Vitamin Water and Steve Nash link up

For those of you who haven't seen this Vitamin Water commercial, it is starring Steve Nash and Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson. Just thought it was funny seeing how Steve Nash is the little point guard from Phoenix who you'd probably never think would do this. Enjoy.

This week in Twitter news: OCNN

Chad Ochocinco of the Cincinatti Bengals tweeted that he's going to have his own social networking news system called OCNN.

Ochocinco can and probably will give me all the Twitter news I need for my "This week in Twitter news."


POW-->Esteban and @motomobile announce OCNN!! The worlds first one man social news network,powered by thee MOTOBLUR<----ching ching
about 13 hours ago from MOTOBLUR

OCNN will be providing all news on and off the field,including my own team=no middle man needed,I am the source from now on<---Boom
about 13 hours ago from MOTOBLUR

Junior college journalism: Inside the JACC

Yesterday was the first day of the So. Cal. Journalism Association of Community Colleges (JACC) convention. This a convention, which is being held in Cal State Fullerton this year, where journalists from community colleges around Southern California get together for several workshops and competitions held during the day.

There are writing competitions, as well as photography, layout, cartoons- all things journalism.

I competed in the on-the-spot sports writing competition where we covered a cross country meet hosted by CSF.

Two journalists from each college attending the convention compete, watch the meet, interview atheltes and coaches and get put into a little conference room where they have an hour to write their story.

Competitions like this were held throughout the day and tonight winners will be announced and awards will be given.

It is crazy being in a place were hundreds of students share the same journalistic passion that you do. You get to meet new people, hear them talk and get a sense of their style.

I was pretty chill during my competition. I've covered cross country a couple times and know you can't chase the runners around for 20 minutes, but it was kind of funny watching others who obviously never covered the sport before, run around confused, not knowing where they should be, looking for an edge in a sport where you just kinda have to wait for them to finish. But all that running around is passion. I felt the same way the first time I covered a meet. It was great to see that type of energy and feeling of the unknown. Luckily Mt. SAC has prepared me for such events like these becuase even though I can't always cover everything, I've tried to cover each sport at least once for the experience and Mt. SAC provides several great sports.

Tonight will be the moment of truth. We walked away with a record number of awards last year. For us, this is our playoffs. We WANT to win. I know we'll all do well and I pray that I did as well.

The McCourts: Trouble in Dodger paradise

The day after his team lost to the Phillies, Dodger chairman Frank McCourt fired his wife Jamie McCourt as CEO of the team.

An ESPN report stated that the McCourts are going through a divorce and the team is one of the things in limbo.

Previous reports stated that by Califorina law, the team could end up being community property with each party owing half of all assets acquired during the marriage.

After news of their separation last week, L.A. times reported that Jamie McCourt might try to gather investors and buy out the team.

One tiny ray of light in this situation is that Frank McCourt said that this would not hurt the Dodgers financial means, personnel moves or management.

They can only hope he's right.

L.A. football stadium: The Governator signs

The Associated Press reported that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday that he signed a bill to allow Majestic Realty Co. to build an NFL football stadium in City of Industry.

The environmental exemption bill, which seemed to be the last hurdle to clear has been approved by Arnold. It's headlining ESPN so after all the road blocks, it seems that this might be it.

I highly doubt that the fight against the stadium by surrounding cities will end, but it really looks like Ed Roski's dream is finally coming to fruition.

I won't believe it until I see it being built for myself (which I probably will try to go check out soon)

Get ready L.A. THIS IS AS CLOSE AS IT'S BEEN. YOU MIGHT ACTUALLY HAVE A FOOTBALL TEAM WITHIN THE NEXT COUPLE YEARS. SERIOUSLY!

Dodger Blues

Oh Dodgers how you've let us down again
I thought you could have won this year with your strong bullpen
But your starters were no match for the homers they reeled
As it looked like they were playing in a little league field
Manny Ramirez picked the wrong time to lay off the juice
As Howard looked guilty of substance abuse
You thought you had beat the best team in the first round
'til the Phillies came to L.A. and smacked you around
Torre decided to bench his All-Star second baseman
As the last out was made by his chubby replacement
Will you ever get it right and put together a great team?
In my 21 years of life it has yet to be seen

Again with the umps

The problem has come up again. Problems with umpires in the MLB. Yesterday was just sad, probably as sad as it has ever been. In the Angels vs. Yankees game there were three really bad and obvious calls made. Calls so bad that umpire Tim McClelland actually made an appearance in the press conference to apologize.

The first call was on a pick-off attempt where it seemed that Yankee outfielder Nick Swisher appeared to have been tagged out at second, but was called safe. That happens a lot, so not that big of a deal.

