Archive for April, 2009

The Ohio State University is losing James Laurinaitis to the NFL Draft.  The 6’1″, 245 lb. linebacker is a late first round, early second round predicted pick.  Lauranaitis has some accolades earned as a Buckeye to enhance his value.  He won the Nagurski trophy in 2006 and also won the Lombardi trophy, given to the best linebacker in college football in 2007.  Last season as a Jr, Lauranaitis led the Buckeyes in tackles and had 5 sacks and 2 INT.

What is so attractive about Lauranaitis is his ability to drop and read in pass coverage.  He got his hands on a bunch of passes last season and put himself in position to make many big plays.  Against the run, Lauranaitis has been knocked for making plays too far off of the ball.  A good linebacker fills the hole and makes the tackle at the line.  Lauranaitis made all those tackles, but so many were for three to five yard gains.

Many mock drafts I have seen so far have him going #20 overall to Detroit.  The Lions did well drafting Chris Spielman and are really hurting for defense.  The pick would make sense to me.  I have also seen Lauranaitis as high as #14 to New Orleans, which lacks star power on defense, and as low as #24 to Atlanta where defense is the biggest need.

Many are critical to point out that if Lauranaitis came out a year ago, his draft stock would have been much higher, potentially a top-ten pick.  I would say you can never criticize a college athlete for staying in school regardless of how good or ready the scouts feel he may be. 

As another year of playing golf has started, I have compiled a list of courses to play and a couple to avoid in the greater Youngstown area.  I will be doing features on these courses periodically.  Having grown up in Lowellville, I first played at the infamous 9-hole course called Lee Run.  Lee Run was later purchased by the Grischow family and turned into an 18-hole course now known as Bedford Trails.  The Grischow family has continually reinvested to make Bedford Trails an enjoyable course for all skill levels.

The front nine layout is pretty much the same as when the course was known as Lee Run.  The back will give the best golfers problems because it plays very thin.  Hole 13 demands two long straight shots to have a chance at par.  If you cant hit a straight ball, you will struggle on this hole.  I feel it is the hardest hole on the course and have only seen a couple of birdies on it.  The greens at Bedford Trails have gotten much better over the past couple of years. 

The best element for a golfer playing at Bedford Trails is the way they are treated from the time they get there until the time they leave.  The hospitality in the clubhouse is unbelievable, I have never heard anyone say they were ever treated in a rude manner.  The food in the clubhouse is outstanding as well.  They also have a small warm-up range (pictured above).  The cost of playing at Bedford Trails is reasonable.

I grade Bedford Trails a must play course, not only for the challenge, but for the overall experience.  You will not meet nicer people willing to accomodate your every last need.

One of the finest catches I have ever seen!  I do not know many major league players who could make this kind of a catch.  The reaction of the left fielder is priceless, a must see video!

Lebron James wont win any Emmy’s for his efforts in this Nike commercial.  Simply titled Basketball NBA2334.  Interesting to see how Lebron will look as an old man.  The video almost makes Lebron kind of Eddie Murphy playing everyone in the video.

The Cleveland Indians got drilled by Texas in their opener, 9-1.  Cliff Lee, the reigning Cy Young Award winner, got shelled.  The powerful offense could only manage to score one run, a gift passed ball.  The funniest part about it is that Indians fans I have talked with are disgusted already.  Lighten up folks, it was one game. 

I must have heard conversations that I was not a part of three times yesterday where people were discussing how bad the Cleveland Indians are going to do this season.  “They stunk all spring, now it carried over to the regular season”, was one dandy I caught.  “They will always be bums, look for Shapiro to start trading guys next week”. was probably the one that made me laugh the hardest.

161-1 is probably out of the question, but they are playing in arguably the weakest division in baseball.  90 wins might be good enough, and I believe they have at least 90 wins in them. 

One of my favorite Lebron James video clips of all times.  Is he really shooting or is the whole thing enhanced by computers?  It looks to me like he is shooting.  I predict Lebron will make a more than half court shot at some point of this years playoffs.

Congratulations to this years National Champion, North Carolina.  The game was a blowout from the outset and the Tar Heels made it look easy.  Here are some links with further NCAA coverage as well as other great stories from my esteemed colleagues.

Where They Stand :The 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates * Sharapova’s Thigh
Who Had The Best Dunk Of The Tournament? * Intentional Foul
Please Don’t Put Big Ben On The Cover Of Madden 2010 * PSAMP
MLB: How’s This For Openers? * Josh Q. Public
Poking Fun At Jay Crawford of ESPN’s Hair * NESW Sports
Boxer Gives Himself An Uppercut * Total Pro Sports
Miss America 2009 Butchering National Anthem At Phillies Opener * Sports Rubbish
Top 10 Signs You May Not Be A Good GM * Hoop Doctors
Michael Jordan Leads 2009 Hall Of Fame Class * Docksquad
What A Waste of Three Hours – UNC is #1 * Ed The Sports Fan
Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin Headed To NBA Draft * FOX Sports
Final Four For The Best Sports Blog Name * Zoner Sports
Fantasy Hockey 101: The Final Week * The Program
Is Lebron Receiving Preferential Treatment? * Baller Blogger

Take a look, click on a link, and let the author know what you think.

