sports

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Prediction Results 2012

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Each year on my blog I like to predict what will happen in the coming year.  I Invite my readers to make predictions in the comments.   I should have posted this a while ago but better late than never.  Let’s see how we all did. First …my predictions

UK basketball wins their 8th NCAA championship  - Yes Go Cats The UK football team will be no better than 7-5 and Joker Phillips will be fired - Yes Even though this is 2012, the world will still be here to make predictions about late next December - Yes I will go on a date this year – Sadly, No A passive 3-D TV comes out from a major brand (i.e. one with cheap glasses). Even so, nobody cares about a 3-D TV and they sell only because you can’t buy non-3-D TVs – Here’s how right I was, I actually had to google this to see if it happened Google+ remains irrelevant but doesn’t get shut down – Also yes.  I am on fire so far The Hobbit will be the number one movie next year.  Battleship (Yes, a movie about a board game), The Bourne Legacy, The Hunger Games, Spiderman (Again?) will all be in the top 10. – Wow, I was way off on this one. Only the Hobbit & Hunger Games were in the top 10 Republicans will make gains everywhere, but… - Yes Barack Obama is reelected president - Yes By year’s end I will derive more than 20% of my income from speaking.  – Sadly, wrong on this one too. I earned just under 3% of my income from speaking this year I will weigh less when writing 2013 predictions than I do today – This is a bit of good news I do weigh less.  Not much, but less

Overall I was 7-3 on predicting the future.  That’s .700; if I was a coach I would be highly paid.

How did my readers do at predicting the future?

Daniel Knoll I predict that i will still be single – Correct, although I say it’s just on a technicality Ryan UNC will make it to or past the Elite 8. - Yes The Panthers will go 8-8 or better. – Nope, close though 7-9 I will have a girlfriend or at least a real date.  – Got it because you hedged your bets. Date yes, girlfriend no The Dark Knight Rises will be the #1 movie of the year. The Hobbit will be #1 in December. (If it’s released in December, can it be #1 for the year?) Star Trek will be top 10. Skyfall (James Bond) will be top 20. – Dark Knight was #2, Hobbit definitely was December’s winner, Star Trek didn’t come out, Skyfall was #4.  So I’ll give you a No, Yes, Push, Yes Community and The Office will be cancelled – Not sure about Community’s official status, the Office is in its final season so I guess that is another push, and  Yes At least one glasses-less 3D tv will be available but will be more than $2,000 – as far as I know there are no Glasses-less 3D TV Apple will release Macbooks or iMacs with retina displays. - yes The world will not end on Dec. 21, 2012. – Yes

Ryan was 7-3-1 (.700) which means we are equal at prognostication

Roland UK wins the National Championship in Men’s Basketball. – Yes w00t! The UK women’s basketball team makes the Final Four. – Nope They were one game shy The Packers repeat as Super Bowl Champions. - Nope The Reds win the NL Central division. - Yep Mathis and I attend a baseball game in St. Louis. – No, although we had it on the schedule for a while I finish higher than Mathis in fantasy football. – No, mathis was 4th, Roland was 8th was it your worst season ever? Mathis speaks in at least 7 different churches – Yes, I spoke in 8 churches Mathis visits a new state – No new state this year All four guys that have posted in here go on a real date this year – Sorry to let you down, but I did not get a date, I even got turned down for 2 blind dates   That makes Roland 3-6 (.333) If this was baseball he’d probably be an all-star

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WBAGNFAFFT V

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It is late August, so you know what that means.  Time to come up with a name for your Fantasy Football team.  As always I have compiled a list of names they are some of the clean & funny, WBAGNFARB’s* from Dave Barry’s blog over the last year.  This list is not original in any way I just stole them all from Dave Barry. I have done this in the past as well.  Here you can find list 1, list 2, list 3, list 4.  I was not quite as diligent as usual this year, so the list is short, but" Elvis Monkey" is pretty much gold when it comes to naming your team.  I hope you find this useful.

