Stephen Drew Is A Badass

Now I know what you're thinking, "Stephen Drew is a badass? You mean that pussy J.D.'s little brother? The Jesus nut? The one who looks like he's 12? How the hell is he a badass?!" I don't blame you for calling bullshit, but trust me on this one. In last night's series clinching victory for the Diamondbacks, Drew was batting in the top of the ninth inning when he took Kerry Wood's (he's still around?) pitch right off his back shin. Now instead of milking it and limping around, he just stood there and when nobody said anything he stepped right back into the box. Now I don't know how the umpire missed it, and if the catcher thought they were better off not giving him the base, but Drew drilled the very next pitch over the bleachers in right field and out on to the street. I loved that. Even though it was late in a game and a series that the Diamondbacks had all wrapped up, Drew didn't take the easy way out. He could've just told the ump the ball hit him and ran down to first base. But he wanted to take his hacks and he got his money's worth when he launched the ball a lot further than you'd think a guy his size would be able to at night at Wrigley Field. It was the perfect finishing touch on a thoroughly dominant performance by the Diamondbacks all series long. The blast was his third hit of the night, he added two runs and a stolen base for good measure. Overall in the National League Divisional Series Drew hit .500 with two home runs, a triple, a double, four RBI and four runs scored. Not bad for a 23-year-old semi-rookie making his postseason debut. Drew had an up and down regular season, but displayed impressive poise and managed to stay positive even when he was struggling. He went on a roll to end the year and has carried it right on into the playoffs. And for his NLDS performance, and last night's play in particular, Stephen Drew deserves to be called a badass, even if he doesn't look the part. Maybe his bro should call him for some pointers. Go Diamondbacks!

Baseball in Spanish Really Is Better

I don't know if this is more a testament of how bad network announcers are in the United States, but watching baseball in Spanish is infinitely more enjoyable. While studying abroad in Chile this semester I have had precious few opportunities to watch live broadcasts of American sports, and even less opportunities to watch my favorite teams. So needless to say I was thrilled when I got home from class today and saw a commercial on ESPN for game two of the Diamondbacks-Cubs series later that night.

I was supposed to go out with my fellow gringos but I immediately canceled and prepared myself for a long night of baseball. Because they are on East Coast Time down here the game didn't start until 10:00 p.m. But staying in and staying up is a small sacrifice for the opportunity to watch my D-Backs dismantle the Cubbies.

Why all the pundits have been burying the Diamondbacks and jumping on the Cubs bandwagon I'll never understand. This team is built for the playoffs. Not to mention the seemingly forgotten fact that they had the best record in the National League. Much attention has been paid to the fact that the Diamondbacks have given up more runs than they've scored this season, but fortunately for the D-Backs baseball goes by your win-loss record and not run differential so to me it seems like a relatively unimportant statistic. Sure they get blown out a lot, but they also have the uncanny ability to come through when it matters and win the tight ones, hence the counter-intuitive run differential. Besides, to me the blowouts are a credit to the big picture thinking of manager Bob Melvin, sometimes it can be wise to realize when you're beat and rest your key guys to fight another day. All season long the key guys have been fresh, so even in the dog days of summer this team would fight and scrap to the very end of close games and more often than not they came out on top. That is good managing, keeping everybody ready and able to perform when it matters most.

As for the game tonight, the Cubs struck first with a second inning home run by some dude named Soto, who the Spanish announcing team loved because of his Hispanic last name, but it has been all Diamondbacks since then. In the bottom of the second future superstar, rookie Chris Young, put Arizona ahead 3-2 with a no doubt about it three-run shot. As the lead-off hitter he hasn't had very many opportunities with men on base but he took advantage in a big way tonight. I thought the key to the inning was starting pitcher Doug Davis putting down a beautiful sac bunt with two outs to keep the inning alive and bring up Young. Then Stephen Drew, another rookie, reached when his grounder up the middle was bobbled, although I think he would have reached anyway as he's relatively fleet of foot. Eric Byrnes brought Drew home with a triple off the wall and the Diamondbacks headed into the third with a two-run lead. I showered in the third and when I got out the score was the same so as far as I know nothing of note happened. In the fourth Drew brought plated two with a double down the line, he really started to swing the bat the last month of the regular season and he seems to have carried it over to the postseason. The Diamondbacks tacked on a couple more in the fourth and fifth and the Cubs got a couple late but the outcome was never really in doubt after the second.

