Why I love the NBA Draft

Here why I love the NBA Draft and become must-watch for me.

- Suspense. Drafting a player is stressful for the team GMs and the fans. They bank on the draft to build the team and hope to lead them to prosperity or to downward oblivion. Every fan on the edge of their seat when the words, "With the X picked *insert team* selects *insert player name*" comes up.

- Fine threads. What a way for incoming player introducing himself to the NBA fans with a best dressed, sick-looking suit and bling to celebrate on getting drafted.

- Emotions. The joys and disappointments of getting drafted from happiness, cheering, slapping hands, crying, and pouting. How can anyone not forget Rashard Lewis breaking down in tears when he was picked in the second round or Steve Francis reaction he was going to then-Vancouver Grizzlies?

- Analysis and info. Listening to the draft analysis going on about player talents to which team is a good or bad fit for him. They also ramble on the "best" player still on the board firing off the stats, positives, and negatives to which player should have stayed in school.

- usage of words. The words "intangible", "upside", and "unlimited" gets tossed around so much that you could have a drinking game out of it. Anytime one of the analysis mention those words take a drink.

- watching it 5-10 years later figuring which teams made the right or wrong picks, which players become stars, playmaker, bust, or late round steals, and which analysis made a fool out of himself when his predictions went all wrong.

I love the draft.

Why NASCAR All-Star race is the only All-Star exhibition that matters

- one winner out of 50-60 potential qualifiers

- big prize: million dollars

- always at Lowes Motor Speedway

- intensity of the drivers wanting to win a million

- driven to win or crash trying

- despite the ever-changing format it will always be 90 laps

- only the winners from season before starting after All-Star race and before this year All-Star race and former race winners are automatically in the All-Star race.

- The winner of the All-Star Open will get final spot in the All-Star race field.

Forget about MLB All-Star and their "home-field" advantage. That doesn't matter any more. NBA All-Star? More of a big show off contest. NFL Pro Bowl? It's a Hawaiian vacation for the players. Also player voting is a giant popularity contest.

In the NASCAR All-Star race every driver and team busted their ass hard to preparing the cars to race. They do anything from finding and exploiting loopholes hoping to get a race advantage. It's wreckers or checkers. Out of all sports NASCAR got their All-Star exhibition right.

Manny Ramirez busted for performance enhancing drugs

Another big name gets caught for performance enhancing drugs and its Manny Ramirez. His agent Scott Boras said it was a drug prescribed by a doctor that triggered the positive test. Once again Jose Canseco is right.

Coyotes: Broke and possibly migrating to north of the border

Phoenix Coyotes, despite getting getting money loans from the NHL, have filed chapter 11 bankruptcy protection against NHL wishes. The NHL stripped Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes of any authority. Guess who came to pounce with a price tag?

It's Blackberry co-CEO Jim Balsillie, who failed attempt to buy Pittsburgh Penguins and Nashville Predators, quickly jump on Coyotes with a price tag of $212.15 million with a possibility of moving the team north of the border to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. But its long fight before it happens.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman doubted the sale of the Coyotes gain approval from NHL owners. Also he reiterated the league on keeping the team in Glendale. Meanwhile, the city of Glendale trying to block the sale of the team from moving the Canada.

Up in Hamilton excitement is high for possible Coyotes relocation with support from Ontario premier and Canada prime minister.

It's going be a huge showdown and a mess in the offseason. Will Jim Balsillie finally get his NHL team and move to Hamilton or will Coyotes remain in Glendale?

New York Jets new franchise player and the likely pain he will cause to Jets fans.

Mark Sanchez you are immediately on the clock.

New York Jets made a big move on draft day trading three players and two draft picks to move up to sixth in the draft selecting USC quarterback Mark Sanchez. It was hefty trade for the Jets hopefully it will pay off big time. But what if he doesn't pan out? Sanchez is under more scrutiny than Matthew Stafford. He's playing in the largest media region along one of the largest latino/hispanic population. It's also a fact Jets sent two draft picks along with three players to the Browns. Where that leave the Jets in next year's draft? Three draft picks minus compensation. That's how much Sanchez trade cost them. Building toward the team's future look bleak and it will be bad if Mark Sanchez didn't materialize like he's projected. It also the risk of taking a USC quarterback which are a hit or miss.

- Matt Leinart. Drafted 10th overall by the Arizona Cardinals and heir apparent to Kurt Warner. Started off well then suffered a season ending collarbone giving way to Kurt Warner start. Warner hasn't relinquished the starting roll and Leinart sits on the bench. Oh yeah Warner guided the Cardinals to the Super Bowl. Leinart still has lot of time to improve.

- Carson Palmer. Drafted 1st overall by the Bengals and sat on the bench in his rookie season. Given the start the following season he started ablaze with three Pro Bowls and leading Bengals to their first trip to the playoffs in almost 15 years. Lately he fizzled and battled injuries. Hopefully his arm/elbow will be healed in time for 2009. Jury still out on him

- Todd Marinovich. Drafted 24th overall by the Raiders he lasted two seasons where he spent most of the time on drugs. Bust

- Rob Johnson. Played nine seasons with Jaguars, Bills, Buccaneers, Redskins, and Raiders where he started most of his games with Bills. He gave them misery with fans wanting Doug Flutie back as starter. Miss

- Matt Cassell. He only played one full season after starter Tom Brady went down. Leading the team 11-5 season. Will get to start full-time as he was traded to the Chiefs. Jury out of him based on how well he does in Kansas City.

Hopefully Matt Sanchez become a future star and the franchise player of the team. If not, its gonna be misery to Jets fans.

Besides as a Jets fan I feel it was too much to give up to move and take Sanchez.

