What a week

I can't get a fully detailed post out right now because I had 3 midterms this week and guests visiting for Halloween weekend, but my goodness, what a week. Cardinals are World Series champs! I'm still amazed how epic of a series it was.

For now, though, I'll just write about my Week 8 picks quickly before celebrating the championship some more. And Halloween, too, I suppose.

Good thing my teams are doing well...

...since I can at least somewhat distract myself from the mess called the NBA lockout, which had a disastrous end of meetings today once the owners refused to negotiated without getting a guaranteed 50-50 on the BRI first. Alas, at least the 49ers are 5-1 and on their bye week, and the Cardinals were up 1-0 in the World Series before blowing it in the 9th tonight to even it at 1-1....Onto Week 7!
Last week: 7-6
Overall Season: 54-36

Week 6 Lines

Funny story about my cousin asking me to pick parlay cards for her when she was in Vegas: out of 11 picks I made, we got 8 right. The thing was, I thought I was off by one game on each of the three cards and was pretty bummed out. Turns out, my cousin had picked the cards in a different order than I thought and suddenly had came up big on one of the 4 team parlays. Vegas 2012 here I come baby!

In the meantime, I've been picking against the spread on ESPN's Pigskin Pick'em and am 47-30. Here are the lines this week on there and brief explanations for my picks:

MLB Postseason

I didn't get a chance to write a preview for the MLB Postseason, but it's a good thing since I probably would have picked the Phillies to win it all and not get ousted in the first round. In all honesty, I would have picked the winners of the Cardinals/Phillies and Rays/Rangers series to meet in the World Series. Of course, the Cardinals are my favorite team, so it would have been difficult to keep my bias out of the choice when considering their potential. The Rays, on the other hand, aren't my favorite team, but I've always liked them and wanted to ride their momentum despite not fully believing in their lineup.

Now? I'm going with my Cards all the way after seeing them consistently battle this past month. Simply put, Chris Carpenter is the man, throwing a 3-hit shutout in the deciding Game 5 in Philadelphia after a 2-hit shutout on the last day of the season to claim a playoff berth. The rest of the pitching staff was solidified by the Rasmus trade, as I described here, and the lineup led the league in runs, hits, AVG, OBP, SLG, and OPS. Albert Pujols is the anchor of the lineup, of course, and he has been outstanding.

My Not-So-Exclusive Interview with Kobe Bryant

I haven't been able to write posts nearly as much as I would like since school has started, but a special event has warranted this one. On Wednesday, October 5th, I entered my Current Issues in Sports Management class to the news that we, along with a Sports Psychology class, were going to have a special guest speaker for the day. After a delay in his flight arrival due to the weather and class discussions of the NBA lockout, the guest finally appeared 35 minutes into the lesson. Kobe Bryant was at UCSB.

My professor, Jim Romeo, and Jon Spaventa, director of the Rec Department, have known Bryant from his past events here on campus, so they were able to set up this last minute "interview" upon his arrival from labor meetings in New York with the help of his PR guy Jerry, a Santa Barbara native. Spaventa asked Kobe a variety of questions during the period before a student Q and A session, and I took as many notes as possible along with a picture of Bryant with UCSB's own, Big West Player of the Year Orlando Johnson after the class.

I had a couple of questions in mind but made my choice because he had just answered a question saying he was not aware of the Drew League-Goodman League rematch since he was in Italy the previous week. I asked him about the reports that he was "95% done" towards a deal to play professionally in Italy for a period of time. He looked me in the eye with a completely serious look on his face when responding that he does his business behind closed doors, so anything in public is BS. If anything happens, it will be announced, and that is when anything is official. He spoke with such intensity when discussing this that I could only nod my head in understanding and sheepishly thank him for his response.

