A look at the Celtics Game 7 tonight, Lock of the Week picks and some thoughts on the 19th anniversary of 9/11
Well here we are again for another Friday blog that I certainly hope I can actually keep up with. Seeing as very few people read last week's post, I'm not hoping out much hope here! No matter. I'm paying for the damn website so I may as well use it for something...or anything really.
Tonight is Game 7 of what's been a pretty good Celtics/Raptors series in spite of the officiating having way too much of a hand in the proceedings. Naturally the NBA has chosen to go with Scott Foster and Zach Zarba as two of the three officials for the game and continue to the tradition of giving refs WAY too much influence. Way too much. Regardless of the officials, the Celtics really should win this game. They played to 2OT in Game 6 and got very little from Kemba Walker (2-11 from the floor, 5 points, 7 assists, 4 boards and 3 turnovers) over 52 minutes so if he plays even close to how he SHOULD than it'll be a relatively easy win. Seriously though, he was awful and they still had a chance to win the game. They've only played one complete game in the whole series and that was game 5 when they ran Toronto out of the gym. I see no reason why that can't happen again, but Foster & Zarba will see to it that that doesn't happen. Take the C's Money Line, -135 tonight and be happy with a win.
Lock of the Week - 9/10
The segment that no one cares about continues! Last week saw picks on the PGA Tour Championship and your humble host was dead wrong. Like an ice cold for a week kind of dead. I didn't think Dustin Johnson could keep up his amazing streak, but I was way off and he rolled through the tournament. Of all the picks made last week, there was only one winner:
9/3 Picks
PGA Tour Championship: (1u each)
Tony Finau - Top 10 +190 - L
Dustin Johnson - Win +200 - W
Justin Thomas - Win +520 - L
Dave LaPaid:
PGA Tour Championship: (1u each)
Webb Simpson - Top 5 +110 - L
Webb Simpson - Win +910 - L
Harris English - Top 10 +135 - L
Long Shot Special: Daniel Berger - Win +2500 - L
Just tossing L's out like Floyd Mayweather. Disastrous.
Anyways, we're back with more shitty picks, but this time it's football!
Scott Banksley:
Las Vegas Raiders -3 Even
Arizona Cardinals +7 -120
Dave LaPaid:
Detroit Lions -1.5 -120
Indianapolis Colts -7.5 -110
Also going to do a Best Bet throughout the football season with Banksley and Jackie Fraudly, Jr. who joined me for Part 1 and Part 2 of the NFL Preview Show earlier this week.
Week 1 Best Bets
Banksley - Chiefs -9...that's already a winner.
Fraudly - Titans PK
LaPaid - Cowboys -3
Should be fun to keep track of this crap all season. Right? Yeah, I know, not really, but again, it's my show!
Remembering 9/11
Hard to believe that it's been 19 years since that incredibly awful day. While it's always said that time heals all wounds, it certainly does nothing to diminish the impact that it had on everyone in this country. It's odd to think back to the weeks and days afterward and how united probably 98% of the country was in just sticking together and being mostly kind to one another while today is the most divisive we've ever been.
Before I get somewhat serious, I've been asked by younger people (see, that's because I'm an old asshole) what it was like that day and I get to regale them with the tale of young Dave who's basically the same as old Dave. I was working full-time at a fucking Burger King and going to community college part-time and was driving to work in my girlfriend's car to work because I didn't have insurance on my car so it was off the road. Pathetic, right? The parallels to old Dave are striking and accurate except now I'm married! Anyways, I was listening to Howard Stern talk about he was certain Pam Anderson wanted to sleep with him when they mentioned a plane hit the first tower. 10 minutes later all hell broke loose and the world was changed forever.
My brother was in the Marine Corps at the time and my thoughts immediately went to him as I was certain like most others that this was an act of war and the inevitable response would drag him and thousands of others into it. What followed that day was months of questions, fear and bullshit that was thrown at the public with almost rapid fire pace. It was frightening and everyone was on edge which we found was part of the reason for the whole plot: to fill Americans will fear and change the way that we lived.
There's a few things that I've read or watched with regularity of the years on this day:
Take some time to remember all of those that lost their lives, the ones they left behind and everyone else that was impacted by that day.
On to the good news of the day. My hope is that this part of the blog is just about animals as this is two weeks in a row so I'll keep up the theme! This one is about a dog that somehow managed to end up on an oil rig 135 miles offshore! The story is amazing and if you don't have a little tear at the sheer joy of it all by the end then you're a cold, heartless monster. Boonrod the Dog
Song of the Day:
With the start of the 20/21 Premier League season upon us on Saturday, I ask that you spend the one minute to see the last time West Ham was more than a joke. The closing of the Boleyn Ground is still tragic and the club has become the laughing stock of the EPL. If we manage to survive the season and stay up it'll be an absolute miracle.
Check out the bonus episode of the much loved EPL preview show coming up!
That'll do so until next week, tah-tah!