The Stars At Night, Are Big And Bright...

You know the rest.

But, dam! Austin is such a great time! I'll never get sick of having to go there. And when your hotel is on 5th Street, that's a recipe that will always end up in complete out of control drunken debauchery.

Good times!

And when the bartender is easily mistaken for Jessica Simpson, "Why yes mam, I'll certainly have another beer. And be sure to come back and check on me every 5 minutes. Wait. That's way too long. I can drink beer faster than that."

The temperature dropped into the 40's at night, but that didn't keep the female talent from donning mini skirts and showing as much leg as possible. I mean come on! I kept asking around if there happened to be a Victoria's Secret photo shoot tonight.
I was in jeans and a sweatshirt and I might have been cold, but obviously I couldn't complain.

Sorry, I made a huge rookie mistake and failed to bring a camera down 6th Street. But I can assure you, if you've never been to Austin and spent the weekend on 6th Street, you haven't lived. It's a cleaner version of Bourbon Street. It's a mini Vegas minus the gambling. It's like the Village in NYC minus the stiff drink prices.

College Gameday was in town for the Red River Rivalry of basketball-Oklahoma in town to play the Longhorns. As the no. 2 team in the nation, all that was standing in the way of a no. 1 ranking for the Sooners was bitter rival Texas.


Texas took the lead early, and All World Blake Griffin was smacked in the nose and never returned to the game, diagnosed with a mild concussion. At the time, I wasn't sure of the injury. All I could tell was that Griffin had a bloody nose. However the look on his face was more telling as Griffin was in a complete daze. He sat on end of the bench for the rest of the game not even watching the play on the court. The guy was completely out of it.

Even with Griffin out, Oklahoma stormed back from a double digit deficit to take the lead in the second half. But Texas sensation A.J. Abrams decided to make it rain by scoring 16 straight points over the final 8 minutes.

Enjoy the pictures. Mack Brown was in the house, so was Colt McCoy (along with Mrs. Colt McCoy, and former Longhorn football standout Roy Williams. And of course Dickie V. and Erin Andrews along with little sis.

Mrs. Colt McCoy




EA's sister.

NBA Line Of The Week for 2/9 to 2/15/2009

What a week it was for the Knicks' Nate Robinson (Washington). Robinson, standing at 5ft 9in (according to the media guide), electrified the crowd during the All Star weekend when he dunked over Dwight "Superman" Howard to win his second Dunk Contest.

Oh, and Robinson also earned himself a nickname, Kryptonate.

Last week in 128-124 overtime loss to the Clippers, Robinson just missed a triple double, putting up 33 points, 15 assists, 9 rebounds and 5 steals.


Speaking of Triple D's, Boston's Rajon Rondo earned his second of his career, both coming this season. In the Celtics' comeback win against the Mavericks last Thursday (2/12), Rondo had 19 points, 14 assists and 15 boards.

Another Sad Day For Baseball

I not quite sure where to start on this one. It is freakin huge! Overall, I'm not totally surprised. The most surprising aspect of this whole story, boy, Jose Canseco was actually right.

Major League Baseball is the overall biggest loser. In a way, they condone this and and play a major part of creating this "steroid era."

Think about it. MLB was destroyed with the 1994 strike which canceled the postseason. MLB turned their head as players were putting up superhuman numbers, but the ballparks were full and the money was coming in at a record pace.

MLB didn't test for steroids. Steroids weren't banned by the league even though they are illegal in the United States.

And now, they even failed to cover up their poster boy, savior of the steroid era in Alex Rodriquez.

I know, the players are as much to blame as the commissioner and MLB. But hey, if everyone else was juicing, why not, right? MLB wasn't testing. So the playing field was even.

What I don't understand is these players-Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, Clemens, A-Rod-were already great players and certain locks for the Hall of Fame with out PED's. All the PED's did for them was up their slugging percentage and blossom their homeruns, the latter what everyone pays money for.

Back to Canseco, he is considered the "Godfather" of steroids, ushering in the drug to the game and forever putting a cloud over this era. And lately, since Canseco went down, he's taken everyone down with him and of course profiting from this.

But hell, like I said before, the guy was actually right. And he claims that around 75% of MLB was juiced. That means about 18 of 25 players on every roster were using PED's. And rumor has it, Canseco has more juicy tales to come.

