Things That Make Me Laugh (Or Smile Enthusiastically)

I was noticing that several happenings in the world of sports over the last few days have made me laugh a bit or become unable to help but smile. First off was the fact that the New York Yankees were not in first place in their division. What made this more hysterical was the fact that the Boston Red Sox were also not in first place. The topper? The Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Devil Rays were tied for the top spot in the AL East. The Devil Rays even swept the Red Sox. (Yes, I know that everyone freaked out and the official name is the Rays. They’ll always be the Devil Rays as far as I’m concerned. If “devil” was such a bad word, why haven’t the New Jersey Devils changed their name? I would find that name change absurd also.) Of course, this may only be a short-lived chuckle, but a chuckle nonetheless. Aso bringing a smile to my face is the fact that the Los Angeles Dodgers have come out of the basement for the time being and come up to second place in the NL West. The sweep over the Colorado Rockies sure helped out. Take that, Rockies fan that tried to talk trash at the game on Saturday. Oh, and your basketball team got swept too, which means their season is over! Keep it up Lakers!

Another thing that made me laugh – in a nervous laughter sort of way – is a story on NFL.com that I came across. The piece was boasting how well their analysts picked the first round of the draft. Alright guys, enough already! Again, I love the NFL just as much as the next fan but they are killing me with the detailed analysis, horn tooting, and endless coverage. The last several weeks were the analysts on the NFL Network talking about who was going to be chosen at what slot in the draft. I’m sure that the next several weeks will be full of who made bad picks and who made good picks. Of course they’ll talk about the picks they predicted right to death as well. Really, I know a lot of regular fans that picked the draft very well also. The fact that you can report the obvious is not really news.

Speaking of the draft, USC had ten players picked. Yes, ten players! Ignore the Pac-10 no more, sports world. Ha!

Oh, and by the way – the feel good story of the draft has to be that of Caleb Campbell. Here’s a guy that was a stand-out at West Point on the defense and will be allowed to play in the NFL instead of going to war. He’ll still be serving the Army as a recruiter and undoubtedly a goodwill ambassador.

And, speaking of football – the Southern California Breakers beat the Tucson Monsoon 35-15 on the road over the weekend! Ha! Coach Anthony Bartlett told me that the win was long overdue and they wanted to make a statement after the loss from last week. Statement made!

Special note to Brett Favre: I am very amused that you are toying with everyone about the whole retirement thing. It is easy to imagine that not playing football is a difficult thing for you to do since you have done it for so long. Keep having fun with it! At least you don’t have to worry about the Madden curse being on the cover of the upcoming game…or will you…