Next Year

Next Year is around the corner and next year there will actually be consistent material on this blog. Look for the first post on the first. Until then, hope everyone has a fun and safe New Years.

Thoughts and Picks

Yesterday
After yesterday, I still believe the two best teams, in the nation, will face off for the national championship, but I still feel Texas is getting screwed. Maybe the voters will feel bad and give McCoy the Heisman. Although I'd vote for Bradford, McCoy, Harvin, Tebow, Crabtree in that order. I really hope Tebow doesn't win. The Heisman is supposed to be for the best player in college football and Tebow isn't even the best player on his own team. MVP, yes. Best player, no. The national championship game should be a good, hoping I'll have a chance to break down a little game film prior to the game.

Other thoughts on yesterday.
USC's defense is so good, too bad their offense took one weak off. I'd love to see a scrimage of Oklahoma's offense versus USC's defense.
The ACC is really boring. I didn't even watch the game, but I'm sure it was boring.
Alabama will win the national championship within 5 years. Am I allowed to draft Julio Jones now in fantasy football league?
Never feel bad when Duke loses in basketball. Outstanding coaching job by Beilein.
USC's defense is really good.
The Tyrone Willingham Era could not end soon enough.
Jack McClinton is a stud, but Miami needs to figure out their second half troubles.
Chase is still fat. Maclin is still fast.
SDSU is 7-1 and just got their best player back from jail.

Today
I'm actually taking the morning off from watching football and going to see Slumdog Millionaire. The games kind of suck and the movie is supposed to be good. I have bes or clitched playoff spots in fantasy, so seems like a good day for a movie. I am looking forward to the Dallas v. Pitt game in the afternoon.

Picks
College Basketball

Nebraska +9 @ Arizona St.- Love Harden, but 9 is too man to give against a good Nebraska team

Missouri -6.5 v. California- Mizzou basketball team will do something their football team forgot to do yesterday, that is show up.

Florida +2.5 @ Florida St.- Florida has more talent and a better coach, give me the points.

Oregon -1.5 v. Kansas St.- I don't think Vegas knew what to do with this line. Either wa Oregon wins at home.

UCLA -22 v. CSU Northridge- UCLA takes out their frustration on Northridge.

NBA
Portland -3 @ Toronto- Portland shakes off Friday and gets a much needed road win.

LA Lakers -13.5 v. Milwaukee- Lakers return home for another eas win.

NFL
NY Giants -6.5 v. Philadelphia- I don't beleive that pros get that distracted and the line moved over a point due to off-field distractions, thanks for the point.

Kansas City +9 @ Denver- Which Denver team shows up? Team that lost to the Raiders by 21 at home or the team that went into New York last week to win easy. I say team A. Go LJ.

Dallas +3.5 @ Pittsburgh- Wouldn't be shocked if I won this by a half a point. Nasty weather in Pittsburgh, this game might be ugly.

Washington +6 @ Baltimore- Campbell needs to stop throwing picks.

Everyone enjoy their Sundays.

Yesterday's Result

College Football 4-3 +0.7U
College Basketball 3-0 +3.oU

Total 7-3 +3.7U

Be back in about in hour with thoughts on yesterday and picks for today.

Championship Saturday

Picks and Thoughts

Alabama v. Florida (-10) For the last 6 weeks or so I have kept going back and forth between Florida and Oklahoma as who is the best team in the country. Last week Florida's convincing victory over Florida State has once agained put me in the Florida sideline. That being said, Alabama is extremely good defensively and has a solid offense. They are the #1 team in the nation. I'm glad both teams had a game last week because both these coaches are too good to get the unfair advantage of having an extra week to prepare. It's scary how good Saban has got Alabama in such a short period of time and they'll win a National Championship sooner rather than later, but not this year. Florida is just too good even without Harvin. I'm taking the Gators.

USC @ UCLA (+32) The only question in this game is will UCLA be able to get a first down. USC will win this easy, but not score enough points to cover. Only thing I'm going to get out of this one is a hard one thinking about Maualuga in a Changers uniform. Plus, we'll get to see the clip of the best hit ever hopefully over and over again. Poor Pat Cowan. I'm taking the points and UCLA.

Missouri v. Oklahoma (-17) Oklahoma is the second best team in the nation, but should not be in this game. I've never been a huge proponent of a playoff in college football because the season usually takes care itself. Yes it'd be fun to watch, but I'm not sure that's a good enough reason to have a playoffs. I like the fact that if you don't show everyweek you potentially won't get to play for the National Championship game. Unless we have three undefeated teams I don't really want to hear you bitch about the BCS. Texas though should be complaining. They beat Oklahoma. I think Oklahoma would roll them if they played again, but Texas deserves to be in the game. That being said, I'm rooting for fat Chase tonight and taking Mizzou with the points.