And so in 2003, MLB randomly and anonymously tested players and 104, about 5% tested positive, including A-Rod. That's like saying each roster had at least 3 guys juicing. How is A-Rod the only name which was leaked? Someone obviously had it out for him.

Think about it. Supposedly (I mean honestly, what the hell can we believe anymore) the tests were kept in Vegas with only a number on it. The names were kept separately in Southern California. That's a lot of work, sneaking around, whatever you will to put these two together.

So in all fairness, to A-Rod, the media, MLB it's fans and players who were clean, th the rest of these 103 players should be named and I believe they will be be revealed.

I'm not here to defend A-Rod. As everyone knows, I always lashed out on Barry Bonds. In fact, I was Barry Bonds fan back in his day with the Pirates. When he hit over .300, 30 homeruns and 100+ RBI's.

Like I said before, these players were already great hitters. All steroids did was help them hit the ball farther.

What separates A-Rod apart from Bonds, McGwire, Clemens, Sosa, Palmero. is the fact he confessed and apologized. That was the smartest thing for A-Rod to do, and to have Peter Gammons conduct the interview.

Also, these other guys were busted at the end of their careers. A-Rod has many years left to define his legacy. And since 2003, A-Rod claims to have been tested 8-10 times and blood tested for the World Baseball Classic.

Another big question from A-Rod's apology was his lashing out against Sports Illustrated writer Selena Roberts. A-Rod referred to Roberts as "this lady" and claims that she was stalking him. A-Rod than says she's been arrested for trespassing on his property and said he had a paper to prove it. Why did Peter Gammons not immediately ask to see the document?

If Roberts is coming out with a book on A-Rod and it seems she's been covering him for the last few years, I'm sure A-Rod knows exactly who she is and doesn't need to refer to her as "this lady."

What is the actual relationship between Roberts and A-Rod.

Like I said before, great ballplayers like A-Rod, Bonds, etc. never needed PED's to hit the ball or be the best, they already were.

A-Rod's numbers have been consistent throughout his entire career. In 1996, just his second season, A-Rod led MLB with a .358 average.

Lets look deeper into his numbers.
From 2001-03, the alleged steroid years for A-Rod:
161.7 games, .305 batting average, 52 homeruns, 131.7 RBI, .615 slugging %.

All other seasons:
149.2 games, .308 batting average, 39.2 homeruns, 119 RBI, .574 slugging %.

The batting average remained nearly the same, actually slightly better than his "Roid Years."

But what's another thing A-Rod, Sosa, Bonds and Palmero have in common-No Rings!

Of course Clemens picked up his two jumping on the ship for final 2 World Series Championships of the 90's dynasty.

And Big Mac got his only ring when he was just breaking in the league with Bash Brother Canseco.

Being a Yankees fan, I get a lot of "Your team's all on roids.", "Your team cheated." "Drugs are all over the Yankees' clubhouse.", etc.

Let's remember this. So far A-Rod was juicing with the Texas Rangers, supposedly not with the Yankees. Clemens started juicing with the Blue Jays. Giambi started with the A's, probably with Miguel Tejada.

So if you're gonna shout out the NY Yankees as juicers, you're a hypocrite. Whoever your team is, I'm sure their locker room was full of illegal drugs too.

So what does A-Rod do now? Have the best season of his career. That's the only way he can win back his fans, teammates, baseball and himself.

A-Rod has another 10 years to prove he's still one of the best. If he can't be in the Hall Of Fame, he really needs to start winning championships more than ever.

Yeah I feel cheated and am greatly upset about A-Rod. But I felt cheated befor this week.

Another look at the "Steroid Era."

By decade, here is the average number of total homeruns hit by overall MLB leader:

1970's - 43.5 homeruns
1980's - 41.9 homeruns
1990's - 52 homeruns
2000's - 54 homeruns

So yeah, steroids allowed players to hit more homeruns.

What else is amazing about this stat? In 1981, 4 players led the AL with 22 homeruns!

And Mike Schmidt was the most dominant homerun hitter of his era.

NBA Line of the Week for 1/26 to 2/1 2009

The biggest off season deal in the NBA just may have been Cleveland acquiring PG Mo Williams. I had no idea Mo Williams (Alabama) was this good. Williams seems to be the outside shooter and play maker Lebron so desperately needed. And Lebron recognizes this. As James always requires extra attention when he has the ball, Williams can always find a wide open jumper.

