Misconceptions

One thing you will never say about me is that I am a Pittsburgh Steelers fan and one thing that you will always be able to say about me is that I am a Cleveland Browns fan. Growing up in northeast Ohio you are taught that the Browns are the only team to cheer for and the Steelers are the enemy. As a Cleveland Browns fan it has been tough and you learn to become tough from all the years of hardship we have had to endure. I will give Steeler fans one thing, they should be happy from all the winning and be disappointed when they do not make the playoffs.

For the last year and a half I have been dating a Steeler fan, this makes Sunday's very interesting but fun. In 2011 I wanted to take her to the Browns/Steelers game in Cleveland but she was talked out of it by others who said Browns fans are mean. Mean wasn't the words that were used, they were actually adjectives like rude, cruel, disgusting, vulgar, and harassing. We did not go and ended up going to the Steelers/Rams game instead, boring!

We recently attended the Steelers/Browns game in Pittsburgh and I was dressed in my Browns gear amongst a sea of Steeler fans (as expected) with one other Browns fan sitting right in front of me. Prior to us going I read an article about Pittsburgh fans living in Cleveland and how they are treated. It was an interesting read and I thought I would share that article with you here followed by my experience in Pittsburgh.

Upon arriving in the vicinity of the Heinz Field while still in my truck I was greeted with boos, comments of "there's a Browns fan," and chants of "Cleveland Sucks!" These are all expected no matter where you go so those did not bother me at all. Walking through the parking lot was not very eventful either so I was doing alright, mind you I am a Browns fan so I am tough. Upon entering the stadium it became a totally different story as I started high giving my fellow Browns fans. We got to our seats and I greeted my follow Browns fan in front of me and observed all the other Steeler fans around me. To my left was a group of four very rowdy (drunk) Steeler fans, no big deal. These guys were constantly standing up cheering as they should but as the game went on they got worse. At one point the one guy decided to put his hands on me after a big Steeler play, thankfully I am strong and did nothing. He continued to yell profanities in my face and the other Browns fan. At one point he dumped his beer all over the person in front of him, if it were me I would have been kicked out. The first time I went to the concession stand I stood in line for not that long until I got to the counter, this I could not believe. I ordered two beers and nachos, nothing difficult. The person at the register tells me that he cannot serve me because I am a Browns fan and needed to go to a different concession stand, well this was not happening. Upon me telling him that he decided to charge me more than he was supposed to and claimed that he typed in the wrong amount. Thankfully I know my math and paid him what I was supposed to. I went back to the same concession stand and stood in line forever being harassed by Steelers fans behind me with names that I have never heard before. Again I ignored them because they were the ignorant ones not me. I ended up with the same concession stand attendant and he just walked away from me asking someone else to serve me. After the game was over, the Browns lost, I walked out with my head held high all the way back to my truck only to find the entire bed filled with empty beer cans.

Before you go to a game or decide that you want to bash the other teams fan base just remember that you probably are making your team look a lot worse than the team that you are bashing. Not every fan can be lumped into this, I am only pointing out the few that I encountered and I am sure Browns fans have treated Steeler fans and others like this as well.

A History Lesson

The 2013 Major League Baseball season will begin on April 1, 2013 which is exactly 141 days from today and it will be 100 days on December 22, 2012. Major League Baseball has been making history over the last two decades with the advent of the wild card and then the expansion of the wild card system. We have had the first tie in the All-Star Game which has now forced us to create a rule that gives the winning side home field advantage in the World Series. Major League Baseball has seen its home run record fall a few times and not thanks to what many are saying was the steroid era, this is still up for debate. We have also introduced four new teams with all of them going to the World Series and two of them winning the whole thing, Cubs and Indians fans sure are not happy about that. Major League Baseball will make one more piece of history coming up in the 2013 season and that is due to realignment when the Houston Astros move to the American League giving both sides 15 teams which means we will have interleague play all season long.

If you watch Major League Baseball you are sure to see something that has never happened before and so for the next 141 days I am going to highlight a day in Major League Baseball history.

November 9, 1953- Reaffirming its earlier position, the United States Supreme Court rules, 7-2, baseball is a sport and not a business. This decision exempts baseball from anti-trusts laws (http://www.nationalpastime.com/).