  • Zombie Caterpillars
  • Psychedelic Gecko
  • Elvis Monkey
  • Promiscuous Yeast
  • Decapitating, Rat-Eating Clocks of the Black Forest
  • Blazing Entrails

*WBAGNFARB = Would Be A Good Name For A Rock Band

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Predictions 2012

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Each year on my blog I like to predict what will happen in the coming year.  I’m breaking my predictions into categories, just so I don’t overload on one type.I Invite my readers to make predictions in the comments.  Next year I'll check how we did.

Sports: UK basketball wins their 8th NCAA championship The UK football team will be no better than 7-5 and Joker Phillips will be fired

World News: Even though this is 2012, the world will still be here to make predictions about late next December I will go on a date this year (It is a rare enough occurrence that if it happens it will be headline news)

Technology: A passive 3-D TV comes out from a major brand (i.e. one with cheap glasses). Even so, nobody cares about a 3-D TV and they sell only because you can’t buy non-3-D TVs Google+ remains irrelevant but doesn't get shut down

Entertainment: The Hobbit will be the number one movie next year.  Battleship (Yes, a movie about a board game), The Bourne Legacy, The Hunger Games, Spiderman (Again?) will all be in the top 10.

Politics: Republicans will make gains everywhere, but... Barack Obama is reelected president

My Personal life: By year’s end I will derive more than 20% of my income from speaking. (Invite me to speak in your church please.) I will weigh less when writing 2013 predictions than I do today

Your turn. Predict the future in the comments.

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Prediction Results 2011

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On the last week of each year on this blog I make predictions about the coming year.  I invite my readers to do the same.  This is a recap of those predictions and how accurate I turned out to be.

  • The number 1 movie will be Pirates of the Caribbean.  Green Hornet in the top 5. The usual suspects like Harry Potter, Transformers, and Twilight will all be in the top 10 Pirates was #4, Green Hornet was #24, the other three were in the top 5.  I’ll give myself half credit for this one
  • Facebook will go crazy with 11:11:11 11/11/11 stuff I’m the only person I saw make a post about it, so I guess that one is wrong
  • Some tablet computer running Android will be a genuine alternative to the iPad I’m tempted to give myself credit for the Kindle Fire, but it’s way too early to tell, so I’ll call this one another loss
  • The iPhone will move to an additional carrier but Andriod will have greater market share at year’s end Bingo
  • The ratings for American Idol will be off by at least 25%.  It won’t be canceled but will not return with the same judges in 2012. I could not have been more wrong about this one.  Idol ratings were only off about 11% and people who actually watch like the judges.
  •  There will be at least 10 announced Republican candidates for president.  No democrat will run against Obama Yep
  • Kentucky will not be in the Final 4 I am exceedingly happy that I was wrong about this one
  • Bret Favre will actually retire…probably…maybe…maybe not…yeah he will. Yes finally, but the media keeps trying to drag him back
  • The world will not end on May 21 no matter what the billboards say I’m typing, so I guess the world didn’t end
  • I will catch a 7 lb. bass

    I caught the biggest bass of my life, but it was only about 5 lbs

  • I will not still be working at the Wood Shed at the end of 2011 Wrong
  • I will weigh less at the end of 2011 than at the beginning Wrong

A couple of my regular readers made predictions about the coming year

Roland predicted:

  • Cats make the Elite 8 Yes, and good news
  •  Reds finish higher than Cardinals in NL Central in 2011 Cardinals finished second, to the Brewers. Still won the World Series
  •  Mathis still lives in KY on 12-31-2011 Not only do I live here, but I bought a house.  I think they call that putting down roots
  •  Mathis doesn’t complete his goal of visiting all 50 states in 2011 but does add to his total number of states he has visited No new states, so this one is Yes and No
  • I will finish higher than Mathis in fantasy football in 2011 Socialist Tortillas 10-6, Titletown Tailgaters 7-9. The season is not over, but I have this one sewn up.
  • One of the following 3 teams – the Cowboys, Globetrotters, or Kisha and Jen, will finish in the top 3 of the All-Star Amazing Race Season 18 Kisha & Jen won

Ryan predicted:

