Thanksgiving.....A time to reflect on what you really are thankful for. With everything going on in the world it is easy to forget how great we really do have it. Sure, our 401K's are dwindling every minute and the job market gets scarier every day. But, can you truly complain about your life??? I mean we all go to a job every week, have a beautiful entourage of women (fiances and girlfriends of course not groupies) and have the absolute privilege of meeting up with our closest friends every Friday Night to compete under the lights in softball followed by a night of drinking at Gators. Plus, we live in Florida where the weather is downright beautiful all year round.

Wow........That is livin!

Again, I can't stress what a pleasure it is to have a great group of teammates/Friends to go to war with every Friday Night. I have been a sports fanatic since I was born. However, every day my passion for watching sports gets drained just a bit reading about how many professional athletes forget they should be downright giddy to be paid Millions of dollars to play sports for a living.
If it weren't for Rocky reruns I think I would lose interest in sports more and more every day......however every Time I watch Rocky it reminds about how great the essence of competition and sports really is.

So, forgive me for rambling but I just need to vent and make a point on who are the biggest douche bags this Thanksgiving in Sports recently, so you too can be thankful we don't have to play alongside these knuckleheads........even though we play for the pure passion of the game and for free........actually we pay them just for the right to play and it is the best money I have ever spent. Also, I have added a few others who just take things too seriously and way out of context.....

Htiek's List of Thanksgiving Turkeys:

1) Stephon Marbury: I mean this guy is making $20.8 Million dollars this year just to sit around and sulk like a baby because he can't have things his way. Does he realize what is going on in the world.....I mean how many jobs could have been saved with this douche bag's salary.

In the beginning of the season He was told he would not be the focus of the team and probably wouldn't get to play much. Coach Dantoni told him he could suit up and maybe play some mop up minutes but he didn't want to embarrass Steph so he gave him the option of suiting up or not. Steph chose option B, Sit on the bench deactivated rather than embarrass himself and have to play 10-12 minutes a night in mop up time............$20.8 Million?????????

Steph was frustrated and even contemplated running back to his high school alma mater to practice with them just to stay in game shape..........or be around people that thought he was cool so he could get an ego boost.....one or the other. Well, in an ironic turn of events the Knicks have been depleted by injuries and trades and have been forced to play games with a 7 and 8 man squad. What did the Coach and team do......turn to Steph to ask him to earn just a bit of the 20 Million dollar salary and help out his teammates by giving them some much needed relief off the bench.

Wow.....what a heartwarming story. Steph get's his big chance to make good and prove to the world he can still play and show he is not a total waste of a human being. What's that Steph pouts and refuses to suit up.........just to stick it to the Man?????? Brutal! Well, needless to say his teammates are pissed and want him gone now. How do you leave your teammates hang like that? I mean Really???

2) Allen Iverson: We all know his history blah blah blah. However, he is no spring chicken and for a veteran trying to win a ring after being traded to the Pistons AI said he was willing to do whatever it takes to win......Even Practice.........God Forbid he have to practice.

Well, shortly after being traded another one of his ex-coachs George Karl openly sighs and claims how happy he is to get rid of him cause he screwed up their team/offense with wasted possession's. Hmmmmmm.....there's some fuel to the fire for AI to prove everyone wrong.

So Saturday AI talks about adjusting to his new team...Here is his quote: He talked Saturday about the importance of finding chemistry with a new team through practice.
"I've been through it before," "The most important thing is getting more practice time." Iverson said

So.......What does he do? He gets mad at his new coach for having the audacity to ask someone making $20 Million plus to come in for a few hours Thanksgiving morning to practice........so He just skips it.

3) Chad Ocho Cinco: Have you ever seen someone that needed attention more than this guy. I mean the guy is constantly trying to get attention and even changed his name to bring more attention to him and a failed attempt to sell more jerseys. Well, being one of the most hated villains on a putrid Bengals team is no way to sell jerseys moron. I mean let's face it who buys the majority of a team's jerseys???? I think even a 5 year old could tell you it's the fans of the team. Well, your not going to sell Jersey's by pissing of the team and the fans idiot.

