Raina ran the 2008 Houston Marathon today, and finished with a fantastic time of 3:55:11.
Cassidy, Delaney, our friends the Clarks and I were there to cheer her on at mile 15 and again at mile 21. She did great, and we are all very proud of her.
Below is a little video I made of the big event (link for feeds). There are also photos on my Flickr page.
We held our fantasy football draft last night for our league’s 5th season. Here’s the draft update from 2005, which has a summary of our rules (the only material change since then being that we now allow teams to spend up to 150 points in salary cap, with a luxury tax of $7 per point for each point over 100). My draft was so bad last year, I didn’t even write about it. I had to pull off two blockbuster trades around the middle of the season to put things right.
Last year, after 4 years of being the best team in the league during the regular season and then choking horribly in the playoffs, I managed to switch it up. I had a less than mediocre 7-6 regular season record, but rolled through the playoffs to my first league championship. The trophy hangs on my wall for a year, and I used my $1500 in winnings to invest in a stock that’s currently up 35%- which gives me more opportunity to irritate my colleagues every other lunch or so. All in all a good year.
But this is a new year. Here’s the skinny on this year’s draft.
Through one of my trades last year, I got Laurence Maroney and Ronnie Brown at low salaries. I franchised both of them. I designated Marc Bulger, Javon Walker and Antonio Gates as my match players. I matched the first two, but Gates went for 40 or so- too rich for my blood, so I let him go. I covered a little by getting Tony Gonzales for a much lower salary. Here’s my entire roster (again, it’s a 10-team league, 14 roster spots and we had to draft a rookie).
QB: Marc Bulger, Brady Quinn (R).
RB: Laurence Maroney, Ronnie Brown, Chester Taylor, Fred Taylor
WR: Larry Fitzgerald, Javon Walker, Plaxico Burress, Donte Stallworth, Santana Moss
TE: Tony Gonzales
K: Neil Rackers
Defense: Ravens
Each week we start 1 QB, 2 RBs, 2 WRs, 1 TE, 1 Defense, 1 K and, if we want to, a coach (+10 for a win, -5 for a loss). I generally don’t start a coach, preferring the have an extra bench slot to bank players.
All in all, I think it’s a pretty good, but not great, team. I need to trade some of my average WRs for a bookend to go with Fitzgerald.
The drama began early when some of the other owners hurriedly voted in a rule change placing the rookie draft in front of the regular draft, which is not the way the detailed league rules were written, when they realized I was going to bid up some rookies during the regular draft. That messed up my Calvin Johnson plan, but such is life.
Here are my predictions for the league.
North Division:
Hawkeyes (lower overall salary): Paid a boatload for Chad Johnson. A pretty solid team, particularly for the price. Howard won’t win, but he’ll be competitive.
Prostates (lower overall salary): Last year Emmett went long on Bears. This year it’s the Steelers. He matched away Marques Colston (who was my targeted bookend for Fitzgerald) from me. My pick for the cellar in the North.
Longhorns (high overall salary): Earl is a past league winner. Good team, with Steve Smith and Terrell Owens at WR, Vince Young and Tony Romo at QB. If one of Floyd’s RBs gets hurt, Earl will battle Goober for the North.
Capacitators (high overall salary): Floyd franchised both LT and Shaun Alexander for a total of 89 points. He rode them to a championship a couple of years ago. But if one of them gets hurt, he’s toast.
Young Guns (medium overall salary): Goober has Steven Jackson at a very low salary. That allowed him to pay a ton for Peyton Manning. He also has Rudi Johnson and pretty decent WRs. The favorite in the North.
South Division:
Buckeyes (high overall salary) : Barney has Larry Johnson and Frank Gore for next to nothing in salary. He also has both Reggie Wayne and Marvin Harrison at WR. Carson Palmer at QB. Antonio Gates at TE. Maybe the best fantasy football team ever assembled. If he doesn’t win this year, it will be an Appalachian State level upset.