That has been the most impressive part of the Diamondbacks' first two playoff games, and their entire season for that matter; the maturity of their kids. Consider that in tonight's game the D-Backs started four rookies, two of which, Mark Reynolds and Justin Upton, were mid-season call-ups that had never even set foot in AAA. And they are all holding their own and then some. In game one Drew and Reynolds both homered, important blasts at that in a 3-1 win. And tonight Young has a big-fly and two runs scored, Drew has driven in a pair and scored a run and Upton has a couple walks and a couple runs scored. Amazing production for guys that are all making their postseason debuts. And it's not like these guys spent a ton of time in the minor leagues either. Young , Drew, and Reynolds are all 24, while Upton just turned 20. I am freaking six months older than Upton and he's starting in right field for the National League's best team!

This team came into the year looking to set a solid foundation for the future, maybe win a few games but most importantly develop the young guys for a postseason run next year or even the year after. But the kids sped up the timetable with their veteran poise and rapid development and now I honestly believe that they could win it all this year. Like I said above, this team is made for the postseason. They have a certified ace in Brandon Webb; I would argue that he has been the best pitcher in baseball the past two years. They have serviceable starters behind him in Doug Davis (who was phenomenal the last two months of the season and again tonight) and Livan Hernandez. They have the best back-end of the bullpen in Juan Cruz, Tony Pena, Tyler Lyon and Jose Valverde. They have speed throughout their line-up and just know how to win close, high-pressure games. The only thing they don't have is that one big bat, although Young is developing into that guy. He had 32 home runs in the regular season despite a terrible start to the year. I don't know if you really want to change what got you here but if I was Bob Melvin I might consider swapping Young and Byrnes in the line-up to get Byrnes' higher on-base percentage and base-stealing ability at the top and Young's power in the three-hole, although I think messing with success would be a risky proposition this late in the year.

Speaking of Melvin, he is undoubtedly the National League's manager of the year this season and with good reason. The way he has juggled this line-up, moving guys around, and even in and out of the line-up altogether has been masterful. He's worked several call-ups into the everyday line-up, dealt with injuries to Orlando Hudson, Chad Tracy and Randy Johnson, and kept everyone fresh and confident. His handling of the Upton situation has been particularly impressive. J-Up had more hype surrounding him than any Diamondbacks player in franchise history. I realize that franchise history is only ten years, but stay with me. The fans and media were absolutely clamoring for him to be brought up from AA. When the time finally came the Diamondbacks were in the middle of a three-way fight for the National League West with Los Angeles and San Diego and his debut came when they were in L.A. to take on the Dodgers in the most important series to that point in the season. Melvin isn't deaf so he had to know how much excitement surrounded Upton's call-up and instead of doing the boring, but safe, move of bringing him off the bench and starting the more experienced Jeff DaVanon he plugged the 19-year-old right into the line-up. It is what the fans wanted, and he opened himself up to a lot of criticism if the kid wasn't ready and got overwhelmed or if the team slipped in the standing while trying to work him in. Fortunately for everybody Upton was extremely poised from the beginning, and even though he made his fair share of rookie mistakes Melvin stuck with him and the team kept winning. Melvin did a great job the rest of the way giving him nights off when he was struggling, moving him around in the batting order to get comfortable, and just all around helping him shed the "savior" label and work his way into the team. It was just a really impressive display of managing a delicate situation.

