Jim McKay

Most people are going with the standard headshot of Jim McKay when talking about him, but I don’t like that. He was a broadcaster who loved being at the event. This picture does him justice

I wanted to marinate my thoughts on the passing of broadcasting legend Jim McKay.

When I first heard of his death, I was deeply saddened, like a member of my family had passed away and almost moved to tears, seriously. I kept saying to myself, “wow, Jim McKay.”

He brought a level of professionalism to sports journalism that is missing in today’s environment.

McKay covered everything from the Olympics, horse racing, auto racing and everything in between. I’m only 27 and may not have been around for the majority of his career, but I’ll mention two moments when I realized his worth.

The first time is when I saw a documentary on his life called “Jim McKay: My World in My Words,” which I seriously, seriously recommend viewing. I saw this in 2003 after I graduated from college and had my English degree and had no idea what I wanted to do with it. I saw the life that Jim led and the respect that he had for everyone and every sport.

That’s the thing that McKay brought to sports. Respect.

I watched the documentary with some friends and we joked about how McKay would cover things like barrel jumping and ski jumping and other alternative sports and respected it greatly. We said that he could cover an opening envelopes competition and make it sound like Game 7 of the World Series.

What we meant is that he understood the significance of the athletes in the sports that he was covering. He may not have been the biggest fan of the Little League World Series, but he knew that there was somebody out there who thought the world of it and he respected that.

Today, you have these talking heads on TV who openly distain the events that they’re covering because it isn’t important to them. McKay wouldn’t have that. He realized that he wasn’t the show. People weren’t there to see him perform.

I just wished that the professionals who cover sports realize that they are journalist and they should respect the product that they’re covering like McKay did.

The second moment I remember from McKay was when I was in a bar in Atlanta preparing to watch an England match in the 2006 World Cup and the opening shot was of McKay welcoming everyone to the broadcast.

Now, if you know soccer fans in America, we’re a pretty critical group of people who aren’t accepting of outsiders in general, especially broadcasters. However, when we saw Jim, it was OK, because he was just like a member of your family. You know that he appreciated the moment.

Another thing, I look at the passing of our great literary and auditors of sports from Dick Schaap to Ralph Wiley to Shirley Povich and the dignified way that they practiced journalism.

You may have read or listened to these gentlemen and disagreed with them, but you respected their work. They earned their stripes to state their opinion/

I look at these “journalists” on various TV networks or read them in papers and know that they haven’t earned what McKay earned.

That man practiced his art and just didn’t sit in some studio and get fed information from stats people and interns and producers. He was out on the field getting his reports.

McKay also covered golf, I forgot about that. There are dozens of other things that he covered that I won’t even get into in this post.

Once again, another thing. He had the ability to cover everything and it wasn’t looked at as a bad thing. I think that we’ve compartmentalized our sports broadcasting in a bad way.

Did you know that Peter Gammons has covered the NHL and college basketball? That David Aldridge, the sideline reporter for NBA basketball on TNT, has covered the U.S. Open for tennis and the Indianapolis 500?

People like McKay and the other guys I mentioned above made me want to know something about every sport, even if I’m not a fan of it. The problem is that the media and those “journalists” disrespect fans and make it seem like we only like one thing. That a soccer fan can’t like baseball or a tennis fan can’t like auto racing.

I know this was supposed to be about the life and times of Jim McKay. There are some great tributes to his life out there, including this excellent page by ESPN here: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?id=3431230&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab3pos1

However, I’ll remember him for bringing some class to sports broadcasting that is sorely missing.

An Update on "Workout Girl" (If you see this picture, you know it ain't good!)

So I had an interesting conversation with “workout girl” today at the gym.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with her, Amber is the girl that I always interact with in the gym who I like a lot. I even chronicled one encounter with her in a past post. Here it is: http://pourtoutpancakes.blogspot.com/2008/04/this-is-what-i-get-for-trying-to.html

Wow, Amber was the subject of my third-ever post back in April. Crazy stuff.

Anyway, all of this stuff has started out back in April. We crossed paths a lot at baseball games and at the Beaman. I’ve been asking her out to do something together and every time I do, something never got right. I would text her and not get a response. I would not contact her for several days and see if that was an issue. We just couldn’t connect.

We openly talked about our potential relationships outside of each other and did it in a mature manner. Amber was dating; I was talking to other girls. We were just living our lives.

