Dom's Dish - Thursday, March 15, 2007
The Ides of March have come....Aye, but not gone, Caesar! (Happy Belated Pi Day to everyone: 3-14! ~ 355/113 baby!)
Ah, the throwback uni! I have to say, it seems like the NBA teams wear throwback or special uniforms about 20 of their 80 game schedule. One I'm kind of sick of, is the neon orange Cleveland Cavaliers uni. I mean, they're ORANGE! I don't know what it is about orange, I'm just not a fan, especially for uniforms. Now some people in my family will say that I have "orange" Reebok mesh shorts, but I will dispute that and mention that they initially were "rust" color, and are now, especially after about 9 years of service. The one exception though, is Syracuse. It's just a nice orange. The other night, the Chicago Bulls wore green uni's in honor of Saturday's Holiday.
One I am fond of that I saw last night, is the Dallas Mavericks green and blue trim. Back in 1992 (when I had the full set of NBA Fleer trading cards) (and also had Run DMC "Down with the King" for my "Walkman") when I was really getting into the league, I thought the green uni's were one of the best in the NBA. Seeing those throwback colors reminded me of the old Hartford Whalers (NHL) uniforms. But I digress...great uni's, but an even better battle between the Suns and Mavericks. I do enjoy the half-court offense mentality of the East Coast - it's like a chess match, but the style of play these two teams run is like a fast half-court offense. It's unbelievable how fast they can score without even a real "fast-break". It's crazy how good the teams shoot - obviously both defenses are not top in the league, but the "plays" they run where someone is almost always open for a 3-ball, all the movement away from the ball, and the high percentages they shoot, they epitomize professional basketball. Talk about entertaining - fans there barely sat down from the mid-4th quarter on! (Side note, the announcers just mentioned that Jason Terry (Mavs) wears 5 pair of socks for each game - that has to add like a shoe size and a half - good cushioning, but when they say he's on fire, do they mean his feet?) What a shot by Terry with 4.9 seconds left in OT to tie it up with Nash's hand in his face! Now into the second OT, I've decided Steve Nash should definitely appear next to the word "awareness" in the dictionary. Double team him? He'll make an amazing dish. Single coverage, he'll put it up from anywhere or drive on you. Someone should give him an award! And, oh by the way, Amare Stoudamire is back: 41 pts on 16-19 FG, 9-12 FT, 10 REB, 2 BLK.
Lance Briggs' agent? Drew Rosenhaus. Bears coming off a Super Bowl loss, 2 years ago, the Eagles were too when T.O. made noise in the offseason. Chicago and Philly are both blue-collar towns. In an interview on ESPN, he likened his job to, in a way, being an average Joe. Last I checked, not many of "us" have $7.2 mil on the table or would have turned down a 7-yr $33 mil deal (as he did last offseason. To quote Little Richard from the Geico commercial: "Oooo - LOOK OUT!"
Apparently the NCAA Tournament starts this week. Who knew!? You all probably filled out your brackets by now, but here's a few predictions: Memphis, Georgetown, Ohio State, UCLA will go far. In maybe five brackets I've filled out, I have Ohio State, UCLA, Memphis, Georgetown and UNC winning it all, pick one. Still never a 16 has beaten a 1. 12/5 and 8/9 are the most common upsets. Aside from that, you might statistically be better off picking the higher seed in the rest of the games. (I'll have to ask somebody I know with a doctorate in Stat) Some major complaints: what the hell is this "opening round" / "play-in" game b.s.? What about this East/West/South/Midwest two years ago to city names last year to city names AND "regions" this year? How about mixed regions playing in the same place? (West and Midwest playing opening round games in Buffalo, NY) What is going on? Disorder! Disorder! Dis-Ooooerder! And they talk of expanding the field from 64....er, 65? I guess we can go to 256 teams. That might satisfy everyone. 256 to 128 to 64 in one weekend (last weekend), then 64 on from this weekend. Now that would be some madness! I mean after all, there are only 119 D-I football teams and all those Bowl games (33 in 2006/2007) - there are 326 D-I Mens basketball teams. Tennessee Technological University? Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University? University of Texas, Pan American? NCAA - if you do expand, my vote is 256! Then every network will have to cover those games.