  • UNC will make it to the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament (Basketball) The evil Tar Heels lost to my beloved University of Kentucky Wildcats in the round of 8
  • Panthers will win at least 4 games. Panthers are currently 6-9
  • I will get a girlfriend. Just like last year, I’m saying if so you are being awfully secretive about her
  • I agree that Pirates will be the #1 movie. Pirates was 4
  • A full size (30″+), glasses-less 3D tv will hit the market. It will cost more than $2k. Nope
  • Chuck will be renewed for a 5th season. The 5th and final season is currently airing

Looks like the final tally is that I was 4-6-1,  Roland was 4-3, Ryan was 3-3

The lesson you should learn is this.  If you are looking for solid predictions about the future, go somewhere else.  Cause really we are just guessing around here.

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A burning question for UK basketball fans

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It may or may not be common knowledge that Matt Heissenbuttel at 13 letters has the longest name (i.e. the longest name put on a jersey) in UK basketball history.  However, this season UK has a player, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who now takes the top spot in name length. (If you count the hyphen) There is little doubt that Kidd-Gilchrist will be more remembered in Kentucky lore than Heissenbuttel.  He will surely eclipse Heissenbuttel in every statistical category except years on the team.  But I have a question for UK fans.  Should he eclipse Heissenbuttel in the record books for name length?  In my opinion the hyphen is an unfair advantage.  It allows Kidd-Gilchrist two have two last names combined into one, but even with that advantage, the hyphen, which isn’t actually a letter, only gives Kidd-Gilchrist a 1 character advantage.

Let’s put it to a vote.  If you are a UK fan, vote here.  Then please send your friends here to vote as well.  The more votes, the more accurately we reflect the opinion of the Big Blue Nation.

[polldaddy poll=5672700]

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Predictions for 2011

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Each year on my blog I like to make predictions for the coming year.  I invite you to do the same in the comments.  It's always fun to see the results.

  • The number 1 movie will be Pirates of the Caribbean.  Green Hornet in the top 5. The usual suspects like Harry Potter, Transformers, and Twilight will all be in the top 10.
  • Facebook will go crazy with 11:11:11 11/11/11 stuff
  • Some tablet computer running Android will be a genuine alternative to the iPad
  • The iPhone will move to an additional carrier but Andriod will have greater market share at year’s end
  • The ratings for American Idol will be off by at least 25%.  It won’t be canceled but will not return with the same judges in 2012.
  • There will be at least 10 announced Republican candidates for president.  No democrat will run against Obama
  • Kentucky will not be in the Final 4
  • Bret Favre will actually retire...probably…maybe…maybe not…yeah he will.
  • The world will not end on May 21 no matter what the billboards say
  • I will catch a 7 lb. bass
  • I will not still be working at the Wood Shed at the end of 2011
  • I will weigh less at the end of 2011 than at the beginning
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What I Learned from My First Minor League Game

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Greer StadiumLast night I attended my first ever Minor league Baseball game with my church.  I went to Greer stadium in Nashville to see the (AAA) Sounds whip the New Orleans Zephyrs 10-1.  Since it was my first ever minor league game I learned some things and I thought I would share.

  • The Brewers have a potential star coming in Brendan Katin. He had 2 homers, including a grand slam and 7 RBIs
  • Minor league ball has a lot of non-baseball activity. There was literally some giveaway or some fan event in every half-inning
  • McDonald's gives away McDoubles like they are water
  • You want access to a baseball player? Minor league ball is the way to go
  • You want free stuff? Minor league  ball is the way to go.  Two members of our group got t-shirts (stuffed with coupons for McDoubles) and a third should have had a foul ball.
  • You can get A LOT of kettle corn for seven bucks
  • There are really no bad seats in a small baseball park
  • A 15 year old emergency poncho is in pretty much perfect condition provided it has never been taken out of the original plastic
  • The minor leagues will leave a pitcher in for a long time even if he is getting absolutely shelled
  • Everybody likes to watch a little kid dance
  • Technically you can use an Android phone for your fantasy draft, but it is not going to work very well
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Thoughts about a loss from a UK fan

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There is only one problem with caring about things – the pain that comes when things don’t go how you wish they would. I have to say that I am somewhat ashamed about how I react when Kentucky loses in the NCAA tournament.  It pretty much ruins my weekend.

