So It's Been Awhile.....So What?

I’m kind of busy today and I really don’t want to write anything original (of course, some might say that is nothing new), so here are some tidbits for you:

There are so many uses for this, it boggles the mind, yardwork, tailgating/grilling, heck just sitting around the house.

This is just cool. Kind of late, but still cool.

Generally, I dislike being fed somewhat useless crap. I know that this really won’t be that much different from using a stopwatch or a heart monitor, but you know that Apple will soon develop programming that will search selected songs and put together a playlist for your workout. Beautiful.

Speaking of Apple, I put in my pre-order for this autobiography this morning. I’m just interesting in the way that the guy’s mind works. Steve Jobs obviously had a lot to do with Apple becoming the force that it has become, but usually there are lot of players behind the scenes that never get noticed. Thankfully, Steve Wozniak will be noticed. This should be a pretty good read. (HT: Guy Kawasaki)

Quick Hits

Why it won’t surprise me if Michael Adams is killed on his next cross-Georgia speaking tour. Just disgraceful, is this what the world is coming to?

How many joints will five pounds of marijuana make?

Cure for Cancer? No. How about Alzheimer’s? No. Maybe Multiple Sclerosis? Nope. Well, at least science has helped us solve one big problem.

New Orleans Flooding Graphic

An interesting site produced by the New Orleans Time-Picayune. Kind of scary to think what I was doing in Baton Rouge at each of these times.

Hot Chicks with Douchbags.....

With pictures like this, how can you go wrong? This is funny in so many ways. I'm such a big fan of this site. (HT: Across-the-Board)

Bill Parcells Won't Talk About T.O. Anymore!!!!

Well at least until T.O. demands more balls thrown his way and screams on the sidelines about how he isn't getting respect and Drew Bledsoe can't hold a candle to, to, to........well what QB does T.O. think is good? Brett Farve?

I Hate Gambling

Well, as you can tell from my posts last week, my weekend sucked. Not too surprising, considering that I never do real well with the Derby and I was an idiot (in hindsight) with regard to the De La Hoya beat down of Mayorga. I should have known. Oh well.

What a performance by Barbaro. Wow! He will certainly be the favorite in the Preakness. It will be interesting to see how many of the horses in the Derby show up for the Preakness considering the true favorites didn’t really race well on Saturday. Brother Derek was the closest to the front and he finished fifth. It appears that the wide-open, anyone-could-win Derby was really the wide-open, anyone-could-take-second Derby.

Houston is Going to the Dogs

Heat, humidity, increased crime, the Texans, and now this. That's it, I'm moving.

Down The Stretch They Come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As pointed out yesterday, there will be some excitement at the Justice household tomorrow afternoon when the ponies clear the starting gate at Churchill Downs.

I have bet on this race for about the last ten years. I have not really been successful. I won with Real Quiet in ’98 and made some money on a boxed exacta with Funny Cide and Empire Maker in 2003 (for those of you unfamiliar with these terms, try this link). I have a few rules for the bets and here they are:

1. No favorites: Sooner or later this will burn me, but favorites do not perform well in the Derby. Whoever the favorite horse is stay away.
2. Experienced Jockeys: This doesn’t mean that the jockey has to have won the Derby before, but it does mean that the jockey should have a good history. Of course, most of the jockeys competing tomorrow will be at the top of their game because crappy jockeys don’t get rides in the Derby. So, look at the jockey’s record, particularly in the Derby (if you can find it), in a large field (like the Derby will be), and on the horse he/she is riding.
3. Ignore breeding and the trainer: Sure guys like Baffert and D. Wayne are great trainers, but horses are not machines, once a horse learns to race, it is up to the horse to run, not the trainer. Trainers set the schedule for the horse to race and practice, but remember, the horse is the most important thing. As for breeding, if you have enough time on your hands to figure out how breeding will play into the Derby, please go find your local Gamblers’ Anonymous chapter.
4. Read a little from the experts: Not for picks, because your gut is usually the best thing for you to follow, but you want to know what kind of race should occur. Take last year for example, because of the speed of Spanish Chestnut, everyone expected the pace at the start to be incredible. This meant that most of the speed horses would be gone by the final turn and it would be left to the closers or stalkers to win. Because of the very fast past, most of the stalkers wore themselves out and Giacomo, a closer, won the race. While Giacomo was a longshot to win last year, it was simply because the chalk was on better known closers. Either way, you could get narrow down the list of horses that were possible winners. (Oh and remember to look at the weather reports, a muddy track will slow the race down)
5. Vary up your bets: Just like the stock market, a little diversification will help. You can lay straight bets all day if you want, but try an exacta or trifecta. Boxing them will increase your odds. If you want to get super exotic, try a daily double and just guess on a horse in one of the other races. Really, like all gambling, the purpose shouldn’t be to make money because you will not win money gambling. No, the purpose should be to have a little fun and create a little excitement for yourself.

