Just in, Houston Texans to draft NC State DE Mario Williams

"With the first pick in the NFL Draft the Houston Texans select DE Mario Williams from NC State".

That's what you can expect to hear come early saturday afternoon when NFL Commissioner Paul Taligabue takes the podeum to announce the first pick.

This comes as a great suprise because many had pegged RB Reggie Bush as the top pick on saturday. But the Texans already have a pretty decent running back in Dominick Davis who has run for over 1,000 yards his first three seasons. So this makes sense in that you build a championship team starting with defense so that's what Houston is doing with this pick. Mario has been picked to be the next Julius Peppers, an oversized beast that can play all over the field.

This throws a wrench into analyst draft forecast as they had Reggie going first and Mario in the 4th or later slot. Question now becomes how far will Reggie Bush drop in the draft.The Saints at #2 already have Deuce McAllister at RB, Titans at #3 need a QB and will take either Leinart or Young. He could fall to either the NY Jets, though they have Curtis Martin he is getting up in age for a RB or he could land with the Packers and they could use Bush having lost two RB's to season ending injurys and used a non drafted RB for the last 8 weeks or so.

The fun has just begun, I'm sure saturday there will be even more suprises and players dropping.

Happy 2006 NFL Draft season, it's shaping up to be quite interesting.

Ricky Williams suspended for the 2006 NFL season

I know this is old news so I apologize for being late with this post.

Miami Dolphins RB Ricky Williams was suspended for the entire 2006 season after he violated the leagues substance abuse policy for the fourth time. Williams had served a 4 game suspension at the start of the 2005 season for violation of the policy for the third time.

Apparently Ricky didn't learn his lesson the first time. You know it's a waste to see what Ricky has done to himself. He had a ton of potential when he was drafted out of Texas back in 1998 but he just couldn't say no to marijuana. He retired after the 2003 season and sat out all of the 2004 season only to return in 2005 because the team was threatening to take away his signing bonus. So he returned in 2005 already facing the 4 game suspension and told team officials he was off of the drug.

Well I view this situation as Miami deserves this. They allowed him to come back after he basically quit the team. They allowed him to rejoin the team as if nothing had happened that he didn't cost them anything by retiring for one year. With this situation I'm reminded of the ole saying, " Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me" or as President Bush likes to say, " Fool me once shame on you, if you fool me once I can't be fooled again".

Miami should have seen this coming. He only came back to play football because he knew if he didn't he would lose his signing bonus then he'd have no money to tour the world and smoke as much weed has he'd like. If I were the Dolphins I'd still try to recoup part of that signing bonus then release him. I can't see his teammates support him through this when he has already done them wrong once before.

Good riddance Ricky, what a waste of talent.

Bonds hits #711, Can someone find Tonya Harding?

Barry Bonds hit career HR #711 tonight in the Giants extra inning loss to Mets. He pinch hit in the bottom 9th against Mets left handed closer Billy Wagner and hit a two run, game tying home to left center.

This now leaves him 3 home runs shy of Babe Ruth.

This begs the question; Where is Tonya Harding when you need her???

I wish his knee would give out before he has the chance to pass The Babe. I don't want to see this man pass one of baseball's most respected players, an Icon if you will.

Go away Barry!!!!!!

Citadel beats C of C in "Turn back the Century Game"

Citadel defeated College of Charleston 4-1 Tuesday night in the first annual "Turn Back The Century Game" presented by Trademark Properties. Both teams wore early 1900's uniforms and used wooden bats instead of the normal aluminum. The umpires also turned back the clock wearing suspenders and a straw hat to go with an old style chest protector. Though both teams are in the Southern Conference this game doesn't count towards league standings.

The Bushido (C of C) and I went to see this historic game tuesday.

The game started off slow with the pitchers taking control while the hitters were trying to adjust to swinging wooden bats. The game was tied at 1-1 going into the bottom of the eighth and looking like there was going to be free baseball. But Citadel rallied for 3 runs in the bottom of the inning which was started by Chris Swaugers' triple to right center. Citadel closer Link Saunders earned his 12th save with a perfect ninth.

Citadel improved to 21-20, C of C fell to 33-10.