Who knows how it will work out the rest of the way, but after two games the Diamondbacks are right where they want to be. The playoffs are so wide open this year that I don't think anyone can really be called the favorite, but after two games the D-Backs have made a pretty big statement to the rest of the league that was seemingly ready to write them off as an aberration when these playoffs began. We weren't supposed to be here this year, this was supposed to be part of the rebuilding process, so as far as I'm concerned we're playing with house money at this point. If we fizzle out and our inexperience and lack of pitching depth does us in, fine, we had a great year and we can look forward to next season when all our guys are a year older and wiser. But if this team keeps doing what it has done all year we can easily come out of the National League, and I'd eveb give us a fighter's chance of taking down the AL champion. And if that happens watch out, because this team is just starting to get going, and with these young guys the Diamondbacks will be a force for years to come, an exciting thought because they are a damn good team right now. Off to Chicago!

Long Time Coming

Hello imaginary readers, it has been far too long I know. School has been ripping me a new one for the past couple weeks and now I am in the middle of studying for finals. It has been a hell of a ride. But seeing as how I have been studying off and on for most of the day I have decided to spend my undeserved procrastination time posting on our humble blog. About what? I have no idea, I have been out of the loop for sometime now.

Random thoughts on my teams:


The Buzzsaw(to shamelessly steal from Deadspin)-The Cardinals won! I am a die-hard AZ Cardinals fan believe it or not, and the mighty juggernaut grabbed their third win in four games yesterday. This is how it was envisioned at the beginning of the season, Edge running for 100+ and Boldin, Fitzgerald and Johnson being threats on the outside. On top of that Leinart is playing well and the D is solid and forces an inordinate amount of turnovers. Adrian Wilson is a flat-out beast. Back to back wins over division foes just makes their horrendous start that much more aggravating. If you throw out their fluky losses to the Rams, Chiefs, and Bears this team is 7-6 and right in the playoff hunt. Additionally, if they hadn't blown the Bears game they almost certainly would not have lost to the Raiders the following week, it was the definition of a letdown/hangover game if I have ever seen one. I realize you can cite instances like this about most underachieving teams, but that Bears collapse on Monday Night Football was absolutely a season killer. They seem to be getting over it a little bit but it is far too late. Unfortunately I can already see how the rest of this season and the next are going to play out. They will grab a couple more wins to close out the year and optimism will once again be high the offseason. It will be a repeat of this year; expectations will once again exceed common sense and the team will struggle under the pressure again. Hopefully they can pull it together behind Leinart and MAKE IT TO THE FUCKING PLAYOFFS! Goddamn it, they better draft an offensive lineman in every round of the 2007 draft.



Phoenix Suns-After a slow start the Suns have reeled off 11 in a row with a win over the Magic tonight. Fuck all the people that burned down the bandwagon after a 3-6 start. And for all the Amare doubters, not only has been a double-double machine of late, he absolutely destroyed the man who replaced him as the most popular, explosive, and raw big guy in the NBA, Dwight Howard. Amare had 30 points and eight rebounds (5 offensive) and fouled Howard out of the game in only 19 minutes. Howard had four points, three rebounds, and five turnovers before his early exit. Now don't get me wrong, I like Howard, he is an amazing physical specimen and a relentless rebounder, but he is no Amare Stoudemire. Amare was light years ahead of him offensively at the same age and before missing last year he was the anointed as the future of the NBA according to media folks. But nearly everybody wrote him off as the next Chris Webber after his surgeries and he has responded by coming back surprisingly strong so far this season and is one of the keys to the Suns' run. It has to feel good to have a performance like that against the young buck who replaced him in the average fan's psyche. He is nowhere near 100% and to me that is an exciting thing, he can still get better and will hopefully be back to full-strength by playoff time. In the meantime he does not have to carry the load on a team filled loaded with talent and the Suns can balance the line between getting him back to his 2005 self and winning games. In a perfect world at least.


