Let's get it on!

As the World Cup continues on and we whittle away all the teams that really never had a shot to begin with (Yes, including the United States), we are left with one blaring, obvious, and really exciting question; Are we going to see a Argentina vs. Brazil final? The answer; I really freaking hope so! After seeing Argentina toy around with Mexico before destroying them, and then marveling at how Brazil snuffed out Chile with ease, it gives me much joy to see the possibility. They are on a collision course for a match that could be one for the ages. Think about it, Brazil’s Kaká is one of, if not the best player in the world. Argentina’s Lionel Messi is the closest one that would rival that claim. Along with that, Messi is the clone of Diego Maradona, who is the head coach of Argentina. Messi is on a quest to equal him in every way possible and all that is left is to hoist one of those golden statues above his head in triumph. Brazil also unleashes offensive-minded players the likes of Maicon, Robinho, and Felipe Melo every game and they would go up against Gabriel Heinze of Argentina. What more could a soccer fan want? You can’t go wrong when the best teams and players in the world come together and the winner gets everything while the loser goes home crying (most likely). It will be fun, count on it!

Look at this (photograph)!

This video is hilarious! It really doesn't have anything to do with sports but it was too funny to pass up. It is a spoof of Nickelback's song "Photograph." Nickelback is possibly the worst band in the history of music and yet they are still played on the radio all the time and by every 13 year-old girl in America (and Canada, as that is their homeland). So anyway, I am glad that these two American heroes made fun of them and their song. Enjoy.

Movin' on up!

The 1980 US Men’s Olympic Hockey Team, the 2010 US Men’s Olympic Hockey Team, the 2010 US Men’s World Cup Soccer Team?! You better freaking believe it! Did you see it? If not, you could be considered a communist and you better sing “God Bless America” and mean it right now! It really was an amazing result for our boys in South Africa as they defeated Algeria and won their Group to advance to the knockout stage. It was win and in and they did just that, although it didn’t look good for most of the match. The US team missed plenty of opportunities in all sorts of ways, from miss-fired close range shots to hitting the post with a wide open net waiting only a few inches to the right. Also, yet another terrible call by a FIFA referee disallowed a Clint Dempsey goal. (A blatantly incorrect offside call nullified the shot. This one was bad, just not death sentence bad like Koman Coulibaly vs. Slovenia) But the Americans were not to be denied. In the first minute of stoppage time (four were put on the clock), US goalie Tim Howard launched a bomb fifty yards up field to Landon Donovan who passed off to Jozy Altidore. Altidore drove to the right side of the goal where he found Clint Dempsey. Dempsey fired a shot right into the outstretched arms of Algeria’s ‘keeper Rais Magain. The kick was too hot to handle and it bounced right where Donovan had been streaking down the pitch for such an occasion, the rebound. As ESPN soccer announcer said “He put it right in the back of the onion bag!” (Said with an awesome British accent!) Here it is! It may have been Donovan’s easiest goal of his career, but he earned it by setting up the whole play and following through to actually be there to get the rebound and calmly flip it in. As he did a belly slide into the corner and his teammates mobbed him, the United States collectively blew up in celebration and joy. It was the latest goal in US soccer history and it put the Americans in the next round against Ghana (We found out the opponent later on in the day). With tears in his eyes, Donovan later spoke to a reporter and said, “You can’t miss from there.” He sure didn’t! You could see the emotion in his eyes as he became a national hero.
The US has a good chance against Ghana to advance to fútbol’s equivalent of the elite eight. As mentioned in previous posts, huge man crush on Landon Donovan continues!
Compare the heart of the Americans to that of the French. One fought tooth and nail to represent their country. The soccer game meant more to them than just a win. It transcended the individualism and enveloped an entire country. The other whined and moaned and protested against their lame coach, disappointing their homeland and making complete fools of themselves. Which side would you rather be on? The French team has to live with that shame and the Americans are playing with house money and taking in the fame and glory that comes with success. You know when President Barack Obama calls to congratulate that you have something going for you.

GOAL!

The other day I wrote about the net-scorching, Slovenian goalie-decapitating, soccer ball-punishing, holy-crap-that-was-freaking-amazing goal from Landon Donovan in the World Cup. This video isn't the best quality, but it more than serves the purpose...

