Monday Grab Bag: It's so hot that the State caught fire

There are nine fires roaring in Colorado right now.  NINE FIRES.  To say it's hot and dry in the CO would be an understatement.  Also, it's only June; two more months of this shit to go. Come September there may not be any of this State left unburnt.  I'm thisclose to making pagan-style sacrifices for a little sustained rain...

Today in the bag I'm talking LeBron, the Euros, and My Sox before briefly touching on a quick hoops note.

Click below for the bag...




 LeBron is still an insufferable douche, he just now comes with a ring - 


Congrats to the Heat.  They put a strangle-hold on the usually effusive Thunder, and steam-rolled to the title.  I thought for sure that OKC would find it in themselves to take one in South Beach, but, every time the 4th quarter rolled around, Kevin Durant was left playing the one-man-band.

Title now secured, LeBron defaulted back to insufferable douche mode.  Enabled once again by ESPN, the "King" was seen donning self-licensed championship clothing, apparently unaware that he plays on a fucking team.  Look at his shirt:

Do you see one Heat logo anywhere on that shit?  What a tool.  He's just completely oblivious, isn't he?  Like Jordan wearing the Hitler-stache, dude needs someone in his entourage that knows how to pump his brakes.  I now live to see Derrick Rose eviscerate him in the coming years.


England ousted from the Euros on penalties - 

While yet another day of record temps belted the Front Range, England was bounced from the Euros in typically head-shaking penalty fashion.  The country that invented the sport is famously inept in shootouts, and Sunday proved no different.

After 120 minutes of scoreless futbol, Italy and England headed to the spot with a semi-final match with Germany on the line.  Somehow, the English eeked out a 2-1 lead ofter two rounds, but an Ashley Young shot off the crossbar got the ball rolling in the wrong direction.  Three consecutive Italy makes, along with an easily blocked shot from Ashley Cole (they sure do seem to like the name "Ashley" in the UK), sealed the deal.

*cue the Price is Right fail horn*

Italy may have played the better game, but it's always painful to see a team wash out on pens.  You would think, after two decades of penalty failures, that a generation of English youths would be raised to change the fortunes, but the Limey mental block from the spot continues.


Sox win; grab Youkilis - 


Bouncing back from two weeks of frustrating baseball, My Sox grabbed the weekend series from Milwaukee, and are now back in first place (for the moment).  It was a very entertaining series, featuring a rare pair of scoreless-through-nine-innings games.  For a team (My Sox) who have been surprisingly awful in home games, it was nice to see them take a well-played series on the South Side.

Of course the big news from the weekend was the acquisition of the rotting corpse of Kevin Youkilis' career.  The three-time All-Star is a shell of his former shelf, battling injuries and declining performance to career-worst levels at the plate.  Yet, still, he offers up a vast improvement over what any of the current Sox are offering at the hot corner.  Through 72 games this season, White Sox 3rd basemen (the tantalizing trio of Brent Morel, Eduardo Escobar, and Orlando Hudson) have combined to hit a craptacular .168 with one homer and 18 RBI's.  That's good for worst-in-baseball status in all three categories (what's more, those numbers make it seem better than it's been).

Hey, look, it's not Brent Morel!

What I'm trying to say is that he can't be any worse that what we've already got.  That My Sox only gave up a garbage pitching prospect and a struggling utility man to get him (with the Red Sawx picking up over $5 million of Youk's remaining salary) only sweetens the deal.  Welcome to the Southside, Youk!


BDC article on Eli Stalzer - 

Up on the Camera, Thorburn comes through with a look at freshman point guard Eli Stalzer.  The lesser known of the six fresh faces in training camp, Stalzer (along with fellow Buff newbie Xavier Johnson) comes to Boulder from state title holding  Mater Dei in California.  The article includes a very interesting video which gives the impression that Stalzer is as shocked as anyone that he was afforded a Pac-12 scholarship.

Boyle hopes he found a diamond-in-the-rough in Stalzer.  From: the BDC

It's a solid effort from the BasketBuffs beat reporter, and it's some of the best basketball reporting produced by anyone in over a month (which isn't saying much).  Check it out.


Happy Monday!