Omaha

I hated that LSU went down in 2 games, but the games were played fast enough that I could enjoy the play.  At times I miss the long ball, but the 5 hour games of the past were hard for me to stomach.

The umps, as BPender keeps telling me, are giving the pitchers the low strike at the knees and it is great. We will no longer ruin pitchers in college with the juiced up ball and fear to pitch inside and low. The players should be better prepared to go straight to the majors with these toned down bats.

College baseball is set to become a line-drive hitters game in the near future,  Coaches better adjust or they will follow LSU with "2 and Done."  Depending on baserunning and defense is a recipe for 50 games one year and a 500% season the next.  The LSU lack of hitting the last 3 years is difficult to explain, but leaving 20 runners on base in the last two games was more about pressure of the situation.

I am wearing my Mississippi State Baseball T-Shirt today in honor of BCompton, who pitched for the dogs in 98.

J.

NFL

Did the Cowboys handle anything right this offseason.

In my opinion. NO.

8-8 maybe a stretch unless the Defense is much better than I expect.

J.

US OPEN`

Father's Day has become difficult for me to watch in recent years because of golf and the NBA finals.
Phil losing US Opens is gut wrenching.  The year he lost it on 18 and the Mavs were robbed in Miami made me quit watching TV for a month.

Phil has 4 majors, but I think he needs 6 to get his due among the greats of all time. We cannot forget that Tiger is just a phenom that is mentioned as greatest ever, but that Phil is an all time great. 

I have never seen a supposedly great putter, like Lefty, miss as many birdie putts inside of ten feet.   It is the complete opposite of Jack and Tiger.  This makes it gut-wrenching for me in every major.

Still, I enjoy watching the wizardry and relate to the failures with Phil more than any golfer I have ever rooted for  in sports.

Rory, has to have Girl issues.  He loses concentration completely.   His ball striking is still below last year, but better than 95% of the PGA, but his putting is killing him.   Can the new ball effect the read of putts that much?  I would like to see the math on the subject.

Tiger, has been the best putter on tour by a wide margin for most of the year, but in the last month fallen off again.  I am confused by his lost ability to read putts better than anyone we have ever seen.

Justin Rose is a great golfer and I am glad he won a major.  I like his game and felt he deserved to win shooting 3 under the last 3 days when the course became harder.  His birdie after watching Phil Eagle 10 was eerily familiar to watching him make long putts in the recent Ryder Cup to beat Phil, who was playing great.
It is great to watch and almost funny, but you can tell that Rose likes Phil and wants to beat him out of respect.  It is like, Phil has made people better somehow. What a great competitor Rose has become?


J

Heat Spurs

A few weeks ago SI published and article about Lebron.  In the article an insider made a comment that they didn't realize that Lebron was the best player in the NBA when they got him and tried to make him play just a role on the team.
 ?  How did they not know?
  Cavs in Finals, with who as teammates?
So much for the myth of ex-players recognizing talent.

He is incredible, not better defensively than MJ, but great.  (People forget MJ guarded the best players also and completely took them out of the game.)
I heard someone recently say that they never saw Malone guarding an All Star PG.  - Lebron Can!

He is not better than MJ in the lane on offense, but better than Kobe every thought about being.

I am still amazed at how fast he is down the court when takes off, the Heat coaching has contained his speed with his duties as a PG.  I cannot fathom what he would do if he had a Stockton-Malone type passer with him. Ca

The Heat are a team in desperate need of ADHD meds. 
Between Wade clogging up the offense and Bosh being place out of position to help on interior defense, they are just hard to watch.

The Spurs on the other hand, seem to be the best at developing players and just play a great team game. When Wade and James are on the floor they double and triple Lebron, while knowing that Bosh stays outside so those two can clog up the paint and force issues. 

If the Heat win, Wade will have to play defense with abandon or be sitting on the bench while the shooters spread the floor and let Lebron work the lane and kick it out.

I am curious if Lebron will opt out of his contract.  He cannot be happy with the griping reportedly in the locker room for the Heat.

J.

Airline High School Story Baseball

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013306150013

Interesting article .

J.

As a side note:
I cannot remmeber the specifics but there was around 7 kids from that played in Bossier Youth leagues in Omaha when the Bell Boys were at LSU.