Archive for the ‘Other’ Category

What a horrible weekend for the nationally covered Ohio sports teams!  It’s football season, but they are still playing baseball.  Didn’t matter which level, didn’t matter which sport, all that matters is that my home state, in a 24-hour span, was 0-5 against teams from other states.

The fun started Saturday night when Ohio State hosted USC.  I excitedly watched the Buckeyes dominate the trenches, field position, and play the Tressel ‘three yards and a cloud of dust’  brand of football.  That worked, for three-and-a-half quarters.  Pete Carroll found a way to call a 90+ yard drive to doom the Buckeyes as they went on to lose 18-15.

Sunday, a whole new grouping of ways to lose at various sports came into play.

The Cleveland Indians managed to get only two hits in losing to the Kansas City Royals.  They also gave up seven runs in losing 7-0 to a team with a winning percentage of under .400 at the time. 

The Cincinnati Reds were a little better in losing to the Cubs.  They managed to score a couple of runs, but the Cubbies managed to score five. 

The Cincinnati Bengals probably gave the home loyalists the biggest stomach ache.  A deflected pass lands right into the hands of a Denver receiver who has absolutely no one around him because two Bengals defensive backs and a linebacker had fallen like dominoes.  Brandon Stokley = Hero.  Knock the ball down… DOWN… not up.  12-7 Broncos.

The Cleveland Browns played with purpose for a half.  They basically took away Adrian Peterson and dared Brett Favre to beat them.  A few coaching adjustments at halftime solved the problem and Peterson ran like a deer in a vacant field.  Vikings 34-20.

Remedy?  Musical coaches.  Let’s put Mangini in a Reds uniform.  He can develop a wildcat bunt or something.  He has that chubby baseball look anyway.  Jim Tressel can go coach the Indians.  What would be the odds of him playing the lines with a one run lead to take away extra-base hits?  Eric Wedge would look good in the Bengals stuff.  He is used to dealing with injury-prone lefties who can’t throw anyway.  Marvin Lewis can go to Ohio State.  And by default, Dusty Baker would coach the Browns.

0-5. 

After doing some research, I have come up with what I feel is a list of the five most superstitious athletes of all-time.  I am sure there are many more, and I welcome you to add them to this list by commenting.  The five athletes I have chosen particularly fascinated me through the years by being repetitive to a fault.

1. Turk Wendell  – Perhaps the dictionary definition of a superstitious athlete.  Wendell, as seen above, would never step on a baseline going to or coming from the mound.  He wouldn’t just step over the line, as many do, he hopped like a fourth grader propelling himself to maximum heights.  Maybe his vertical distance meant he was far from the baseline as well.  This wasn’t it.  After he set records for hopping baselines, he would head to the dugout to brush his teeth EVERY INNING.  I looked at almost two hundred websites, but none that mention the dental hygiene obsession mention whether or not Wendell did this on days he didn’t pitch.
2. Wade Boggs – Boggs would eat chicken every day before a game.  I’m not sure if he retreated and ate steak on off days, and perhaps the “other white meat” all Winter, but on a summer day when the Red Sox were playing, Boggs was doing the poultry ritual.  Boggs also wrote the word “Chai” in the dirt before every at-bat.  Chai is a Hebrew word meaning “living”.
3. Peyton Manning – Manning has a ritual that is less perplexing.  Before every game, both home and away, Manning has to read a program from cover-to-cover.
4. Brian Urlacher – Urlacher eats exactly two chocolate chip cookies before every game.  Not one or three cookies depending on hunger levels, but exactly two cookies.  Must have gotten bamboozled by The Count and Cookie Monster as a kid, but only as a tandem.
5. Michael Jordan – Wore his North Carolina shorts under his Bulls uniform shorts every game.

Bonus: Curtis Martin – Dating back to his days at Pittsburgh and through his entire NFL career, Martin always read Psalm 91.

I know we, as humans, develop rituals which can sometimes defy logic.  However, the above listed athletes have not tried to function without the routines they adapted as “their own”.  Publicity stunt or obsessive-compulsive?  In all of the above listed instances, I would call it obsessive-compulsive behavior.

Linus Van Pelt always had his blanket and got lightheaded and dizzy when seperated from it.  The above listed blankets fascinate me.

It all started in December when Ethan Jaynes and I were introduced online by a mutual friend.  Ethan was a hustler who likes video clips and does great stuff over at NESW Sports.  I was taught so many things about what people want to see, the importance of building up a regular reader base, and most importantly treating my peers with respect. 

