Crosstown Shootout – Let’s Go Muskies!

Tonight marks the 72nd Crosstown Shootout between the University of Cincinnati and Xavier University. Be sure to watch on ESPN2 at 9 p.m. The game could very well get away from XU, but if history holds true for this great rivalry, it will be a close game and the winner may very well win at the buzzer. UC is a 15½ point favorite. I think that is a little much given the history of the series, but I won’t be placing any money on XU to cover. Can’t bet the heart in this game.

Now, I know most of you out there are thinking, “Who cares about this rivalry?” I understand. We XU fans don’t expect the rest of the country to get as excited about this game as we do here in the ‘Nati. The national scene gets pumped up when talking about the Duke-UNC rivalry (and rightfully so) and how close in proximity they are to one another. We are a matter of minutes apart. Roughly 10 minutes separates these two universities. Roughly eight miles! That is all!

The story here lately is how UC might not keep the rivalry going because it doesn’t mean anything to them anymore. What a crock of shit! Could it be because they have be dominated the past eight years? XU has won 6 of the last 8 and 7 of the last 11. To say this “our championship” is bullshit. What has UC won the past several years, being the elitists and all?
Several C-USA Championships. I know they are moving into the Big East and yes, that will be one of the top three basketball conferences next year, but for UC to try to disrespect XU like this continues to show the lack of class coming from that University.

Catholics vs. Convicts! That’s the way it is and the way it always will be, unless UC is too scared to play lowly XU since it offers them nothing.

My prediction: UC – 72, XU – 69. I just can’t pick my beloved Musketeers because they are so young and inexperienced. Plus, if Brian Thornton doesn’t play, XU has nobody to bang inside with the much taller, experienced, and mature Bearcats.

Comparison of Two Hall of Fame Quarterbacks?

I asked a question before the Super Bowl about Tom Brady. If he won his third Super Bowl and his third Super Bowl MVP, would he be a lock for the Hall of Fame? Well, we now know that he did win his third Super Bowl, but not his third Super Bowl MVP. I asked that question to a group of friends that night and everyone said “Yes. He’s a lock.”

So, I got to thinking about a comparison between Brady and another quarterback. Here is the breakdown below of the two quarterback’s best four years (since that is all Brady has played).

Tom Brady:

• Games played – 63
• Completions – 1,242
• Attempts – 2,015
• Completion Percentage – 61.6%
• Passing Yards – 13,919
• Touchdowns – 97
• Interceptions – 52
• Average QB Rating – 87.7
• Rushing Attempts – 163
• Rushing Yards – 244
• Rushing Yards/Attempt – 1.5
• Rushing Touchdowns – 2
• Passing Yards/Attempt – 6.9
• Passing Yards/Completion – 11.3
• Super Bowl Wins – 3
• Super Bowl MVPs – 2
• NFL MVP – 0
• 2-time NFL Pro Bowler
• Regular Season Wins – 48
  
• Regular Season Losses – 15
  
• Post Season Wins - 9
• Post Season Losses - 0
  

Quarterback A:

• Games played – 52
• Completions – 1,109
• Attempts – 1,669
• Completion Percentage – 66.4%
• Passing Yards – 14,666
• Touchdowns – 104
• Interceptions – 57
• Average QB Rating – 98.8
• Rushing Attempts – 82
• Rushing Yards – 199
• Rushing Yards/Attempt – 2.4
• Rushing Touchdowns – 2
• Passing Yards/Attempt – 8.7
• Passing Yards/Completion – 12.1
• Super Bowl Wins – 1
• Super Bowl MVPs – 1
• NFL MVP – 2
• 3-time NFL Pro Bowler
• Regular Season Wins – 40
  
• Regular Season Losses – 12
  
• Post Season Wins - 5
  
• Post Season Losses - 2
  

Now, Quarterback A has better numbers over the four year comparison than Brady, except for the Super Bowl victories. Brady has him 3 to 1 in SB victories and 2 to 1 in the SB MVPs. QB A has Brady 2 to 0 in the NFL MVPs. Would you say QB A is a Hall of Famer? Would you say Kurt Warner is a Hall of Fame quarterback?

Looking at those comparisons and numbers, I don’t see how we can say that Tom Brady is a Hall of Fame quarterback based on a 9-0 play-off record and three Super Bowl victories. I’m not trying to take anything away from Brady, but he shouldn’t have a bust waiting for him at Canton right now.