Here it is!

It may not have been as important as the one he just scored today in extra time against Algeria, but it has been my favorite goal of the World Cup so far, except for maybe this one from Spain's David Villa. You decide. Youtube sucks so therefore so does the quality, but it is sick, trust me!

The Plus Part

Check out my Brazil-supporting Soccer Jack from Jack in the Box. In a word, awesome.

Anyway...

As you all well know, this blog is called BroncoChase's Sports Plus. I have done a whole bunch of sports takes and not very much of the plus part. So here we go: I love movies. I own over 700 of them and when I am not watching some sort of athletic event, you can usually find me snooping around Hastings or Best Buy looking for DVD's and then watching them. What is my favorite you ask? Well, I am not sure if I have a clear cut number one, but there are a few that rank very highly on my scale. They include, The Matrix, Kill Bill (Volume 1 and 2), Snatch, Zombieland, 300, Step Brothers, The Hangover, Porky's, The Boondock Saints (1 and 2), A Clockwork Orange, The Godfather, The Hurt Locker, Avatar, and probably a few others that I can't think of right now. My favorite sports movies are The Blindside, Glory Road, Goal: The Dream Begins, Invincible, The Replacements, Gridiron Gang, and Shaolin Soccer. There are plenty more that I really enjoy, but the aforementioned films are amongst my favorites.

Also, Go USA fútbol! What an amazing game and even better finish! Landon Donovan, I have a huge man-crush on you!

Poetic Justice

A lot has been made about the worst officiating decision in the history of sports. I will not try and re-hash what one Koman Coulibaly enacted upon the United States soccer team and the rest of the nation for that matter. You have got to be freaking kidding me! When that goal was disallowed and the world couldn't figure out why, our nation went into a frenzy. As a basketball referee myself and having made my fair share of not-so-good calls over time, I understand that mistakes happen. So for that, the mistake part, I don't fault Mr. Coulibaly. I do fault him for such a glaring, obvious, ugly, blatent, and disgusting botched call, the worst in the history of sports and at the worst possible time for it to happen. He nullified the greatest comeback in FIFA World Cup history, a needed win by the Americans, and he took away a well-deserved victory by the US national team. Again, people make mistakes, but Coulibaly had more than ample time to think and make the right decision. Even if you blow your whistle and then realize that you shouldn't have called anything as Maurice Edu punts the ball beautifully into the back of the net, just call it an inadvertent whistle and get on with life. Mr. Coulibaly, you may have even saved your career with FIFA if the right decision had been made. Now that is out the window. In a nutshell, he screwed the US soccer team and we are all really upset about it. Good thing the team has moved on and is focusing on Algeria, because the rest of us haven't.
The fact that Americans are so upset in itself is a good thing. It shows that we do care about soccer and are supporting our boys over there in South Africa. Fútbol has potential for more growth on this side of the world and that is what the team needs as they continue to play. Another side note, did you see the goal by Landon Donovan? He nearly decapitated Samir Handanovic, the Slovenian goalkeeper! The guy jumped and hid behind the post, ducking his head, cowering in fear as Donavan burnt a hole through the top of the net. Check it out!
But back to the Algeria thing. As you may have noticed, the title of this post is "Poetic Justice." Here is where that comes into play. The mighty Englishmen couldn't even muster a goal against the Algerians and they ended in a 0 to 0 tie. It's a good thing the goalie didn't screw up this one for Britain (USA-hero and English goalkeeper Robert Green was replaced by David James, also known as Calamity James because he's prone to big mistakes). In other words, the Soccer Gods realized that Coulibaly completely jammed the Americans and made up for it by allowing the English to completely suck against Algeria. Thank you very much. That my friends is a clear cut case of poetic justice (my Spanish literature professor would be so proud of me!) There are a couple of scenarios that would allow the US national team to advance to the knockout stage (round/group of 16), but the only one that matters is this: Beat Algeria. If they do that, they are in. England's tie made that possible. So Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, Oguchi Onyewu, Carlos Bocanegra, and the rest, don't lose. Pretty simple after the worst refereeing decision in the history of sports. The call that nullified the goal has been nullified thanks to the incompetence of the English playing as a cohesive unit. Get it done and please don't come home until you do.

