Good morning everyone. I'm just looking at the NCAA bracket trying to whip up some 'Final Four' predictions for you. I can honestly say that you'd be shocked if you knew how little of the tournament I've been able to watch considering how well my predictions turned out for the 'Sweet 16' and the 'Elite 8'. As I'm typing in the fact that the bracket that I highlighted in an article here a few weeks back at the start of the tournament is in the 11.3% percentile at ESPN, I'm wondering if reading the number '11.3%' just made you choke on your coffee or orange juice laughing... :) Being a big 'numbers guy', I have to smile looking at this bracket because Louisville's biggest margin of victory in the tournament came in their win over the #1 seed that they faced - 13 points over Michigan State. The 13-point win by Kansas over North Carolina was the second largest margin of victory in the tournament, only overshadowed by a 15-point opening game victory over Detroit. Ohio State's smallest margins of victory in the tourney came against Gonzaga and Syracuse, both of which were 7-point victories. Kentucky has beaten everyone by double-digits to this point, with 12-point wins in their last 2 games against Indiana and Baylor resulting in their closest games. In case you're wondering, I could stall ALL DAY before making these picks... :)
Louisville vs. Kentucky: I'm pretty sure that they must have the game times preset for each side of the bracket before the tourney begins, because that's the only explanation I can fathom for leading off tomorrow's doubleheader with the state championship of Kentucky. Fierce rivals facing off with a trip to the NCAA Finals on the line - yes, this game will probably be interesting... Kentucky defeated Louisville 69-62 on New Year's Eve in the only meeting between these teams this season. I've looked at the schedules that both teams played this season and nothing would surprise me tomorrow, but since I have to make a pick... :)
Kentucky 75 Louisville 66
Kansas vs. Ohio State: Kansas defeated Ohio State 78-67 on December 10th in the only meeting between these teams this season. Both teams knocked off #1 seeds last weekend to get to this point. As the case is with all four of these teams, neither combatant in this game has a particular advantage with the 'Final Four' being held in New Orleans. I saw how the Jayhawks closed out North Carolina, and I just have a feeling that we're going to see the 'novel' matchup on Monday night - UK vs. KU...
Kansas 74 Ohio State 70
I wanted to note here, if any of you decided to try my fantasy baseball strategy, I would be interested in seeing the team that you drafted (yes, I am just that big of a sports geek)... If you do want to list your team in the comment section, just type in the last name of the players that you drafted, maybe with a first initial of the first name if the last name is a common one. That article has had a lot of views and I'm curious to know how many people will implement that strategy. I hope that you enjoy this 'Final Four' weekend and I'll see you again on Monday!
Jumat, 30 Maret 2012
Kamis, 29 Maret 2012
Bobcat Baseball & Las Vegas/Poker
Good morning everyone. Maybe I should have titled this entry "Oops"... I meant to have this posted for you yesterday, but I was surprisingly tired after operating on three hours worth of sleep, and who knew that my nap would turn into about NINE hours of sleep?... Okay, so after I got home from work at about 4:00 a.m., I ate and watched a little bit of t.v... I went to bed and woke up at about 8:30 a.m., then promptly cleaned up and went to the DMV, because the driver's license that I renewed last month has not arrived and the temporary expires today. After returning from the DMV, I eat a little bit and have to make my decision. The alma mater is hosting the Oregon Ducks in a noon baseball game, and with work precluding me from seeing the team this weekend, it would be my last opportunity to watch the Bobcats for a while. I won't have too many more opportunities if I make the move back to Las Vegas this summer, and the last three times that I've watched the Bobcats, they have faced the Texas Longhorns and lost everytime (3-1, 2-0, 6-1). I decide to make the short walk down past Bikini Hill to Bobcat Baseball Field to take in the game. It is perfect weather for a baseball game and coincidentally mirrors my favorite playing conditions for baseball. The weather is overcast but not raining, a playing condition that I experienced a lot in high school in New England. The home team hit 2-run homers in the first and second innings (a ROCKET over the fence in left in the first, and a long fly ball that cleared the fence in right center in the second) on their way to a 7-6 victory - YES! I walk home after the game, eat, lay down for a "quick nap" once it starts raining hard outside (although it was overcast, this hard rain was not in the forecast).... What do you know - after hitting the pillow at 5:00 p.m., it's 2:00 A.M. when I wake up... (YAWN..., stretch, and here I am).
I have decided that I will now dedicate Wednesdays here on 'Bikini Hill' to stories about Las Vegas and poker stories. For those of you who may be new to the blog, that solidifies the content of the three days that I post. I post 'rambles' here on Mondays, which are long paragraphs about whatever I feel like posting at the time. You know what Wednesdays will be comprised of, and Fridays are about sports and predictions regarding sporting events.
