blog diarrhea

Pleasant thought, I know. But due to my not like ever posting I have a lot of random stuff to discuss.

First, my boy Carlos Bocanegra got a job. Woop woop! Unfortunately, it's in France. I don't know anything about the French league and pretty much any bit of the French language that I know is summed up in this song:



But from the little bit of info I did get I heard that Rennes is a decent team and I can find a jersey somewhere. Since I don't know anything about this team, that's pretty much all I have to say about that. Unless anyone knows of any French league blogs that are in English. That would be amazing.

Next, apparently the breaking news is that Aston Villa are ready to sign Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Paul Robinson. This is notable because last night they were all about signing Robert Green from West Ham. Still don't see the importance? Well, sounds like I'll be seeing Brad Guzan at the Superclasico later this summer as he is apparently no longer in Martin O'Neill's thoughts. Brad hasn't really had a stellar season so I was always going to be surprised if Villa actually picked him up. He is a great keeper and I think he's definitely the keeper of the future for the National team, but he hasn't been bringing it every week for Chivas. Maybe once he doesn't get picked up he'll get all that other crap off his mind and play like everyone knows he can. The January transfer window isn't too far away.

Next topic: Chad Barrett still sucks! Watching that game against San Jose Saturday was only amusing because I don't live and die for the Fire anymore and it cracked me up to see how horrible Chad Barrett really is. Bonus was he did start his ass on the bench in favor of Andy Herron. ha ha. Unfortunately, Herron was injured early and on came Chad to everyone's dismay, I'm sure.

On a positive Fire note, though, I'm pretty sure if I watch another one of these "My Wish" segments I'm going to cry. Last night it was a kid from Vegas who has cancer whose little league team was named the Indians so he became a huge Indians fan. He got to ride a limo to the game and was greeted by the mascot, whose name the kid knew so considering he had never been to a game the kid really was a big fan. He also got his own locker, got a personalized jersey, took batting practice, threw out the first pitch and got to take the lineup cards to the umpires. The Indians went ahead and thanked him for all he did by breaking their 7 game losing streak that day. I want to cry just writing this all out. But a kid who wanted to meet Blanco is on tonight. It will be cool to see how this kid and his parents react to Blanco, because I don't think Americans could ever understand how big Blanco is, and just to see them make some kid's day.



In a completely unrelated note, remember Arrested Development the band? Well, their head guy, Speech, is from Milwaukee. Here's a pretty cool article about how he comes back to Milwaukee every summer for Summerfest to run his father's corn stand. It talks about how last year he literally went from performing on one of the stages to running to check on the stand. Way to remember where you come from and what's important. I still haven't been to Summerfest yet and I don't miss it, although now I kind of want to go to see if Speech is at the corn stand. I think I might wind up there Saturday to see Cheap Trick with The Boyfriend and his friend. The Roots are there Friday night but I don't have anyone to go with me as The Boyfriend and aforementioned friend are going to see Stone Temple Pilots. But I digress...

The NBA Draft has come and gone this year and the entertainment value certainly didn't disappoint. Although, I was pretty upset that Stephen A. Smith's role was relegated to interviewing the guys after they got drafted. I don't think he screamed once during the Draft. It's not really the draft until Stephen A is screaming about something. Also, Spike Lee wasn't there. What on earth could he possibly have been doing that was more important the going to the Draft? This has to be the first draft in a long time that he hasn't been there for. Despite all of that, the draft was still top rate! The Bucks tried as they could to trade away both Mo Williams AND Michael Redd to Miami for their pick so they could grab OJ Mayo but it didn't happen. We did end up making a trade to get rid of Bobby Simmons' contract and Yi Jianlian for Richard Jefferson. Yi hadn't really proved himself last year so I'm not too sad to see him go. The Bucks wound up draft Joe Alexander from West Virginia University. The story behind this kid is that he grew up in China and didn't start playing organized basketball until his Junior year of high school. With that said, considering he came out of college early, I don't see much wrong with the pick. He'll back up Richard Jefferson for a while and when Jefferson gets old and more expensive than he already is, in steps in Joe. It works out for everyone.

