Cobra Brigade: Blogging the Cubs, Bulls, Colts and more.

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Cobra Crackdown: 4th of July Edition

An open letter to my peoples.

Where is Ted Williams when you need him?

Cobra Crackdown: Supermarket Sweep Edition

USA Soccer beats Spain

The good internet.

Cobra Crackdown: Say It Ain't So(sa).....Who Cares? Bears Moving To My House?

The Proper Amount of Cleavage

The legitimacy of "Would you FU@# it" and the worst piece of internet I have ever seen.

2 Biggest questions for the Colts

Cobra Crackdown - I Made A Little Girl Cry and Blogger vs. Ibanez Stuff

Does anyone have a pair of cleats NOT made in China.

Why remember D-Day?

The Cobra Crackdown

The Awesomeness/Madness Begins

Cobra Crackdown: 4th of July Edition

(You get this a day early because of the holiday)

I'll be honest with you, I haven't had that many memorable 4th of July's. I wasn't a kid who was big on setting off fireworks and many of my weekends growing up were filled with baseball tournaments so I didn't spend much time watching fireworks shows and doing whatever makes 4th of July memorable for most of you. But.....I did have one very, very memorable 4th of July and it includes wiffle ball and 'The Creature from the Black Lagoon'. Keep reading to hear the story and to catch up on some sports related stuff......

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Published on July 1, 2009 at 8:58 AM
By Jack Cobra

An open letter to my peoples.

On Sunday, July 5th, Bruce Paine will be hosting a flag football contest at Bryan Park in Bloomington, Indiana. Time for kickoff will be around 2 bells so everybody can get some prayin in. I will assume refreshments will be provided to some degree either on site or at Hot Tub's shack. Most of you will be getting phone calls to confirm or deny your attendance throughout the week.

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Published on June 29, 2009 at 11:17 PM
By Bruce Paine

Where is Ted Williams when you need him?

I have been thinking a lot about hitting lately. Can't say why exactly. The most readily apparent reason would be that my hitting with the MCP Fighting Cocks has been really inconsistent. I drive the ball well one day, the next day I am popping up and hitting ducks off the neck of the bat. That really isn't the whole reason, though. I have been thinking a lot about hitting all year. Some of it has to do with seeing so many Albert Pujols at bats.

One day I was sitting watching Pujols bat against the Brewers, and he was just magic. I sent Jack Cobra a text message posing this question,

"Is there any debate to the statement 'Albert Pujols is the best hitter in baseball'?" to which Jack replied,

"None." I then asked the question,

"If he is clearly the best, who is second?"

"A-Rod, Manny makes an argument but A-Rod."

I don't know if many of you out there are book readers, but the Ted Williams book The Science of Hitting has been on my mind all summer. When I was a kid, I found a copy in the local library and read it (probably because it was short and had a lot of pictures). Some of its wisdom made an imprint, but mostly I remembered that he was a fan of the hitting of George Brett and Wade Boggs.

Last week, the MCP Fighting Cocks were in trouble. Not only was I playing horribly in the field, which is always hardest on my psyche, but I was throwing at bats away in the purest sense. I was coming up with guys in scoring position and two outs and dinking stuff back to the pitcher. I was popping up on the first pitch. Most of it was clearly mental. The only mechanical thing that was off was that my ahnds were getting a little far off my body, probably because of fatigue due to pretty scorched and humid weather, but it was mostly mental.

Anyway, in three at bats I had ended two innings with pop ups with guys on second and third and I dribbled one to the second baseman. In my fourth at bat, I was so despondant that I stood in the abtters box and decided I was not going to swing. If he struck me out IN A SOFTBALL GAME then I guess he got me. I lucked out. I think the pitcher was expecting me to jump on the first pitch and gave me two wide pitches. By the time he figured out I was taking he had walked me. We ended up losing anyway.

The notion of plate discipline is a key theme to Williams' book, and I think it is good advice he offers. He says a lot of things that make a lot of sense. I don't want to get into it too much because I want people to go out and read the book. It can be done in an hour and has lots of pictures and diagrams. I went out and bought a copy and intend to pass it around to my buddies in an attempt to help them focus. Its just softball, I know, but I want to be better at everything I do. There is always room for improvement despite what all of those exhaustingly satisfied women have told me.

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Published on June 28, 2009 at 10:56 PM
By Bruce Paine

Cobra Crackdown: Supermarket Sweep Edition

Remember back in the day when 'Supermarket Sweep' was on TV and people would run all over the grocery store trying to find the most expensive items to fill their carts with so that they would win? Well, the NBA Draft is tonight and it's the complete opposite of Supermarket Sweep. Instead of teams racing around trying to find the most expensive, bestest item.....you'll see them trying to find a way to trade a 24 oz Filet Mignon (high draft pick) for a bar of soap (very little). Does that make for good TV? No it does not. I encourage you to boycott the draft tonight. This might be the worst draft (in any sport) since you've been alive.

