And Behold, a White Flag

Fitting that I was able to fly the white flag to herald my return here after a week long hiatus. (Or if not fitting--and it's probably not--at least pleasant.) While I wasn't writing about sports, I was engaged in one of the more mantacular extended weekends in recent memory, involving a marathon horseshoe pitching session (pictured at left in a stunning action shot), piles of barbecued meats, two Sox-Yankees games, and visits to both the Basketball Hall of Fame AND the Baseball Hall of Fame. (The National Soccer and Horseracing Halls of Fame were withing striking distance as well, but there's only so much three guys can do. Big thanks to all involved, specifically Brennan, Justin, Kate, Christina, Andy, Erica, Scott and the Dodge Avenger.)

And there's still more on tap. I've got the Rockies v. Orioles on Saturday in my first ever visit to Camden Yards followed by my first ever international soccer experience with the US v. El Salvador next Tuesday.

But before I can get there, I have to go back and pick-up on some of the stories I missed over the weekend and there were a number of them. Please indulge me as I rehash the recent past...

The Great Dugout Punch-out...So Carlos Zambrano bloodied Michael Barrett's lip on Friday. In addition to the joy of seeing my two favorite Cubs have at it, I was fully in favor of this. Neither party was really wrong based on my lip-reading skills. Zambrano's right in the fact that Barrett needs to start playing some defense and make better decisions. Barrett, however, is also right because Big Z needs to start locating some pitches so guys don't keep jacking it clear out there (as evidenced by Michael's pointing.) If you can't fight with your catcher, who can you fight with? Besides, it's not like what the Cubs were doing prior to the brouhaha was working anyway.

Sweet Lou covers his tracks...The Lou Pinella era in Chicago can officially begin after his first ejection as a Cub on Saturday. I was entirely okay with this as well for the exact same reason as above: what could it hurt? Since then the Cubs have won three out of four, including taking two of three "on the road" against the division leading Brewers.

The Cubs have played six of 17-straight games and they're sitting at 3-3. Ending up above .500 at the end of that grueling stretch is essential.

Thank you very much, King James...On May 22, following Cleveland's Game 1 loss to Detroit, I asked LeBron to give me excellence, to save the playoffs from being as boring as it has been in recent memory and deliver a career making performance.

He delivered. His Game 5 performance was as good as you'll ever see and Game 6 was simply a feather in his crooked conference champions hat. But now the question is can he do it again?

I'm extremely doubtful. San Antonio is everything Detroit is not: savvy, championship tested, well-coached and confident. (Not to mention a great team defensively.) Cleveland, at least the non-LeBron portion, is still Cleveland.

If you're looking for alternative storylines, I'm fully in favor of Mike Brown employing the John Cheney method and sending in Scot Pollard to take Bruce Bowen out. From a victory standpoint, this would more effectively be used against Duncan, Ginobili or Parker but it would be so much more satisfying if Bruce got some of his own medicine.

Hole in the Sox?...The Yankees took two of three from the Red Sox in Boston and I just so happened to be in attendance for both of them. Purely a coincidence, I'm certain, but they've gone on to lose two more to Oakland to start the week.

Despite 50-degree temperatures and intermittent rain, Sunday night's game was a fun one to watch. A questionable call at home cost the Sawx their sixth run of the evening which lead to the epic showdown between Loozeana Pap and A-Rod.

After Papelbon blew the first two pitches by Rodriguez, my brother called for a slider down and away. I disagreed, said Loozeana Pap would go back to the heat and he did and A-Rod flipped his bat out there and drove the ball out of one of the deepest parts of the park. Ball game.

I still support the decision. When you're working with a double-digit lead over the Bombers you can get in to some pissing matches. But this also might be why my brother has coached two Legion baseball teams to the state tournament and I, well, write about coaching.

Good to be back.

"He's facilitatin'"

When given the opportunity to steal a road playoff win--nay a road conference finals win--as an underdog, it's a good idea to take that opportunity. The Cleveland Cavaliers did not.

Despite a career playoff low of 10 points out of LeBron James, the Cavs somehow still had a shot to win this game. Zydrunas Ilgauskas kept Cleveland in it through the fourth, knocking down mid-range set shots with an ease exclusive to balding, white Europeans. But the question of the night was where was LeBron?

At the half, he had four points but Cleveland had a six-point lead. On his way to the locker room, Craig Sager asked Larry Hughes how he felt about this considering King James had only two buckets and Hughes said, with a style and flair exclusive to men with teardrop tattoos on their faces, "He's facilitatin'."

And he was. James ended the night only one assist away from a triple-double. If he's Jason Kidd that's a typical, gutty performance. He's not Jason Kidd, however. He's a global icon in training and that might be the only great storyline left in this NBA Playoffs.

San Antonio, Utah, Cleveland, Detroit. Yawn. I thought the referees--in cahoots with the NBA higher-ups--were supposed to fix this. Major media markets, those are the best playoff teams, right? Not this year. This year the conference finals are all about watching LeBron grow up. Is he ready to take the next step? Can he lead a nearly talent-less team to the Finals?

That's a lot to ask, but that's why it's interesting in a way that Carlos Boozer v. Tim Duncan can never be.

