Category: sports

With Piercing Blue Eyes

shredicusmaximus3 Comments

This is the story

Of a pitcher named “Ry”

Armed with a fastball

And Two Piercing Blue Eyes

Last Saturday he

Faced a good Thacher team

Winning that game was a feat

That haunted his dreams

The morning was rough

Lap labor made him protest

“My arm is in pain” he said

“And I need badly to rest”

But when the game started

He felt right at home

He was the king of his palace

The mound was his throne

Who should feel all his malice

From a morning well spent

The baseball Toads of Thacher

Here’s how the game went

After a first inning

In which two runs were allowed

Ry found his cool groove

He had set-tled down

With Min and Cameron

With Barrett and Cole

The OVS Spuds

Put the Toads in a hole

A 5 run third inning

Made them feel they could fly

The Spuds were pumped up

Especially Ry

He threw fastballs and curves

Struck out guy after guy

Toad after Toad and seeing the zone

With his deadly and piercing blue eyes

When the carnage was over

Ojai won 12-5

The next game is on Wednesday

Yours Truly,

RY


Wacky World of Football

therightliberalLeave a comment

Although I am still young, I have had the chance to work on all sides of football. I have played, refereed, coached and worked in the management.

For me there is an obvious favorite, playing. Playing football is a great feeling, one that allows me to get out all of my emotions. It is an art form. It is like I am in my element, one in which I am completely comfortable.

But playing is not that far ahead of the others surprisingly.

Refereeing is not what one might consider “fun” but for me there is a sense of duty. I am going out to ref with the idea that I am helping the game (although players may disagree). Being a ref is a very hard job and it has given me insight to the pain I cause refs when I yell and hassle them.

Coaching is very exciting for me. It gives me the feeling that I am opening up a whole new world to kids. I remember the joy that learning football gave me and I try to emulate that. I hope that my coaching gives kids a opportunity to go have fun and learn as much as they can about the game of football.

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It’s Today

shredicusmaximusLeave a comment

Today I woke up to hear that I got into Chapman University. My baseball team the Ojai Valley School Spuds beat Ventura County Christian 7-4 in an exciting game yesterday. I saw my confidant Colm Barrett pitch into the 5th inning striking out 12 and permitting 4 unearned runs,  Cole McIntosh hit a clutch RBI double in the first inning, and I don’t want to brag but I pitched pretty well too and got my first career save.

Seems that the good is going to continue for a while, at least for another 6 months and I’ll tell you why. It’s opening day today.

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Prom?

dmilesburtonLeave a comment

Well, next Thursday is prom. The girls are buying their dresses and picking hairstyles and the boys are realizing that they might need a tux. But OVS isn’t the only school with a prom. Among all the news of events in Libya and the Final Four, one article caught my eye.

Oliver Levin, a Boston native, wasn’t quite sure how to ask Sarah, a fellow student in his journalism class, to their prom.

“I knew I wanted to ask this girl. She was, you know, awesome. She’s really pretty. She’s really cool. She’s wicked chill, nice person to talk to, and I wanted to get to know her better,” he said, later adding that if she said yes, that would be, “totally clutch.”

Levin, an avid Boston sports fan, especially when it comes to the Bruins, had a stroke of genius the afternoon before he attended a game against the Montreal Canadiens.

As he walked into the stadium, he had with him his ticket, his Bruins’ jersey, and a flip cam.

He took several takes of his prom date appeal, and went through several ideas, from asking the whole section to yell “Hey, Sarah will you go to prom with me?” to its final takes, in which several fans lay out the idea and prepare Oliver for the actual thing.

When Sarah went into her journalism class the next day, the teacher announced that random student had submitted a video to be shown in class.

As the video played, the class’s confusion only grew. That is until one of the fans featured in the video said Sarah’s name.

When she turned around, she was met by Levin, who was holding roses.

Anyway, I thought this story was an interesting piece of news, mainly because it seems so trivial. But hey, it caught my eye, so I guess it’s got at least one reader.

Oh, and for the record: she said yes.

Racism in Football

therightliberal2 Comments

This weekend’s friendly between Scotland and Brazil saw an ugly display of racism, one that cannot be tolerated.

I support Brazil in the international game because of how great they play football. Most Americans are incredulous on how I could not support my home country but the fact of the matter is I support Brazil because they play the best football.

During their friendly against Scotland (which was played in England), the Brazilian youngster Neymar got two goals. Being 19 years old, that is extremely impressive. But when Neymar went to take a penalty kick, a fan through a banana on to the pitch.

For someone who does not know Neymar this might seem irrelevant but Neymar is black. This is a unexcusable action that should be heavily punished. Neymar and the other Brazilian players are out showing the world their skills. They do not show hatred towards anyone.

Neymar is a young kid who is making it in the crazy world of football and he does not deserve this.

I support Scotland in most games (except when they play Brazil ironically) because my heritage is from there. But the Scottish fans who were involved in the throwing of the banana and the usage of racial slurs against the Brazilians should be ashamed of themselves. I am embarrassed to say that I support Scotland after this incident.

This is not the first time Brazil has had to deal with intolerance. going back over 50 years, Brazil has taken the brunt of many racial insults. Argentina fans often refer to Brazil as being the (n-word) team because Brazil has many more blacks due to colonization than Argentina.

France, with its large population of black soccer players, has also had to put up with racial prejudice. I will say that FIFA does everything they can to stop the hate; banning certain fans they catch on tape and even banning some teams from playing in front of spectators.

But FIFA should not be the ones who have to get people to stop, it should be the fans. As a football fan I want to say enough is enough. Supporting the other team is no excuse for being racially intolerant. Let us enjoy the wonderful skill and appreciate what there people are giving to us.

