Annnd baseball is underway
As a casual sports fan, I know that there are only four baseball teams — my team, the team my team is playing, and the Red Sox and Yankees.
Actually, I’m glad we got the Sox/Yankes nationally televised game out of the way early this year. Wait, what’s that? They’re on national TV another 37 times before October? Awesome!
On Ashley Judd..
Is it really still that cool, surprising and awesome when Ashley Judd goes to a UK basketball game? She is, at best, a C-lister now. Yet, CBS sports feels the need to show her cheering like a junior varsity cheerleader everytime UK scores.
No way . . . Ashley Judd was at a UK basketball game!!??
I’d rather see shots of Kentucky locals cheering on their beloved Cats. The locals have missed utility payments for 3 months in order to attend the game. They even took the chance of missing Sunday’s NASCAR race in order to see UK make the Final Four in person. Or, I wouldn’t even mind seeing some footage of this guy. Lets give them their 15 minutes of fame – Ashley already had her 7. Of course, as one friend and UK fan mentioned, you can’t see Kentucky locals at games, because they’re all wearing camo.
Nice "slam" Cousins.
Hey Earl, Did you see that shot by Cuzin's last night??
On Bad Sports Predictions
As all casual sports fans know, we frequently use our ill-informed, biased opinions to make bold sports predictions. Feeling like Nostradamus, we believe with all of our conviction that we know something that no one else does and announce at our local sports bar that the Cincinnati Bengals are going to the Super Bowl or the Los Angeles Clippers will become an NBA dynasty. More than half of the time these predictions are flat-out wrong. Most casual sports fans would have better luck flipping a coin when picking a winner or projecting an athlete’s career. In fact, I’m pretty sure Dick Vitale resorts to his lucky coin when he runs out of material on Duke. Not to mention, good sources tell me that Peter Gammons plays “rock, paper, scissors” when the Boston Red Sox are no longer in the playoff picture.
However, every once in a while a certain prediction is so ridiculous and inaccurate that it becomes legendary. I like to refer to these predictions as “Ryan Leafs” (you will soon find out why). Many fellow casual sports fans have made Ryan Leafs. For example, after making the three hour drive to watch Lebron James dominate high school basketball, a friend and fellow casual sports fan predicted that King James would not be a good player in the NBA.
KING JAMES = NO NBA TALENT
Obviously, this prediction has become a Ryan Leaf, and we remind my friend about his prediction about 5 times a year. Recently, another friend predicted the four NFL quarterfinal match-ups and missed all four games, picking the Ravens over the Colts, the Chargers over the Jets, the Cardinals over the Saints and the Cowboys over the Vikings. Missing all four games probably constitutes a Ryan Leaf.
I too have made a Ryan Leaf, and unsurprisingly it was based upon the inept former San Diego Chargers quarterback. The setting was 1998. I just watched Ryan Leaf keep his overmatched Washington State Cougars close in the Rose Bowl against the national champion Michigan Wolverines. Leaf looked like he possessed all of the tools of an NFL quarterback and seemed to have the all-important leadership intangible that can’t be measured. Coming into the 1998 NFL draft, Leaf and Peyton Manning were widely considered to be the two best players in the draft. With the first pick, the Colts took Manning. The Chargers traded up to get the second pick and drafted Leaf. I loudly predicted that Leaf would be a better NFL quarterback than Peyton Manning. Since this prediction, Manning has won four NFL MVP awards and a Super Bowl. Manning will eventually be considered one of the all-time greats. Meanwhile, Leaf retired from the NFL at the age of 26 and only leads Manning in two categories: arrests and indictments.
Discuss your greatest Ryan Leafs in the comment section.
Click on the link below to get the full story on my appalling “Ryan Leaf.”