Last night was not. Even with Cleveland close to stealing Game 1, the game felt lifeless. It would've been much more exciting to watch Cleveland lose by 15 while LeBron scored 38 points. Instead he took three shots in the 4th Quarter and made no trips to the free throw line.

I'm not being critical of LeBron. People are lining up to do that this morning. The pass that he made to a wide open Donyell Marshall was a savvy basketball play. If Marshall makes it James has his triple double, Cleveland has the lead with less than five seconds to play, and we'd still have a game that wasn't much fun to watch.

Excellence, that's what I want. I don't expect LeBron to lead Cleveland past a veteran Detroit squad, but I do expect him to add to his legend, to mature as a player and dazzle us a bit. There are thousands of casual NBA fans not living in any of the remaining playoff cities who need this.

LeBron, here we are now, entertain us.

Ouch

You can still call me Rasheed Wallace...because I was wrong. The Suns didn't beat the Spurs last night despite being in control for 11/12ths (appx. 44 of 48 minutes) of the game.

Everything looked to be going to plan early. The Suns were flying around, the arena was deafening, Shawn Marion kept caughing up shots from just in front of his face and somehow they were going in, and PHX was defending. 13 1st quarter points? 33 first half points? I thought PHX would have to run them off the court, but they were locking 'em down.

But even with all that going on, I kept looking at the score and feeling shocked that the lead wasn't 5 or 6 points more. Give credit to the Spurs, they took all those body shots early and, like the grizzled old champs they are, still had enough in the end to put the tiring Suns down with 32 4th quarter points.

I thought that the "us against the world" angle would be enough, but by the end it was evident the Suns needed Stoudemire. As good as Nash is, he's not a go to scorer down the stretch. You can't give him the ball and say "Here, get us some points." The Suns, however, had no other options last night so that's what they did and lost. I promised you they wouldn't, but they did. Thanks Stu Jackson.

The series now stands Phoenix 2 San Antonio 2.5 the NBA 0.5, heading to Texas for Game 6.

Morning Walk-thru - Sheffield of Dreams

A revelation...At its worst, sportswriting can seem somewhat parasitic. A bunch of guys who could never hit a 94mph fastball or even get the ball across half court in an NBA game criticizing and nitpicking non-stop. I'm as guilty of it as anyone but, with the above in mind, I do try to keep the negativity to a minimum. (The Cubs bullpen being the exception.)

Which is why I'm happy to report that Gary Sheffield is a pretty good guy. I know this because I spent almost an hour (including approximately 14 minutes of actual conversation) with the Tigers slugger yesterday while he was doing a book signing at my store here in Boston.

All in all he was a laid-back, polite, easy going sort of guy. Nothing like the malcontent I'd previously thought. He posed for pictures, signed memorabilia (despite posted notices to the contrary) and answered every question posed to him. Granted an hour isn't the biggest sample size but far more serious assumptions have been made based on far less.

Two particular gems from our brief conversation:

--I asked Sheffield about facing Dice-K the night before, specifically his 7-pitch toolbox and, while acknowledging Matsuzaka's major league talent, Sheffield said he only saw four of the magic pitches last night (fastball, forkball, change, slider.) Doesn't mean he doesn't have them, but you'd think if you pitch all nine you might try every thing in your repertoire.

--Second, Sheffield's advice for preparing to face a knuckleballer (i.e. Wakefield). You don't. "Sit back and swing up." Does anyone other than Wakefield even throw the knuckler at this point? Gary and I, see we're friends now, couldn't think of anyone else.

Don't get me wrong. It's not like Sheff and I were sitting around like old teammates in just stirrups and shower shoes shooting the shit. I just saw a couple openings and got two quick questions in and it's pretty satisfying to get a major league answer to both.

Just call me Rasheed Wallace...You heard it here first, the Suns will win tonight. Sure Diaw and Stoudemire are out with b.s. suspensions and that hurts Pheonix much more than Big Shot Bob's absence hurts the Spurs, but this is just one of those sports situations that has so often defied logic that it's become perfectly logical.

Call it karma or whatever you want, but the fact is, Phoenix will play up this victim angle to the fullest. They're at home, the crowd will be out for blood from the get go, and you just don't back a wild animal into a corner, even a three-legged animal.

Steve Nash could have one of the best playoff performances you ever seen tonight. Tune in.

What is this?...You know, I would've felt much better if the Babykillers (i.e. the Cubs bullpen) had given up at least a couple of runs in last night's 10-1 drubbing of the Mets. Not that I'm getting greedy. It was nice to see the bats explode last night, but what's the point of not giving up any runs when you've got nine to play with?

It's sort of like trying to beat Sunday Tiger on Tiger Woods Golf. He's not going to make many mistakes, but when he does, when you know you're going to pick up a hole on him, there's no need to use your TigerVision. This doesn't happen often, but when it does it's okay to two-putt.

I feel like the Cubs used up an Eyre-vision last night and I promise you it will come back to get them sooner or later.

Morning Walk-thru - Did you take your LAX today?

LAX is coming!...I noticed this happening near the end of the college hoops season, but college lacrosse is infiltrating the airwaves. Used to be, if you were a lacrosse fan, you could count on seeing three games on television each year: the two NCAA semi-finals and the championship on Memorial Day morning.

