Big 12 North Football

I am embarrassed because I am going to have to cheat. I am not going to take the time to explain why I like the schools to finish where I pick them, I will just pick them. It is hard to get motivated to write a page or two about every team. Anyways this is how I see the Big 12 North palying out.

6. Iowa State

5. Colorado

4. Kansas State

3. Kansas

2. Nebraska

1. Missouri

Watch out for Colorado with second year head coach Dan Hawkins, they could surprise some people and finish as high as 3rd.

Texas and Missouri will meet in the title game and it will be closer than you think. Missouri will have the talent to keep it close. Texas wins the Big 12 title game to take home it 2nd title in 3 years.

Movies

Die Hard 4 comes out later this summer. In the commercials they show a car crashing into a helicopter some 30 feet in the air. I saw Pirates Of Caribean earlier this year, and it is one of the worst movies ever made, it is absolute garbage. I heard that Spider Man 3 total crap, and the Fantastic 4 was horrible. My point is, is that they can't make good movies anymore. I had not seen a movie in the theatre since Pirates of Caribean 2, and then wasted a trip on the third movie. Hollywood is in kind of a funk right now. They can't make a good movie, kind of like the early '80's. The 1980's was a dark period in cinematic history. In 1984 Amadeus won best picture, I bet 99% of the people that read this did not that, and I bet 100% of them have not seen it. Another acadamy award winner was Chariots of Fire. Flash forward to 2006 and 2007 and it is in same lull. I was wondering that with 100 years of film making are there any original ideas out there. Original believable ideas. The movies today are made to generate money not to be good, they are entertainment. Made to get people in the theatre. I doubt I go see anymore movies this summer, none of them look any good. I am going to list the five best movies made in my lifetime with the thought of, is the best days of cinema behind us.

5. Gladiator (When Maximus takes off his mask and Cesar sees who he is; absolutely classic)

4. Forrest Gump

3. Cold Mountain

2. Crash

1. All The Pretty Horses (on this there is no debate, its like Secretariats run at the Kentucky Derby. The only debate is what is second).

Feel free to submit your own ideas, I would like to hear them. As you can see my movies have had some success in the Acadamy Awards, but they don't have to have had Oscars success. Hopefully Hoolywood will break out of their slump, but with summer releases such as Transformers, and Fantastic 4 it doesn't look like it will happen anytime soon.

OSU Baseball

Oklahoma State played its 3 game super regional at Louisville, (pronounced Looeyville unless you are from there then it is Looaville)vying for their first trip to Omaha since 1999. The Cowboys played 30 innings and were outscored 31 to 5 and actually won a game. Pitching was the Pokes downfall but their offense was bad as well. 4 of their 5 runs came on solo home runs. They couldn't get anybody on base and when they did they were thrown out stealing or they hit into double plays. I have watched 4 games of the Cowboys this season and they lost 3 of them. I should give them credit though, after they dropped 6 straight heading into the regional I wrote them off for dead. But they swept the regional and I liked their chances against the upstart Cardinals. Today the Cowboys pitching gave up 21 hits and 20 runs and were never in the ballgame. In the Cowboys pitchers defense, Roger Clemens would had given up runs to the Louisville Cardinals. They were aggressive at the plate and hit the ball hard. The umpire would not call a strike if the pitch was a little low and when the cowboy pitchers raised it up in the zone the Louisville batters crushed it. I am surprised the game is still not going, as write this at 10:30 p.m., they were that hard to get out. If Louisville stays this hot, don't be surprised if they win the national title. In the second game though OSU pitchers Justin Friend and Jordy Mercer shut them down only allowing 2 runs both of them unearned. OSU needed a solo shot in the top of the ninth to tie the game. In the 12th inning OSU scored an unearned run to win the game. In the opening game Louisville routed the Cowboys 9 to 0. I guess all in all OSU had a successful season, but with 11 drafted players and several seniors the cupboard is farely bare for next year. OSU played well at times, taking 2 of 3 from A & M, and sweeping OU and Texas Tech. However, they got swept by Missouri and Texas, with the indelible image of players in the dugout yelling profanities at the umpires after calling a balk on the OSU pitcher allowing the go ahead run cross the plate and head coach Frank Anderson was ejected. The year had a lot of promise at times, but ended as the season of what could have been.