Had a nice long talk with RJ and Tom and with football coming back onto the scene it is time to renew this little thing I did last season. Basically pretty straight forward and simple. I typically meet with some buddies for breakfast most mornings and we do what most guys do, talk about current events in sports. I am basically taking that conversation home with me to the forum to share the thoughts and invite any input from the forum family. I have only two iron clad rules. The first one I self imposed, like last year I want to stress this is a tout free zone. I will not mention packages or sales in any way, shape or fashion. That is for another area. Business is business and it has it's place and time. This is more of a relief valve from it as much as anything guys. I am not in this to sell anything to anybody. There are those who have been around the forum and know me, but there are always new folks coming though this site and it is a nice way to get to know some of them. Okay, my second iron clad rule is I have zero interest, 0% interest in talking politics on this thing. None. There are other threads on the forum where people can bash heads all day and night long. Not here.
Columbia Missouri is Cardinals country. Sure, the Royals have their fans but the Cardinals are entrenched here. And Cards fans are clinging to hope as they try to sneak in the back door of the post season with a wild card berth. People can snub their noses all they want at the wild card. But we remember in 2011 when the Cards won the world series as a wild card. Personally, I am skeptical. They are too sporadic with the offense, and most importantly I do not trust the pen. Hope I am wrong. Some are more optimistic than I.
As Cards fans we watch the Cubs closely and could not help but laugh about the incident with Chapman leaving the mound in the sunday night game between the two rivals. Some Einstein played Smack my Bitch up as he left the mound. As most of you know the guy had some off the field issues with a domestic assault incident where he supposedly choked his girl friend. Since then the Cubs have canned this dude.
On the football side there is guarded optimism about Mizzou. Barry Odom is deeply respected around these parts but he took over a broken offense. Last season they were great on the defensive end but the offense was painful to even watch. Actually there were games I couldn't. I've been to some practices and been watching. Honestly guys, they will be better. Of course it would be hard to be worse. The defense will be very, very strong again. It was sad to see the Gary Pinkel era conclude like it did. I like the man. Good man and football coach. But he completely butchered the handling of the players walk out last season. I could say some more here but will just take the high road.
Jamaal Charles is back on the field with the Chiefs and everybody is crossing fingers he can stay on the field. Hope he can play a 16 game schedule and stay upright. I'm skeptical. Denver appears vulnerable compared to the recent past and the Chiefs have a window of opportunity here. Personally I think the Raiders are going to be a lot more salty than most suspect.
That was pretty much it for today. One of the guys was in Chicago this weekend to take in the series with the Cubs. It was his first trip to Wrigley. An item marked off his bucket list. One of my boxes still to be checked is a game in New York with the Cardinals playing the Met's or Yankees in interleague play. I can honestly say I have never been to New York yet. Sad but true. It will be done, I assure you. I want to see the city, eat at Peter Lugers, see a broadway show, have some good New York deli. I am open to any suggestions from anyone with past experience.
Back to work. Good luck today guys. Countdown to kick off moving right along.