My goal is to return to the desert during the summer. I previously lived in Las Vegas for 2 years from 2005-2007, and a combination of things resulted in that happening. My brother and his family were living in Las Vegas at the time, my mother and I were both living here in San Marcos, America, and I decided that it would be nice if she could be closer to my brother and his family, who have moved around quite a bit due to serving in the military. The economy was really good at the time (which makes me nervous about moving back right now), and we were experiencing the 'poker boom'... I went to dealer school for a month after arriving in Las Vegas, and ended up getting my first job (as a chip runner) and the World Series of Poker at the Rio. After that I was able to land a dealing job on the Strip. You know how life goes though... My brother and his family end up getting assignments to ship out of Vegas, my mother moves back to the central U.S., and after a few years I decide that I'm sick of the desert (and a little homesick). This coincidentally had nothing to do with the economy, and it just ended up being fortunate for me that I returned to Texas before things got tough (I always tell people that tourists go to Vegas with their extra income, so if the economy is bad, they're not visiting). Anyway, last year we had a 'Vegas-like' year here in Texas, with little to no rain, and it's harder to find poker games here than it is in the desert. The same goes for making sports bets at the drop of a hat, so I am planning my return to the valley. If you haven't followed the blog regularly, I do like sports just a LITTLE BIT... I apologize for the LONG nap, and when I return on Friday I will have my predictions for the 'Final Four'. Have a good one!
I have decided that I will now dedicate Wednesdays here on 'Bikini Hill' to stories about Las Vegas and poker stories. For those of you who may be new to the blog, that solidifies the content of the three days that I post. I post 'rambles' here on Mondays, which are long paragraphs about whatever I feel like posting at the time. You know what Wednesdays will be comprised of, and Fridays are about sports and predictions regarding sporting events.
My goal is to return to the desert during the summer. I previously lived in Las Vegas for 2 years from 2005-2007, and a combination of things resulted in that happening. My brother and his family were living in Las Vegas at the time, my mother and I were both living here in San Marcos, America, and I decided that it would be nice if she could be closer to my brother and his family, who have moved around quite a bit due to serving in the military. The economy was really good at the time (which makes me nervous about moving back right now), and we were experiencing the 'poker boom'... I went to dealer school for a month after arriving in Las Vegas, and ended up getting my first job (as a chip runner) and the World Series of Poker at the Rio. After that I was able to land a dealing job on the Strip. You know how life goes though... My brother and his family end up getting assignments to ship out of Vegas, my mother moves back to the central U.S., and after a few years I decide that I'm sick of the desert (and a little homesick). This coincidentally had nothing to do with the economy, and it just ended up being fortunate for me that I returned to Texas before things got tough (I always tell people that tourists go to Vegas with their extra income, so if the economy is bad, they're not visiting). Anyway, last year we had a 'Vegas-like' year here in Texas, with little to no rain, and it's harder to find poker games here than it is in the desert. The same goes for making sports bets at the drop of a hat, so I am planning my return to the valley. If you haven't followed the blog regularly, I do like sports just a LITTLE BIT... I apologize for the LONG nap, and when I return on Friday I will have my predictions for the 'Final Four'. Have a good one!
Senin, 26 Maret 2012
My 2012 Fantasy Baseball Draft/Strategy & Results
Good afternoon everyone. If you are one of my regular readers who have stopped by specifically to read my Monday ramble, I have already made that entry for today and you can find it under the title 'Do You Work Here?' (I know that some of you could not care less about sports...) :) For those of you who are baseball junkies, who may be curious as to what I was doing at 11:00 in the morning yesterday, or who just want to learn about an "innovative" fantasy baseball strategy (we'll see), here we go.
This is my second season competing in this particular fantasy baseball format, which is a rotisserie league composed of 10 people who each a drafted a roster of 28 players yesterday (our draft took just under 2 hours). Under this format, our teams will compete against each other in 10 different categories (5 offensive and 5 defensive) as follows: Home Runs; Runs Batted In; Runs Scored; Stolen Bases; Batting Average; Wins; Saves; Strikeouts; Earned Run Average; and Walks/Hits Allowed Per Inning Pitched.
Under this format last season I took 3rd place in my league of 10 teams. The strategy that I will be using this season was implemented last season, although last year I came up with the strategy DURING THE DRAFT... :) If you still have not drafted your team for this season, you are more than welcome to try this strategy, and at the very least, your other nine opponents will wonder what in the hell you are doing during your draft, as I'm sure mine were... :) Home runs are the "sexy" category if you are a baseball fan, so when I drafted seventh in my draft last year, of course people were taking all of the power hitters before me. That's when I formulated this strategy, which is almost guaranteed to be the complete opposite of all of my opponents in any fantasy baseball league that I choose to compete in during the future (that is until my blog EXPLODES and has millions of readers, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there)... :) My strategy in the draft and during the season is to win all of the DEFENSIVE categories that I can, so while my opponents are spreading their picks around, I almost totally focus on taking the best pitchers in the early rounds of the draft. After that, I try to win the stolen bases category (also "unattractive"), and then place as high as I can in batting average and runs scored, knowing that I don't have much of a chance at all to win the home runs or runs-batted-in category.
During the first 14 rounds of the draft I selected players from the following positions, which is why my team won't be hitting many home runs this season: First Baseman; Pitcher; Pitcher; Outfielder; Pitcher; Pitcher; Pitcher; Pitcher; Pitcher; Pitcher; Pitcher; Pitcher; Pitcher; AND (you guessed it) Pitcher... :P Yes, I selected 12 pitches in the first 14 rounds of the draft. During the season our starting lineups will be made up of 13 offensive players and 9 pitchers, with a bench of 6 players. I will periodically update the progress of my team throughout the course of the baseball season, which now bridges the gap until the next football season for me. For those of you who are in my fantasy league, welcome to the blog and I'll enjoy competing against you this year. For those of you who are not in my fantasy league, don't worry that I just gave my strategy away, because all of the best players were drafted yesterday... :) Below is a list of the players that I drafted, round by round...