Soon after, Paneech.com was born.  This, again, is mostly in part to Ethan Jaynes.  I began doing link posts and making friends with as many bloggers as I could to help get my stuff out there. 

I noticed that there was so much less stress in writing my own stuff because I didn’t have to care what anyone else thought.  The views expressed on Paneech.com are mine and I didn’t have to try to write a certain way or do things the way that the site does.  Ethan was pretty easy to get along with and very supportive, so it reduced the stress.

Yesterday, I did a piece for The Hoopdoctors on the Cavs and Hawks series.  It was a cool spot and I was honored to contribute to a blog that specialized in one sport, respected my views enough to ask for a contribution, and got some exposure.

Earlier this year, I accepted a position with Fansided blogs to run an Indians Website called Deep Left Field, which I really enjoyed doing.  Unfortunately, keeping up with my own column is overwhelming at times and I recently had to step away from it.  Again, Adam and Zach Best at Fansided were great people to work with.  I had the green light to write whatever I wanted and prospered from that opportunity.  If I had more time, I would still be doing that everyday, but for now all I can do is contribute from time-to-time.

I am currently filling in for Isaac at The World Of Isaac.  Isaac was also very cool in giving me the go ahead to do whatever I see fit.  I am trying very hard to make the posts look like other posts on the website so someone visiting doesn’t notice that my pal is in Hawaii eating a pig and singing Tiny Bubbles.  I am nervous, as anyone would be, about posting things elsewhere sometimes.  Call it human instinct. 

Bottom line to me is that if something is timely and well-written people will read, hype, and comment on it.  I have learned much from those above listed sites and thank them a thousand times over for putting their confidence in me. 

Anyone who visits this page regularly knows I am new to this.  Sports blogging is frustrating at times because there is no deadline to be first.  It’s a race to have the best information or video to convey exactly how you feel about something.

I have been fortunate to make a few friends by doing this.  One of those people is Matt Clapp, the top guy over at Sharapova’s Thigh.  We have never spoke to each other or met in person.  We have however helped each other, exposing readers to each othes sites through linking.

The post that Matt wrote last night was tough to read because it was very emotional.  I want to share that post with all of those who take a moment to read it.  Click on the link below.

Remembering The Best Friend I Ever Had – Matt Clapp

The first weekend in April has always been my favorite time of the year.  Any sports fan has plenty to pay attention to.  Living in a true seasonal climate, it also means the end of snow and cold, as the mercury rises and the barometer falls.  Look at all that is happening in the upcoming week:

• Major League Baseball kicks off a new season this Sunday night.  Those few months we have no baseball just suck to me.  Anyone reading this is probably in a fantasy league and shares my sentiments.
• NCAA Final Four and Finals come to a dramatic end within the week.  It’s been a great season for college basketball and the entire country is engrossed in this years tournament.  There are four pretty good teams left, so it will be interesting to say how it plays out.
• NBA regular season ends April 15.  As a Cavs fan, I wished it ended sooner to ensure home court right through the finals.  There are still unclaimed playoff spots and a bunch of shuffling for seeds to take place, so the drama will captivate fans as the season winds down.
• NHL regular season ends April 12.  Same as basketball, many teams still have a chance to make the playoffs or improve their seeding with the few remaining games.
• The Masters starts next week.  Any casual golf fan will be curious to see if Tiger can keep the momentum from his victory last weekend.  This is always another one of those “Spring is officially here” events that is not hard to watch on a warm Sunday evening.
• Wrestlemania XXV is Sunday.  Maybe not technically a sport, but rather “sports entertainment” as Vince McMahon has called it.  Regardless of whether you like it or not, the PPV buy rate is astronomical every year and this year might even break some records.

Don’t forget the NFL draft is not far away either!  I just love April!

Welcome to Paneech.com.  I will do my very best to keep this site fresh, entertaining, and “unpredictable“.

The strength of Paneech.com will be a forum to predict the outcomes of future sporting events.  Do not mistake this site for a gambling page.  I will not take credit card numbers as this is all in fun.  Say something in reply to a prediction I make, differ with me, agree with me, but tell me why!  I will give you reasons why I support a decision and expect the same in return from you, my readers.

This website will concentrate on sports.  If you are a soccer fan, find a different place to go.  I will cover Boxing, MMA, Wrestling, Football, Baseball, Hockey, and Basketball regularly.  I will also throw in the occasional Golf, Tennis, and NASCAR post.

Feel free to send a comment anytime.  Please suggest sporting events you would like to be predicted!  Thanks so much for checking out my site and I hope you will return frequently.