Now it's part of the Bottom Line on ESPN. The women's selection show was covered somewhere. The mythical ESPNU has been LAX-central all spring. What gives? Is lacrosse truly growing as a major spectator sport or are we just being force fed?

As much as I enjoy watching lacrosse, I'm leaning towards the latter. A couple of years ago, when hockey was mercifully absent, the "new" sport on ESPN was college baseball. Now that air time is going to lacrosse, but the sport has some major hurdles to clear before it even gets to College World Series status. Reasons like these:

• I know that the NLL is doing pretty well right now. The league has expanded to meet the growing western demand with teams in Colorado and Arizona, but finding MLS games is easier. Without a major pro league that people can actually see, the popularity of the college game is severely restricted.
• There are still large swaths of the country where nobody plays the sport. You want kids to watch? Let them play the game.
• Finally, lacrosse still has the Abercrombie & Fitch stigma of being a rich, suburban white kids sport. Not quite sure what you do about that.

Of course, if the sport still looked like it did originally (see above photo) there's no way I'd miss it.

The Oakland Myth shattered...After last Friday's game I wasn't sure it could happen, but Golden State finally lost a home game in the playoffs last night. (Embarrassing their mothers in the process.) The Jazz now lead the series 3-1 heading back to Salt Lake.

Like clockwork, the Warriors playoff hopes are being extinguished. Almost always happens after a huge upset. It's hard to shock the world twice in two weeks, and I'm not sure there's anything Nelly, on or off the postgame wagon, could do about it.

Sure, the Warriors might say that they believed they could beat Dallas, but nobody else did. When they actually started doing just that, it became a story. Golden State's victory became every non-Mavs fan's victory and that's a lot of hope and interest to have to carry.

Utah doesn't have that because a) people would be more surprised, with T-Mac's playoff record, to see Houston here, and b) nobody realizes that Utah is only one game away from the Western Conference finals because they look like North Carolina now.

SportsCenter goes to the bench...If you happened to catch last night's SportsCenter, you probably noticed that they paired Stuart Scott with Kenny Mayne. Actually, I don't know how you couldn't have noticed. Hasn't been such a large chasm in talent (and humor) between two people since the early-90s Bulls would pair Michael Jordan with Rodney McCray in the backcourt.

Mayne's "runnin' moonshine, cockfighting in the infield" quip with his vintage NASCAR clip was probably the best SportsCenter witticism of the year thus far.

Morning Walk-thru - So Many Sports, So Little Time

Busy weekend so this is gonna be a marathon. Don't forget to grab a plastic cup of water about half way down. Those people are volunteers. They're only paid by being useful.

Anything is Moss-ible*...Randy Moss. Patriot. The two words go together like Entourage and funny but together they will be under the New England autumn sun four short months from now.

Can it work? I think so. The Patriots have a pretty good track record with this sort of thing, but this will be Bill's biggest challenge yet.

Personally I'm pumped. I'm also not a Patriots fan (so maybe the two are related). Always felt the Pats were a little boring, what with all their winning and the such. Now, there should be some fireworks week in and week out.

Tom Brady's publicist has to be the happiest person in the world right now.

*These are not my words. I'm not afraid to make a lame play on words, but this is perhaps the lamest I've ever seen and it's from some random Minnesota Vikings fan from a Monday night game about six years ago.

D-Wade has more time to hang out with Charles Barkley now...The Baby Bulls appear to be growing up, and the defending champs just looked old as Chicago swept Miami.

I like this. Chicago's a fun team to watch once you get past the fact that their team is 1/6th Dukies. Every time I see Kirk Hinrich with the ball I can't help but think: this is a guy who has spent the vast majority of his life hanging out in Sioux City, Iowa and now here he is dropping in a runner over Shaquille O'Neal. Always amazing.

Throw in Andres Nocioni, who is NOT Italian, and gritty, gutty Scotty Skiles and the Eastern Conference is suddenly interesting.

Speaking of Chi-town...Cubs actually have a three-game winning streak going right now. Sweet Lou looks like he might be finding a line-up he likes with Theriot at short, Soriano in left and Pie in center.

Of course, this can all be attributed to the little, statistical wake-up call I gave the Cubs last week.

R.I.P. Josh Hancock...Sad day in St. Louis, following the news of Josh Hancock's accident, the second Cardinals pitcher to die in less than five years. Oddly enough, they were set to play the Cubs when Darryl Kile died in 2002. It may be a rivalry, but I doubt the Cubs and Cards could be any closer than they were on those two days.

Hooray Huskers...I really don't give a damn about the NFL Draft. Really, I don't. Draft coverage is like Scandinavian pop music to me: annoying and incessant. My only real interest in the event is as a measuring stick for the current value of Dear Old Nebraska U, and, in that respect I was pretty pleased.

St. Louis decided they needed another Husker on their D-Line, taking Adam Carriker right where everyone thought he would go. (And that would be the highest Nebraska draftee since former Ram, Grant Wistrom.)

