R.I.P. Captain Lou

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Captain Lou Albano, the charismatic
professional wrestler who appeared in Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just
Wanna Have Fun" video, has died. He was 76.
World Wrestling Entertainment confirmed the death Thursday on
its Web site.
Albano performed with WWE from 1983 to 1996, when he was
inducted into its hall of fame. He began his wrestling career in
Canada in 1953.
Albano expanded his fan base greatly when he played Lauper's
father in the video for her hit single on a fledgling MTV in 1983.
He later claimed to be the catalyst for her success, according to
WWE.

Captain Lou was one of the true innovators in the business. Much love and respect to the Captain and my deepest sympathies to his friends and family.

NFLPA and Rev. Al Sharpton say no to Rush

Sharpton seeks rejection of Limbaugh


When I first heard that Rush was looking into buying the Rams, I admit laughing. I mean, seriously, Rush? Owning an NFL franchise? It was laughable. Until I found out that the rumor was true. Rush owning an NFL team would pretty much be a degradation of the league and the game. Never would the league have a more divisive and controversial owner on issues that have little or nothing to do with football. Yes, people have many varying opinions about Jerry Jones. But he knows how to run a team his way, is willing to pay to run a team his way, and usually doesn't stir up controversy outside of his sphere of football. But Rush can, does, and would. Think back to the 3-4 weeks he was on ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown, until he was fired for saying that the only reason Donovan McNabb was successful was because the liberal media wanted to see a black quarterback succeed. Oh, you can probably add the Michael J. Fox dust-up if you need another example of what kind of guy were dealing with.
Rush Limbaugh on the offensive against ad with Michael J. Fox

Rush Limbaugh being an owner of the Rams would be bad for the NFL. Plain and simple. It would bring even more unwanted negative attention to the league, when Goodell has already been working his ass off to reverse the image of the league in the face of the Plaxico Burress and Michael Vick situations.

T-minus 7 days

So next Monday, I start what should be, crossing fingers, hopefully, my last fall in school. Something tells me I won't be coming back to get a PhD. Granted, stranger things have happened but still... I'm actually rather excited for classes because dammit do I need something to do with myself. That was all that stuff last month was with the Streak for the Cash. I was just looking for something to do with my brain. That and trying to pad my hours at work, but in my defense, I'm working for minimum wage here. A large chunk of my friends are going back to school today and I actually envy them. Yes, I have another week of pretty much sitting around, doing very little, and most importantly, not studying, writing, and cramming. But I've discovered I need that kind of stuff. If I'm not juggling 20 million things at once, standing just 1-2 steps from the edge of complete collapse and breakdown, then I'm bored, complacent, and generally not a fun person to be around. That being said, I've got theory this semester, both communication and management, so this should be fun. Oh yeah, and my perspective Master's project timeline was shortened by 4 months last week by those up above me. At this point, this website is getting done by me whether or not it's my Master's project so I'm really hoping to find a sympathetic committee...

On the ginormous upside... college football starts next Thursday! BG hosts, and should promptly destroy, defending Sun Belt champs Troy. And Oregon takes on Boise State later that night. I really can't wait for that. It's real... damn real...

Streak Speak - July 29

Getting close to the end of the month and yesterday was less than desirable, a dismal 1-2. I seem to be doing well getting the first pick of the day on the board right. Dynamo Dresden took away a 1-0 win, but the tennis pick after that was close, but the American Isner won it straight sets. Then the favored Connecticut Sun get bounced by 15 at home. Note to self: stop picking WNBA games. The one win kept me on top of hte group for the month as Tim went 2-0 yesterday. So I'm still up, but just 47-46 today. I'm pretty sure we both have the first pick today as well...

Today the Auid cup starts in Munich and both openers start the day. I'm taking Manchester United over Boca Juniors, only because it looks like most of their starting XI will be playing today. They're expecting a competitive game, and as much as the draw scares me, I'm going with Man U. In the 2nd game, right now Bayern Munich Win is down in the picks 87-13 to AC Milan Win/Draw. Milan doesn't look the same as they have in past year, and this is a team that last week lost all 3 games in the World Football Challenge and drew with the LA Galaxy. Munich is also looking to get a lot of their normal starters into the mix, so I think I'm gonna go with the home team. Finally, I'll probably skip down to the next soccer match: the MLS All-Star game at 9:30. The MLS All-Starts are 5-0 against foreign clubs and Everton just started preseason training with their first match on Sunday, a 1-0 loss to River Plate. 3 soccer fixtures and at this point I'm hoping for a 2-1 day. Best case scenario I win the race to 50 today and don't have to try and scrape it out tomorrow and Friday. I'll worry about actually getting a streak going again next month because I'm officially back to the W1, L1, W2, L1, W1, L2 days of the beginning of the month. I would love a short streak to wrap the month up though. It would be really cool to end the month over .700.

