Disappointment

Picking up where Brad left off yesterday, has anyone been watching the Pistons lately? I am not quite sure what is going on with them this year. I have only been to one game this year but I am pretty dedicated to watching them at least a couple times a week on TV. It seems like they have forgotten what it takes to win those close games. I understand we did loose Chauncey who was some what of a piece in the puzzle, but is seems like there is something missing. After there fifth consecutive loss last night I am starting to wonder what kind of moves Dumars has up his sleeve for the off season. Not that I am righting this season off quite yet but, if they cant remember where they put their DEFENSE or how to protect the ball, then I am afraid they are going to continue on this downward spiral right out of the playoff picture.


It is sad because if you look at individual talent, they seem to have it. Iverson, Hamilton, Prince, these guys seem to bring it pretty consistently but then there is Wallace. He has incredible talent, not only on the post but as a 3pt threat as well, it just seems like he only gives partial effort most of the time.




Well enough of my venting!!! As for us here at the Bucks we are getting really excited for this upcoming season. With everything we have been working on over the last few weeks I think we are going to have a really great year. It was exciting to see things getting kicked off this week with our first soccer camp. All those kids coming in for the week to do nothing but play soccer. Those were the days!!! Although this week is coming to an end, it will only be a couple weeks and the next camp will start and only a month after that will be our home opener! See you all soon!!!

The Good Ole Days

Do you remember the good ole days? Those days way back in elementary school when you were worried about not wetting your pants, having to talk to the girl next to you, or getting those last few cookies you saw the night before. Every day I knew that all I needed to do was pretend to be listening to the teacher, answer a few simple questions and then be rewarded by playing with my friends for an hour or so. It was a vicious cycle back then but I loved it. Most of all, I loved playing sports.

Sports were my life, they still are. Only now I don’t get to play sports like soccer, tetherball, or kickball. I get to watch them on television and occasionally get the opportunity to play basketball but it's nothing like it use to be. Although I must toot my own horn here for a moment and say I did have the opportunity to play kickball this past summer. It was the first time in 15+ years and in case you’re wondering; I went 2-3 kicking a double, a homer, and putting a few RBI’s on the old stat sheet. The excitement every day during recess was overwhelming, my life has been filled with sports and I now know why it is so important to have them introduced to kids at a young age. I think teaching sport to our youth gives us valuable tools and life lessons that we can keep and continue to build on throughout our lifetime.

Personally, my favorite times were attending at the various camps (like the one the Bucks are holding this week, register for the one in April by clicking here). My most memorable experience was attending a Steve Fischer basketball camp. It included a weeklong stay on the Michigan campus. I went with one of my best friends and all we did for a week was play basketball and have fun. We always ate off the buffet, got plenty of sleep, and got to play around on our down time. If I could do it all over again I would have attended more sports camps because to me, those made my childhood worthwhile.

Stock Up/Stock Down

↓ Alex Rodriguez – COME ON ALREADY!!! Does anyone really believe this guy, I am in total disbelief. Yes, I will give credit for stepping forward and confessing, however he knew it would come out sooner than later so I’m sure his PR team and staff decided to take the initiative and confess (he should hire Jeff). This way he has time to rebuild his rep and hopefully get in the good graces of the public. Personally, I think there is a lot more to the story than he is telling. Oh A-Roid, COME ON!

↓Texas Tech Athletic Director – Wow, good job sir! You are on the verge of firing one of the best offensive coaches in the game. Texas Tech averages 500+ yards of offense every year starting in 2005. Mike Leach almost won a bid to the big dance and now they are going to fire him because he didn’t bend and take the deal Texas Tech offered him. Give me a break, you have to keep Mike Leach, hands down no two ways about it. Make a deal later, let him coach now.

↑Chauncey Billups – I think everyone knew when this guy left Detroit we were losing a big part of our team. He was the catalyst for this offense, he would set up, get it going, and create his own shot if the offense wasn’t working Billups was. Congratulations Denver Nuggets, you got a steal, now I just want to know what Dumars plans are.

Football Etiquette

It has recently occurred to me that the football watching public in the United States has grown a great deal in the past few years. I feel comfortable saying football because if you’re reading this blog you should already know which sport I’m talking about. With the influx of new fans in this country I’ve come to realize that sometimes they don’t pronounce teams, names, or even leagues correctly. So, without sounding like too much of a snob, this blog entry will work to correct these newbie errors.