Oddly though, I prefer this feeling, being somewhat crushed by a loss, to the feeling I have had the last few years as a UK fan.  When we lost in the first round of the NCAAs or the second round of the NIT it was expected.  And rather than ruining my day, it was just one more loss.  That is especially difficult when you consider the state of the program during my time at UK.  Those years saw 2 national championships and 3 consecutive trips to the final. Last year’s NIT was painful.

They program is back now.  This year, UK should have won the tournament, but one bad game is all it takes.

So I am crushed by a loss, but I am already looking forward to next season.  I obviously have no idea what to expect from the football team but I feel that the basketball team is back where it belongs.  And if it means more pain caused by a loss, I’ll take it.  It’s a lot better than being numb.

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Internet Thwarts My Plan

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For today's blog post, I was going to write an open letter to NBC about their Olympic coverage.

I would have complained about how ludicrous it is that ESPN or even local NBC affiliates cannot show highlights, and the stupidity of suing everyone who refers to an olympian or who dares to promote the games in any way.  But Stephen Colbert already beat me to it here in this clip (Which I cannot embed because wordpress.com doesn't play nicely with Hulu)

I would have talked about how unspeakably angry I would be if I lived on the West coast and had to wait 3 hours to see an event that is happening in my timezone.  But that has been done already.

I would have asked NBC if they have actually seen their website for the olympics. Because surely if they had they would be too ashamed of it and just take it down.  I won't link to forums about that because of the trolls.  But let's just say the internet has already got that covered.  i think this Alyssa Milano twitter is about the website.  I would have wondered aloud if they think we live in an age without the internet.

I would have complained about all the figure skating coverage and the lack of Hockey.  But that is just preference and I can deal with that.

I cannot find an article about the volume of commercials so I'll just say this.  Any non-live event has a volume of commercials that makes it not worth watching.  I cannot tolerate 1 bobsled run, followed by 7 minutes of commercials followed by 1 bobsled run, followed by 6 minutes of commercials, followed by 1 interview, followed by 9 more minutes of commercials.  It's simply unacceptable.

Since the rest of the internet has already ranted on my topic for today, this is all you get

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WBAGNFFAFFT II

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You may remember that last August I posted a list of what I thought were clever fantasy football team names.  If not you can see it here.  I have had several hits in the last week about naming a Fantasy football team so I thought I'd again share my list.    So what I’ve done for you is to collect all of the clean & funny, WBAGNFARB’s* from Dave Barry’s blog over the last year.  This list is not comprehensive or original.  It's merely a collection from that blog.

  • Lovelorn Musk Ox
  • Mid-afternoon Confrontation
  • The Mushers
  • Plowing Down the Rifleman
  • Snakes in a spigot
  • Reptiles of concern
  • Solar-Powered Sea Slug and the Stolen Plant Genes
  • Fugitive Emu
  • Freakishly Powerful Toilet
  • Scorpion Soup
  • Pickled Chameleon
  • Vengeful Weasel
  • Delinquent Cod
  • Trouser Thief and the Violent Garment Swap

*WBANGFARB = Would Be A Good Name For A Rock Band

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It's NCAA Day

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Today is my favorite TV watching day of the year.  I love the NCAA tournament, especially the first two rounds.  I will be working some today but with digital cable and 4 games at a time most of the day, I'll be pretty distracted. Also I have read somewhere that the NCAA office pool is the most popular workplace game of all.  With the advent of the internet it's easy to join many groups and play at multiple places.  I assume that everyone is in at least 2 bracket pools.

Now the age old question.

Do you enter the same bracket (a sheet of integrity) into all your groups or do you play multiple brackets for multiple groups.

[polldaddy poll=1469083]

If you are the sheet of integrity type, let us know your final 4 in the comments.

March Madness for a Kentucky Fan

funny pictures This is mid-March.  Normally this feels like a holiday to me.  And even this year I feel like next Thursday should be a holiday.  But It's a very different feeling March than I can ever remember.  UK does not deserve to be in the NCAA tourney and I am simply a lot less excited than usual.