Imagine is baseball were found as a business and had to follow anti-trust laws, our game certainly would not be the same today. At the time in 1953 I could understand that this would happen because baseball was America's past time whereas the NFL and NBA were still in their start up phases trying to figure out what direction they were going. Major League Baseball had been around for well over 50 years by this point and knew were they were going. In today's market though you could not accuse Major League Baseball of trying to monopolize the market because they have been overtaken by the NFL and NBA, in which questions have been raised about the NFL but have been found to be the same as the MLB in 1953.

Player-Manager

Remember the days when baseball had player-managers, yeah, neither do I except for in 1984 when Pete Rose did it for the Cincinnati Reds and then 1975 when Frank Robinson did it for the Cleveland Indians. You have to go all the way back to the early start of 20th century when a majority of teams used this system, although in 2011 GM Kenny Williams of the White Sox thought about using Paul Konerko in this role after letting go Ozzie Guillen.

I have a feeling that this trend is coming back but not exactly how you think it is. Take a look at some of the recently hired managers in baseball and what they have done for their teams.

Mike Matheny- This first time manager of the St. Louis Cardinals did not have a hard time adjusting to his surroundings. Being an ex-player for the team in the early 2000's Matheny was very comfortable coming into the clubhouse, even though the team lost their stud first baseman Albert Pujols. Matheny took the Cardinals to the playoffs winning the wild card round, beat the Washington Nationals in the NLDS and then losing in seven games to the eventual World Series champion San Francisco Giants. It looks like the Cardinals have a very positive upside to their future.

Robin Ventura- Everyone knows one thing about Robin Ventura, he is the guy that tried to take Nolan Ryan's head off after being hit by a pitch. What you may not know is that he had the Chicago White Sox in the playoff race all the way down to the wire. Even though his team plays in the beleaguered American League Central he still guided them to victory over the teams they should have beat. Just like Matheny, Ventura had a history with his team having played the majority of his career there. Also like Matheny, Ventura has a bright future of guiding his White Sox teams to many postseasons.

Don Mattingly- Coming into the 2012 season everyone had written the Los Angeles Dodgers off due to the ownership mess they were in, everyone but Don Mattingly. Mattingly was always known for his consistent play on the field and he brought that to the Dodgers when he took over in 2011. He kept the team and the city of Los Angeles in it all season long with the Dodgers finishing two games out of the wild card race at the end of the season. With a new ownership group, a rebuilt lineup, and Mattingly at the helm look for the Dodgers to contend.

John Farrell- Even though Farrell is now the manager of the Boston Red Sox we need to look at what he did with the Toronto Blue Jays for the last two seasons. The American League East is the toughest division in baseball to win and John Farrell kept the Blue Jays competitive to say the least. He kept the energy up in the locker room which is probably one of the main reasons the Red Sox sought his services for the upcoming 2013 season. His managerial style with this team will be something watch throughout the season.

Mike Socosica- This no nonsense manager of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim has been with the team since 2000 and guiding them the playoffs six times with a World Series win in 2002 and only having a losing record twice during that time. There has been speculation that change could be made but that was squashed when Socosica signed an extension through 2018. The Angels have the talent and I could see Socosica turning in Tony LaRussa.

Joe Girardi- Who knew that Girardi won the National League Manager of the Year in 2006 after being fired by the Florida Marlins towards the end of the season. This tells you the success he had prior to becoming the New York Yankees manager where all he did was not make the playoffs in his first season but then win the World Series in his second season. Being the Yankess manager is not as tough anymore since the passing of George Steinbrenner but the fans still expect you to win and that is what he doing.

Ron Washington- Two words for you - World Series (twice)! The Texas Rangers manager has turned this team into a contender every year and will continue to do so as he leads by example. He continues to push his team to the limit and the continue to respond, however, the 2013 season will be telling due to the fact that their best player, Josh Hamilton, is a free agent so look out!

Terry Francona- As a lifelong Cleveland Indians fan I am excited over this hire, although I am not going to lie, I would have been just as excited if Sandy Alomar Jr. were hired. Francona's resume speaks for itself by taking the Boston Red Sox to the World Series and winning it twice in three year since prior to that it had been 84 years since their last win. In 2011 the Red Sox parted ways and brought in Bobby Valentine which only made Francona shine brighter, hopefully he will be able to do to the Indians what he did for the Red Sox.

Kirk Gibson- The always entertaining manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks, nothing special about this guy or this team other than the fact they always keep it interesting. Gibson played with reckless abandon and he manages with the same style.

