Houston Landmark - The End of the Universe

Another Houston landmark to visit for your next trip to the Bayou City. The End of the Universe, identified by Lewis Black. Here's his comedy bit about it, for a refresher.




Lewis Black was so struck by this Houston landmark he chose to name his cd after it, and included a picture of it as his front cover.




This landmark is located at the corner of S. Shepherd and W. Gray. I've had the good fortune of travelling between the two on numerous occasions, having lived a mere two miles away. Traffic in the area has prevented me from stopping between the two Starbucks' and verifying that time does indeed stand still. I'll have to take Mr. Black's word for it.

I'm full of myself - more from Bleacher Report

Turns out I've already made the front page if you wait long enough.

On the NBA tab on the front page

And on the College Basketball tab.

NBA front page on Bleacher Report!

It didn't take long. I'm on the NBA front page for Bleacher Report. We'll really see how people receive my article. Next step will be the overall front page!

Athletes Don't Need to be Paid

Note: I've started posting on bleacherreport.com. Any sports stuff I write will appear on houstonramblins and bleacher report. The following article can also be found here.

Playing collegiate sports is mutually beneficial for both the players and the NCAA. The NCAA gets the better end of it, but its still a good deal for players of all skill levels.

OJ Mayo was the example used in Mr. Watkins' article. OJ Mayo went to one year of school at USC. He was not able to go directly to the NBA. That wasn't the NCAA or USC's fault, that is a NBA law. Formerly, kids with top-level talent would go directly to the NBA, but that's no longer an option. However, no one forced OJ Mayo to attend a university. If he didn't feel right about USC and Tim Floyd banking off his star talent, he could have chosen to wait out the required year by practicing his crossover and jump shot in a gym. But why would he want to do that? There are more than 3 dozen professional basketball leagues worldwide. He could get paid to play! Right out of high school! Sounds like we've got a solution.

That sucks, though, that he might have to go overseas to get his "fair market value." Nobody would be able to see him play. Nike wouldn't know whether to give him a contract. He wouldn't be playing against the best that he could be. Maybe he looks great, maybe he stinks it up. How would the NBA have graded him? Would he still go #5 in the draft after playing overseas for a year? Would anyone even know who OJ Mayo was? Therein lies the rub - OJ Mayo's payment at USC was the exposure afforded by major college basketball, ESPN, Los Angelos, the NCAA tournament, etc. OJ Mayo's future earnings will likely be higher because he attended college. Isn't that why most people go to school?

OJ Mayo and other lottery-type talent are one case. The "guys who are superstars in college but don't have the body type or athleticism to compete in the NBA" could play overseas after college. Paul Shirley carved out a decent career playing basketball professionally and no one would confuse him with a superstar.

The other 95% of college basketball players? Make sure to get your free diploma!

With all due respect to Mr. Watkins, there is a difference between playing collegiate basketball and working in a sweatshop. These kids aren't forced labor. If they need to help support their family, they can take a day job at McDonald's and work the night shift at Burger King. Nowhere is it written that one who has sports talent must be compensated for it.

Garnett post - response from blogger

I got this response from my email to the guy who wrote the Garnett post. He was appreciative of my support.

Hey Jeremy, thanks for the kind words, I appreciate the positivity after all of boston came raining down, but after truehoop linked i expected it, i realize i represent the minority voice by not supporting kg in this instance - which is why i feel it needed to be said, anyway, thanks again

*i'm a big supporter of the rockets as well, love yao and hated seeing him go down after the run ya'll made, hopefully this year everyone stays healthy

NBA 2008 Draft - Aftermath

With all the talk about Dorsey, everyone is missing the fact that the Rockets turned one draft pick into two players. This work assesses the relative value of the first 30 picks of the draft. Through a couple trades, the Rockets turned the 25th pick into the 28th and 33rd. They added roughly 50% more value to their draft for free. I'm liking the Daryl Morey era already.

The Rockets are really high on Joey Dorsey. Like really high. I have no idea why. But here's what they say.

Joey Dorsey
This guy likes Joey Dorsey. As you can see from my comment, I'm not so hot on him.

Shane Battier
Don't know whether the USA team would have picked him or not, but he won't be playing for the red, white and blue. This story points out that he was on the 2nd All-NBA defensive team, but was 3rd in the Defensive POY voting. The math doesn't work out on that, but it shows he's one of the best on the defensive end.

Carl Landry
The Rockets want to sign Landry. Last year was his rookie season, but he was a second round pick so there was no future years to the contract. This is another position I thought they were in good shape. The Rockets would like to see what's up with Landry's knee. Landry's agent doesn't seem like he wants to play along. Something is amiss.

Steve Novak
Novak has been resigned. Cheap, but this doesn't really help the Rockets. They like something about him, but if they don't play him ...

Brent Barry
The Rockets want to sign him. Don't know if this is just the family name that attracts them or what. He's a good player that can help a veteran team off the bench. He'd help during a postseason run. The Rockets need help elsewhere, and don't seem poised for such a postseason run. I have a hard time arguing this though. I Like a shooter who doesn't complain about playing. (Tough to complain about playing time when you're 30-something making 2 mil off the bench.) Seems though, that the Novak signing and Barry courting are redundant.


Russell Robinson
He's on the summer squad for the Rockets. It seems like this guy was at Kansas forever. He's got decent size for a point guard, is a good defender and takes care of the ball (4 assists/game, 2.1 A/T ratio). Robinson was overshadowed at KU by the 4 other Jayhawks that got drafted.

Seven Cubs in the All-Star game and more baseball..

