Preview of My Weekend...

...Since I am going to be so insanely busy this weekend, I thought I would preview what's coming up in my life in the next "couple-a-couple-a days" (that quote is for you J-Mob).

Today: Today is Meg's last day to teach the little hood rats at Cameron Elementary School! Whoop! It is a half day, so I am looking forward to seeing her way earlier than normal! The In-Laws are coming to town tonight to hit up the NCAA Regional Baseball Tourney with us. The 4 teams in the College Station Regional are Texas A&M, Dallas Baptist, University of Houston, and Illinois-Chicago. A&M is the 1 seed playing the 4th seeded Flames of UIC. The 2 & 3 seeds are the Patriots from DBU and the good ol' Coogs from U of H, respectively. It is double elimination with the championship game on Sunday night, and again on Monday if necessary. Here is the complete NCAA tourney bracket for all of you to check out just in case you haven't seen it yet. On top of that our Softball team plays again today against the University of Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns. Love that mascot name. They have crazy fans (as you can imagine with a name like that). Their baseball team was at the College Station Regional last season and they came out in strong numbers and were VERY vocal. I don't know if it was the coon in their blood, or the alcohol...whatever it was they were a rowdy bunch of fools!...Softball won last night against Virginia Tech, 1-0, in their opening game of the Women's College World Series to set up tonight's match up. U-La-La beat #1 Florida on a solo blast in extra innings, and they have beaten the A&M women once this season already. So it should be a great game.

Tomorrow: Saturday will be a busy work day. Meg is going back to work for the last time in Cameron (Thank you Lord!) and will be bringing home the last of her stuff after another half-day of working. Please be in prayer that she gets another, way better job somewhere closer to our home in College Station.... I am technical directing (or TD'ing as we like to call it in "the biz") the big screen show for the 12:30 afternoon loser's bracket game and then the 6:30 evening winner's bracket game, which will hopefully include A&M (fingers crossed). The non-A&M game will be a non camera show with nothing but head shots of players and stupid NCAA mandated video elements (such as their dumb commercials, trivia games, and their so-called pump up videos...lame, I know). The A&M games, for the fans' enjoyment, we will do live cameras with instant replay and also include the same silly NCAA videos. Ahhh the NCAA...that is another rant for another time and place. Needless to say I will be busy most of the day.

Sunday: 2 weeks ago Fox Sports decided it would be a good idea to broadcast 12th Man Production's video feed out for the nation to watch the A&M-Texas series finale from Olsen Field. It was overall a very fun and rewarding experience to be a part of, but it was definitely rough around the edges. Well, Fox loved it so much that they are picking up both Sunday games (and the Monday one if it is played) again for broadcast across the region. Be sure to tune in on FSN SW at some point during the day to see 12th Man Productions in action! The first game we televised I was working the Fox Box and was dubbed the so-called "scoring coordinator" by my boss. Simply stated I am operating the computer that shows the viewing audience the score, inning, balls, strikes, outs, men on base, etc... So, that is what I will be doing for both games on Sunday afternoon/evening... The downside to all of this, and this is the case A LOT with my job, is that I will have to miss out on spending the weekend with my wonderful wife and not be able to attend a church service on Sunday because crew call is so early in the morning. I guess its the price I pay to be beautiful ;)

Monday: We will be heading home to the LOC 44, what-what! So look out homies, we bouts to come steam-rolling your way! We are looking forward to seeing everyone back home and hanging out some before our much anticipated trip to Europe! Speaking of which, that will be one of my blogs in the next few days so stay tuned! 'Til then, "so long everybody"(Will Johnson)

Officials Officially Suck...

Last night as I was tormented by the events that transpired in the closing few seconds of the Spurs-Lakers game 4 of the Western Conference Finals, I couldn't seem to shake this one thought from my head: WHAT WAS DAVID STERN THINKING!?

Joey Crawford, now infamous for his ejection of Tim Duncan last season, was assigned crew chief and lead official for the game played at the AT&T Center in San Antonio. I believe in second chances for people in life, so I was willing to give the guy another chance to prove his worth as a ref...but then game 5 of the Spurs-Hornets game came along and Crawford gave coach Pop a technical foul much to the dismay of most fans watching. I knew at that point the risk of having Crawford on the court was much higher than the reward. After last year's childish fiasco involving Duncan, Crawford was skating on thin ice to begin with, and should have avoided calling any sort of technical fouls at all costs. (In my opinion, if the guy was forced by commissioner Stern to go to counseling sessions before being reinstated as a NBA ref, then I feel like he has too much baggage to be on the court with the highest payed and most incredibly gifted superstars of the league) It probably would have been a better idea for Stern to leave Crawford out of this series completely in order to avoid any unnecessary and unwarranted scrutiny from millions of NBA fans across the country....