Bud Black- He manges the San Diego Padres, how many of you knew that? How many of you knew that San Diego still had a baseball team? It is my opinion that the Padres have the easiest manager's position because nobody watches them because of their location! Beautiful ballpark but the beaches are so much better.

So in review you see that all of these ex-players have had a level of success during their career and even though I realize there are a few more ex-players that are managing today I wanted to highlight these once since they are more recent. Let's hope the newly hired Mike Redmond of the Miami Marlins and Walt Weiss of the Colorado Rockies have similar success rates, who by the way both are celebrating their 20th season in the Major Leagues; not the managers the teams.

All Star Break Check Up

Well it is that time of year again, the All Star Break. The time when Major League Baseball players go to a city and watch their counterparts hit monster home runs and just have fun playing the game of baseball. It is also the time of year for most baseball fans, bloggers, analysts and anyone else who made picks at the beginning of the season to see how they are doing. I made my picks at the beginning of the season and lets see how I am doing:

American League East:

• My pick: Boston Red Sox
• Actual leader: Boston Red Sox

American League Central:

• My pick: Cleveland Indians
• Actual leader: Detroit Tigers

American League West:

• My pick: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
• Actual leader: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

National League East:

• My pick: Philadelphia Phillies
• Actual leader: Philadelphia Phillies

National League Central:

• My pick: Chicago Cubs
• Actual leader: St. Louis Cardinals

National League West:

• My pick: Los Angeles Dodgers
• Actual leader: Los Angeles Dodgers

Well it seems that I am not doing all that bad, the Central Division is giving me a hard time but who would have thought the Cleveland Indians would be doing as poorly as they are, Cliff Lee and Carl Pavano are pitching great but the bats are not producing runs and it never helps when your best player gets hurt. Fans of the Chicago Cubs are used to losing but when they are coming off a 97 win season the expected a log more then what they are getting. However, being 3.5 games out at the break with 5 of the best players having the worst of their career is not bad considering everything else.

The second half of the season should be interesting, I am sticking with my Chicago Cubs pick but I am going to change my American League Central pick to the Chicago White Sox. I like the mix of good hitting and their dominate pitching, as long as they can stay healthy they will stay in that race. A few other stories to follow in the second half:

• Roy Halladay will be traded to the Phillies.
• Pedro Martinez will win 8 games for the Phillies and 2 games in the playoffs for them.
• The Rays will continue their charge in the American League East and make the playoffs for the second year in row but this time as the Wild Card.
• Manny Ramirez will end up with 30 plus home runs and 110 plus RBI's.
• Alex Rodriguez will continue to struggle and do nothing for the Yankees to make a run to the playoffs.
• The Pittsburgh Pirates will finish over .500 this year.

Happy Birthday America.... Mr. Davis and Mr. Steinbrenner

On this July 4th our nation celebrates its 232nd birthday while Al Davis celebrates his 80th birthday and George Steinbrenner celebrates his 79th birthday; combined they are 159 years old. All three birthday's that we celebrate today are famous for many reasons in their own way, lets take a look at the top 5 reasons we should celebrate these famous birthday's.

The United States of America:

• Leader of the free world, every country strives to be like the USA but can only hope to duplicate its power.
• One of the toughest military in the world that will never give up.
• We are stubborn because we have fought through a Depression, two World Wars, 9/11 and we'll keep on fighting.
• Families will come together to set off fireworks.
• We are free to do what we want, when we want and how we want.

Al Davis:

• The way he made the NFL a multi-billion dollar organization with the merger of the AFL and NFL.
• Hiring the first black coach in Art Shell and first female CEO in the NFL, Amy Trask.
• Making John Madden the greatest video gamer of all time.
• Knowing all the short cuts between Oakland and Los Angeles to miss all the traffic.
• Knowing that if Hollywood can not find anyone to play Freddy Kruger they can always call on him.

George Steinbrenner:

• Spent money like it was going out of style which led to baseball players making $25 million a year.
• Luxury tax!
• Corporate sponsorships no matter how big a fine the commissioner of baseball gave him.
• Creating the team that everyone loves to hate.
• Building a $1.3 billion stadium that fans can not go to since ticket prices are so high.

Happy Birthday America, Al Davis and George Steinbrenner!

