I’ve teamed up with my brother Rodney (and several others) to form SaintLouisSports.com! I was shocked to see this .com domain name available and knew from the beginning it would be a solid site to grow out. It should get natural traffic and be “legit” enough to get link backs from some notable sites as well. Very exciting.

So the basic design is done and we’ve been working to get some content out there. Now it’s time to spread the word via Twitter, Facebook, Guest Posts, links, emails and more. If you have a site – would love a shout out to SaintLouisSports.com! The site will feature the Cardinals, Rams and Blues. Basically it will be a blog, directory and more. Really excited about this project and hopefully it keeps me connected within the STL Sports cirlces as well!

Visit Saint Louis Sports today and see our progress.  Or follow us @SaintLouisSport on twitter.

I went to last nights Cub / Cardinal Sunday Night Baseball game and had an absolute blast. To my amazement, it was one of the most pleasant games I’ve been to in a while. I was bringing my 8 year old son (diehard Cardinal fan) to the game. This was to be his first game at Wrigley Field. It was his birthday and what better to do than take in a Cardinals game with him and some of his buddies. I had prepared him all week long for “THE DUMP”. Told him he has to see Wrigley Field once in his life before they tear that crap down. Warned him about the horse trough urinals. Warned him about the poles. Warned him about the STUPID “Go Cubs Go” song. Warned him about the Cub fans who really don’t care about baseball. Warned him about the bumper to bumper traffic we’d likely experience. And so on……. He was definitely prepared for the worst. But to our surprise – we got very little negative out of this game.

He and his friends had a blast. At one point during the game I asked my son, so what do you think of Wrigley Field? He said, “I’m having a blast.” I immediately questioned him and said – well – is it better than Busch Stadium? He was quick to say, “well, ummm, I guess what I mean is this place is a dump – but i’m still having a lot of fun.” There we go. Now my 8 year old son has taken on the attitude you Cub fans have. Accept the fact that the place sucks just because it’s a fun atmosphere. Haha! Back to the story. The kids had a blast. I didn’t have any obnoxious fans in my ear. Our traffic out wasn’t bad. All in all, it was a great game and experience. Helped that the Cardinals put up some runs and tons of hits and got the win. The kids even got to head down to the Cardinals bullpen area before the game and snag some autographs. Corey Patters, Skip Schumaker, Octavio Dotel and Mitchell Boggs were the brave few to sign autographs. Classy!

Reasons Why This Cubs Game May Not Have Sucked?

Kids

When you have kids with you at a Cubs game – does it shelter you from the obnoxiousness? People half heartedly joked around with the 3 little 8 year old Cardinal fans in my group. But all in fun. Nothing obnoxious. I was pleasantly surprised with the lack of cursing and loud mouthing going on. I think having kids with me helped avoid those situations.

Sunday Night vs. Friday or Saturday Night

This played a big part as well. It was a Sunday Night Baseball game. People had to work in the morning. Maybe Cubs fans were smart enough not to get absolutely plastered at this game. Made for a much more “fan friendly” environment to say the least.

Cubs Fans are Just Simply – Done

Another big part of my pleasant Wrigley Field experience simply lies with the fact that Cubs fans are done. They have moved on. This team sucks and they know it. It is football season to 95% of them. To prove this, two guys walked up our section with Packers jerseys on. The whole section started booing them and chanting, “Lets go Bears, Lets go Bears.” They are done with the Cubs and ready for the Bears. Being done with the Cubs means I don’t have to hear all the “we are awesome – you suck” comments.  Point to take away is – Cubs Suck!

Now for the Sucky Dumpness

Just because I had a positive Wrigley Field experience didn’t mean some things didn’t suck. It is still a dump. Don’t get me wrong.

Travel Into the Game

Our travel into the game was horrendous. This is more due to the massiveness of Chicago and the fact that the Air and Water show was going on. But still – just getting in and out of Cubs games is NO FUN. Period.