Follow this simple protocol of pronounce, rinse, repeat and you will be a fine football connoisseur in no time (I EVEN MADE FLASHCARDS!):

It is not proper when referring to a team in Manchester, Madrid or London, to simply say the city name to specify a team. There are two teams in Manchester both with the city name in the title. When referring to Manchester United one should say “United”, when referring to Manchester City, they should say “City”. Full names are appropriate, shortened names can be a wobbly road depending on your company.. The same goes for the two top teams in Madrid – Real and Atletico. Now when it comes to London, there are more professional teams there then we have in the entire United States, none of which have London in the title. Arsenal, Chesea, Fulham, Charlton Athletic, West Ham, Crystal Palace, etc. should never be referred to as “London”.

Times when referring to the city is appropriate: When one of the teams in the city is named after the city and the other isn’t: Liverpool and Everton; Milan and Internazzionale; Barcelona and Espanyol; Los Angeles and Chivas, etc…

It is not “The MLS”. Spell it out. That would be “The Major League Soccer”, the same as saying “The Major League Baseball”. I’m no English expert so I cannot point to the rule regarding why this is incorrect, but its not rocket science, please quit calling it “The MLS”.

Tottenham Hotspur can be referred to as Tottenham or Spurs, but never as the Hotspurs. For those who don’t know, the team takes its name from a character in a Shakespeare play, named Harry Hotspur. Repeat, not the Hotspurs… In the same theme, Blackburn Rovers are not called The Rovers. If not using Blackburn, just say “Rovers”.

One cannot support more than one club in the same league. One can definitely not support two of the big teams in a certain league. This is football treason, while there is no capital punishment for this crime, it’s likely that neither team’s fans would want anything to do with you anyway.

Simple Pronunciation:
-Portsmouth is really pronounced Portsmith
-Fulham is really prounced Full-um
-West Bromwich Albion can be referred to as just West Brom, but if using the full name, it’s pronounced West BromICH Albion

That is all. Class dismissed, for now...

Recap: Columbus

Let me preface by saying reasons aren’t important, but it took me 3 days to fully recover from our trip to Columbus, for that I apologize. Additionally, if you were waiting for a full recap because you weren’t there, well you should have been and you’ll have to wait four years to experience something like it!

Timeline:

12:30 PM – Arrive in Columbus. We meet a bunch of US fans as we step out of the car to check in to our hotel. The town is painted in US, not Buckeye Red. After checking in, the Motor City Supporters Group heads over to the Claddagh to meet more US fans and start with match-day libations. By the way, its beautiful outside. I tell MCS member Alan, "I don’t care what the meteorologists say, I think this beautiful weather is going to carry through the game."

1:18 PM – Someone from Sams Army runs through the bar offering up commemorative USA-MEXICO World Cup Qualifying Scarves. Interested in adding to my scarf collection, I along with a few others purchase one. Best $20 I’ve ever spent, although I’m positive I’ve said that a number of times before. Also at this point the bar is pretty full, people poor out into the beautiful weather to play a little footy in the town square outside the Claddagh…

2:30 PM –Waiting on the rest of the MCS to arrive, we run into Bradd a huge Crew fan, who live in Oakland County. We know Bradd from a few Bucks games, he especially enjoys going to matches against Kalamazoo. WHOA! DID YOU SEE THAT ROBINHO GOAL FROM YESTERDAY!?!? Bradd offers to buy me a beer, but I tell him that I need to stay level headed for the match. As Jose would say, still fantastic outside.

3:01 PM – The rest of the MCS crew FINALLY arrives. I think they might have brought bad weather with them, its gray outside and the wind is picking up.

3:29 PM – While outside, I discover a group from Grand Rapids, who just happen to have a meteorologist with them. Lightly raining, all of a sudden I find that I’m speaking to myself and have rain pelting me in the face. Apparently I ignored Meteorologist Jim’s warning about the clouds in the distance and became soaked for the first time that day. I guess weather guy’s know what they’re talking about sometimes.

4:03 PM – Still drying off and knowing that the storm outside isn’t a one-off, I decide to dress in layers and put on all my waterproof clothing. I wish I’d done this earlier.

4:50 PM – Last call for MCS. The Claddagh chartered two busses over to Crew Stadium. One at 4:50 and one an hour later. Wanting to make sure we arrive for the fan march in, the group goes on the earlier bus and we wait.