Whackjobs (lowest overall salary): Just to prove how frugal he is, Andy ended up with a salary cap way under 100. Of course the minimum entry fee bought him 100 points. So basically he paid for cap he didn’t use. The only team that pays no luxury tax. He has a good player or two, but basically he’s a spectator this year.
NYSE (medium overall salary): Because of (a) the rules change coup I talked about above and (b) utterly insane early drafting by other owners, Alchris Lallodavis got Calvin Johnson at the 4th pick in the rookie draft. Unbelievable. Alchris had some roster problems that worked against him, but he still put together a decent team. In 2 years when he has the best WR in football at 11 points, it will all seem worth it.
CBB (replaced the Wolverines in the league 2 years ago; new owner this year) (medium overall salary): I thought this dude was having a bad draft while it was going on, but when I saw his roster later, I realized I was wrong. He put together a good, reasonably priced team, led by Tom Brady and Joseph Addai. Will be in the hunt, but is no match for the juggernaut Buckeyes.
Ramblers (high overall salary): As mentioned above, pretty good team. Weak bench, and great potential to start the wrong 2nd WR. I think I’ll make the playoffs, but I’ll get creamed by the Buckeyes in the playoffs.
I’m listening to the “Video Gang” edition of the Gillmor Gang while I watch my fantasy football team continue its downward spiral. It’s time for my first mashup.
Mark Benioff of Salesforce.com is the guest. This part is sort of boring, although the net profit vs revenue analysis could, and should, be applied to many other companies.
Chad Johnson (Bengals), who used to be on my team, already has 10 points (fantasy football points are a combination of yards and TDs) in the first 5 minutes of the 1st quarter. I should have protected him in the expansion draft. I think he has lots more net profit than Salesforce.com. But Mark sounds like a much nicer guy, although he is slamming Microsoft the way Chad slams other teams.
One problem with the Gillmor Gang is that I can’t always tell who’s talking. Someone is asking Mark some good questions, but I don’t know who- maybe Dan Farber.
Chester Taylor (Vikings) just scored a TD for me. I am getting really bored with all this Salesforce talk. Drew Brees (Saints) just scored a TD for the other team. I’m winning 23-9 early.
Steve Gillmor says that Microsoft Office is dead. Mark thinks it is too. One of the gang (again, I can’t tell who) put a bullet between the eyes of this argument by talking about the tremendous amount of revenue generated by Office compared to zero generated by the online office applications.
I think hell will freeze over before the majority of big non-tech business, accounting firms, law firms and hospitals move their data online. Office could be a lot better, but it’s not dead. Sorry guys. In the alternate universe where I am a Gillmor Gang participant, we would be arguing about this issue right now.
The Ravens, my defense, just gave up a TD (which makes me lose some of my points). My lead has shrunk to 15-9. Not looking good.
I’ve heard all I want to hear about Salesforce.com. Can we get back to the free-for-all Gillmor Gang please? One gang member is asking some hard questions. It sounds like several members are just listening. Even Jason Calacanis is quiet.
Marc Bulger (Rams), my QB, has 0 points at the end of the 1st quarter. He used to be good for 25-30 points a game. I need him to get it together. On the other hand, Lee Evans (Bills), who I dropped to the waiver wire, has 33 points in the 2nd quarter. That’s never been done before. He plays for the same guy who has Chad Johnson. That pisses me off.
Finally, we’re done with Salesforce.com. Looks like Jason hung up, because he didn’t answer the bell (he may have been writing his resignation letter to AOL). It sounds like Lou Reed, who I sort of like, played a short set at the Web 2.0 conference, and got irritated that people were talking during the songs.
The gang talks about Bill Gates for a while and then it’s over.
It was not classic Gillmor Gang, but it was still fairly interesting. I prefer the free-for-all segments where the guys toss out topics and then debate them.
I hope this wasn’t the last Gillmor Gang.
I also hope my team rallies. I’m losing 26-19 at the moment.
Delaney in the 25 meter backstroke
Cassidy and Delaney had their second swim meet tonight. They both improved most of their times. In their heat of the 25 meter freestyle, Rachael, Cassidy and Evie finished 1-2-3.
