Guess who's Biz-aack

That's what Junior Earnhardt should be singing. (Not sure that he's a Siegal fan though) I will say that despite more compelling story lines (JJ coming in, going for number five in a row and Nascar's first serious woman driver on Saturday), seeing Junior split two cars on the final push evoked memories of how he SHOULD be driving, and got me excited about this season. Where has this guy been? The excuse and bad luck voodoo might finally be gone. Now I was never one to compare him to Sr., but seeing how he charged out of the gate like a beast, got lamented with buckets of false superstar glue, and subsequently mustered enough excitement to make children by Wranglers, along the way he has simply failed to live up to a hype that was, well, warranted. He was Dale's son, part of THE family. He should have at least won a Cup by now. Or at least threatened. So after a completely miserable 09 season, guess who's bizack! Thanks to a shared comradary between he and, interestingly enough, Mr. Grumpy himself, Mark Martin. Oh, the wonders of Hendrick Motorsports and their Steinbrenner like grasp on the circuit. The main difference between this family and those whine boxes is that I actually love this family. So here's to Jimmy taking number five, Gordon slowly drifting away, Martin getting a few more wins to finish out a HofF career, and Jr. becoming respectable again. And to Smoke and Carl Edwards losing miserably along the way.

And congrats to Jamie McMurray for proving all of Vegas wrong. Way to get a lucky win now. That won't happen in July.

Houston we have a problem. And I'm not speaking of a Rockets team about to move their franchise player, while receiving nothing in return. Call it a clean break. Hey Rocket fans, I know your pain. Santana anyone? No, the travesty I speak of was this weekends All-Star bonanza. What a terrible waste. Too much Charles Barkley and not enough good festivities. Decent game. (In all honesty I only watched the first half DVR'd this morning. Sue me. I was getting it in, so to speak.) So highlights showed me that Wade finished 'em off and the East won. I still wish A.I. would have played. What was most depressing was the dunk contest. Can someone take this event behind the woodshed and end it. I wish I could call Tony Soprano, so he can get someone to "take care of it". I mean the only reason we were entertained was because Nate Robinson looked like a midget jumping off a trampoline. Yes, he has hops. Derozen stopped caring at the finals, for some reason, and Nate self ally-ooped himself the title. Did you see the completely uninspired efforts by Wallace and Shannon Brown. And the latter has a website dedicated to highlighting his dunks! Hey Shannon your in L.A. You should know that you only do things if you get paid for it. This was something you could have gotten paid for! Well, get 'em next year. Maybe.
Congrats to Pierce for getting hot at the right time in a weak three point contest.

IN other, better basketball news, my UK Wildcats played tough when it mattered Saturday to upend a feisty (can I say that?) Tennessee squad. Hopson's a beast. We know that. But their bench guys played inspired ball. But that's where the praising ends. My Cats went to work late in the second half, without a full Cousins, who had taken a one way ticket to whineville. Wall attacked, Bledsoe got hot, and we finally figured out a way to combat the 3-2 zone. This all added up to a #2 ranking. F-ing Kansas. I can't wait to play them. Oh, and yes of course those jerks are still top 10.

I'll end this with a statement to the public. America needs to be paying more attention to the CAA. What a season this has been! My Monarchs are deadlocked at first, a place they previously held and lost, with a Northeastern squad that just mopped us. People are getting upset and getting crucial wins with every game. It is truly comparable to the Western conference in the NBA. Or at at least the Big East. After beating Mason, we should handle a weak Towson squad, leading up to huge non conference game against Northern Iowa. UNI is a team who is easily leading its conference, but who also just lost a big one to an underdog Bradley team. A win against UNI would hopefully all but secure a dance ticket for ODU. Don't slip up at Towson and my Monarchs should get it done. Hey, the AP gave us four points. J/S