Let's get onto some other subjects after the jump.....

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Published on June 25, 2009 at 5:47 AM
By Jack Cobra

USA Soccer beats Spain

Its why you play the games. Just got done watching it, knowing the outcome of course, It was taped off of a Spanish language station by my sister and we sat down and watched it tonight. As the broadcast begins, she started to chuckle. Evidently the announcer had suggested that the childish Americans should capitulate so everyone could go home. I am sure USA Soccer has gotten that suggestion before. Not so fast this time around, though. One thing about sports, pretty much any sport really, is: if you have athletes, you can play defense. That is exactly was USA did. When they were on the defensive, their very athletic defensemen were very physical with Spain. Xavi has elbow shaped bruises all over him tonight. And when the USA was on offense, they just ran an old fashion fast break. When Dempsey (pride of Nacogdoches, Texas) or Donovan got the ball, there was no thinking, no form or technique, just go. Such a blunt and inelegant game was just enough to make the difference, and was effective because it gave the USA, which strikes well, chances they would otherwise not get because of Spain's ballhandling (It should be noted, Spain maintains possession for most of the game, and gets many more shots, but they are all wide flank shots and USA is so aggressive Spain's possession time, while extensive, was not fruitful). No, soccer is not much of a market share in the US, but if you can play defense in any sport you have a chance to win.

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Published on June 24, 2009 at 10:40 PM
By Bruce Paine

The good internet.

I was pissed about the internet last week because there is a lot of the internet that is stupid. Mostly it is bad sports blogs, bad mass media websites, poor filtering and framing, and most American pornography. But, I must admit to good internet when I see it. Peter King has a pretty good completion percentage. I think he connects on about 64% of his throws. That is not bad at all. Given that logic, Monday Morning QB is not a bad column, it is good column. Today, it had this article about the Ronin nature of Derrick Brooks. I found this article to be a very good read, in particular is the insight provided by Warren Sapp about the mindset of young players. I would ask people to read that very closely.

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Published on June 22, 2009 at 7:03 PM
By Bruce Paine

Cobra Crackdown: Say It Ain't So(sa).....Who Cares? Bears Moving To My House?

If you just realized this week that Sammy Sosa was using PED's while with the Cubs then you are not just dumb but you are a bad human being. This is not new news and really, this isn't news to anyone with an IQ higher than 42. I'll even go a step further and say that anyone who liked Sosa as a player was borderline retarded.

What will be news is when another name comes out and that player fights the crap out of it and makes MLB give out all the names. Until that happens, Raul Ibanez, don't bother to wake me up. Let's hit on some of the other stuff that's happening around the world of sports....or something like that.

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Published on June 18, 2009 at 7:43 AM
By Jack Cobra

The Proper Amount of Cleavage

Perhaps the coolest thing on the internet right now is Erin at Robots Took My Medicine getting to spend the day as the guest blogger at Dodger Stadium. All-Access is the secret word (aaaaaaaahhhhhh) and she questions her own agenda while being surrounded by the meat locker that is a Major League clubhouse. "He didn't read the scouting report!" Freaking hilarious. Anyway, she has the kind of access for one day that any real team fanatic would dream of. What does she do?

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Published on June 18, 2009 at 6:00 AM
By Bruce Paine

The legitimacy of "Would you FU@# it" and the worst piece of internet I have ever seen.

Inside Bruce Paine incites riot and offers and example of why large scale sports media is broken.

You answered "yes" to the question. But, what you may not know, is that she was her high school valedictorian and received a full academic scholarship to Northwestern University to study chemical engineering. She dropped out so she could redefine the modeling industry. She is still hot, too. I totally want to talk about the role of mitochondrial adenosine triphosphate during the Krebs Cycle.

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Published on June 16, 2009 at 9:03 PM
By Bruce Paine

2 Biggest questions for the Colts

Heading into training camp, the two biggest questions facing the Colts are not the questions most media outlets are throwing at you. Time for some truthification.

Myth #1: The Colts have to find a receiver amongst their children. I see "analysts" talk about how the Colts have to find someone to play outside receiver and how they have lost so much with Harrison out. This is not true. Any person who watched the Colts play last season knows that Marvin was a very small portion of the offense. He had numbers nearly identical to Gonzalez who only played part time. In reality, the Colts already have their receiving corps and it is none of the new guys. Gonzo and Wayne are split out and Dallas Clark is our slot receiver. Gijon Robinson is our tight end. I am willing to wager that the percentage of downs played by Roy Hall, Pierre Garcon, and Austin Collie will add up to less than 25%.

