December 13, 2005 Column

· First, a shout out to my buddy Bernie for coming through with 12th row, center court tickets for the Duke/Texas game at the Meadowlands on Saturday. What an awesome performance by the Blue Devils, as they dominated a very good Texas team, because the best player in the country, J.J. Redick, just took his game to a whole new level and could not be stopped, with 41 points on 9 three pointers. This Duke team promises to be inconsistent at times this year, but will be a very tough out in March, as Redick wants a title very, very badly. And, yes, that was me last week who thought Duke would have a tough time winning unless their hustle and perimeter defense improved markedly during practice last week. I guess it is safe to say after a 31 point drubbing that Coach K got after thee guys a bit. Thank you Bernie for including me in a great day.
· I had a question on my e-trade account, so I called e-trade this week, and someone answered my call within one minute. After they asked for my account information (which I had already entered into the automated system, what is the point if they need to ask for it again), they identified me as an important customer and told me to hold for a specialist. 25 minutes later, despite being told every 90 seconds (I counted) that my call was important to them, I remained on hold and finally hung up. Surely in 2005 companies can be better than this at customer service. Ridiculous. I never have this problem when I call my buddy Kevin New, super broker at Morgan Stanley and still alive in this pool, for help with my Morgan Stanley account….and believe me I am not even on the Morgan Stanley radar screen but they still treat me with respect. If anyone wants Kevin’s number, let me know.
· Alfonso Soriano can kiss my backside (I have to watch my language on these things or the General Mills filter will block my email, can they start worrying about selling more cereal please and boosting my stock price). He is just another example of the inmates running the asylum. I mean no longer is making kajillions to play a game enough for these clowns, now they think they can dictate what positions they will and will not play, where in the batting order they will and will not hit, etc. If I were Frank Robinson, his new manager with the Nationals, I would tell him to shut his pie hole and that he can play where you tell him to play or he can go home without pay (he can get his shinebox while he is there…). And, now, from the typical egocentric athlete who cares about himself more than winning to the completely and utterly insane……
· Ron Artest is back in the news. As I stated in my October 12th update, “this promises to end badly.” Two months later, Artest is demanding a trade from the team that stuck by him (not that they had a choice) after he a) asked for time off to promote his rap album, and b) was pretty much responsible for the ugliest incident in the history of the NBA. Why does he want a trade? Because he does not like playing for his coach, who evidently does not understand that Artest has a mismatch every time he gets the ball no matter who is guarding him, and does not work the ball to him on every possession. The pacers President promises to try to accommodate Artest and trade him. I am sure there are lots of GMs out there who will give fair value to get this guy on their team. I wonder if Alfonso Soriano would play small forward?
· The University of Colorado is laughable. Gary Barnett keeps his job as head football coach after a rape and recruiting scandal, and on top of it all showing a complete lack of class and sensitivity when he called Katie Hnida an “awful” kicker who “could not kick the ball through the uprights.” Then three weeks ago the two sides were negotiating a contract extension. Three games later, the last two by a combined 100-6 score, Barnett was forced out. If there is any clearer message anywhere in college that winning at all costs is all that matters, I have not seen it. You would think for a school with this mentality, they should be better than they are. If you are going to sacrifice your integrity as a school, at least be good….
· I said in my October 18th that Reggie Bush is the best back of the past 20 years in college fb. Since that time, he has gotten even better, with just sick games against Fresno and UCLA. The Heisman voters gave him the highest percentage of votes in the history of the award. He promises to be one of the best pros in a long time……and in typical Jet fashion, they blew any chance of getting him by actually winning a game this week. If you listen carefully, you can still hear Stitzer grumbling about this!!!!
· With all the technology available to us today, surely there must be a better solution to marking the spot in football games than these old refs running up and down the sideline estimating where forward progress got to. I mean I have seen these guys off by as many as two full yards, and being off by a half-yard or a yard seems to be the norm. And watching them trying to determine a touchdown and sometimes giving a signal 10 or 15 seconds after a play ends is just maddening. Somebody, somewhere, please invent some sort of gizmo that can accurately, quickly and efficiently get the spot of the ball right.
· I have not seen ratings for Monday Night Football, but they must be awful. The games the past several weeks have been some of the worst in recent memory. At least they have Green ay at Baltimore next week to salvage, er, never mind.
· Rest in Peace, Richard Pryor. You were one funny dude……
· Just to see if Kalinock is still reading at this point, congratulations to the University of Maryland for winning the Men’s Soccer Championship (to go with the field hockey title earlier this fall)……