Shaq and LeBron

Here is my prediction of what will happen with the Cavs after acquiring Shaq, one of these three things will happen.

1. Shaq and LeBron will win the 2010 NBA Championship. After they win Shaq will retire and LeBron will remain in Cleveland but questions will start to be asked; can LeBron win a championship without Shaq? Sound familiar?

2. Shaq gets hurt and retires after season as LeBron bolts for more money in the NBA.

3. Shaq and LeBron win the NBA Championship in 2010 and they both leave to play in Greece for a combined $2 billion!

Sports Movies

I was flipping through the channels tonight before the Indians game started and found this movie called "The Final Season." I remember seeing advertisements about it on MLB.com and remember saying that I would probably like to see that. Seeing as it was never shown on any major television station I forgot all about it, until tonight. I came into the movie about 45 minutes into it but was able to figure out what was going on very quickly. The movie is about Norway High School which was a baseball powerhouse in the state of Iowa for a near quarter century. Because it was a small school district the state decided to shut the school down and combine with a neighboring high school. The team also just lost its coach that built them into the powerhouse to the Detroit Tigers as a coach in their minor league system, so nobody was picking them to do anything. The players were down and out, but the coach brought their spirits back up and they ended up winning the state championship, so cliche! Great movie and I highly suggest spending a night watching it.

Watching this tonight got me thinking about my top 10 list of all time great sports movies:

1. Hooisers: How can you go wrong with this feel good story and it's true just like the one above.

2. Rocky: So what the hero loses and couple of times and Rocky becomes old, but just think of the message it brought to everyone.

3. Rudy: Great inspiration for any young football player or athlete.

4. Hoop Dreams: Many people probably have not seen this but it is about to Chicago basketball players who had promising careers in front of them, this movie takes you on their journey.

5. Major League: No sports movie is funnier than this one.

6. The Rookie: Story of an aging coach who tried out for the Major Leagues and made it.

7. Bull Durham: I just recently feel in love with this move, you have to watch it and then go online to read the quotes.

8. A League of Their Own: Women's baseball, great story, great actors.

9. King Pin: A 1970's drunk who takes an Amish boy to Las Vegas for a bowling tournament, classic!

10. Go Tigers, It's More Than A Game: I am biased towards this movie because it is a documentary about my high school and its football rich tradition during my senior year.

I know there are many movies that could be on this list and please let me know what I am missing or what you would put on there.

The Ultimate Sports City

Heard an interesting story this morning on Mike and Mike in the Morning. They were discussing a column that Michael Wilbon wrote in the Washington Post on Sunday about which sports franchise could be considered he best of all time. Naturally this morning it came down to the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics and New York Yankees. Mike and Mike were throwing stats left and right about all of them and made very valid points, but it got me thinking, what city is the ultimate sports city in these United States?

The ultimate sports city, the city where sports fans want to be all the time because they know that they are going to have the best experience. What exactly makes this city the ultimate sports city?

• Number of pro sports franchises
• Number of successful college sports programs
• Number of successful high school sports programs
• Number of sports bars out number the number of Starbucks
• Weather
• Tradition
• Tailgate experience
• Rivalries
• Knowledge of sports and the teams

With all these things considered there are a great deal of cities that could be up for the title of Ultimate Sports City. At first thought Los Angeles comes to mind with as many sports teams, successful college teams and high schools. The number of Starbucks may be about the same as sports bars. New York and Boston probably could be ruled out, but Chicago could be put in there as well.

Because of where I grew up in Massillon, Ohio the heart of it all I am bias to that city myself. The only reason I would not even consider it would be because of the successful pro sports teams, we are only 45 minutes from Cleveland. Do some research and let me know what you think, where is your Ultimate Sports City?

The Major League Baseball Draft

We all know that Stephen Strasburg is going #1 to the Washington Nationals, but after that can you name a single player that could be drafted without using Google. I did not think so because I can not even think a player.