I conducted my interview with Jack Loew, the trainer of Kelly Pavlik earlier today and will have video footage up hopefully by the end of the week.

The PGA is expecting record numbers to come to Augusta for the 2009 Masters Tournament.  This years Masters will run from April 8-12 with many other PGA promotions on April 6-7.  The quest for the green jacket is probably my favorite golf event of the year because I absolutely love Augusta National.  This course seperates the men from the boys and proves that you have to have a set and try to make shots the other golfers will not to succeed.  The course will play shorter, a whopping 10 yards, than last year.

Trevor Immelman, the 2008 Masters Champion will try to defend his championship against a loaded field which includes a pressured Phil Mickelson, and favorite Tiger Woods.  Tiger is the person people will watch television for.  Woods remains the man to beat in any event he plays in.  He is the golfer who will take chances and do things everyone else is afraid of.  Don’t get me wrong, others will take chances, Mickelson does frequently, but the reward usually yields positive results for Tiger.

Golfers MUST take chances on this course and not be intimidated.  The mistake I have seen in the past is the course in a players head before the tournament starts.  As a result, they overthink everything and collapse.  Making putts on these greens is essential.  These are probably the fastest greens in the world and there are so many breaks.  The greats playing in this tournament have an advantage over first-year guys who will have to spend a couple of days learning how to putt again.  To compete, a player must birdie all four par-5 holes, and maybe even sneak a daily eagle in there.  The par 5s at Augusta are not that difficult, it is the par3s and 4s that most win or lose the tournament on.  If a player blows a couple of par3s a day, don’t look for him to make the cut.

The tournament doesn’t really start until the back nine on Sunday.  Holes 11, 12, and 13, aka Amen’s Corner, are usually the holes to succeed on to have a chance to win.  If a player can par 11 and 12 and birdie 13, they have as good a chance as anyone to win.  Rae’s Creek that runs in front of the green on 13 has swallowed many leaderboard balls in the past.

This years field is filled with an array of familiar names and international greats, past champions and future winners.  It would be easy for me to pop out and say Tiger will beat Phil on Sunday to win.  To qualify for play at Augusta, a golfer had to win a PGA Tournament Event.  This field is loaded with multiple winners.  If you want a couple of longshots to keep an eye on, I like Hunter Mahan and Ben Curtis.  Neither has done well at this tournament in the past, but both have improved greatly over the past couple of years.  I also will be watching for Camilo Villegas, Padraig Harrington, and Stewart Cink to do well.

Ultimately, I feel as though Tiger Woods will have a dramatic Sunday.  I figure him to be down about three strokes going into the final round and blow up to win the tournament by 3 strokes.  Let me know what you think.  Who will win?  Who is the dark horse of this years tournament?

Wrestlemania XXV was a spectacle, nothing short of that.  The night provided many highlights and a couple of lowlights as well.  Having watched the card and charted all of the results, here is how things went down Sunday night:

Carlito & Primo Colon vs The Miz & John Morrison – This match actually took place before the pay-per-view began.  The Bella Twins, split by their allegiances to each team were no factor in the match.  Primo made the winning pin after he delivered a back cracker to unify the tag team belts.  I stated in my predictions that John Morrison is ready for a big singles push, look for that to happen real soon.

The Money In The Bank Ladder Match – The match is always loaded with dangerous spills.  Kofi Kingston did some really athletic stuff jumping vertically over a ladder held sideways charging at him.  Mark Henry got about halfway up a ladder once.  Other than that, his role was simply to inflict punishment on the ground before laying outside for the last several minutes of the match.  Christian Cage got close a couple of different times, but couldn’t seal the victory.  Finley, as expected, was basically used as comedy relief with his son Hornswaggle.  Hornswaggle went under the ring and pulled out a little two-step ladder for a good chuckle.  In the end, CM Punk repeated his ladder match victory from Wrestlemania XXIV last year by kicking Kane off of a ladder as they both neared the case.  I always thought this match was to give someone a push and was suprised MVP or Christian Cage didn’t get that push.  I guess we can probably expect Punk to lose the briefcase somehow because I really can’t see WWE brass giving him the strap again.  Shelton Benjamin took a nasty dive from the top of a ladder outside the ring and may have injured his neck.

Chris Jericho vs Hall of Famers Roddy Piper, Ricky Steamboat, & Jimmy Snuka – Steamboat was impressive and even did some high-flying.  Piper bullied Jericho around for the first few minutes.  The legends lost their momentum when Piper tagged in Jimmy Snuka.  Superfly looked horrible, no other way to say it.  He looked old, a step behind everything going on, and played to the crowd more in ten minutes then he did for ten years.  He was eliminated first, tapping out to The Walls of Jericho.  Next out was Piper, leaving Steamboat.  The dragon looked strong scoring several two counts and showing great heart throughout.  Eventually though, Jericho prevailed.  The obvious jump-in by Ric Flair after the match was predictable.  Flair beat Jericho around for a moment, then Jericho threw him out of the ring.  Jericho then grabbed the microphone and taunted Mickey Rourke to come in to the ring.  Rourke entered and delivered the traditional celebrity roundhouse knockout punch flooring Jericho.