Kid Friendly Pre-Game Environment

We made several comments before the game about the entertainment around the stadium. Wrigley Field has a lot. They had bands, beer tents, booths and more. All in all a great time – FOR ADULTS. They had very little kid entertainment. It’s more of an adult playground if you would. Our kids were bored out of their mind up until the game starts. That is one flaw of Wrigleyville in my opinion.

Still Got the Pole

Yep. Never seems to fail me. Every time I go to Wrigley I have the darn poles somewhere in between me and the field. Oh well. That’s Wrigley.

All in all this was probably the best experience I’ve ever had at Wrigley Field. Let’s hope it happens again in 2012.

Our Team

We played a great game.  Better than the first game which is encouraging.  The kids are really hitting the ball well.  Myself and the other 3 coaches really seem to focus on encouraging and helping the kids.  I really think encouragement is huge at this age.  They are 7-8 years old and just need to hear “good job” sometimes.  So we really focus on doing that.  I think we “won” the game 24-11 or something like that.

Drew’s Game

Drew did well.  He hit the ball each time but nothing really to the outfield.  He played a great 1B.  I was proud of him.  Scooped one out of the dirt and caught another one.  Overall a good game for the Drew-man!

Next Game

Friday, 7:00 PM CST – Against the Cubs

p.s. – Make sure you “like” the MYBA Facebook Page!

Let me say – they did GREAT.  These kids seemed like they have been playing coach pitch for years.  They knew when and where to run, they knew where to throw the ball, they were respectful and listened to our coaches.  All in all and great first game.  The games last 1:30 or 6 innings.  We played from 7:00 to 8:30 which is a long time for these kids.  We have 14 games throughout the summer.  This week we play M-W-F and next week we play Tu-Th-Sat… So you get the idea – it’s going to be a LONG SUMMER!

Drew did great.  I was proud of him.  He hit the ball well and played the field well.  I give him a hard time because he didn’t catch the liner back up the middle.  But I guess I really didn’t expect him to catch it (just hoped he did).  Most of all, Drew and all of the kids seemed to have a great time.  They enjoyed it and were smiles the whole night.  I truly can’t wait for our game on Wednesday.

If you are in Morton and want to watch some kids playing a game they love.  5:30 on field 3 on Wednesday!!! Dodgers vs. Reds  :)

p.s. – We aren’t supposed to keep “score” but you know me.  What’s a game without a score, right?  Haha.  So don’t tell the kids but we lost to the Yankees 29-21 in our opener.

Some may say I’m lucky.  Some may say I know my football.  Some may think I’m just persistent.  I like to think it’s a little of all three.  Let me tell you my story about participating and winning the 2010 Buffalo Wild Wings NFL Pickem contest.  First off, I’m about as big of a BWW fan that you will find.  Any excuse to go there and get my #5 mango habenero and I’m going to capitalize.  So when I got the email from BWW that they were holding an NFL Pickem contest each and every week of the NFL contest – I was all about it.  This meant I had to visit Buffalo Wild Wings once a week (prior to the first NFL game) and use the little blue machine to make my picks.  Easy.  I work in East Peoria and literally 2 minutes from the EP BWW.

The second issue was convincing the wife that I should go to BWW for lunch once a week.  I mean, a lunch combo, drink and tip is gonna run ya $10.  That’s $170 when it’s all said and done.  Then came in the fact that each week, the winner of every facility, won a $25 gift card to BWW.  Now I was certainly in.  I knew I could win a few weeks and basically eat for “free” at Buffalo Wild Wings in a round about way.

So I started going each and every week.  Getting 9-10-11 of 17 games each week for the most part.  These were not picks against the spread, just straight up winners of the games.  Unfortunately, I kept coming up a bit short.  Anywhere from 5-10 players competed each week at the EP facility.  I kept getting second.  The really frustrating thing was over at the North Peoria facility – only 2 or 3 players were competing and every week I would have beaten them.  But I chose convenience and stayed with the East Peoria facility.  Finally, week 5 or so I broke through and went on a crazy streak winning 7 or 8 total week.  In the end I think I got back $200 in BWW gift cards!  So goal accomplished and ate for free all season.