I don’t think anyone in their right mind would say Kurt Warner is a Hall of Fame quarterback after watching his fall the past few years. He technically only had three good years, but this past season was the most he has played since 2001. His four seasons used in the average were 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2004.

Does this change anyone’s opinion now? Are you still convinced that Tom Brady, if he retired tomorrow would be a Hall of Famer? Would Kurt Warner be enshrined in the Hall if he retired tomorrow?

I think Brady will be in the Hall of Fame after his career is long over, only because of his postseason record. People will always talk about the Super Bowl victories, and I’m sure he will get several more rings in his day. Warner, you can’t say the same for.

“The theory of probability has no idea what game you are playing. The odds of being dealt any specific poker hand (any combination of fiver cards) is 1 in 2,598,960. You have the same chances of being dealt a royal straight flush in spaces as you do the 7 of hearts, 6 of spades, 5 of diamonds, 3 of clubs, and 2 of hearts.” – Poker Wisdom from my poker desk calendar

If you read the previous post you know I finished 9th in my 2nd Cincinnati Series of Poker championship this past weekend. Had 29 people play this year; one more than last year. It was a pretty tight tournament from the onset. We were a good 30 minutes in before the first all-in bet. The one that I remember the best, even though it wasn’t at my table, was the AA vs. 88. AA went all-in after the flop, but I’m not sure what was on the board. The 88 called the bet, actually putting himself all-in and caught an 8 on the river. That table erupted at that beat.

Play continued for about 7 hours until the winner was decided. There were a couple of people upset at the final two because they thought they were in cahoots with one another. Now both people are good friends of mine and they did make a deal early on that if they made it to the final two with equal chips, they would split the money. If one player had more chips than the other, they would play until a winner was determined. I was fine with that deal, because I said it was allowed in the rules. Now maybe they didn’t play many pots against one another, but they both played plenty of pots against the rest of the table to get where they were at.

There wasn’t quite the afterparty this year compared to last. It was certainly more tame. We drank whatever beer was left, went to a few bars, and ate some sliders from White Castle. Anyone who knows the WC Lounge, especially from the classic movie Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, knows how good they taste while drunk, not so good the next morning.

There aren’t too many of my hands to talk about. Looking back on my notes, I didn’t play out of position too much at all and really only played to the showdown four times. I was able to steal a lot of blinds, but never able to scoop any big pots. I did play the hammer one time and bluffed the guy off the flop to scoop a small pot. I just had to play it. I think it may have been the alcohol working.

Anyway, so the Super Bowl is this weekend. Hey, does anyone know if T.O. is going to play? I can’t seem to find anything about his status? I can’t believe this isn’t a huge topic of discussion in Jacksonville?

I was watching Sports Center a couple nights back when some reporter posed a question to D. McNabb about T.O. “Did T.O. make you a better quarterback?” What? Now, I realize T.O. gave McNabb a better option to throw too, but he certainly didn’t make him a better quarterback. McNabb was a great quarterback before and an incredible team leader. Anyway, McNabb basically said, “No, he didn’t make me a better quarterback. If he did, then I guess you can say I made him a better wide receiver.” Stuart “One Eye” Scott went nuts on the answer along with Michael Irvin. Only Steve Young exercised some intelligence in the matter saying, McNabb basically said he was a good quarterback before and will be after. It wasn’t a reflection on T.O. I can’t stand how the media feels they must only cater to controversial issues and try to cause a rift between teammates.

As much as I wanted an All-Pennsylvania Super Bowl, it wasn’t to be. I ultimately think that New England will win yet another Super Bowl. They just don’t make mistakes. I hope Philly wins and McNabb gets his ring. My prediction: NE – 26, Philly – 17. Brady will earn his third Super Bowl MVP in four years.

Poll Question – If Brady leads NE to their 3rd Super Bowl in four years and earns his 3rd Super Bowl MVP, will this make him a lock for the Hall of Fame?

I was reading the other morning that Barry Bonds will miss most of spring training because of arthritis in his knee. Now, tell me if I’m wrong or not, but when you go off the juice, aren’t your knees one of the first things to go and show signs of arthritis? I could be wrong, but come on. My prediction: Barry will report and of course will be lighter (see Jason Giambi last year) and will say that it is a result of the knee surgery. He realized he needed to take some of the pressure off his knee, so he changed his diet and dropped a few extra pounds. Barry Bonds is a fraud. He is a great ballplayer, but in my eyes, he has cheated to get where he is today.
His numbers are fraudulent and when he does break Ruth’s record and ultimately Aaron’s record, there should be an asterisk next to his name.