3rd A. Gonzalez (Red Sox)
18th R. Halladay (Phillies)
23rd C. Lee (Phillies)
38th M. Holliday (Cardinals)
43rd D. Haren (Angels)
58th J. Lester (Red Sox)
63rd H. Bell (Marlins)
78th I. Kennedy (Diamondbacks)
83rd J. Valverde (Tigers)
98th J. Putz (Diamondbacks)
103rd A. Bailey (Red Sox)
118th D. Hudson (Diamondbacks)
123rd M. Garza (Cubs)
138th J. Zimmerman (Nationals)
143rd C. Maybin (Padres)
158th A. Pagan (Giants)
163rd B. Boesch (Tigers)
178th J. Weeks (Athletics)
183rd B. Revere (Twins)
198th A. Jackson (Tigers)
203rd A. Escobar (Royals)
218th I. Davis (Mets)
223rd I. Desmond (Nationals)
238th B. Harper (Nationals)
243rd Y. Escobar (Blue Jays)
258th T. Helton (Rockies)
263rd C. Jones (Braves)
278th C. Ruiz (Phillies)
My 'Bikini Hill Giants' will be competing this season against Red October, the Confused Red Flour Beetles, Expos Forever, the Shooting Stars, Crime Dog, the Wascally Wabbits, Time To Beat, the Royals, and the Dirt Dogs... :) Enjoy your day, good luck in your draft if you have one coming up, and I'll see you again on Wednesday.
This is my second season competing in this particular fantasy baseball format, which is a rotisserie league composed of 10 people who each a drafted a roster of 28 players yesterday (our draft took just under 2 hours). Under this format, our teams will compete against each other in 10 different categories (5 offensive and 5 defensive) as follows: Home Runs; Runs Batted In; Runs Scored; Stolen Bases; Batting Average; Wins; Saves; Strikeouts; Earned Run Average; and Walks/Hits Allowed Per Inning Pitched.
Under this format last season I took 3rd place in my league of 10 teams. The strategy that I will be using this season was implemented last season, although last year I came up with the strategy DURING THE DRAFT... :) If you still have not drafted your team for this season, you are more than welcome to try this strategy, and at the very least, your other nine opponents will wonder what in the hell you are doing during your draft, as I'm sure mine were... :) Home runs are the "sexy" category if you are a baseball fan, so when I drafted seventh in my draft last year, of course people were taking all of the power hitters before me. That's when I formulated this strategy, which is almost guaranteed to be the complete opposite of all of my opponents in any fantasy baseball league that I choose to compete in during the future (that is until my blog EXPLODES and has millions of readers, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there)... :) My strategy in the draft and during the season is to win all of the DEFENSIVE categories that I can, so while my opponents are spreading their picks around, I almost totally focus on taking the best pitchers in the early rounds of the draft. After that, I try to win the stolen bases category (also "unattractive"), and then place as high as I can in batting average and runs scored, knowing that I don't have much of a chance at all to win the home runs or runs-batted-in category.
During the first 14 rounds of the draft I selected players from the following positions, which is why my team won't be hitting many home runs this season: First Baseman; Pitcher; Pitcher; Outfielder; Pitcher; Pitcher; Pitcher; Pitcher; Pitcher; Pitcher; Pitcher; Pitcher; Pitcher; AND (you guessed it) Pitcher... :P Yes, I selected 12 pitches in the first 14 rounds of the draft. During the season our starting lineups will be made up of 13 offensive players and 9 pitchers, with a bench of 6 players. I will periodically update the progress of my team throughout the course of the baseball season, which now bridges the gap until the next football season for me. For those of you who are in my fantasy league, welcome to the blog and I'll enjoy competing against you this year. For those of you who are not in my fantasy league, don't worry that I just gave my strategy away, because all of the best players were drafted yesterday... :) Below is a list of the players that I drafted, round by round...
3rd A. Gonzalez (Red Sox)
18th R. Halladay (Phillies)
23rd C. Lee (Phillies)
38th M. Holliday (Cardinals)
43rd D. Haren (Angels)
58th J. Lester (Red Sox)
63rd H. Bell (Marlins)
78th I. Kennedy (Diamondbacks)
83rd J. Valverde (Tigers)
98th J. Putz (Diamondbacks)
103rd A. Bailey (Red Sox)
118th D. Hudson (Diamondbacks)
123rd M. Garza (Cubs)
138th J. Zimmerman (Nationals)
143rd C. Maybin (Padres)
158th A. Pagan (Giants)
163rd B. Boesch (Tigers)
178th J. Weeks (Athletics)
183rd B. Revere (Twins)
198th A. Jackson (Tigers)
203rd A. Escobar (Royals)
218th I. Davis (Mets)
223rd I. Desmond (Nationals)
238th B. Harper (Nationals)
243rd Y. Escobar (Blue Jays)
258th T. Helton (Rockies)
263rd C. Jones (Braves)
278th C. Ruiz (Phillies)
My 'Bikini Hill Giants' will be competing this season against Red October, the Confused Red Flour Beetles, Expos Forever, the Shooting Stars, Crime Dog, the Wascally Wabbits, Time To Beat, the Royals, and the Dirt Dogs... :) Enjoy your day, good luck in your draft if you have one coming up, and I'll see you again on Wednesday.
Do You Work Here?