Moving along to my point. In spite of the Spurs putting on a choke fest for the nation to watch for 99% of the game, they somehow did what they absolutely had to do in order to have a chance to win at the end of the game (along with the help of a few missed FT's by Paul Gasol and missed running jump shot by Kobe Bryant). Overall I believe the game was fairly called, except for the occasional missed call on BOTH ends (which is to be expected and a part of the game), but in the most crucial 2+ seconds, Crawford and Co. swallowed their whistles and allowed Derrick Fisher to plow into Brent Barry a split second before Barry attempted a 3 that would have given San Antonio the miraculous come-from-behind victory. Amidst a sea of boos and expletives, the Lakers scurried of the court like a pack of rats and the entire Spurs team was left scratching their heads as to why no call was made. Despite this no-call I, along with most rational Spurs fans, cannot pin the blame entirely on the shoulders of this officiating crew, but they certainly blew a HUGE call at a time when it absolutely could not be blown. If San Antonio was going to play so poorly maybe they did not deserve a chance to win it, but ultimately a game should not be decided by an official's fear of making the big call at the biggest, most crucial moment of the game.

This is nothing new in sports. Period. There have been so many last second no-calls in recent history that it is mind boggling. (A recent one affecting A&M's 2008 NCAA tourney run comes to mind) Generations of sports fans have been dealing with the same issues that continually go unchanged. For the NBA, (even college hoops) they already have instant replay as a vital part of the game...to a certain extent. If replay can be used to determine if a shooter's foot was on the line during a 3 point attempt, too see if a shot is made before the buzzer goes off, etc. then WHY ON EARTH do they not use the replay system to view calls made during crucial times in games? (a la Spurs-Lakers, and Aggies-Bruins) The answer to this question is simple. Officials and the governing boards that oversee them are too prideful, too arrogant to ever...EVER admit that they are wrong. God forbid that a person faced with making a decision in a fraction of a second could actually make a...gasp...mistake! Until they decide to let the players decide the outcome of the game entirely and remove human error from the final equation, sports in general will continually be played with a black & white striped cloud hovering over head.

Say What You Need To Say

I got the inspiration for my blog title from the song "Say" by John Mayer. I thought I would share the lyrics with you to get this thing going...

"Take all of your wasted honor

Every little past frustration

Take all of your so called problems

better put 'em in quotations

Say what you need to say

Walking like a one man army

Fighting with the shadows in your head

Living out the same old moment

Knowing you'd be better off instead

If you could only

Say What you need to say

Have no fear for giving in

Have no fear for giving over

You better know that in the end

It's better to say too much

Than never to say what you need to say again

Even if your hands are shaking

And your faith is broken

Even as the eyes are closing

Do it with a heart wide open

Say what you need to say"

...There is a lot of truth to be found in this song, and I feel like this blog gives me the opportunity to say the things on my mind/in my heart that need to be said. I have learned through my life's journey that harboring any thoughts or feelings on the inside is way more dangerous than the consequences of just laying it all out on the line. I would rather live my life content with myself & my wife & with God than living a life only trying to please everyone around me... If you can't say what you need to say, then those around you don't truly love you anyways, right? The last verse of this song is the most powerful to me...in your life's darkest moments, even if you are facing death, leave NOTHING unsaid. As most of you know, I lost my Dad in December, and when looking back on that life experience the words of this song ring true. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think of my father. There are so many things I wish I could say to him and my heart breaks knowing I will never again in this life have the opportunity to say them. I have realized though over the past 6 months or so that these thoughts, although honest and truthful, are just a selfish side of my humanness. I know that what my dad is experiencing for eternity is far greater than him being around for my college graduation, family vacations, the birth of grandchildren, etc... But that one line, "say what you need to say", will always be at the forefront of the way I live my life, because that is the way my Dad tried to live his life and in the end I know it hurts far worse not saying what you need to say than saying too much in the first place.

So, hopefully this blog will be a healthy way of putting all of my so called problems into quotations so I can share a part of my life with all of you. Say what you need to say.