5:12 PM – We’ve moved about half a mile. Columbus rush hour, how’d we not think of it? Mind you Crew Stadium is only about 6 miles from the Claddagh, we were in the Brewery District, where I guess a lot of traffic occurs.

5:50 PM – We moved another half mile.

6:10 PM – A drunk fan vomits at the front of the bus, and we’ve moved a couple more miles.

6:45 PM – “Hey, look the rain stopped. Hey, look we’re pulling into Crew Stadium. Hey look isn’t that the other bus from the Claddagh that was supposed to leave at 5:50?"Major fail on our part.

6:55 PM – Just as I step foot off the bus, the clouds open up and within a matter of seconds, I’m soaked again. Worried we’ll miss kickoff some of MCS gets separated and misses watching the match with the rest of the group.

7:10 PM - Anthems. Oh say can you see?

7:15 PM – KICKOFF!

7:20 PM – HUGE SAVE BY TIM HOWARD. I’m pretty sure my voice had already gone at this point.

7:56 PM – MICHAEL BRADLEY MAKES IT 1-0. Who ever said anything about nepotism with the National Team? MCS member Chad, who experienced his first ever cap comments that he’s never experienced anything like the celebration that ensued after Bradley’s goal.

8:00 PM – HALF TIME!

8:35 PM – Mexico captain Rafa Marquez gets SENT OFF for a dangerous challenge on Tim Howard. From our vantage point, we were quite surprised to see the red come out of Referee Carlos Batres pocket. What we couldn’t see was Marquez cleat Howard when he was up in the air to claim the ball. This is the sixth time in Rafa’s career he’s been sent off in an international match and second time against the US. Anyone remember his head butting of Cobi Jones in the 2002 World Cup?

8:47 PM – Feeling nervous, I comment to those around me that even though I predicted and wanted 2-0 (dos a cero), I’d take the score as is.

9:01 PM – MICHAEL BRADLEY AGAIN! On a shot from distance that Mexican keeper Oswaldo Sanchez should have had, the US completes another “dos a cero” scoreline. GREAT SUCCESS!

9:30 PM – Soaked, with a coarse voice, we finally meet up with the rest of MCS and head back to the Claddagh for the post match celebrations! Everyone, no matter where they’re from is high-fiving, singing, hugging and just generally happy. What a great day!

The next day, middle of nowhere, Ohio:

About 11:00 AM -- We find out that the US is playing Honduras as Soldier Field on June 6, the day before the Bucks play at Kalamazoo. I supposed we’ll have to be there...

Special thanks to MCS members Andrew and Dan for helping with photography.

So Many Faces

Well today myself and several other front office members from the Michigan Bucks will be over at the Palace for the Career Fair. Every year the Palace Sports and Entertainment group host a great career fair for just graduated students that are looking to break into the sports industry. We enjoy being a part of this, this is a great opportunity for us to find interns for our summer program. This year we will be looking for several interns to help with our marketing and all of our camp work for the summer. Of course it is always a bonus to stay after the career fair and enjoy the Pistons game as well.
Well as many of you probably know, (and if you don't know, that means you haven't talked to Jeff), that today is the Mexico vs. U.S match. Jeff is currently on his way down to Columbus to enjoy the match, while the rest of us are here WORKING.. not that I'm bitter. So in honor of the game I took it upon myself to get some predictions from the guys here in the office.

Kyle Karns - U.S. 2 - Mexico 1
Brad DeLange - U.S. 2 - Mexico 1
Brad Jakubiec - U.S. 1 - Mexico 1

So we wish the best of luck to the U.S. men down in Columbus today, and we also wish those of the Motor City Supporters who made the journey south, a safe trip back.

Of course one of my blogs would not be complete if I didn't update you with my E.S.P.N. streak for the cash. It has been fun talking about this here in the office, since I started it back around the holidays, I have now got Jeff, and Brad hooked on it as well. Unfortunately we are all keeping our day jobs since our longest streak is 5 correct picks in a row. Now for those of you who are soccer fans, today is the day to look at the streak and get started playing. There are 5 different matches that you can choose from, including the U.S. match later tonight. I am taking Poland over Wales in the early match up, and then U.S. over Mexico.

Kyle's Streak - 1
Jeff's Streak - 1
Brad's Streak - 0

Last but not least. The Karns video of the day. One of my friends sent this to me this past weekend, I thought it would be a great goal celebration for the game tonight.
Click here to see video.

Kyle Karns
President of Operations