Today is Memorial day but it is also Men's College Lacrosse Championship game in Baltimore, MD. #4 Syracuse vs #2 Maryland. Those who know me pretty well, know I lived in Syracuse for 2 years so would presumably think I will root for Syracuse and also my penchant for rooting for the underdog. But, I'm rooting for Navy to win. Why? Well, for one they haven't won a NCAA championship in about a gadzillion years and Syracuse has won a few titles in the last 10 years. Secondly, even though it isn't explicity stated in the rules, Navy is in the Patriot League (same league as Bucknell) so I will root for any Patriot League team when they play Syracuse of any DC/MD team. Make sense? I hope so. More guidelines for choosing what team to root for below.

Go Navy!

The Guide for Choosing "Your" Team (for any sport)

1.      Always pick the team from your home town, e.g., if you grew up in Colorado your team would be the Broncos and you would support any local college teams.
a.       Suppose there is more than one team near you, as in New York, you   should choose the team closest to where you reside but if you will get beat up for choosing the most proximal team, choose the team that will keep you intact.
b.      You do not have to choose your father's favorite team, although beware  of dangerous side-effects that may occur.

2.      If you go to college or university, you must root for your school unless they are playing your hometown team in which case you must root for your home team; they had your allegiance before your school did.
a.       Suppose you go to more than one school.  Your first school was Bucknell and your second was Lehigh.  They are both in the same league and definitely will compete against the same teams.  If this is the case and you are at Lehigh right now, root for Lehigh but when they play   Bucknell, you must root for Bucknell.  If someone says you are a traitor, patiently explain that your allegiance for Bucknell came before Lehigh.
b.      If you happen to not like your school for some unfortunate reason, I would not attend any sporting events at the school.  If you have no school spirit, stay at home!  If you do transfer from the hated school to a school you like, you may root against the hated school even though you once attended it.

3.      If you graduated from school or moved to a new location that is neither where you grew up or your school town, who do you root for?  You must pick team of the state in which you are residing.  For example, if you live in Maryland, for football you should choose to root for the Baltimore Ravens, for baseball choose the Orioles.
a.       If you moved to your home team rivals town you are not expected to root for the new town team.  Say, you are a Pittsburgh Steelers fan and you move to Cleveland, there is no way in hell you can root for the Browns.  It’s similar to sacrificing your soul.  You obviously must know the history of your home town team to know their rivals.
b.      Choosing a college to root for is tricky.  I suggest choosing a school that is in a different league than any prior schools you rooted for. Another factor is how close they are to where you reside in order to see the team play.
c.       If you happen to move again, say to Pennsylvania, you are allowed to  switch teams but just remember the priority of allegiances.  If the Ravens play the Eagles, you must root for the Ravens.  But when the Eagles play anyone else, you are allowed to root for the Eagles.

4.      If your team decides to skip town, you are allowed to despise that team b/c they left you
a.       You then could wait till a new team arrives
b.      You can also pick a team that you respect.

5.      If a team that you do not root for is playing your arch rival you are allowed to root for the team to beat up your arch rival.  For example, if any team is playing against the hated New Jersey Devils, will the opposition to beat the Devil.

6.      Pick the underdog when there is absolutely no loyalty to any of the two teams.

7.      It would also be in your best interest to choose the team that your significant other roots for, if you intend to get some sex.

8.      Remember to pay homage to teams that have faded away to glory.  With out these teams, the leagues that we know would not exist.  Even the XFL gave us something good... HE HATE ME! 

This weekend was spent entirely without a single thought of sports. Ok, whoever believes that obviously does not know me. I did manage to only look at espn.com twice this weekend so it was sort of a weekend without sports.

What did I do, you ask? Well, saturday was spent out in lovely Virginia. The plan was to go to Wegman's (yes, the supermarket) for lunch and then go to Leesburg Outlets. Unfortunately we got lost, not really we just missed the turn for Wegmans so we just headed onto the outlets. At the outlets we ate at TGIF, which was all right. Then went on and shopped, got the much needed clothes from Banana Republic. The prices are sooo much better at the outlets. Once shopping was completed, we looked at the map and found where the Wegmans is located. Fortunatly this time, we found it after only two U-Turns. The place is amazing, there was a sushi bar, pizza bar, salad bar, olives bar, a sub place and more. Obviously not your typical grocery store, although you can go there just for groceries. I got myself a sub, something I've been missing since I moved from Syracuse to Maryland. Wegman's was one bright spot in Syracuse. I know, you all must think I'm becoming the biggest dork in the world to talk this much about a grocery store!

