Back in the Saddle

Recently I was having a discussion with a friend of mine about which NFL quarterbacks we most resembled. This got us into a debate which led to the following senerio. If I was to make a Camp Gray football team using last years male staff what positions would everyone be. So alas I have made 2 teams where each staff member plays both on offense and defense. For those that know any of these staff members I would love to hear you thoughts on who would win?

Team Strong
QB Sam
RB Andy
FB Emilio
WR David
WR Tim
TE Ryan
LT Josh
LG Michael
C Kevin H.
RG Joseph
RT Tyler

LE Emilio
DT Ryan
RE Tyler
LOLB Michael
MLB Andy
MLB Joseph
ROLB Josh
SS Sam
FS Kevin H.
CB Tim
CB David

Team Bushy
QB Topher
RB Jim
FB Jeff
WR Father Greg
WR Brian
TE Doug
LT Sean
LG Bill
C Pat
RG Kevin E.
RT Eric

LE Doug
DT Sean
RE Jeff
LOLB Kevin E.
MLB Pat
MLB Jim
ROLB Brian
SS Bill
FS Father Greg
CB Topher
CB Eric

Alan Dietzenbach Memorial Softball Tournament

With the 2nd Annual Alan Dietzenbach Memorial Softball Tournament a mere month away I thought I would a share a column from last year's game. All credit must go to my good buddy Skip Carlson. One of the greatest sports feature writers in Sauk County.


Green Battles Back For Dramatic Win at 1st Annual Alan Dietzenbach Memorial Softball Game, Alvarez Named MVP

By: Skip Carlson



Reedsburg - Softball. In my 22 years of covering sports, I've never once had any desire to write about softball. That was until I got word of an assignment to travel to the legendary Fr. Cassidy Athletic Field of Camp Gray in tiny Reedsburg, WI. The 1st Annual Alan Deitzenbach Memorial Softball Tournament was to be played, making this veteran sports writer giddier than the H1N1 virus overtaking a Catholic Summer Camp like a destructive rebel force.



With temperatures hovering in the mid-80s on this near perfect, cloudless morning, teams took to the CAF in advance of the 10am kick off to loosen their cannons and to find the sweet spot on their Louisville Sluggers.



Matched up today were bitter rivals, The Red Team vs. The Green Team.



Before the game, Red Team 3rd Baseman (and sometime color man) Doug Ulazcek lost a heartbreaking Best 2 out of 3 Rock/Paper/Scissor Match with Green Team 1st Baseman Topher Aderhold to determine the home team. This shocking come from behind victory for the Green turned out to be a foreshadow of things to come.



Green Team clean-up hitter Nicky Kaehler got things rolling patriotically for the teams by singing her unique rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.



Play Ball!



The Red Team, led by Derek Behnke and Colleen Schmidt, jumped out to an early and demanding 9-1 lead that had many onlookers fearing the worst: a slaughtering reminiscent of the Pathfinder - Trailblazer Capture the Flag game during session 1. But led by Emilio Alvarez (who, unbeknownst to teammates, was suffering from Class V Swine Flu) and the tree trunk arms and rabid eyes of Andy Schindhelm, the Green team battled back with an 8-run 4th inning to even the score at 9. Green Team 2nd basewoman Corey Seilaf and DH Jenna Keller helped the cause with 2 RBI's apiece.



With the Green Team holding on to a 12-10 lead to start the top of the 6th inning, there was no question whom the Green would send in at pitcher to close the effort: Alvarez. Alvarez, who came in with a 1.26 ERA, brings an unwavering confidence to the hill.



In the top of the 7th inning, the Red Team failed to capitalize on an excellent opportunity to score two runs when Red 3rd Base Coach (and sometime Short Stop) Kyle Gus mistakenly sent base runners home. A terrific throw with laser-like precision from Green centerfielder Mo-T Wilks was snagged by catcher Leanne Tracy. Tracy tagged runner Kelsey Greenwood and then threw out Michael Pennington at 3rd.



After a 4-run top of the 9th to knot the score 16, the Green simply needed one run in the bottom of the 9th to win.



With chants of MVP echoing through the nearby pines, Alvarez stepped to the plate with the winning run, Tracy, on second base. Alvarez waited and watched on the first pitch: Ball One! In what appeared to be a slight miscommunication between Red Pitcher Tyler Thrune and Red Catcher Mary Scanlin, Thrune delivered the second pitch, a floater (when Scanlin no doubt called for the heater). Alvarez's eyes grew to double their normal size as he stepped into the pitch and crushed it back, back, back, back, GONE! A two run walk off blast to win the 1st Annual ADM Softball Game!