The other bigger part of this contest was each weekly winner of the entire nation would win a trip to play in a flag football game with Jerry Rice, Deion Sanders and Mike and Mike.  Winning a week across the nation usually meant you would have to go perfect or close to it.  I never did this.  But about week 12 I started to notice that I was in the top 10 or so in the entire nation for the whole season.  I did some looking and didn’t see ANY mention of a prize for the overall national winner – so I didn’t think much of it.  Just kept plugging along.

Week 17 came along and I was ranked 4th in the nation and 1 game behind the leader.  Again, I didn’t really stress about it because I really didn’t think there was a prize.  If you know the NFL – you know week 17 is by far the hardest week to pick the winners.  Some teams bench players and rest up so it’s very unpredictable.  I made my picks with very little thought.  Luckily enough, I got 14 games right that last week.  Won the local facility but then logged in to see…

#1 RANK in the NATION

I had jumped the others and won straight up.  174-82 was my total record for the year.  Next best had 173.  There were a total of 35,490 in the National Contest.  See the pictures below.

So great.  Woopeee.  I won the nation.  I started scouring the website and saw no mention of the overall winner winning anything.  So I chalked it up to a “this is cool” thing and moved on.

Come a week later I get an email from Jennifer with Premier Global Sports that read…

You are the Overall Grand Prize Winner in the Buffalo Wild Wings Pick Em’ Challenge. As a Grand Prize Winner you have won a trip for you and a guest to Los Angeles, CA from February 11 to February 13, 2011 to include the following:

- Round-trip coach air transportation for two (2) from a major airport nearest the winner’s home to Los Angeles International Airport

- Roundtrip airport transfers in Los Angeles

- Two (2) nights hotel accommodations (one room, double occupancy) at Sponsor-specified hotel

- Grand Prize Winner to play in a private fantasy flag football game on February 12, 2011 at the Rose Bowl with Deion Sanders, Jerry Rice, Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg

- Two (2) Sponsor-specified gift bags.

Wow!  I was pretty excited to say the least.  So ever since then I’ve been planning this trip.  A few more details I’ve worked out:

• My dad is going along with me.  Should be an awesome experience for us!!!
• First time I’ve ever been to the Rose Bowl Stadium.
• There is an autograph session so I’m scrambling to get a Deion Sanders jersey and a Jerry Rice jersey to get signed.  What do I have Mike & Mike sign?
• Do I have to get in “shape” for this game?  Probably not.  I think it’s more of a clinic.  Not sure.
• We are staying at the Hilton at Universal City in Los Angeles.  Looks awesome!
• In the fine print it says the sponsored “gift bag”  is valued at $3400.  What the heck?  Lifetime Buffalo Wild Wings lunches?  HA!

So somehow all the local news, radio and papers have got ahold of this thing and ran stories on it.  If any of you know me – I’m not much for being in the public spotlight  :)  So all of this stuff is kinda overkill in my opinion.  But it’s a local story so they are running with it.  Here are some of the links:

Newspaper:  PJ Star Article

News Station: Article and Video

Below is the embedded video that Jim Mattson of WHOI did on the story.

So that’s my exciting story for the year.  Coincidentally, this year I’ve been focusing a lot more on my sports betting blog and sending out daily free picks to people.  Maybe all of the research and hard work has paid off?  Sign up if you care to follow my picks. Or maybe I just got downright lucky!  Regardless of how it happened – it did happen.  I’ll be sure to have a follow up post with pictures and a summary from the trip after it happens.