Well, Last week Ocho Cinco overslept and arrived late for a team meeting Wednesday night at the Bengals practice facility. Late or not, sources confirmed Ocho Cinco was extremely groggy. After taking his seat, Bengals offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski told Ocho Cinco to sit up straight in his seat. After the receiver refused, Bratkowski again repeated his demand.
At that point, Ocho Cinco stood up and walked out of the meeting altogether. After shouting at his player to return, Lewis chased him down. After several heated words were exchanged between the two, Lewis finally told Johnson to go home.

I mean really, You get paid millions of dollars and you can't make a meeting on time. And when you do arrive late you act like a child and pretend like your the Victim here.........Ridiculous.

4) Parents of these High School ballers that got cut from their Basketball team:

Again, I can't stand that everybody in this great country of ours always think they are the victim. Here is a story of a High School basketball team where some players that recently got cut alleged it was because they wore corn rows and were racially profiled against by their coach.

OK, I guess you could make an argument for an decent case here......Only 1 Major problem.
It was an ALL Black High School. The team was all black

"We have racial profiling going on," said Frank McCullough, pastor of Mount Olive Christian Church, adding that's the only explanation in his mind. "He took a look at the way the young men wore their hair, and made comments about that and whether he thought they should be hanging out with certain people."

Yes 2 of the kids wore cornrows but 2 kids that did not get cut also wore cornrows..........Do you think maybe those kids that got cut just sucked???????

5) Lastly, I mean where is this word coming to when we can't even celebrate Thanksgiving in our schools anymore??????????????

Kids at a California Kindergarten can longer celebrate Thanksgiving:

Here is another great story where kindergarten students will no longer dress up as Pilgrims and Native Americans when they have their Thanksgiving feast.

"It's demeaning," Michelle Raheja, the mother of a kindergartner at Condit Elementary School, wrote to her daughter's teacher. "I'm sure you can appreciate the inappropriateness of asking children to dress up like slaves (and kind slave masters), or Jews (and friendly Nazis), or members of any other racial minority group who has struggled in our nation's history."

Yet another example of adults sucking the fun out of life, this time using 5-year olds in order to do it. Brutal!

Well, I hope everyone Had a Happy Thanksgiving and are thankful we don't have to listen to or hang out with any of the aforementioned douche bags of society.

I just wanted to wish everybody a happy thanksgiving! Hope that y'all have a good one!

Pretty cool idea.

The Cobra Kai made their stake as a legitimate contender for the league championship this past Friday by proving we are for real by outlasting the 1st place Beat Downs and winning in extra innings 15-14. In Crunch Time a team’s margin for error shrinks and a team’s heart is tested. More importantly a team’s belief in themselves is tested even more when the margin for error is nearly zero.

Well, we left no room for debate on our heart or belief in each other as we played unquestionably our most exciting game in team history and squashing any thought of folding under the pressure of an extra inning face-off with the league leading Beatdowns.

Our opponents showed heart early by playing a man down after one of their players suffered an injury in the 2nd inning after DonJuan Quintana placed an ancient Ecuadorian curse on him and amazingly it worked.

The game went back and forth from there as we struck early and jumped out to a 3-0 lead and played some solid defense behind Mad Dog’s crafty pitching. It should be noted that the Beatdowns have an absolute Murders Row of hitters from 1-5 that on any given night can park a ball in the ivy over any fence at Red Bug Lake park. To contain this lineup is a formidable feat in and of itself. The Beatdowns needed the Mitchell investigation and several other detective agencies to find where Mad Dogs pitches were going to break. They always broke in just the sort of way to prevent any sort of proper analysis by the batter and our defense never let them put together a huge inning. Capt. Tucci was busy patrolling the outfield with his usual vigor and he was determined for the OF to contain the Beatdowns big bats.

The game progressed back and forth as each team traded jabs but neither was ever able to land a knockout punch. Mikey Lemieux is absolutely dialed in like none other in the league and has been hitting the ball like a mad-man. Mikey has been consistently hitting frozen ropes scattered all over the filed for the last 4 games. If Mikey continues his hot hitting ways we could ride his bat all the way to a championship.

