Holiday Thoughts

I like penguins

It’s the holiday season and I haven’t given you guys the gift of my brain for over a week now. Shame on me. I am making it up to you by given you another edition of my random thoughts to ponder. Also I’d like to wish everyone a happy whatever they celebrate and a Happy New Year.

• I am already enjoying the Jackson Bird era in Australian cricket. He bowled well on Day 1 of the Boxing Day Test (On Boxing Day no less!) and without being some sort of revelation, he took wickets, bowled a nice line and length and even had the ball swinging on occasion. Plus you get to make a lot of ‘Bird is the Word’ references and link to things like this:

          If his nickname isn’t Surfin’ Bird by the end of the day, you have all failed.

• Our fast bowling depth is looking super strong as we head towards the Ashes. Now if we can just get everyone fit at the same time and figure out our top order, we will be in business. Not to mention, everyone seems to be in agreement that Clarke and Hussey need to move up the order. Some say Clarke should be in at first drop, I could live with him batting at 4, Hussey at 5 and Watson at 6. But I think we can all agree that 5 and 6 for Clarke and Hussey is too low. Agreed? Agreed.

• Supporting the New York Giants in the NFL is a frustrating experience. On one hand they win two Super Bowls in the space of five years. On the other hand they have historic collapses like they did this season, where they not only lost form, but played like they had just met or even learnt the rules of the game. I told my dad not to count his chickens when the team had a three game lead halfway through the season and sometimes I actually hate being right. They are frustrating but not nearly as frustrating as….

• Liverpool. Oh my Liverpool. I really don’t want to rant about everything I would change about my beloved Reds, although I might in another piece, but seriously if I start drinking again, I’m blaming Liverpool.

• I miss ice hockey. I even got a new Bruins jersey for my birthday and it just makes me sad looking at it when the league is having yet another lockout. Gary Bettman is the opposite of Batman. It’s also unfortunate that his name is so close to being Batman.

• So much is being made of all the Los Angeles Lakers struggles until their recent winning streak and return of Steve Nash, but not enough is being made of the fact that Dwight Howard really isn’t 7’ tall. I don’t know how I only noticed this once he got to the Lakers and not when he was at Orlando, but seeing him stand next to Kobe and Pau makes me realise the guy is 6’9” tops. He looks 2-3 inches taller than Kobe and about 4 inches shorter than Pau. Did the back injury make his spine get shorter or was he always this way? Yes, I know this was touched on in a BS Report podcast, but seriously this should be a bigger deal.

• The LA Clippers on the other hand are ridiculously good right now and a huge part of that is their 6^th man Jamal Crawford. Sure that isn’t a big surprise given his history as a great 6^th man, however it’s interesting that he admitted that this offseason was the first time he actually worked on his game and practiced shooting. Now he is having probably the best season of his career and it makes me wonder how good he could have been if he had that Kobe-level competitiveness in the first place. Either way, he is fun to follow on Twitter.

• Did you know that Boxing Day was Jared Leto’s birthday (and technically still is in the US)? Who cares you ask? More importantly, did you realise that the actor and lead singer of an emo band with a largely teenage fan base just turned 41? I wonder how many 30 Seconds to Mars fans realise the lead singer is easily old enough to be their dad and in some cases, probably older than their actual dads.

• You know who else is 41? Brad Friedel. He just signed an extension at Tottenham for a couple more years, most likely to remain as backup to Hugo Lloris in goal and I really want to see a keeper try and push 50 at a high level. Peter Shilton got to 47 and there are probably others who did it too, but with modern training and understanding of how to prolong careers, how cool would it be to see an actual 50 year old playing high level football?

I’ve recently started getting more and more suggestions on things to write about and things people would like my thoughts on. If you have ideas for a Back Sage piece, I’d be happy to hear from you.

Happy New Year!