Thrilled to see the red, white and blue well represented in the All-Star game for the first time in awhile gets me excited about what might become of the season. The Cubs players chosen for the most part were well deserving of their bid. Soriano has been hurt, but is one of the top three NL outfielders and Fukudome, struggling of late, has still had a decent season. I am happy for Geovany Soto, who is the hands down favorite to win the ROY, and glad to see that a player from the Cubs' farm system has panned out. Ryan Dempster and Kerry Wood were well deserving of their All-Star bids and have really been the anchor to the team. What makes more sense to me though is that the team with the best record in the National League throughout the first half of the season is well represented. If the game truly means something and determines home-field advantage then the teams fighting toward winning the World Series should be well represented. The Tampa Rays are not well represented and should be. They are the story of the season and are just flat out good. There is talks they could get Matt Holliday....scary. Speaking of scary, Sabathia to the Brewers scares me. Milwaukee was on top of their game by getting him this early. He will make two starts before the All-Star break and then another two before the trading deadline. Having four more starts than other deadline pitchers means this trade will have more impact than any other. The Cubs are talking about dealing with the A's for Rich Harden. I have always been a fan of Rich Harden, but two things scare me;Hardens arm and Billy Beane's brain. There is no doubt the Cubs will have to pay the price for Harden. If he stays healthy it could be worth it, but Beane will take a good portion of the Cubs' future for an often injured arm. My prediction: I still believe the Cubs are deep enough to win the NL Central but I believe this move puts the Brewers as the favorites for the NL Wild Card with Sheets and Sabathia being the two best pitchers in the National League.

More about Kevin Garnett -- make me gag

I left this comment on someone's blog a couple weeks ago. He'd written a pretty good little note saying 'no thanks' to Garnett's offer that "This is for everybody in 'Sota!" The comment section was FILLED with people, presumably all from Boston, calling the blogger dumb or worse.

Mike, I don't know how you'll find this amongst all the worked up Boston fans (I thought this was a Garnett dis piece?) but I feel you. Some athletes (of which Garnett is the most notable) somehow get a free pass. Where does heart show up on the box score? Or "backbone" or "motivation" or whatever else you want to call it. Duncan can unload for 40 points on a given night, Karl Malone was a big guy and a prolific scorer. LeBron made it to the NBA finals (and out of the first round each of the last three years) playing alongside Carrot Top and a guy named Boobie. Why couldn't Garnett do it? The NBA is a team sport but the only constant on that team for a decade was Garnett. Just like the only constant on the Celtics had been Pierce, and the Celtics stunk for most of the last decade!

As a Rockets fan, I understand that it isn't necessarily about the championships that Garnett didn't bring to Minn, its about getting out of the first round of the playoffs! If TMac ran off to join the Clippers or somebody and won a championship, the last thing I'd want to hear is "This is for you H-town (and Orlando, and Vancouver)." Allegiances are for a team, not a player.

I thought I was over hating on Garnett for a while until I came across this. Another gratuitous puff piece about how Garnett wanted a championship worse than any other athlete of all time ever. Seriously, what's the point of sticking with a team for a decade to leave and get a ring somewhere else? Shouldn't he have left in 2005 when he was tired of losing? Maybe the Wolves would have been competetive by now. Notice how the good people at Slate don't mention the profanity-laced rant Garnett went on during the press conference. That's a little tougher to love.

My Golfing Adventure

Having just started golfing last summer, I am already addicted. I think it is because of how competitive I am. I really wanted to get decent at golf to the point where I can play respectable with anyone. Not necessarily beat them, but not make a fool of myself. Just when I think I have it figured out, I shank one and just when I am ready to give up, I hit a beautiful shot. What I decided to do to keep track of my progress, is to try to start keeping my golf handicap. Although officially you must record 12 rounds I am going to do it longhand until then. The course I typically play is Airport National because of the cheap rates and relative ease in play. I have golfed at least 6 or 7 times this year for a total of at least 10 eighteen hole rounds. For 21 dollars I can golf unlimited holes at Airport, including a cart. I typically take advantage of it golfing at least 27 and occasionally 36 in a day. The course rating is pretty low, as is the slope rating. This makes it more important for a good score for my handicap. I am keeping track of my scores online at keepmygolfscore.com. I will start with the first 18 holes of my round today to start my golf handicap. The handicap is found by finding "adjusted differentials" for each round. The adjusted differential is found by (total score-course rating)/(slope rating)*113. The 10 lowest differentials are then added together, multiplied by .96 and divided by ten to find your handicap. The ten lowest differentials doesn't quite make sense to me for the fact that a bad round doesn't seem to hurt your handicap. Well, today I shot a 94 at Airport National, 48 on the front nine and 46 on the back nine. Par for the course is 63. This is my best 18 ever, even with a quintuple bogey 9 on the first hole. What I was pleased about was that I was very consistent the rest of the round, I socred all 4's-6's the rest of the round. I can't hit my driver so I was using a 6-iron to tee off the rest of the round. It makes for tough saves when you can't get that much distance on your tee shot, but I found that my irons are more consistent and so thats what I went with. So, for the moment you have all been waiting for.... My score (94)-course rating(58.5)/slope rating(80)*113=an adjusted differential of 50.14375. I will just multiply this by .96 to get my handicap of 48. That is incredibly high but, for an easy course you really have to score well. I will approach lowering my handicap 10 at a time. First, the goal is to get below 40. This is not terribly accurate right nwo because it is just one round, but as I log more rounds I should have a better idea of how I am doing.