Sunday, we headed down to Georgetown in the afternoon. Walked along M St & Wisconsin where all the shops are. Had some Ben & Jerry's, love their ice cream. Right before dinner we walked into a bar called Rhino Bar & Pumphouse to cool down with a nice beer. Little did we know that it was voted in Stuff Magazine as one of the Top 20 Dive Bars! We watched the last quarter of the Syracuse/Georgetown Lacrosse game which was very exciting. Syracuse scored the last goal in the last 6 seconds! Afterwards we ate dinner at an Indian restuarant called Aditi. Pretty good, definetely a good option for all the students at Georgetown University.

WNBA news:
Liberty are 1-1 - lost to Indiana in a good game but had won their home opener against Houston (hated rivals)
Mystics are 1-1 - lost to Charlotte at home but beat Indiana at Indiana by one point. Rookie Alana Beard looked like she had a good game by looking at the box score.

One of my bigger pet peeves in life is how much cable tv costs. Along with that, all the freaking channels I get that I don't even watch. I won't list the channels I don't watch because we would be here forever. Finally someone out in the world listened to my idea, pay for the channels I want. Here's the article. Hopefully the FCC will rule that it is actually cheaper for cable subscribers and that the low budget cable channels will survive. And maybe some of those low-budget channels shouldn't be around anyway. I think it's a complete farce by the major cable companies (Time Warner & Comcast) that they believe it would be more expensive for the subscribers. I personally have been a subscriber for each of these companies and their bills are not cheap by any means.

I wish I could say, I don't really need TV, but that will never happen. There is always something on that I will want to watch. Subsequently, I will always be at the mercy of the cable company. {groan}

The next thing television people should tackle is viewers being able to decide what football games they want to watch instead of this regional crap...that's a tirade in itself. I will probably talk endlessly about it when the NFL season starts.

Hope everyone liked ma.com thoughts and his prognosticating abilities. Obviously there are a few disagreements between av.com and ma.com, but only time will tell who is correct! Keep watching for more musings from ma.com.

Anyway, The Sports Guy, Bill Simmons made my day today. He wrote in his mailbag column that he is returning to ESPN.com to write his columns and work on something secret. Not only was I happy to see that one of my favorite columnists will be writing more, he actually made me really happy when he replied to my e-mail. Yes, Yes, I actually received an e-mail from the Sports Guy! I know, you all probably think I'm lame for being so excited that I received an e-mail. All I have to say is, You wish you were me! The Sports guy has one big flaw, he is a graduate of Holy Cross...the hated rival of Bucknell University.

Well, I wish I heard about this contest a little earlier...good luck to all those who entered. I'm rooting for Jeanette Cleland to win it all.

Anyway, big news going on in the NCAA world. They are tackling the graduation rates issue once again. Here is a decent article written in the Boston Globe about the issues surrounding the new rules. One thing that kind of pisses me off is that as a whole the news pays more attention to the bad than the good. We all know that graduation rates for atheletes suck, this isn't a new phenomenon. What the world doesn't know because they don't hear about it often is which schools consistently have graduation rates in the 90 percent range or even a 100%. Can it be a school actually graduates all their atheletes? No way! It's got to be a myth. Well, contrary to belief there are universities who participate in Division 1 Athletics and graduate all it's athletes or at least 90% of its atheletes. Check out this linkto see the universities that are graduating there student-atheletes. In the end, we can debate all we want about how the NCAA is going about this problem the wrong way. But, I think we should also congratulate those who do actually graduate.

Greetings av.com readers!!