Why is the baseball draft not covered the way the NFL or NBA drafts are covered. Both of those drafts have analysis from the time the college season is over. Lets take a look at some reasons why the Major League Baseball Draft is not covered as much:

• If a team does not sign its #1 draft pick from the year before they get a compensation pick in the first round, this is why the Nationals have the #1 and #10 pick this year. So in reality if none of the teams sign their #1 draft pick then there could be 60 total picks in the first round and you thought the NFL first round was long.
• How many first round draft picks are playing in the Majors currently?- 1 from 2008 (Daniel Schlereth from Arizona), 2 from 2007 (David Price from Tampa Bay and Matt Weiters from Baltimore), 5 from 2006 (Evan Longria from Tampa Bay, Andrew Miller from Detroit, Clayton Kershaw from the Dodgers, Tim Lincecum from San Francisco, and Max Scherzer from Arizona). In all over three years there are a total of 8 players out of the 90 selected in the first round playing Major League Baseball.
• The draft lasts a total of 3 days, a trip to Vegas would be much better.
• Most of the players drafted went to a college you never heard of or came from a Junior College or straight from high school.

Just make sure you wait another 3-5 years to see these players in the Major Leagues and then you can start to follow what they did.

Tickets

One day I will have season tickets to a pro sports team wherever I may be living. I say this because I am a sports fan and love going to live sporting events. However, I am saying this for another reason from an experience that I just recently had.

My wife and I are going to the Cleveland Indians game on June 13th against the St. Louis Cardinals, should be a fun game to watch. I ordered these tickets March 3rd through the Indians website which is powered by Ticketmaster. The e-mail order confirmation told me that I would receive the tickets within 48 hours of the event, but this was not my first time ordering off the website and I have always received my tickets very early. I called Ticketmaster this past Friday (June 5) and they told me that the tickets were mailed out on March 4th, I ordered them March 3rd. The United States Postal Service lost my tickets or Ticketmaster sent them to the wrong address. I am not real happy with either of them right now, especially Ticketmaster since this was the second time this has happened to me.

The first time this happened was during the 2008 baseball season, I ordered tickets for the final Yankee game in Yankee Stadium. UPS lost those tickets and because it was not Ticketmaster's fault I was out the ticket and the money that I spent on them. Thankfully this time Ticketmaster guaranteed my tickets and they are now waiting on me at will call in Cleveland.

What Could Be Better

I am trying to hold on to the last little bit of dignity I have left as a Cleveland sports fan, especially after last night. I was sitting here on my couch watching Game 4 of the Cavs/Magic series biting my fingernails and almost in tears as I watched the last .5 seconds of the 4th quarter and then overtime. Once the game was over it got me thinking about how I would have reacted if I were still living in Ohio compared to Virginia.

Here in Virginia there really isn't anyone who is a die hard Cleveland sports fan, you can find an Ohio State fan and maybe someone who is wearing a Indians, Browns or Cavs shirt but nobody real die hard. I still get very excited though over any of those teams doing anything great, which is rare. Then it triggered the thought of how I reacted Friday night to LeBron's shot. My wife and I were in Washington DC sitting in the hotel bar watching the game, nobody else was really paying attention. All of a sudden LeBron hit the shot and I think I knocked my chair over and yelled as loud as I could, that woke everyone up and they realized what had just happened. I was the only person in that place watching that game, what a tragedy.

I could only imagine what it would have been like at Buffalo Wild Wings (BW3) in Massillon, Ohio after that shot. My screaming and yelling times one hundred and everybody would have ordered another drink and the party would have spilled out into the streets.

I always find it fun watching a game anywhere that there are sports fans and you can enjoy a good banter. Watching the game while enjoying a cold beer and wings is one of the finest things in life no matter if you are home or far away.

The Best Things In Life

Why is it that most of the time a horrible thing will bring something good to mind. You know like when it rains and afterwards there is a rainbow and the flowers are in bloom. The band Filter had a great line from a song "The best things in life aren't for free" and they might be right in saying that. Thinking of that and keeping in mind that I love tradition and baseball something happened Monday that brought back one of the best traditions ever. The singing of "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" is sung at every ballpark across America during the 7th inning stretch but Wrigley Field in Chicago does it the best.

Harry Cary sang it every game with the fans and since his passing they have had many superstars in various careers sing the song. Ozzy Osbourne you could not understand, Jeff Gordon called it Wrigley Stadium instead of Field and Mike Golic of Mike and Mike belted the words louder than anyone. But on Monday, Memorial Day, a true American icon took the stage; Mr. T! Yes THE Mr. T who played Clubber Lang in the Rocky movies and was a part of the A Team Check out the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqXEIwR9tx0

Cleveland

The Sports Illustrated cover jinx is in full swing right now as the Cleveland Cavaliers have lost 2 games to the Orlando Magic, the first 2 games they have lost this post season. In this weeks Sports Illustrated there is a great story by Joe Posnanski about the city of Cleveland and their sports stories. As a die hard Cleveland sports fan myself it is hard for me to believe the SI cover jinx right now because they are just being a Cleveland sports team.