Short and sweet

So I have gotten a little feedback from a few of my followers that some of my posts are a little long. Sorry, I just have a lot that I need to say and at times it is impossible to compact it all. I promise what I say will never get boring, so just read on! Today is a smorgesborg!
On that note, Utah is going to the Pac 10! Who called it?! (Me and a billion other people, actually). That should be an interesting fit. I wonder how there rivalry with BYU will work. Maybe the same way as Boise State's with Idaho. Except that BYU is actually good at sports and doesn't totally suck at everything like Idaho does. In case you're wondering; no, I am not biased towards Boise State.
As mentioned in one of my recent posts, the World Cup is amazing! There has been a lack of goal scoring through the first round, but the second round has kicked off (pun intended) well. Uruguay drops 3 on South Africa, Argentina scores 4 against South Korea and then Greece gets a couple versus Nigeria. We will see what Mexico and France have in store for us a little later on today. The rest should be magical! By they way, Jack in the Box rules! Their antenna toppers are World Cup Jack heading a ball and it has stickers of all the flags of the countries in the tournament so that you can pick your favorite. That's awesome!
NBA Finals game 7 tonight. The Celtics are in trouble with Kendrick Perkins and his torn ligaments in his knee not being able to hit the floor. There goes a bulk of their toughness and grit. Rasheed Wallace has to start now. Be afraid Celtic fans. Sheed is not the guy you want to depend on. It's over. Take it to the bank.
One last thing, the Jim Rome Show is the greatest thing to ever happen to radio. Monday through Friday 10 AM to 1 PM Mountain Time. Check it out!

Into the spotlight, for better or worse.

It has always intrigued me how some schools have way more problems with athletes than other ones. But then again, maybe it is the same everywhere but because some colleges are bigger and "better" they just get more attention when somebody gets on the wrong side of the law. But then again, maybe it is what it seems. No smoke and mirrors. What do you think?
In college sports, recruiting is the number one endeavor that can make or break a program. This is obvious as the top football programs in the nation are consistently able to bring in those five-star players and incorporate them into their already stacked teams. How many top rated quarterbacks does one college squad need? At Texas, Oklahoma, USC, Ohio State, and other household, brand name colleges, the most likely answer is at least 3 or 4. The idea and obsessive occurrence of ranking these athletes proves the importance and attention that coaches and athletic directors put on recruiting. It is the same for fans. How many 5 and 4 stars did my school get on signing day? This seems to be the type of questions that fans ask themselves and discuss during the recruiting and signing period. Also, it explains the plethora of recruiting violations that exist in the NCAA, ranging from a minor violation of texting or calling a recruit a day before it is allowed, to a major violation of providing illegal or improper benefits to a coveted player. When a Michigan gets the top offensive lineman, it is just one example of the rich getting richer. However, every now and then, a smaller program is able to recruit a decent group of players. Then if they have good coaches, these athletes can develop and compete closely with the Florida’s and the LSU’s of the world. At times, these “lesser” schools can build on their own success until they have made themselves into bigger players in the college