However, this was another classic example of game we won by pure teamwork. Everybody pitched in and came through when we needed it most. Roundhouse Reger continues to crush the ball and set the pace for the team by displaying the power we needed. His big bombs announced each and every one of our rallies. At one point Rob turned what should have been a deep single into a clutch double by going manno a manno against the Beatdowns deadly Left Fielder whom has been aptly compared to Brett Favre for his huge cannon and his uncanny likeness several times. “He’s Brett Favre on Crack” an anonymous player said. When Rob turned the corner at first base he never slowed down and caught the beatdowns by surprise as nobody ever tests his arm, but Rob simply wanted it more and he made it and it personified our team effort……..we simply wanted it more than they did. JW also found a way to come through in the clutch with one of his patented Tomahawk chops to drive in Rob to reward him for his efforts.

Big Daddy Guttierez has also found his power stroke and provided our other power bat in the line-up. “I just go up there and try to stroke it, I love to stroke it” said Rich after the game. We are not sure if Rich was talking about batting or something else, but we are sure that he has definitely found his power stroke. The biggest clutch hit of the night came from Koko. When we found ourselves in a hole in the top of the 8th inning Koko drilled one down the Left field line to spark our rally and give us the lead in extra innings.

However, the biggest clutch play of the game came in extra innings with the bases loaded and the game tied. Mad Dog could tell the Beatdowns were hungry and he baited the Brett Favre on Crack into hitting one over the fence to violate specific league rules on 2 HR’s in the same inning. On the next play Johnny Blaze came up with a clutch play to rob them of a hit and send us to the dugout knotted at 13 in extra innings.

That’s when you could see it in everybody’s eyes we wanted this game but more importantly everybody believed this was ours to win. Win is exactly what we did as we came up with 3 runs in the 2nd extra inning and all that was left to do was shut down the Beatdowns to close out the win. However, shutting down the Beatdowns is no easy task. Well, behind a solid defensive effort and with the game on the line that is exactly what we did and pulled out the win 15-14 in extra innings.

Wow!!!! Unbelievable and that’s all I got to say about that. Enjoy the win and be sure to Eat too much over this Holiday weekend. The Team reconvenes after the Thanksgiving break hungry to win our first league title. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

Down in the Bayou there should be a great Packers Vs Saints Monday Night Game. Just to get you excited for another portion of crazy sports stories here is a great one revolving around tonights game......

"Saints owner Tom Benson owns various car dealerships. We’re told that, each year, he brings a mini-fleet of new cars to the team facility in the hopes of getting some of his employees to make a purchase.

As we hear it, the players don’t really appreciate the sales pitch, due in part to the perception that they aren’t offered much of a deal.

This year, some of them made it known.

On Saturday, when players arrived at the facility to continue preparations for Monday night’s home game against the Packers, more than one of the cars was coated in a certain byproduct of the human digestive system.

So much for that new car smell.

It’s believed that two or more players were responsible for the mess, but we’ve yet to confirm the names of the suspects".

Here's hoping the Saints play like crap tonight......if anyone is interested I will be down at the One Eyed Jacks to watch the game.

Well...........Here it is. Chinese Democracy 17 years in the making. I posted this story almost 6 months ago and nobody believed GNR would debut their album by years end. Well, If you head to Best Buy this Sunday you can pick up a copy. And Dr. Pepper does plan on giving away a free bottle to every human being on this planet........or the ones smart enought to use a computer.

Rejoice and Rock out!!!!! Now.......I can only hope their is a tour to follow!!!!!

Vegas Baby....Vegas! Well, We had a blast in Vegas but did it slow us down in our return to the field?

Pride:

In the most highly anticipated rematch of the year at Red Bug Lake Park we squared off against our old friends Habeneros’ grill Friday Night under the lights. The Kai were a little rusty after not playing a game in close to a month and still not fully recovered from the bachelor party in Vegas we came out a little flat. This was to be expected since we haven’t been under the lights for several weeks, but we let our guard down for too long and Habenero’s took full advantage of it.

Before we left for Vegas we had fully eradicated our 1 inning where we let our momentum turn on us and we implode for that one simple inning. In life sometimes one day or one inning can change the outcome dramatically. And in this case it was the 5^th inning when we imploded and the Habenero’s dropped 10 runs on us. However, the silver lining in this case is that the Kai proved we have something called Pride. In the past we would have dropped our heads and given up. Capt Tucci would not let this happen to the new and improved Cobra Kai. “In Softball 90% of the game is half mental, so I knew we needed to get back in the right mindset to spark a rally.”

