Just last month many Mavericks fans were feeling the lost of our team. But this is no surprise, but as a big Mavericks fan I always have big hopes during the post season as well as during the playoffs. Dreaming of once again taking home that prize that for these season is now over.
Besides loving the Dallas team, I have always been a Suns fan as well as a Lakers fans. But I have always hate on one team that many times has taken our dream from our hands. This year they did it again! The San Antonio Spurs. There is just something that I don’t seem to like about this team.
After loosing the series 4-2 I was sad. But I also knew that the team had try, and not completely giving up.
So, just as it was sad to see our season over, it was more than a pleasure to see the SA Spurs leave the playoffs with no win agains the Suns.
As i was watching that final gave between the Spurs and the Mavs, I started writing some thoughs.
Once again we have failed
Once again we have loose
Once again our dream has fallen
Once again our dream has been vanished
Once again we started good
Once again we were the best
Once again we were the worst
Once again our dream has fallen
Once again, we were on the road.
Once again we were left behind
Once again were at the top.
Once again our dream has vanished.
Once again we dream big,
Once again we were the best
Once again there was hope
Once again we were left hopeless
Once again our dream was close
Once again our dream was far.
Once again Dirk was our hope
Once again Nowitzki was our hero.
Once again we shared excited
Once again we shared disappointment
Once again our neighbor was our enemy
Once again they were big
Once again they have our dream
Once again our dream was taken.
Once again the Dallas Mavericks are out.
Once again I was a fan.
Once again I was disappointed
Once again I hate the SpursOnce again I am a MaverickOnce again I am a MaverickOnce again I will be a Maverick
Once again I am a MaverickOnce again I will be a MaverickOnce again I have hope
Once again I believe in the Dallas Mavericks.
Soccer is something everyone knows about even though they might not know everything about it. It is a game that is played all over the world but yet it doesn’t get the respect it deserves in America. Everyone I have met that has considered themselves a soccer player has more passion for the game then I have seen in any other type of player. They live to just be able to step out on a field again and play whether it is with friends or in a competition. They strive for excellence each game and will continue to be their worst critic even if they are ranked number one. No soccer player will ever tell you they want out of a game. They rather run until their teeth start to tingle from the lack of oxygen going through their bodies before they even think of coming off the field. Every game a player will give their very best even if the team they are playing is in last place and they are in first. A player will not give in or up no matter how bad they are up or down. They will keep pushing for the next goal or block. This is what makes soccer different then other sports and lets it be known throughout the world.
Soccer requires heart, dedication, and focus. Do you think you can handle it?
Thank you to all the Dallas Cup players for giving their best during their tournament this past weekend. Every team did a great job and keep pushing for greatness.
It is that time again, intramural co-ed soccer has begun sign up and its first set of games will begin on March 30 starting at 12:30. If you would like to play come down to the gym and sign up. Many teams are still looking for ladies to join their teams. If you don’t know the rules, its ok, we can teach you. All you need is a student I.D. and tennis shoes that don’t leave black scuff marks on the gym floor. This season there is twelve teams and it looks like it is going to be a great season. The season consists of two games a week, Tuesday and Thursday. The games can start any time between 12:30 and 2:00. There will be a schedule posted up in Guadalupe on the sports board across from the Richland trophies to let you know when your team will be playing. There are a total of five games for the season and then from there they will take the top teams and have a set of playoff games.
Each team can have eight players but only five men can be on the field at one time. So if you have a woman player then that means you will have six players instead of five. Plus you can also have a transitional player which can also be on the field as an extra player; this can make you have six or seven players on the field at one time. This will help you against the other teams who only consist of men.
Come play or watch the next couple of weeks and be prepared to be amazed.
