My Weblog

An Inexpensive Sports Shoe

What a great story to begin my day reading this morning. The stroy, found at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17962620/ explains how Professional basketball star Stephon Marbury of the New York Knicks has launched an product line of shoes that are not in stratosphere pricing of $100-$150 a pair but a mere $15.00. I don't have any kids myself but ust thinking back to when I was a kid, having 2 other brothers and the thought of what my parents had to shell out to get us all three new basketball shoes.

What a really nice thing that Mr. Marbury is doing. The fact is that he is still playing in the NBA and he's actually wearing some of the shoes in his product line is assurance that just because they are only $15.00 doesn't mean they are of bad quality.

In closing, in a time where some professional athletes get headlines for doing great things on the court of field, it's pretty cool that someone is getting flooded with kudos off of it. As Mr. Marbury explained in his interview. "If you don't do something different for people, you're not providing a difference."

Baseball Really "Do or Die"?

I just had to laugh a little bit when I saw the headline that read "This is a Do or Die situation" and it was taken from an interview about baseball. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17602969/ New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez is coming into a season in which he, because of his contract langauge, can opt out of his contract and become a free agent and search out another major league team.

The interview is full of quotes and respsonses about whether he'll play for the Yankees next year and one of the determining factors will be whether the New York fans will want him to play in New York.  Wow. Pretty amazing stuff. I've never seen playing a great sport like baseball for a living and getting an astromical amount of money to play it as a "do or die situation". I'd call that situation fun.

March Madness: Let the Games Begin

The NCAA tournament teams have been selected and '07 March Madness has officially begun. Why have I waited an extra day or two to fill out a bracket though? There is so much parity in the college game that any number 16 seed could unseat a number 1. A number 12 seed will be a 5 but which one will it be? No number 1 seed has won it all for a while. Does that change this year.

Usually I've got a couple brackets picked filled out already. Why am I waiting? Am I waiting until th elast minute. Waiting for more information to come to me as I watch ESPN over and over again as they disect the regions game by game, player by player? Am I taking more serious this year than the past? All good questions. All good questions.

Not only is the temperatures unseasonal for Iowa right about now (it hit 72 tommorow and will do so today until dipping back down to the 40's) but March is so much fun to look forward to with the Women's NCAA, the NIT and I've got my first college sofball games to umpire next week.

OK, here it goes. 12 Old Dominion beats number 5 Butler. North Carolina beats UCLA in the championship for the title. This is going to be a great tournament! Countdown is on to the tip-off.

Small Town High School Basketball

I debated and debated about whether I was going to go watch the local Fairfield high school boys team play in the substate basketball game last night. Well I did decide to ride town with a friend and boy am I glad I did. What a great atmosphere. What a great game.

I'm originally from a small town of 1,000 and I remember playing in front of hundreds of people until we were fortunate to go pretty far in the tournament and ended up playing in front of pretty big crowds on our way to the state tournament. Last night's atmosphere made me go down memory lane.

Anyway, back to the game. It pitted hometown Fairfield versus nearby Albia and the gym was filled with well over 1,000 spectators. The place was loud. The place was really loud.

You could tell that some of the kids were a little revved up as they were already breathing heavy after a couple minutes. One has to remember that they're only 16-18 year old kids.

The game was typical of small town basketball. Both teams running set plays and showing very good fundamentals. Later on the game got a little sloppy with both teams having 19 turnovers a piece but it was still such a joy to watch.

I'm not much of a yeller or screamer. Occasionally I'll applaud at great plays or I'll glance at some idiots that are clearly not aware of thier surroundings and are shouting vulgar langauge at the officiating but I guess you'll have that.

The game ended up going to overtime and as all close games do, it came down to freethrows and the lucky bounce of the ball. Albia ended up being happy and Fairfield ended up being oh so sad but both teams have a lot to be proud of. What a great game. What a great enviroment. The next time I debate on whether to go to a game and end up going, I sure hope the scene I enjoyed last night is duplicated. Well, I'd like to see the hometown team win and I could do without some of the vulgar fans. Small town basketball. What a great game. 

The Worst Ice Storm I've Seen

I've only been on this earth for 39 years but I do beleive I witnessed the strangest weather this past weekend. Sure during the Winter season in Iowa we get our share of snow and sometimes with the wind chill it goes well below zero but when it starts downpouring with freezing rain it makes you stare.

Ever since the groundhog gave us the hope there would only be about 3 more weeks of Winter, we enjoyed some high 40's and the mark hit 52 the middle of last week. When Friday came around, I was thinking about going to my grandparents who live 2 hours away until my friend came by the office and said the weather was going to get bad. I mentioned that i would probably wait and go Saturday during the day. "It's going to be worse then". I didn't even try to get out my front door when I looked out the window.

While people living in places like Florida, California, Arizona and Texas let's use for example were probably seeing sunshine and blue skies, here in Iowa we were getting a healthy dose of freezing rain! What it freezing rain? It's exactly what it sounds like. It was actually raining freezing rain and once it hit the ground it made the roads and highways skating rinks. This weather didn't last just for a minute or two like it does when we receive a hail storm in the Spring and Summer, this freezing rain lasted for hours.

Now, I didn't venture to see my grandparents, but I did make the short drive through Fairfield and out to work. The drive was really slow and I looked in sheer amazement at the fact the power lines and trees were covered in this thick ice. As I drove into the scenic driveway to work you could see tree branches all over the ground that had just snapped due to the ice and strong winds. Some of these branches were not of the small variety either. As I came into the office, I quickly decided I'd stay around for only a couple hours and get home.