First time, long time reader ma.com here. I must say, usually I agree with most everything that your human hands type onto av.com, but concerning your One Tree Hill predictions I find myself in a bit of disagreeance. I feel that many of the predictions you have made indeed look like the logical order of things. But as we all know and what I quickly learned after 2 episodes, OTH is anything but logical. At some point in its life, the show abandoned the normal Teen-Dramatic-Series playbook (Author: Dawson’s Creek) and has gone ahead blazing new trails at ever opportunity. Need a new story line?? Intro a new character. Finale seem a bit weak for 56 minutes?? Drop a dozen bombshell in the last 10 minutes.

Because of this, the forecasting staff at ma.com has put together what we think is in store for the characters of the great great OTH:

Lucas Scizzott: So he’s leaving eh?? Well that doesn’t make sense since the show is ABOUT him…..or does it? I agree he’s going to come back eventually, but I see him staying in Charlotte for at least 5 episodes. And what a great way to intro new character and new story lines and new hot sloots, but by having him start attending another school. So instead of killing the series, the writers have geniusly given themselves a way to take the show into a new direction, and make the tangled web of dudes and hot sloots even more interesting...gay?

Dan Scizzott: Dan, dan ,dan….I can’t help but root for the guy. Ya that’s right I root for him. Ya he’s a douche bag and mean, but I’m a big fan of dynasties in sports, and he is most def. a dynasty. Putting baby up in 2 hike school sloots. Owning a beach house. Getting his coaching on. Whatever he wants he gets and that makes him a dynasty. And there in lies the reason why everyone hates him. He gets whatever he wants and doesn’t care who he goes through in the process. And he knows that, what’s more. And several times you can see the good side of him trying to poke its head, but he keeps going back to the dark side. So that’s why I’m thinking this heart attack will be good for
him. He’s going to become a gentler Dan Scott. A nicer Dan Scott. And by the end of the next season, he’ll be all better and he’ll turn into a nice dude and he’ll give Keith back his auto shop, enter back again Keith Scott and Luuuuucas to Tree Hill...gay?

Brooke indeed finds a new love, and it happens to be Peyton!!! Didn’t you see them wake up in the same bed last episode all tired and whatnot. I mean you have to have a gay dude or dudette in there somewhere.

Haley and Nathan: Dang man, what a twisted and confused relationship they are in. Sounds like they got married just to shag, which blows. But I would think that this is something Nathan would do just to manipulate, but I reckon that Haley wanted to do it too. So that’s weird. And it sure looks like he’s following in his Dad’s footsteps something fierce. Expect baby to be in her by episode 4 of next year.

Jake and Jenny get into a tragic boating accident and Jake has to wear an eye patch.
Nikki makes a guest appearance on Frasier, and then sleeps with Martin Crane.

Whitey buys a rug.

One Tree Hill Update

(spoilers below, if you haven't seen the episode you may want to skip this post)

Last night was the season finale, started out pretty uneventful. But, the end was definetely shocking. One buddys away message, "they got married??!!! he had a heart attack??!! he's leaving Tree Hill!!! wow what a great cliff hanger ending to the year". Pretty much sums up the ending. The playoff basketball game was exciting. Pretty cheap shot by the opposing team to hit Lucas's shoulder. Not really surprising that they lost the game since we knew it was the season finale. Not sure I liked seeing Keith sleeping with Dan's soon to be ex-wife Deb. As Dan is getting ready to sign the divorce papers he starts to have a heart attack, which I thought he deserved. I know, I'm a mean person. But, he was so awful to Nathan and the rest of the basketball team. Obviously he is still living his dream of playing basketball through Nathan. We also learned that while Dan was in college, after his first year before he found out Deb was pregnant with Nathan, he was going to return home to Tree Hill to be with the love of his life, Karen and his son, Lucas. Of course that all changed because Deb was pregnant. And of course the biggie, Haley telling Nathan that she's ready to have sex with him. Then we find out that they are married! My jaw literally fell when I saw this.

Predictions for next season:

Lucas stays (duh?) otherwise what would the show revolve around
While Dan is confined to the hospital bed he tells Karen that he still loves her and wants to be in her life
I think the whole Nicki/Jake storyline is done
There will be a new love for Brooke
Peyton will start a relationship with Lucas that will have lots ups & downs
And of course, married life for Haley & Nathan will definetely be a joy ride.