The second questionable call was when Swisher was at third base and tagged on a fly-ball to center field. He made it safely and after the whole Angel team complained, he was called out for leaving third too early when footage showed otherwise. Again, that happens too, but it cost the Yankees a run.

The last call was just ridiculous when Jorge Posada was chased back to third base by Angels catcher Mike Napoli and was awkwardly met there by teammate Robinson Cano (pictured above). Not knowing what to do, both Yankees just stood there, none on the base while Napoli tagged them both out. However, umpire Tim McClelland called only Posada out as after the game he admitted that he assumed Cano was on the base. He gave Cano too much credit.

I wasn't even upset at these calls, I actually felt bad for the umpires. We can only catch so much as humans, and 95 percent of the time the umps get the calls right. It's that 5 percent that's so critical.

I'm usually against the incorporation of replay in baseball, but Mike Golic made a pretty good point this morning. Golic made the point that baseball already runs between three and three-and-a-half hours. Taking an extra 10 minutes to get a call right really wouldn't take away from the game.

He's pretty right. There are so many stops in baseball already, it wouldn't mess with the flow of the game. The way I see it, the 10 minutes that it would take Lou Pinella to argue and get kicked out of a game, could be used to see a quick replay and make the correct call.

I've always been in favor of the human error, it makes the game interesting and gives good stories with controversy, but I'm starting to come around to the idea of replay.

It was sad to watch the umpire have to apologize. Something will be done soon, almost guaranteed.

This week in Twitter news: Durant strikes back

Oklahoma City Thunder start Kevin Durant tweeted back to an analysis ESPN's Henry Abbott made when he pulled out some random statistic about the Thunder being a better team when Durant is on the bench. Durant just defended himself, didn't throw back anything negative toward Abbot, but it's funny how fast media is changing and how quickly athletes can publicly respond to things like this.

I just hope Durant understands that Abbott himself probably knows that it was a bogus statistic, but he gets paid to talk about random statistics that are wrong half the time. I also hope that Durant doesn't take every criticism to heart unless he's like MJ and uses every little thing as motivation which in that case it's all the better to fuel his fire.

Inside the Locker room

This is a great story written by ESPN columnist Rick Reilly. He writes about times he's awkward interviews with half-naked athletes. I can personally attest to the awkwardness that comes with the journalist title and as always, thought this was a funny story. Check it out:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=reilly_rick&id=4534478

2-day sports drought!

The Blue Demon? This is one of the Top stories on ESPN today




Tonight's sports schedule: Boise St. vs. Tulsa.

That's it.

In one of the best months in sports where football, baseball and basketball all come into play, none of them played last night and will not play tonight either.

It was such a great weekend for sports; college football was great, the baseball playoffs were exciting and they all clinched and Monday night football was last-possession game. We even got a glimpse of the Lakers in preseason, but after Monday Night Football there's been nothing.

I was basically forced to watch UFC replays all night becuase that was all that was on last night.

Why has there been nothing to watch these last two days? We're in the thick of the playoffs and they're basically getting almost a week off now! I'm sure the players don't mind the rest, but it's a borderline vacation. Thanks again to TBS' tv scheduling, it seems that the game days are concrete whether they go the distance or it's a sweep.

ESPN has had to do some actual reporting becuase there has been no games, but even then it looks like they're scramblling. After they're done talking about John Wooden's 99th birthday, Charlie Davies' car crash, and Rush Limbaugh trying to buy the Rams they've been showing lame youtube videos and are previewing NFL games on a Wednesday.

Even the MLB Network doesn't know what to do. There are two games this week and it seems they're overanalyzing their former analyses which they had already overanlyzed. They're even trying to talk about next year to fill space. The LCS haven't even started and they're trying to talk about next year. The teams themselves aren't even thinking about next year and the analysts are supposed to convince us that they think they know what's going to happen?

Watch Boise State tonight if you want, but I suggest you look for a good movie or dare i say, spend time with your family.

A sports world without games leads to craziness. Good thing the Dodgers play tomorrow.

Refs, officials and umps oh my!

There has been an uproar lately on the mistakes made by the guys who enofrce the laws in the land of sports.

It's been a busy couple weeks in sports and fans and announcers alike have expressed their disbelief in questionable calls made on the fields lately.

Just last night in the NLDS game between the phillies and Rockies had two questionable calls in one play. It seemed that a foul ball hit by Chase Utley from the Phillies ricocheted off his leg, but the play remained live. He then ran to first base where a bang-bang play resulted in him being called safe even though replays showed that he was probably out.

There was also a call in the ALCS involving the Yankees and Twins where a clear fair ball was called foul.

NFL officials have kept out of the limelight for a while, but in tonights Monday Night Football game, there was a questionable pass interference call made. Not to mention the ticky-tack call made on quarterbacks now.