Notes:

Attendance was an estimated 3,828. The game was promoted by the Charleston Riverdogs as one of their famed "Fun is good" approach. This is the first time in the lowcountry's history that a minor league club has hosted such an event. One player swung from Citadel swung and shattered his bat which led to a big gasp by fans in the bleachers as it's not every day to see that at a college baseball game. I hope this game truely becomes and annual event. It's alot of fun to see the players in throwback uniforms swinging with wooden bats.

Cowboys release Citadel's Cliff Washburn

Cliff Washburn's stint with the Dallas Cowboys was a short one. The team released him on monday to make room for them to sign undrafted free agents. He has a very steep climb to making the 52 man roster as he is still in the process of switching positons from DE to O-line.

I just wrote about him joining the Cowboys a week ago and now I'm writing of his release. I'm sure he'll land on his feet somewhere soon, with his size someone will pick him up.

Keep working Cliff, good luck.

Favre decides to play one more year

Okay, this is the third attempt at writing this little article about Brett and his decision to return. The first time I was writing this there was a storm that knocked out the power. The second was some internal error that closed all my applications. The second one really pissed me off cause I thought I had put together a really good article on this topic only to lose it. I'm not going to go write this out again but I will summarize.

Brett finally made public his desire to play one more year. He wanted to see what the Packers did to improve it's chances of making it back to the Superbowl. Well in my second attempt at this, I described how the Packers have pressing issues on the offense at WR, RB and O-line positions. The Central division has gotten better with the addition of new coaches and new players. The hapless Lions are going to open up the offense with Martz at the controls and with three #1 WR's at his disposal and new QB's Kitna and McCown. Minnesota has a new head coach in Brad Childress and the top Offensive Guard in Steve Hutchinson. Chicago still has it's #1 defense together and added DB Dante Wesley and Ricky Manning Jr both from Chicago.

If Brett thinks that he can take this team back to the Superbowl, someone needs to check his locker to see if he's back on those pain pills cause he clearly isn't thinking straight. Green Bay won't make it to the Superbowl much less the playoffs. I think Brett should've hung up the cleats and picked up a microphone. I expect to see another repeat of the 2005 season with him throwing more Ints that TD's (20 td's, 29 Int's in 2005). He should let the Packers move on with the future instead the future remains on the bench waiting for the future.



Draft notes:

The Packers hold the #5 pick in the 2006 NFL draft on saturday. It's a very interesting pick. I think they have two way to go about it. As it stands now they might have their pick of LB AJ Hawk, DE Mario Williams and TE Vernon Davis. I think Vernon Davis is capable of stepping in and contributing right away. If you haven't seen him, he is basically a WR in a TE body. I saw first hand what he is capable of when Maryland played Clemson this past year. It seriously took like 3 or 4 guys to bring him down every time he touched the ball. The other option is to trade down a few slots to pick up another pick in this draft and another first round pick in 2007 and still get someone capable of starting right away. The Packers won't admit this but this team is in rebuilding mode but once Brett is gone they will see it. That's why getting Vernon Davis is the key, he will help Brett this year when he needs to dump off passes quickly and will help Rogers next year when he finally becomes QB.

Sporting notes while watching the Chris Byrd vs Wladimir Klitschko fight today

Sports notes compiled while I watched the Heavy weight title fight between Chris Byrd and Wladimir Klitschko.


* New York Yankees are the first professional baseball team to reach the $1 Billion mark. Forbes released it's annual estimated team values for baseball. 2nd highest was the RedSox at $617 Mil. Braves came in at #12 with a value of $405 Mil. Click here for list to see where your team ranks.

* Julio Franco, the ageless wonder, made history once again this past week when he homered in the Mets vs Padres game. He now holds the record for being the oldest player to ever hit a homerun. Franco already was the oldest player to hit a grandslam, a pinch-hit homer and have a multihomer game. Franco at the ripe age of 47 broke the record held by Athletics pitcher Jack Quinn at 46 years 357 days. The record stood from June 27, 1930.

* Wladimir Klitschko seems to have shaken off the notion that he can't take a punch. He held true though to his nickname of "Steel Fist" as he delivered shot after shot to Chris Byrd who fell twice in 7 rounds the last proved to be the fatal blow. Referee called the fight after Byrd had a massive cut over his left eye and was stumbling to his feet.

* The NBA Playoffs are now underway. Does anyone really care?? I couldn't tell you who won what division. I could care less about the NBA. College Basketball is where it's at, defense at least.