Moammar Gadhafi: Enemy, Dictator… Friend?

sennymcflyLeave a comment

“He gave us life. I am ready to die for him. He is a father, a brother and a friend to whom you can confide. You have no idea how humble he is.” (Fatia, 27).

When you think of the name Moammar Gadhafi, you don’t necessarily think “humble”. Well, supposedly, while the rest of the world sees this pernicious dictator as a threat to the safety and overall freedom of Libya, the women of his growing army see him as the father they never had.

The girls, or women rather, are recruited by Gadhafi himself and enrolled in a three year training “school” where they are transformed from proper, virtuous, daddy’s girls into highly trained, bazooka blasting, high heel-wearing, ninja warrior, Gadhafi girls.

These young women are literally made into modern day Charlie’s Angels. “Trained killers” is what Lauren Frayer, contributor to AOL News calls them and that is positively what they are. Throughout their training they are educated in martial arts and rocket launching and are unconditionally devoted to their Libyan leader. Women who will literally [like Jesus] die for him. I mean really willing to die. For example, as Gadhafi was being shot at, one of them jumped in front of him and took the bullets and died! That, my friends, is loyalty.

“Revolutionary nuns” is what they call them. Yes, “nuns”. And whatever ideas you can draw out of that…it’s true. I won’t go on any further.

So, could this be the work of Gadhafi’s “Casanova” prowess, or does Lybia’s fearless leader actually have some fraction of a soft side?

Qatari Clouds

therightliberalLeave a comment

Today the tiny country of Qatar produced a great idea: make a cloud to hang over a soccer match.

An artist's impression of the Al-Rayyan stadium for the 2022 World Cup finals

Qatar has run into a problem (many actually) after winning the bid to host the 2022 World Cup. The major problem is that it gets well over 120 degrees in the months that the World Cup is supposed to take place.

But FIFA Rules dictate that there cannot be indoor stadiums and that the games cannot be played in the Winter. I still do not see why FIFA then picked Qatar for the World Cup when there are rules in place that make hosting the tournament very difficult.

But Qatar is already taking real strides to solve the problems they are faced with. Their latest proposition is to make artificial clouds that would hang over the stadiums and block sunlight and provide a moist and cool environment.

They have many plans to do wild things to their stadiums such as one that is totally surrounded by media screens, 420,000 square feet of them. Incredible things such as that would make the World Cup very cool if they can pull it off.

In theory it sounds like a great idea but I do not know how feasible it is. I do know that after seeing the pictures of the stadiums Qatar is planning on building and hearing all their crazy ideas, I am ready to pack my bags for the Qatari World Cup today.

Football or Futbol?

dmilesburton2 Comments


Chad Ochocinco just finished his first day of tryouts for Kansas City’s MLS team.

I know… WTF right?

Well, apparently Ochocinco has had a longtime dream of being a soccer player, and thanks to the NFL lockout, he has the chance to make his dream a reality.

With almost forty reporters present at the tryouts, Ochocinco had a lot of questions coming his way. “Why would it be?” Ochocinco asked in reply to the notion that it was another one of his now famous jokes. “What you rather have me do during a lockout? Go get arrested, get in trouble? Act like Charlie Sheen? I’m one that never gets in trouble, I do nothing wrong. I just try to have fun.”

After the practice, Kansas City manager Peter Vermes said Ochocinco was “very coachable” but that he wouldn’t make any judgments yet.

Ochocinco had a couple of things to say about the tryout on his twitter, but said to reporters after the game, “I want to live out a dream, whether I make it or not,”

What is Wrong With Youth Soccer

therightliberalLeave a comment

Being a referee, I have seen many youth games as an outsider. But I also have played both club and organized soccer as a kid. Now that I see the insanity from an outside prospective, I am a little taken aback.

Youth Sport Violence image

I think that every child should play soccer as a kid. This is an incredibly biased opinion but it does have merit. Soccer is a great sport for kids because it is simple in rules but complex in thinking. There are no plays drawn up, the player has to figure out what he or she needs to do. Soccer is also very physically demanding — a good amount of long, slow distance mixed with sprinting. For the development of kids, soccer is great.

But here is the dark side: parents. This is also biased because almost every weekend I have to deal with parents who are upset and out of control. Parents ruin soccer for kids. If the parent starts caring more about the game than his or her child, something is wrong.

Parents are their to support their kids, not to scream obscenities at the other team, the ref or another parent. I have seen many a child’s faces go a deep red when he or she hears his or her parents screaming from the sideline.

Parents should be involved with their sons and daughters soccer education. But parents need to learn to control themselves. I know that how badly they want their kid to win and to demolish the other team but can they please keep it to themselves. When they open their mouths to yell things like “Break his leg!”, “Pull her down!”, “That’s right, take that losers!”, they simply look immature.

Parents want their kids to be great and there is nothing wrong with that. But the kids will either motivate themselves to play soccer or they won’t. Chances are that the kid won’t stick with soccer if they have parents yelling at them from the sideline.

So parents take my advice: Encourage your kids, support their team. But please calm down and let the kids play. After all, its youth soccer.

NBA. Ready for the Playoffs.

smackyjackjack2 Comments

With the Celtics and Bulls battling it out for the top seat in the East, and the Spurs with a strong lead in the West, it is time to start thinking about the NBA playoffs.

In my opinion, it will be the Celtics and Lakers in the finals again this year. The Bulls won’t be able to stay strong as they do not have enough experience in the playoffs so far. The Bulls would be the one team that I would not mind losing to if they do make it all the way.

Derrick Rose has built his team up from basically nothing. With the help of teammates like Loul Deng and Joakim Noah, the team is great. The reason behind their greatness lies with their ability to play as a team. They work together to win. It’s not all ways the D. Rose show.Read More »