The Weekend

Nice, short weekend in Chi-town. Went to a friend's wedding on Saturday and then caught the Cubbies on Sunday. Had fantastic seats, and as always, sat next to great people. It was topped all of by my boy, Ryan Theriot, hitting a walk-off single in the 9th (btw, I called a walk-off win for the Cubs at the game - no specifics, just a walk-off win. I'll take what I can get).

SO many thoughts over the weekend - let's just hit a few.

• Way too much to talk about with the Cubs, so I'll save it for a rainy day. I just know that I LOVE going to Wrigley. It is still amazing.
• My old stomping grounds of Westfield HS has their baseball playing for the state championship this Saturday at the home of the Indianapolis Indians, Victory Field. Pretty cool stuff.
• Speaking of Westfield, one of my former students (and current ace of the staff) Kyle Kramp got drafted by the SF Giants. While you may say that it was the 45th round I will say it is still cool as heck that someone you know got drafted. I think he will still go pitch for Butler Univ. this fall though.
• I really like Northern Indiana. Merrillville, Crown Point, Valpo, Hobart....all nice towns. And very close to Chicago, which helps.
• Let me just say that it is weird staying at a relatives house when they are not there.
  
• Road construction must be what Hell is like.....because I cannot stand it. It is incredible all of the never-ending construction on I-65. People - let's get it right.
• My summer vacation is going WAY to quick. For those of you who don't know - I am a high school teacher
• I could spend thousands of dollars and hats and shoes (mostly of the athletic variety), but alas - my exorbitant salary does not allow it

Finally, let me get back to the "list" thing. I LOVE lists. Addicted to them. VH1 could put out a Top 100 Metal Hairdos of All-Time and I would watch it. That being said - I am also very critical of them as well. Last week I recorded and watched the BDSSP's list of top 50 Unbelievable Upsets and I have some thoughts.

1. You CANNOT, under any circumstances, consider an MLS upset as one of the 50 greatest. I am sorry - it's not happening. World Cup I can understand. But if you are trying to tell me that you think some playoff upset in the MLS is better than Doug Flutie upsetting Miami FL in 1984 with the Hail Mary....YOU ARE INSANE!!!!!
2. While the Giants beating the Patriots in the Super Bowl was an upset - it is NOT more of an upset than the Jets beating the Colts in SB3. Sorry - not buying that either. We knew the Giants could play with the Pats just from the final game of the regular season. Plus, the NFL today has alot more parity than it did back then. In SB3, the AFL was considered the step-child league. Until that point no one believed (from SB1 and SB2) that the AFL was worthy of holding the NFL's jock. The Colts that year were as dominant (in the NFL) as any team had ever been and were in line to be considered one of the all-time greats. The Jets were 17.5 point underdogs...(Giants were around 11.5 underdogs) and that was kind. And to top it all of - Joe Willie "guaranteed" the win for the Jets. C'mon, you know what guarantees get you - a _____ slap upside the head because it is bulletin board material.
3. Thankfully, you cannot go wrong with #1. The good old 1980 USA Olympic Hockey Team. I swear every time I watch a show about them it gets misty in the room (apologies to my blatant copying of the Sports Guy. You know what they say about imitation....)

Anyway, I won't bore you with the rest. But I will post some of my own list on here from time to time. One of the things I do as a teacher is have Top Ten Tuesday. It's just a fun thing to get students warmed up for class and to have some fun at the same time. Who says we can't have fun in the classroom and learn at the same time? :)