We wake up for the big race what we have been waiting weeks for. I go to let Layla, our puppy, out and it’s raining. There are two things you don’t want to see happen on Race Day and that is rain and your driver crash. Daniel and I pack our stuff and head out to the track. Neither one of us wanted to say it but it wasn’t looking like the race was going to happen. We finally found a place to park in the grass, scared that my car would get stuck, we park by several trucks that could pull my car out if need be. This day was horrible we sat in the car for a few hours hoping the rain would stop. It finally let up so we walked to our sit where it started raining again. We went under the covering and sat on a bleacher for a few more hours. A row of six of us sat there for four hours heads hung low, cold, wet and defeated. I couldn’t help but think of a quote Forest Gump, when he is talking about the rain in Vietnam. “One day it started raining, and it didn’t quit for four months. We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin’ rain and big ol’ fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath.” Then we heard the sound of jet dryers. Everyone that was hiding from the rain looked up and went out to the track as the dyers start to go around, giving us all a false sense of hope that there may be a race today. There wasn’t, eight hours of my life gone, sitting around doing nothing waiting for the rain to stop, followed by two hours of sitting in traffic trying to get home. All to get up Monday morning and go out there again. This time there was a race, two in fact because nationwide was rained out on Saturday. All in all stupid Jimmy Johnson almost won, but didn’t, an amazing wreck happened with 16 laps left to go, taking out or hurting the cars of 5-15th place. It was a pretty nice day followed by more sitting in traffic. I hate traffic.
5 a.m. my alarm goes off, it’s time for NASCAR! Most people would think I’m crazy spending my Friday waking up earlier than I do for school so we can get to Texas Motor Speedway. We got there at 8 a.m. to clam the coveted spots at the front of the parking lot. Also to avoid the parking attendants that wants us to park in mud because we didn’t buy a parking pass. This may not sound like a big deal but not having to walk three miles in mud to watch cars go around in a circle is worth it. The main thing that made this Friday qualifying different then the other five Friday we have gone to is PIT PASSES! It’s the first time the group I go with as gotten pit passes. For us it is the equivalent of Willy Wonkas’ golden ticket. It’s the closest you can get to the drivers without sitting in their lap. Not really but the next closest you could at the track would be to ride in their car. Seeing them wave back at me as they drive by was almost better than the wrecks. We watch these drivers every Sunday on TV and they seem so untouchable and to be five feet away from them is one of the coolest things we have done at NASCAR. This may be the only time our whole group gets to do this together and it was fun to see how excited, even grown men, got when our driver would go by. After the pits we went to the stands to watch qualifying, even if you don’t like NASCAR this is a one of kind experience, your 10 feet from a car flying by you at 190-200 miles per hour. Screaming and yelling as your driver starts their engine and takes off down pit road. Knowing the next time you see them they are speeding across the start/finish lane racing for position. You look at the pole and see where your driver will start. Followed by booing at the driver you don’t like as they race by. Unfortunately my driver, Mark Martin, didn’t do so hot. A few of the people we go with got to see their driver, Tony Stewart take the poll which means he got to start first in Sunday’s race. This year was a little more stressful but still nice to have fun and watch cars go fast.
Some say baseball has become stale; that fast pace, hard hitting football has replaced it as supreme in the country. That may be true, but there is a trend in baseball that I personally really enjoy. And it involves the color pink. For Mother’s Day, some Major League players opt to wear pink batting gloves, pink arm bands, pink undershirts, and even sometimes pink baseball bats to commemorate not only their mothers, but the fight against breast cancer. This year was quite special with Dallas Braden throwing a perfect game for the Oakland Athletics against the Tampa Bay Rays. He was raised by his grandmother when his mother passed away in his teenage years. More sports should get involved with organizations like this. Just think, cancer could be cured but a big hindering factor for research is based on funds. What better way to raise money than by involving grossly over-paid athletes and the fans that love them? Instead of giving a dollar or two at your local grocery store, you could accomplish the same good by simply going to a game you probably already would have gone to, regardless. It doesn’t have to end with breast and prostate cancer either; why not chose a different organization every month? You could cover those with disabilities or even attempt to lower the national deficit. Alright the second one was for fun, but you get the point. More organizations need to team up with professional sports…the benefits would outweigh any possible negative you could come up with.