* Much to the delight of Irish nation, Notre Dame picket up the #1 football recruit in the nation in QB Jimmy Clausen. He chose ND over the real USC because he wants to play for Charlie Weis. Did South Carolina fans really think they had a chance at landing him??

* Here's what Chris Byrd had to say about his upcoming rematch fight with Wladimir Klitschko. "Nobody beats me twice," Byrd said. "Five years ago, I was more of a finesse fighter. I was willing to fight anybody, but at the same time I was timid of the bigger guys. I do not fear anybody anymore as far as taking their shot."

* Here's what Chris Byrd said after the fight; "I never hit him, not the way he hit me".

* For those that are addicted to watching the NFL Draft you have 6 days and a wakeup.

* Only 20 more weeks until the 2006 NFL Season kicks off.

* So far after 15 games Kansas City Royals boast the worst record of 2 -13. At their current winning % of .133 for a full 162 game season they are one pace to win 21 game. That's a record of 21 - 141. I think that would be some very dubious record.

* This news kinda slipped right by me. Two weeks ago now, Citadel named Ed Conroy it's new men's basketball head coach. If his name sounds familiar it's because his is the nephew of Pat Conroy. He left an up and coming program at Coastal Carolina to head Citadel Basketball.

Hiers Out

Game to test your reflex.

Play this game and see how good your reflex is.

Highlights from the Braves/Mets series won by Atlanta 2-1

This is a video I can watch for a while. We showed the surging NY Nots we aren't going away.

Ken Buger column in todays Post and Courier

I love reading Ken Buger's column. For those that don't know him he writes sports columns for Charleston's local newspaper, Post and Courier. Well in his column today he writes about South Carolina and it's football program under Steve Spurrier. For everyone outside of SCU you knew this wasn't going to be the marriage that all Shamecock fans expected. They expected the Ole Ball Coach to come in and poof, bowl seasons after bowl seasons. Well reality is about to hit home and Stevo knows it's coming.

Here's what Ken Burger had to say:

Honeymoon over for Carolina fans

BY KEN BURGER

The Post and Courier

When Steve Spurrier first arrived as the latest savior for South Carolina football, he told the fans what they wanted to hear.

Now, he's telling them the truth.

A little over a year ago, when Spurrier rode into town on the proverbial white horse to save the day, he said the Gamecocks had everything they needed to be a winner.

But a year later, he's singing a different tune.

As he begins his second summer of touring Gamecock Clubs around the Palmetto State, his message isn't as optimistic. Despite going 7-5 with big upset wins over Tennessee and Florida in his first season, Spurrier says the Gamecocks have some catching up to do.

"Our message to the fans is that we have to improve our facilities, and yes, that means money," Spurrier told the Greenville News on Tuesday night at a booster meeting. in the Upstate. "I'm not talking about the 98 percent of our fans who contribute loyally every year and do everything they can, I'm talking about the two percent of the wealthy who can step up and really make a difference for us."

Political collateral

So what do the other schools have that South Carolina doesn't have?

After all, USC has been bragging about its new weight-room facility that is supposed to be state of the art. And the stadium seems plenty large enough.

So what's the problem?

Well, Spurrier says he wants renovated dorms, upgrades in the cafeteria, an improved training center and a free-standing academic learning center.

Spurrier knocked the status quo, saying the training center is one "they've had around for about 30 years" and the learning center is "a little room they give us in the library."

Not known for pulling punches when talking about his team or even his own coaching, Spurrier has obviously decided to cash in his political collateral from last season by telling the fans the truth.

And the truth is, "The fans who say, 'we hired Spurrier, now we're gonna win.' It's just not like that," he said. "They might be thinking this is going to be bowl game after bowl game, but people in football know we're not a great team, we have a long ways to go to get to where we want to be."

Rude awakening

And don't think you can clear your conscience just by writing a check.

Spurrier says he's not happy with the small crowd of 8,000 who turned out for the spring game last month, down from the 35,000 who showed up last year.

"We need to have the kind of place where people make plans to come out for the spring game, where it's one of the things you just do," Spurrier said. "Obviously, it isn't like that at South Carolina, but it is like that at Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and some other places."

So, for USC fans who have been told over and over how great they are, this should come as a rude awakening.

Apparently, South Carolina's loyal fan base isn't pulling its weight and needs to pony up more money and make more noise if they are going to measure up to Spurrier's lofty expectations.

Either that, or the Ol' Ball Coach didn't look under the hood before he drove this one off the lot.