Myth #2: The coaching changes will derail the Colts. The Colts staff from the Dungy era is out. That is a special teams coach, a defensive coordinator, and about four lesser assistants. In addition, the only offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Manning has ever known in the NFL are gone. This is all supposed to be catastrophic. Not so fast, my friend. In reality, I think the staff has upgraded at the defensive coordinator spot to the benefit of all. This young group needs a firey guy, and the old guy (Ron Meeks) was not it. Meeks has moved on to Carolina, where he will have more control than he did under Dungy. Coyer gets to come to a team with more continuity and a history of backing its coaches. Sure, Shanahan had vast support in Denver, but that was being undermined over the last three years and with the new management the party was over. Coyer will get three good years to make an impression so he doesn't have to sweat early failures. Mudd will be moved into his consultant's role and will probably do mroe grooming than coaching. Moore may get moved to the box, but five will get you ten that his voice is one of those in Peyton's ear on Sunday. Have you ever noticed how Baltimore is able to go after character risky free agents, whether they get them or not? It is because they have confidence in the limitless leadership of Ray Lewis to straighten them out. The Colts have confidence in the limitless mastery of Manning over his position. Manning runs the show, the staff tweeks buttons. Things will be alright.

Reality is inside.

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Published on June 15, 2009 at 8:16 PM
By Bruce Paine

Cobra Crackdown - I Made A Little Girl Cry and Blogger vs. Ibanez Stuff

(Still open to suggestions on the title of this weekly endeavor. I guess maybe these will be on Thursday's now?)

Well, it finally happened yesterday....I got to the end of my rope and I couldn't hang on any longer. I made a little girl cry in my neighborhood. Here's the thing, I love kids. I think they can infuse energy into just about anyone. If you don't believe that, look at the faces of grandparents when their grandchildren enter the room. When I was in college I worked as a Summer day camp counselor for two years and also for one Winter as afternoon help. I loved being around the kids and it was the best job I've ever had. Let me say that again, it was the best job I've ever had. Not because of the awesome field trips, not because of my hot female co-workers, not because I was essentially making money while getting a tan. Ok, maybe those were all good reasons but it was mostly because of the kids.

What made me go off the deep end yesterday to the point of making a little girl cry.....as always, keep reading to find out about that and various sports stuff.

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Published on June 11, 2009 at 8:35 AM
By Jack Cobra

Does anyone have a pair of cleats NOT made in China.

I have an old pair of cleats I have been using for quite a while now, and they are falling apart. I need a new pair so I dug into my clothing budget and decided I could spend roughly $70 on a new pair of cleats. I went to four stores today, and what do you know, not a single pair of cleats from any of the five available shoe manufacturers were made in a country that isn't China. Nike, Reebok, Adidas, Under Armor, and Easton only had shoes made in China in EVERY price range, not just my own. I was shocked. I couldn't even find any love for the Cambodias, Viet Nams, Thailands or Indonesias of the world. I am not necessarily anti-Chinese, but I am pro America, and there is a vested interest in dealing with trade partners that are not China and pay closer attention to our trade and labor interests. As such, I attempt to spend my money on things I NEED, not things I WANT, and I try to avoid spending money on Chinese goods or going to big box sweatshops like WalMart. That said, after about 90 minutes of internet research, I cannot find a single company that can offer me a viable solution.

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Published on June 9, 2009 at 9:48 PM
By Bruce Paine

Why remember D-Day?

On June 5th, 1944, my great-uncle Jim, known to everyone in the community as Uncle Jim, was eating all the ice cream he could eat on a dock in England. It had happened only once before in his entire life that he had been allowed to eat all the ice cream he could. He had been 6, and he was too sick to attend a church social he had been looking forward to. His mother made him ice cream. This was his only thought on that night, and he knew, from that alone, that he would die the next day on a French beach.

We don't always do a good job of telling the truth about history. Sometimes the realities we create at one moment in time are not always as palatable in another moment. Because of that, we make legends out of one person's actions for perhaps the wrong reasons and we gloss over or ignore the more definitive factors. Inside I will discuss it more.

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Published on June 6, 2009 at 11:01 AM
By Bruce Paine

The Cobra Crackdown

(I don't know, still working on the title. I'm willing to take advice.)

So, here is what we'll do.....every Friday I'll try to throw together a post about something newsworthy that is happening or is going to happen in the world of sports. I'll give you a paragraph or two about that and then I'm going to try to give you some quick hitters, or, things to watch out for. We'll see how it goes. I'm like water baby, I adapt to my environment.

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Published on June 5, 2009 at 9:22 AM
By Jack Cobra

The Awesomeness/Madness Begins

(Still trying to find my way around things here. It's not like riding a bicycle. You get this a day early as I have meetings all day tomorrow.)

For those of you not getting married this year, and for those of you with friends, this is the time of the year when your weekends start to be filled with attending weddings and receiving free dinners (and hopefully free drinks). For those of us that are getting married, now is the time of the year when the number crunching starts, the stress levels begin to rise and the vendor payments must be made. Luckily, this is offset by the fact that those five hours you spent registering for gifts months ago will begin to reward you in the form of UPS boxes at your front door when you get home from work and wedding/bridal showers. Keep reading to catch a glimpse of a guy preparing for his first wedding shower.