Little did I know when my wife and I were looking for a house, but my neighborhood is definitely the "training grounds" for Jehova's Witnesses. To each his own - religion and spiritualism is something that I believe is, and should remain personal for everyone. Each has their own way (or non-way) of expressing it, and their own beliefs. Anyway, being that I work from home now and used to work odd hours in the restaurant business and be home during days, I've been caught standing at the door talking to them twice before. It's crazy, a mini-van will pull up, 10 people pile out and walk the streets. It kind of reminds me of a large family of trick-or-treaters in a safe neighborhood, a family dispersing in the mall with a meeting time/place, or worse yet, a clown car, except in suits and ties wielding pamphlets. They won't catch me anymore. Yesterday, while waiting for a fence estimate, the doorbell rang; but before I unlocked the door, I spotted the guy in the suit and army crawled right behind the chair. I tell you, I hid quicker and better than my brother watching the Wicked Witch in "The Wizzard of Oz." Yeah sure, that was last weekend, but I learn quick. Those Jehova's weren't gonna get me this time, no sir. Morale of the story? Nothing good ever happens when someone wearing a suit shows up at your front door. By the way, if anyone wants me to scan in the latest copy of the "Watchtower" pamphlet, let me know.
Some more of the best commercials on TV:
- "Carne asada." "CAAAR-nay Asada." "Ricardo Montelban?" (Taco Bell lions)
- "MOOOU-LA!" "You save El-Moula!" (Comcast Cable)
- The catchy acoustic guitar playing the background music for "Zoom zoom zoom!" (Mazda)
- "YOU COME PUSH IT! You push it real good!" (Comcast)
(Speak of the devil, Comcast all of the sudden sucks ass in my neighborhood - I feel like Mr. Slowsky during the day on the internet and at times at night, I'm lucky if I get every third word on digital cable, watching through the green bars)
For the catch phrases:
- "Boost mobile! Where you AT!?!"
- The new "Day Dreams" commercials (gentleman's club in Philly) "Where the girls wear nothing but a smile."
The worst:
- The Mazda commercial with the song "Let the sunshine...." (getting up there in frequency with the Dodge Rock-em sock-em commercial)
Around the balls:
Giant-orange- Syracuse did not disappoint as did Drexel. 10-6 in the Big East gets an NIT birth, not even a #1 seed there either. I think they'll win it all, Jim Boeheim is that kind of coach. On great coaching - any press conference with Bobby Knight is worth watching. Such an entertaining cocky prick.
White-leather-stitched- Gary Matthews Jr. finally came out and said he never took HGH. Yeah, we believe you know that you're all lawyered up (such a good term, "Law & Order"). Oh yeah and Pete Rose said yesterday - on radio - that he bet on the Reds while managing them, every night.
Rubber-non- The Flyers gave their new GM Paul Holmgren a 2-year contract extension. Am I missing something? "Has made great moves since taking over in late October," so says The Hockey News. They are in last place, right? Ah well, go Devils - get healthy, will ya!
Big-brown-oblong- JaMarcus Russell of LSU had his Pro Day yesterday. He's dropped 10 lbs since the combine and he again flaunted his arm strength. (85 yards standing up, 65 yards from his knees and 45 yards from his back) Hopefully he is all the Raiders need to again come back from the "black hole" they're in. Otherwise he might be the next Tim Couch or David Carr, and throwing from his back will be a useful trait.
Program Alert:
Uh....someone said the NCAA Tournament started sometime soon....not sure when...ah well, maybe it'll be on ESPN sometime?
Game of the workday prediction: 10 Texas Tech vs. 7 Boston College - 12:25pm EDT
Links:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/photos?photoId=1480360&gameId=270314006 - Mavs in green
http://web1.ncaa.org/onlineDir/exec/sponsorship?sortOrder=0&division=1&sport=MBB - 326 teams
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi - Pi
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For those new to "the dish", I once dreamed of being a sports-caster having my own column. Let me know if you don't like it, and/or want to be discontinued from the list. If you have another email address to send it to, send that to me also. For older issues of the dish, email me. domsdish@gmail.com or go to http://domsdish.blogspot.com/
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