Good morning everyone. Before I start my normal rambling for a Monday, I wanted to take a moment to compare my predicted 'Elite Eight' final scores from my Saturday post to the actual outcomes for the games, which should offer you a little insight as to why I'm chomping at the bit to get back to Las Vegas...
My Predictions Actual Final Scores
Louisville 71 Florida 65 Louisville 72 Florida 68
Ohio State 79 Syracuse 73 Ohio State 77 Syracuse 70
Kentucky 82 Baylor 74 Kentucky 82 Baylor 70
North Carolina 69 Kansas 61 Kansas 80 UNC 67
You can save your applause, and I know what y'all are thinking... "How were you so wrong on the Kansas score???" :) These games complete a recent run where I was 7-1 predicting the winners of the 'Sweet 16' games, and 3-1 predicting these 'Elite Eight' games, with uncannily close scores on the latter. Ironically, the two losing teams, Michigan State and North Carolina, were the LAST TWO 'Final Four' teams that I had on the bracket that I blogged about here. In another welcome to my life moment, North Carolina is my favorite team, so that would be the game in this set that I would be wrong about... :) Anyway, this score group reminds me of my NFL playoff prediction run, and has me wanting even more (if that's possible) to return to the desert to visit some of my favorite sportsbooks...
I will make my 'Final Four' predictions on Friday, but now it's time to ramble. I survived my trouble sleeping during my normal sleeping hours at the end of this week to complete my 2-hour, 10-player, 28-round fantasy baseball draft yesterday. I want to welcome those members of my new fantasy league who said that they would stop by and visit my blog (the draft room opened 15 minutes before the draft started and had a chat room, and for those of you who know me, I WAS THERE 15 minutes before the draft began)... :) And I did enjoy chatting with you 'Red October' and 'Confused Red Flour Beetles'. For those of you who MUST BE wondering what I named my team, we will proudly be taking the field this season as the 'Bikini Hill Giants'. You may know by now that I am a Red Sox fan, but the Giants moniker is in honor of my friend who paid for my fantasy baseball magazine at the counter of the local video store/bookstore after I taxied him around town that afternoon (he is a New York Giants fan and I thought that I should AT LEAST TRY to steal some of that good karma)... ;) After I publish this post I will be blogging a review of yesterday's draft and showing the 28 player team that I drafted, and explaining why 12 of the first 14 players that I drafted were pitchers... I'm sure that the red flour beetles must have been confused yesterday, along with the other 8 members of my league... While on the subject of fantasy leagues, I love drafting teams so much that I wanted to sign up for another league yesterday. I didn't end up doing this, mostly due to the fact that I have discovered that when I have multiple fantasy teams in one season for a sport (football, baseball, etc..), I have found that I do not like having a player on my team in one of my leagues while I have to compete against him in another league. I also have this nasty habit of executing a good draft, only to watch my players get injured during the course of the season, which is why I prefer sports betting to fantasy sports now, and wish that I would have invested more time researching my sports wagers when I lived out in Las Vegas before. The thing that the fantasy baseball will accomplished is that it will bridge that gap until football season arrives, which will also hopefully find me posting my football predictions from the desert by that time. ;) As I shot down my idea of entering another fantasy baseball league, I started wondering who these people are who enter these ONE-THOUSAND DOLLAR (and above) fantasy leagues. Could you imagine being in one of these leagues and losing your top draft picks to injuries??? It's one early September Sunday, and you see Tom Brady and LeSean McCoy (for example), your top two draft picks, go down for the season... $ 1,000.00 - ughhh, no thanks... So I'm changing out a trash bag at work (yes, I lead a glamourous life), it's our busiest night of the week, and a customer approaches me and asks, "do you work here?" In my genuinely helpful and sincere spirit, I answered them and solved their problem. After they walked away, when I had a moment to reflect on their question, my mind started working on alternative answers as I continued tying the trash bag before taking it outside.... "Nah, I don't work here - this music venue is really hopping, and there are hundreds of people here, but I was getting a little bored and decided that the amount of trash in this can here isn't to my liking, so......" :) I also received this question earlier in the week, when I was standing on the stage at closing time, after I had been hustling around the venue for about six hours, and was now standing with my arms folded as I was surveying the crowd to make sure that everyone proceeded to leave the venue in a timely fashion, a stage that we never allow any customer to stand on... I do love San Marcos, America... :) Before I proceed to SLAM a few more t.v. commercials, I would like to take the time to give one some recognition, one that caught my attention to the point that I would like to rip it off at a Las Vegas poker table in the future. Imagine that I'm sitting at a low-limit poker game in Vegas, and I win a very small pot (the pot being small to convey that my following antics are CLEARLY a joke, and not meant to offend anybody), and as I bring in my meager winnings, you hear..... "uh... who's laughing now?..... GA ZELLE.... AH, HA HA HA!!!!" That's from the relatively new MiO energy drink commercial in case you haven't seen it - good job MiO, there's some potential there... ;) It seems to me that I may have derided this next commercial before, but if so, here it comes again because it's still being shown... You see a passenger on an airplane, flagging down the stewardess because he has a headache, and when she offers him some Bayer aspirin, he replies, "I'm not having a heart-attack..." Bayer aspirin, .... GET OVER YOURSELF... Ugghhh... And then a couple of days ago, literally right before I leave for work, as I'm getting things together, hearing but not watching the t.v., the voice in the commercial EXCLAIMS, "BEST OF ALL, THE TEN DOLLAR DINNER BOX IS ONLY TEN DOLLARS!!" This is followed by something (???...) ..."Pizza Hut"... My already rolling eyes look up toward the t.v., and I stop dead in my tracks thinking, REALLY?! Now for those of you familiar with poker terminology, that would be a bad beat, wouldn't it, if the ten dollar dinner box WASN'T ten dollars?.... "Best of all, the ten dollar dinner box is only twenty-five dollars!..." WHO is getting paid to write this stuff, and WHO is paying them?!... #geniuses That is all that I have for now, except to say that in the future, Wednesdays here at 'Bikini Hill' are likely to become stories about things related to Las Vegas and poker stories (much more likely if I do indeed move back to Las Vegas during the summer). I hope that you have a great day and I will see you again on Wednesday.