football world, garnering national attention and even beating some of these big names from time to time. This is exactly what has happened with schools such as Boise State, TCU, Utah, and even BYU, who won a pre-BCS national championship in 1984. Thus we see that in the last 5 years, at least one of these smaller schools has been in a BCS bowl game playing against the proverbial powerhouses, and in most cases winning. Boise State is the model school for turning lightly recruited cast-offs into All-American candidates and then beating the big schools in their own bowl games. For example; there has been Ryan Clady, Kyle Wilson, and currently Heisman-worthy Kellen Moore. All three of these athletes have played in one or both of the Fiesta Bowls in which the Broncos have found themselves. With this success the Broncos are now able to bring in bigger and more recruited athletes. It is a snowball effect of achievement that continues to build on itself. As mentioned, these schools, including Boise State, find themselves in the limelight, receiving a great deal of fame. They continue to reap the benefits of more and better recruits, and plenty of national exposure to boot. Like all things in life, there is a bad to the good, a dark to the light, an opposition. With national prowess and exposure come critical comments and a magnifying glass from the media, searching for any small or minute amount of wrongdoing. These small items often get blown out of proportion. It is also common to innocently bring in a couple of “thugs” or “bad apples” with the school’s recruiting classes. It is known that some, not all, of the best athletes have personal issues and/or behavioral problems. Exhibit A: The Miami Hurricanes of the 80’s and 90’s, the most famous being Michael Irvin and his well-publicized legal and personal issues. We also see Maurice Clarett from Ohio State and most recently, half of the University of Oregon football squad. Their struggles range from the Legarette Blount punch, to a line backer being kicked off the team, to even the star quarterback pleading guilty to burglary and being suspended for the entire season. Even more recently he has been dismissed ("dismissed" is a kind word meaning they got him out of there as fast as they possible could!) from the team for charges of marijuana posession, driving without a license, and a traffic violatioin. Sucks to be him. Even the Broncos are not immune to such difficulties. Jason Robinson, a back-up safety and special teams standout, was charged in with felony-aggravated battery for punching a Boise man at a bar and breaking his jaw in an incident that took place in March. He was promptly suspended from the team indefinitely. Robinson has later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge and will spend time in the Ada County Sheriff’s labor detail. He will also pay restitution to the man whose jaw he broke. It may come as a surprise that this took place as the Broncos, for the most part, have avoided the negative spotlight. But just as history has shown us, sometimes the better athletes bring baggage, find themselves in unanticipated places, and end up doing things they never intended on doing. It is a sad facet to the grandeur and splendor that is college football. While Utah, TCU, Boise State, and BYU may never achieve the history and pageantry of Oklahoma or USC, they can at least compete with such programs on a game-to-game basis and on big stages. At the same time, they may never come under as much scrutiny when it comes to legal issues and personal problems for some of the players. But let’s not kid ourselves; no one is immune to the dark side of college athletics and recruiting.