I'm doing a co-worker a favor by putting extra Van Halen tickets on eBay. The tickets are for the September 25, 2004 show in Dallas Texas. Click Here to go to the auction.

Hopefully we will get some bids...

Here are the pictures from the bachelorette party I went to a couple of weekends ago.
Pictures

I found this particular article very enjoying, although I covered my mouth a few times when reading how crazy some stuff was. When I sent this article to a friend, the friend said "you are in fourth grade! possibly third, jury's still out". I still found the article funny.

So, I finished reading Moneyball on the plane back from Indianapolis. I was visiting a friend in Bloomington, Indiana this past weekend. Let me tell you, it seems like college towns across America are the same. I couldn't help but notice how similiar Bloomington, IN was to Lewisburg, PA. Granted it's a small sample but at a casual glance they are very similiar. Not much to do in Bloomington when you aren't a student or somehow connected to the university. But, we did find some great places to eat. The first place is Bloomington Bagel, this is the first place I've been where the bagels taste exactly like how they taste in NY! Really good bagels, I had the spinach bagel, I really liked it. Next place is an Indian place, Shanti, that has learned to cater to white people or non-indians. After I placed my order the waiter asked "how spicy", I don't normally get asked that question. Food was delicious, took it all home for leftovers.

Finally, the last place that I was impressed by was not a restaurant but in fact the local library. I don't remember my town library being as large as this one and having just a great collection of everything from books (obviously) to audio books to dvd's and even a lot of computers connected to the internet. I could even bring my laptop in and get connected wireless! I know, you all are probably thinking I'm the biggest dork in the world because I think a library is cool.

Anyway, Moneyball an interesting read. I loved the contrast the author makes between the old baseball way and what the Oakland A's are doing. It showed how other MLB teams chose it's players and the obvious inefficiencies the teams have. An obvious case against the A's way is that they haven't won a World Series. My answer is just wait and see, I think Billy Beane has stumbled onto something great. Towards the end of the book I got frustrated about the detail the author went into with some of the players, all I was interested in was why were the A's interested, how did the A's find the guy and did the guy make a difference? Definetely recommend this book even though it's on the New York Times Bestseller List. I try to avoid reading stuff on the list, I've never really like most of what they put on.

WNBA season is about to start. I will be following the Washington Mystics and the New York Liberty this year. Definetely interested to see if Alana Beard can help the Mystics reach the playoffs and possibly make a run in the playoffs. This year will be interesting season for the WNBA because the Olympics are right in the middle of the season. Many of the WNBA players will be representing their respective teams in the Olympics, so the WNBA season will be halted for the Olympics. The Liberty will even play a few games in Radio City Music Hall...interesting. Also, this year was the first year with free agency, many players have switched teams so last years favorites may not be this year favorites. I really hope that more people get interested in the WNBA, it's a hell of a lot better than the NBA where the players are just there to make money. WNBA players show their passion for basketball almost in the same nature as college players. Go to a game!

My roomate, Monica is dating Scott, who is a voracious reader. Right now, we are both currently reading sport books. He started with Moneyball written by Michael Lewis and I started with A Season on the Brink by John Feinstein. Scott couldn't stop raving about Moneyball and told me I should read it. At first I was a little skeptical because the very first book he recommend I read was "LT: Over the Edge", written by Lawrence Taylor. I started to read that book, but couldn't finish it, I thought it wasn't written very well. Anyway, I had just finished Beer & Circus, so I was looking for something new to read. Moneyball was on the coffee table so I picked it up and looked at it and thought to myself, is this book worth my time? At that same I could've been watching The Simpsons! Well, I started reading it last night and I'm currently on chapter four and the book is exceptional! The insight that is has been providing in baseball is very intriguing. I must say, I'm no baseball expert, I've barely just figured out the rules. This book chronicles the Oakland A's and how they have conisistenly been competitive while having an extremely low-budget for baseball standards. Once I've finished the book, I'll provide a more insightful review.