Euphoria! Pure, unadulterated Euphoria!



Following the spectacular on-field celebrations came the awarding of the Inaugural ADM Softball Game MVP Trophy to Emilio Alvarez. With tears of joy streaming down his cheeks, Alvarez exclaimed, "Today, I feel like the luckiest man on the face of the planet!"



Immediately following the presentation, Ulazcek was overheard saying, "Erroneous".

Dreams

I love dreaming. Whether it’s day dreaming or at night I love it. The reason I love dreaming so much is that you get to go to these wonderful places and experience things you would never get to do in real life. An example of this is a dream I had the other night. I ended up at a Notre Dame football practice with Brian Kelly. Granted I hate Notre Dame football and am in different about Brian Kelly but it was still a pretty sweet dream. Day dreaming is even better because I get to create situations that I would like to see. With the NCAA tourney just getting over it made me think of how sweet it would be to take players in their primes from all of the schools and have one big tournament. As not to have to come up with all of schools rosters I have made a tournament with 4 all-time programs and put them into a bracket with the starting 5. I would love to hear who would win this tournament, what great teams I might have missed and which players I missed on these teams.

UNC vs.
KU

DUKE vs.
UCLA


UNC Starting 5
G: Ed Cota
G: Michael Jordan
C: Sam Perkins
F: Phil Ford
F: Tyler Hansbrough

Duke Starting 5
G: Bobby Hurley
G:J.J. Redick
C: Elton Brand
F: Shane Battier
F: Christian Laettner

UCLA Starting 5
G: Ed O’Bannon
G: Reggie Miller
C: Kareem Abdul Jabbar
F: Bill Walton
F: Kevin Love

Kansas Starting 5
G: Jo Jo White
G: Jacque Vaughn
C: Wilt Chamberlain
F: Danny Manning
F: Raef LaFrentz

W.O.W.

“Hey we should get a bunch of camp guys together in the Spring.” Wise words from a wise man. A buddy of mine had this brilliant idea a few years ago. 4 years later I’m happy to report that the W.O.W. is still going strong. For those that don’t know what the W.O.W. is I will explain. It is a weekend (week) for a bunch of camp guys to get together in the Smokey Mountains to enjoy some male bonding. This includes some adult beverages, a possible cigar or 2 and something called the Father Cassidy Competition. This competition is made up of 4 events. In the past these have included a doubles pool tournament and a combine, loosely based off of the college combine run every winter in Indianapolis. We compete in these events and then depending on what place you take in that event you are awarded a certain number of points. This year’s competition included the following competitions. Singles pool tournament, a Baggo Tourney, Poker tournament and a whiffle-ball home run competition. The competitors for the Cassidy competition included myself and my buddies, Dave, Ford, Miller, Kiq, Timmy, Sean, Blaine, Tyler, Hurley, and Joe.

The first competition was a Texas Hold-em poker tournament. I myself was looking
forward to this event but some were a little disappointed it was scheduled at the same time as “The Office”. Thankfully for him he was the first one out and didn’t have to miss much of the show. The finally four came down to myself, Blaine, Kiq and Sean. Sean was the first to go followed by Kiq. After an hour of battling back and forth with some screaming over poker rules Blaine went all in. Thinking Blaine was bluffing I called his bluff. I was dead wrong and Blaine was victorious.

The Top five scores after he first event:
1st place: Blaine 300 pts
2nd place: myself at 250 pts
3rd: Kiq with 225 pts
4th: Sean with 200 pts
5th: Joe with 175 pts

The 2nd competition on Friday afternoon was a Baggo tournament. Baggo it is a brilliant game made up of a slick board and bean bags you toss at the board. Included in the field of 11 players were 4 former American Camp Association Baggo champions. Joe (2007 winner), Miller (2008 winner), myself (2008 winner), Sean (current champion). I had brought two Baggo sets on the trip but unfortunately my baggo set had been eaten by mice. Awesome. So we were down to one set. The game of Baggo is best played on a flat surface. Finding this flat surface while staying at a resort in the Smokey mountains can be a bit of a challenge. Thankfully were able to find some flat ground. The first game of the day pitted Joe vs. Dave. After battling back and forth for about 45 minutes Joe finally beat Dave. The rest of the afternoon was a tournament filled with beers being thrown down, players screaming obscenities, and 2 of the greatest come backs ever seen in a Cassidy tournament. In games played to 15, Ford came back from a 14-0 deficit to beat his opponent. We also got to witness Dave losing the very first game of the day and then coming all the way back to face Joe in the Championship. Dave beat Joe in the first championship game but because Joe still had to lose twice faced him again. Joe finally put an end to Dave’s winning streak and beat him to take the Baggo Tourney Championship.