UA men's basketball-Undefeated since dropping the opener to Virginia, the Cats have been carried by freshman Chase Budinger for much of the season. His decision making has been lights-out and he has stepped up in a stretch that has seen sophomore Marcus Williams regress. You can see Williams forcing the issue in an attempt to not be out-played by a freshman. Williams almost all but gone to the NBA draft after the season so it will be interesting to see how it all plays out with him gunning for scouts. Hopefully Lute Olson can bench some sense into him before it is too late, another debacle like last season with Chris Rodgers is the last thing Tucson needs. And you have to believe Lute doesn't have many years left in the tank, so he needs another Final Four or national title to put a bow on his illustrious career. I caught the UA-Illinois game up in Phoenix last week and saw some good things and some worrisome things. This seems like one of those teams that is still sitting on the fence between putting it all together and making a deep tournament run or collapsing and making a patented Arizona first-round exit. We'll see, but Chase is most definitely the truth.



UA football-Finished the year 6-6 with a loss to ASU. QB Willie Tuitama left in the first half with ANOTHER head injury, easily his fifth or sixth of the year. No bowl game for the Cats, damn, I was really hoping for a berth in the prestigious Insight.com Bowl. Next year Stoops in on the hot seat, .500 or worse and he will likely lose his job. I'm kind of indifferent, Tucson is a basketball town, but getting drunk and watching football team get their ass kicked in 90 degree weather is getting old.

Horny Manatee

So I guess a couple nights ago, Conan O'Brien was doing a thing on weird college mascots. One of the ones he made up was "Webcam Manatee". As the clip showed a person in a manatee costume rubbing itself on a webcam, Conan blurted out that the website must be called hornymanatee.com. The next day, the good people at NBC informed Conan that whenever a non-existent website is mentioned on-air, NBC must buy the rights to it. So, they laid down the big $159 for 10 years to the rights to www.hornymanatee.com. Enjoy

A Conversation...

The following is a re-enactment of an actualy conversation held between yours truly and Mike Seaver Fan....

MSF:Hey Omar!! How are you?? You're so cool and your tip is so much bigger than mine!!

Omar: Oh I know that biiiiitch.

MSF: Oh Omar you're so right, what was I thinking telling you something you already know?? I'm so gay.

Omar: Yeah you are pretty gay. Speaking of gay, why have you been signing the ends of your posts with "c" and "msf". Just say your gay ass name and get on wit it hoe.

MSF: Well, as you might suppose, "msf" stands for "Me Suck Fat-tipper". But, you may be surprised by my "c" signature. It is me paying homage to my favorite TV show of all time. It refers to Crane, as in the last name of Frasier and Niles on my very most favorite show "Frasier". Oh, how I do love those two and their antics. Tee Hee.

Omar: What is wrong with you? Are you kidding me? The only person that watches that show is Dave, and he has an excuse cuz he's a pompous caucasian homosexual.

MSF: Come on Omar, it's a great show. You know what else is superb? "Friends". and "Dancing with the Stars". Oh how delectable those two shows are. I was so dismayed that Emmit Smith beat out the heart-throb from Saved By The Bell. He's such a hunk and he deserved to win that trophy. It's okay he'll always have the dough eyes on the block. Tee Hee. Oh, speaking of Friends, did you see the episode where Ross-

Omar: Corday please stop.

MSF: But Omar, Ross is so silly. OH OH OH. And Chandler is so spunky. I love him as well.

Omar has gone offline.

Arrested Development and the NBA

In remembrance of my favorite TV show, the now defunct series Arrested Development, I will examine which NBA players most closely share the traits of the main characters. Without further ado:

Michael Bluth- Steve Nash
The centerpiece of it all, Michael organizes the mess that is the Bluth family in a similar fashion to the way Steve Nash orchestrates the chaos that is a Phoenix Suns fast break. Both are unique within their surroundings, Michael seems to have gained a work ethic and selflessness despite most of his family having neither, while Nash is a pass-first, ego-free player in an era of gunners and prima donnas.

