Eagles take a KICKER in the 4th round?!?

Seriously.  They did.  For real.  Alex Henery from Nebraska.  Greatest college kicker we've ever seen.  But still.  The fourth round?!?

Good stuff...

NFL Draft

We love the NFL Daft. Always have. Our fondest memory was the 1986 draft, when we were a senior in high school. Back then our town did not yet have cable (and wouldn't for another four years). However, Our Parents belonged to the "tennis club" -- which did have cable. Our Dad suggested that the two of us go and watch the draft and see who the Eagles selected with their first pick (the 9th pick overall). There was great excitement around the Eagles because Buddy Ryan had just become their new head coach. Back then the draft was a one day event. And get this -- it was held on a Wednesday morning. So we were at the tennis club by 8 AM to watch Pete Rozelle start the draft. The Bucs selected first and took ... wait for it ... Bo Jackson. The Eagles ended up taking bruising running back Keith Byars from Ohio State. In the second round they took Texas A&M fullback Anthony Toney. (After the draft, Buddy boasted: "Let's see the Giants try to blitz us now.")

Now the draft has, of course, gone Big Time. We understand putting it in prime time at 8 PM, but couldn't they do it on Friday night?!? That way kids like The Playmaker could stay up late and watch the first round. As it is now, we will let him stay up 'til 9 PM (which will get him to about pick #6) before making him go to bed. We will DVR it and watch the entire first round on Saturday (after his 9 AM baseball game).

A few randoms:

1. Cam Newton will be an NFL bust! Not a total washout, but a bust in terms of being the top pick overall. He is the next Vince Young. Like VY, he dominated at the college level because he was a physical freak. He outran DBs. And he ran over linebackers and linemen. In the NFL, DBs will track him down and linemen and 'backers will concuss him if he's dumb enough to try to bowl them over. Our first glimpse of Newton was late last September. He threw the ball something like 7 times the whole game. Every third and long resulted in Auburn running a quarterback draw. Every pass was a telegraphed-wobbly-duck. He had no passing skills at all. Sure he got better over the course of the grueling SEC season, but at best he will be a mediocre thrower in the pros. More than that, though, are the intangibles. The guy seems like a total phony. His smile is too fake. His teeth are too white. He's too well dressed. It all seems like he's the creation of a public relations firm. And did you watch him on ESPN at Jon Gruden's QB Camp?!? Gruden asked him to call a play from the Auburn playbook. And get this. NEWTON COULDN'T DO IT!!!!!! He said their plays all had numbers. Like play 6. Play 52. Etc. Great. And now you expect him to digest an NFL playbook?!? That's frigging classic. Cam Newton will be an NFL bust. He will NEVER even come close to being a GOOD quarterback.

The Eagles! The Birds should pick one or two offensive linemen and then spend every pick on the defensive side of the ball. Of course, Andy Reid is a total Draft Dolt. So he'll take more offensive linemen then he needs. He'll take a running he ends up cutting before the season. And it's a given he'll take an undersized defensive linemen that no one else likes and he'll talk about the kid having a "great motor." And there's a good chance they'll trade down in the draft because owner Jeff Laurie is a cheap bastard. The one hope is that Adam Schefter is right when he says the Eagles may move up to the #5 spot. If so, we can only hope they take Patrick Peterson of LSU.

Speaking of which! Peterson is the top player in the draft. He's the best punt returner. The best kick returner. The best corner. And the best safety. No one outside of The Bayou watched more LSU football the last three years than we did. This kid will be an instant All-Pro.

The Patriots! Sports Illustrated has New England nailing Clemson pass rushing beast Da’Quan Bowers at number 17 and Heisman running back Mark Ingram at 28. His bad knee not withstanding, getting Bowers at #17 would be an A-B-S-O-L-U-T-E steal. And while we love Ingram, do they really need him?!? Woodhead. BJGE, Faulk. Is Faulk done as a Pat?!? If so, then Ingram makes sense -- with Woodhead taking over Faulk's 3rd down role.

Von Miller! We saw him play a ton in the Big 12. We always viewed him as a nice college player. But honestly, we NEVER viewed him as a top 10 pick. He was undersized in college and seemed to only be interested in taking an outside rush to get the QB. We read one report today that said he will be made into a SAM linebacker. That's damn near the dumbest thing we've heard in the history of the world. Miller is a lot of things. But a strong side linebacker ain't one of 'em.

