The Sixth Cents X (Dime Bag Edition)

Well kiddies, it's been nearly four full weeks since I've posted and I felt I owed you some news. Surely most of you have received the email newsletter updating everyone as to my new job with Chicago Fire Soccer and the new Bridgeview Stadium. Needless to say, I've been way too busy in both my professional and personal life to do any posting, though I have kept myself up to date on the happenings of the sports world. Amy is a part-time nanny while she's in grad school and is currently in Hawaii with one of the families she works for. She's been there for a week and won't be home until Tuesday, so you'd think I'd have had time to write. You'd think. To make up for my crappy posting habits lately, you're getting an expanded Six Cents this week with (some) much shorter stories. We'll call it a Dime Bag. Hopefully I'll be able to get back on schedule and give you real posts soon....
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1. Fire! Fire! Fire!

I'm a corporate account executive here and I'm trying to sell some suites. If you know the decision maker of your company for something like this, please pass along my information, or pass theirs on to me. This stadium is fantastic and is a dual purpose soccer/concert venue. We're excited to bring you world class soccer such as (major press release coming Monday) the MLS All-Stars versus English Premier League leaders Chelsea.

We'll also be bringing you Dave Matthews, U2, and a number of other big bands to our stage. The suites are ridiculously close to the field and run about the same price as a suite in the rafters at the United Center. The price also INCLUDES all the concerts; no other stadium currently offers this.

You can check out my department and renderings of the suites we offer here.
You can check out updated pictures of the construction site here.

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2. Speaking of soccer...wait, that wasn't soccer....

The USA got drilled Wednesday by the Germans in our final road tune-up before the World Cup by the score of 4-1. Lucky for us, Germany brought their entire first team and we used mainly a bunch of scrubs, so I'm not as worried as some people will be.

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3. Speaking of the USA getting drilled...

Japan won the inaugural World Baseball Craptastic. A surprising number of people actually watched this event and it made between $10-15 million. Amazing. The USA finished a fantastic 3-3, losing games to Canada, South Korea and Mexico. I found it nice to know that we have invented another game (let's not forget USA Basketball) that the rest of the world kicks our ass in. Next thing you know our football teams are going to be getting killed by people from Singapore. Okay, that's not going to happen, I know, but maybe someday it will. I'll admit that I did catch a little of the championship game and a little of the Japan-USA tilt in the second round. I must say, these others countries (and their fans) really got into this thing. I guess it may have just been that our players and fans were too arrogant to care?

This, my friends, is the primary reason that the rest of the world hates us!

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4. Speaking of getting drilled....

Ohio State basketball. Now there's a debacle, eh? Not only did the Buckeyes get spanked by a Big East middle of the pack team in the Georgetown Hoyas in the second round (as a #2 seed mind you,) but the LADY Buckeyes, a #1 seed, went down in the second round as well. They lost to Boston College, a #8 seed. This was just the 6th #1 seed in Women's tournament history to go down before the Sweet 16. Unreal.

Thankfully, we have the best recruiting class (for the men) in the country, so this year may have just been a teaser anyways.

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5. Miami Hockey

After losing to Michigan State three times in the past month, including the CCHA Championship game, the Redhawks have dropped to a #2 seed for the tourney and will have to play (most likely) two Boston schools in the first two rounds. They open against #3 seed Boston College on Friday night in BC's backyard of Worcester, Mass. If we win, we'll take on the winner of Boston University and Nebraska-Omaha in that same venue on Saturday. This will likely be BU, the #1 team in the country right now. However, if NO wins, they also have the front-runner for the Hobey Baker award on their roster, which is given to the top player in college hockey. Good luck boys! I hope to see you in Milwaukee.

"Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane."
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6. While we're talking about hockey...

My beloved St. Louis Blues lost for the 48th time last night (11 of which were in OT or shootout.) Why is this significant, you ask? Because St. Louis was mathematically eliminated from playoff contention,even though they'd actually been out for a long time before that. The Blues had reached the playoffs for 25 consecutive years, which was the active streak over all professional sports. It was also the 3,000th game in franchise history.

In other Blues news, my second favorite hockey player of all time (and favorite St. Louis Blue,) Al MacInnis, will have his #2 hung in the rafters at the Savvis Center on Sunday, April 9th. Mac played the final 10 seasons of his 23 NHL seasons with St. Louis, finishing his career as the 3rd highest scoring defensemen in league history behind only Ray Bourque and Paul Coffey. He won the Norris trophy for the league's top defenseman in the 1998-99 season with the Blues and also the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP in his Stanley Cup Championship season of 1988-89 with the Calgary Flames. MacInnis had one of the hardest slap shots in NHL history, but was forced into retirement at the age of 42 when he suffered severe eye injuries, including a detached retina in 2003.

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7. Prince gets sued...it's about time, isn't it?

Carlos Boozer, former Cleveland Cavalier that became ridiculously overpaid with the Utah Jazz after playing with Lebron James, is suing Prince. Apparently the little purple weirdo was renting a house from Boozer and painted the exterior with purple stripes and put his symbol on the front of the house. Okay, so I understand wanting the tenant to return the property to it's original state when you leave it, but sue him? Come on. And here's a better question: why the hell is Prince renting a house from a basketball player for something like $15,000 a month (or so I heard?) Don't you think he could just BUY with that kind of money? Hmmmm.

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8. Newsflash

This just in: Barry Bonds took steroids to break the home run record.

Also, Gary Sheffield may have started taking steroids in 2002.

Anyone who is surprised by either of these repetitious statements....WAKE UP!

Dear ESPN, Can we stop reporting about this? Please? You mean to tell me that there is nothing else that is newsworthy?

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9. K-State = CFU

Former Cincinnati Bearcats basketball coach Bobby Huggins has just been hired as head coach for the Kansas State Wildcats. K-State was already full of thugs, now they will be the new Convicted Fellon University. Awesome. At least an Ohio school won't be the laughing stock of graduation rates anymore.

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10. March Madness

Since my bracket was completely destroyed after the first day, I am now rooting for all of the underdogs...except one. Gonzaga. Quite frankly, I'm sick of these clowns. It's nice to see a sschool from a mid-major conference rise up and compete with the big boys, but if I hear one more announcer call them "America's team" I'm going to vomit. Seriously, they only had one year where they actually outplayed expectations. Since then, they've been kind of a disappointment. They haven't outplayed their seed since that Elite Eight run a few years back, and last night they blew a 17-point lead to lose 73-71.

I'm also very glad Duke went down, but not for the same reasons as the Duke haters. I just wanted everyone's brackets to implode since mine already had. I'll be honest, I had Duke in the finals of every single bracket I filled out, but so what? While I do get a kick out of listening to the Dukies and their fans cry like babies, I especially enjoy all the Duke haters out there that trash talk and then STILL have them in the finals of their bracket. Very amusing.

Tonight I'm rooting for Washington, Wichita State, Villanova (because I can't root for a Boston team) and Georgetown.