A prime example of why women shouldn’t own sports teams. ABA owner fires woman coach because she wouldn’t bench best player. Makes sense right? This Sally Anthony chick is nuts. Check out her website. (Funny, just brought the link back up...site is now "Under Construction.") It is good to see that the coach was reinstated. Plus the coach is kinda hot. Am I right?

Anyone watching the Grinnell v. Beloit basketball game? This game is awesome. I should have went to Grinnell and played basketball. That would have been fun. Wonder what the over/under was on the game? Anyone know?

Finished 9th

Had my big, annual tournament last night. This will be a short post because still feeling the effects of the hangover and long day. About 30 people showed up. An old roommate of mine won the thing and took home $840 for the 7 1/2 hours of work. I was one spot off the final table. My goal was to make back-to-back final tables, but one short isn't too bad. I didn't play bad at all. I was stealing blinds when I needed to steal them and played well when I had cards to work with. Unfortunately, they just came too few and far between. Eventually I was blinded off. Went all-in in the dark on my final hand. Never looked, caught two pair, but lost to a higher two pair.

Great night overall. Everyone enjoyed themselves and I'm sure this time next year I will be talking about the 3rd CSOP.

Really...A Month?

Good stuff. It really has been a month since I last posted. No real excuses for that except laziness and craziness around my house. Laziness on my part of not really having too much to say, being preoccupied with a life transition, and not playing much poker. Craziness surrounds my house as all the snow the past month, along with rain and flooding has somewhat ruined my basement.

Now, this wouldn’t seem like a great big deal, but this is my part of the house. The basement is completely finished and this is where my surround sound system and 55” Mitsubishi television sits. Luckily, the flood wasn’t a problem for me. All the snow and rain has been soaked into the ground and forcing its way through cracks in my foundation, ruining carpet (and towels) in its path. I have removed all the drywall and paneling along one side of the basement in anticipation of the construction work to be done. A new drain tile and drain system should take care of any water problems for the future. Luckily for me, right now, it hasn’t affected any of my television watching or video game playing.

Since the carpet is ruined in that section of the basement, my wife and I decided to put down a new floor. I could have ripped up the carpet and padding and put the carpet back down, but it would look like shit. I don’t do well with stuff that looks like shit. We are going with a company trying to break into the Cincinnati market that puts down a natural stone floor. You can check them out here.

Since this problem has lasted the past month, I’m excited to get it over with, but still have to wait a while longer for the people to come in and do the work. As you can imagine, I’m not the only one in the city who needs this work done.

Enough on the bad stuff. Let’s get to some good stuff. I have gone through a small life transition this past week/month. I have left my former position, which I don’t believe I ever mentioned what that was (for good reason), for a new position with Ashland Inc. I am very excited about this opportunity to work in their corporate headquarters and in the corporate communications department. I promise I won’t talk about work much in this little blog. The reason that I didn’t mention what I did previously was because I worked for the city government. There are extremely high tensions in the City of Cincinnati and anyone that has a blog in this town that discusses anything going on in the city tends to get picked up by the local alternative media. Now, my goal was to never get that attention. While I have had many opinions in the past year of blogging, I never wanted to make any known for fear of the City finding out. Now that I am no longer an employee, expect to see some juicy stuff on how ridiculously this city is ran. Why this city continues to reelect the Councilmembers we currently have serving is beyond me. Anyways, I’m excited about the new opportunity. It will be one that will provide me with great experience and incredible chances to move up in the world. Have I decided this is the career path for me? No, I still think PGA golfer is the way to go, but I’ll settle for this right now.

As for everything else, I plan on picking up the postings regarding sports and most likely local politics. I have decided on a new look for the blog. I didn’t like the small columns on the previous one and also know that I cannot post only on poker. I unfortunately do not play enough or devote near enough time to the hobby. I hate to call it a hobby, but right now that is all it is. Profitable when I do play, so that makes it better than my other hobbies. I am playing in a home game this weekend. We had to take it on location because I’m expecting anywhere between 30-50 people. I will find out the total on Saturday at 2 p.m. This is the one big tournament I plan on doing every year. I got started a little late on the planning stage of it this year and may not get as many people as I would like. I played and ran the thing last year, finishing fifth. Hoping for a better outcome this year. I have invited Iggy to the game, but with the surgery and all, not sure if he is up for much more than clicking a mouse.

Well, I think this is enough to get me back in the flow of things. Thanks for coming back if you have. Sorry for the hiatus.