A lot of businesses and residents lost power due to the storm. Last I checked, I believe the unofficial number came in at about 170,000 in Southeast and Eastern Iowa alone. The electricity at my place flickered but never went completely off.

When Sunday rolled around, the freezing rain discontinued but it was replaced with snow. We missed a big one in our area but places like Ames, Des Moines, the Quad Cities reported snow up to 10 inches. We probably received a couple inches or so.

Monday rolled around and the drive into work was under blue skies, sunny but still with a chill. As I looked at all the branches on the ground and those that snapped but were still hanging onto the tree trunk, I couldn't help but wonder if this was one of the worst ice storms ever. I knew it was the worst ones I'd seen so far in my lifetime.

Well, they're calling for warmer weather this weekend and just think, I'm due to umpire a college softball doubleheader in about 3 weeks. What a weekend though. An ice storm? Yep, it happened. Just Winter weather in Iowa I guess. 

Airport Going With X-Ray Vision

I was doing a quick search on yahoo and the headline just grabbed my attention. Airport Going With  X-Ray Screening  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070223/ap_on_re_us/airport_x_ray_screening

It seems it's another attempt to make sure our friendly skies continue to be friendly. An airport in Arizona is testing a screening of passengers that includes technology similiar to a x-ray machine that can see through clothes. Of course, it's voluntary.

Cursive Writing Fading Away

I don't how many times in my life that I've been complimented on my handwriting. I must admit that when it comes to signing my name or writing something that's not entered with a keyboard, I take extra pride in how it looks.

It seems that cursive writing in some areas of study at some schools is slowly being phased out to allow more time for other cirriculum http://www.thehawkeye.com/daily/stories/ln1_0219.html

I can remember as far back as being taught how to read and write that I was fascinated with words and writing them. I can still recall getting that piece of paper with 2 or 3 words on it and next to it was something that looked like a highway. You know, the 2 solid lines on the outside and the dashes inside of it. Slowly we would take our pencils and make letters inside of the lines until the letters turned into words.

One would think that everyone in society would feel like I do about reading and writing but as the story explains, to some it's downright painful to even think about writing let alone in cursive.

11 Hours on a Plane: Not In The Air

I didn't take my flight on an airplane until I was 19 years old. SInce then I've had the opportunity to fly for vacations and such and have flown as far as Puerto Vallarta, Mexico when one of my friends got married.

The flight to Puerto Vallarta wasn't too bad as the departing flight began in Chicago then we landed in a city I can't remember to clear customs then on to our final destination. All in all the trip took about 4.5 hours and was just like any other flight.

The only real memorable flights was one where the plane bounced a couple times while landing in Phoenix, Arizona, the one where the plane took off from St. Louis while it was raining and lightning for the entire "climb"  above the clouds.

I was reading http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070215/ap_on_re_us/weather_jetblue where passengers had to remain on the plane for 11 hours while the airline as they were not able to take off due to horrible winter weather conditions. The story mentions that one couple was actually beginning thier honeymoon and were stuck on the plane.

I've never been really able to sit still for very long and I'm not too keen on tight spaces. I can't imagine being on a plane, still on the runway not moving for 11 total hours. After reading the story, a lot of the passengers had a very hard time with it as well. 

One would probably wonder what everybody did about clean air? Well, the story explains the airline did indeed open the door every couple hours to allow air to get in.

When I first heard about the story I couldn't imagine it. After reading it, I still can't.

Just Don't Embarass Me Son

These were the words that I can still remember my late father telling me when I was old enough to begin remembering things. To this day I still will revisit those words even though my dad has passed as a reminder to always try to do the right thing.

Last week when I read the story about the actions of two sons of Philadelphia Eagles head coach, Andy Reid http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2762937 I couldn't help but revisit that conversation so many years ago I had with my dad and what Coach Reid  must be feeling as a father.

I've always tried to make the right decisions and do the right thing but as the saying goes "nobady's perfect." I've gone this far in life and the worst thing I've done is I've earned a speeding ticket.

I remember dad coming home from work and he'd mention something at the dinner table about something one of his co-workers son or daughter did to get in trouble. He would always mention ow proud he was of my two other brothers and I.

Coach Reid has taken a leave of absence from his duties with the Eagles to spend more time with his son's and care for their well being. It reminds me of another saying my dad always said, "No matter how old you get, I never stop being your dad." How much that saying is true now for Coach Reid. No matter how many games he coaches in the NFL, he's always going to be a dad and from the sounds of the story, it sounds like his son's really need him. I hope this situation turns out well.

Wanna Bet?

How many growing up in a small town, let alone with 2 other brothers did the question "wanna bet" get thrown around? It could've been something like shooting baskets outside and one of us telling the other they couldn't hit the shot. What's the easiest comeback? "Wanna bet?". Nothing was really at stake except for personal pride for a couple of minutes.

The stakes escalated a little when Monday Night Football would come around and other football fanatics would have their favorite teams playing and maybe I didn't agree that their team was all that great. "Wanna bet they won't win?" one would ask. "How bout a dollar on it?" the other would respond. "OK, it's a bet".

Well, things have really gone whacky as it seems some die hard Chicago Bears has taken "wanna bet" to a whole new realm. He bet his name on it! http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/6452958

I heard a small interview with the loser of the bet on this morning's radio show and he sounded tremendously down and sad. The radio personality even asked about his mood and he replied that he's "sad, his family is upset with him. But he made a bet."

Wow, one would think that rather than changing his name due to the result of a football game bet that he'd do some soul searching and wake up and be the person whom his parents brought into the world.