However, something weird happened last weekend. I saw Amber at the Beaman on a Thursday and we were talking as usual. I asked her if she wanted to get coffee that weekend. She said yes. I told Amber that I would call her Saturday and we could pick a time.

Now, the old Marcel would have been pushy and set a date and time for Saturday on Thursday. I’m usually very aggressive when it comes to dealing with trying to date girls.

I also used to be very traditional in my views. I thought that if you liked someone, you asked them out, you went on a date, etc. However, the concept of dating has been twisted over time. It seems like people aren’t having traditional dates as much now. What are your thoughts?

So, I call Amber on Saturday morning, not too early. I leave a message on her voicemail saying hello, just calling, and the usual stuff. I didn’t hear from her so I called Saturday night, saying the same stuff. No word from Amber.

Sunday comes along and I’m relaxing at my home and I realize that it’s Sunday night and I hadn’t heard from Amber. So I shoot her a quick text message asking what’s up and if she’s ok.

On Monday morning, I get a text from her telling me that she was working all that weekend and was sorry that she didn’t call me back. Cool.

The key to our interactions is that it’s always been laid back. We’re not too serious about it. And from dealing with Joan, the girl that I have feelings for but is dating someone, I’ve learned to keep it honest with women. It’s just too demanding and a pain in the butt to have lies and deceptions and trying to act like someone you aren’t.

I said to myself that I wouldn’t talk to or call Amber for a week. I needed some distance from her. However, when you work out a lot like I do and she happens to be employed by the gym, that’s not going to happen.

I saw Amber several times and didn’t mention anything about trying to go out with her. Once again, no pressure. However, I was in the gym today and saw her and really wanted to spend time with her. I did my workout and during most of it I kept coming back to the thought that if Amber really isn’t interested in going out with me, why am I going to keep harping on trying to make it happen?

As I said, I’ve been trying to go out with Amber since April! I needed to just get an answer and some clarity. So after I lift, I go to Amber and ask her if she’s dating someone. She mentions that she likes a guy back in her hometown. We’ve talked about the guy in the past, so that wasn’t shocking at all. Amber tells me that she’s interested in him right now, isn’t single and is trying to have a long-distance relationship.

Old Marcel would have lost his mind and been sad for the rest of the weekend, wondering why there isn’t anyone out there for him, believing that he will die lonely, etc.

However, since Amber and I have kept it honest with each other, I wasn’t mad at all. I actually appreciated her honesty and telling me what she was feeling. I listened to her and respected it instead of trying to hear what I wanted to hear. There's a difference between listening and hearing.

I’m not happy with it because I still have feeling for Amber and think that she’s a great girl. We have fun together when we interact and we’ve become friends. I’m actually happy that she’s found someone that she’s vibed with. I really am. If she’s happier with her boyfriend then potentially unhappy with me, be happy Amber. Also, she’s very cute and that’s always a good thing.

I’ve reached an interesting phase of interaction with women in my life the past few months.

With Amber and especially Joan, I’m accepted trying to know a girl for more than just seeing her, being attracted to her and then wanting to date her immediately. I’ve taken a step back and tried to let things happen in an eased pace.

It’s different for me because I’m someone who likes to pursue things immediately, whether I need them or not. However, when dealing with women it’s a different deal.

Looking back on the old me, I forced many potential relationships with my aggressiveness and that ruined any chance of something special developing. I guess I was looking for some quick and simple gratification, that’s what she said. Let me stop.

Point being that you can’t force a relationship with a woman. She has her own life and she isn’t going to force anything into it that isn’t necessary. I’ve made the mistake of assuming that women have a lot of free time and are looking for someone like me to fill that time and I suffocate them.

That’s not how it is. For a potential relationship to work, each of us must balance our own times before we can incorporate anyone else into it.

Where do I go from here? Do I secretly pine for Amber or even Joan to break up with their boyfriends and come running to me? Sure, if they wanted to hang out with me and take it to another level, I’m cool with that.

However, I’m going to keep flowing with life and see where it takes my relationships with women. Hopefully, if I meet someone and we want to date each other, we’ll be ready for each other and things can go from there.

Lets just all hope it doesn’t take two months this time.

Here's some Genesis for your viewing pleasure.

Are no Black baseball players a problem? Not to me

So I was recently reading an article in the Nashville Rage this week in the sports section discussing the lack of black players in baseball. The story profiles some Middle Tennessee black players and speaks to coaches in this area about the struggles of getting kids to play baseball. Its well-written by Mo and here’s a link to the article, I seriously recommend that you scan it before you read what I have to say on it: http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080519/SPORTS07/805190335/1002/SPORTS

OK, now that you’ve scanned the article, here’s my opinion.

