Brewer Boner

We can celebrate the Brewers paying up to our expectations. A young team, kicking ass, that is still not FULLY healthy. It's hard to not be looking toward the future with great excitement. The bullpen is not entirely healthy, but they are putting Saito on the 60-day DL, which isn't a good thing, but they are getting there. Morgan will be an upgrade over Gomez at the plate when he comes back on Friday. Hart is finally healthy and putting on a show. I think Kotsay may start playing some 3rd and first instead of the outfield to occasionally spell Prince and McGahee. The pitching staff is really flourishing and if someone goes down, Estrada has proven he's rock solid in spot starting detail. The only shadow lingering over the entire thing is will this be the last time Prince Fielder will be in a Brewer jersey? Everyone else around him is signing extensions, ready to build something great together. Does that mean anything to Prince? How close can the Brewers come to free-agent money and will it be good enough? Will another playoff appearance this season, or perhaps a playoff run, be enough to make Prince want to stay in Milwaukee? It's only going to get worse as the season progresses.

Tyson Chandler constantly gets horse-fucked on fouls called against him.

I brought up a statement on facebook, Jason Kidd: Greatest point guard ever.
As expertly pointed out by Stutz, Magic Johnson would have to be considered the best point guard ever. I struggle because Magic missed a decent amount of time with HIV related problems and really didn't age that well. Stockton is a great choice, but I feel that much of his career is defined by Malone and without him his career would not have the same quality and I think that is undeniable. Isiah Thomas is another great choice, pointed out by Ginger, but I have to mention the same thing I did with Magic, his career went violently downward and he was never heard from again after 1992. Kidd meanwhile has always been a winner on various teams. He is currently 9th in all-time made 3's, despite that being a weakness for most of his career. He carried a bad Nets team to the Finals by himself. Kidd is 3rd in all-time assists, soon to be 2nd as he's only 124 behind Mark Jackson. Magic is 4th in 2 less season averaging the mind-blowing 11.2 APG, but with the showtime Lakers that Kidd would have certainly put up gaudy numbers with himself. Stockton is the overwhelming #1 in assists, but shockingly has a dominant grasp on steals as well with over 700 separating Michael Jordan at #2 from himself. Kidd is number 7, but will be #4 next year with only 112 steals separating him from Mo Cheeks at #4. Here's where Kidd ascends though, he's #67 in career rebounding. Isiah and Magic get props for the rings, but I struggle to think of a year Kidd had an equivalent supporting cast as most of his career was spent making scrubs way more money than they should have in their NBA careers. I just thought about adding Oscar Robertson to the mix, but fuck that, this is already too long.

Bottom Line: I'd have to take Magic as best PG ever, best PG career might be up in the air if the Mavs steal a title or two while Kidd and Dirk both have pulses still, but maybe that's just blinded by my hatred for Stockton.

Faith in Basketball Renewed

While the NFL is content to shoot itself in the face this year, basketball has enjoyed a boom. Anyone who has ever argued about the quality of college basketball being better than the NBA needs to watch one game of the playoffs, especially the Heat vs. the Bulls. Those teams would beat any college team EVER by 30 points. The quality is obscene. It is a battle for points every night. The NBA is experiencing a boom in quality of stars. The talent has been deluded from there being too many teams for the amount of talent, but the field has leveled. We've watched an 8 seed beat up the 1 seed, then push the 4 seed to the limit. You see "selfish" superstars playing defense like their families lives depend on it. If you are not watching the NBA playoffs on a nightly basis, check yourself.

15 years of failure

Why can't the WNBA stop hemorrhaging money? Why can't we, as a society, pull the plug on the WNBA? I'm totally fine with professional women's basketball, but give up televising it, marketing it, and playing it in huge venues. You would have to pay me to go to a WNBA game, the amount would probably be around $100. If the NBA didn't have the NBA's financial support, this whole charade would be over. It's the equivalent of digging a hole, throwing money (millions of dollars) into it, then lighting it on fire every year for 15 years. It's a monumental failure. It's the same reason that college athletes can't get paid, because most college sports puke money out while men's college basketball and football bring home cash from huge TV contracts. You can't pay JUST men's basketball and football players money, so nobody gets anything and Title IX destroys any chance at true parity by forcing women's sports to get equal everything as men's sports, but minor detail, there is NO women's sport on the planet that is equal to football in cost, participation, or revenue. This forces men's wrestling, swimming, tennis, baseball, and track & field to get cut to lower men's participation so numbers look equal and therefore, Title IX compliant.

I'm just preaching now, but it's ridiculous to make men's and women's sports "equal". I am 100% behind women's sports, they just aren't on par with men's sports. Why would it be unfair for them to receive less money and funding since they lose a lot more money than their male counterparts?

Black Swan

I finally got to see Black Swan, which I really wanted to see due to the enormous Oscar hype. Natalie Portman deserves props for doing a great job of embodying a perfection-crazed (though I imagine most are) ballerina. Vulnerable, delusional, way too thin for my taste, and obsessed. She lives with her super creepy and insanely over-protective mom played very well by Barbara Hershey. The supporting cast is very strong with Vincent Cassel, the French dude from Oceans Twelve, Mila Kunis, and Winona Ryder, who does well as an aging dancer who is being shown the door in a rather unceremonious and unwanted fashion. Portman gets the lead in the Black Swan despite Cassel's characters insistence that he worries that she can't play the Black Swan because she can't let herself go and be vulnerable, seductive, and imperfect. Portman is driven to insanity trying to force herself into the Black Swan role and push herself out of her comfort zone. Portman, despite the recent controversies about her not dancing that much, really does a very good job, though I am a layman, of dancing. Impressive acting highlights the, as my buddy Nate noted, "Lifetime movie on steroids" that Black Swan is. As a man I merely thought, that bitch is crazy, and that was it. I didn't really get in depth with it. I thought it was good, but after the Oscar fuss I thought I'd get more. It's worth a watch, but don't expect a life-altering movie of immense emotional power.

