Happy Days

"I don't think that I'm complaining
Sometimes it keeps on raining
Oh but dont be frightened by thunder and lightning
The sun comes out and the flowers grow
And you find you're already on the road
To be happy"
--To Be Happy, Sara Evans

So this girl I'm hanging out with happens to be A) a Denver Broncos fan (she grew up in Colorado) and B) a Kentucky Wildcats basketball fan (her entire family is from Kentucky; two of her aunts have missed maybe five games in 30 years), two facts which, in and of themselves, would be no big deal, right? But with whom did my Chargers have a huge first-place showdown Sunday evening? And whom did my Bruins battle in the Maui Invitational semifinals last night? So these (not so) casual rooting interests became immediate sources of conflict in this brand-new relationship, but definitely a good kind of conflict (I would categorize violence as among the bad kind). Nice that I got two wins out of the deal, too, because I don't know what I would have done in the role of the sore loser--I'm much better at being the magnanimous winner, so that made it easy.
Anyways, this week got me thinking about how fortunate I am as a fan these days. So many of my friends and co-workers have teams they care deeply for and yet never have anything to be happy about, once their respective seasons are about two weeks old and their teams' playoff hopes have dwindled to zero. I've got a pretty darn good thing going right now: UCLA basketball is coming off a national championship game appearance, looks like they'll be at least as good this year, and could win the Maui Invitational tonight. The football team isn't great, but they won a bowl game last year, and with a respectable display against SC next weekend, should get a chance to duplicate that feat again this December. The Chargers currently sit upon almost every set of NFL power rankings you can find, and they're alone in first place in the tough AFC West (well, three out of four's not bad, right?). I have the pleasure of watching the best player in the NFL (and probably the best running back since Barry Sanders) score four touchdowns a week like it was mandatory, and watch the rise of one of the league's better QB's (though I admit I was VERY sorry to see Drew Brees go--how about him throwing for 510 in a loss the other day?!). Sure, our best defensive player did steroids, but when he comes back (CLEAN), the dude is just plain dominating, and almost more fun to watch than LT. Enough about the Chargers (though the very idea that anyone could ever say enough about the Bolts is an absurd one), how about the Padres? Two division titles in a row for the first time in franchise history? The best closer of all time not named Mariano Rivera? One of the coolest ballparks in America? Not too shabby. The Lakers made the playoffs last year, improbably, and were within one defensive rebound of upsetting the eventual conference finalist Suns. They're back and better this year, winning the battle of L.A. last night and now sitting alone in first place in the Pacific Division (I had to check that in a couple of different places to make sure I wasn't misreading the numbers. Sure enough, 8-3, first place, wow). We've got at least the second-best player in the world (I'd still like to think he's the best, but dang, LeBron is something else), Lamar Odom is becoming a strong number two, and Andrew Bynum might be an All-Star by next season. I was much more into the UCLA game last night (Darren Collison and Lorenzo Mata were both outstanding), but it was nice switching over to the pro guys afterward and seeing Kobe come up big down the stretch.
All of this goes to say that I could very easily be following and rooting for bottom-of-the-barrel squads, and I am aware of plenty of folks in this situation. How much would it suck to be a Packers-Brewers-Bucks fan over the last five years (pretty much since Favre became the interception machine)? Or like a Blazers-U. of Oregon fan? Constant disappointment, right? A friend of mine represents the Oakland Raiders and Golden State Warriors. Sure, he has the Oakland A's to temper the former two's disappointment somewhat, but how brutal is that? In the NFL and NBA seasons, your teams are out of it before they even start.
Of course, I conveniently didn't mention the Los Angeles Kings (bad for several years now) or the LA Galaxy (missed the playoffs this year after winning the MLS Cup last season), but there's more than enough positivity to outweigh anything else that might be going on, and for that I am quite thankful.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving weekend...

Long Train Runnin'

"A lot of things have happened
Since the last time we spoke
Some of them are funny
Some of them ain't no joke"
--My Thanksgiving, Don Henley