Top 5 after the 2 events.
1st: Joe 475 pts
2nd: Blaine at 463 pts
3rd: Kiq with 425 pts
4th: Dave with 325 pts
5th: Myself with 300 pts

The 3rd competition on Saturday afternoon was to be knife throwing. Unfortunately after a few worries of getting arrested and the cheap knives breaking we decided to go with the safer Whiffle-ball tournament. This event was fun but a little sloppy. One of the contestants found out how wet the field was when he went to retrieve a ball and ended up muddy one side of his body. The rules for this competition were fairly simple. Each participant had 10 outs to get as many home runs as they could. Since it was whiffle-ball we designated a home run as getting the ball out of the in-field on the fly. Any ball not a home run or a whiff when swinging consituted an out. The top 3 scores would advance to the 2nd round. Dave and Joe advanced with 4 home runs. Sean and Tyler both had 3 home runs so they competed in a hit-off to determine who would advance. Sean was able to defeat Tyler and move on to the finals. After each of the competitors hit one home run they each took another 5 outs. Here Dave was able to defeat the others with 5 home runs while Joe and Sean weren’t able to hit one out.

Top 5 after 3 events.
1st: Joe with 713 pts
2nd: Dave with 625 pts
3rd: Blaine with 526 pts
t-4th: Kiq and Sean with 488 pts

The 4th and final event was the singles pool tournament. It was an exciting event with crazy shots, huge upsets and the first appearance of the “Purple Monster” on the weekend. Much suspense though was taken out of the event when Joe locked up at least a 4th place finish in pool. This allowed Joe to take home the Father Cassidy Trophy and mark his place in the history of the W.O.W. Kiq ended up beating Joe in the finals of the pool tournament. Thanks to all the guys who made it a great weekend with a lot of great competition.

The final standings for the Father Cassidy Memorial Trophy Competition
1st: Joe at 963 pts
2nd: Dave at 850 pts
3rd: Kiq at 788 pts
4th: Sean at 688 pts
t- 5th: Blaine & Pat A. at 576 pts
7th: Timmy at 514
8th: Hurley at 501 pts
9th: Ford at 463 points
10th: Tyler at 400 points
11th: Miller at 389 points

I must come clean...

So for the past few weeks I have been having a horrible case of writers block. Perhaps it’s because for me this is one of the worst times of the sports season. No NFL, no baseball, NBA season at this point doesn’t excite me and college basketball is still a few weeks away from getting really exciting. It is with that I have decided to talk about one of my favorite sports. Professional Wrestling.

I know what a lot of you are thinking. Professional Wrestling is not a sport. Perhaps not but I love it none the less. I am coming clean to the whole world. I love professional wrestling. I’ve loved it since I was 10 years old and still love it. I love the athleticism. I love the larger than life personalities. I love watching the athleticism and genuinely not knowing what is going to happen. I get this from friends though. “But Pat. It’s fake.” True it is scripted but you know what else is “Fake?” Friends, Seinfeld, Law and Order SVU, The Office. My other favorite shows.

When I was little I even dreamed of being a professional wrestler. This was until I told my dad and he said, “In order to be a professional wrestler you have to be strong and stupid. You’re neither.” I still don’t know if that was a put down or a compliment. I remember watching Bret Hart when I was little. When my step-dad almost ran our car into his in Memphis on vacation, it too this day is still one of the greatest moments of my life. Getting to meet him and get a picture with him was the greatest thing for a wrestling fan. I remember in high school slopping down in front of the TV every Monday night to watch wrestling. It was always hard when the Raiders were on Monday Night Football. Do I watch the Raiders or watch Sting propel down from the rafters.