Reach Ken Burger at 937-5598 or kburger@postandcourier.com.

Bishop England's Drew Meyer gets call to Majors

Former BE and SCU (South Carolina) standout Drew Meyer was called up for the first time to join the Texas Rangers major league club. He was playing in Class AAA where he was hitting a solid .360 in the first 11 games. He takes the roster spot of former Braves infielder Mark DeRosa who was put on the 15 day DL. Though he played Shortstop throughout his high school and college career, it's not known exactly where he will play. In the minors he has played a number of positions. He's played Second Base, SS, Third base and Outfield.

Just checked the box score for the Rangers/Mariners game and he has yet to see any action but it will come and his family will be there to hopefully see his first hit. His parents, brother and sister flew into Seattle and will be in Texas when the Rangers come home for a series against the Devil Rays. Will keep you posted on his progress.

Good Luck Drew, we wish you well.

Cliff Washburn Signed to Cowboys

If you haven't been paying attention to the back pages of the newspapers you've probably missed that former Citadel Basketball standout, Cliff Washburn signed with the Dallas Cowboys. I'm like you in that I even missed this one. I didn't know it until I was reading an article about the Cowboys current tackle position. What I also wasn't aware of is that he has switched sides and gone to offense where he will compete for a offensive tackle position. He was previously with the Chicago Bears as a defensive end.

He switched to tackle last offseason when he was sent to NFL Europe to get more experience. He only started playing football three years ago. It was after he graduated and four years of basketball that he finally put on a football uniform. It was former Citadel Head Coach that convinced him to try football. Once he stepped on the field he was a beast of a defensive end. He went from rebounding machine to a sack master. He was signed by the Giants after he went undrafted and spent his time on the practice squad developing his skills.

Well three years later and he's learning another position and has a long road ahead of him. He's got four players in front of him that he'll have to beat out. Flozell Adams, Jason Fabini, Rob Petitti and Mark Colombo. Adams is Cowboys best tackle coming off a torn ACL. Fabini was signed this offseason to play right tackle. Petitti started all 16 games for Adams last year and Colombo is a former first round pick from the Bears thats been hurt for the last 3 years.

I'm definitely pulling for Cliff to make the squad. It would be awesome to have a Citadel grad on my favorite team. By the way in case you were wondering he has beefed up to a hefty 310 pounds.

Good luck Cliff, hope to see you on Sundays this fall.



(Picture courtesy of NFLEurpoe.com, Cliff in his Frankfurt Galaxy uniform)

Capture this!

Seriously is this a real photo. That guy is really like 3 of that guy to his right.

Late night post for the Bradford, Golf's mental side

Okay I know it's about 2am, I'm up playing a little online poker while watching the great Johnny Cash movie "Walk the Line". While doing so, I'm searching the net for some interesting sports news when I ran across this golf thing-a-ma-gig. It talks about golf and its mental side. I love playing golf but it's about the most frustrating sport there is. The best I've ever shot is 96 so I can relate to this article pretty well.

Golf can best be defined as an endless series of tragedies obscured by the occasional miracle, followed by a good bottle of beer

Golf! You hit down to make the ball go up. You swing left and the ball goes right. The lowest score wins. And on top of that, the winner buys the drinks.

"Golf is harder than baseball. In golf, you have to play your foul balls."

If you find you do not mind playing golf in the rain, the snow, even during a hurricane, here's a valuable tip: your life is in trouble.

Golfers who try to make everything perfect before taking the shot rarely make a perfect shot.

The term "mulligan" is really a contraction of the phrase "maul it again."

A "gimme" can best be defined as an agreement between two golfers ...
neither of whom can putt very well.

An interesting thing about golf is that no matter how badly you play; it is always possible to get worse.

Golf's a hard game to figure. One day you'll go out and slice it and shank it, hit into all the traps and miss every green. The next day you go out and for no reason at all you really stink.

I play in the low 80s. If it's any hotter than that, I won't play.

If your best shots are the practice swing and the "gimme putt", you might wish to reconsider this game.

Golf is the only sport where the most feared opponent is you.

Golf is like marriage: If you take yourself too seriously it won't work ..
and both are expensive.

The best wood in most amateurs' bags is the pencil.

To some golfers, the greatest handicap is the ability to add correctly.

In golf, some people tend to get confused with all the numbers... they shoot a six, yell fore and write five.