As far as the NBA, they've had so many questionable calls over the years that we've accepted it and say that it's a 'veteran call.' Bad calls in the NBA have become a fixture in the game and no one really makes tha big of a deal anymore.

Human error is an element of the game and although to some it's hard to swallow, it's true.

What will this lead to? Well as scary as it sounds, little-by-little where relying more on technology. How long until we have robotic officials doing games? Think about it; an umpire replaced by a new-age technological robot who has a direct calculation of the location of the pitches. It could very much happen and although sounds impossible right now, it could be an option in the future.

Top 5: MLB players I hope to interview

5. Ichiro Suzuki- I plan to learn Japanese just so I could do an interview with him in Japanese. The purest hitter of this era, truly a pioneer in Japanese baseball.


4. David Ortiz- I'd try to find a way to make players comfortable with talking about the steroid issue. Hopefully it won't be such a big deal in the future and I'd be able to get some truth out of Big Papi.


3. Josh Hamilton- I've seen the documentary and heard the stories, but actually talking to him and listening to him talk about the struggles he wen't through would be an honor.


2. Albert Pujols- Might be one of the greatest players in history someday. I would love to interview him in spanish to complete the trifecta of different languages.


1. Derek Jeter- He's probably the biggest name of my generation and a future hall of famer. I'd love to know how he's kept his private life, private. He's from New York and there is no dirt on him. I'd love to know how he kept his nose clean in a era of curruption.

This week in Twitter news: Ochocinco on fire

Cincinatti Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco seems to be tweeting his end zone celebrations now. On one of his messages this week he posted that he will be reenacting a scene from the movie Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby in tomorrow's game against the Baltimore Ravens.
Which scene exactly? The one featured above where Ricky Bobby's fighting an imaginary fire.

Ochocinco also said he already sent the money he's going to be fined to the NFL through mail.

I can't wait to see what he does, but this is assuming that he's going to be able to score against the Ravens defense.

If Ochocinco's not careful Ray Lewis just might tackle him in the end zone and start beating him senseless to "help put out the fire."

The new NBA refs

I was watching tonight's Laker game on KCAL and got to take a look at some of the new referees that the NBA is using.

For those who don't know, the NBA referees are in a lockout this season as they failed to reach a contract agreement with the NBA.

So basically the NBA is running Scab refs out there like a Ralph's union protest.

It's only preseason, but I kind of like what I see from the refs so far. They're fighting for a full-time job and are not messing around. The players might not like it, but I saw some unusually fair calls.

Kobe Bryant actaully got called for palming the ball (although it could have been called the whole game on everybody)

They weren't letting anyone get away with the wacky calls they usually get. It actually looked like the game was being played according to the rules.

Is it possible that we're going to watch game played the way it was intended? Before the Tim Donaghy scandal and before all the conspiracy theories arose, the game used to be fun to watch. Superstars weren't treated like babies and questionable calls were at a minimum. I really hope we can get back to that.

We'll see what happens once the regular season starts, but I think it's so refreshing to watch a game and real foul calls are being made instead of the ticky-tack fouls that the old refs used to give to the superstars.

As a Laker fan, I always watch Kobe get hacked and not get a call, so I'm looking to see how many times Kobe goes to the free-throw line this season if the refs actually call the fouls appropriately.

I don't think it's good that the old refs couldn't come to an agreement, but I think I can get used to the new faces.

This is my town

So I think it is safe to say that tonight's Dodger game was by far the best game I have ever been to!

The Dodgers beat out the Ariz.. I mean the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2 in a 9th inning thriller that I can guarantee no one in the stadium, nor anyone who left in the 8th will ever forget.

I went to the 12 inning game where Ethier hit the game winning home run, and although I was only at 8 and a half innings of the historic four home run game, I still want to say this one topped them all!

Dodgers were down 2-1, two outs in the 9th and it was all down to James Loney. He hit a shot to Matt Holiday and the almost deflated until the ball hit Holiday in the nether region and fell to the ground as he did! The Cards want to blame us for waving white towels in the wedding cake that is Dodger Stadium, but we were waving them the whole game so no crying.

Loney got to second and had Juan Pierre run for him, then Casey Blake had a nerve wrecking at-bat where he kept fouling the ball to the backstop before finally earning a walk.

You could feel the electricity in the stadium and everyone had to be thinking, "If you can just get a hit anywhere, pierre will score." and Ronnie Belliard complied to tie the game.

After Russel Martin walked, Mark Loretta came in to pinch hit. At this point I was thinking, "Ok we can probably win this in extra innings." Loretta had different plans as he shot a blooper into center as Blake ran in for the game-winning run.

I've never heard Dodger Stadium so loud. I was screaming my brains out, waving my towel and high fiving everyone within a 10 foot radius! Those who stayed experienced an amazing game. The first Dodger playoff walk-off since Kirk Gibson's historic home run in '88.