I'm counting down the days until July 9th when Andrew Bogut can sign his new contract. The word on the street has always been that he wants to get this done before the Olympics where he'll be representing Australia. Going into the draft everyone always thought Yi and Bogut were untouchable and weren't going to be traded. Obviously, that turned out to not be the case for Yi as he's now vacationing on the Jersey Shore. But I did hear that Bogut's name never came up once as a trade option. That's awesome! He doesn't get the respect he deserves, really. I'm sure his new deal with be pretty respectful, though. While it won't be Deron and Chris Paul money, it should be good.

And finally...this thing is epic...let's all give it up for Cesc Fabregas and Spain for pulling it all off and winning Euro 2008. I don't think I mentioned my allegiance to Spain in this thing but my love for the team was all over the place since the day the tournament started. Hello, Cesc plays for them.







And speaking of pulling it all off, I believe the best part of the tournament was the celebration...



Based on celebration alone, the best team won!!! Holy moses! Even with all the nakedness in the video, my favorite was the fully dressed David Villa. What a stud! Oh, Euro 2008....I'll miss you.

how quickly things change

Who would have thought that by the end of this week I would be talking about not being a Bucks fan anymore? I was all encouraged, excited and hopeful on what the angry little bald guy would bring to the table. I said only one thing could make me turn on the Bucks in an instant. I should have said one and a half things...

Kelvin Sampson is likely to be signed as an assistant coach

I'm going to give as basic as a background story on this as possibly. Mainly because I don't feel like digging up an thesaurus to find out a different way to say I hate this piece of crap.

1.Kelvin Sampson most recently was the coach at the University of Indiana.
2.Kelvin Sampson had recruited Eric Gordon AFTER GORDON HAD VERBALLY COMMITTED TO MY BELOVED ILLINOIS by sneaky, voyeuristic, illegal tactics most of which included a cell phone.
3.The NCAA finally had enough dirt to address Sampson at which point Indiana decided to show him the door right before the tournament.
4.With all this drama, Indiana is likely to lose scholarships and possibly post season tournament time, Gordon has decided to declare for the draft.
5.It's been projected that the Bucks would take Gordon with their top ten draft pick.
6.Sampson's hiring probably will make that even more of a possibility.

I can't say enough how much I hate these two. I spent an entire evening in Champaign, IL screaming my lungs out and booing every time Gordon got the ball. The thing is, all the boos and all the hate effected him, a bit. Even if I thought Gordon was ready for the NBA and didn't hate him, I don't think he's a good fit on the Bucks. Granted, I wasn't happy when they drafted Yi last year, but it hasn't been 100% proven as a good pick yet.

The boyfriend has already contacted his season ticket rep and told him the second Eric Gordon is drafted by the Bucks we're canceling our season tickets and disputing any charges the Bucks have already posted to The Boyfriend's credit card. Our ticket rep's response? He's from Rockford, IL and knows exactly how we feel so he can't blame us if that happens.

I shouldn't be getting upset before any of this happens. I don't agree with Sampson's hiring but I'm more forgiving of that, I guess, than I would be if they draft Gordon. It's not like Sampson is in charge. And it's not illegal to call players anymore, but I still just don't like the guy. Let's just say, come draft day, there's a point guard in Utah whose team I would be happy to root for all season long, more than I already do.

welcome to Milwaukee!

Oh thank you Jesus! I don't need to know anything else about this man except that he puts idiots in their place. We have plenty of idiots who need to be put in their place...and that place doesn't include Milwaukee. I'm riding high on the Bucks decisions as of late. When Larry Harris was fired in March I didn't really think of it. I wasn't like, "ooh great, now we'll really get someone in here to turn things around." I just thought the Senator would hire some other idiot who would sign a player like Dan Gadzuric to a 6-yr insane amount of money contract.