The Packers realized they needed a Nebraska back to fill-in for the recently departed Ahman Green, taking Brandon Jackson a round or two ahead of where the pundits thought he'd be. I said it during the season and I'll say it now: Brandon Jackson will be a solid if not spectacular NFL back. He runs pretty well, can catch the ball out of the backfield, and he pass blocks like a banshee (This explains the accompanying photo. They tell me it's a banshee and apparently banshees love Komodo dragons.)

With Stew Bradley going in the the third round to Philly, Nebraska had three players go on the first day which was the best total of any Big XII school not named Texas (who only recruits first-round talent).

We're getting there, Nebraska, we're getting there.

Hello?..."Yeah, this head ball coach." Quite simply the best part of 12+hours of Saturday draft coverage appears below. I will believe forevermore that this really is the way Steve Spurrier answers the phone. Click-clack.



And finally...It's Derby week. I feel a bit unprepared to this point, but now that we're in the stretch run I'm looking to make a strong move to catch up to the field. Stay tuned for further details...

Morning Walk-thru - Hey! Hey!

What the hell is going on here?...The Cubs finally gave Ted Lily (2.18 ERA) some support yesterday and beat the Brew Crew 9-3. The win leaves Chicago at 8-13, good enough for last place in the NL Central and the second worst record in the National League. But why have they been so bad thus far?

I ask because the Yun' Ball Coach brought up this interesting stat via email: the Cubs have actually scored more runs (97) then they've allowed (84). The only other team in the division that can make that claim is Milwaukee and they're in first place, but their run differential is a paltry one, while the Cubs have scored the second most runs in the division and given up the second fewest.

And they're in last place.

The statistical oddities continue. Below are the Cubs offensive rankings going in to yesterday's action (NL rank, Central rank):

H (2nd, 1st), 2B (1st, 1st), HR (9th, 4th), RBI (6th, 2nd), TB (4th, 2nd), BB (13th, 5th), SO (5th, 1st), OBP (9th, 2nd), AVG (3rd, T-1st).

Based on those stats, it's hard to see how the Cubs are in the Central cellar. In three of the categories (H, 2B, AVG) they're leading the league and in three of the other "good" ones they're trailing only Milwaukee. Of course, they're leading the division in strike outs and are second worst in walks, but even with that, they're still one off the lead in OBP.

Must be the pitching. Let's look at some of those numbers:

ERA (6th, 2nd), R (7th, T-2nd), HR (15th, 6th), BB (11th, 6th), SO (1st, 1st), WHIP (3rd, 2nd), AVG (2nd, 1st), OBA (3rd, 2nd), K/9 (1st, 1st), H/9 (2nd, 1st)

.

The bad stats here are pretty glaring, home runs and walks, but in every other category the Cubs are right in the mix (and nowhere near the worst team in the Central.) So, to ask the titular question, what the hell? Why aren't the Cubs at least .500?

I really don't know. I guess it comes down to the old playoff cliche: timely pitching and timely hitting. Over the long run they have been pretty good, but in the impact stats HRs and BBs they're struggling both offensively and defensively.

On one hand, this could be an encouraging sign. Eventually, these stats will have to show up in the won-loss ledger, right?

On the other, it really depresses me as it confirms something I've long suspected, the Cubs are bad because they're the Cubs.

Let's play two, dominate 90% of the statistical categories that matter, and lose them both.

WarrNuggs can't complete their waltz across Texas...After being shocked on their home floors in the respective Game Ones, San Antonio and Dallas both responded with victories.

Game Two is always the most important game in any seven-game series. It's the fan's first chance to see how players, coaches and teams respond to the information gathered from the first game, and, unfortunately for me and anyone else hoping for an upset, it went pretty much by the book.

Golden State and Denver both looked impressive in small spurts, but Dallas and San Antonio each did what they had to do. Conventional wisdom says that if you're the road team all you hope for is a split, but it still feels like the Texas heavyweights have things under control.

What fun is that?

I can't wait to read about this on 38pitches.com...Orioles broadcaster, Gary Thorne, said during last night's game that Doug Mirabelli had told him that Curt Schilling's bloody sock from the 2004 ALCS was a fake. Painted for publicity not bloodied and sodden with shear courage.

Of course, every Red Sox representative scoffed at the notion. Mirabelli called Thorne an (expletive). Theo used an (expletive). Schilling will probably never speak to a media member again.

But the solution seems pretty simple. Pull the sock out of the HOF and do some tests. This will never happen, however. The stakes are too high. The sock is part of baseball lore now, a mythic talisman commemorating the end of the Curse. What would happen if it was a fake?

Interested to see how this plays out.

Morning Walk-thru - Good 4 Evil 2

Denver does San Antonio...The Nuggets beat San Antonio at home last night, to take a 1-0 lead in the opening round playoff series. The Nuggets! In San Antonio!

Denver might actually be able to make some noise this spring. They have one of the best scorers in the game in Anthony and perhaps the toughest player of the modern era in Iverson. (That's more than the Lakers can say. They have the scoring part and little else.)

Both of the Nuggets stars showed up big on Sunday with Melo putting up 31 and the Answer 30. Each of them were perfect from the free throw line.

The only thing I can see holding the Nuggets back is George Karl. Is it too late for Phil Jackson to join the Nuggets? That's basically what he does right?

