears in Chicago in the NFC championship game a few years ago, when he made the same type of mistakes then and I've been leery ever since.

Pat Yasinskas, who follows the NFC South division of the NFL for ESPN and writes the NFC South blog on ESPN.com agrees.  In his recent Saints mailbag post he answered my question.

Kevin B in Boone County, KY: It's been brutal to watch my favorite team, the Saints, this season. I would have to say, many times they have simply been out coached. Would you agree with that? It's a shame to see Deuce going out like this and I wonder why Sean hasn't given him touches. It seems like every time I saw McAllister get carries, he was moving forward, unlike Bush. Is Deuce more banged up than he shows or is it Sean just isn't giving him carries for another reason?

Pat Yasinskas: I'll agree with you that they've been out coached at times. I think Sean Payton is smart and innovative, but I also think he out thinks himself and tries to get too fancy at times. Sometimes, you have to just stick with the basics, like running McAllister. Obviously, it's too late to debate that and it didn't happen. But I think the Saints could have had another win or two if they had just been a little more conventional at times.

So I'm not the only one. 

It will be very interesting to watch how the Saints hope to yet again rebuild their defensive secondary without the two draft picks they lost in a trade for an average tight end with a lousy attitude.  First things first, they need to resign Lance Moore right now.  Moore has showed excellent hands, from the receiver position, and is a great route runner.

Touchdown Deuce

Congratulations to Deuce McAllister for breaking the record for most touchdowns by a New Orleans Saint, with 54 total.  He surpassed the old record that was held by former Saints running back, Dalton Hillard.

McAllister has been a class act his entire career with the Saints and it will be sad to see him go, if this is his last season with the team.  It was nice to see the Monday night crowd in the Superdome give him the ovation he deserves.

Open Letter To The Worldwide Leader In Sports

Dear ESPN,

I'll keep this comment about your production of Monday Night Football simple and to the point. 

Tony Kornheiser is horrible and must go.  Not only is he not good at his job, of being a color analyst, he constantly makes ignorant, snide comments that have nothing to do with the game being played.

I know I'm not the only person thinking this.  Do the right thing, get rid of him.

The rest of the announcing crew isn't the best, but Kornheiser makes the program unwatchable.

Football Fan

Nothing But Left Turns

The Lady calls from Chicago to check in with me today and out of the blue she asks, "You wanna go to that NASCAR race tomorrow?"  I reply, "No, thank you."

I've been lucky enough to go to the Indy 500 three times and from that I have concluded racing is just not for me.  Well let me rephrase that, the entire race is not for me.  From the start of the engines, until the first few laps the cars come by at full speed is pretty impressive.  Before and after that, no thank you.

It's hot and sticky.  People are packed into metal stands like sardines.  I'm an overweight individual.  There is sweating involved.  A sunburn is definite, no matter how much SPF 80 I put on.  It's loud.  Not like rock show loud, like the same noise over and over and over and over and over again for three hours.  There is a weird fuel aroma one breathes the entire time.  Did I mention the sweating?  It's not pretty.

The in-laws have great seats for these races, but it's nothing I want to do on a hot afternoon.  I'm guessing I am in a super small minority of guys in Northern Kentucky that would turn down the offer of Sunday at The Brickyard.

I'll stay home and stick to our own races, racing to the potty.

Way Down In Bowling Green

I'm taking the weekend off and going down to Bowling Green, KY for one of the biggest Disc Golf tournaments around.

If anything, it will be a fun get away, hanging out with my friends the wife refers to as the Disc Golf Dorks.

Enjoy your weekend.

Public service announcement:  We are now just www.hoorayforsaturday.com.