It just got a lot harder to be a Cowboys fan.  First Sanders and now Owens.  They could cut him after one year, and it’s not as if the Cowboys stand a chance at winning the Super Bowl this year with Drew Bledsoe at QB, so it might turn out to be a wash.

It is a sad day in the life of Chad Evans when he can declare baseball is all but dead to him, but at this point it is true. The World Baseball Championship was billed as being something so great, so exciting and so important that the stars of our favorite teams would want to miss Spring Training and play for their nation. But actually, for a good portion of MLB players, they didn’t play for their nation.

Take the case of David Dellucci. Dellucci was born in Louisiana so if he was to play for a nation in the WBC, he would play for the United States. Actually, no. He wound up playing for Italy. It appears the Ballpark in Arlington Godfather music played when Dellucci comes up to bat has influenced the fine team running the WBC into believing Dellucci is actually from Italy. What about Alex Rodriguez? An American by birth, he could have also played for the Dominican Republic. For a good number of players, the nation they chose to play with is nothing more than a fascade. For that matter, so too is the entire tournament where seemingly more players chose not to play than actually professed a desire to play.

(more…)

The Cox Arena in San Diego, home of one of four NCAA regionals, was evacuated after a bomb sniffing dog found a “hit.” The dog picked up a scent near a hot dog vendor, so let us hope the dog simply was hungry and didn’t find a bomb. The arena has been evacuated for nearly two hours and the first game today is scheduled to start at 11:40 a.m. PST (10 minutes from now).

Just last Friday the FBI issued a terror warning threat citing the NCAA Tournament and all sports stadiums. There likely has been an increase in security at the Tournament venues. I know for a fact American Airlines Center in Dallas has increased security based on the FBI warning, therefore I surmise all arenas have followed suit.

Hat tip to Jeff Quinton.

UPDATE: Cox Arena has reopened and the games have started.  Perhaps the dog was just hungry.

Since I used to work in minor league hockey promotions, I can’t let certain news pass without comment.  The Las Vegas Wranglers of the ECHL are planning a theme night based on Vice President Dick Cheney’s hunting accident.  The team will distribute orange hunting vests with the words “Don’t Shoot, I’m Human” written accross them.

The Las Vegas Wranglers plan to distribute 1,000 vests to fans arriving for Friday’s game as part of a promotion dubbed “Dick Cheney Hunting Vest Night” at the Orleans Arena.

“It was sort of too juicy not to do,” said Billy Johnson, Wranglers president and chief operating officer. “It’s one of those events in pop culture.”

First off, I have always been fascinated how minor league sports teams are always the ones that are innovative and that major league sports teams often follow those innovations, when they work.  Isn’t though this idea a bit old?  Sure, it takes a while to order the vests and get the printing done, but a month has passed since the accident.  The team is also unveiling St. Patrick’s Day jerseys during the same game, a proven way to increase merchandise sales.  Too much on one day in my opinion.
Even so, this is yet another good idea that has come out of minor league sports.  According to ESPN, “Cheney’s office in Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond Monday to requests for comment.”  No word yet if David Gregory plans on grilling Scott McClellan on what Cheney is trying to hide by evading the press on this minor league promotion.

I might compile more coherrent thoughts of Super Bowl XL and the commercials therein, but I wanted to get a post up regarding my initial thoughts.

If I was a Seahawks fan, I would have been very upset with the way the game was marketed and then run inside the game. One of the cool features ABC did was to have players tell what winning the Super Bowl would mean for them. I loved that feature, but there was only one feature of a Seahawks player out of around six. All others were Steelers.

The calls did not go Seattle’s way either. There were many calls that I don’t know what the refs were thinking. If they were balanced, then no problem, but I don’t think they were.

Yes, I picked Seattle to win and was rooting for them. That said, I am hardly upset with the outcome of the game so the above judgements aren’t taken from someone who was wanting to catch discrepencies in calls or promotions.

The commercials were rather weak this year. Budweiser, as always, had the most unique, humorous and memorable commercials. I like the revolving wall and the young clydesdale pulling the wagon with the help of the other clydesdales from behind. It pushes both the product and stays in tune with their previous campaigns.

Go Daddy tried to build off of last year’s commercials and I thought their commercial this year, which ran twice, wasn’t that impressive. Go Daddy doesn’t have enough of memorable advertising campaign to make second-year commercials, though they tried.

(more…)

As most regular readers of ITB know, I am a huge football fan. Ok, maybe I don’t like football as much as hockey, but I love football. For football fans, the pinnacle of the entire season is tonight in the form of the Super Bowl.

For the fans of 28 teams that did not make it to the Super Bowl, we have to pick and choose our allegiances and that process sometimes is very painful. It’s not always which team you like more, but which team you dislike less. Tonight is not that way for me. I am a fan of neither team nor do I dislike either team. There are players and coaches on both sidelines that I can identify with and cheer for.