With or without Jackson, the Nuggets are officially my rooting interest in the West and I'll root, root, root for the Bull-ies in the East.

Don Nelson Does Dallas...And if one playoff upset wasn't enough, Golden State beat top-seeded Dallas in one of the toughest places to play in the league. Baron Davis had 33 pts, 14 rebs, and 8 assts, and Mark Cuban had one giant puss on his face (to borrow from The Sopranos). The difference here is, as opposed to the Nuggets, that the Warrior have no chance of beating Dalls in a seven game series.

In fact, I'll be shocked if this one doesn't end up 4-1 Mavericks.

Dice-K still mortal, but that's good enough...While we're still waiting for Matsuzaka to display the sake-esque mind bending powers we all know he has, he did beat the Yankees in his first ever start in the rivalry, scooping up the first sweep of the Bronx Bombers in Fenway in 17 years.

It took the long ball, including back to back to back to back homers from Ramirez, Drew, Lowell and Varitek, but Boston completed their third straight come back win in the series. I don't want to read too much into one late-April series, but it was nice to feel like no matter what happened, the Sawx were going to find a way to get it done.

Maybe we shouldn't be surprised, however, considering the current state of the Yanks. It's been a while since I've watched New York and had no idea who three or four of the players were. They trotted out a slew of average white guys with average white guy names (Colter Bean, Chase Wright, Josh Phelps), even throwing Andy Pettite in relief after he'd just thrown on Friday. They'll be back, but for now, on this rivalry weekend representing the eternal struggle between heaven and hell, it's White Hates 4 Black Hats 2, because...

The Cubs lost .667 of the games they played this weekend...With the wind blowing out yesterday, the Cubs fell in the 10th to St. Louis and dropped 2 of 3 to the epitome of evil at Wrigley Field. The fact that Chicago even got to the 10th is a minor miracle considering they went down two in the top of 9th, then lucked into two runs on a wind-aided fluke single from Mark DeRosa. Somehow the Cardinals didn't put the game away until the 10th as the Cubs bullpen, one of the only consistent areas of success for the Cubs thus far, allowed the lead-off man to reach in the 8th, 9th and 10th innings.

That eventually catches up to you. You can't give Albert Pujols too many opportunities to be Albert Pujols and he finally burned Ryan Dempster with a three-run shot to put it out of reach.

Despite all that, I don't feel too bad about the Cubs after this weekend. They've been bad, but if they can pick up a couple of wins against the Brewers they'll have survived April. Two wins and they're knocking on the door for second in the division.

This is the most optimistic I've been following a Cubs loss--to the Cardinals no less--in quite some time and I don't have a reson for that. Maybe I'm delusional.

Deep thoughts...You know what's better than seeing this guy score a 62-meter goal(that's 200+ feet, America) in the Bundesliga? German, that's what. Makes this video at least four times better.



Photo: Getty Images

Morning Walk-thru - All-Injury Edition

That was Lucky...Finally, a good break for Nebraska in a Spring of unfortunate events. Marlon Lucky just has a sprained knee, which will shelve him for a bit but it's not like he dropped a television and snapped the biggest and strongest bone in the human body, so that's good.

This wasn't lucky...Pretty fantastic fantasy day for my league leading Fruit Jar Drinkers yesterday. First, Vlad Guerrero gets drilled on the wrist and leaves the game, then Alfonso Soriano comes up lame trying to field a sinking liner. He was clutching his hamstring as he departed, but the good news is it was his lower hamstring, preferable to up around the buttocks according to the announcer.

Neither injury looked too serious, but still, twice yesterday I felt like my fantasy season was instantly over. You just don't replace guys like that. (At least Guerrero, right now Ryan Theriot has been better than Soriano.)

And while we're on the Cubs...Following Soriano's tweak, I began to wonder, isn't it too early for the Cubs to be the Cubs already? Last place. Eerie injuries to major pieces of the puzzle. (Ramirez, Soriano) Losing games they should win. I thought $300 million would at least buy us all a free pass until mid-May.

Luckily, the Cubs came out and put a four-spot on the board, including Thunder Matt Murton beating out a sure double play to pick up an RBI. Sweet Lou loves that shit and I do too.

From there, the whuppin' sticks stayed out as the Cubs blasted three homers in the fifth and sixth innings, getting the first eight men on in the bottom of the 6th on their way to a 12-4 win.

For now, spirits are high.

Butler might be back...Sounds iffy to me, but Caron Butler is hoping to rejoin the Wizards at some point during the playoffs.

What's the big hurry? Without Gil, Washington isn't going anywhere. Take your time Caron!

Morning Walk-thru - Who Sewed the Sole?

Shoe Feud!...LeBron James doesn't like Stephon Marbury's cheap kicks. Before Tuesday night's game against the Knicks, which Marbury won with a three-pointer with 8 seconds left, King James said he couldn't imagine endorsing a sneaker that retails for $15--like Marbury does--because Nike "hold(s) their standard high."

For a guy who wants to become the first billionaire baller, I'd expect a slightly sharper business acumen out of LeBron. How much do you think your shoes cost to manufacture? I'm positive that there isn't a difference of more than two dollars between the Starbury's and LeBron's shoe. Retail, however, James' shoes cost 10-times as much.