I really don’t care.

I really don’t care if there are no black players who ever play baseball again…or any sport for that manner, as long as there isn’t any discrimination against someone playing the sport.

The argument that I hate most for why someone will watch a sport or play a sport is the racial makeup of the players. I loved hockey back in the day and I saw hardly any black players in the sport. I loved the sport, not the color of the players.

It irritates me to hear black people tell me that they don’t like watching a sport such as hockey or golf or tennis because they’re aren’t enough black people in it.

It goes the other way too. There has been more than one occasion when a white person has told me that they don’t like the NBA because there are too many black people. Yeah, scary stuff, but I keep it real with people and they tend to keep it real with me, which I appreciate.

I used to get so much crap for being a hockey fan as a kid in New York. I would go to Rangers games and when I was desperate Islanders and Devils games and people would come to me and wonder why I was there. They would tell me that black people weren’t supposed to like hockey. That made me mad.

Thankfully my mother has always taught me to look at things for what they are and not what they look like. She always encouraged me to watch all sports and not focus on the lack of black people in it. I was trying to watch golf before Tiger Woods even entered Stanford. I’ve always watched auto racing, especially F-1. I watched the NBA and the NFL just as hard. I didn’t care.

This from a woman who grew up in South Carolina in the 50’s and 60’s and had some negative interactions with white people and could have taught her son to be negative. Special woman.

Anyway, I understand that the issue becomes very complicated when it comes to a sport like baseball where the expense of youth travel teams is a problem and economics becomes an issue. Therefore, scouts aren’t inclined to see certain players, etc.

In the end, life’s a bitch and sports are even worse. It isn’t fair. The prep player the article profiles may be an outstanding player and feel that he got short changed with scholarship offers for baseball, but that’s the way it is. He needs to bust his ass at Cumberland University and if he’s talented, he will get his shot.

I don’t like how the racial makeup of sports, particularly baseball, has become an issue. Is it the end of the world that only around 10% of the players in MLB are black, not at all. Let’s keep prospective.

From a baseball prospective, there are more minorities playing the sport than ever. The influx of Latin players, Asians, Europeans and even Canadians have made the sport more global than ever. Black people, including myself, need to realize that when people like Larry Doby and Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente were playing in the 40’s and 50’s, they were fighting for the equality of all players. I repeat all players. To make this a woe is me black issue is shortsighted of the progress baseball and other sports have made towards minorities playing. I realized this years ago and I hope others do too.

And from a general prospective, compared to all the problems/issues that we have in society from the war in Iraq, terrorism, the bad economy, gas prices, poverty, general safety and countless others, who really cares if there aren’t black players in baseball?

I fear many things in this society and as someone who eventually wants to have a family, I have concerns for the world I’m bringing my future kids into.

That sounds cruel, but as I’ve gotten older and matured, the less I care about sports and its issues.

Sports is my job, I spend a majority of time working in the industry, and I still love it. However, we have a lot more pressing issues in our society. I mentioned them earlier and we need to focus on solving those.

If we want to keep in sports, we can. I don’t like seeing the lack of minority in high-level positions in college athletic departments. Furthermore, I don’t like the lack of women in that regard as well. I don’t like being the only minority at various sporting events in the press box. Those are things that I’m trying to make better from a sports prospective.

I don’t need a black role model to make me want to be an athletic director. I don’t need a black influence to become a sports general manager. I would like to interact with good AD’s and GM’s. That’s what I need.

The racial makeup of the players of the games that I work at, not too concerned about.

I hope this post gets picked up by somebody huge and I can be on some panel or something and discuss this further because it’s a topic I love talking about. Or I can be labeled a racist against my race. What would that be called?

I was watching Game 1 of the NBA Finals, so there was no music. However, here are two videos for some edutainment on blacks in baseball. Enjoy and Buck O’Neil should have been in the Hall of Fame years ago. That is all.

My NBA Finals Prediction

I’ll make this prediction quick and dirty, that’s what she said. Ha! Anyway, the Lakers and Celtics go at it in the NBA Finals. Feel the excitement people.

I’m looking forward to this series because I haven’t watched the constant media coverage of this series. I’ve read maybe two or three articles about it and have avoided ESPN because they kill any excitement with over coverage.

