The Nuggets pulled it off tonight.  They were down by 18 at halftime before making a comeback.  They were down at 18 again later in the third quarter but then they turned on a switch or something.  It was an awesome game, especially if you’re a Denver fan.  I can really see a difference in this year’s team.  They really can play defense!  Hopefully they’ll keep it up now that they get Melo back.  Carmelo Anthony was suspended for the first two games but he’ll be back tomorrow night against a very good Las Angeles Lakers team.

I understand why they Nuggets traded Marcus Camby.  He was making way too much money for his role.  Nene will be a better overall player if he stays healthy.  JR Smith and LK are improving and should continue to improve.  AI is still AI and Melo is in his prime with upside.  I also think K-Mart will be rejuvenated.  With all that said, I think the Nuggets will actually be a better team this year than they have been the last couple years.  If they play with the intensity that they did in the 2^nd half and overtime of tonight’s game they will surprise a lot of people.  Two games into the season is early but I like what this team can accomplish if they continue what they’ve started this season.    

The Denver Nuggets are playing their first game of the season tonight against the Utah Jazz in Utah.    They are down by four with about four minutes remaining in the game.  That’s not too bad seeing as how they were down by as much as 16 in the 3^rd quarter.  Their defense looks improved but they keep turning the ball over.  The referees are horrible too.  They are always horrible in the NBA.  Everyone complains about officiating in every sport but I doubt I’m alone when I say the NBA has the worst officials out of any major sport.

Players flop all the time and the officials always buy it.  They make calls based on something they think they saw.  They’ll make a call on one end of the court but not the same call on the other end.  If they’re going to make bad calls, at least do it against both teams.  They also do the same thing with the non-calls.  It’s inevitable that the star of the other team loses the ball on the dribble and the guy on your team gets called for a foul.  However, it takes the other team hitting your guy with a baseball bat before the officials call a foul. 

I’m not saying the Nuggets are angels.  I’m not saying they are always the victims of the bad and non calls but I shouldn’t be more frustrated watching an NBA game due to officiating than anything else.  I should be frustrated seeing the sloppy defense or bad shots or anything like that.  The NBA let’s referees decide the outcome of games more than any other sport.

Softball season is finally over!  I am usually happy when the softball year ends because I play on a lot of teams and just want the break.  However, I only played on one team in the fall this year so I wasn’t ready for the year to end.  We did play in a tournament this past Saturday which actually marked the end of the year for softball.  The roster for the tournament was actually a blend of the Tailgaters and the Spartans.  The tournament was in Aurora and the Spartans are the team that basically “hosted” the tournament for the Tailgaters.  There were six players from each team on the roster.  Three members of the Spartans used to be Tailgaters regulars and one was a sub.  There were five Tailgaters that played who were part of the same team the past couple of seasons who played with the three from the Spartans as part of the old school Tailgaters team.  The sixth is in his first season with the Tailgaters but did sub during the summer.  The roster consisted of the following players, the OS indicates old school – at least two years with the Tailgaters:

Spartans:

Steve (OS)

Drew P. (OS)

Dean (OS)

Drew

Craig

Bobby

Tailgaters:

Lane (OS)

Luke (OS)

Dave B. (OS)

Jerry (OS)

Zip (OS)

Paul

The tournament was played by the city of Aurora’s rules which are basically USSSA but each team is allowed one homerun with unlimited one up homeruns.  No team hit a homerun against us (well, at least none over the fence).  Luke was the only one to hit a homerun over the fence for us – in three of the four games we played, or was it in each game?  I don’t know, but he can crush it.  Those of us on the Tailgaters also had to use bats that we weren’t used to.  We couldn’t use our good bats because the city of Aurora has an extensive banned bat list.  I went to the batting cages the day before the tournament but it seemed like the bat I used (White Steal) weight about five pounds even though it was the same weight as my Synergy 2!  I hit OK but not toward the end of the tournament.  I also walked twice which is exactly two more walks than I took during the fall season. 

Anyway, we didn’t win the tournament but we did OK.  We finished with two wins and two losses.  Four games was enough, many of us were not ready for a game 5.  We won the first game 15 – 13 after trailing 12 – 2.  That was a nice win.  However, we had too long of a layoff until the next game.  We lost that one, I can’t remember the score but it wasn’t close in the end.  We played our third game right after the second game.  If we lost that one, we were done for the day because the tournament was double elimination.  We were the home team but we were losing 20 – 11 with less than a minute remaining in the game, with two outs.  We decided to make an out on purpose so we could go to the next inning with a fresh start!  I’ve never seen that work before but I was game.  By the way, I was the one going to bat so I had to strike out on purpose.  I couldn’t swing at the first pitch because it was behind me – they knew I was trying to make an out.  I guess the decided they wanted to hit again so they threw one over and I swung and missed.  I actually tried to step on the plate and hit the ball which is an out but I missed the ball because I stepped on the plate with my back foot instead of front foot – doh!  I pretended like I was swinging for a homerun on the next pitch but I swung about four feet above the pitch for the strikeout with about 10 seconds left!  For those of you who don’t know, only two strikes are needed in USSSA for a strikeout.  The other team took a 23 – 11 lead after the top of the next inning.  Our lead off hitter in the bottom of the inning made an out.  I was thinking my wonderful strikeout had just delayed the inevitable.  However, we started hitting.  We scored 10 runs before they made the second out of the inning.  Then we scored three runs to win the game!  It was an awesome comeback.