Swing easy. Hit hard.

If you find yourself pleased that you locate more balls in the rough than you actually have lost, your focus is totally wrong and your personality might not be right for golf .. it is also just a matter of time before the IRS investigates your business.

Why is it twice as difficult to hit a ball over water than sand?

"The greatest sound in golf is the Woosh, Woosh, Woosh, of your opponent's club as he hurls it across the fairway"

Wishing you all a great 2006 Golf Season

Click here for the original site.

Amazon posts UCLA as winner too early

Someone at Amazon must have some ties to UCLA or at least a fanatic fan as they sent out an early email notifying customers that UCLA had won the NCAA tournament over Florida. They even gave fans the ability to buy championship hats and other gear.

I too had hopes that UCLA would win that game but someone at Amazon took it a step further.

Florida beat UCLA 73 - 57 to capture its first NCAA Basketball Championship.

Oops.

Barry Bonds being investigated for perjury.

The Associated Press is reporting that Barry Bonds is now the subject of a Federal investigation into whether he committed perjury. This stems from the book "Game of Shadows" where it stays that Barry injected himself with steroids. That statement conflicts with the statement he game to the Grand Jury where he said he unknowingly took steroids.

If you're Bud Selig and MLB executives and fans-a-like, this is great news. If Barry is charged with perjury and sentenced MLB can distance themselves and in all likelyhood could strike his records from the book. Though I'm no Barry fan I don't hope he ends up in jail, I'd rather see is him just hang up his cleats for good. I don't want him breaking Hank's beloved record nor do I want to see his name before the Babe's. I wish he would just come clean and tell the public the truth.

Click here for the full story.

Lefty takes home The Green Jacket

Phil Mickelson won the 2006 Masters with ease on sunday by 2 strokes. Unlike his first Masters this win really had no drama in it. He stepped up to the 18th hole with little to no pressure. He could've double bogied and still walk off a champion. For his efforts Phil took home a purse of $1,260,ooo which puts him at the top of the money list.

There's alot of media types and sports analyst that will say that Phil didn't win this as much as Tiger and the rest of the field lost it. Tiger couldn't get his game to come together. He was hitting his driver fine and irons were great, it was his putter that gave him problems throughtout the tournament. Tiger said that he wanted to break the putting to pieces. Phil was just steady, making his shots and played virtually error free. On sunday before the bogey on 18, Phil had 13 pars along with 4 birdies. His playing partner on the sunday was Fred Couples, whom is about 13 years older than Phil, wasn't able to play to the pressure and let the newly designed course get to him posting a 71 and three shots back of Phil.

Though this years Masters didn't come with the late drama or the memorial shots it will be remembered as the tournament that Phil won. It is his second Masters in 3 years and third major in three years. The only others play to have won at least one major three straight years is Tiger. As it looks now the Big 4 as they have been called of Tiger, Phil, Vijay and Ernie has become the Big 2 with Tiger and Phil. As noted in an earlier article about the Masters, Phil is now only the second player to have won the Masters a week after another win (Bellsouth Classic). Looks like Tiger finally has a rival in Phil. Should be fun to watch in the future.

The next Major is the US Open to be played June 15 - 18.

The Masters Final Round Complete
$	POS	START		NAME	SCORE	1	2	3	4	TOTAL	EARNINGS
	1	1		Phil Mickelson	-7	70	72	70	69	281	$1,260,000
	2	T4		Tim Clark	-5	70	72	72	69	283	$756,000
	T3	T10		Retief Goosen	-4	70	73	72	69	284	$315,700
	T3	T22		Jose Maria Olazabal	-4	76	71	71	66	284	$315,700
	T3	T4		Tiger Woods	-4	72	71	71	70	284	$315,700
	T3	T2		Fred Couples	-4	71	70	72	71	284	$315,700
	T3	T2		Chad Campbell	-4	71	67	75	71	284	$315,700
	T8	T4		Vijay Singh	-3	67	74	73	71	285	$210,000
	T8	T16		Angel Cabrera	-3	73	74	70	68	285	$210,000
	10	T12		Stewart Cink	-2	72	73	71	70	286	$189,000
	T11	T10		Miguel Angel Jimenez	-1	72	74	69	72	287	$161,000
	T11	T16		Mike Weir	-1	71	73	73	70	287	$161,000
	T11	T4		Stephen Ames	-1	74	70	70	73	287	$161,000

Cowboys have brutal first half schedule

The NFL isn't making things easy for Dallas as they try to make it back to the SuperBowl. They open with Jacksonville on the road. And get used to seing Dallas on the road as that's where they will play 6 of their first 9 games which includes 3 straight road games against Carolina, Washington and Arizona. They weren't given a favor either on the bye week, it falls on the third week of the season, which means we will have 14 straight games without a break. So I figure if we come out of that 9 game stretch with a record of 7-2, we're pretty much guaranteed a playoff spot. Here's the schedule for 2006 Dallas Cowboys.