So much for the chaos

Maybe we can compare it to a boxer taking a couple of shots but stands firm and ends of knocking out his opponent. The Big 12 is the triumphant fighter and the Pac 10 the latter. After all the threats, rumors, reports, stories, and general hooplah (including your's truly) the University of Texas is staying put. This has just been confirmed by the school after the Pac 10 commissioner first broke the news. The Longhorns were the ringleader of the realignment motion so this means that Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, and maybe Texas A & M are all remaining at home. So much for the super conference formerly known as the Pac 10. That leaves the Big 12 with 10 teams and the Big 10 with 12. No, they probably won't switch names. Maybe the Big 12 will try and patch itself back together with TCU or a combo of a couple of other schools. Dan Bebee deserves a lot of credit as the commissioner that kept the conference from complete destruction. As part of the deal, Texas gets their own TV network and a truckload of money to boot. After all, money was the number one reason why the conference realignment began.
Expect the Pac 10 to invite Utah to join. They need to get a 12th team to maintain balance and get the even number that they want. So the madness seems to be over, for now!

The world is watching and foaming at the mouth, so should you!

The most amazing sporting event that I have ever seen comes down to a choice between two: a Boise State football game in person, or a World Cup soccer match between two good international teams. I think that because the World Cup only happens every four years that it might just take the cake. Having lived a couple of years of my life with a predominantly Mexican population, assimilating myself into their culture, there is absolutely nothing bigger and more exciting in the universe than fútbol. Think about it, nation against nation, stadiums filled with mad, adrenaline pumping, vuvuzela buzzing, screaming fans urging their country to victory. As Americans, we focus on other sporting events like the NBA and especially the NFL. Whereas in the rest of the universe, fútbol is king, queen, prince, princess, duke, and all other royalty-related titles. Watch a little bit and you will see why.
There are always certain match-ups that are highly anticipated, usually two of the best teams pitted against each other, both with bad blood from previous encounters and carrying vendettas to settle. USA vs. England yesterday was a prime example. While the two countries politically may be holding hands, skipping down the road, and singing Beetles songs, the opposite is true on the pitch (what they call a soccer field in England, FYI). Guys are getting kicked, the referee is handing out yellow cards like free merch at a concert, and the fans are getting ready to punch each other in the forehead! England may hold the upper hand as far as victories go (USA has only beaten them twice since 1950 with only one of those times being in a World Cup match), but they were evenly matched this time around when they met in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The USA had outstanding goalkeeping, while England's was terrible. The Yanks boasted a stingy defense and back line while the Brits unleashed Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard, two of the most feared and respected attackers in the world today. All other things being even, we see that the game ended in a 1 to 1 tie. (As a side note, England's goalie may be murdered when he gets back home for this blunder. What is the opposite of being knighted by the queen? Because that may happen instead. Ouch and oops that sucks all at the same time for him. Good thing millions of people weren't watching, right?) The point is, the tie is as good as a victory for the United States as England was a huge favorite to win. Barring complete mental breakdowns, both teams should advance to the knockout round. As much as I hate to say it, I think England has a better chance of getting deep into the tournament than we do. We shall see. See you later on, England! Sometimes it's better to be lucky than skilled, right USA soccer?!
This brings up another point, I understand how watching a sporting event that ends in a 0 to 0 or a 1 to 1 tie may not appeal to some people in this country. After all, we are used to high scoring NBA games and Peyton Manning or Tom Brady powered, high flying football beat downs. I tend to enjoy the type of low scoring battle that a fútbol match can provide. Just watch an international match(or a Euro-league game for the matter) and admire the precision and skill that it requires to weave the soccer ball in and out of defenders. It is an art that I sure as heck cannot come close to equaling. Exhibit A is one of the best fútbol tricksters from Brazil named Ronaldihno. I'm not sure if it is is first or last name or if he is too cool for more than one name, but he's awesome. The point is, he is absolutely amazing with what he can do with the ball. Check this out! Soccer is an art and requires skills that only the best athletes in the world have. That is why outside of the United States, a country's biggest and best will take up the sport and it's also why their fans go berserk when it comes to international matches.
So as the World Cup 2010 advances into the knockout stage and the best teams are left, just sit back and enjoy the magic. Watch with an open mind and try to imagine yourself attempting some of the things those fellas do with the ball. You would fall flat on your face and will be picking grass out of your teeth for days. Watch and enjoy the pageantry as much as the matches. I know I will.

Mountain West Time!

As of approximately 11:00 AM Mountain Time today, June 11th, 2010, Boise State University has accepted an invite to the Mountain West Conference. This is great news for Bronco fans and fans of the schools of the Mountain West. Consider it a simbiotic relationship. We all help each other. Boise State strengthens their schedule and the Mountain West gets better and obtains more credibility to become an A.Q. I, personally am very excited! Every season now the Broncos will be fighting tooth and nail with the likes of the funky frogs of TCU, the cleverly names Utah Utes, and the Cougars of BYU (not hot older chick cougars, the actual animal is the mascot). It should be a lot of fun to watch year in and year out!
As excited as I am, I also feel that the invite to the Mountain West is a little premature on their part. As mentioned in my previous post, we are still at the beginning of the college football conference realignment chaos and nothing has really happened yet. Chalk it up to a preemptive strike by the good folks of the MWC. Like I said, I feel that it was bound to happen regardless, but I didn't expect it to take place right now. All's well that ends well, right? Now that the invite has happened, let's just sit back and enjoy what is sure to be an interesting and exciting college football offseason!