Sport card of the week

Sport card of the Week
1989 Score Football #270 Troy Aikman

This one of key cards in this memorable football set. In fact I feel this is one of Score's signature cards.

Score made its debut in the sports card market back in 1988 putting out a very bland baseball set. When they decide to produce football cards in 1989 they made sure their cards stood out to the hobby. For the card design they printed out the players name with their team's helmet logo, position, and their photo. What really stood out the rookies on the set with the word "ROOKIE" splashed across the top of the card and their face portrait. Unlike Pro Set, which made its debut the same year, they limited produce the set.

The set would become a big hit among collectors especially with rookies like Troy Aikman.

For Aikman he became of many key figures on the rebuilding of the Dallas Cowboys Dynasty. He would lead the Cowboys to three Super Bowls titles along being Super Bowl MVP, six-time Pro Bowler, and NFL Hall of Famer.

Twenty years later Score still producing just primarily on football cards. Then there's the 2009 draft...

With Detroit Lions choosing Matthew Stafford with their first pick on this year's draft could he lead the Lions from the depths down below and rise up on top much like Troy Aikman did it with the Cowboys?

Midland Rockhounds vs Arkansas Travelers: Opening night April 16

Opening night at Citibank Ballpark as Midland Rockhounds (Double-A A's affiliate) took on the visiting Arkansas Travelers (Double-A Angels affiliate). The starting pitchers for the night are:



Jason Fernandez

Jordan Walden
Angels #2 Prospect

It was gusty windy night with rain coming and going on and off. Both pitchers were shaky. Fernandez, despite pitching decent in the early innings, issue walks while Walden has control issues. In the bottom of the second with two outs he gave up a hit to Corey Brown then walked Yung-Chi Chen and hit Corey Wimberly with two strikes on him. Josh Horton drove in two-run single and walking Chris Carter before getting yanked after 1 2/3 inning. Bryan Rembisz entered only give up a two-run single to Tommy Everidge. Rembisz got out of the jam with Rockhounds leading 4-0. Travelers battle back trimming the deficit to 1 run when Ryan Mount hit three-run homerun in the 4th. In the 5th they took the lead for good for Mark Trumbo smacked a two-run homerun making it 5-4. Arnold Leon entered the game f0r Fernandez before the 6th and pitched well. Rockhounds' batters went silent as Travelers' pitchers kept them grounded. Before the 7th inning the winds quickly picked up as the storm about to hit. After the 7th I quickly left the stadium trying to beat the in-coming storm and listen the rest of the game. The results were the same when I left the ballpark. Final score Travelers 5 Rockhounds 4. Still got hundred more games to left and two halves for the Rockhounds to make the playoffs.

RIP Nick Adenhart (Aug 24 1986 - April 9 2009)

R.I.P. Nick Adenhart

Sad day in baseball as Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim rookie pitcher Nick Adenhart died in a car wreck in the early morning hours after pitching 6 shutout innings. He was one of Angels top young pitching prospects with a bright future ahead. He was only 22 when he died.

I saw him play back in 2007 when he was with Angels Double-A club Arkansas Travelers. The picture on the left was from the game I attended which he pitched 5 innings, striking out 1, walking 2 and giving up 5 hits, 3 runs all earned.

RIP Nick Adenhart. Baseball fans will miss you.

Next on the list....Manny Ramirez?

Jose Canseco next claim to be on steroids? Manny Ramirez. At speaking engagement Canseco believes he's one of 103 players tested for positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003.

Before so many quickly dismiss Canseco claim as bullshit just remember his claims in the past.

- of the many players he listed on "Juiced" they were caught from admission (Jason Giambi) to positive tests later on. Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire gave embarrasing testimonies to Congress while Rafael Palmeiro wagged his finger claiming he didn't use it. Palmeiro end up getting busted for later in the 2006 season and claimed his then-teammate Miguel Tejada injecting him with a tainted B-12 vitamin.

- in "Vindicated" claimed Alex Rodriguez used steroids. Alex came clean in February to admit using steroids from 2001 to 2003 after it was leaked in the media he was one of 103 players tested positives for performance-enhancers in 2003.

There is multiple sides to every story. ESPN Sportscenter crew quickly dismiss Manny and PED claims and mention Jose Canseco just trying to get his name out in public. Whether Canseco is right or wrong just remember how many dismiss his earlier claims til the real truth came out. Afterwards the critics turned around and went, "You know, maybe he is right all this time."

Card of the Week

1989 Upper Deck baseball #1 Ken Griffey, Jr.

Twenty years ago Upper Deck enter the sports card hobby with this grand baseball set. It became huge hit among the hobby and easily one of the best product of that year. The set revolutionize and changed the landscape of the hobby with superb photography and glossy anti-counterfeit picture cards along with over-abundance of rookies. One of the rookies in this sit is Ken Griffey, Jr. which Upper Deck banked on as the "face" of the company. It was worth a gamble as his rookie card was huge hit among the hobby and became Upper Deck signature card in the hobby.

It helped the fact he quickly busted on the major league baseball scene. As 19-year old he quickly made the Seattle Mariners team as non-roster player in spring training that year and the rest is history. His nasty homerun shots and his defensive play dazzled fans. He was one the key main players as the Mariners rose to powerhouse threat from 1995-1999 before getting traded to the Reds in 2000 spending 8 1/2 seasons there before spending 1/2 the season with the White Sox. He returned back "home" signing with the Mariners in the offseason. The future Hall of Famer currently has 612 homeruns with 1773 runs batted in.

Here we are 20 years later. Ken Griffey, Jr., at 39, still has the nasty pop while Upper Deck trying to retain MLB license to produce 2010 cards. If Upper Deck loses their license just remember their amazing debut baseball set back in 1989 especially Ken Griffey, Jr. rookie card.