Time for a new mower

First of all I want to talk about my darn mower. It is now working correctly. This was a hand me down mower given to us when we moved from Pekin to Morton. We used to own a Craftsman riding lawn mower, but when we moved to Morton, our new yard didn’t warrant the rider anymore. So we sold this mower and Sarah’s dad gave us this extra mower that belonged to her mom (Sarah’s Grandma). Anyways, thats the mower we’ve used for a couple years since moving in. Fairly decent but used mower. So lately, I’ll mow until it runs out of gas. Then fill it with gas, fire it back up, and it’s good to go. BUT, if I dare wait 5 minutes in between filling it up and starting it back up – the mower doesn’t start. Doesn’t even want to attempt to start. Almost like it’s overheated or something. The last couple times I’ve waited 2-3 hours, tried it again, and it worked. But flaky! What’s going on mower people?

So this got me thinking it might be time for a new mower. Wednesday, I borrowed my neighbor Craig’s mower (thanks Craig) and it was AWESOME. A great mowing experience. So I’m thinking for Father’s Day, I need a new mower. What kind? Where from? Any features I have to have? Time to start shopping.

Lakers World Champs

The Los Angeles Lakers successfully went back two back last night and won the 2010 NBA Championship. I scheduled a “guy meetup” at Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the games. Unfortunately, BWW was jam packed with no seats in the house about a half hour til gametime. So, myself, Rodney (my bro), Greg, Seth and Aaron all went to Old Chicago down by the river to watch the game. Great game. I was soooo cheering for the Celtics but the Lakers pulled it out.

Kobe Bryant won his 5th NBA Championship ring in 2010.

Why was I cheering for the Celtics? I’m not a Boston fan and I’m not really a bandwagon jumper. The reason was simple. I logged into one of my online sportsbooks I bet at the other day. Randomly, I noticed I had one pending bet. Took a look and apparantly I had made a $10 future bet like 5 months ago for the Boston Celtics to win the World Championship. The bet was at 20/1 so my $10 returned $210. WOW! This was way enough reason for me to cheer for the Celtics. They couldn’t do it for me though. I’m cool with it cause I woulda lost the money on the USA Soccer or on Baseball betting anyways.

As for the game. Kobe didn’t play well. Artest saved them in this game. He came up huge and hit some big shots. Ray Allen looked horrible for the Celtics. The Celtics controlled the whole game but I still had that sense that the Lakers would pull it out in the end.

That’s enough for tonight. Hope you all have a great weekend! It’s FRIDAY!!!!!!!!

• myself, Jared Morris, Jason Proehl, Ryan Burks, Josh “Goose” Watson, Jeff Thompson, Jason Friedrich, Blaise Rodgers, Scott Winders, JD Proehl

We beat Sacred Heart Griffin our first game by 10 or so.  Kind of an ugly game.  Then we beat New Berlein in game two.  That was a great game and we ended up winning by just a few.  The quarter finals we played defending champion AC Central.  We ended up beating them by 10 or so in a hard nosed game.  Then in the championship we lost to Pittsfield for the 2nd straight year.

All in all it was a well rand tournament and always fun to play with old highschool friends.  Check out the picture of our Glory Days team below.

So a lot of controversy has came from this speech. Michael Jordan is a different dude.  You can not expect him to get up on stage and make the same old, boring, speech that everyone else does.  He obviously is a very competitive person and apparently used anything and everything to “fuel” that fire.  He talked about how his high school coach made a mistake “cutting” him instead of another dude (who was in the crowd).  He flamed Dean Smith for not getting MJ on the cover of Sports Illustrated.  He ripped on the Bulls a little bit for their comment that Organizations win championships.  He thanked the likes of Isaiah Thomas, Magic Johnson and Pat Riley for bringing out the best in him.  He destroyed Bryon Russell for his comments when Jordan retired.  One thing after another.  It was like the opposite of a “roast”.

So did Michael come off as a bitter old man?  Maybe a little.  But one thing is apparent.  This guy just wants to be better than everyone when it comes to basketball.  That is what MAKES HIM TICK.  This is why he is the best ever.  To expect Jordan to come on stage and act any differently is naive.

What did you think of this?  I’ve toyed with the idea of creating a Michael Jordan website dedicated to his life… Maybe some day.  Until then, congrats to Michael Jordan for making the hall of fame!

Great season Bluejays!