On Stay-cation!

Didn't realize that it has been that long since my last post, but it's probably due to the fact that I have been on my week's paid-vacation, where did I go? Nowhere really, but that is absolutely fine in my book. I kicked it off Sunday morning, when I got off work.

The first night, Sunday night, was the Mid-West Winter League Draft for the 1989 MLB Season Players. For my blog followers that were wondering what has gone down since we left off, I plan to do an update on that sure enough, the season is indeed over. Not to tip things off, but I did draft late in the rounds. I didn't get to draft the studs that there was in the top 10 picks of the draft, we all know who went #1 overall for the 1989 MLB debuts though, and that would be Ken Griffey, Jr. (who else?). I drafted John Wettleland and Stan Belinda to go along with Doug Jones in my bullpen, I don't expect to win the division again. A couple teams in my division made some huge splashes in the off-season. But we'll continue this discussion in another post...

NOTHING... BUT NET

Jordan vs the Detroit Pistons.

We got plenty done around the house the last few days, and we got some cool deals at the video game store, 4 games for $52. I got NBA 2K12 for $3.99 Pre-owned, and there is nothing wrong with it, so I played away on it over Monday night, until Tuesday noon (LOL!) -- I don't really care for today's players, but I unlocked great teams of the past in the Chicago Bulls' teams of the 90's, the 89'-90' Detroit Pistons ("Bad Boys"), Bill Russell's Celtics, a couple Jerry West Lakers teams, the 87'-88 Los Angeles Lakers & the 85'-86' Boston Celtics. There was a few different Lakers & Bulls teams actually, they had the Bulls team from Micheal Jordan's rookie year (which was amusing), then one of their teams (that couldn't get past the Pistons) in the 88'-89' squad, and then the 90'-91' NBA Champions squad that actually did break through.

I actually can say, that I saw the moment the Chicago Bulls & Michael Jordan made the breakthrough live. I was hanging out with one of our closest neighborhood friends, when his mom got home & told us she got 5 tickets to Game 4 of the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals. At the time, I lived in Waterford, which is not incredibly far from the Palace of Auburn Hills -- so we got to see history made, sure we were not happy to see the Pistons' reign end, but it was a bit of a foregone conclusion, the Bulls simply owned everyone that season, the Blazers & Lakers looked like they were the only ones capable of stopping Chicago that year. It was a cool memory that I will remember, as the fans exited the arena, people were chanting "Go L.A.!, Go L.A." which was weird since, we were all chanting "Beat L.A." two & three years before that. My brother had a blast though, because Jordan happened to be his favorite player.

Another thing people need to understand, is that the Chicago Bulls/Detroit Pistons rivalry at it's most ugliest, most heated, and best, could almost rival that of the Yankees & Red Sox. Then again, you can say that of the "Bad Boys" Pistons' rivalry with the Celtics, and Lakers. I loved the NBA then, to become the best, you had to simply climb a ladder, and beat the one above you. The Pistons had trouble with the Celtics, we finally got past them, then we just missed beating the Lakers in 1988, we finally do so in the 88'-89' season, while the Bulls were trying to get past the Pistons and the Pistons eliminated them three straight years from 1988-1990. Then finally the Bulls got past their hurdle, and the Bulls became a force to reckon with. Pistons fans have often wondered if we could have won as many as four NBA titles in a row, there was the 86'-87' team that watched them push Boston to 7-games, Adrian Dantley & Vinnie Johnson would collide heads for a loose ball, and there was Larry Bird intercepting Isiah Thomas' inbound pass that Bird delivered to Dennis Johnson. In 87'-88' conclusion, we finally get past the Celtics, and while Isiah put on a performance of a lifetime with a hurt ankle in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, he was not able to play the Lakers in Game 7. We would finally beat the Lakers with a sweep & repeat against the Blazers in 89'-90 season.

Rip City - Drexler, Buck Williamd, Porter, Duckworth & Kersey.

Speaking earlier of the Portland Blazers, they had the 91'-92' Blazers. Forgot about Drazen Petrovic and a young Cliff Robinson, on top of a team stacked with Jerome Kersey, Buck Williams, Terry Porter, Kevin Duckworth & the great Clyde "The Glide" Drexler. They almost had a team from each franchise, the other teams included a Philadelphia 76'ers team from the 70's, the 82'-83' 76'ers I want to say with Julius Erving & Moses Malone. By the way, saw Dr.J's last visit to Detroit in the Silverdome (at the time, it was the NBA's Biggest Attendance in NBA history). The 85'-86' Atlanta Hawks that had my favorite player on the team in Dominique Wilkins (with possibly the greatest nickname in ALL of sports - "The Human Highlight Film") lives up to his nickname, don't believe me? click his nickname or click this one as well - Wilkins vs Jordan in the 1988 Slam Dunk Contest -- which, I'm sorry Chicago fans, but Dominique got screwed on that double-hand windmill dunk of a 45 called (about 5 minutes into video).

The game also has the Pistol Pete - Hawks, Dikembe's Denver Nuggets, the 95'-96' Supersonics, the Utah Jazz of 1998, The Milwaukee Bucks headed by Oscar Robertson & Kareem, and a couple more.

CLEANING HOUSE

Did some cleaning around the house, and me being a pack-rat, it's not easy ditching old magazines. It's really cool to dig up the magazines, years later. I remember once in 2003, and Ichiro has been in the Majors for a few years at this point, I found a 1997 MLB Preview magazine (which had Albert Belle gracing the cover) and on the last couple pages of the magazine there was this writer writing about how Japanese players were going to invade the game & become commonplace, starting with this superstar named Ichiro Suzuki, and how he had a Micheal Jordan phenomenon that followed him in Japan. At the time, I was like anyone, I was like "yeah, right!" and then to find the magazine years later, and a writer predicting something almost 5 years in the future, is pretty cool stuff.

A time when Brady was just the other guy (#10), Henson on right (#7)

Another example of this was the 2001 NFL Preview magazine, I believe it was Sporting News, and it was previewing the New England Patriots. It talked about Drew Bledsoe's monster contract in the off-season, and how Bledsoe will try to lead them back to a Super Bowl, all in this huge paragraph. It then talked about the 2nd-string guy, and gave him a small paragraph, and then one dinky sentence for Brady, saying something on the lines at 3rd string - 2000 6th Round Draft Pick out of Michigan, nothing more. We all know the rest of the story, Brady takes over for an injured Bledsoe, and leads the team to win the Super Bowl over the St. Louis Rams who were called the "Greatest Show on Turf". I remember early in the season, my brother Jared, among many of his other crazy predictions that would come true, said Brady is going to be the next Montana and that the Patriots were going to win the Super Bowl that season -- In which I replied "Okay there, Sparky". You see, Sparky Anderson, despite his brilliance as an MLB Manager, he has made some really big statements on players, calling prospect Kirk Gibson, the next Mickey Mantle, and praising the likes of players like Torey Lovullo, to be future All-Stars one day... neither happened. But what did happen, is Jared predicting the future of Tom Brady, a guy that even the University of Michigan was not sold on, I mean hello? Drew Henson, remember him? The two-sport going-to-be superstar for the New York Yankees or Dallas Cowboys, neither happened there as well -- but it was Henson, not Brady, that Michigan fans thought would shine, it was Henson that split time with Brady at Michigan. I actually have Henson's Cowboys rookie card somewhere in my sports card boxes, somewhere. Henson was in the mix with Quincy Carter & Drew Bledsoe (acquired from Buffalo) -- while yet, another star we never saw coming in Tony Romo was on the horizon.

Just a few of the joys on relaxing, enjoying life & reflecting on life as a sports fan.