Other Action today
Cal -35.5 over Washington- Sarkisian can't get to Washington soon enough.

Arizona -11 over Arizona St.- Willie T. too much for a bad road ASU team.

West Virginia -7 over South Florida- West Viriginia enjoy this because your program is going to drop fast.

Cincinatti -7.5 over Hawaii- Flights not enought to stop Cincy from rolling.

NCAAB

Michigan +10 over Duke- This will be an ugly win for Duke.

Miami,FL +3 over Kentucky- McClinton too much for the Wildcats

Baylor +3.5 over Washington State- This should be a great game that deserves more attention, Ijust like the fact Baylor's played in multiple tough games this year.

Predictions

I get why people read them. I get why people make them. I make them. I just don't get why they are news. Especially when we are talking about gas prices and the experts four months ago proved they don't know anything. If you watched the news this summer all you heard were predictions that gas would be selling for $200, this was when it was at $130, now it's in the $40s. So based off this, I have little faith in the predictions, yet on the news, a place for factual events to be reported, there was a segment on how we can expect gallons of gas to be under a buck soon. NO we can't. This is a lie. Is it possible that gas will be under a dollar a gallon, sure, but to say "we can expect" is a lie. There should be zero lying on the news. With that said, enjoy the cheap gas now, but my prediction is that with the cutting of supply the price of a barrel will be much closer to OPECs thought of $75 a barrel than the $30 dollar barrel we'd need to see to for a dollar gallon.

Link http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12400801/ This article was not what I was referring to above, but a sense of what is out there.

Next Year is Here

Football is over. Yes the NFL has four weeks left and yes there are still bowl games and the Super Bowl, but lets get real college basketball is here. Alright I'm no sadist, I get the football will reign supreme for the next two months. Just don't forget to occasionally fill a random week night with a good college basketball match up in HD. Last night I did that very thing.
Clemson vs. Illinois
Thoughts: I thought Clemson was much better than the Illini. I would've been upset if the Tigers lost since I felt they were much better. I was overly impressed by Mr. Stitt and get super excited for next year, because this team doesn't quite have the talent to make a run in the tourney, but I do think they are easily good enough to make the tourney. I thought the Book Show looked like he was in incredible shape and ran the front man on the press much better than I expected. The Book Show also looked like he forgot how to dunk. It looked as if his hands have shrunk and can't thunder home a dunk. I also understand that he can't make free throw, thus he figures why take it strong and get fouled and then miss two free throws. But does he really expected this crazy wrap around spinning layup to go in. I hope not. Didn't see much I really liked other than the top 8 returners.
Illinois looked bad to me. I didn't like their offense. They looked slow. But they could shoot and did a very good job of scoring when they successfully beat the press. Actually one of the better teams I've seen score almost everytime they beat the press. They were so successful the Oliver Purnell actually pulled the press off once the Tigers regained the lead.

Let's see if I get as much excitement as I did last night watching a good college basketball game on Thursday night when I venture into the Q to watch two pathetic professional football teams.

Too Soon

The trip was only 40 days. We only had one road game. Prior to departure we would have been favorite in every game. What happens? 3 loses. A new coach. Completely out of it. What the fuck?
Next year sadly has arrived by Halloween. This isn't exactly new for me, I was just hoping this year would be slightly different. But, it's not. It is now time to get ready for the the hype of the new coach. The Willie Korn Era and whatever other bullshit I'm about to start reading so we can do it all again next year.
This is the worst part of living an Always Next Year life. During the season you have to start finding reason why next year will be different. I watched 2 games this year and I already have to start trying to find reasons why next year will be different. Then next year at this same time, this same article will be written.Thanks a lot Tigers.

My Love Affair

The love affair started when I got the 2008 edition of Baseball Prospectus. When I was reading team by team I noticed that they had a higher number of win for the newly named Tampa Bay Rays. So high they actually had them going above .500. For most teams this would not be that high of an accomplishment, but when we're talking about the Rays who have never finished above .500 in the franchise history this was a semi big deal.

The interest peaked when the odds to win the World Series came out and some books had the Rays as high as 250-1. At the time, it was right in the middle of March Madness and I already had a large future tied up in Kansas winning it all, thank you Mario, and didn't want to have any more of the bankroll tied up in futures.

Then March Madness ended and there was suddenly available funds for futures. Although I wish I could've got there highest, I can't complain too much thanks to Kansas, but on April 24 I placed my first Tampa futures bet at 100-1.