The other song I thought about quoting was that Mystikal classic, "Danger (Been So Long)", but the "get on the floor" part wasn't quite as friendly, so I'm sticking with the greatest drummer slash singer of all time (apologies to Phil Collins and Ringo Starr). Got a flat tire on the 2 freeway on my way to see Henley tour for this particular album, actually, fond memories (as opposed to the "bad memories" the boys from Kentucky b-b-basket-bawl have about Duke)...
I'm rambling right now, and I love it. It's been almost three months since I last entered blogdom, and I've now worked another Holyfield fight in the meantime (see last entry), so when a 44-year old man is boxing more often than I'm blogging, it's time for a serious priority re-evaluation. A few things that have scaled past blogging since August 24:
- the NL West champion San Diego Padres, first-round playoff losers (again) and now managed by former Angels pitching coach Bud Black
- the tied-for-first-place San Diego Chargers, whose comeback win over the Bengals on Sunday was, as LaDainian Tomlinson (better known as the best player in the NFL) put it, "like something out of a cartoon." If you didn't see it, hopefully you've heard by now: down 21-0, down 28-7 at half, 42 second-half points (four TD's from LT), and a four-down defensive stand at their own 15 in the final minute, staving off Carson (that knee looks pretty good, huh?) and Co. Thank goodness Chris Henry's still on that team, right?
- reading real books, fiction and non-fiction, sports (mostly) and other (rarely)--I just finished my second Ben Mezrich book, "Busting Vegas", and it's as good as "Bringing Down the House", if not better. Recent completions include "The Blind Side" by Michael Lewis and "How Soccer Explains the World" by Franklin Foer (SportsGuy recommendation, actually).
- work, duh. Just got back from San Antonio (Holyfield fight), and the month or so before that was spent working on my own show, the Top 50 dunks of all time, NBA, college and otherwise. It's scheduled to air November 29, so you can argue with the order then, but be assured that MJ and Vince are both prominently featured. The best part of working on the show was organizing the shoot, a two-hour deal down at a park a few blocks from the Fox lot. We had Rose and Salley down there to run through each segment, and then we brought in a guy named T.J. Fontenette (better known as the "Air Up There"), and he pulled off some crazy stuff, including a 720 (twice around in the air)--he's done it before--check it out--and he did it again for us, incredible.
- rising and falling with the UCLA football team. Since the previous four weeks were abysmal, I'm just going to speak of the brilliance we saw from Team Dorrell on Saturday. Defense played well (Bruce Davis is an amazing defensive end for somebody who weighs like a buck-forty) and Cowan ran the offense very well (a wide receiver actually made a play, too, which definitely helps). I'm not saying we're going to beat SC, but a bowl game is not out of the question.
- rising and falling with the Lakers. Too many things going on to figure out what I feel about them right now. It's like the most hot/cold relationship you've ever been in, where you wake up some days and can't wait to see her, and other days wish you didn't know her. I hope 24 starts to play a little more like 8 in the near future or this schizophrenia is going to get out of control.
- the Billy Hofman Class of '95 pre-season tour. Made it to the first two stops on the tour, for me (big loss to UCLA) and Ev (close loss to LMU), but missed the Side portion (close loss to USC). I think they only get three pre-season games, or else he'd be on his way to Yale (Chey), Cal Poly SLO (Foley), UCSB (Banks) and USD (Rosa). And just so all three of you readers know I'm not forgetting anybody, T-O (the original) was represented with me at Pauley. Billy's starting at the two (his point guard dribbles more than Evander when he's eating--not good for the flow of the oh-fence) and shooting it pretty well, from what I can tell. The LMU game was great--his Broncos were down 20 and cut it to one, with the ball, in the final minute. Quality stuff from a D-II squad, and hopefully he'll have a successful final campaign. Also at the LMU game, talked to Coach Hofman about this year's squad, and his plans for a crazy, up-tempo, bombing threes offense. Definitely would have fit our squad, right?

This is a very old line of thought, but it bears repeating this morning: SportsCenter sucks. They showed a minute-long highlight of Emmitt Smith on "Dancing With the Stars" (plus a minute-long post interview of the erstwhile noble running back), continuing their shameless ABC-ESPN-espn.com-ESPN2-ESPNews-ESPNRadio self-promotion circle. It's obviously a necessary part of television (we whore ourselves out to any number of sponsors, so I know what that's about), but it doesn't mean I can't think it's obnoxious. I realized yesterday that I pretty much get all of my sports information from the internet these days, rarely (if ever) watching SportsCenter (I actually watch Sky Sports News more frequently, since Premier League updates are not quite as forthcoming in Best Damn circles), and not using my TV for anything more than Laker/Bruin games and my TiVo'd shows ("Prison Break" and "Studio 60"). I'm sure there are plenty of people like me at this point, which means there are increasing media available for consumption, and a possible trend away from straightforward television--I'm fortunate to be in the TV business, obviously, but maybe this isn't the future. I'm not sure what is, but it's worth thinking about...

Busy day today, and then some time to relax--LC football playoff game Friday, two HUGE college football games Saturday (with a lunch date sandwiched in between--that was a very intentional pun) and NFL Sunday (come home in time to watch the Bolts wrest first place away from the hated Broncos)...next week is finishing the dunks show and then enjoying family and food for a couple days, can't wait...