There are many famous faces in the Dallas sports world; for example Michael Young, Mike Modano, Dirk Nowitzki, and Tony Romo. Almost equally recognizable are two of the owners; Mark Cuban and Jerry Jones. Cuban (owner of the Mavericks) is known for his crazy antics and criticism of referees. Jones (owner of the Cowboys) is very vocal and controlling of his team (many would argue too controlling) and also built a billion dollar mansion for all football fans to marvel at. What if I were to tell you that another owner trumps both these men? Hold up his photo and many would ask “Who’s that old guy?” The answer? Tom Hicks, owner of both the Rangers and Stars. He won’t be in the news for arguing with a fan or drunkenly commenting on former coaches, but instead he’s causing much more damage. He seems like a nice enough fellow, but there is one problem with him. He is single handedly preventing the Texas Rangers and Dallas Stars from competing in any sort of post season play. Cuban and Jones have money and are willing to spend seemingly whatever it takes to contend. Hicks on the other hand has run into monetary issues and now his teams are suffering. The Rangers look to be the first of the two teams to make it to shore since Chuck Greenberg wants to purchase the team. This man could do wonders for the team, especially since he’s already mentioned that “Money is not an option.” The sale has stalled due to money issues with Hicks’ lending group. Major League Baseball is on the verge of taking over the transaction to speed up the process and get things done. The Stars on the other hand aren’t so lucky. There has been talk of Mike Modano, Jim Lites, and Billy Quinn teaming up to purchase the franchise but the National Hockey Hockey League has told Modano that he can’t be part owner and play for the team. Any deal for the coldest North Texas team is a ways off.
What’s the big deal over the pocket book of an owner? Without money, the teams are unable to really venture out and sign players. This hurts the Rangers more since there isn’t a salary cap, and despite having one of the largest markets in sports, the team has one of the lowest payrolls as well. Thankfully the Rangers have an elite rated farm system so they are able to replenish their needs internally, but if they do continue playing in October, their lack of experience will catch up to them. Experience in the postseason is extremely underrated and vital to the teams’ success; take the Tampa Bay Rays for instance. Two years ago they made it all the way to the World Series for the first time against the Philadelphia Phillies but lost. Now that the team has experienced what the big time is like, they will be able to handle that same scenario more adequately next time around. Also, if the team wants to add a veteran bat to bolster the lineup or even a solid late inning reliever to help the at times sketchy bullpen, they won’t have too many options. If money is tight, they can’t take on large salaries. The Stars desperately need defensive help, which could easily be filled through free agency but yet again, no money means no big name players that could take this team from just out of eighth place to possibly warranting home ice advantage. So long as Tom Hicks owns these two teams, neither will have a chance at winning it all; and to be honest even contending will be difficult as well. The sooner someone else starts paying the bills, the better.
The Orlando Magic destroyed the Atlanta Hawks in game one by 43 points. The Magic are a legitimate title contender again with the deepest squad in the league. Vince Carter, who was signed as Hedo Turkoglu’s replacement, is fitting in just fine, and Dwight Howard, nicknamed as “Superman,” had another heroic game. Staying out of foul trouble, Howard was dominant on the offensive and defensive end, and is someone very few people in the league can guard. With the Cavaliers and the Celtics jousting in the other series, the Magic could be much fresher than their opponent in the next round, if in fact they play similar to how they did in game one and eventually oust the Hawks from the playoffs. In the Western Conference, the Lakers kept their home court advantage, taking a 2-0 lead on the Jazz in another game in which the Lakers were up double digits but was close late. In the other series, the Suns host the Spurs tonight in game two. With the Suns up 1-0, look for the veteran Spurs to come out with more energy to try to level this series. These two teams have a longstanding rivalry that usually goes near or at the distance in most of their playoff clashes.
Rangers’ starter Scott Feldman gave it all he had Wednesday night, but his early struggles did his team in. The Oakland Athletics (14-14) jumped out to a 5-0 lead after two innings and the Texas Rangers (14-13) didn’t hold a lead in the game for only the third time all season.
Vlad Guerrero hit a grand-slam in the third inning off A’s starter Vin Mazzard, after Texas loaded the bases using some patience at the plate. Julio Borbon, Elvis Andrus, and Josh Hamilton all walked to load em’ up and Guerrero’s shot (his third home-run of the season) made it 5-4 Oakland, and got the Rangers right back into the game.
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The Texas Rangers (14-12) are taking the whipping stick to their American League West rivals, at least for the first four games of this six-game west-coast road trip. It’s latest victim, the Oakland Athletics (13-14), were done-in by a great outing from Rich Harden - a former A’s player.
“He threw a lot better than he has all year, that’s for sure,” A’s manager Bob Geren said. “His velocity was up significantly from his previous starts and his command, he’d had trouble.”
He certainly didn’t have trouble with his command on this night. Harden pitched seven innings, gave up no runs on only two hits, struck out nine batters and, most importantly, issued zero walks for the first time in a Rangers’ uniform.
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