There is a couple that is going through a divorce in the city of Cleveland and the only thing that they are arguing about is who gets the legal right to their son. The judge asks the boy "Do you want to live with your mom?" The son says "No, she beats me to much." The judge then asks "Do you want to live with your dad?" The son states "No, he beats me too." The judge then says "Well who do you want to live with?" The boy states "The Cleveland Browns because they don't beat anyone."

That is just one of the many Cleveland jokes that you can hear around the state of Ohio along with many others, but it is true. The Cavs right now are bringing Cleveland fans back to their roots of getting their hopes built up and then crushing all their dreams. It has been 45 years of frustration since any Cleveland championship. Why has it been so damn difficult for this city to win a championship, well lets take a look at the top 5 heart stopping moments in Cleveland sports history:

5. 1986 AFC Championship Game: "The Drive"- I was 4 years old but still remember this game and just thought to myself what happened.

4. 1987 AFC Championship Game: "The Fumble"- I was 5 years old but remember that Earnest Byner was and is still one of the most loved Browns player ever.

3. 1989 NBA Eastern Conference First Round Game 5: "The Shot"- This was the dagger in all of Cleveland sports fans, especially since Michael Jordan was the one that hit it.

2. 1997 World Series Game 7: The Cleveland Indians were one of the best teams of the mid 90's and they were playing the very young Florida Marlins. Edgar Renteria got a base hit off of Charles Nagy and made it 50 years, now 60 years since a World Series Championship.

1. 2007 ALCS: The Indians were a surprise team that year and had a 3-1 advantage over the Red Sox, at least we had a 3-1 lead instead of 3-0 like the year before.

It is tough being a Cleveland sports fan, but you get used to it, as Leon Bibb said the night of LeBron's shot; "There is always next year."

Strong Man With A Strong Heart

Ever watch The World's Strongest Man competition on ESPN or ESPN2 where they are throwing kegs or pulling buses? You must wonder how they train for these things, I mean who has a keg laying around their house other than college frat guys. I know I have always wondered this but have also wondered if they woke up one day and said "I am going to be the World's Strongest Man."

I was at a conference today for work, an annual conference where we always have interesting speakers. Today was no different, I had the pleasure of listening to Bill Kazmaier speak to a bunch of professionals who try to make a difference in people's lives daily. Oh, who is Bill Kazmaier, well he is a 3 time World's Strongest Man winner and has records in power lifting that may never be matched.

Bill did not talk much about these things, maybe just at the beginning during his introduction which were video clips from years past. Bill discussed with us the message of being positive and how things will get done if you are. He sends this message to kids on a daily basis on top of keeping yourself healthy. You see Bill was always told that he would not mount to more than a hill of beans (exact quote from Bill) and said that he was going to prove those people wrong. He started thinking positive and praying, sure enough he is what he is today. Such a towering figure who you would never think could have such a powerful message could have kept everyone's attention for more than just the 45 minutes that he had.

FORE!

So I played in a golf tournament today and this was the first time I golfed since this tournament last year. I was extremely worried about who I would be playing with since I was paying today, turns out I was partnered with our CEO and two other gentlemen in a best ball tournament. I knew right away that this would be a fun day when one of the other guys said to me "This is only my 2nd time golfing in my life and the first time was 2 weeks ago." The day was fantastic, we finished 5 over par, but had a great time.

Sports, especially golf, is all about relaxing but why is it that golf stresses so many people out. We had a fantastic time talking with each other, teaching each other and making fun of each other. We hit the ball, we missed the ball and I hit a house. We saw the entire course and tore a lot of the course up. We drank a beer, ate some food, drank some water and ate more food. If I could have kept the ball in the fairway I would have won the longest drive contest and then had to putt in a putt off for my CEO in the putting contest. On the 18th hole, which was really the 14th hole we putted 4 times each so that is 16 times total but ended up with a par on the hole.

A day like this really puts into perspective what you should stress over and what you should not stress over. Make time in your life to have fun and not worry so much, stress is meant for those really tough times in life, don't worry how far right you keep hitting the golf ball. If it keeps going right, adjust and make it go straight.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Did you know that the song "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" was written on a subway train in 1908 by Jack Norworth?