My Predictions Actual Final Scores
Louisville 71 Florida 65 Louisville 72 Florida 68
Ohio State 79 Syracuse 73 Ohio State 77 Syracuse 70
Kentucky 82 Baylor 74 Kentucky 82 Baylor 70
North Carolina 69 Kansas 61 Kansas 80 UNC 67
You can save your applause, and I know what y'all are thinking... "How were you so wrong on the Kansas score???" :) These games complete a recent run where I was 7-1 predicting the winners of the 'Sweet 16' games, and 3-1 predicting these 'Elite Eight' games, with uncannily close scores on the latter. Ironically, the two losing teams, Michigan State and North Carolina, were the LAST TWO 'Final Four' teams that I had on the bracket that I blogged about here. In another welcome to my life moment, North Carolina is my favorite team, so that would be the game in this set that I would be wrong about... :) Anyway, this score group reminds me of my NFL playoff prediction run, and has me wanting even more (if that's possible) to return to the desert to visit some of my favorite sportsbooks...
I will make my 'Final Four' predictions on Friday, but now it's time to ramble. I survived my trouble sleeping during my normal sleeping hours at the end of this week to complete my 2-hour, 10-player, 28-round fantasy baseball draft yesterday. I want to welcome those members of my new fantasy league who said that they would stop by and visit my blog (the draft room opened 15 minutes before the draft started and had a chat room, and for those of you who know me, I WAS THERE 15 minutes before the draft began)... :) And I did enjoy chatting with you 'Red October' and 'Confused Red Flour Beetles'. For those of you who MUST BE wondering what I named my team, we will proudly be taking the field this season as the 'Bikini Hill Giants'. You may know by now that I am a Red Sox fan, but the Giants moniker is in honor of my friend who paid for my fantasy baseball magazine at the counter of the local video store/bookstore after I taxied him around town that afternoon (he is a New York Giants fan and I thought that I should AT LEAST TRY to steal some of that good karma)... ;) After I publish this post I will be blogging a review of yesterday's draft and showing the 28 player team that I drafted, and explaining why 12 of the first 14 players that I drafted were pitchers... I'm sure that the red flour beetles must have been confused yesterday, along with the other 8 members of my league... While on the subject of fantasy leagues, I love drafting teams so much that I wanted to sign up for another league yesterday. I didn't end up doing this, mostly due to the fact that I have discovered that when I have multiple fantasy teams in one season for a sport (football, baseball, etc..), I have found that I do not like having a player on my team in one of my leagues while I have to compete against him in another league. I also have this nasty habit of executing a good draft, only to watch my players get injured during the course of the season, which is why I prefer sports betting to fantasy sports now, and wish that I would have invested more time researching my sports wagers when I lived out in Las Vegas before. The thing that the fantasy baseball will accomplished is that it will bridge that gap until football season arrives, which will also hopefully find me posting my football predictions from the desert by that time. ;) As I shot down my idea of entering another fantasy baseball league, I started wondering who these people are who enter these ONE-THOUSAND DOLLAR (and above) fantasy leagues. Could you imagine being in one of these leagues and losing your top draft picks to injuries??? It's one early September Sunday, and you see Tom Brady and LeSean McCoy (for example), your top two draft picks, go down for the season... $ 1,000.00 - ughhh, no thanks... So I'm changing out a trash bag at work (yes, I lead a glamourous life), it's our busiest night of the week, and a customer approaches me and asks, "do you work here?" In my genuinely helpful and sincere spirit, I answered them and solved their problem. After they walked away, when I had a moment to reflect on their question, my mind started working on alternative answers as I continued tying the trash bag before taking it outside.... "Nah, I don't work here - this music venue is really hopping, and there are hundreds of people here, but I was getting a little bored and decided that the amount of trash in this can here isn't to my liking, so......" :) I also received this question earlier in the week, when I was standing on the stage at closing time, after I had been hustling around the venue for about six hours, and was now standing with my arms folded as I was surveying the crowd to make sure that everyone proceeded to leave the venue in a timely fashion, a stage that we never allow any customer to stand on... I do love San Marcos, America... :) Before I proceed to SLAM a few more t.v. commercials, I would like to take the time to give one some recognition, one that caught my attention to the point that I would like to rip it off at a Las Vegas poker table in the future. Imagine that I'm sitting at a low-limit poker game in Vegas, and I win a very small pot (the pot being small to convey that my following antics are CLEARLY a joke, and not meant to offend anybody), and as I bring in my meager winnings, you hear..... "uh... who's laughing now?..... GA ZELLE.... AH, HA HA HA!!!!" That's from the relatively new MiO energy drink commercial in case you haven't seen it - good job MiO, there's some potential there... ;) It seems to me that I may have derided this next commercial before, but if so, here it comes again because it's still being shown... You see a passenger on an airplane, flagging down the stewardess because he has a headache, and when she offers him some Bayer aspirin, he replies, "I'm not having a heart-attack..." Bayer aspirin, .... GET OVER YOURSELF... Ugghhh... And then a couple of days ago, literally right before I leave for work, as I'm getting things together, hearing but not watching the t.v., the voice in the commercial EXCLAIMS, "BEST OF ALL, THE TEN DOLLAR DINNER BOX IS ONLY TEN DOLLARS!!" This is followed by something (???...) ..."Pizza Hut"... My already rolling eyes look up toward the t.v., and I stop dead in my tracks thinking, REALLY?! Now for those of you familiar with poker terminology, that would be a bad beat, wouldn't it, if the ten dollar dinner box WASN'T ten dollars?.... "Best of all, the ten dollar dinner box is only twenty-five dollars!..." WHO is getting paid to write this stuff, and WHO is paying them?!... #geniuses That is all that I have for now, except to say that in the future, Wednesdays here at 'Bikini Hill' are likely to become stories about things related to Las Vegas and poker stories (much more likely if I do indeed move back to Las Vegas during the summer). I hope that you have a great day and I will see you again on Wednesday.