I'm going to reserve comment about the program except for this LOL[wild]cat I made earlier. Enjoy

A Repost

Since the Daytona 500 is this weekend and since I am watching the qualifying races right now.  I thought I would repost my open letter to NASCAR from this fall.  Here is a link to the original in case you want to read the comments from that time.  Otherwise it is exactly the same:

The NASCAR season ended Sunday, and I wasn’t watching. Partly because the race started at 3 and I have church at 5, but also because I wasn’t really all that interested. I’ve been a NASCAR fan since probably the second grade. It is the first sport I remember caring about and the first major sporting event I ever attended was a Bush race at Bristol. Lately I have lost interest to some degree. I am only a fan, I’m not an insider and I don’t work in sports, but I do love NASCAR and I would like to see it improve. So here are some suggestions in the form of an open letter.

I’ll start this letter by addressing the major problem with NASCAR. The season is too long. It begins in mid-February and it ended 11 days from Thanksgiving. That means that December and January are the only months without racing. This problem is not limited to NASCAR, it is a the problem with most professional sports, long seasons make for boring seasons. I’m especially talking to you MLB and NBA. Have any of you ever heard that absence makes the heart grow fonder, or to leave ‘em wanting more?

I have put some thought into what can be done about this problem of the 10 month season. Here is my suggestion. I only want to improve things.

NASCAR needs divisions. This actually solves 2 problems. First, it shortens the season. Second, it makes use of some of the tracks that could use a second race (or a first, such as Nashville, Northern Kentucky, or Rockingham) Here’s how I propose it to work. Divide the drivers by the previous year’s standings with a snaking order. (1st place in div A, 2nd & 3rd in div B, 4th & 5th in div A, etc.) Then both divisions (Petty & Earnhardt?) have quality drivers and regardless which event you attend, you can see stars, just not all of them. Make that a 20 race schedule in the divisions, then put the top 6 from each division into the chase and the top 20 into the races for the chase. This gives NASCAR more television revenue, more tracks get to sell tickets, more fans have opportunity to see races, and the season ends nearly 2 months earlier.

The only real problem I can think of with this plan is how to deal with the Brickyard or Daytona 500, but someone can figure it out.  Maybe even in the comments.

The second suggestion is to put a variety of track types into the chase. Maybe nobody has pointed this out. But a team that makes the chase and is particularly good at the mile-and-a-half quad-oval has a decided advantage. How about a Pocono or Bristol in the chase? If you are going to race stupid road courses, make one of them be in the chase. If weather concerns create the current schedule, take my first suggestion. If the season ended in late September you could race in Watkins Glen, or Pike’s Peak for that matter. But in mid November you are pretty much stuck with Phoenix and Homestead.

If some other teams had a chance it would help as well. Of the 35 races this season, 30 were won by a Roush, Gibbs, or Hendrick team. If you went to divisions, and kept 35-40 teams per race, it would definitely give some other teams a chance to win some races.

Mix in some minorities. NASCAR is no longer a sport of good ol’ boys from the south, but it is lily white. With the exception of Montoya, there is nothing resembling a minority anywhere around the track. I don’t know how to fix that problem, but seriously the future is in jeopardy as long as it remains the way it is. America is more diverse and will become more so. If golf can have a non-white superstar, surely something that’s actually fun like driving fast can as well.

Don’t bow to the environmentalists…yet. The sound of a stock car is unmistakable, and if they switched to ethanol and sound whiny like Indy cars, it would lose some of the magic. (Maybe I’m showing my ignorance here, somebody can straighten me out in the comments. Feel free, as long as you can be respectful.) The day is coming when everyone will get around on some new fuel, but until then, let’s not have silent, hydrogen cars going around the track.

I really like NASCAR and want to see it continue to be great. These suggestions are just my 2 cents to improve it. The outlook is not all bad I took this quiz and got 100% so the sponsors are definitely getting their exposure.

Feel free to comment on this.  I’d like to know my readers’ thoughts on this one.  Do you think I’m way off base, or have better suggestions?