As for yours truly, here is how I am following my rules:

The favorite is Brother Derek at 3-1, close behind are Barbaro and Lawyer Ron at 4-1. Brother Derek is out for me.

The jockey lineup is Rafeal Bejarano on Point Determined, Garrett Gomez on Bob and John, Corey Nakatani on A.P. Warrior, Kent Desormeaux on Sweetnorthernsaint, and John McKee on Lawyer Ron. Bejarano has one previous mount in the Derby, he finished 8th on Andromeda's Hero in 2005. Garrett Gomez has been around for a long time, but only has two Derby starts and has never finished in the money (1994 - Southern Rhythm, 1995 - Dazzling Falls). Corey Nakatani has had 10 rides at Churchill Downs for the Derby. He has finished in the money twice in 1991 on Green Alligator and in 1998 on Halory Hunter. Kent Desormeaux is a two time Derby winner (1998 - Real Quiet, 2000 - Fusaichi Pegasus), has a third place finish, and three fifth place finishes. Finally, John McKee is making his third start on Saturday. He has two 13th place finishes in the last two years. Obviously, the most successful jockey is Desormeaux. However, Corey Nakatani has a lot of experience with a few instances of coming close to winning.

The experts are predicting a very frenetic pace at the beginning with Sinister Minister, Sharp Humor, and Keyed Entry probably leading the pack at the half way point. However, I don’t think the pace will be near as fast as last year, which means that a stalker is a likely candidate.

So where does that leave me? Well, I’m going with Sweetnorthernsaint. I like Kent Desormeaux, he usually gets the best out of horse and should get a good ride around the track. Plus, the horse has not been run that much and has done well in all his races. In the end this is a guessing game, it always is, but you go with your gut and mine says, Sweetnorthernsaint.

As for the bets, I’m going with win bets on Sweethnorthernsaint and Lawyer Ron. I will also play two box trifectas. The first trifecta will be Lawyer Ron, Point Determined, and A.P. Warrior. The second trifecta will be A.P. Warrior, Sweethnorthernsaint, and Lawyer Ron.

What's Coming Up This Weekend?

Other than baseball, basketball playoffs, and golf, two big sporting events this weekend need to be discussed.


The first is probably the least heralded major sporting event in the country, the Kentucky Derby, or as they refer to it in Lou-ah-vul, the Debry. I could go on and on, but Kanu over at “Dodgy At Best” has been doing yeoman’s work concerning the Derby.

I have started my research and should give you my picks tomorrow, but for right now, I’m saying the early favorites are (in no particular order):

1. Lawyer Ron
2. Sweetnorthern Saint
3. Point Determined
4. Brother Derek
5. A.P. Warrior
6. Bob and John

Yeah, six horses. Clearly, I have a lot of research to do.



The second sporting event this weekend that will draw some folks in is the De La Hoya/Mayorga fight on Saturday night.

It is very difficult to handicap this fight. De La Hoya hasn’t fought in over a year and a half and his last fight was in a higher weight class (middleweight rather than junior middleweight) and he lost to Fernado Vargas, his only KO loss. Meanwhile, the never-at-a-loss-for-words Mayorga is coming in after winning the WBC title last August, but is not even in the top three of his division.