I learned from watching the Stanley Cup finals this past week that the less I know, the more I enjoy it.

Working in the sports industry is fine and I love sports, but I get burnt out over it often. I need some distance and just watching the hockey games between Detroit and Pittsburgh without the over-coverage was a delight.

Lakers in six. The key will be the bench play and the coaching. Doc Rivers scares me.

I was watching Two and a Half Men doing this post, but I also stumbled upon some old NBA footage on YouTube.

Here’s are Games Five and Game Six of the 1993 Eastern Conference Finals between the Knicks and the Bulls or as I call it, “The moment I learned to hate the Bulls and declared Jordan the greatest of all-time.”

I still hate the Bulls to this day, but Respect.

Enjoy the series.

My Updated MLB Predictions and why Meggie, Jonathan, Noth and the rest of Chicago is Happy

Since we’ve reached June, its time for me to review my baseball picks, this should be interesting…

Here were my choices before the season started for the National League:

NL East- Phillies (So far, so good)
NL Central- Milwaukee (oy!)
NL West- Arizona (solid so far)
Wild Card- Colorado (not a good choice)
NL Champions- Arizona (sticking with my pick even though Philly is good)
NL MVP- Prince Fielder/Ryan Howard (neither one is bringing it. Bring on Chase Utley, Lance Berkman and Larry Jones)
NL Cy Young- Johan Santana (Johan is doing well, but its Brandon Webb award to lose)
NL Manager of the Year- Bob Melvin (The Diamondbacks are doing their thing, good job Bob)
NL Suprise Team- Cincinnati (They started off well, stumbled a little bit, but the Jay Bruce era is in full effect. I love their young pitching like Cueto and Volquez, whose a stud. They’re not going to make the playoffs, but if they may have a future. The Marlins are obviously the choice here.)
NL Disappointment- Chicago and San Diego (I was wrong on the Cubs of course, but San Diego was a good call. I’ll get to the rest of the disappointments later.)
NL Worst Team- San Francisco, even worse than Pittsburgh (The Giants are awful, but they actually have a better record than Washington, San Diego and Colorado).

My standings predictions for each division and the current ones:

My NL East:

1) Philadelphia
2) New York
3) Atlanta
4) Washington
5) Florida

Current NL East:

1) Philadelphia
2) Florida
3) Atlanta
4) New York
5) Washington

Thoughts: I still love Philly. I thought this before the season started and Howard hasn’t gotten off yet. Utley is playing out of his mind and Rollins is going to continue to get healthy and better. The Marlins are a surprise. I though Atlanta would meddle around .500 all year and that’s what they’re doing. I never liked the Mets and they’re pathetic play and internal bullcrap with Willie Randolph. Washington is Washington.

My NL Central:

1) Milwaukee
2) Cincinnati
3) Chicago
4) St. Louis
5) Houston
6) Pittsburgh

Current NL Central:

1) Chicago
2) St. Louis
3) Houston
4) Milwaukee
5) Cincinnati
6) Pittsburgh

Thoughts: Brewers, what’s going on. I go out on a limb for you and you show your appreciation with this? The Natti’ isn’t in second, so that’s a no for me. Houston is showing some spunk, which is good. I thought St. Louis was going to be horrible and they have been more than respectful. The Cubs are the story of the National League right now, maybe all of baseball. You were right Meggie. To be fair though, I did say that I thought that the Cubs were better than everyone else in the division on paper, I just didn’t trust them. I should have trusted them, but its still early.

My NL West:

1) Arizona
2) Colorado
3) Los Angeles
4) San Diego
5) San Francisco

Current NL West:

1) Arizona
2) Los Angeles
3) San Francisco
4) San Diego
5) Colorado

Thoughts: Arizona is looking good, even though they have cooled off some. Colorado is the shocker. I thought they would contend for the playoffs and they stink right now. The Dodgers may actually win this division.