College Football Apocalypse...or just massive chaos

Alright, I need to chime in on the mass hysteria that is currently happening in the world of college football (which is my favorite thing in the world, by the way). There is one way that I can sum up the state of affairs; Holy crap! As you might expect, I have a somewhat unique/biased perspective, being a huge fan of Boise State. For me, it will all come down to whether or not the Broncos make the jump to the Mountain West Conference or not. But a lot needs to happen before that invitation will or will not happen. It's the waiting game, just like it has been for years for the Broncos. So in other words, nothing has really changed for Boise State, yet…
It seems that everybody is jumping ship, bailing from the Big 12 Conference. I still haven't figured out a real good reason to do that, as it has been one of the strongest conferences in the nation. Oh wait, money, that's right! Nebraska is in for a HUGE yearly paycheck from the lucrative Big 10 Conference and their TV/marketing deal. Colorado may have made a lateral slide financially speaking. However, they have played "bottom-of-the-barrel" status in the BIG 12 for quite a while and sometimes new scenery and new friends is the best way to break out of a funk. We will see what happens with that. Look on the bright side Buffalo fans; it really can't get any worse. It will be interesting to see what happens with ex-Boise State Bronco coach Dan Hawkins and Colorado this season, as he was mercifully granted another year to lead the team. It's bowl game or bust for Hawk and the Buff's. We will see if he makes it to be a Pac 10 coach.
But what happens now? I have two options that I think will happen. Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A & M, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State will leave the Big 12 and join the now Pac 16, making it a super conference. That will leave Missouri, Iowa State, Kansas State, Kansas, and Baylor left, which is 1 less than the needed 6 to maintain legitimate NCAA status as a conference. They may try and snag TCU, Utah, BYU, or maybe a SEC, ACC, or Big East school or two to recreate the Big 8. I have a hard time seeing someone from the SEC, ACC, or Big East leaving, but TCU would love to get back into the prime time, and BYU and Utah deeply desire automatic qualifying status. After all, if you take Utah you have to take BYU, preserving the rivalry. If that doesn't happen, option two is the Big 12 dissolving with the 5 schools mentioned above going to the Pac 16. Missouri may end up going to the Big 10 anyway, so the other 4 schools would try and get snagged by the other BCS conferences. Kansas and Kansas State should go to the ACC, as they have rich basketball tradition. Think of Kansas vs. NC and Duke each year! That would be great. The Mountain West will try and snag one or two of them as well, be it Iowa State, Baylor, or Missouri. They want to become a BCS conference and getting one or more of those three teams would help, maybe even push them over the top to achieve it. Baylor, Iowa State, and Missouri will put up huge resistance to join a "lesser" conference, not wanting to take a step back. If the Mountain West can't get one of the schools from the former Big 12, then Boise State is the back up plan. The Broncos may not be quite enough to give them the elite status of achievement needed to become and A.Q. school, but it will help a lot and will get them even closer.
Alright, let's take a step back and a deep breath. Ready? So it seems that Boise State is relegated to "just in case" status. I'm OK with that and it makes a lot of sense for the Mountain West to do that. It's like when the best-looking chick rejects you and so you have to go for the not-as-good-looking friend as a consolation prize. The kinda' pretty friend feels a little bad, but what other options are there? Boise State needs a better conference than the WAC and needs better competition. The Mountain West will provide that, even if TCU, BYU, or Utah leave.
Just a side note to all of this, I think Notre Dame is in huge trouble if they don't join a conference. It appears we are heading to a few super-conferences in the college football world and if Notre Dame doesn't jump on the bandwagon they may be left out in the cold. Lookin' like a fool with your pants on the ground.
As with the rest of what has been said and will be said on the subject of conference realignment, we will have to wait and see what happens. So whether we have a complete collegiate apocalypse, just a few schools moving, or something in the middle, the education system, er, college sports, is about to change forever. It should be good, really crazy, but good.