Sabtu, 24 Maret 2012
'Elite Eight Predictions'
Good morning everyone and welcome to a special Saturday edition of the blog. I feel a lot better about showing up to give you some 'Elite Eight' predictions after going 7-1 on my 'Sweet 16' predictions that I made here on Wednesday. Before the tournament began I let you know about ESPN's free bracket contest and the fact that they let you enter up to ten free brackets. I just discovered that the 3rd bracket that I turned in is sitting in the 97.2 percentile of all the brackets submitted, with 7 of my teams still alive in the 'Elite Eight'. Michigan State, the only team that tripped me up in my 'Sweet 16' predictions here for the blog, is the only team that is not alive in that bracket. This particular bracket has Kentucky beating North Carolina 74-72 in the final - we shall see... Here are my 'Elite Eight' predictions:
Louisville 71 Florida 65
Ohio State 79 Syracuse 73
Kentucky 82 Baylor 74
North Carolina 69 Kansas 61
I hope that you enjoy the 'Elite Eight' and I'll see you again on Monday with my ramble - have a great weekend!
Louisville 71 Florida 65
Ohio State 79 Syracuse 73
Kentucky 82 Baylor 74
North Carolina 69 Kansas 61
I hope that you enjoy the 'Elite Eight' and I'll see you again on Monday with my ramble - have a great weekend!
Jumat, 23 Maret 2012
2012 Major League Baseball Regular Season
Good morning everyone. Just a few housekeeping notes and then I will give you this season's regular season MLB predictions as promised. I will be back tomorrow with probably a shorter than normal post which will be focused mainly on my 'Elite 8' predictions. I went 3 for 4 last night, with the loser being another one of my Final Four teams (surprise, surprise)... :) My predictions for tonight's games can be found in my last post. Ironically enough, when I typed my post on Wednesday and stated that signing Peyton Manning was a huge gamble for Denver, I hadn't looked at the Broncos opponents for this season. Beyond facing Kansas City, Oakland, and San Diego twice, the Denver schedule also includes: vs. Pittsburgh, vs. Tampa Bay, vs. New Orleans, & vs. Houston, with @ Baltimore, @ Cincinnati, @ Atlanta, & @ New England. Yeah, I'm not backing off my post - HUGE GAMBLE signing an older quarterback with a questionable health status who did not take a snap last year while shipping off an extremely popular young quarterback... I have a lot of friends going out to Las Vegas this weekend for a wedding, punks... I mean congratulations Sean & Kate... I hope that everyone has a great time, punks... ;) The only consolation that I have is that my fantasy baseball draft is on Sunday morning... On that note, here are your predictions for the regular season...
2012 Regular Season Predictions
AL East W L NL East W L
Boston 92 70 Philadelphia 98 64
New York 90 72 Atlanta 87 75
Tampa Bay 87 75 Miami 85 77
Toronto 83 79 Washington 84 78
Baltimore 68 94 New York 64 98
AL Central W L NL Central W L
Detroit 91 71 St. Louis 88 74
Cleveland 77 85 Cincinnati 77 85
Minnesota 73 89 Pittsburgh 75 87
Kansas City 72 90 Chicago 74 88
Chicago 70 92 Milwaukee 73 89
Houston 58 104
AL West W L NL West W L
Los Angeles 96 66 Arizona 92 70
Texas 92 70 San Francisco 88 74
Oakland 73 89 Los Angeles 86 76
Seattle 70 92 Colorado 82 80
San Diego 70 92
Have fun with that gang... :) Oh, by the way, this little blog surpassed the 5,000 pageview mark this morning. Thank you, I appreciate it! Have a great day and I will see you again tomorrow. And Sean & Kate, seriously, congratulations - have a great weekend in the desert!