Beer & Circus wasn't particularly eye-opening, partly because I graduated from college a few years ago and still remember what goes on in college. What I did enjoy about the book is hearing from a Professor's Point of View about college athletics. Also, how they feel it is ruining undergraduate education. This book basically used Big-Time Universities as it's example for proving that universities are providing sub-standard education to it's undergraduates. The universities don't care how much money it puts into athletics as long as the team wins championships...even though many schools lose money even if they win the national championships. Another major part of the book is how the undergraduate parties, on campus, off campus, around the sport teams, etc. He pointed out how much of an undergraduate schedule is based around the universities football or basketball team and less around their education. Obviously, a section was devoted to binge drinking and it's harmful effects. The first few chapters were probably the most interesting about how universities are putting in large amounts of money into the graduate programs and research professors when money is sorely needed for undergraduate teaching. Also, how professors have an incredible disdain to teach to undergraduates was really upsetting. Overall, I would say the first few chapters are probably the most insightful whereas the last part of book that talked about the way undergraduate's "partying" habits were just plain boring. The book seemed to drone on towards the end.

Beer & Circus did a lot comparison between Big-Time Universities and Div. III schools. Basically the difference in emphasis of athletics. What it did fail to cover was the numerous quality small private schools that do compete in Div. I athletics that do have a great emphasis on undergraduate education. The author thought Rice University was a perfect model for undergraduate education, but I would argue that Rice isn't the only who has found the perfect model. Sure, Bucknell University doesn't have the repuation as Rice but there is definetely the feel that undergraduates are important and that the Professors want to teach to them.

Why do weekends end?

I actually did a bunch of stuff this past weekend. Friday started out with me going to work as usual, nothing exciting there. Supposedly I am now going to St. Louis from May 13-27th. This trip has gotten pushed back so many times, I'm having doubts that I will actually go. Went home, watched some PTI, ate dinner and then started getting ready for the evening. Normally, I don't really care what I wear but Friday night was a different story. Should I wear jeans, black pants or cords? What shirt to wear, polo, button down or long sleeve? Major dilemma's I know. Eventually I decided on the cords and a long sleeve shirt. Next time I'm going to wear a short sleeve shirt because I sweated my ass off Friday night. What did I do that I got so sweaty? I went to the Black Cat in DC to dance to an Indian DJ. The DJ was DJ Rekha who according to my dad I've met a few times while I lived on Long Island, who knew? Check out this article in Times Magazine, DJ Rekha is mentioned in it. She did a good job and I definetely enjoyed dancing during the night. I went with E.B. and her boyfriend Paul and bunch of their friend's. Paul had his first Yuengling and enjoyed it...another person converted to great PA brew! We got back to E.B.'s place around 1:30am and I crashed there for the evening.

I woke up at 7am to catch the Chinatown bus to NYC. I rode on the Dragon Coach Bus which wasn't too bad. The trip was about 4.5-5 hours and I slept most of the way, best part was that there weren't too many people so I had two seats to myself. It was pretty hard to wake up really early to catch a bus, but it was definitely worth it. I went to NYC for a friend's (Shirali) bachelorette party. The night started at a friend's apartment to surprise Shirali and give her various gifts, you know what type of gifts! We then went off to dinner at Petrosino's, a very good Italian restaurant. The only thing that was a little annoying was the waitress, somehow she managed to put white wine in someone's red wine, don't ask me how she misjudged. But, she did make it up by bringing Shirali and wonderful plate of dessert. After dinner we went to the Ritz Carlton to go their bar, The Rise. The place was really really awesome, had a very fabolous view of NYC. But, don't go hanging out there if you inted to pick people up, unless you are into 60 year olds. Drinks were great there too, had a cosmopolitan, felt it was appropriate drink being in NYC. After having a drink at Rise we went to Eugene's to dance the night away. Eugene's is also a very cool place, great place to dance or hang out. Overall, the night was awesome and the bachelorette definetely got very drunk.

Sunday, back to DC on the Dragon Coach bus. Pretty uneventful, slept again. Did manage to finish the book I was reading, Beer & Circus. I'll talk about it a little later. Since I've been away all weekend, I have no idea what is going on in the sporting world or the real world. Hence why I wrote about my weekend.