Frank Gruber has launched a very good looking baseball blog in anticipation of the upcoming season. He’s a Chicago fan, but he doesn’t know any better so we can’t hold that against him.
Baseball Frank is going on my reading list.
Cassidy’s basketball team, the Liberty, had their last game today. Afterwards they had a snack and got trophies and a DVD we made of one of their games.
It was a fun season, and even though Cassidy is a year younger than the rest of the girls, she played hard and had fun.
The other coaches and I had a great time and we’re all looking forward to next season.
It’s Superbowl Sunday. Pre around 1980 I would be really fired up about that and anxiously waiting for the game. We’ve got the pool heated and the new play yard ready for our Superbowl party- 4-5 families and lots and lots of kids. I love get togethers like this and can’t wait for everyone to get here.
But I don’t care a whit about the game. I’ve been thinking about how little I care about NFL football and trying to map out how I got from huge fan to not even remotely a fan.
I still watch a lot of sports, but almost all of it is college sports. I still like major league baseball a little- the Astros’ trip to the World Series is a “pinch myself” moment for me. I haven’t watched one consecutive minute of the NBA in years- I don’t really consider it basketball. It’s more like entertainment for the X-Box generation.
But football. Where did I lose my love of pro football?
I remember as a kid pulling for my favorite teams. First, the Colts with Johnny 
Unitas. Then briefly the Dolphins, and ultimately the Raiders. From Daryl Lamonica to Kenny Stabler, the Raiders were my team.
But somewhere along the way our country’s obsession with money infected pro sports. Golf used to be measured by average score or maybe tournaments won. Now it’s measured (in the paper and on the course) by how much money you’ve won. Similarly, the NBA has lost generations of fans by becoming a league of tattooed, jewelry wearing mercenaries. As I have said here before, I know very few, if any, people who go to NBA games on their own nickel.
While I used to love watching Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird, Doctor J, Hakeem Olajuwon and Charles Barkley play, sitting here today I can’t match 10 NBA players with their teams. Why? Because I find the product the NBA is selling to be utterly uninteresting.
The NFL has done a better job than the NBA at keeping at least some of the focus on the sport as opposed to the money and the lifestyle. But the almighty dollar and the bling bling lifestyle have affected the NFL as well. Players like TO have done more to turn me off of the sport than the Kenny Stablers, Walter Paytons and Earl Campbells did to make me love it. When I see some guy start to dance like Tigger after making a tackle or getting a first down, I switch channels. I don’t hate them for acting like idiots. I just find it boring.
I remember one year, around 1980, when I had to choose between going skiing or watching the superbowl (the Raiders were playing, but I had abandoned them as my favorite team after Stabler left). I went skiiing. Had a lot of fun and never looked back.
And before someone reminds me in a Comment, going to school at the football powerhouses of Wake Forest and Vanderbilt probably didn’t help my football fan development either.
But at least college football is still a little about the sport. They keep the Ikky Shuffle problems somewhat under control.
It’s still sports, mostly. The NFL just isn’t sports to me anymore.
But the commercials are good and The Stones are playing at halftime. And the pool is heated. And some other folks, most of whom care little about the game, are coming over.
Life is good.
I guess Buzz Bruggeman was mighty happy on Sunday when his boy J.J. Reddick got to experience winning a game at Wake Forest for the first time ever. This loss won’t do much to increase the WFU hat quotient.
I’m going to explain that loss in three words. It’s about recruiting.
I’m not trashing Wake’s players. Wake has some great players that compare well to most other teams in the country. Teams that actually have to recruit players, that is.
If you follow college basketball recruiting you know that Duke can generally select the recruits it signs. Take a look at the recruting databases on Scout.Com or any major college sports network and you’ll see blue chip prospects with offers from tons of schools with a notation that the kid has “medium interest” in those schools. Then there’s Duke with a “no offer” notation and an indication that the player has “high interest” in the Blue Devils. Usually this means these kids are waiting to see if Duke will “select” them. Duke doesn’t recruit, it selects.