How can you dog a guy for trying to do something good and offering a shoe that anyone can afford? (Especially when you consider it's Marbury who's not normally known for his magnanimosity.) Hakeem Olajuwon did this with the preeminent K-Mart brand, Spalding, back during the dream shake days, but Marbury went out and actively tried to promote it, so give the guy credit.

Sorry, LeBron, you're wrong here. Regardless, Ralph Nader doesn't like either option.

The Good Ole Running Back Committee...Last year Nebraska used a four-person running back by committee to surprising success and nobody thought they'd be able to keep all four happy again in 2007. Now, I'm just hoping the Cornhuskers have somebody who can line up behind the quarterback.

First, Brandon Jackson left for the NFL. Then Marlon Lucky overdosed on something. Physically, he's fine now but mentally I'm concerned. Cody Glenn is still recovering from a foot injury and out for spring practice, and Kenny Wilson was also missing practice due to a staph infection in his knee.

But now he's out for THE YEAR, after snapping his femur moving a television. Two questions: 1) What kind of TV was that?! Had to be a 6-year-old Sony Wega bigger than 50-inches. I moved one once and it was a bitch. 2) Don't we pay our players enough that they can afford slimmer, better picture, less femur-snapping flat screens? Can we start?

Nebraska has pie in the sky BCS hopes coming in to 07, but the off season has been pretty awful. This is not setting up well for Mr. Keller.

Thank you, ESPN...Let's be honest, unless your team is playing, the Final Four isn't that interesting. If you had a choice between watching the first two rounds of the Tournament or the last two, which would you choose? Anyone who tells you the latter is lying.

The N.C.A.A Tournament has become all about the first four days. Upsets and live look-ins, that's what we want! Days full of basketball not three paltry games.

But just when I had consigned myself to watching the Final Four passively, ESPN went and did something great: they sent Chuck Klosterman to Atlanta.

Due to his increasing popularity and the inherent vanity of his writing, it's probably not cool to like Chuck but I do. I've read everything he's ever written and even attended a reading of his. He's doing a blog for Page 2 which is interesting because, based on everything I'd ever read or heard from Klosterman, I always assumed he hated blogs. Not like Dan Shaughnessy hates blogs, but Chuck sort of represented the generation break in terms of blogging: a guy who'd cut his teeth doing "real" journalism who might have a reason to despise instant journalism. And, in his first entryy, he took a backhanded swipe at the format, writing:

I will reciprocate by writing sporadic e-mail posts throughout the entire weekend. This is a very popular art form among affluent American young people, especially those who are fans of James Walcott and/or profoundly interested in unauthorized photographs of Nicole Richie's rib cage. I believe there is even a name for this journalistic practice, but I can't remember what it is; normally, I use the Internet only to discuss math principles via CompuServe.

Nevertheless, blogging he is and I urge you to check it out. It will be as randomly referenced and philosophically sound as anything you'll read this weekend.

The Morning Walk-thru - Durant don't come for free

Man, that was close...I've been a little concerned about the Celtics lately. First they go off and beat the Spurs, in San Antonio no less, for the first time since Tim Duncan entered the league. Then last night they go up on Charlotte 54-39 at the half in a game they had to lose. The Celtics are 3 games back of Memphis in the race for last place and Charlotte is nipping at their heels.

But then Boston started being Boston again and gave up 30 points while only tallying 13 of their own in the fourth quarter and falling 92-84 at home.

That's more like it. I didn't actually watch the second half as I was too distraught after the first, but I'd like to think that the crowd just held up placards that collectively formed a giant photo of Kevin Durant and the Celtics got the message.

Don't blow this for us Doc.

Where can I get a refurbished Nintendo?...The much anticipated third installment of Brad Bortone's Bats and Bytes series examining video game baseball is here. We're talking about the Nintendo era at this point and I'd give anything to play Bases Loaded right now.

Actually, that's not true. I'm sure I could probably just go to Google and within minutes be playing a version of the game online, but I'm not willing to do that. It's just not the same without the rectangle controller.

Oh I'm Shameless!...Speaking of Bugs & Cranks, my first post for them is up now. I'm quite excited to be contributing to the site and the writing there is truly top notch.

Traffic Cop...In a bit of site traffic news, I got my first referral from my sponsorship of Michael Barrett which was more exciting for the fact that someone actually looked up Barrett's stats.

Also, someone reached hiplainsdrifter.com by entering the Google search "Dana Altman leaving Creighton." This nearly gave me a heart attack but the good news is, I couldn't find any supporting evidence anywhere. Not even on my own site.

The Morning Walk-thru - Stay in School...or Don't

A Quick Quiz...Name all of the players who have gone straight from high school to the NBA whose career PPG is 20 or higher. Thanks to One More Dying Quail, we now know and it's not as hard as you think. There are six and five of them are active. Ready?

Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, Amare Stoudamire and LeBron James make up the actives, and Moses "Fo' Fo' Fo'" Malone is the old man.

Nothing too surprising there, but what is interesting is the sharp drop off after that. The next highest average belongs to Rashard Lewis at 16.4 ppg, but the vast majority of the 45 prep-to-pro leapers are all clustered around the 9 ppg mark.