We went up early the next game but I think we hit a wall because most of us are old, fat and out of shape.  The other team had a lot of young, fast and energetic guys.  If we played them early in a tournament or in league we would probably beat them most of the time.  But I give credit to them, they didn’t give up.  Their pitcher is also a new Tailgater and I played with him for many years on different teams so at least they were the ones to knock us out of the tournament. 

Time to rest up and try to get in better shape.  The season starts in about four months.    

I was extremely happy to see the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series.  The city of Boston has enjoyed too much recent success from their sports teams.  Also, the Red Sox have one of the highest payrolls in the league.  I’m not sure who I’m rooting for in the World Series.  It’s been a long time since the Phillies won it, 1980 I believe.  That’s almost 20 years before Tampa Bay was even a team.  However, the Phillies play in a large market and my favorite teams are in small markets, the Rockies and Twins.  The Phillies have great young players in Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard.  They also have Brad Lidge who is from Colorado.  On the other hand, the Phillies can afford to sign the so called best players since they don’t really have to worry about their payroll as much as the Rays.  Well, the Phillies are up one game to none so I guess we’ll just see how it plays out.

I think baseball needs to implement a hard salary cap.  There are too many players that are way too overpaid.  Whether you believe it or know it, we are in a recession.  The average Joe Fan can’t afford to go to many, if any games.  Few players are loyal to their original teams.  They think they deserve more money if they have one or two decent years.  I remember about 20 years ago when Kirby Puckett took less money to stay in Minnesota than he could have received from a lot of teams – and he had a good year every year.  That’s loyalty.  It also shows how salaries have gone out of control.  Puckett was the highest paid player in the league at $3 million per year.  Middle relievers with ERA’s around 4.50 make that much money now.  Bench players make that much money now.  What’s the highest salary now?  It’s almost $30 million per year.  I must admit that since the late 1980’s, my salary has gone up by at least 10 fold.  However, in the late 80’s I was in high school working part time for minimum wage!  Stop the madness!  Average Americans aren’t going to be able to afford going to games anymore.  Marketing suffers also which contributes to the bottom line.  Why do I want to spend my hard earned money on a Matt Holliday jersey when he may not be a Rockie much longer.  Many teams are going to struggle for a long time.  It’s a shame that organizations with talent in management and scouting aren’t rewarded better.  The Minnesota Twins always seem to be competitive but they can never make a trade for a big time player or sign a big time free agent.  They use their management and scouts to select the players that give them a chance to win.  By management, I also include Ron Gardenhire and the rest of the Twins major league and minor league coaches.     

          College football is about halfway through the regular season.  The teams I follow, probably in order of my favorite are the Buffs (University of Colorado), Gophers (University of Minnesota), Falcons (Air Force) and Rams (Colorado State University).  Minnesota has been tons better than expected.  They won one game all last year but are already 6-1 this year in an unusually weak Big 10.  They have a real chance of winning 9 or 10 games but they are still developing as a program so I won’t be disappointed if they come up short.  CU has had a really tough schedule which puts them at 4-3.  If they played a soft non-conference schedule like Nebraska usually does they’d be, oh wait – only 5-2.  Florida State was their only non-conference loss.  Anyway, I had to throw a jab at the Huskers.  CU could finish 7-5, but maybe even 5-7.  The Big 12 is very tough this year.  I think the winner of the Big 12 will win the national championship – looks like that will be Texas. 

          Now let’s go to the Mountain West Conference.  They may never have a national champion but they have some good teams.  Utah, TCU and BYU are the most notable teams from that conference but they don’t play in a “major” conference so it will difficult for any team from that conference to get to the BSC title game.  Utah is the top team right now but Air Force played them really tough.  Air Force is 5-2 and has a decent chance of winning 8 games.  That’s very good for a service academy where academics are always first.  Finally, there is CSU.  They are 3-4 which to be honest, is better than I thought they would be.  They have a 1^st year coach coming to a program that wasn’t very good the past two years.  I think they can win 6 games but it won’t be easy. 

          I think I will be watching three bowl games of interest to me this year.  As you can see, I don’t jump on the bandwagon.  If that was the case, I would be all over Texas or Penn State.  I will always be a homer and when my teams aren’t in it, I will always be rooting for the underdog. 

             I guess the Broncos answered a big question tonight.  Many wondered if they were a legitimate threat to be a contender or if or if it was all a fluke.  Guess what?  They’re a fluke!  All day long, I was looking forward to watching the game tonight against the New England Patriots.  The Broncos received the opening kickoff and drove the ball into Patriot territory but Andre Hall fumbled on his first carry of the game.  OK, what a bad break.  Another turnover but they can rebound.  The Denver defense held New England to a field goal.  Denver drove the ball down the field their next possession and Andre Hall got a chance to redeem himself.  On his second carry, he fumbled again and New England recovered.  By this time I was extremely irate.  I slammed my hand down on the chair and it was so loud and violent that it scared my wife.  I mean it really scared her.  I felt bad about the game but I felt worse startling my wife.  Despite the turnover and the fact that New England had the ball in easy field goal range, the Denver D made them settle for three.  Despite the fact that the defense of the Broncos finally put pressure on the quarterback they looked horrible tonight.  I was hoping for a close game because I knew if it was a blowout, Denver would be on the losing end.  Sometimes I hate it when I am right.  I’m not even sure what the score is right now but it was 34 – 0 last I saw.  I don’t care to see anymore.