2012 Regular Season Predictions
AL East W L NL East W L
Boston 92 70 Philadelphia 98 64
New York 90 72 Atlanta 87 75
Tampa Bay 87 75 Miami 85 77
Toronto 83 79 Washington 84 78
Baltimore 68 94 New York 64 98
AL Central W L NL Central W L
Detroit 91 71 St. Louis 88 74
Cleveland 77 85 Cincinnati 77 85
Minnesota 73 89 Pittsburgh 75 87
Kansas City 72 90 Chicago 74 88
Chicago 70 92 Milwaukee 73 89
Houston 58 104
AL West W L NL West W L
Los Angeles 96 66 Arizona 92 70
Texas 92 70 San Francisco 88 74
Oakland 73 89 Los Angeles 86 76
Seattle 70 92 Colorado 82 80
San Diego 70 92
Have fun with that gang... :) Oh, by the way, this little blog surpassed the 5,000 pageview mark this morning. Thank you, I appreciate it! Have a great day and I will see you again tomorrow. And Sean & Kate, seriously, congratulations - have a great weekend in the desert!
Rabu, 21 Maret 2012
Sean, John, Peyton, Tim, Mark, & The 'Sweet 16'
Good afternoon everyone. Go ahead and fasten your seatbelts - I have no shortage of topics to cover here today (not having this entry ready for you this morning paid off this time as today has already been a big sports day)... I wanted to begin with some shoutouts. My friend --S out in Las Vegas (commenting on a post here) and my friend Randy here in San Marcos, America (commenting on a facebook post) both predicted that Peyton Manning would end up in Denver when I predicted that he would land in Arizona - well done gentlemen... I also wanted to give a shoutout to the 'Voice of San Marcos', who can play middle linebacker on my team anytime... If you're sensing a little bit of a football theme here, you're dead right. If it was up to me, the football season could start tomorrow (of course I feel like this every day during the offseason)... For those of you who are hoop junkies, I will give you my predictions (with scores) for the 'Sweet 16' matchups later in this post. For those of you who are baseball junkies, I will still be giving you my predictions of the records of all 30 Major League Baseball teams for the upcoming regular season on Friday. For those of you who want suggestions on how to prepare a gourmet meal, you're in the wrong place...
Sean Payton: Among the various punishments that the NFL gave the New Orleans Saints today for 'bounties' that were placed on opposing players, head coach Sean Payton has been suspended for one year without pay (starting April 1st). As far as making predictions goes, I am at a loss here, but this is going to be interesting. I guess that you promote someone from within the organization for one year with the understanding that Payton resumes his duties April 1, 2013??? This is a pretty shocking development considering that the prevailing wisdom was that he would receive a 4 to 6 game suspension.
John Elway: If you ask me, Elway has never liked having Tebow in Denver, he didn't like the organization 'having' to cave into fan pressure to play Tebow, and signing Peyton Manning was his way of sticking it to Tebow and the mile-high faithful. Don't get me wrong, Elway can do what he wants in his job, but if Manning isn't a HUGE success for the Broncos, I think that this move is going to end up blowing up in his face. My prediction is that this explosion is exactly what we are going to see. Tebow was EXTREMELY POPULAR in Denver, and no one knows what is going to happen when Manning takes the field again. Let me interject here that I have always been a Manning fan. He's a character guy and he's always produced. The pitfalls that I see here are that Manning is not young anymore, he will have a completely different group of coaches and teammates than he had in Indianapolis, he will be playing outdoors in inclement weather in many more games, the AFC West teams (Chargers, Chiefs, Raiders) have a pretty respectable group of defenses (he will be facing them 6 teams combined), and again, there are no guarantees as to how his neck is going to hold up when he is hit. Do you think that NFL officials are overzealous in protecting hits to the head on quarterbacks now? Just wait and see what happens when someone gets near Manning's lid... If Manning isn't able to hold up as Denver's signal caller, then what do the Broncos have? Shipping off a very popular young quarterback who took over the reins of a 1-4 team and led that team to a division title and a playoff victory is incredibly risky. AT BEST Manning has only a handful of good years left in him, and that is IF he can stay healthy... Stay tuned...
Peyton Manning: Again, Manning is a character guy and has had a Hall of Fame career in my book if he never takes the field again. Just look at how the Colts played last season without Manning and in the many seasons prior with him at the helm. Manning has known Elway for a long time and I am sure that played a huge part in his decision to sign with Denver, although I still don't think that the Broncos are the best fit for him (okay, that's the last time I'll say that for a while)... :) Manning is a smart, hard-working guy that doesn't strike me as someone who is afraid of a challenge, and I think that will suit him well in this situation, because getting the Broncos into the same stratosphere as the perennial elite teams in the AFC (Patriots, Ravens, Steelers) isn't going to be easy.
Tim Tebow: Tebow is now a member of the New York Jets. Just when you think that the Big Apple couldn't get any crazier... I am very curious as to how Tebow and Rex Ryan will co-exist, but there is one undeniable trait that they share - they are both EXTREMELY COMPETITIVE and seemingly have a HUNGER to succeed. Even as I type this, I would not be surprised if Tebow surpasses Sanchez as the Jets starter entering the season. Tebow is also like Ryan in that he is fiery and wears his emotions on his sleeve, and that's just not the type of guy that Mark Sanchez is. I am also completely under the impression that if Ryan didn't want Tebow to be a Jet, then Tebow wouldn't be in New York. Grab some popcorn folks...