In the top of the 6^th Big Daddy Richard Guttierez lead off in what would turn out to be one of our best innings in club history. Big Daddy had been frustrated by the Ump all game as he had an unspoken feud brewing with him from the get go. Big Daddy unleashed that frustration and drove the ball to the fence in left field and sparked a rally we have not had in some time. Roundhouse Reger had the biggest smash of the night and came within inches of sending the ball into the ivy behind the fences as he smashed one to dead center and drove it to the fence to set the pace for the rest of the night. Then, when the team needed it the most, Capt. Tucci came through with a huge bases clearing triple to get us going on all cylinders. When all was said and done we were back within striking distance after posting 10 runs and trailing 13-11.

Koko found himself as the ultimate utility player once again sliding back to his old spot patrolling 1^st base. This time he was wearing the Big “S” on his jersey and made several web gem plays snagging a line drive and doubling off an unsuspecting habeneros’ runner with his X-Ray vision. Johnny Blaze was a patrolling the left side of the field and had one of the more amazing plays this team has seen has he ran from the hole at SS all the way past 2^nd base in an attempt to throw out a Habby player showing off his range. Blaze is emerging as a team leader as he was trying to position the outfield as well as orchestrating the Infield. “If my uniform doesn't get dirty, I haven't done anything in the game, so I was just trying to do everything I can for the Kai’s” said Blaze after the game.

Our defense was solid all night……..except the one inning we let our opponents get the best of us. This team has the most heart, but for some reason we let our guard down in the 5^th inning and everybody quit which made for our ugliest inning in quite some time. Pride eventually intervened and we got back on track…..but once again it was too little too late.

Well, we certainly bounced back at Gators and ended up crushing our old record of 82 pitchers. I would like to make an editors note and apologize to the record keepers out there as I was unaware our friends at Gators spotted us 2 free pitchers every Friday. Thus, we need to add 2 pitchers to every weeks climbing pitcher count which is just an astounding feat in anybody’s eyes.

Well, We look to get back to action and prove our worth this Friday Night as we are still in the title hunt and look to get back on track against the Beat Downs!

Congrats to Mikey's Dustin Pedroia on winning the AL MVP. I don't think I could make an argument against that vote........unless of course the Yankees actually made the playoffs then you know I would be backing Koko's main man A-Rod.

Anyways, not much of story unless you look at the AL MVP Vote getters her.

I would like for somebody...anybody please make a valid argument for how Jason Barlettt, Mike Mussina, Aubrey Huff, and/Or Raul Ibanez got MVP votes???? Other than some writer with some type of self motivated interest or they were on crack.

I know the MVP vote is not purely driven by numbers but check out Bartletts stats:

Jason Bartlett: .289 AVG, 1 HR, 37 RBI, 20 SB.

Is this guy even the MVP of his own team????

And I could not even give you Raul Ibanez stats cause I honestly don't even know what team he plays on or what position he plays. Please somebody give me a decent argument for any of the aforementioned players and I will give you a dojo doorprize this Friday just for the effort.

Well fellas I think that I found away for us to have our sports show! Youcastr.com it is a site set up so that you can broadcast your own sporting events and sports talk shows! I don't know about you guys but I really think that we need to do a cobra kai show, all we need is computer with and internet connection and a microphone! I would like to broadcast the Kai games via the internet if we could figure out a way to do that. I just think this is a really cool idea and I think we should set up a Kai profile and do it.


Here is the link to check out the site!
http://www.youcastr.com/

This is to help conjure up hope that Koko's dream of getting the greatest post game interview meltdown from Samurai Mike this week. Warning.....The Contents of this video is very addicting.

Rinku and Dinesh go to White Castle and the Major Leagues.

Check these two guys out. They are two teenagers from India that in May won a "Million Dollar Arm" Contest in India and are now major league baseball prospects. They won a TV game show and now have a shot at being MLB'ers!!!!

That isn't the amazing part....The amazing part is before the contest they never played Baseball before....Only Cricket and throwing the Javelin. Raw was not the word for these guys. Not only did Rinku and Dinesh not even know how to play catch when they first arrived at USC for training, but they didn't know how to work a drinking fountain. After six months of workouts they are now ready to try out for a MLB team. If they do well, I'm sure the Yanks and Red Sox will start the bidding....If they don't do well watch for the Royals and Brewers to place some bids.

