Don’t ask me how I ran across this, just be glad I did.
I’m sure everyone old enough remembers where they were when the chase unfolded.
And 12 stupid morons allowed this guy to get off for the double murder he committed.
We get up big early, Brian Renfro pitches a gem, and we finish off Jay County to win the Richmond Semi-State. This is one of the best memories I have of a Father’s Day weekend. My high school baseball team was heading to the State Finals for the first time in school history and most of us had our Dad’s on the field celebrating the win. I remember my Dad, with tears in his eyes, going around giving hugs to all my team mates. Many of them whom he helped coached as we grew up. As we look back on our child hoods we remember moments, snap shots of our past, and at that moment I remembered all the times I spent with him as he tried to teach me the game of baseball. The good times as he coached the senior league A’s, the greatest little league team known to man, and all the time I ran into the house crying because I just could not get it right. As we take time today to reflect on what our fathers did to mold us into the men and fathers we are today let them know how much them mean to you. The good times when they taught us how to field a grounder and the funny times too. My friends and I still talk about the time when my Dad showed up to baseball practice after a golf outing having a few pops. He was standing a few feet away from live hitting talking shit to the hitters about not being able to catch up to the fastballs being thrown to us. Classic Bill Klee.
Happy Father’s Day and thank you to all the Dads out there that looked after us when they knew we were getting into the liquor cabinet.
Well the Klee family has made it to the land of the Florida Gators and ready for a week or family, sand and great beer. I have a full week to do nothing but think about what is next for our infant website.
First of all if I didn’t mention the absolute beat down of a life time from last night I would be a hypocrite. The Indiana All-Stars drubbed their counterparts from Kentucky last night in smelly, rundown Freedom Hall. Indiana won by a score of 114 to 60. Yes, you are doing the math right. Indiana won by 54. Hell, the boys from the Commonwealth barely scored 54 frickin points. Here are the stories from the Indy Star and Louisville CJ.
Now that I got that over with. Tonight’s story is all about the two teams that are about 1 1/2 hours apart that get to fly to Omaha, NE to play each other on the baseball diamond. The Louisville Cardinals and the Indiana Hoosiers get down to business tonight in search for their first baseball National Championship. Good luck to all the area players on both teams. Since I don’t care who wins it will be night to just root for some good college baseball. BTW, don’t stare at the Louisville uniforms to long or you might burn your retinas.
Good luck to both and cheers!
UPDATE!!!! Louisville is wearing the regular uniforms tonight!!!!
While watching the NBA finals recently, rooting against Miami and for San Antonio, I started thinking about why I have chosen sides in a series where I have absolutely no rooting interest. That thought got me thinking even more about why fans root for certain teams, against others teams, and how casual sports fans pick sides when they are really not fans of either team in a game.
The two most obvious factors are geography and affiliation. People root for their hometown teams and the college teams to which they have some sort of connection. I’m sure if I had lived my entire life in Boston, I’d be a fan of the Patriots and Celtics no different than I am fan of the Colts and Pacers today. There is nothing that the Colts or Pacers ever did to “win” me as I fan. I was here, they were here, I like sports, I like I Indy, so I like them. And, as a result of favoring the Colts, I hate the Patriots and enjoy it very much when they lose. Besides winning over and over again, and for the most part having the Colts number, the Patriots never did anything that should have caused me to have the level of disdain that I have for them. But, as is the case for nearly every fan, I am programmed to loathe my team’s rival.
The situations that are more interesting to me are those where a fan is moved from neutrality to hatred by other not so obvious factors. The first thing that comes to mind from my experience is that the fans of a team are capable of turning me against their team. I once had a neighbor who drove me to root against Ohio State when before I looked at them as just another Big 10 team. IU fans are also an unusually annoying bunch, but my perception could impacted by my required hatred for that school as a person with Purdue ties. However, I bet the folks from around the rest of the league think that fans who wear the candy cane pants are stupid, and have heard enough of “we’re back” when it comes to IU basketball. Yes, IU fan, your program is no longer a joke, but enough already.
Turning to baseball, IU and Ohio State fans though pale in comparison to Boston Red Sox fans. Long after I had heard way too much about the “Sawks,” I went to a Reds-Nats game in Cincy only to sit down next to a guy in his kelly green Sox hat and jersey. Yes, I said I was a Reds-Nats game in Cincy when I encountered this guy. He was arrogant, entitled, loud, whiny, and really didn’t know his baseball. Typical. Take the annoying fans and add them to the over saturation on ESPN, and I’ve grown to the point where I can’t stand what should be viewed as a pretty cool, historic MLB franchise in Boston.