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Super Bowl Commercials

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These are my favorites from Super Bowl XLIII. I watched them all, and ranked them here. Enjoy. (I didn't even consider the movie previews.)

#1 Bridgestone

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV--ISqrMLs]

#2 Coke Zero

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5k7FBj3WLQ]

#3 Denny's

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OfMb90v4qg]

#4 Coke

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSNCnyCUdk8]

#5 Pedigree

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl0x3LlWIig]

I also enjoyed the singing baby e-trade commercial

An Open Letter to NASCAR

The NASCAR season ended Sunday, and I wasn’t watching. Partly because the race started at 3 and I have church at 5, but also because I wasn’t really all that interested. I’ve been a NASCAR fan since probably the second grade. It is the first sport I remember caring about and the first major sporting event I ever attended was a Bush race at Bristol. Lately I have lost interest to some degree. I am only a fan, I’m not an insider and I don’t work in sports, but I do love NASCAR and I would like to see it improve. So here are some suggestions in the form of an open letter.

I’ll start this letter by addressing the major problem with NASCAR. The season is too long. It begins in mid-February and it ended 11 days from Thanksgiving. That means that December and January are the only months without racing. This problem is not limited to NASCAR, it is a the problem with most professional sports, long seasons make for boring seasons. I’m especially talking to you MLB and NBA. Have any of you ever heard that absence makes the heart grow fonder, or to leave 'em wanting more?

I have put some thought into what can be done about this problem of the 10 month season. Here is my suggestion. I only want to improve things.

NASCAR needs divisions. This actually solves 2 problems. First, it shortens the season. Second, it makes use of some of the tracks that could use a second race (or a first, such as Nashville, Northern Kentucky, or Rockingham) Here’s how I propose it to work. Divide the drivers by the previous year’s standings with a snaking order. (1st place in div A, 2nd & 3rd in div B, 4th & 5th in div A, etc.) Then both divisions (Petty & Earnhardt?) have quality drivers and regardless which event you attend, you can see stars, just not all of them. Make that a 20 race schedule in the divisions, then put the top 6 from each division into the chase and the top 20 into the races for the chase. This gives NASCAR more television revenue, more tracks get to sell tickets, more fans have opportunity to see races, and the season ends nearly 2 months earlier.

The only real problem I can think of with this plan is how to deal with the Brickyard or Daytona 500, but someone can figure it out.  Maybe even in the comments.

The second suggestion is to put a variety of track types into the chase. Maybe nobody has pointed this out. But a team that makes the chase and is particularly good at the mile-and-a-half quad-oval has a decided advantage. How about a Pocono or Bristol in the chase? If you are going to race stupid road courses, make one of them be in the chase. If weather concerns create the current schedule, take my first suggestion. If the season ended in late September you could race in Watkins Glen, or Pike’s Peak for that matter. But in mid November you are pretty much stuck with Phoenix and Homestead.

If some other teams had a chance it would help as well. Of the 35 races this season, 30 were won by a Roush, Gibbs, or Hendrick team. If you went to divisions, and kept 35-40 teams per race, it would definitely give some other teams a chance to win some races.

Mix in some minorities. NASCAR is no longer a sport of good ol’ boys from the south, but it is lily white. With the exception of Montoya, there is nothing resembling a minority anywhere around the track. I don’t know how to fix that problem, but seriously the future is in jeopardy as long as it remains the way it is. America is more diverse and will become more so. If golf can have a non-white superstar, surely something that’s actually fun like driving fast can as well.

Don’t bow to the environmentalists…yet. The sound of a stock car is unmistakable, and if they switched to ethanol and sound whiny like Indy cars, it would lose some of the magic. (Maybe I’m showing my ignorance here, somebody can straighten me out in the comments. Feel free, as long as you can be respectful.) The day is coming when everyone will get around on some new fuel, but until then, let’s not have silent, hydrogen cars going around the track.

I really like NASCAR and want to see it continue to be great. These suggestions are just my 2 cents to improve it. The outlook is not all bad I took this quiz and got 100% so the sponsors are definitely getting their exposure.