Sun 9/10	@ Jacksonville (FOX)	3:15 p.m.
Sun 9/17	WASHINGTON (NBC)	7:15 p.m.
Sun 9/24	BYE
Sun 10/1	@ Tennessee (FOX)	Noon
Sun 10/8	@ Philadelphia (FOX)	3:15 p.m.
Sun 10/15	HOUSTON (CBS)	Noon
Mon 10/23	NY GIANTS (ESPN)	7:30 p.m.
Sun 10/29	@ Carolina (NBC)	7:15 p.m.
Sun 11/5	@ Washington (FOX)	Noon
Sun 11/12	@ Arizona (FOX)	3:15 p.m.
Sun 11/19	INDIANAPOLIS (CBS)	Noon
Thu 11/23	TAMPA BAY (FOX)	3:15 p.m.
Sun 12/3	@ NY Giants (FOX)	Noon
Sun 12/10	NEW ORLEANS (FOX)	Noon
Sat 12/16	@ Atlanta (NFLN)	7:00 p.m.
Mon 12/25	PHILADELPHIA (NBC)	4:00 p.m.
Sun 12/31	DETROIT (FOX)	Noon

Clemson vs Temple game moved to Charlotte on Oct 12

Temple announced today that it's game against Clemson will be played in Charlotte at Bank of America stadium, the home of the Carolina Panthers. This is great news for Clemson fans in and around the Charlotte area but bad for others south or north. That's because the game will be played on a Thursday night and as of now there is no planned TV coverage.

No reason was given for the move but I'd say it was done to get more exposure for the program. Temple is in the process of moving to the Mid-American Conference. This year they are considered to be an Independent but in 2007 they will be a full football member of the MAC.

With the game on a Thursday night, both teams will be coming into the game on only 4 days rest having played the saturday before. That same scenario will repeat its self for Clemson when they travel to Virginia Tech for their second Thursday night game of the season.

Clemson beat Temple last year at home by the score of 37 -7 while rolling up a total of 514 yards. That total and the score should be higher this time around as James Davis will be playing combined with CJ Spiller and Merriweather this should be a blowout of epic proportions.

NFL to release team schedules Thursday at 1pm

The NFL will release the team by team schedules for the 2006 season Thursday at 1pm. If you're like me, you've been waiting for this since free agency began. I've been waiting to map out my plans for road trips this fall. There are at least 3 games that I plan on attending and one I already know the date for. Those games are Jacksonville, Atlanta and Carolina with possible trips to Tennessee, Washington or maybe a trip to Dallas. I hoped to schedule one of the games around a Clemson game but one of those possibilities was dashed as I was hoping Dallas would play in Jacksonville the same weekend Clemson is in Tallahassee. As luck would have it, they play there a week later. Dallas has 8 games against playoff teams from last year. Here are the teams that Dallas will play at home and on the road:

HOME		AWAY
New York Giants Philadelphia Eagles Washington Redskins New Orleans Saints Tampa Bay Buccaneers Detroit Lions Houston Texans Indianapolis Colts		New York Giants Philadelphia Eagles Washington Redskins Atlanta Falcons Carolina Panthers Arizona Cardinals Jacksonville Jaguars Tennessee Titans

I'll have a post up late Thursday with the Dallas schedule.

Hunt for the Green Jacket begins Thursday at 8am

The 2006 edition of the Masters will be the 70^th year of the famed tournament. It’s the first Major tournament of the year for the PGA. The Augusta National is arguably one of the most famous golf courses in the world, ranking right with St. Andrews.

This course is well known for creating last memories and unbelievable shots. I remember Tiger’s chip shot last year as the Nike swoosh was seen right before it disappeared into the cup on 16. There was Phil’s put to win his first Major two years ago. One of more infamous moments of the Masters was the lead that Greg Norman wasted on the final day. He had like a 6 shot lead going into Sunday only to make one of the biggest chokes in all of sports and lost by 5 strokes to Nick Faldo.