Speaking of ESPN, they have pretty much turned me against the entire ACC all by themselves. I won’t even watch Duke and North Carolina basketball, again great programs with great history, only because I can’t stand how the analysts blather on and on about these programs. People who think the Big 10 was the first conference with a network to promote its product are dead wrong. The ACC has had one since 1980, and it is called ESPN. ESPN’s Baseball Tonight gang has made the Yankees all the more hateable, leading off every single night talking about a mid-May game in Baltimore as if it were the 6th game of the 1975 World Series, and covering their tabloid drama as if it were real sports news.
Lastly, I think the thing that will turn me sour toward a team or franchise is arrogance. Back to the beginning with the Miami Heat, clearly that is my issue with them. The LaBron James signing show (of course on ESPN) just fired me up to root against them, even though I’m not even really into the NBA. When they lost to Dallas 2 years ago, I was literally laughing out loud. After last year’s Finals, I avoided sports media so I didn’t have to listen to all the NBA talk about how much “adversity” the Heat had overcome to win.
So, best of luck to the Spurs, whoever is playing the Red Sox and Yankees, and whoever Ohio State opens up the football season with. Even though I probably don’t follow you and will never care about you, I might be rooting harder for you than I do for the teams that I am supposedly a fan of.
Jason has packed up the family and is currently heading to Florida so I will be taking over the Friday Night at the Movies slot this week. Not only am I an expert when it comes to sports and music but I also have incredible taste in movies. Here are some of my favorite movies of all time. You probably should have watched all of these about 50 times each already but if not head to your local Netflix and stream them ASAP.
The Big Lebowski
One of the most brilliant movies of all time and they drop the F Bomb 268 times.
High Fidelity
The first time I saw Jack Black was in this movie and he stole the show. Great comedy and it is even better if you are music nerd like me.
Almost Famous
This movie which is loosely based on Cameron Crowes life is fantastic and this scene is one of my favorite scenes from any movie ever.
Goodfellas
No explanation necessary. This scene depicts exactly how me and my lady are treated every weekend at the local Applebees.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Another classic from Cameron Crowe. The perfect combination of music, comedy and full frontal nudity.
If you are going to be a loyal reader of BDS we would prefer if you would have decent taste in music, and by decent taste I mean you should probably like the music I like. So if you are not reading this because you are at the Kenny Chesney concert tonight then we hope you never come back to this website again. With that being said let me tell you about a few music related items that I think are cool.
Otis Gibbs is a fantastic singer/songwriter who happens to hail from Wanamaker, Indiana(the hometown of Jason and myself). He now lives in Nashville but has never forgotten his roots. His concert shirts have the Wheatleys Bull( if you do not know about the Wheatleys Bull tough shit) on them and his record label is called Wanamaker Records. That should be enough to like him but if not you should head over to his website and listen to an episode or 20 of his fantastic podcast. He interviews some incredible characters in the music business who tell great stories. It is really like sitting in his living room listening to two friends shoot the shit. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Here is the link. Head on over and thank me later.
The Bonnaroo Music Festival kicked off today in Manchester, Tennessee. It is 4 days of incredible music accompanied by 95,000 people who will not shower. If you were not alive for Woodstock this is the closest you will ever get. If you would like to know who is playing Daniel Tosh is here to help you out.
Another cool band, Truth and Salvage Co., which features Indianapolis native Tim Jones has a new album coming out next month and they just released a promo video for the 1st single off of the upcoming album called “Pick Me Up”. If you look real close you will see a cameo by none other than Otis Gibbs in the video. The band will be playing Indianapolis on July 4th. I highly recommend checking them out if you can.
There are a lot of cool albums that are coming out this summer. Here are just a few of my suggestions
Jason Isbell- Southeastern
Patty Griffin- American Kid
Sturgill Simpson- High Top Mountain
JJ Grey and Mofro- The River
The Black Crowes- Wiser For The Time
Finally it was just announced that the Replacements will be reuniting for a few shows this summer. They have not played together in 22 years. I have never been a big Replacements fan but if them reuniting means Tommy Stinson will be quitting the God awful current version of Guns N Roses then I am all for it.