I know that I am a couple of days late on this particular subject, but I need to add my two cents. I figured that I better do it now before any more days went by since it happened. Armando Galarrag's should-have-been perfect game!
The phenomenon of a perfect game in Major League Baseball is one that few people have the privilege or opportunity to experience. In fact, coming into the current MLB season, there had only been 18 of them in the history of the game. That makes sense. Think of what it takes to pull it off—27 batters come up to the plate and not one of them reaches base and all are retired in order, by the same pitcher! It seems that there is always some sort of help or back up by the 8 other fielders, usually in the form of an amazing catch by an outfielder up against the wall or a beautiful play for a ground out by the shortstop diving for the ball. As hard as a perfect game is to achieve, there have been 3 already this season. Well, it should have been 3. However, it will go into the record books as only 2. Armando Galarraga of the Detroit Tigers got jammed by umpire Jim Joyce with 2 outs in the ninth inning Wednesday night. The botched call came when Cleveland Indian’s shortstop Jason Donald hit a grounder and appeared to have gotten to the bag a half a second after the first baseman had control of the ball. The crowd was ready to blow up. The Tigers were preparing themselves for an all night party in celebration of the 21st perfect game in Major League history, but Joyce ruined the moment and signaled Donald safe at first. The boo’s rang out from the crowd, and Detroit manager Jim Leyland did his best to argue the call, but all was to no avail. Duncan was safe. Galarraga proceeded to get the next out and the arguments continued with the umpires. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a player being called safe, even if it ends a no hit bid by a pitcher. Well, at least there is nothing wrong with that if the call is correct! The other 3 umpires supported Joyce, until they saw the replay after the game and realized that he was dead wrong. In the moment, Joyce said that he thought the runner had beaten the throw. It was not a purposeful act to ruin the moment. It was an honest mistake. Joyce’s apology was sincere, heartfelt, and refreshing. Galarraga and the Tigers were gracious, understanding, and appreciative of Joyce and his honesty. Life goes on. However, the missed call may have forever changed Major League Baseball as we know it. The sport has recently taken a lot of heat about their refusal to use instant replay in order to get calls correct. Using it to verify that home runs are home runs or whether they are fair or foul is not good enough. It’s not even close to good enough. It is understood that baseball is a sport for the traditionalists and that change is hard to take for its fans, but for the sake of history, it needs to be fixed. Look at the NBA, NFL, and the NHL and their use of instant replay to get calls correct. Their popularity has never been higher. For the most part, the umpires get the calls correct and it is unfortunate that one bad call overshadows hundreds or even thousands of good ones. But it is necessitated for situations like this; an almost perfect game with a bad call that shatters a young man’s chances of making history. A quick look at a monitor could have fixed the mistake and corrected history. It’s a time machine, the white out, or the backspace button. Come on Bud Selig! Be a proactive commissioner and make instant replay available for the umpires. The game needs it more now than ever. It is hard to market a sport that carries a rap for bad calls and big mistakes by those who regulate during the games, even one with such a rich history and tradition. Younger people, or the new generation, are being lost by the sport and the old school baseball fan is getting older. Soon there won’t be many true ball fans left. Baseball needs to catch up with the rest of the sporting world and appeal to the new generation of fans, or it is going to get left behind for good.

Grand Opening!

What's up everybody?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I am BroncoChase and am looking forward to providing you with anything and everything sports that I can possibly think of. But don't be alarmed, I am no one trick pony. There will be plenty of banter and critiques of movies, music, entertainment in general, and just about anything else that you can think of. I am opinionated about most things and that will come through in my posts. Some of you will like me and some of you won't. I am OK with that and my life will go on regardless. Just know that first impressions are important and I hope to give a good one right here. However, if you don't like me at first, I am man enough to give you another chance and I hope you are as well (or woman enough!) Just as the title says, this is a grand opening. This means that you are free to poke around and check out the merchandise!
Let me start by explaining a little bit about myself. I currently reside in Boise, Idaho where I have been since I was 11 years old. I recently graduated from Boise State University with a major in mass communication/journalism and a minor in Spanish. ¡Por eso te diré algunas cosas en este idioma! ¡Ojalá que me entiendas! I am a die hard fan of anything Boise State Broncos, especially football! I was in Glendale, AZ and inside the stadium for the Broncos second Fiesta Bowl win (I missed the first one and was not going to let it happen again!) and I witnessed the magic and glory first hand. Chris Petersen is a man-beast, just in case you were wondering! So naturally, a lot of my posts will touch on Boise State and the current state of Bronco Nation. I do, however, love all sports and will share plenty about plenty.
Feel free to comment about anything that I post, but keep it clean. I am a family friendly blog! Let's shoot for a Disney rating. I don't want the lame "G" rated kiddy cartoon Disney, more like the "Pirates of the Caribbean" or "Prince of Persia" "PG-13 rated type. That's how I roll.
Anyway, all is well in Broncoland and the greater Northwest. I hope all of you are taking it easy as well. Feel free to check back soon and I will have more posted. If you just can't wait until then, I also leave film reviews on rottentomatoes.com under the name "Chase G". Go check it out. Thanks everybody! Peace!