On to the American League:

AL East- Boston (good call)
AL Central- Cleveland (oy again, but there’s still hope)
AL West- Seattle (no hope here)
Wild Card- Toronto (this can still happen)
AL Champs- Cleveland (I’m being stubborn and sticking with them)
AL MVP- Manny Ramirez (I can still see Manny winning this even though Josh Hamilton is doing great right now)
AL Cy Young- Roy Halladay (this is an open race so far)
AL Manager of the Year- Terry Francona (this is Joe Maddon’s award, manager of Tampa Bay, right now)
AL Surprise Team- Kansas City (terrible choice by me)
AL Disappintment Team- Yankees and Anaheim (Yankees, yes…Anaheim’s in first place. Mixed bag)
AL Worst Team- Baltimore (the Orioles are showing something and Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City and Seattle each have worse records)

My AL East:

1) Boston
2) Toronto
3) New York
4) Tampa Bay
5) Baltimore

Current AL East:

1) Tampa Bay
2) Boston
3) Toronto
4) New York
5) Baltimore

Thoughts: The story of baseball has been Tampa Bay. To be fair, I thought these guys had young talent but I didn’t expect this. Boston is doing its thing, even though Ortiz’s injury is cause for concern. I hated the Yankees before the season and don’t like them now. I still like Toronto and Baltimore may be in last place, but they are actually playing better then they have in years. Maybe the best division in baseball.

My AL Central:

1) Cleveland
2) Detroit
3) Kansas City
4) Chicago
5) Minnesota

Current AL Central:

1) Chicago
2) Minnesota
3) Cleveland
4) Detroit
5) Kansas City

Thoughts: The White Sox are doing well right now, which should make Jonathan and Noth feel better. But none of these teams has separated themselves from each other, so this is anyone’s guess. I still like Cleveland. I never trusted Detroit, I didn’t like their bullpen, but I expected their hitting to be better. Minnesota has been a pleasant surprise because I thought they would be awful. Kansas City, I’m shaking my head in shame.

My AL West:

1) Seattle
2) Anaheim
3) Oakland
4) Texas

Current AL West:

1) Anaheim
2) Oakland
3) Texas
4) Seattle

Thoughts: First, they will always be Anaheim and not this LA crap. Second, I was wrong about Seattle, way wrong. Like the worst choice that I made in my entire predictions wrong. Wasn’t expecting that. I thought that Anaheim’s pitching would be weak but they have been good. Oakland has been a surprise, Billy Beane does it again. I hope that Josh Hamilton can keep it up because it’s a great story. I liked Josh before the season began, but I didn’t expect this.

I’ll keep reviewing my picks every month and see where I’m at.

I didn’t listen to any music while doing this post, but I was watching Family Guy. Here’s a clip.

WEC Review, from a 'Pancakes' prospective

Since I reviewed the EliteXC event, I guess I should review the WEC event that took place on Sunday.

First, excellent production value. Normally, the WEC holds events in a small arena, however for this event; they had it at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento, which was a big leap for them. I thought that they did a good job on that front.

Another thing, Frank Mir is really stepping his commentary game up and I enjoy listening to him. I honestly learn more about the sport from watching him. Since he’s an active fighter and an excellent jui jitsu practitioner, he knows all of the moves on the ground and is spot on when telling the viewers what’s happening and is going to happen. I honestly like him more than Joe Rogan, which is hard to say because I’m a big fan of Rogan, so that should tell you how much I respect Mir. I just hope that they allow Mir to keep doing the commentary while his own fight career revitalizes.

First, Rob McCullough, where have you gone. You need to find that fire again because you looked unimpressive in your win.

I see you Clay Guida and Tito Ortiz!

On to the fights, it was a good card overall. The Torres/Maeda Bantamweight title match is probably the Fight of the Year so far. Also, that second round was incredible, one of the best ones that I’ve seen in a while. Double leg submission attempts at the same time, sick. Torres is a bad man and Maeda is going to be a force in the division as well. I would like to see these guys go at it again.

The main event was great. This is what I want fans to see of the sport. Not the Kimbo Slice crap. Pulver and Faber each brought their best effort and it was a good fight. Urijah showed some excellent standup and if he’s going to get like that, I don’t know who’s going to beat him. The bloggers and forum posters out there are wondering when Jens was going to let his hands go, in other words, start being more aggressive with his boxing. The problem is that Faber was so quick with his hands and his boxing that Pulver couldn’t catch up. I would like to see these two guys go at it again as well.

It was a good fight night overall and I’m looking forward to the next event.

I was listening to some Minus the Bear while making this post and you should enjoy this band as well. Have a good night peeps.

Elite XC Review, from a 'Pancakes' prospective

This was an interesting weekend for all of us MMA fans as we had two major events take place in the span of two days.

On Saturday, the EliteXC had their event on CBS for the masses and featured the main event was Mr. Kimbo Slice.