When he brought John Hammond in from Detroit I was slightly impressed. Herb Kohl said he wasn't going to hire from within and he didn't. Good job. Way to not disappoint. Then Hammond mentioned the coaches that he wanted to bring in and I really got anxious. Most of the names mentioned were no-nonsense, defense minded coaches. Yep, I said it DEFENSE!!! To a Milwaukee fan you may as well be speaking Chinese because we have long forgotten the concept of defense.

Today, Scott Skiles was brought in. A man who doesn't take any crap from anyone. There's a thread on real GM with quotes from all the players who don't like him. Good. This team needs an asshole to lead them. There are very few players I like on the Bucks. Of course Andrew Bogut is one of those guys because he kept the pouting to a minimum this season and really understands the concept of team basketball. Yi, I can't write him off just yet. Ramon Sessions showed well in garbage games at the end of the season. That's about it. The rest of the starters can go jump off a cliff and Scott Skiles will be the one telling them what cliff they can jump off of. I almost want Mo Williams (I hate him the most) to stick around just so I can watch him try to battle with Skiles all season. I don't mind if Redd sticks around, but he's going to get an attitude adjustment as well. All these lazy ass, wanna be elite players are going to have to check themselves and it's going to be great. Okay, maybe my head is a little large with ideas and hope, but it's definitely not going to be business as usual.

I understand he may not be the long term answer given his track record with teams and that he may not lead us to the promise land (second round of the playoffs??) but he's a large step in the right direction of changing the attitude of this team. They need to start playing like they belong in the NBA.

A personal benefit to this hire, I don't see Skiles drafting Eric Gordon. As an Illini fan (another losing team), drafting Eric Gordon would be like closing all the Qdoba's down. You better be ready for some hell to pay. But yeah, I don't see Skiles drafting some small, mentally weak 12 yr old. I hate that kid and I'm glad he's not coming here! Phew!

What a wonderful day today. The sun was shining. I hit golf balls for the first time this season. I won tickets to sit 4 rows behind the plate of the STL/MKE game tomorrow. More importantly that game is a day game so I get to partake in one of my favorite past times, drinking during the day. And hope was born in the form a bald headed angry white man.

god bless mother nature, she's a single woman too!

Originally I had wanted this blog to kind of be my journey into the EPL world. I didn't lose interest in the EPL world, but I started a job where I worked Saturday morning and therefore couldn't sit at the bar all morning watching EPL games. Kind of took all the fun away from it. Besides, now following the EPL isn't really fun, it's depressing. Relegation is fun when you know you can get yourself out of the bottom three. Fulham has officially been lumped with Derby as the sure bids for relegation and it's just not something I can think about without getting all verklempt.

David James doesn't really put perspective on the whole relegation thing, he just reminds us how sucky it is. Thanks, that's what the boys need to read Monday morning as reality is setting in.

Anyways, I'm going to use this blog more as a venting spot for all my sports thoughts. There are a lot of them, believe it or not. I've been using my personal journal for that but I figure they deserve a better subject to read about: me. So Let me give you a heads up on what I'll be going off about in the coming weeks(I'm trying to keep my goals low and hope I can keep this going for at least a couple weeks): The Bucks rebuilding, the lack of Chicago Fire offense and Carlos Bocanegra sightings(just not when he gets in a game for once, just all sightings...I'm a bit of a fan.)

I think there is only one thing that can really give you a great idea of the direction this blog is headed and it's this video:



I remember Boxing Day of this year, listening to Jesse Marsch make fun of Ante Razov's "Extra" TV spot where he was looking for a wife. I'm glad this came out now instead of before that conversation because it could have turned ugly. heh.

My ringtone this week has been "It's Raining Men". I can't think of anymore appropriate of a song.

I'll be back with more later, hopefully.