We can't quite close the book on some of these guys--most notably Dwight Howard (15.0 ppg) who is becoming a force--but nearly 85% of the players who never had the opportunity to wear a t-shirt under their jersey were never more than a role player.

Interesting and nearly irrefutable. Stay in school, or...

Screw school...Former Cornhusker Brandon Jackson told the Omaha World-Herald yesterday that he was pleased with his decision to forgo his senior season. According to that same article, The Hair (aka Mel Kiper, Jr.) has Jackson as the third best back in the draft.

Honestly, I'm shocked but it does lead credence to a theory I was kicking around during the 2006 football season.

It seemed like a minor miracle that Nebraska was able to use four different backs in modern college football and keep them all happy (or the dissent under wraps). My only explanation was that these 19- and 20-year-olds realized that, even if they weren't getting a ton of touches, they were building an impressive pro resume.

Take Jackson for example. Coming in to 06, nobody would've have put him anywhere near Marshawn Lynch and Adrian Peterson. Hell, he wasn't even a favorite to start, but he flourished in the WCO. His ability to pass protect and catch the football out of the backfield, in addition to running in a pro-style system, makes him an absolutely intriguing pro prospect. He's not a physical specimen. He's not a burner, but he is experienced in a way that many college backs are not, and that seems like a pretty good pitch when you've got 3 or 4 talented backs.

Problem now for Cornhusker fans is that none of the remaining backs is currently healthy enough to even get that sales speech. You go from worrying about how to split 40 carries between four candidates one day, to wondering if anyone can even handle the workload the next.

The preseason hype will be there for Nebraska next year, but it looks like they have a lot more question marks coming in than they did last year. Could be bad news for Billy C. in what everyone is calling a make or break year.

A Note of Congratulations...Jeff over at Double Extra Point, one of the top two Husker blog around for my money, is going from the unwashed blogging masses to being able to afford soap and shampoo thanks to his new gig writing for the groundbreaking AOL Fanhouse. (Actually, that's pure speculation on my part, but I assume soap and shampoo would at least be covered.)

For those of you who don't know, the Fanhouse actually plays bloggers to write for them and has been a smashing success thus far.

The good news for we Good Lifers is that he plans to keep DXP up and running which means continued Cornhusker coverage for us.

Congrats, Jeff.

The Morning Walk-thru - Bird was ahead of his time

The Legend never worried about GHT...The Yun' Ball Coach sent along the accompanying photo last week and while the late Dennis Johnson is definitely the focus (and reason this photo probably surfaced), check out Bird giving an interview to Marv Alberts with an old-school white can of Miller Lite in his hand.

Forget the champagne that DJ has collared, it's the original Lite beer for the Hick. Only thing that could make this picture better is if Bob Uecker were somehow involved.

Notice that the can is nearly as long as his shorts. Those were the days.

Seriously, you guys. Seriously...Thanks again to the Yun' Ball Coach for this story from chicagosports.com about current Cubs backstop, Michael Barrett: Barrett seriously bleeding Cubs blue.

Apparently Michael likes it in Chicago and I'm fine with that. He hits as well as any catcher and if we're going to fault him for his defense on this team he's probably only fourth or fifth on the hit list. Check out his love letter to the Cubs:

"I will put no deadline or nothing on anything," Barrett said. "For me, I feel like I've been through a lot as a player, and I feel completely blessed to be a part of this team. For me, if there's a distraction that keeps you from appreciating putting on a Cubs uniform, then something ain't right. That's the way I feel."

Spoken like a true catcher, and...

"I feel indebted to this organization for what it's done. It believed in me at a time when a lot of teams and a lot of people gave up on me. . . . When you have that grace extended to you, it's easy to come to the yard and be appreciative."

Maybe it's just me, but isn't loyalty like this, even if it ends up only on paper, far too rare? As a fan, the one thing I never understand is why we don't see more of this. Wouldn't this be the approach of most any fan out there? Find a team and city you like and do everything you can to stay there.

Hardly ever happens, though. I guess when your career has a 10-year shelf life (if you're lucky), maximizing your earnings becomes that much more important, but good for Barrett for saying all the right things even if it's only February.

Seriously.

Didn't I tell you?...In the week leading up to the Super Bowl, I made the case for Prince as perhaps the best performer the big game had ever seen and he pretty much delivered.

In that same column, I also listed four other options for equally intriguing selections, one of which was the Boss. Well, guess who is being rumored as the front-runner for XLII? (Idolator via Deadspin)

I love being right.

The Morning Walk-thru - I expect you to stay

Throw 'em the dark one...So it turns out the gyroball is actually just a spiral. Despite all the talk about hips and shoulders and double-spin mechanincs, all you're really doing is throwing a baseball like you'd throw a football. Feels a little anti-climatic but it's good news for Red Sox fans. It means that, after all the hullabaloo, this might be a pitch you'll actually see this season:




Further proof that February must simply be survived...we're still a week away from Black Snake Moan. I'm pretty excited for this film. It's got the South, the Blues and the Samuel L. Jackson in a role that allows him to do Samuel L. Jackson things (scream and look crazy).