On Sunday, the WEC was having an event on the Versus Network and it featured two title bouts, one featuring bantamweight champ Miguel Torres and the main event, a featherweight title match between champ Urijah Faber and Jens Pulver.

The event on Saturday was a mixed bag. I thought the matches were OK overall. Before the event started, I thought that the main event should have been the middleweight title match between champ Robbie Lawler and Smith, but I understood why they made Kimbo the main event.

The production value was OK and I personally could have gone without Gus Johnson but once again, I understand why CBS choose him for the play-by-play.

I know that many of you aren’t fight fans, so I’ll save the complete fight breakdowns for another forum. If you really want an in-depth analysis, just ask me.

Let’s stick with the main fights. I’m just as big of a fan of Gina Carano, aka Crush, but she should have shown up in better shape for the fight. I know that she got only a few weeks notice for the event, the one thing that you can’t do in fighting is show up overweight, that’s disrespectful to the sport, her opponent and the fans. She ended up winning the fight and the stoppage was fair. I know some may think that since it was a girl fight that CBS wasn’t going to let the girls get too beat up, but if it was a guy fight, the doctor would’ve stopped the fight anyway. A similar situation happened in the WEC event and a fight was stopped. Gina just needs to make a choice if she wants to be an elite fighter or continue with her celebrity stuff like modeling and American Gladiators. Either choice is fine, she just needs to decide. If Gina focuses on fighting, she can be the best in the world because her skill set is that good, but I can understand if she wants to go a different route.

Next was the Lawler/Smith fight, which was solid. These were two legit MMA fighters going at it and showed the positive, skilled side of fighting.

BTW, those assholes out there, I’m looking at you Michael Wilbon, Woody Page and Jemele Hill who say that there’s no skill in fighting in MMA and no strategy. Why don’t you two old fat asses and lady step into the ring and train for months on boxing, mui thai, jui jitsu, wrestling and other disciplines and tell me that there’s no strategy. I’m seriously going to stop watching ESPN if these jackasses continue with the bullshit.

Sorry about that.

Anyway, Lawler and Smith did their thing. The stoppage of this fight was weak, because they didn’t give Smith enough time to recover from the poked eye he suffered. That was kinda fishy, but when you’re dealing with Gary Shaw, nothing shocks me. He runs Elite XC and let’s just say he isn’t the cleanest guy around.

Speaking of which, we move on to the main event featuring Kimbo and Thompson, his opponent.

People are going to look at this fight and see the negatives, Kimbo didn’t knock him out, Kimbo looked tired, Kimbo is overrated.

Kimbo is overrated and he and most true MMA fans know this. Kimbo knows that he has a lot of work to do to become an elite fighter, no pun intended. He’s working with Bas and getting better. I saw some positives in his ground game, especially his guard control. It wasn’t great, but it’s improving.

Two things from the fight have me a little perturbed. Kimbo did tap in the first round, I’m sorry, he just did. This whole “I was telling the ref that he was ok” stuff is crap. The fight could’ve been stopped then. Second, the end of the second round, when Kimbo was getting elbowed and punched on the ground for a whole minute and wasn’t responding, fight should have been stopped. However, it wasn’t because they were letting everything go Kimbo’s way.

The only way that Kimbo was losing was for him to get knocked out. Heck, one judge had Kimbo winning the second round, which was pathetic. Once again, Gary Shaw has a dirty background in boxing, I’m just saying.

I’m not saying that Dana White of the UFC is an angel, but still.

So, in the end, Kimbo won with a questionable stoppage and the world now reacts to the event.

The hardcore, web-site viewing, internet radio show-listening, forum-posting, blogging fans like myself are going to see a lot of the negatives of the event like the commentary, the fighters, the judging, the entire presentation, etc.

However, fans like me need to fall back and be happy that the event was even on TV at all. I still prefer the UFC and WEC, but Elite XC is ok.

It’s just not the best MMA product out there. It’s like minor league baseball.

However, I had two co-workers, Greg and the legendary and hero to the youth Sean Sawyer come to me today and want to talk about the event, which is a good indication that people are caring.

That’s all I ask for as a fan. I just want people to watch it and give it a chance. If you watch it and don’t like it, cool. Just don’t be like these jackasses like Wilbon and Page and Hill and just dismiss it.

No strategy, my ass.

I want to put those haters in a rear naked choke and make them tap out.

BTW, this was what I was listening to while making this post. Its a collaboration between Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and John Fruciante. Good stuff as usual.