Ryan Mallett! Wow. The stories being floated about this kid are downright scary. The strongest rumor we read was about him allegedly being a drug addict. Yikes. Beyond that, we think he just plain sucks. We NEVER saw him do a damn thing of significance at Arkansas (or Michigan before he transferred). He's too tall and too uncoordinated to be a good NFL QB.

Then again, we'd certainly take him over Cam Newton.

So far, so good...

Watched the Phillies kick the crap out of Arizona. Now getting ready to watch the Sixers - Heat.

Three & Out...

1. Starting the baseball season with a BIG ... loss! We are the Angels this year. And we are 0-1. We lost last night, 3-2. It's a huge jump for the kids this year, as they do all of the pitching. That leads to tons of walks, as well as tons of hit batters. Last night we scored two runs while getting just one hit the entire game. We scored all of our runs on walks and/or hit batters. The Playmaker was 0-1, with a walk. (His walk tied the game in the 5th inning.) On defense he started in center field, before playing two innings at first base and two innings at catcher. He executed all of his opportunities in the field, including tagging a runner out at home to keep the game tied. *****We are not the manager of the team this year.***** The league cut back from 12 teams (last year) to 10 this year. Because we were a "new" manager last year, we lost out on seniority this year. So we are "just" the assistant coach this time around. (Bill Simmons Moment: Upon learning that news, Our Dad opined: "Do you think they wanted you out because you always win your games?!?")

2. Did you know?!? Today is National Pretzel Day! Really, it is.

3. We are OLD! We were leaving for work this morning and bitched to The Wife that we had hurt our back. She logically asked, "Did you hurt it working out?!?" Sadly we did not. We hurt it walking down the basement steps to get to the elliptical. That's when you know you're old -- when you get hurt getting ready to work out. Ugh. It hurt like a witch. Clearly we need more Favre Pills.

Opening Day...

Weather permitting, of course.

Happy Easter

Low key this year. Having The Wife's parents and one of her brothers over. That's it. A 19 pound bird is in the oven to go along with rustic mashed potatoes, peas and corn. Hopefully one of our guests is bringing over Tort for dessert. The Sixers are on at 1:00, followed by the Phillies at 4. And we'll probably kick everyone's ass at ping pong. Enjoy the holiday!

First baseball game of the season...

Got rained out.

The legend continues to grow...

He got his first double-double when he was 7-years old. As an 8-year old he had more soccer goals than the rest of his team combined. He did not give up a single pass reception in flag football when he was 9.

Today, The Playmaker shattered a backboard.

Oh, yeah. He did it hitting a baseball while taking BP in the driveway.

Note the picture. He hit the backboard so hard that the shattered piece split in half.

Classic.

Best we can do...

Great stuff...

Coco Crisp...

Come to UConn -- you can graduate in 3 years and read just ONE BOOK!

UConn's b-ball program is beyond sleazy.  Total frauds.

The First Family of Goals

Morning: The Playmaker's Sister got her first goal of the season in lacrosse. She took a nice pass right in front of the net and knocked one in from about 7 feet. Her team had been trailing 5-zip, when her goal cut it to 5-4. They ended up winning, 6-5, and are 1-2.

Afternoon: The Playmaker got his first lacrosse goal of the season (as in first goal ever). He scooped up a rebound, took it around "the cage" (cool/hip lax coaching lingo) and jammed it in from point blank range. Seconds later, some assistant coach on the sideline wearing a Phillies hat and Joe McCoy Ray-Bans, screamed out, "Diesel!!!" We won, 7-1, to improve to 2-1.

Dinner: Celebratory dinner of Chinese takeout.

Sixers-Heat, game 1

Caught the second half of the Sixers-Heat playoff game today. (Had baseball practice from 3-4:30.) They gave a valiant effort, cutting a 14 point deficit down to 2 with two minutes to play. Great hustle play by Thad Young in this video. Love that guy. He is everything Andre Iguodala is not. A hustler, a team player and someone with positive body language. And he can actually score points. If I'm Doug Collins, I institute the Common Sense Rule. What's that, you ask?!? It's a rule that says Iguodala is NEVER allowed to shoot the ball. Never. Ever.

T.G.I.F.

April vacation, here we come.

Update

Still drying out from last night's monsoon/lacrosse practice. Settling in to watch Cliff Lee pitch.

Really?!?

It's POURING rain. Yet, we are getting ready to go to lacrosse practice. Such is life when you got your ass kicked in last weekend's game.

Classic Mel Kiper...

Hey, spring -- EFF U!!!

