Five Minutes for Blogging (Dec. 24)
Greetings.
Hope you are all set for Christmas.
And a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone.
I’m going to fiddle with a new format here on the blog. Basically, it will work like this: each day (or many days) I’ll post five quick opinions/comments that will require about five minutes of your reading time.
And then you can respond accordingly. And I will try to mix in some non-sports stuff, too.
I’ll still write longer-form “Extra Points” blogs when needed but wanted to spice things up a bit and have more fun.
Anyway, here are my five for today, and feel free to hit me with a five-minute penalty for blogging.
But keep it clean.
1. NO EXCUSES FOR MIZZOU: I don’t want to hear that the Tigers are young and inexperienced. I don’t want to hear that getting thumped by Illinois will be good for them. The 75-59 loss to Illinois was a terrible performance, and it was another setback to the program’s credibility. Missouri fans had anticipated seeing an improved team, one ranked 25th in the AP poll, one that could stand up and defeat Illinois after an eight-year losing streak. And it seemed that coach Mike Anderson had finally established traction. Maybe he will as the season goes on. But on Tuesday night at Scottrade, we saw much of the same old thing. Poor shot selection. A frantic set offense that had no discernible purpose. And a vulnerable half-court defense that was easily, almost comically, shredded by the Fighting Illini. Sorry, no positive spin here. No free pass. Just an awful night for Mizzou. Period.
2. APOLOGIZE TO BRUCE WEBER: After a transition period, he’s got Illinois headed in the right direction, and Illini fans have to be thrilled by the number of outstanding and heralded recruits that are on the way. Weber and staff have established a terrific recruiting pipeline, so the Illinois fans who turned on Weber because of his allegedly weak recruiting should step up and admit they were wrong. As I am doing right now. Coach: I didn’t think you could recruit like this. I was wrong. My apologies.
3. HERE’S A WORD TO DESCRIBE THE CARDINALS: Cheap. This covers all of the code words and phrases that already have been offered, such as “low-hanging fruit,” and “patient” and “keeping the powder dry.” No, what all of this really means is the Cardinals are cheap until they prove otherwise. No one is asking them to throw money around like those crazy Steinbrenners, but when Khalil Greene is the big offseason acquisition (so far) after the organization promised an “aggressive” approach … well, that’s sad.
4. I WON’T GO ANYWHERE THIS NEW TOM CRUISE FILM, VALKYRIE: Why does Cruise always play himself in movies? Cruise plays a character that’s a German officer , but he speaks the entire time with a perfect English accent as if he’s sitting in the VFW Hall on Big Bend? Huh? Same with Kevin Costner; every film Costner makes he plays the role of … Kevin Costner. It’s old. As for this one … let me see if I get this straight: Cruise hopes to pep his career and warm up his image by doing a film RELEASED ON CHRISTMAS DAY that features a bunch of guys in Nazi uniforms? OK. He must be getting PR advice from Plaxico Burress.
5. WHY DIDN’T THE RAMS SIGN THIS GUY? The Pittsburgh Steelers, who have as good a chance as any AFC team to play in the Super Bowl, just signed a player off the Rams practice squad and put him on their active roster. No one is saying that offensive tackle Jason Capizzi is the next Dan Dierdorf, but if he’s good enough for the Steelers, then why didn’t the Rams keep him around, as part of their 53-man roster, and keep the big fella in play for training camp ‘09? The offensive line is the Rams’ weakest link, remember? Confusing, to say the least.
Thanks for reading.
-Bernie
Merry Charistmas Bernie and all the other Cards fans. I don’t know if I would go so far as to call the Cards cheap but there certainly is some validity to that. I wil still give them some slack for a while longer particularlly while there are still a lot of unsigned FA’S. The one thing that bothers me is, the front office is already predicting a down turn in attendance, and they are using the economy as the reason. That will be part of it but I guarantee them if they go out on the limb and really show some aggressive signings, the fans will come regardlis of the economy. People spend money on sporting events even when they don’t spend it on milk. Give us a real powerful team and we will be there.
We are Americans and the actors in the movie should be speaking good English. I certainly wouldn’t want the characters speaking German with English subtitles–as is too often the case with other languages.
Ilinois has won twice as many bragging rights games as Missouri. Of the losses, Anderson has three. Was Stewart’s losses more acceptabe than Anderson’s? There is an element in this town that is just waiting (hoping) for Anderson to fail.
As for the Cardinals I think it is really premature to judge them on what they are doing or not doing on Dec 24.
Interesting, you replied to my Cardinal comment, but not my Mizzou comment.
It can be frustrating, but I really can’t find agreement on the Cardinals being cheap. They are generally around the 10th highest payroll, and they have signed some pretty good contracts. The bigger mistakes they have made are spending on some bad contracts, from Tino, to Mulder, to Juan Enc and Izzy. As much as I would like to see them make a big splash, what player do I wish they would have signed? Certainly not C.C., his contract may turn out to be the biggest albatross ever executed; he is prime long-term bust material; I recall how he started last season. The offer to Fuentes is plenty, anymore makes it a bad deal. Could we afford the chance on A J Burnett’s health. Is Renteria or Furcal worth those dollars? The last thing I want to see is bad free agent contracts hampering their efforts to lock in Albert for his career.
Bernie,
I appreciate your apology to Bruce Weber. Most sports columnists don’t know the meaning of the word “apology.” His recruiting approach was not working, so he changed it. Whatever he (and Jerrance Howard) are doing, it’s working like a charm now.
There is a small but vociferous minority of Weber-bashers on the Illinois basketball message boards that will never demonstrate the integrity you showed in your blog today.
That’s fine to be critical of the Cardinals. However, I’m confused that you rate Fuentes as a middling closer with your statistics, but then get mad when the Cardinals refuse to pay him close to elite money. There’s a difference between cheap and focusing on value. When you can come up with a better argument that the Cardinals are missing out on opportunities to truly better the team, then I have to side with Mozeliak’s patience.
Yeah, Hollywood needs to understand the difference between an actor and a movie star. Cruise is a movie star. Just from the trailor I can tell that the role of a 1940’s German officer requires an actor. Too bad to, b/c there’s a great historical story to tell.
Agree w/ the Cards too, I liked the Greene move, but I’d be stunned if we get Fuentes. If management doesn’t step up and make a few moves to get this team over the top, it’ll be hard to justify paying the money (economy) and hassle (HWY 40) to watch this team.
Speaking of PR blunders. The Cardinals make their “powder dry” statement, and the day before Christmas I get my season-ticket renewal notice, which by the way is due February 3. That has to be one of the earlier dates it’s ever been due.
Hey Bernie,
I like this new approach! If you don’t mind, I may try a similar approach to my blog and podcast…Redbirds of a Feather. I agree on all your points and as an Illini fan, Weber is doing a tremendous job for Illinois. I see them going far in the NCAA; particularly if Legion plays to his potential and the other guys keep doing what they’re doing.