So think about it this way. Let’s say we decide to play basketball or soccer or croquet or red rover or whatever. And let’s say that rather than take turns picking our team, I get to pick my entire team first. In that case, I should win almost every game, right? In fact, if I don’t it’s the result of either a failure on my part to pick the right people or a tremendous effort on the part of you or your team.
When you think about it that way, it says a lot about Skip Prosser and the WFU team that J.J. Reddick took 4 years to win at Wake.
Google issued a press release today about its forthcoming Video Marketplace.
I’m going to resist examining the question of why anyone would want to watch a TV show on their computer, as opposed to on their HDTV via TIVO or some other recording device and just assume for a second that there are actually people who are dying to pay a lot of money to watch on their computers in standard definition what they could be watching in HDTV for free.
What I find interesting in that press release is that NBA games will be part of the available videos. That’s what I want to talk about.
Does anyone over 20 care about the NBA anymore? I honestly do not know one single person who is a rabid NBA fan. Not one, and because I have wondered about this for a while, I have walked the halls at my office asking this question. People I know go to games- I went to the opening game this year. But everyone I know uses corporate tickets for client development and treats the game as some sort of live, big screen sports bar. Maybe the NBA is the new polo and I’m just not rich and sophisticated enough to get it, but I don’t get it.
When I was a kid, I was a huge NBA fan- first of the Bucks with Jabbar, Dandridge, the Big O, Lucius Allen and Jon McGlocklin. Later it was Portland and my then favorite player Bill Walton. Even later, after I moved to Texas, I went to a ton of games and saw Jabbar, Bird, Magic, Jordan and others play.
Now? I’d honestly rather stare at a blank TV than watch an NBA game. I watch a ton of college basketball. But I find the NBA to be boring and mercenary.
I guess what I’m saying about the big announcement that we’ll soon be able to buy downloads of otherwise free TV shows and boring NBA games is: is there anyone who is genuinely excited about this?
We set up a soccer field in the new yard and Cassidy, Delaney and I have come up with a way to play one on two (old slow daddy against young and tireless Cassidy and Delaney). Here’s how it works. Cassidy and Delaney can run anywhere on the field, but I have to stay within around 12 feet from my own goal (we use one of the trees as the marker). This means that all of my shots are long distance shots, which makes it hard to score. In fact, I am 0-5, having lost 3-2, 5-2, 2-1 and, in a couple of one-sided marathons, 20-8 and 20-9. During the last couple of games, Cassidy actually concluded that I couldn’t score on an open goal and that there was no real need on her part to play hard on defense.
It’s amazing how much the kids get into it when they think it’s playing instead of practicing. Cassidy has already figured out four things on her own that she never learned at soccer practice:
1) If I get the ball, either by stealing it or after she scores a goal, she runs back to her goal and guards it (more casually now than at first since she thinks correctly that I can’t kick the ball straight). Since I am kicking from the other end of the field, I cannot (and probably never will) score a goal if she gets back into position. My only chance is to kick it around and past her while she’s running back. This is hard to do, which is why I have lost 5 straight games.
2) If she’s dribbling towards my goal and I challenge her, she turns around and kicks the ball back out to mid-field, beyond the tree- where I cannot go, and starts over.
3) If she gets close to my goal and kicks it hard, most of the time the worst thing that will happen is the ball bounces off my leg and she gets another shot. If she kicks it hard and repeatedly, she often scores, since I can only block so many shots in a row.
4) She and Delaney have learned to work together. One of them gets on one side of my goal and one on the other. When they do this correctly, it is almost impossible for me to stop them from scoring.
If we’d had this yard when she was 3 years old, Cassidy would be a good and interested soccer player. I don’t know if it’s too late to get her interested in it, but I’m going to try. Delaney may actually become a good player by the start of next season.
This is the first sports game we have come up with where I can try as hard as I want and it’s still competitive and fun. It is a whole lot of fun, especially for them. It’s easy to have fun when you’re clobbering your daddy.
Newsome.Org 