We busted our ass thatching the front yard and raking the back yard today. Spent about two hours out there. The temperature was about 70 degrees, but it felt like 100. There were stupid bugs flying around our head. The back is stiff. Our shoulder is aching. And we have a blister on our thumb. Yes, those are a few of the reasons why we hate spring.

Dominating the Braves...

The King...

Seriously...

So we're going back and forth between Red Sox-Yankees and The Masters. We see Rickie Fowler hit a tee shot and The Playmaker says to us, "Does that guy think he's [Justin] Bieber?!?" Classic.

Greatness...

Hell-oh?!?

To: Cole Hamels

From: The Pit Master

Subject: Sucking

Dear Cole,

Just because you are the number four pitcher in the Phillies' rotation this year, does not mean you should go out and throw like a number four pitcher. In light of last night's terrible outing, we felt the need to remind you of this fact before you pitch in Atlanta this coming weekend. Thank you for adhering to this rather simple request.

Sincerely,

The Pit Master

UConn 53 Butler 41

The worst championship game we can remember since Vegas blew out Duke by about 100 back in 1990. At least in that game Vegas played well. And you were interested to see if Richie the Fixer was sitting on the UNLV bench with Tark. Butler and UConn?!? They were abysmal last night. ZZZ.

13-3...

The Playmaker had his first lacrosse game (ever) yesterday. His team (with its oh-so-knowledgeable assistant coach) won, 13-3. He played middie, which for you ignorant lacrosse folk (there was one?!?) is the position in the middle of the field. Middies play offense and defense and, thus, do more running than anyone else on the field. Anyway, less than two minutes into his first shift he scooped up the ball and passed to an open teammate for a goal. Yes, you count assists in lacrosse. He had a few more scoops. He made two "rushes" (taking the ball and running more than 10 yards with it) -- one down the center of the field on offense and one down the sideline (in front of his proud father) on defense for 20+ yards. It won't ever replace baseball as his major spring sport, but he had fun and did well. (In fact, the best compliment came from the head coach who said he "didn't look like a first year player out there.")

The opener...

Late lax game. First one of the season. Well, first one ever for The Playmaker.

Cal > Kemba

Kemba is the best player in college basketball. Unfortunately for him, The Sons of John Calipari have too much depth, talent and size. Kentucky will win a close one today and play Butler Monday night. Oh. About this Calipari/Jim Calhoun "feud." It is and always has been a one way feud. Calhoun absolutely despises Cal from his daze, errrrrr, days at UMass. He was jealous of The Man something awful. And when Billy Bayno sneaked (yes, that's correct grammar) into Hartford and came away with one Marcus Camby, Calhoun allegedly went all-John Chaney and screamed, I'll kill you! I'll effing kill you!

We can only imagine what Calhoun will say after losing to Cal today.

Phillies 5 Astros 4 -- WOW!!!

John Mayberry, Jr. prepares to win the game.

His single sails over the head of Michael Bourn.

Wow. Double wow. Planned on having the Phillies game (via ESPN3) playing on the classroom computer this afternoon. Alas, the game was not on ESPN3. We left school around 2:30 and the Astros were up 1-zip after 6 innings. On the way home Doc Halladay got pulled (due to his pitch count) and JC Romero and David Herndon got smoked in the 7th and it was quickly 4-0. By 3 PM were at the bus stop waiting for The Playmaker and the Phillies had cut it to 4-2. We quickly got in the house and fired up the TV. Ryan Madson and ... wait for it ... Danys Baez pitched the 8th and 9th without yielding a run. p Onto the bottom of the 9th we went. p And then some serious sheeeeet went down. Jimmy Rollins led off with a single. Ryan Howard singled (with 2 strikes, no less). Rollins stole third, but Howard stayed put at first even though J-Roll drew a throw at third. At that point we wanted to get a gun and shoot new first base coach Sam Perlozzo. (He was their third base coach last year. He sucks. He sucks something awful. But he's there this year because they didn't want to give Davey Lopes a raise.) Speaking of people who SUCK, Raul Ibanez was up next. He failed to move the runners. That's what happens when you hit a piss-ass-pop-up to the second baseman. So it was first and third, one out. Still trailing, 4-2. Jayson Werth Ben Francisco singled in Rollins to make it 4-3. Carlos Ruiz then singled to load the bases. (Of course, had Dumb Ass Perlozzo sent Howard on Rollins' steal, the game would have been tied.) Chase Utley Wilson Valdez singled to tie the game. And then John Mayberry, Jr. singled over the head of center fielder Michael Bourn to win the game. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. A definite Bill Simmons-Father-Son-Moment that probably won't ever be forgotten.