When I got to college I would watch it every Monday night with my friend Matt. Getting to go to my first live event and see a show in person still rates as one of the greatest experiences I’ve had with my dad and step-dad. Now as I get older sharing this passion with my 2 nephews. Remembering what it was like to be that age and dreaming of performing in front of thousands of people. Trying these moves on my friends. Playing the video games and once in a great while getting to go to a live show. I can’t wait for the day when I can share this with my nephews and hopefully someday my child. I have baseball and football icons. I loved watching Reggie Miller. None of these “athletes” though will ever compare in the same way to me as these other sports heroes growing up. The Hulk Hogans and Bret Harts. Triple H’s and Rocks. Kevin Nash and Sting. Maybe wrestling is fake, but the excitement, tears and laughter I have had for 20 years is not.

Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

So the "Man" couldn’t do it. Life is good again. All I have heard recently is how Peyton Manning is the greatest football player ever. Not the greatest quarterback of this era but EVER. Friends, people on the radio, articles. Blah, blah, blah. Peyton is King. “The Saints are a great story but let’s be real. They have no real chance. Peyton is playing the greatest football of his career. Peyton will win this game and cement his legacy as the Greatest”. Not the Colts will win this game. Peyton will win this game.

And then this happened.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh5D_TMGwjk

I don’t think I’ve ever been as happy to see a quarterback throw an interception in my life. It’s not that I hate Peyton Manning. It’s not like he’s Eli. He’s a great quarterback. One of the best ever. I just get so tired of people thinking he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. He’s been great in the regular season. Maybe the best. But championships are not won in the regular season. They are won in the post season where Manning has not been very good. He won a Super Bowl. But you know what? He has the same amount of championships as Trent Dilfer. (That was for you Topher) Let’s look at his post season stats. He’s 9-9 in post season games. He’s thrown 27 touchdowns but has also thrown 18 interceptions. His QB rating in those games? 87.5.

On Monday I heard 2 people on ESPN radio talking about Peyton. One of them said, “So do you think this game hurt Peyton’s Legacy.” The other said, “Not at all. Peyton didn’t hurt his legacy at all in this game. He didn’t do anything to tarnish his legacy.” WHAT! 2 words. Tracy Porter. I know, I know. I just got done writing an article about how Brett Favre is the man even though he threw an interception at the end of the game. Big difference is I’m not getting paid tons of money from ESPN to tell it how it is. That radio personality should have at least commented on the fact that the score was 24-17 Saints with just under 4 minutes left in the game. That was a pretty big interception. Yet, this play didn’t hurt his legacy at all? That’s garbage. And the personality that didn’t mention the interception is garbage. Make me wanna puke.

My main point is this. Peyton is a very good football player. I would still stay he’s one of the best to ever play the game. But let’s be honest. He’s no Tom Brady.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODlL8azAEKo

Super Bowl Dream Teams

With the greatest sporting event of the year a mere 3 days away, I decided to put together my All-Star Super Bowl Team. I only used players who have played in the last 10 Super Bowls. I also picked players based on their overall play in those games. I would love your thoughts on players that I may have missed or that you disagree with. I would also love to know which team you would pick to win and what the score would be.



AFC OFFENSE

QB: Tom Brady
RB: Jamal Lewis
FB: Dan Kreider
WR: Hines Ward
WR: Deion Branch
TE: Doug Jolley
LT: Matt Light
LG: Alan Faneca
C: Dan Koppen
RG: Joe Andruzzi
RT: Max Starks


AFC DEFENSE
DE: Aaron Smith
DT: Casey Hampton
DT: Richard Seymour
DE: Dwight Freeney
LB: Mike Vrabel
LB: Ray Lewis
LB: Teddy Bruschi
SS: Troy Polamalu
FS: Bob Sanders
CS: Asante Samuel
CS: Charles Woodson

K: Adam Vinatieri
P: Chris Gardocki
RET: Jermaine Lewis

Coach: Bill Bellicheck

NFC OFFENSE

QB: Kurt Warner
RB: Thomas Jones
FB: Mike Alstott
WR: Terrell Owens
WR: Larry Fitzgerald
TE: Kevin Boss
LT: Walter Jones
LG: Steve Hutchinson
C: Olin Kreutz
RG: Chris Snee
RT: Jon Runyan

NFC DEFENSE

DE: Michael Strahan

DT: Warren Sapp

DE: Simeon Rice

LB: Derrick Brooks

LB: Antonio Pierce

LB: Mike Jones

LB: Karlos Dansby

SS: John Lynch

FS: Dexter Jackson

CB: Marcus Trufant

CB: Ronde Barber

K: Jeff Wilkins

P: Tom Rouen

RET: Ron Dixon

Coach: Tom Coughlin