The King has spoken

Ok so maybe it was Lebron's doing or maybe the Browns just had enough of his attitude, but one day after reports of Braylon Edwards punching out the promoter at a night club, he is now a New York Jet.

Did Lebron James have anything to do with it? I would love to think so! Braylon messed with the king of Cleveland and he has now been exiled.

So he is now playing in the big city. If he thought he got attention in Cleveland, he is now on a winning team in NEW YORK. He's going to have to be more careful. He has a good team around him now and I bet all the Browns are thinking right now that they should start a war with some more of Lebron's friends.

Good luck to Edwards. Hope he can maximize his potential and maximize my fantasy football team.

Thank You, Baseball

My family and I bought tickets for a Dodgers playoff game but just found out about an hour ago what time the game will be played because we had to wait on the Yankees to decide whether the first round will be played within seven or eight games.

I don't know why the Yankees have this much power, but somehow their decision to play the first round within eight games trickled down to the Dodger game and now the Dodgers will be playing at 3 p.m. instead of the favorable 6:30 p.m.

Thank you again, east coast for making us adjust to your marvelous three-hour-ahead lifestyle.

Thank you, TBS for showing every single first-round game on your network and forcing the Dodger game to adjust to your T.V. availability.

Thank you, Yankees for deciding not to let the Twins have any day of rest for your personal advantage.

Thank you, MLB for having the west coast games be at an unreasonable hour and not letting us know until the day before so we don't have a chance to schedule school or work days around it.

This must be changed. Another stupid MLB rule.

Fighting the King's people

So reports on ESPN have been talking about Cleveland Brown wide receiver Braylon Edwards allegedly punching a club promoter in a Cleveland night club. I don't know what it is about football players and night clubs, but maybe they should look for a local bingo tournament to stay out of trouble.

The allegation is harsh enough, but it gets worse. They guy he supposedly punched was Lebron James' friend. Uh Oh. He's messed with the kingdom and just might be exiled. I'm guessing Edwards will not be featured in Bron's new movie coming out unless there's a cheesy rap diss involved.

Anyway, not only was it one of his friends, but the guy supposedly weighs about 130 lbs. So Braylon Edwards punched out Lebron James' 130 lb friend. James was not shy to comment about it either. King James called Edwards out and said there's jealousy on Edwards' part and that punching a 130 lb guy is like punching his son.

Drama in sports. What will happen next? To be continued...

This week in Twitter news: New Tweeter- Stafon Johnson

I never have a problem with poking fun at Twitter, but a new athlete Tweeter emerged yesterday, and it was not to talk trash, it was not to come out on ESPN and it was not for national attention.

As most of you have heard, Stafon Johnson, star running back of the USC Trojans just had throat surgery on Monday after a 275 lb bar fell on it when working out. Luckily his muscular physique kept him from being choked to death.

Probably the only high-profile athlete in the world not to have a Twitter account, he used Pete Carroll's Twitter to send out a message thanking the people who have supported him.

He is recovering, and while recovering he created an account of his own.

First tweet:

"Thank you every1 4 all the love and support," Johnson said.

He is expected to fully recover after this horrifying event.

For sure this is the good side of Twitter. A heart-warming side of Twitter.

Men's soccer: Mt. Snubbed

For the first time in my journalistic career, I was denied an interview by a Mt. SAC player.

I was covering a men's soccer game and this guy had a pretty good game. I got ahold of him and asked for an interview and he went all Beckham and released his inner diva, telling me he doesn't do interviews.

Who is this guy? Cristiano Ronaldo?

I won't name names becuase I'm not in the business of throwing people under a bus. And don't think the guy pictured above is the guy, I got the pic off of Mountiewire.com in a Men's soccer article.

At first I thought he was being a little shy, so I asked if I could at least answer one question. His teamates playfully grabbed him and told him to do it, but he denied and ran into the locker room.

The guys won. He was a big part of the victory and He didn't even give me a "We played great as a team" or anything.

I've had players from opposing teams deny me an interview after Mt. SAC just spanked them. I've had assistant coaches almost tackle me, thinking I'm going to write something horrible about a player. I even had the Joe Montana incident. (Click on my "Meeting the Montanas" entry if you don't know what I'm talking about) This however was a totally different story.

The Mt. SAC players have always been great to the Mountaineer and even the shy ones have given me something to work with as far as quotes. Some players who crave attention even playfully hassle me for an interivew.

Not everyone is going to feel comfortable answering the media, but it's not like I'm paparazzi!

I later found out the guy came out of my city. I got snubbed by a guy who probably lives a block away from me. Maybe I'll see him at a Mc Donald's or something and ask him why he didn't want to talk. Hopefully he'll answer.