Bottom Line: 7.8 out 10. Great acting, good story, I'm a dude so I wasn't THAT impressed.

I got to see Arrested Development for the first time and noticed how much I was missing. A supreme cast of individual talent thrown together and written for superbly. I am thinking the next time I see the whole season for 20 bucks I'm scooping it up. The show really propelled Michael Cera as the super awkward, nerdy kid. Jason Bateman as the sensitive, but sarcastically funny guy. David Cross is hilarious, he would be in anything, but his weird Doctor/hippy character is perfect. Will Arnett is awesome as a failed magician and weird dude. Jessica Walters, the voice of Mother in Archer, is awesome as the angry and uncaring mother to a dysfunctional family of idiots whose failure is accelerated greatly by their father, Jeffrey Tambor, being thrown in prison. Bateman tries to hold the idiotic family together to hilarious results.

The Brewers are all over the board as always and can never fire on more than 2 cylinders. Very happy with LuCroix, Weeks, Braun, Marcum, recently Axford, Fielder, and that sums it up. Not a lot of consistency anywhere, but McGahee and Gomez simply need to hit the ball better. Gomez is completely fucking lost at the plate. He probably should be bunting every other at bat. He flails at pitches that are low and away ALL THE TIME. He swings entirely too freely for someone with that much speed and he walks as much as Christopher Reeves from 2004-2008. Mcgahee needs to figure something out because it's not working. I'd REALLY like him to pull the ball sometimes because he pushes everything and that can't be good. Hart needs to get into mid-season form nowish because runs need to be scored. I feel Betancourt's defense was better than advertised and his bat was what realistically should have been expected, hopefully 20 homers, 70 RBI's and a .250 average. If Hart and Mcgahee return to last years form, this is definitely a playoff team in a pretty weak, all of the sudden, NL Central.

The NBA has two great series to look forward to. The Thunder are no longer the up and comers, but the here and nows. The Mavericks come off a huge emotional high sweeping the defending champion Lakers. The Mavs are by far the oldest team around and their lack of athleticism is going to get VERY interesting from here on out. The Heat-Bulls series should be a war after the Heat took the first game right on the chin. I refuse to believe Spolestra (too lazy to see how to spell his name)is a real coach. Thibodeaux will certainly coach circles around him, but I also refuse to believe the Bulls will get that kind of effort out of everyone again. I'm going Heat vs. Mavs in the finals, Heat in 6. I think it's a terrible prediction, but I'm going to assume Wade and James are made of more than what they showed in Game 1 and I firmly believe that kind of star power can't be denied.

NHL I need to try to pay more attention to, but it just loses out to basketball on a nightly basis. This article was written in descending order of sports importance. I watch Brewers, NBA, then NHL, so it leaves very little room for NHL viewing.

Deadliest Catch

Big fan of Deadliest Catch. It's crazy to think about what those guys go through to bring home crab. I have no idea if I know somebody who could hack it out there for an entire season. I can't fathom how shitty it is to be out there for days at a time. I love the competition between captains and deckhands that keep things volatile and on edge. The captains are almost all grizzled guys who have been out there since they were teenagers hacking out a living. It forged the way for new reality TV shows like Ax Men, Swamp People, and Sons of Guns. Slice of life shows that showcase unique people and talents of hard workers. There are more pioneers besides Deadliest Catch, but that is a ratings MONSTER. It knocked over the NBA Playoffs and everything else for Tuesday night supremacy. It also showcases cable televisions growing popularity. Network TV has very few staples to rely on anymore. The NBA and NHL Playoffs are not on regular networks. When NCIS and the Law & Orders fall off I would be REALLY worried if I were network execs. Modern Family is the only non-cable show I remember in recent memory that I've thought is good, or have been compelled to watch regularly. I don't understand how something with so many more resources can fail with such regularity. It has become clear it really isn't about having a "star", but a rock-solid cast. The few shows I watch: Sons of Anarchy, Modern Family, How I Met Your Mother, The Office, The Community, they all gain strength in numbers and excellent characters. It isn't Jerry Seinfeld and friends as much as a collective group of fairly equal characters. You will have more important characters, but everyone holds their own. It's the only way to be, I'd like to think we've gotten smarter, but I doubt that's it since Swamp People and Ax Men do OK and those guys can't possible read at higher than a 3rd grade level. I really don't know the reason, I guess rock solid casts aren't a secret since other sitcoms have used it for years like Cheers and M*A*S*H, but I really feel the lack of a central character has become much more vital to a shows success. I'm probably talking completely out of my ass.

Side note: The West really seems to have 4 teams competing for the championship while the East has the Heat playing above everyone else CLEARLY. They are a complete match-up nightmare and with LeBron and Wade both motivated as can be, except LeBron's defense is still fucking garbage for the most part, they are SOOO tough. Bosh is still an afterthought, but one who was a 20-10 guy for the last 4 years.

I have failed to get into the NHL playoffs, which I am disappointed about. I really can't justify watching hockey over the Brewers and the NBA, so I merely hop in at a few select times in between games and I have not been into it at all. I am almost certainly missing out, but I contend I will still watch the Stanley Cup when Mike "Doc" Emrick lends his golden voice to make hockey exciting.