"The first time they saw a baseball game, watching USC play Washington State, Patel was confused. "What did the shortstop do wrong?" he asked. Agent: "Why do you say that?" Patel: "He's the only one in the infield without a base."

In the talent contest in India, Singh consistently hit 87 mph and earned $100,000. When veteran major league scout Ray Poitevint went to India to see whether he had potential, he also recommended Patel, who threw harder but wasn't as accurate.

"When I first saw these guys, I thought they had maybe a 40% chance to pitch professional baseball," Poitevint says. "Now, after seeing them, I think they've got an 85% chance to be in the big leagues. I can't believe the difference."

Wow, If they make a MLB roster it will be the biggest rags to riches story in sports history since we turned JW into a power hitting Tomahawker.

If you want to keep tabs on them here is their blog.

This just goes to prove......Annyyyyyything is Possssssiiibbbllllleeee!!!! Let's go out there and get another big win tonight boys and continue our unheralded quest for a championsip!!!!!

We're a blue state again! Now let's see what this guy can do.

Wow....it has taken me a full week to gain back my bearings after the jaunt to Vegas. After arriving home I came down with a Flu-like cold, tried to get back in the swing of things at work and then suffered from "Sleepover Syndrome". For those of you unaware of sleepover syndrome I liken it to when you were a young kid and had a sleepover with a bunch of friends and the next day when you have to go to bed by yourself it is sooooo boring and lonely and you long for the time when you were surrounded by friends and fun. I realize I just set up Richard or Koko for a zinger....but it was worth it.


This Guy went on vacation a bit earlier than usual.


Anyways, I wasn't able to participate on the Dojo and am just trying to catch back up on the great finds of the "Thriller" performance and our old friend ChadVader.

On this grand election day I thought I would spur some output on the site by taking notice of a recent article detailing the top fielding players in MLB. The article is interesting but I will spare you the time by telling you whom they noted as the best and worst defensive fielders in MLB.

Best shortstop at making outs? The World Champions' Jimmy Rollins. The worst? Jeter, of course. And the Yankee captain was not only ranked 22nd on the shortstop list, one grouchy voter actually called him "the least effective defensive player in the major leagues at any position." Harsh. Johnny Blaze was somehow not included on the list and the league is looking into the reason for his omission.


Warning...The following is just a rant I needed to do Blaze is Burning Style. Feel free to ignore and simply focus on the Fielding Article.

A few observations to I needed to put out there. Was anybody voting experience as brutal as mine? No wonder Florida was such a joke in 2000? I had to wait in line for over 2 hours this morning before work. Yes, I arrived at my polling site (which is on the other side of town) at 7 AM and did not get out until about 9 making me almost late for work. Next, I had to explain to the elderly (barely English Speaking) volunteer (at least I think they are volunteers cause if they get paid I will be irate for how incompetent they were)that my last name starts with a G. Now I do realize my last name is long but come on......a 3rd grader would be able to find my name on an alphabetical list. This lady was searching under "D" for over 5 minutes as I calmly told her my name and that she would not find it under D but she would need to look under "G"! Oh your last name isn't Dinger? No, for the 10th and final time it starts with a G....Please just look at my license.

After that, when I was pressed for time, the "Indian" dude standing in front of me for the last two hours had a clown car pull up and empty his entire family to jump in front of me. Mind you I would not have minded as much if they were not all over the age of 70 and were completely unaware of anything around them. They just walked in front of everybody (all 6 of them) and just started grabbing ballots and marking them up and not realizing there was a formal line. Then they kept on getting it wrong by either circling or checking the ballot. This all delayed the entire line by about 30 minutes as they kept redoing their ballot and then just walking in front of everybody that was in line to put their ballots thru the machine. Plus, they could not put their ballots thru the machine in a proper sequence........Think of somebody trying to buy a candy bar with a crumbled dollar while you are starving but they just can't understand why the machine won't take the dollar. It was brutal!

Anyways, I admire our democratic system but I think there should simply be a competency test to vote or work at the voting booth. Have a great Super Tuesday and by this time tomorrow we will have a New Commander in Chief.