Offseason Caption Contest Part I

A hearty congrats to whoever comes up with the best caption of the photo below.

Hornays Take Game 1

Royal Ivey = CP3?

This was going to be a post about where all the Deadspin commenters can stick Kevin Durant's 42-point finale. Instead, it's going to be something more tasteful.

Apparently Royal Ivey has something in common with Chris Paul.

Clearly Royal With Cheese is thinking that Chris Paul is the best PG in the game, Royal Ivey is not. Chris Paul once punched a dude in the nuts, Royal Ivey should do just that.

We say good for him, and we fully expect to see significant improvements in his game after his suspension is up.

This Just In: The Cardinals Rule

The St. Louis Cardinals, picked to finish fourth or fifth in the NL Central by most people who do predictions, share the Majors' best record with Arizona at 10-4. They have begun the season by winning their first three series and splitting a four-game set with the Giants. Tony La Russa is is always talking about just trying to win series, because if you consistently take 2-of-3 you're going to finish the seaosn with a whole lot of wins. The Cards are doing just that so far this year, winning games behind their surprising--nay, shocking--starting pitching rotation. Guys like Todd Wellemeyer, Kyle Lohse, and Braden Looper have been beyond solid, and Adam Wainwright really looks like he is developing into the squad's long-term ace. Are we still bitter about the team trading Danny Haren to Oakland? Yes. Does winning without him make us forget him a little at a time? You bet.

Obviously, it's still very possible that all the naysayers will turn out to have been right. It's only April and a lot of teams start off like a house afire only to cool off quickly as the season grinds on. A fifth place finish is still very realistic. But if, somehow, the pitchers can keep producing and a couple of guys named Mulder and Carpenter can come back at full strength at or before mid-season, this may turn out to be a pleasantly surprising summer for the Redbirds.

Either way, for now it's awesome.

5 Reasons Why This Basketball Season Kicked Butt

Well, we're less than 5 months away from football, with only baseball and summer football to keep us busy. Before we forget about this previous basketball season (STAY DJ! PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STAY!!!), let's review why it was a memorable one:

5) Texas played some elite competition, and beat some elite competition. KU, UCLA, Tennessee, Baylor, the list goes on. There have been years with ho-hum basketball schedules, but this was not one of them.

4) The loss to Memphis was not Rick Barnes' finest as a coach, but this season reminded us fully why we are lucky to have him. He took a lot of heat last season, mostly from Bill Simmons, but his coaching job in the offseason right up to the last day of March was nothing short of beautiful. If DJ and DJ return (we feel probably not on the former, possibly on the latter), Texas will have no excuses for not making the Final Four in 2009.

3) It started off slowly on the first day, but this turned into a fantastic tournament. Texas played 3 great games, WKU hit the shot of all but the tournament's last 5:03, Davidson became America's team, Duke lost in the second round, and UNC and UCLA did not make the championship game. It won't be as near and dear to our hearts as 2003, but it was still an amazing 3 weeks.

2) The championship game was the best in a long time. Billy Packer tried to ruin it, but he failed. We have nothing but respect for KU's program, and had no hard feelings for Memphis after they destroyed Texas. Both teams played a great game and Mario Chalmers did what Mario Chalmers does. 2009 hoops can't start soon enough!

1) It made us believe again. That may be a tad over the top, a tad melodramatic, but this basketball season gave us some bright spots on an otherwise dreary football-dominated landscape. The future is bright for Texas basketball, with or without the DJs.

Happy Birthday To Us

That's right, we're a year old today. We've been through four Deadspin cameos, three fun but title-less major Texas sports seasons, two jobs which don't always make blogging easy, and one year of 40 Acre Sports.

We know we know haven't been all that responsible in posting since moving the majority of our Texas posts over to Burnt Orange Nation, but you've stuck with us and rewarded us with 40,000+ hits.

So here's to a great year of Coach Boom, at least 3 sports titles, and hitting the 100,000 hits mark.

And also: the Cards beat the Nats today. St. Louis is on a 4 game winning streak and has a 4-1 record. Woo!

This Weekend: 40AS Intra-Blog Showdown!

April 4 to April 6, 2008 at New Busch Stadium in St. Louis will see a showdown between the team one of us has loved since he was a tiny tot and the team of which the other of us is a Jeffrey-Come-Lately fan since he moved to Washington, DC.

That's right, the 3-1 Nats visit the 2-1 Cardinals as the Birdos try to stay above .500 for as long as their mediocre roster will allow. It's on like Donkey Kong.

The Tigers are the new Yankees

The 2008 MLB payrolls were announced a few days ago. Not suprisingly the Yankkes were #1 at almost $210 million. After looking at the Yankees we looked down the list and were shocked (shocked!) to see that jbrater's 0-3 Detroit Tigers were #2.

This is so shocking because we just assumed the Red Sox were just like the Yankees. Sure the Yankees are spending $70 million more than the nearest competitor. Sure the Yankees signed MLB's best and pansiest player to a $300+ million contract. Sure the Yankees are jerks. But the Red Sox are just as bad. Now it seems the Tigers are spending a crapload of money. For shame, jbrater. For shame.

Just for kicks let's check out the payroll. We see that the Yankees are clearly #1. We see the difference between the Yankees at #1 and the Tigers at #2 is the same as the Tigers at #2 and the Rangers at #19. The Mets are a close #3, but where are the Red Sox?

Team------------Payroll
N.Y. Yankees------$209,081,579
Detroit-------------$138,685,197
New York Mets----$138,293,378
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Geez they're a long way down
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Boston------------$133,440,037

Really makes you think, huh?

Too Early to Call the Cardinals Snakebit?

The Cardinals have started the season. Stop right there: no matter what comes next in this post, getting to type that first sentence makes us really, really giddy.

But then, there's also the fact that the mighty Cards seem to be on the brink of completing their collapse that began last season and we hope will lead to the long climb back up next season. But there are some reasons to be optimistic: first, the Birdos did finish spring training with a string of nice performances. Second, Kyle Lohse actually threw pretty well last night. And third, we still play in the NL Central, and it's still the worst division in baseball.

But last night the visiting Colorado Rockies frustrated our dreams to at least have a winning record for a day. Those dreams were even more vivid after St. Louis appeared to be in control of Sunday night's season opener only to have the game rained out. So Monday's do-over came along, and Yadier Molina produced the Cardinals' only run with a solo homerun in the 5th. Troy Glaus--who, for those keeping score at home, is not Scott Rolen--made a critical throwing error to allow the tying run to score in the top of the 8th. Then Randy Flores had the unenviable task of coming in from the bullpen with no one out and the bases juiced in a tie ballgame. Randy then proceeded to strike out the first two batters he faced, then walk in the eventual winning run on some brutally close calls by the home plate ump.

That's the nasty thing about Ball: Flores faced 4 guys, got 3 of them out, but still gave up the winning run. At least it wasn't charged to him.

Let the long summer begin.