Because I am a Dallas Cowboys fan, I have to root for the Seattle Seahawks. After all, it is the same NFC. I like the way both Matt Hasselbeck and Shaun Alexander play and I respect both men as well. Mike Holmgren is a class act, but so too is Bill Cowher. But it’s Pittsburgh and no self-respecting Cowboys fan can root for the Steelers. Mac is a Broncos fan and Debbie is a Titans fan, so I am probably the only person who contributes to this site that will be rooting for the Seahawks tonight.
Tonight though I am looking more forward to the commercials than the game. So too, I imagine, many of you are too. On that note, there are two RSS feeds promising the chance to download the commercials to your IPod or computer.

(more…)

I’m shocked! This was the first game in recent memory that I have actually rooted for UT. It will probably be my last. What a game.

Congrats to UT, and may Vince Young go pro so I don’t have to see him run all over my beloved Red Raiders again.

Yeah, so I’ve been a little late on reporting on the college football pool thing, but I’ve been busy. Anyways, the standings with two games to go are as follows (1 point for each correct pick):

Debbie: 11 pts
Scott: 15 pts
Mike: 12 pts
Mac: 13 pts
Gunner: 12 pts
Jeff: 10 pts
Greg: 11 pts
Chad: 12 pts
AD: 10 pts

Right now Scott has a two point lead over Mac, and they both picked Penn State and USC so mathematically Scott is the victor. Congrats, Scott, and thank you to all who played.

This is your last chance to sign up for the College Bowl contest. It’s free, and should be fun.

All details and bowl matchups, starting tomorrow with the Fort Worth Bowl, can be found here. All you have to do is send me an email with your picks and you’re entered, but those picks have to be in before kickoff tomorrow night.

Through discussions with Mike, Mac and Debbie, we’ve come to the conclusion we want to put together a contest of sorts to for the college bowl season.* We’ve all done college football bowl pools in the past, and this one is no different. The rules are simple, and all bloggers and readers are welcome to play. Best of all, it’s free and the bragging rights gained last a whole year.

Since the first bowl game actually kicked off tonight, we’re going to have to cut a few of the bowls out to get some participants involved. We’re starting on December 23, the Fort Worth Bowl. Get your entries in as soon as possible.

Here’s what you need to do to enter. Send me an email with your picks using the following games.

Fort Worth
Kansas (6-5)
vs. Houston (6-5)

Sheraton Hawaii
Nevada (8-3)
vs. UCF (8-4)

Motor City
Memphis (6-5)
vs. Akron (7-5)

Champs Sports
Clemson (7-4)
vs. Colorado (7-5)

Insight
Arizona State (6-5)
vs. Rutgers (7-4)

MPC Computers
Boise State (9-3)
vs. Boston College (8-3)

MasterCard Alamo
Michigan (7-4)
vs. Nebraska (7-4)

Emerald Bowl
Georgia Tech (7-4)
vs. Utah (6-5)

Pacific Life Holiday
Oregon (10-1)
vs. Oklahoma (7-4)

Gaylord Hotels Music City
Minnesota (7-4)
vs. Virginia (6-5)

Vitalis Sun
Northwestern (7-4)
vs. UCLA (9-2)

Independence
South Carolina (7-4)
vs. Missouri (6-5)

Chick-fil-A Peach
Miami (9-2)
vs. LSU (10-2)

Meineke Car Care
South Florida (6-5)
vs. NC State (6-5)

AutoZone Liberty
Tulsa (8-4)
vs. Fresno State (8-4)

EV1.net Houston
TCU (10-1)
vs. Iowa State (7-4)

AT&T Cotton
Texas Tech (9-2)
vs. Alabama (9-2)

Outback
Iowa (7-4)
vs. Florida (8-3)

Toyota Gator
Louisville (9-2)
vs. Virginia Tech (10-2)

Capital One
Wisconsin (9-3)
vs. Auburn (9-2)

Tostitos Fiesta
Notre Dame (9-2)
vs. Ohio State (9-2)

Nokia Sugar
West Virginia (10-1)
vs. Georgia (10-2)

FedEx Orange
Penn State (10-1)
vs. Florida State (8-4)

The Rose Bowl Game Presented by Citi
USC (12-0)
vs. Texas (12-0)
Final Score: ______

Pick the correct final score, or closest to the final, for the tiebreaker if needed.

All you have to do is write in an email to me who you think will win each game. The entry with the most correct choices wins. So what do you win in a free contest? Bragging rights of course.

So, get your entries into me ASAP. I will not accept any entries after kickoff in the Fort Worth Bowl. Have fun, and remember, anyone who picks against Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl will receive my wrath. You have been warned.

* Name of the contest has yet to be determined. I will be playing and sending my picks ahead of time to Mike, Mac and Debbie to ensure I am not cheating.