Overall, he was pretty entertaining with his genuineness, jokes, and willingness to discuss a variety of topics. This is my second time seeing him here in person in the past 3 months, and he seems like a cool guy (although he hasn't stuck around long enough for many autograph or picture opportunities either time). I saw Orlando Johnson by the bike racks afterwards, and he told me that he had met Bryant once before over the summer playing for Team USA. Orlando said that Kobe even joked about talking to Coach Mike Brown to get him a roster spot next year on the Lakers. Here are some other highlights from Bryant's responses:

2011 NFL Season

• NFC West: Niners(4), Rams, Cardinals, Seahawks
• NFC North: Packers(1), Lions, Bears, Vikings
• NFC South: Saints(2), Falcons(5), Buccaneers(6), Panthers
• NFC East: Eagles(3), Cowboys, Redskins Giants

Wildcard round: 3-Eagles over 6-Bucs, 5-Falcons over 4-Niners

2nd round: 1-Packers over 5-Falcons, 3-Eagles over 2-Saints

NFC Championship: 1-Packers over 3-Eagles

• AFC West: Chargers(3), Chiefs, Raiders, Broncos
• AFC North: Ravens(2), Steelers(5), Browns, Bengals
• AFC South: Texans(4), Titans, Colts, Jaguars
• AFC East: Patriots(1), Jets(6), Bills, Dolphins

Wildcard round: 3-Chargers over 6-Jets, 4-Texans over 5-Steelers

2nd round: 1-Patriots over 4-Texans, 2-Ravens over 3-Chargers

AFC Championship: 1-Patriots over 2-Ravens

Super Bowl: Patriots over Packers

   I called for a Patriots-Packers Super Bowl last year, with a Brady/Rodgers MVP combo, so why not go with that again. The Packers were more dominant than their 10-6 record indicated last year, having never trailed the entire season by more than 7 points despite being decimated by injuries. After winning the championship, they are now reloaded with a now healthy roster that should be the best in the NFC. However, I think the Patriots take care of business this year after a frustrating playoff upset to the rival Jets, despite their questionable risks during the offseason. This time the script will be flipped as Rodgers rides the momentum to his first MVP, but Tom Terrific claims his 3^rd Super Bowl MVP by pressing all the right buttons in the post season. (Interestingly, the last time the regular season MVP went on to win the Super Bowl was Kurt Warner in 1999.)

   I was very close to picking the Packers to repeat against a different AFC team because they are absolutely loaded. On the other hand, the Saints and Eagles also look excellent on paper, or the Patriots’ weaknesses could be exposed by a team like the Ravens, Steelers, or Chargers. None of these scenarios would surprise me, but I’m going with the most likely choice in my mind.

Defensive Player of the Year: Patrick Willis, San Francisco LB- Another repeat pick from last year, Willis turned in his 4^th All-Pro season in as many years, and I think he takes his excellence to the next level. New Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio plans on blitzing Willis more often after the team captain had a career high 6 sacks to go with his 128 tackles. Anchoring a newly dominant defense, I say Willis adds some new hardware amongst his accolades.

Offensive Rookie of the Year: Julio Jones, Atlanta WR- Rookies are going to have a harder time than usual this season due to the lockout, so receivers’ timing with their quarterbacks will be shaky. Thus, I don’t think Jones is going to great right away, but he is going to produce enough as the #2 option for Atlanta, drawing enough attention away from star receiver Roddy White and providing some highlight reel catches to gain the vote. Not many of the other top rookies are in much better situations.

Defensive Rookie of the Year: J.J. Watt, Houston DE- This draft was stacked with defensive talent, but I’m picking Watt due to the overall impact he will have in improving the Texans’ horrible defense from a year ago. With new coordinator Wade Phillips’ conversion of the unit to a 3-4, Watt will help anchor the front line by drawing double-teams with his relentless pass rush. He has a motor that never stops, reminiscent of the 49ers’ Justin Smith. I could definitely see Arizona’s Patrick Peterson (the best overall player in this draft, in my opinion) or Baltimore’s Jimmy Smith (starting on an elite blitzing defense that may leave him alone on an island) winning this as well. 

Welcome to the New Blog!

Hello there. Thanks for checking out my sports blog, formerly from aceinthegoal.tumblr.com. I'll be transferring my older work here shortly. Looking forward to a great year of sports!