Clearly, De La Hoya should have never fought Vargas. The step-up in weight was too much. But the fact remains that he is 6-4 since 1998 (granted, he should be 7-3 if not for sheer stupidity against Felix Trinidad). This is not a good trend for those in the De La Hoya camp.

Luckily for Mayorga his boxing is as sharp as his tongue. There is little doubt that these two don’t like each other and Mayorga has been doing plenty to contribute to the animosity.

I like Mayoraga to overcome De La Hoya, but the man has pride and with some questioning how great he really is and Mayoraga questioning his manhood, don’t be surprised if “The Golden Boy” shows up and gets a victory.

Well Crap

Went to the "Juice Box" last night and witnessed a great game when I thought there wouldn't be one. After the first inning, I considered leaving. I'm glad I didn't. With the exception of Jason Marquis' first inning, this was some great baseball. A little bit of everything including an Albert Pujols/Brad Lidge face off. I guess the score is even now. Although both seem eager to move on.

Personally, I love these two teams. They are respectful of each other, each has great players, and they generally play great games. Let's hope the rest of their games this year are as good as what I witnessed last night. Of course, I'm hoping the Redbirds are on the winning side.

Earl Woods (1932-2006)

Take a minute out of your day to say a prayer for Tiger Woods, his mother, and his family. I don’t think anything can prepare you for the loss of someone so close to you. Tiger will of course be strong publicly, but in private, you know he is hurting deeply.

Great, No Baseball Tonight for Me This Week

I hate it when the Red Sox and the Yankees meet. The executives at the Worldwide Leader get all gooey inside just dreaming of these games. Did you know, there are no other baseball teams than New York and Boston?

Tired storylines that will get drug out this week:

1. Johnny Damon coming back to Fenway.
2. Pedro going postal on The Zim.
3. Did you know that Babe Ruth played for Boston at one time.
4. Boston coming back from 0-3.
5. Who is Clemens pitching for this year?

Auburn in the NFL Draft

What a difference a year makes.

The NFL draft came and went. Congratulations to Marcus McNeill (San Diego), Ben Obamanu (Seattle), Devin Aromashodu, and Stanley McClover (Carolina). “The Predator” will be a good pick up for Carolina. He is an excellent situational pass rusher and will make a name for himself. Especially, if he is on the opposite side of the line from Peppers. After being projected in the 3rd or 4th round it is a little surprising that teams waited on him, but he is not particularly big and for that reason he will be somewhat useless against the run.

Several other players made it onto the free agent signing list of some teams: Anthony Mix (Giants), Jake Slaughter (Chiefs), Travis Williams (Atlanta), and Tommy Jackson (Atlanta). Antarrious Williams and Cooper Wallace are also expected to get free agent deals. McNeill and McClover will need to prove themselves in drills and at camp. For Obamanu, Aromashodu, and the others, they better like special teams. You would like to see all these guys catch on, but it won’t happen. Good luck to all of them and thanks for the memories.

Redbirds Update

After you get by the amazing start by the White Sox and slobbering over the start of the Astros and Reds, there is the case of the Redbirds. A franchise record for wins in April is nothing to scoff at, especially considering that this team has not played very well from an offensive standpoint. Other than Pujols (0.346), the team is batting 0.255. The pitching has been solid (Team ERA is 3rd in the majors), outside of Izzy, but offensively the team has been terrible. The last few games the rest of the team has started to pick it up a little, particularly Jim Edmonds who is off a 2 for 5 effort yesterday. Here’s to hoping that continues because this week’s schedule is going to be tough, at the Reds for two games and then a two game set in Houston. If the Redbirds go 2-2 I think we could consider it a success.

I personally will be attending the game on Wednesday. Go Cards.

What to do all day at work? What to do all day at work? What to do.....

For those of us who are chained to our desks all day fiddling with Excel spreadsheets, this is manna from heaven. I think I’m going to try two or three of these today.