Feel free to comment on this.  I'd like to know my readers' thoughts on this one.  Do you think I'm way off base, or have better suggestions?

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WBAGNFAFFT

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It's August and my blog is nothing if not helpful.  I realize that one major need in this world in August is a clever new fantasy football team name.  There are of course name generators out there, but none I've ever been very satisfied with.  (Although I do like this one pretty well, it came up with "wheat urgency".)  So what I've done for you is to collect all of the clean & funny, WBAGNFARB's* from Dave Barry's blog over the last year or so.

  • Cloned Meat
  • Counterfeit Toothpaste
  • Trojan Dwarf
  • The Potato Conspiracy  (My team name this year is a variation on this one - Lawnmower Conspiracy)
  • Electric Grandmothers
  • Unintentional Buzzcut
  • Thunder Chickens
  • Headbutting Cow
  • Sofa Rash
  • Semi Full of Butter
  • Trans-Weasel
  • Drunken Elk and the Toddler Attack
  • Robot Carp

I plan to continue this feature into the future, So each year I will be posting a similar list, unless blogging disappears or I quit blogging.  Of course I stole this list in its entirety, so you feel free to use anything you find in any way you want.  And if you have a name you particularly enjoy or want to suggest for next year's list, feel free to contribute in the comments section.

*WBANGFARB = Would Be A Good Name For A Rock Band

Good Bye Mr. Wildcat

I read this article this morning and it made me sad. Legendary Kentucky manager dies

This post will not make sense to you if you are not from Kentucky. But today I am genuinely sad about the death of a man I never met.

If there was a Mount Rushmore of Kentucky basketball three of the faces would be settled. They would be Adolph Rupp, the second winningest coach of all time who put UK basketball on the map, Cawood Ledford the long-time voice of the Cats, and Bill Keightley the equipment manager since 1962. (If you want to suggest the fourth in the comments, feel free. I would vote for Dan Issel.) I am sincere when I say that I think everyone in the state knows who these three men are. Even my Granny would know them.

So now all three of these men are gone. It is, sadly, the end of an era. Arguably the best program in the history of college basketball (certainly one of only 4 in the conversation) had always had this one commonality, Mr. Wildcat, Bill Keightley.

From UK Athletics:

Having just completed his 48th season on the UK sidelines, the Wildcats’ record over the past four decades with Keightley as equipment manager is 1,113-351. During his tenure, he served under six UK head coaches — Adolph Rupp, Joe B. Hall, Eddie Sutton, Rick Pitino, Orlando “Tubby” Smith and Billy Gillispie. Kentucky, which has fielded 105 teams, has played 2,588; meaning Keightley played a role in 57 percent of those games. In 1997, UK honored Keightley with a retired jersey in his honor. He joins veteran broadcaster Cawood Ledford as the only non-player or coach to have a jersey retired at UK. Keightley was also among 88 Wildcat greats inducted into the charter class of the UK Athletics Hall of Fame in 2005.

I thought this better than a silly April fool’s day post. And I wish it was a joke.

Here's a video from four years ago. It is sad now.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ughHkuHs1iM]

More Basketball

This is going to be a two post day. One I should have posted yesterday, because it is about Easter, but it is the more serious of the two so I will post it later. First a word about …

Basketball – I pull for the teams I like, rather than the teams that help my bracket. And there are a lot more teams I hate, than teams I like.  I pull for the SEC even if it costs me in my predictions.  I root against the ACC, Big 10, Big East, and Pac 10.  There is a pecking order within those conferences though.  I have no particular vitriol for Arizona St., or Wisconsin, for example. (I’m pretty neutral about the Big 12) I Loved watching Duke lose and would have loved to see UCLA lose.   (Apparently Kevin Love is immune from moving screen, or any other, fouls.)  I stand virtually no chance of winning any of my groups at this point, so I'm just watching for the enjoyment of it.

The teams I hate most in order are (1 & 2 could be reversed depending on the day) 1. UCLA 2. Duke 3. North Carolina

The teams I want to see win it all this year in order are 1. Western Kentucky 2. Tennessee 3. nobody, but I guess I'll take Kansas

Feel free to share your list in the comments