The love affair has continued.

April 24- To Win World Series 100-1
May 30- To Win AL East 4-1
May 31- To Win AL East 3.5-1
June 1- To Win AL East 3.5-1
June 3- To Win World Series 12-1
June 5- To Win World Series 17-1
June 16- To Win World Series 12-1
June 19- To Win World Series 16.5-1
June 23- To Win World Series 12-1
June 30-To Win World Series 16-1
July 22- To Win World Series 8-1
July 28- To Win World Series 9-1
July 28- To Win AL 5-1

If Tampa Bay wins the AL East and World Series, I win 218.5 Units. This will equal a very nice party for all my friends.

So unlike all the bandwagon jumpers, I can truly say I've been rooting for the Rays all season. This came at a good time because the Padres are unwatchable. Can Madden lead a bunch of young inexperienced players into the playoffs and win it all? Sure. Likely? Not really, but they give me a team to cheer for and a huge hedge coming.

I just didn't think that Tampa Bay would be my first sugar momma.

My Love

If I was forced to eat one food and one food only, it’d be chicken wings.

Some Mexican food lovers might think that prior statement is blasphemy, and it would be except for the fact that chicken wings are the greatest thing ever. I’m actually serious about them being the greatest thing ever. I fucking love chicken wings.

Besides tasting amazing, you usually eat them at a bar. Being at a bar is always a plus. Being at a bar with sports on, while eating chicken wings is one of my five ideal days. I’m in love with chicken wings. I mean, I’m really in love with chicken wings. It’s unclear to me where the love exactly started, but I know I don’t have to worry about it ending.

My love is borderline unhealthy, alright it’s completely unhealthy. When I was a freshman in college and was on a diet I got one day off a week. I picked my day off around the day the cafeteria served Buffalo Chicken Sandwich. I have once eaten 52 wings in a single sitting. That’s more than anyone else I know. Once during my junior year the only food I had for four straight days were chicken wings. It’s safe to say I really am a fan of the chicken wings.

I bring up chicken wings because my consumption of chicken wings are about to dramatically increase with football right around the season and this excites me greatly. I have high expectation for both the Tigers and the Chargers and thus I find solace in the fact that there will be chicken wings waiting to help me deal with the disappointment.

I’m off to go eat some wings.

My Way

If I had it my way I’d be naked a lot more.

Being naked is fun. If I’m naked something good is going on. I can’t recall once when an event took place in my life where I was naked and the event sucked. There might be a time or two that the other person wasn’t exactly thrilled, but me, I always have a great time naked. Take showers for instance, sometimes I take two in a day. Naked during both. Sleeping is always more enjoyable in the nude. Massages, sex, even reading is more fun naked. I could go on and on and the answer will continue to be: life is better naked.

In case you’re wondering, this blog isn’t intended to start a worldwide naked movement. I think we all know that’d be a terrible idea. I don’t even want to start to picture the workers at Hardee’s in such a world. If you just got that picture in your head, feel free to go throw up now.

The real purpose of this blog is to give the public at large the chance to see what it is really like to be me from the inside out. People often get lost in my beauty and never get to see the real me. Here is your chance. I will voice my opinion on things that I view important. Basically, sports, movies, books, and politics.

The point of this blog is to “Establish your online presence. Create new clients for business. Improve your writing. Communicate with friends and family.” At least according to the Big Man. He is the webmaster and I am his humble servant of the web. I got a good chortle out of his purpose for my blog. I can see the headline now, “Zach Stratton has firmly established himself as one of the great bloggers of our generation.” If that doesn’t make your parents proud, you starring in soft-core porn will. I’m not sure how many people with a net worth over a million are going to read this, but I guess if they do I’ll be happy to take them on as clients. So if you are a millionaire and are looking for a financial planner with tax alpha and tired of the same old wire-house guy, then I’m your man. Improve my writing; let’s not get our hopes up. The last purpose is my favorite and sadly, probably the most likely to be true. Sad because we, as a society, have turned communication into posts and abbreviations. I envy the days when people used to write letters to each other. I want a pen pal.

What will this blog really be? The opportunity for everyone to voyeur into my life. To laugh and mock me on a regular basis. This will basically be my diary. I doubt I’ll start future blogs with Dear Diary, but outside that it will be just like a diary. So get ready for the juicy gossip about who likes who and who got a hand job on the hand ball courts.

Until I really figure out what I want to do with this, I’ll be posting my sports opinions, reviewing the books I read, monitoring my constant weight fluctuation, and my obsessive behaviors.

If you really hate it, you can always take your clothes off and be naked. That will ease the pain.