Did you know the song was inspired by a sign he saw that read "Baseball Today- Polo Grounds?"

Did you know that his wife Nora Bayes was the first to sing the song and made it popular during vaudeville acts?

Did you know that the gentlemen who set the song to music did not witness their first baseball game 20 years and 32 years later?

Now I am sure you all know that this famous 101 year old song is sung at every Major League Baseball game during the 7th inning stretch, one of the most famous traditions in all sport. I get to sing it this weekend at the Baltimore Orioles vs Washington Nationals game. I know it is not the most glamorous game to attend, but I am excited. There is something about sitting in the stands waiting for that foul ball or home run ball being hit directly to you or waiting to get an autograph from your favorite player or the guy that nobody has ever heard of yet. Eating a hot dog, getting some popcorn knowing that it is summer.

Baseball reminds me of my youth, of the days that I played baseball. I always wonder what it would have been like if I still played, baseball was the one sport that was always fun. 162 games a year just is not enough for me, I need it year round. Baseball is truly the American game, the game that we can all relate to at some point in your life. It is the blue collar worker's game, the sport that is well worth listening on the radio.

Sitting in the stands, watching it on TV or listening to the game on the radio being called by the play by play announcers the same way they did 30 years ago. Baseball, nothing more needs to be said.

The Big Winner and The Biggest Loser

We can all agree that the New York Jets were then winners of Day 1 of the NFL Draft with their trade made with the Cleveland Browns and they selected Quaterback Mark Sanchez with the #5 pick.

I really liked what the Philadelphia Eagles did with their draft on the first day selecting two offensive needs in Jeremy Maclin at wide receiver and LeSean McCoy at running back. These two players will make an instant impact on that team and could add 1-2 more wins this season propelling the Eagles right into the playoffs.

The team that needs to get ready for the #1 pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, the Cleveland Browns. Making the first trade is very understandable, but then making two more trades in the first round was just silly. The Browns were in desperate need of a running back and a wide receiver. Instead they took Alex Mack, center from California. The 2nd round was a little better with Brian Robiskie and Mohamed Massaquoi, both wide receivers. However the running back issue was never addressed, passing on Chris "Beanie" Wells, Donald Brown, and LeSean McCoy. Day 2 should be interesting, watch out for the trade of Braylon Edwards, in return the Browns will get a goat and a shotgun. The Cleveland Browns are now on the clock for 2010.

The Draft

When did the NFL Draft become such a huge party? I always remember watching it just to see who my team picked, then it went to who did my teams opponents pick, and then it was where did my college teams players go? I just saw a shot of the Radio City Music Hall crowd, I'm thinking the economy is just fine. There had to be at least 5,000 people there just to watch the commissioner call out player's names. I like my seat that I have, sitting on the couch watching it on the television. Let the party begin, the next draft party will be when the fantasy draft begins, enjoy!

GOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL!

I scored two goals tonight in my first every soccer game and it was indoor soccer at that. I scored two goals and had four assists between two games tonight at the YMCA. People were joking all day that I wouldn't know what to do or anything like that, I kept telling them that I would be fine because I am a pretty athletic person. I proved them all wrong and scoff at everyone of them! Besides that I had fun, soccer can be a pretty fun sport, I compare it to basketball with your feet. I was also joking with people that I have never played before because I am from Ohio and we play football, not soccer. I understand that soccer is not a very marketable sport in the United States, but I think if people realized how much fun and physical the game really is then it could be a very popular sport. So the next nice day you have go to the park and kick the soccer ball around.

Put Your Dukes Up Against the Little League

I don't know if you heard about this story but it happened a few days ago. Elijah Dukes, oufielder for the Washington Nationals, was benched because he was 5 minutes late to the ballpark. I can understand reprimanding someone for being late for work but make sure that you check the reason why they were late. Elijah Dukes was not only benched, but he was also fined $500 because he was in attendance at a Little League festival where he watched the parade of 54 teams and then made some remarks to all the kids, this according to Yahoo Sports. The Little League raised $501 via an e-mail campaign to pay the fine and then an extra $1 for administrative costs. Elijah Dukes was only doing what he felt was right and was punished for it, so what is next, we're going to start allowing prisoners back in the NFL- oh wait that is happening.