Streak Speak - July 28

It seems I have returned to the up and down days of late June. Bringing a W1 into the day, I got my first soccer pick right as AGF Aarhus knocked off Randers FC on the road 3-2 in a Danish SAS-Leagen fixture, but went right back to the red as FC Porto shut out Lyon in their Peace Cup match 2-0. Hoping for one more win and hoping to put some distance between Tim and I in the monthly count, I grabbed what I saw as a lock. I hit the last prop on the board - Tim Lincecum vs. Felix Hernandez in who can get more Ks. Lincecum had another amazing night against the Pirates, fanning 15 in a 4 hit complete game. Hernandez only managed 2 K's in 5 and 2/3rds innings of work. So coming into today, I'm back at W1.

Tuesday again starts kinda late with the first pick being a German Bundasliga 3 match between Dynamo Dresden and SV Wehen Wiesbaden. From what I understand, this is like the Double-A of German soccer, but the talent difference between the different leagues is not as big as in the American minor/major league baseball system. Anyway, I've got the win/draw on Dresden and they are up 1-nil at the half. So being hopeful there, I plan on moving to the 3pm tennis pick, Benjamin Becker vs. John Isner. Becker is 0-2 against Isner, but playing far better on the hard court and the 8th seed in the LA Open. I'm gonna go with the German here. I like the Connecticut Sun over the Phoenix Mercury in the 7:30 WNBA game and if there's time, I'll try to pick the Toronto/Seattle game. Still up in the air about that one though.

The group win race is still close. I now have a 2 game advantage on Tim 46-44 and we both have Dresden, so the gap won't change no matter the result. Just 3.5 days to get to 50 and beyond. Since the group record for wins in a month is 48, we'll both probably shatter that one. Armando claims he's going to play more in the coming months, but we'll see about that one...

Streak Speak - July 27

It was a long and frustrating weekend that kicked off on Friday with both of my Wembley cup picks tanking after a successful Tour de France pick. I get redeemed by Chelsea's win in the World Football Challenge, and then dashed by a featherweight boxing fight that went the distance. So 2-3 Friday. I got my last Tour de France pick in Saturday, as Vincenzo Nibali placed better than Christian Vande Velde, bringing me to 9-0 for the Tour and putting me back on a W1. The Rays came back from a 9-run deficit to knock off the Blue Jays, but Mike Bliss wrecked early in the Nationwide series race and I ended the day back on a losing streak after Hanely and Manny Ramirez pushed their total bases prop. Sunday should have started off with a win, as I wanted to take Mark Cavendish to win the final stage of the TDF, but my bleeding network went down and was not back as of 4am. But the first soccer pick of the day, a Danish SAS-Leagen fixture got me green, the US got blown out 5-0 in the Gold Cup finals and ended a lot of streaks. But The White Sox came out quick with a 4 run 1st inning and I bucked the majority and got back into the green. Overall, this weekend... 6-5-1. But the important thing was that I got one win up on Tim, who also had a rough weekend. So the race to 50 stands with me at 44 and him at 43.

As for today, it's Monday, so there's slim pickings. I've got AGF Aarhus in the first pick of the day. That's another Danish SAS-Leagen fixture, and AGF is getting the win/draw option. The rest of the plan for the day looks like this. Lyon and FC Porto go off at 4:30 in a Peace Cup matchup. I'm liking Porto for the win here. I'm thinking of skipping all the way down to the 10:10 prop with Tim Lincecum striking out more Pirates than Felix Hernandez can fan Blue Jays. The Giant's ace has 18 K's in 2 starts this season and the Blue Jays strikeout the 7th least in the MLB. It seems like this should be the lock of the day.

Streak Speak - July 24

Saved, screwed, then saved again. An interesting run of luck yesterday. Once again, I got the Tour de France pick correct as Alberto Contador seals up the yellow jersey in Paris with a time trial victory, taking the victory away from Fabian Cancellara. Then, the best team in the WNBA gets blown out, San Antonio over Indiana 84-65. But it was all Gold Cup the rest of the way with the US getting a 2-goal win over Honduras and Costa Rica tying their match with Mexico in injury time. Mind you, Mexico broke the nil-nil cap in the 89th minute and the equalizer was scored at 90'+3. But it got me another win. Oh, and a UEFA Europa League win for FC Honka for me as well. 3-0 in soccer.

So today, I picked the coin flip on the nationality of the winner of today's TDF stage. I would really like the World Champion Ballan to keep his lead on the breakaway. They're within 10km at the moment. And it look like I'm gonna take the 2 Wembley Cup props, mostly to get 5 picks in today, as well as an attempt to stay away form baseball. Not sure about the nightcap yet. I'm defiantly thinking some CFL, but there's a boxing prop too...

Tim and I both picked out streaks back up and we're once again tied at the top of the board with W3. He's still 2 wins ahead of me in the monthly race 40-38, but I think that we both will pass the 50 win mark but next Saturday and that would be another first for our group.