Tuesday Storm Watch Thoughts

1) Apparently nobody that was selected for the NFL pro bowl is playing - They're on their what, 7th replacement QB and about 9th WR? I think that's Bruce Gradkowski music playing in the background........ Can we just do away with this and agree it doesn't work for football? Just select the team, post it and be done with it. Enough already. Instead of this watered down pro bowl, why not have one of the high school all star games this weekend (bill it as "The Future Bowl" or something). I'd be way more interested in that. Why not move the UnderArmour Bowl which was played Jan 2nd to the weekend before the Super Bowl? When it's played now, it probably gets mixed in with the college bowl games taking place at that time. Why not move it to give it more prestige? Someone call UnderArmour and get this done immediately!

2) Travis Harrison - Who? Well he's the future Bryce Harper, but you just don't know it yet. Harper, as we all know, came to prominence last year after the SI cover story talking about him hitting those long home runs (and if you're not familar with him, check out my post from June 12th last year). Well back in early January, Harrison (a junior out of Aliso Niguel Ca.) broke the record that Harper set last year at the Power Showcase Home Run Derby. Harper hit a ball last year 502 feet, well this year Harrison hit one 504. What do they have in common? Well for one, neither won the showcase.... Harrison is a Junior, so expect to see him back next year. As a claim to fame here, I coached an all star team a few years back and we faced Harrisons team in a district semi finals game. He led off the game with about a 400 ft home run (or at least it seemed it). Not bad for a 12 year old. If anyone out there in Indiana knows Ryne Bryne, let him know Harrison finally hit one farther! Here's the link to the Power Showcase website - Harrison Sets Tropicana Record!

3) Sheets Signs With A's - Today Ben Sheets signed a 1yr, 10 million dollar contact with the Oakland A's. I won't go into whether this was a good signing or not, but similar to what the A's did last year in getting Matt Holiday, I think this is what they're doing this year with Sheets. This team is not ready to contend so why dump 10 million into an often injured 31 year old pitcher? I think they're hoping he's healthy and pitches well in the first half so they can unload him at the trade deadline and pick up prospects. They'll be on the hook for half his salary and hopefully get 1 or 2 young guys that they can groom. I can't really see any other reason for this signing.

4) If Brett Favre Rules Applied To Baseball - Was anyone really surprised that Favre threw that interception at the end of their game with the Saints? While he had a great season this year, those INT's have been his achilles heel the last 7 years. I think most football fans outside of Minnesota were waiting all year for a killer INT to happen and it finally did. Surprised AbSoLuTeLy no one..... As to the title of this thread, I saw this post from Craig Calcaterra over at NBC Sports and couldn't resist. It's hilarious! You have to check out the link - If Brett Favre Rules Applied To Baseball. By the way, I can't stand Tom Jackson!

5) Colts Defense - I've been tremendously impressed with their defense. You know with Manning what you're going to get on offense, but their defense has stepped up and played great. They are 4, 4.5 point favorites going into the Super Bowl and justifiably so. It's going to take an error free game by the Saints to beat them and I'm not sure even that's going to be enough.

6) Zeke Getting Hammered - Well my prediction of the FIU basketball team winning 14 games is nearing it's death.... With a win last Saturday, their record now stands at 7-17 with 8 regular season games left. They've just haven't been able to get on a roll and get a winning streak going. As I've mentioned before, it looks like they've got a great recruiting class coming in next year and it just got better recently with the announcement that Alex Legion will be transferring from Illinois. Legion is a highly recruited kid who has a big time background but just hasn't found his way in college. He broke Chris Weber's scoring records at Detroit Country Day before transferring to national high school power Oak Hill Academy where he set numerous records. Here's his write up - Legion Excited To Play For Zeke.

7) Herschel and MMA - For those of you that are fight fans and remember NFL great Herschel Walker, you might want to tune into Showtime this Saturday to watch Herschel Walker make his MMA debut in Strikeforce. I believe it's comes on Saturday night with the preliminary bouts starting around 7pm Eastern Time. Herschel has long been into martial arts and at age 47 feels nows his time to get into the ring. God knows you don't want to wait till your 50..... For a good article about him and his motives, click on "Bleacher Report" and check it out. There are some other good fights on that card, so the card does hold some interest, I'm definitely planning on checking it out. Maybe I'll do a live blog update for those of you that don't get Showtime.

That's it for now. For those of you on the West Coast hope you're enjoying more rain, and those of you on the East Coast, I hope you get 30 more inches of snow!

Bill