But don't take my word for it, check out the critical mass:

"...Pulp Fiction with a Southern accent and a heart of gold..." --Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com

"If blues is an exorcism (as Muddy Waters once said), Black Snake Moan is pretty much The Exorcist." --Kevin N. Laforest, Montreal Film Journal

So The Exorcist meets Pulp Fiction with a bunch of words like chicken-fried, Southern gothic, gravy and pulpy to flesh out the reviews? I'm in.

A final dish to DJ...RIP

The Morning Walk-thru - Korver shows Creighton how it's done

DEAR READER...Thanks to Double Extra Point for pointing me in the direction of this recent Dear Abby column: CORNHUSKERS HAVE THEIR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT ON GAMEDAY. This column is basically a response to an earlier letter Abby had received, so here's a quick breakdown: A woman in Nebraska wrote Abby to get a ruling on the fact that her father left immediately after her wedding was over--foregoing the rice-throwing, cork-popping, cake-smearing, etc.--to watch Nebraska football.

Abby told her, don't worry about him, worry about your husband. Fine. I don't really care about the actual advice, I'm more interested in the responses that followed. Most were written by former Good Lifers who had escaped and avoided drowning in the Sea of Red. They all did the same thing, wagged their finger at the offending father then rustled his hair like a little boy for being just another crazy Cornhusker fan.

But Abby is a voice of reason, at least I think that's what she's paid to be anyway, and I actually agree with her here: "It's not just Cornhusker fans."

This has been my stock response to any sort of pissing match argument between college football fans. Every one is crazy when it comes to college football. It's the American equivalent to soccer without the hooliganism and while we'd all like to think that the passion for our team is deeper than our rival's passion for their team, we're all pretty much the same.

Sooner brides can't get married and Longhorn fans can't die on fall Saturdays either. "It may not be right, but it's true."

Except at Auburn. That sort of thing would never happen down there implies AUBURN WAR EAGLE by saying that the Tigers victory in the Cotton Bowl was a just comeuppance for the "Wounded Bride."

Great. At least now we know who was responsible for that awful Cotton Bowl game. Keep your head on a swivel Father of the Wounded Bride, you've got a state full of crazies who were just put on alert.

Thanks Auburn!

Korver sends Creighton a message...The Assassin matched a career-high last night for the Sixers with 31 points on 6 of 7 shooting beyond the arc. Was this an attempt to lead his alma mater by example? Probably not, but I like to think that it was.

After losing two double-digit leads to fall to Drexel and Valley bottom-feeder Illinois State, the Bluejays are in danger of jeopardizing their "lock" status for the NCAA tournament. Somebody in Omaha needs to step up and knock down some shots and I think that's what Korver was saying last night.

At least I hope so.

The Godfather of Sole...while watching the end of the Rockets-Heat game last night, I saw Dwyane Wade injure his arm and get rolled off in a wheelchair. What I really wanted to see, however, was Wade get up, shrug off his towel, dance over to the scorer's table, check in and single-handedly erase an eight-point lead in 4o seconds and lead the Heat to a win while screaming "I Feel Good!" Simply in tribute to the late James Brown.

Instead, Wade has a dislocated shoulder and, because this is February, it's the only story going this morning. Welcome back Riley!

Are you listening David Stern?

I'm sure the Los Anaheim Angels think differently, but I absolutely love the fact that baseball doesn't waste any time in playing their play-off games. I was shocked to see yesterday that game 5 of the Angels-Bastards series was Monday night, just one day after a late game in New York.

I thought to myself, there's no way they will makes these teams fly out of New York, certainly after midnight, go all the way to Los Anaheim and play right away the next day. Well, they did and even though Bartolo couldn't go, (check out my rhymes, that last phrase may have been good enough to get me cred on 8 Mile), the Angels pulled it out AND we got to see Sheffield collide with a guy named Bubba, something I thought never occurred outside of Gary's personal life.

So what did the Angels win? Another late flight to Chicago, where the ALCS starts tonight! This is great, no off days, no waiting. The NBA should take notes, after going to the NFL Playoff schedule the last two years having teams play about once a week. Word out of New York is that this year the NBA might actually split the games up by halves, the first half will be played on Tuesday, the second half on Thursday. That way we get TWO pre- and post-game shows, as well as two half-halftimes between quarters, which all means more ad dollars.

One thing the NBA should not adopt, the champagne and beer celebration after every stage of the play-offs, including division and wild-card clinching victories. (Especially for those Angelitos, who have a game tomorrow!) For whoever wins the World Series, it will be their fourth such celebration in just over a month. Doesn't it get tired at that point? I know I wouldn't want to celebrate New Year's every Saturday in January.

Maybe if the White Sox win the World Series Tim Raines can call on some of his old contacts to really up the ante for their celebration. Wouldn't it be great if the victorious Pale Hose walked in to their clubhouse to find that, instead of champagne, the Rock had delivered an 8lb. rock of cocaine? I want to see Bud Selig, with two inches of frost on his suit jacket, hand over the trophy to Ozzie Guillen who is sporting a milk mustache of his own. Of course this will all be commemorated with the official 2005 World Series Champion Clubhouse Sno-Globe.

I'd buy it.