The chase for the famed Green Jacket starts at 8am sharp as the group of Rod Pampling, Lucas Glover and Olin Browne tee up. The more notable tee times are at 10:23 Tiger, 12:24 Daly and 1:30 Mickelson. These are the three that are the buzz around this tournament for different reason.

Tiger is of course the favorite in this tournament ever year and rightfully so having doned the Jacket 4 times. He has a lot to play for this weekend as he will be playing for his dad who is very ill. There is no doubting the bond that he has with his father. Daly has some thinking this course is suited to his strength of distance. The course has been what some term “Tiger Proofed” in that the course has been lengthened. And of course Daly hits bombs like Barry only his are natural. Phil is my favorite coming in to this tournament. He won here two years ago and he just blistered the field last week at the Bellsouth Classic having posted a 28 under which was 13 shots better than second place Jose Maria Olazabal who had a score of –15. Only twice has someone won at Augusta after winning the weeks previous tournament. Stay tuned to see who’s going to create those lasting memories that are usually associated with this tournament.

Championship Game let down

In what had to be one of the most boring, unexciting championship games ever, Florida beat UCLA by a score of 73 - 57. They beat UCLA by using a balanced scoring attack having four starters reach double figures in points. The relentless defense that UCLA used to get to the Championship wasn’t evident on this night as they couldn’t stop the inside scoring of Noah and Horford combined with clutch shooting of little used Adrian Moss.

When I say that this game lacked the late drama that is normally associated with this game I really mean it. For all intensive purposes, this game was over at the 17:31 mark in the first half. That’s when Florida took the lead for good at 6 – 4 with a layup by Horford. Florida led by 11 at the half and at one point in the second half had a 20 point cushion at 55 – 35.

In what was a mere formality, Florida F Joakim Noah was named the Final Four’s most outstanding player. He set a National Championship game record with 7 blocks, the previous record was 5, a mark he tied in just the first half.

This is Florida’s first National Title in basketball, looks like there are no longer just a football powerhouse. Also need to send out congrats to former Clemson HC Larry Shyatt, an assistant on Billy Donovan’s coaching staff.

Championship Game Blowouts
30	UNLV 103, Duke 73	1990
23	UCLA 78, North Carolina 55	1968
21	UCLA 87, Memphis State 66	1973
20	Ohio State 75, California 55	1960
20	UCLA 92, Purdue 72	1969
20	Duke 71, Michigan 51	1992
18	Indiana 60, Kansas 42	1940
18	Indiana 86, Michigan 68	1976
17	Kansas 80, St. John's 63	1952
16	Kentucky 58, Baylor 42	1948
16	La Salle 92, Bradley 76	1954
16	Florida 73, UCLA 57	2006
15	Stanford 53, Dartmouth 38	1942
15	UCLA 98, Duke 83	1964

My 2006 MLB Predictions

Since I've described my blog as a sports blog, I might as well give my predictions on the finishing order for all divisions in MLB and the World Series winner. This will be interesting to check back on come Oct.

American League

East
NY Yankees
Boston
Toronto
Baltimore
Tampa Bay

Central
Cleveland
Chicago
Detroit
Minnesota
Kansas City

West
LA Angels
Texas
Oakland
Seattle


National League

East
Atlanta
NY Mets
Philadelphia
Washington
Florida

Central
St. Louis
Houston
Cincinnati
Pittsburgh
Chicago
Milwaukee

West
LA Dodgers
San Diego
San Francisco
Arizona
Colorado

Playoffs

AL Wildcard Boston
NL Wildcard NY Mets

AL Champion NY Yankees
NL Champion St. Louis

World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals

Braves begin quest for 15th straight title at LA Dodgers Monday

The Braves will open the 2006 season Monday at 4pm with the first of three games against the Dodgers. Tim Hudson gets the honor to start the first game of the season, an honor that has previously been given to John Smoltz, Greg Maddox and Tom Glavine. The Braves will be seeking to extend their record 14 straight division titles to 15. But many experts around baseball have pegged the NY Mets as the favorite in the NL East to stop this Braves streak. My thought is that the Braves should always be the favorite to win the division until they haven't won it. For the last 2 or 3 years these so called "Experts" have favorered other teams over Atlanta only to get beat once again. The Mets have made some good off season moves, getting Carlos Delgado, Billy Wagner and C Paul La Duca to go along with Tom Glavine, Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran. On paper yeah the Mets look like they should win this division but divisions are won on the field not on paper.