Last Tuesday (1/27), Williams went off. In a 117-110 victory over Sacramento, Mo lit up with 43 points, 11 dimes and 8 boards, including shooting 7-12 from downtown.

And of course, Lebron quietly had another triple double that same night.



I can't forget about my boy CP3. Last Monday (1/26), Chris Paul was 3 steals away from a quadruple double! In the Hornets 101-86 win against Philadelphia, Paul put up 27 points, 10 rebounds, 15 assists and 7 steals!

That is straight up nasty! Here's hoping Paul's groin injury keeps him out for a minimum number of games as he's one of the funnest players to watch and the best PG in the NBA.

Super Show

Super Bowl XLIII will go down as one of the greatest Super Bowls ever. But lets not get too excited and start calling it hands down the best ever.

It's human nature to call something the best ever after it just happened. The emotion and excitement are fresh in our minds.

Last summer you saw The Dark Knight and you leave the theatre saying it was the best movie you've ever seen along with the best acting performance.

You hear the latest Jay-Z, 50 cent, etc. song and immediately you consider the best song ever.

The same goes with Sunday's Super Bowl. In recent years, we have been spoiled by great Super Bowl showdowns.

Less we forget, when I was growing up, the Super Bowl meant an NFC team blowing out its AFC opponent, with the game usually over by halftime.

I grew up in the era of the 49ers and Cowboys dynasties that were far superior than the rest of the field. I grew up with the Broncos and Bills dominating the AFC only to get blown out of almost every Super Bowl they played in.

From 1980-1997, only 3 Super Bowls were decided by less than 10 points.

Of course every Steelers' fan will regard this Super Bowl as the best ever, but in the name of Terry Bradshaw are they forgetting 1979 and Super Bowl XIII? A 35-31 victory by the Steelers against a more formidable, more hated opponent-the Dallas Cowboys.

Yes, you can very easily argue that this year's Super Bowl may have been the greatest fourth quarter in the game's history, but for 3+ quarters, we really didn't miss much.

A first quarter that saw the Steelers run 19 plays to the Cardinals' 5. And yes, James Harrison's Pick 6 was incredible. But of course many will argue he was down before reaching the end zone or there was an illegal block on his return.

That Pick 6 was pretty much a 14 point swing which seemed to deflate any hope Arizona had to win the game. And with Arizona unable to do anything with the opening possession of the 2nd half, NBC cringed as I'm sure many viewers were already changing the channel are leaving their Super Bowl parties.

In fact, only 3 points were scored in the entire third period.

And then Larry Fitzgerald and the fourth quarter happened. And Ben Roethlisberger did his best Joe Montana impersonation and put together one of the greatest clutch drives in Super Bowl history.

Again, this was the best defense in the NFL going against a 9 win team. A team that limped into the post season. A team many thought didn't even deserve to be in the playoffs.

It was the Pittsburgh Steelers, rich in history and winning, against...the Arizona Cardinals, the red headed step child of the NFL.

The Patriots, Jets, Bears, Cowboys and Buccaneers each had at least 9 wins but failed to make the playoffs.

The Cardinals gave up 56 points to the Jets, 48 to the Eagles, and 47 to the Patriots. That's 151 points allowed in just 3 games.

The Pittsburgh Steelers gave up 223 in 16 games!

When it comes to great Super Bowls, yeah, this one makes the list, but how soon we forget.

In recent memory:
Last year's Giants/Patriots. 19-0 on the line and Eli Manning's scramble and pass/David Tyree's improbable catch-the best play in Super Bowl history.

How about any of New England's three Super Bowl wins?-All decided by 3 points.

Kurt Warner's only Super Bowl ring-2000 victory over Tennessee with the Titans falling one yard short on the final play!

1998-Broncos/Packers-one for the ages as two of the best quarterbacks of the era duke it out with Elway finally winning the big one. And who could ever forget his run on third down and making like a helicopter spinning for the first down.

1991-Giants/Bills (maybe my personal favorite)-Backup QB Jeff Hostetler leading the G-Men to an improbable victory and the game ending with Scott Norwood's missed field goal which denied Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Bruce Smith, Andre Reed and Co. their one sure shot of a ring.

1989-Bengals/49ers II-Joe Montanta to John Taylor with 34 seconds capping a 92 yard game winning drive.