Let me tell you how hard it is to crank out an article or two when you’re entertaining a father-in-law for a month. My wife’s father is visiting from New Zealand and in the last two weeks we’ve been to a grand prix, two major league baseball games, two museums and a trip to Frankenmuth. The poor man has been inundated with Americana. I even lined up a couple of articles loosely titled “Extrava-Dad-Za†but too many familial factors conspired to keep me from my beloved Canon Fodder.
But now I’m back. Well, sort of. The father-in-law leaves town Thursday so we’ll return to normalcy soon after. In the meantime, I’ll throw a tidbit to the masses in hopes that it satiates the appetite.
Taking a quick glance at the sports world this week, I realized the more things change, the more they stay the same. Don’t think so? Let’s take a look…
Joey Harrington is the starting quarterback in Atlanta.
In a related story, fans in Detroit and Miami are being blamed for crashing every gambling website in their zeal to wager against the Falcons.
Under the scrutiny of an HGH scandal, Rick Ankiel and the Cardinals are slumping.
As the only living human being that didn’t jump on the ‘feel-good comeback’ bandwagon, I just want to say, “Told you so.†(Second headline.)
And while I’m tooting my own horn of prognostication, remember this article from back in March? Let’s give it a quick once-over to see how I came through on my haiku predictions.
I hit a few on the nose:
Strong start in April.
Seattle fans given hope,
then Mariners fade.
Upgrade with Sheffield.
Motown kitties still learning.
This year a setback.
Schmidt carried Giants.
Years of overuse catch up.
Dodger dog on mound.
Then again, I missed big time on a pair too.
Humbled by last year
Guillen rekindles pale hose.
ChiSox win pennant.
Ninety-nine year drought.
Goat curse continues its streak.
The lovable Cubs.
The fact I have both Chicago teams predicted exactly backwards means I was either off by just a fraction (AL versus NL) or by as much as one could be and nothing in-between. And what did I learn? Making predictions is not only a tedious endeavor; you get the added bonus of looking like an idiot six month afterwards.
First overall pick Greg Oden will miss the entire NBA season to microfracture surgery.
Just in-case you thought the Blazers were finally going to put that Bowie-before-Jordan debacle behind them, Oden-over-Durant rings eerily similar. Not good times in Portland.
WNBA outdraws MLB in 2007!
Okay, I fibbed just a bit. Technically speaking, there was a Major League Baseball game with only a few hundred in the stands and it did draw less than a WNBA Finals game, but who are we really kidding here?
Winless Notre Dame travels to the Big House to play a winless Michigan on Saturday.
So what’s the same about this game? It’s yet one more historic match-up in the long history of these two teams. How so? Never have these two met and both been 0-2.
(In all honesty, I’m just grasping at straws to justify why I’ll be battling traffic all the way to Ann Arbor so I can witness this epic battle of ineptitude.)
Keep checking Canon Fodder as I’ll hopefully be back to a normal writing schedule next week. Until then, pass around our address and sending in those e-mails to jeff@canon-fodder.com.