Gob Bluth- Gilbert Arenas
There is two ways I could have gone with this one, either the Gob is a big fucking loser angle, in which case I would have picked somebody like Stephon Marbury, or the Gob is just a lovable underdog whose accomplishments go unnoticed because of more popular siblings angle. I chose the latter. Gob is my favorite character on the show so I could not do him the great disservice of a Marbury comparison. Likewise Arenas, an Arizona alum, is one of my favorite players in the NBA. Gob has always been in the shadow of Michael and Lindsay, much like Arenas when it comes to the holy trinity of LeBron, Wade and Carmelo. Gob constantly has his family questioning and mocking his life as a magician, much like basketball pundits are always questioning Arenas' skill as a "true" point guard. Both have highs as well, Gob stuck the super-hot Spanish soap opera star "Martha 1" at the beginning of the first season and also successfully made the family's yacht "disappear" on the Girls With Low Self-Esteem video. Arenas hit a game-winning shot against the Bulls in the playoffs two years ago and made the All-Star team last season. And both have had their lows, Gob's failure to escape from prison as well as his constant crying come to mind, while Arenas' choke job on two free-throws against the Cavs in the playoffs last season was not his finest moment. Both are madly unpredictable and probably get a lot of poon as well, thus making them a fine match.

Lucille Bluth- Kobe Bryant
Wow, where to begin... obviously both live in Southern California, both are extremely unlikable and both have addiction problems (Lucille to alcohol and Kobe to douchebagginess). Lucille and Kobe both like to play people behind the scenes, pulling the necessary strings to get what they want. Lucille plays all of her children against one another, telling Lindsay one thing and Michael another in order to break up their alliance. Despite what he says, Kobe definitely got Shaq run out of town and likely Phil Jackson as well. They both put on an innocent face in public, disguising the fact that they are actually degenerates and the opposite of what they show. Sure, they will occasionally help someone out, but only as long as there is something in it for them. Lucille will do one of her kids a favor but rest assured she expects something in return, while Kobe likes to play the role of "mentor" to the younger Lakers but don't be fooled, he does not care about them or their development, he just likes hearing sportscasters and writers talk about how "mature" and "giving" he has become. Fuck Kobe and his fake charisma and modesty.

To be continued...

Arizona vs. Team Georgia

Basically because I am a rock-solid pimp, my editor at the Arizona Daily Wildcat asked me if I would like to tag-along with our senior basketball writer Roman Veytsman to the Arizona-Team Georgia exhibition game on Saturday. Needless to say it was sick as fuck so here is a recap that also functions as a season preview for the No. 10 Arizona men's basketball team.

15 minutes before tip-off I met Roman at the press entrance of McKale. I was given a very sexy looking press pass and we were on our way. We grabbed the rosters for each team and headed onto the court. I had never sat courtside for an Arizona basketball game so I was pretty excited, and the fact that some girl I had had a crush on in my consumer class last year was sitting like four rows behind me only heightened my level of excitement. Anyway, back to the game, the Wildcats were facing off against Team Georgia, a merry band of misfits and cast-offs that traveled the country playing in exhibition games against top-level colleges. Basically it was little more than a glorified pick-up game. The only thing of note about Team Georgia is that Spyda, aka Dennis Chism from the And 1 streetball show on ESPN, was said to be on the team. Apparently he killed a man before tip-off or something like that because he was nowhere to be found. So that was disappointing, but believe it or not the teams decided to play on without him.

Expectations for this year's team are high in Tucson, just as they always are. After last year's debacle with Hassan (D.U.I.) Adams and Chris (Douchebag) Rodgers I am looking forward to a distraction free year from the Cats. Arizona is as talented as any team in the country and are ranked #10 in the meaningless pre-season polls. Will this be the year they put it all together and get that elusive second National Championship for Lute Olson? Only time will tell but if their first "game" of the season was any indication then a championship is a realistic possibility with some improvement in key areas.