Mark Sanchez: People that know me well know that I have never been big on Sanchez, but for someone who led their team to consecutive conference championship games (okay, 'led' may be an overstatement), having 'Tebowmania' come to New York cannot be a positive thing. It's hard to play well when you're constantly looking over your shoulder, but I don't know how else this can play out. How can you NOT be worried about performing poorly when a big part of your fan base will predictably be warming up their vocal chords to chant "WE WANT TEBOW!"??? I guess that's why these guys get paid the big money...
Some 'Sweet 16' predictions for you, without further commentary:
Syracuse 70 Wisconsin 65
Michigan State 73 Louisville 63
Ohio State 75 Cincinnati 64
Florida 68 Marquette 64
Baylor 80 Xavier 73
North Carolina 81 Ohio 68
Kentucky 83 Indiana 72
Kansas 66 N.C. State 59
I think that this sets the record for my longest blog entry ever, but since it looks like you readers are going to put 'Bikini Hill' over the 5,000 views mark by this weekend, I'm happy to do it... ;) If you're nice, I might do a special Saturday entry with my 'Elite 8' predictions... Have a great day everyone and I'll see you on Friday.
Sean Payton: Among the various punishments that the NFL gave the New Orleans Saints today for 'bounties' that were placed on opposing players, head coach Sean Payton has been suspended for one year without pay (starting April 1st). As far as making predictions goes, I am at a loss here, but this is going to be interesting. I guess that you promote someone from within the organization for one year with the understanding that Payton resumes his duties April 1, 2013??? This is a pretty shocking development considering that the prevailing wisdom was that he would receive a 4 to 6 game suspension.
John Elway: If you ask me, Elway has never liked having Tebow in Denver, he didn't like the organization 'having' to cave into fan pressure to play Tebow, and signing Peyton Manning was his way of sticking it to Tebow and the mile-high faithful. Don't get me wrong, Elway can do what he wants in his job, but if Manning isn't a HUGE success for the Broncos, I think that this move is going to end up blowing up in his face. My prediction is that this explosion is exactly what we are going to see. Tebow was EXTREMELY POPULAR in Denver, and no one knows what is going to happen when Manning takes the field again. Let me interject here that I have always been a Manning fan. He's a character guy and he's always produced. The pitfalls that I see here are that Manning is not young anymore, he will have a completely different group of coaches and teammates than he had in Indianapolis, he will be playing outdoors in inclement weather in many more games, the AFC West teams (Chargers, Chiefs, Raiders) have a pretty respectable group of defenses (he will be facing them 6 teams combined), and again, there are no guarantees as to how his neck is going to hold up when he is hit. Do you think that NFL officials are overzealous in protecting hits to the head on quarterbacks now? Just wait and see what happens when someone gets near Manning's lid... If Manning isn't able to hold up as Denver's signal caller, then what do the Broncos have? Shipping off a very popular young quarterback who took over the reins of a 1-4 team and led that team to a division title and a playoff victory is incredibly risky. AT BEST Manning has only a handful of good years left in him, and that is IF he can stay healthy... Stay tuned...
Peyton Manning: Again, Manning is a character guy and has had a Hall of Fame career in my book if he never takes the field again. Just look at how the Colts played last season without Manning and in the many seasons prior with him at the helm. Manning has known Elway for a long time and I am sure that played a huge part in his decision to sign with Denver, although I still don't think that the Broncos are the best fit for him (okay, that's the last time I'll say that for a while)... :) Manning is a smart, hard-working guy that doesn't strike me as someone who is afraid of a challenge, and I think that will suit him well in this situation, because getting the Broncos into the same stratosphere as the perennial elite teams in the AFC (Patriots, Ravens, Steelers) isn't going to be easy.
Tim Tebow: Tebow is now a member of the New York Jets. Just when you think that the Big Apple couldn't get any crazier... I am very curious as to how Tebow and Rex Ryan will co-exist, but there is one undeniable trait that they share - they are both EXTREMELY COMPETITIVE and seemingly have a HUNGER to succeed. Even as I type this, I would not be surprised if Tebow surpasses Sanchez as the Jets starter entering the season. Tebow is also like Ryan in that he is fiery and wears his emotions on his sleeve, and that's just not the type of guy that Mark Sanchez is. I am also completely under the impression that if Ryan didn't want Tebow to be a Jet, then Tebow wouldn't be in New York. Grab some popcorn folks...
Mark Sanchez: People that know me well know that I have never been big on Sanchez, but for someone who led their team to consecutive conference championship games (okay, 'led' may be an overstatement), having 'Tebowmania' come to New York cannot be a positive thing. It's hard to play well when you're constantly looking over your shoulder, but I don't know how else this can play out. How can you NOT be worried about performing poorly when a big part of your fan base will predictably be warming up their vocal chords to chant "WE WANT TEBOW!"??? I guess that's why these guys get paid the big money...
Some 'Sweet 16' predictions for you, without further commentary:
Syracuse 70 Wisconsin 65
Michigan State 73 Louisville 63
Ohio State 75 Cincinnati 64
Florida 68 Marquette 64
Baylor 80 Xavier 73
North Carolina 81 Ohio 68
Kentucky 83 Indiana 72
Kansas 66 N.C. State 59
I think that this sets the record for my longest blog entry ever, but since it looks like you readers are going to put 'Bikini Hill' over the 5,000 views mark by this weekend, I'm happy to do it... ;) If you're nice, I might do a special Saturday entry with my 'Elite 8' predictions... Have a great day everyone and I'll see you on Friday.
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