Here's a look at who's here and who's gone for the Braves in 2006.

Who's here:
SS Edgar Renteria
C Todd Pratt
OF Matt Diaz
RHP Brad Baker
RHP Lance Cormier
RHP Oscar Villarreal
RHP Wed Obermueller
LHP Mike Remlinger
PC Roger McDowell

Notables gone:
SS Rafael Furcal
C Johnny Estrada
INF Julio Franco
P Kyle Farnsworth
PC Leo Mazzone

Cooper River Bridge Run/Walk attracts 45,497

The first Cooper River Bridge Run on the new Arthur Ravenel Bridge was held today and it drew an estimated crowd of 45,497 runners and walkers. It was the 29th running of the event but there was no new record set. It was widely expected that a new record could be set since the run was made easier by the leveling of the bridge, as opposed to the up and down, up and down of the old cooper river bridge. But as expected a Kenyan won the 6.2 mile race in 28:16. The Bushido's Jim Trabert finished in 1 hour 7 minutes.

As for me, well I'm in no shape to run that distance since one; I couldn't' do it, and two, I've still got a torn up knee that's in healing. I walked the bridge with Ashley and my parents. We got up at 5am and I can't remember the last time I got up that early on a Saturday. I'm just not wired to be up that early on a weekend. Anyways, we walked to the starting line and was able to watch the Kenyan's warming up for the inevitable win. Once the runners started and got out the way, the walkers began our decent to the bridge. It was a nice day, not cold but not hot. I was able to get some good pictures of the demo work being done on the old bridges, Charleston just won't look the same once they are gone for good.

I bought a new pair of shoes on Thursday to replace my worn out New Balance. But I made the mistake in wearing them this early. Note to self: Never wear nonbroken-in shoes when you're going to be walking all morning. Well I was okay at the beginning but with each step, my feet ached more and more. Once we got off the bridge we still had another 2 miles to the finish. With each passing step I couldn't wait to get home and relax on my couch. Well we got to the finish, ate our fruit and boarded the bus to take as back to Mt. Pleasant and to our cars. Well unbeknownst to us, we weren't going to be dropped of anyway close to our car. In fact the drop zone was about another 3 miles away. So once we got off the bus we had to walk back another 3 miles to where we parked this morning. You want to talk about hell, if the real thing is anything like today, then I'm going to join any and all get right groups, go to church every day and pray everyday because it was pure torture for me to walk any further. Well an 2 hours later and about 10 miles completed we finally arrived at our car.

I swear this will be the last time I walk this thing. Since there is already a walking/running path on the bridge there's no need to pay $30 just get up at 5am to walk a bridge I can walk everyday.

Next year I'll see you at the Carolina Cup where I'll get up at 8am and start drinking, not walking.

Final Four (YAWN) is down to UCLA vs Florida

This time of year usually is one of my favorite times in the sporting year. When March Madness is nearing the end with what is the four best teams in college basketball. It’s supposed to be the best of the best. But this years Final Four was one of the most boring Final Four’s I’ve ever seen. Both games were blowouts and really were never close. The only real story line of this FF was that George Mason was still hanging around for a chance at the title. Florida ended GM’s Cinderella run in the first game by a score of 73 – 58. The second game was even more boring as UCLA, more known for offense in its glory days, used its stifling defense to shutdown LSU in winning 59 – 45.

Lets just hope that the Championship game doesn’t make us yawn and want to turn off the TV by halftime. I could care less who wins this game; though I’d rather UCLA win so that SEC fans won’t start running at the mouth about their basketball power. ACC is where it is and always will be. We just had a down year.

Well I have an idea for a game, well more like a quick pop quiz. Okay within 5 seconds I want you to name one player on either team other than the now famous Florida C Joakim Noah. If you could name someone in those five seconds you win. Give up? Yeah unlike last year when you could name every UNC player and most of Illinois back court you’re hard pressed to come up with two names you know and could match with a face.

Lets just hope this two games today isn’t a precursor to what’s to come on Monday night, if so I’m going to be flipping it early to Apprentice to see who The Donald fires next.

My guess on the Championship: UCLA 65 Florida 58.