Kid Rock, who I didn’t even know was going to be around, played about a fifteen minute medley set and sounded pretty good.  On his last number, the WWE Divas started entering walking past Kid Rock while still performing.  This too, was a predictable outcome.  Santino Marella wins the battle royal dressed as a woman.  When the trophy and sash to be given to Miss Wrestlemania are brought into the ring, Marella says his name is “Santina“, the twin sister of Santino.  I predicted an end to Beth Phoenix and Marella to happen at WM XXV, and he eliminated Phoenix last to win.  Too hard to believe the announcers acted like they didn’t know who it was.  Marella has a pretty large tattoo on his back. Duh.

Matt Hardy vs Jeff Hardy – This was a good match.  The Hardy Brothers worked better against each other than I first thought they would.  There were some pretty rough bumps.  Jeff had Matt in trouble and set up two ladders, one two steps taller than the other.  He then climbed the shorter of the two ladders and leapfrogged the larger flying down about 10 feet only to miss Matt.  Matt then took a chair, put Jeff’s head in between the backrest and seat and delivered a wicked Twist Of Fate for the pinfall.

JBL vs Rey Mysterio – I hope Rey Mysterio doesn’t continue to wear the ugly mask he had on.  It was something new, kind of looked like The Joker Heath Ledger portrayed in the last Batman movie – just awful and ugly.  Anyhow, Rey scores the win and is the new Intercontinental Champion.  At the end of the match, JBL grabbed the microphone, paused for a long time, looked around, and yelled, “I QUIT“.  He then dropped the mic and slowly walked confusingly up the ramp.  Not sure if it is an angle or if JBL has actually had enough.

The Undertaker vs Shaun Michaels – Match of the night.  Both wrestlers really sold each others stuff well and proved to live up to all of the hype of 17-0 vs Mr. Wrestlemania.  In the end of a long and suspense filled thriller, Undertaker wins with a second Tombstone Piledriver.  Michaels connected on Sweet Chin Music but could not score a pin as Taker kicked out.  Match was an instant classic, look for Michaels, who does not take losing big matches well (ask Bret Hart) to congratulate Undertaker on one of WWE’s shows this week.  The top video clip was a nasty spill Taker took diving outside the ring, poor cameraman took the worst of it.

Edge vs Cena vs Big Show – Sort of predictable.  Neat intro for cena as several Cena clones with jean shorts, UCSM tee-shirts, and hats pulled over their eyes lined the ramp.  There were not too many instances where all three guys were in the ring.  Most of the time two guys would fight for a bit, one would get thrown out, and the guy who was laying at ringside for five minutes reentered to start back up.  Cena scores the win in this match.  Should be interesting to see what happens with Vickie Guerrerro now as neither guy won the title or her heart.  I am thinking Edge may be turning face soon.

Triple H vs Randy Orton – Pretty good match, similar to Michaels vs Undertaker except Orton and Triple H have predictable arsenals.  RKO’s and Pedigrees get old.  The only neat swerve was that Triple H used Orton’s “Punt” tactic on Orton.  The sledgehammer made an appearance as well with Orton digging it up under the ring.  Triple H scores a clean pinfall to retain his championship.  Not sure where this goes from her, should be an interesting RAW this week.

Not bad but it seemed to me that Wrestlemania 25 dragged at times.  It needed a couple of more matches.  I give the card a B+ and really have newfound respect for Jeff and Matt Hardy.  The Michaels – Undertaker match will be a classic match down the road. 

In an article composed on Cleveland.com and exposed by Smack Caster, Eric Mangini is denying almost trading Qb Brady Quinn to Denver.  This team cannot afford to be a sideshow again in 2009, but episodes like this one seem to happen weekly.  Donte’ Stallworth was loaded when he struck a man and killed him a couple of weeks ago.  Yeah yeah yeah, professional athletes are overexposed when they get in trouble, I have heard it a million times before.  Stallworth blowing a .4 doesn’t help stabalize a blueprint that he is a part of.

The futility and anger of Cleveland fans has to be at a fever pitch with the Browns.  So many expectations last season with so few positive results.  Blame it on the coach.  Poor Romeo, slipping Crown Royal in Donte’s Kool-Aid.  Give me a break.  Have you heard any negative press on Randy Moss since he got to New England?  You won’t becuase The Patriots organization will not put up with the goofy charade of running a football team whose members need diaper changes every few hours.

Make a move, trade Stallworth to The Raiders.  Al Davis will probably buy him a bottle of Scotch to welcome him in.  Decide on Quinn or Anderson, not how Brett Favre will get here to show them both how to throw a tight spiral and pick up a hot read.  Can anybody there make any decisions that matter?  Poor Browns fans have been waiting for the proof to that sarcasm for way too long.  I’m not sure letting Kellen Winslow go away was very bright.  Now, Braylon Edwards’ name is popping up everywhere as the next Brown to go. 

Congrats Browns front office, you are already in a new category of disarray with Detroit and Oakland.