The Wildcats started the game with Mustafa (How can your jump-shot not improve in four years) Shakur, Jawann (Hard-luck) McClellan, Chase (The Great White Hope) Budinger, Mohamed (The Mali Man-Eater) Tangara and Ivan (Don't Pass Him The Ball!) Radenovic [Nicknames mine]. Marcus (Baby-Mustache) Williams did not play because of an ankle injury. Team Georgia countered with a bunch of 6' 5" black guys. The only guy on the team that anyone knew anything about was the center, Eddie Elisma. Apparently he played with Stephon Marbury and Matt Harpring at Georgia Tech and has since bounced around, getting a cup of coffee with the Sonics at one time and also balling it up in the NBDL. So yeah, quite the match-up, an elite college basketball program against a bunch of nobodies from small southern colleges.

So the game basically went as expected, with the Wildcats winning by 51 points. It was not even as close as the 125-74 score would indicate. Stubby freshman Nic Wise had 24 points on 8-8 shooting. He hit all four of his three attempts and looks like he'll be a pretty good player despite standing only 5'7" at the most. Budinger also had 24 points despite not shooting well. He showed off his athleticism on a couple dunks and played hard. He might have come in with unrealistic expectations but I think he'll eventually become the elite player everyone expects him to. Shakur somehow put up 14 points, 16 assists, and 8 rebounds. He had a very quiet game and me and Roman both agreed that the official scorer must have fudged several of those assists. All in all the Wildcats displayed an explosive offense and a shaky defense that should improve with time. Giving up 75 points to Team Georgia wasn't a good start, but the Wildcats have the players to be solid defensively and with that offense that is all they'll need.

After the game I went with all the other real journalists into the locker room to interview the players. It smelled like no kind of ass I had ever experienced before. I've been in locker rooms all my life and never smelled anything that bad; our high school locker room smelled like a bed of virgin roses compared to this catastrophe. Journalists really do live a glamorous life. Talking to the players was cool, I let all the actual journalists do their thing and Roman had me ask a couple bull-shit questions about the Cats next exhibition game against Victoria or some shit. None of the players had a clue about who Victoria was so it was pretty pointless, but interesting nonetheless. I think I pissed off Fendi Onobun by questioning his decision to shoot a 3; I was merely wondering about the shot itself and not the decision. He missed badly and has a reputation as a poor shooter and he kind of took offense. Everything else was cool, I talked to Chase Budinger which was weird because I watched him in the Mcdonald's All-America game and dunk contest last year. He seemed like a chill guy and gave me all the usual athlete cliches. My new boy on the team is freshman Jordan Hill. He is raw as fuck and will likely only receive sporadic playing time but he has a butt-load of potential and was a cool guy to interview.

My final thoughts on the team are this:

1) J.P. Prince, Tayshaun's cousin, might as well just transfer now. He has already been beat out by the freshman Wise and his piss-poor attitude isn't going to get him any playing time. He is already a bust who has proven to have more hype than skill and if he could read the writing on the wall he would just cut his losses. Top-10 PG recruit Jared Bayless is coming in next year so the future is not looking any brigher for Prince.

2) Radenovic is still the same player he always has been. Despite reports to the contrary, he is still a step slow and extremely turnover-prone. While he will have his good shooting nights, his lack of contribution in other areas will eventually hurt this team. Lute just gives him too much credit and slack. Fearless prediciton: Jordan Hill outplays him this year in limited minutes.

3) The Mohamed Tangara experiment needs to end. As much as I like the guy, he has not developed at all in three years and remains a big-time project. On top of that his athleticism and strength seem to be diminishing and it has reached the point that I don't think he can hold his own in the paint.

4) Chase Budinger will win Pac-10 Freshman of the Year. I know I said that he may have come in with unrealistic expectations, but the fact remains that he is an incredible talent and will receive both the minutes and oppurtunities to put up numbers. He had almost twice as many shot attempts as his next closest teammate, Jawann McClellan, and I expect that to be a trend. Expect him to be the second leading scorer behind Marcus Williams and contend for national freshman of the year honors at the end of the season.