Another Year of disappointment

The year 2008 is rapidly coming to an end. In some aspects this year has been more than I could have asked for. My wife and I had our first child, Chandler, he is so much fun. I got a job offer which I will begin in about 5 months which adds to my joy. In the world of sports however, 2008 has brought nothing but heartbreak and disappointment. Let me recount the disappointments in chronological order.

April 19 - One of the best playoff games I have ever watched ended in a horribly disappointing fashion. The Suns were ahead for most of the first half of the first game of the series with the Spurs. They were looking good and it appeared like maybe this year they had the Spurs number. It was one last second shot after another that eventually led to the layup by Manu Ginobli that ended the game in the second overtime. Not to be forgotten was the 3-point shot heard round the world. Yes the only time I have ever seen Tim Duncan take and make a three pointer was that game. I doubt he will ever do it again. This game of course deflated any momentum the Suns might have had from the regular season and reintroduced the doubt of their ability to beat the Spurs. As we know, the Suns would go on to lose the series in five games on April 29.

October 4 - The heavily favored Cubs, who won 98 regular season games the best in the National League, loses the 3rd playoff game in a row and are swept by the Dodger, the National League team with the worst record in the playoffs. The pitching that was so highly tought of from the Cubs got beat around by the Dodger bats all series long. The worst part of the whole situation is that I was too disappointed to even watch the last game becasue I knew the Cubs had done it again, they found a way to blow their chance. While I will continue to be a Cubs fan I am tiring of their ability to self destruct. How can you pay a guy over a 100 million dollars and have then lay such an egg in the playoffs (Alfonso Soriano is who I am talking about). The good news is that the nucleus of the team is staying together and their is a chance from some real upgrade in pitching. All I can say is, there is always next year...

October 16 - The first real test for the Brigham Young football team is against a fast, defensive minded TCU. This game was going to prove that BYU belonged in the top 8 and that they were just as good as the other major BCS teams. So what do they do, they lay an egg. I was nervous coming into this game know that the BYU defense was not really as good as the number had led on and that they would have a struggle on their hands. My fears became a reality and what's worse is the offense refused to adapt and got out played. While this loss was not as surprising to me as some of the other disappointments it was the manner in which they lost that was the heartbreaker. My faith in the BYU football team of 2008 was destroyed and I forsaw a future of a playing a mid-level Pac-10 team in the Las Vegas bowl that we have won the last two years...oh well, there is always next year.

November 22 - The final regular season football game for BYU and they had a chance to play BCS spoiler. The team went to play Utah in Salt Lake City and not only had a chance to get a tie for the conference crown, but also to crush Utah's chance of being in a BCS bowl. The game started out bad for BYU as they were down 17 to 3 in the first half. They quickly erased that deficet only to find themselves down by 10 at half due to a horrible pass by Max Hall. Needless to say, the second half was not pretty and BYU went on to lose 24 to 48. They were their own worst enemy by giving away the ball 6 times, 1 by fumble and 5 by interceptions. While it is easy to put the blame on the quaterback, Max Hall, it should be placed on the shoulders of the coaching staff and their refusal to change their game plan. BYU was having enormous success running the football against Utah making their defense look like a terrible tackling team. But instead of running it more and making Utah stack the box, the coaches call more throwing plays and the defense gets to sit back and play centerfield picking off Hall. Yet another disappointment to add to the year that is 2008.

November 30 - The Phoenix Suns lose to the Net for the first time in 14 years. Sure it is just a regular season game. Sure the Suns have a lot of season left to go, but when you let a player score 47 on you and he isn't even a prolific scorer, you have a problem. It is one thing to let Dwanye Wade score 43 on you, but to follow that up by letting Devin Harris got for 47 is just pathetic. I believe that game is the beginning of the end for the Suns as we know them. I would not be surprised, nor would I be opposed to so major trades including big names. I lovd the system the Suns had, but in the first 18 games they have just looked bad. Even in their wins there does not appear to be a flow to the offense. It is time to do what I hate to do, rebuild. There is no way to Suns are going to beat the Lakers, Hornets, and probably not even the Rockets this year and they will most certainly have to play one of these teams in the playoffs. The bad part is that I don't have much confidence in Steve Kerr's ability to scout the talent necessary to change the the team. I am sure glad that we worked so hard on getting Goran Dragic here this year seeing how he appears to be unable to run the team. Maybe the rest of the season will prove me wrong, but if the Suns dont do something, they may be left with nothing by 2010.

Feel free to comment on any part of this post, sorry it is kind of long. Also if you have other disappointming moments feel free to add them in the comments.

The Joys and Pains of Fantasy Football

Well I am back after taking a long sabbatical from this blog, I thought I would get back into it. The football season is winding down and I thought I would offer my impressions of my first experience with Fantasy Football. While I was in San Antonio this last summer I was asked by Jeff if I wanted to be a part of his Fantasy Football league that he does with Cara's family and friends. Since I have never participated in any type of fantasy league, I thought would give it a chance. I did a crash course on how it works and took the limited knowledge I had of the football from the last season and started drafting players. While I am a big sports fan, I admit that football has not been my favorite over the last few years. Sure I have watched the Super Bowl games, but how can you not watch the grand daddy of all football games.

The draft experience was actually quite fun, even though I found myself scrambling on many occasions trying to find the next best alternative when my would-be selection was taken right before my turn. I know for the future to start planning my team more than the day before the draft in order to maximize my options. I found myself following the games much more intensely, just ask my wife how many times she heard me saying, "Throw the ball to Witten!" All in all, I think this year was a good rookie year and I hope to enjoy more years of fantasy football, assuming my wife doesn't banish me from it.

A few tips I have learned, if you are considering doing it next year do NOT stack your team with players from one specific team, if they have a bad week then you are toast. Be careful not to take a star receiver and running back from the same week, for the most part only one or the other will really bring in the numbers on any given week. Finally, make sure you study the teams of the players, not just the players. For example, a high profile receiver for the Vikings is Bernard Berrian, and he is great but due to the fact that the Vikings run the ball a whole lot, Berrian has not scored as many points as you would like. That is all for now, I will update this post after the season is complete.