A New Reason to Love

ESPN was once something special. You got analysis, full box scores, long series of highlights, and stats. Now, it is just corporate sponsorship, lame home run calls, terrible live Sportscenters, and Stewart Scott's Lazy eye. Funny story, I had no idea he had one until like 6 months ago. Someone told me about it and now I am fixated on it. His goal to annoy you with catch phrases until you don't notice it anymore. Anyway, I have found some good in the network. Bill Simmons does a great podcast touching on sports and entertainment. He is very funny and insightful. His show has been promoting a new documentary series called 30 for 30. This is a series of short documentaries covering 30 large stories that have occur ed over the 30 years of ESPN existence. Some of the film makers they have lined up guys like Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights), Oscar winner Barry Levinson (Rain Man, Bugsy), and possibly Spike Lee. The preliminary list is here. Some of the topics are Reggie Miller the MSG assassin, University of Miami football, O.J., and Jordan's adventures in the minors. I am excited to see Berg's version of the Gretzky trade to Los Angeles and how the NHL finally expanded to the West Coast. Each film is independently made so they will all have a different feel based on the director. This is the kind of original entertainment the network needs along side the daily dose of Baseball Tonight and NFL Live (can't stand that show, love football but hate the show). The series should provide knowledge to once popular stories and perspective now that time has passed. Now, they must fix Sportscenter.

Sports Movies:
I hate sports movies. I don't think last second shots make for good movies because they happen in reality. I don't pay 9 dollars for reality. These movies tend to be overly sad, happy, and then formula driven (see Glory Road) I wanna see some stories. So here are my top 5 sports movies :

5. Major League- "Just a bit outside" will live on forever every time a pitcher walks a man.
4. Friday Night Lights- The movie spawned a TV show (great and NBC continues to try and kill it) and renewed interest in high school football. I relate more to the issues in this movie versus Remember the Titans which I rate lower because of the formula that the film holds.
3. Rocky- This is before Rocky became retarded (worsens every film). We wouldn't have Rambo without it.
2. Raging Bull- Scorsese was robbed for the Oscar. The boxing scenes are the best (way better than Rocky's) and there is nothing nice to say about the characters.
1. Caddyshack- Don't worry, I did not forget to include it. No explanation needed.

Best documentary: Hoop Dreams. I am not sure how these two kids became stereotypes of athletes when picked as freshmen, but they show us how hard the dream really is even when talented. Great story about Chicago high school hoops and its not so glamorous side.

Thoughts:

• The Office had an episode where they debated if Hilary Swank was hot. I am watching The Reader and I am wondering if Kate Winslet is hot. Compared to the average woman, probably she is, but not to the average movie star (lot of nakedness in the movie though). She isn't ugly, but hot? Not sure. I'd like some comments on it. She is not on my top ten celeb hot women list. May be number one in terms of acting talent though.
  
• Need some fantasy football team ideas. Hit me up on those. I have used Otm Shank, Jingle All the Way, and Porn Kings. Looking for some good ones.
• Doing an online draft...kill me. Like a bad hand job, just will not end, boring, painful, and you leave dissatisfied.
• Trustees at U of I may be asked to step down...good.
• Buerhle did Letterman's Top Ten. Funny stuff, but he is no pitch man.
• NFL camp opens this week. Always fun to have the national past time back. Sorry baseball, but the Direct TV package and gambling support the statement.