Everybody has a hard time sometime...

Just look no further than the Dodgers. If you need any evidence of their piss-poor performances so far, then look no further than the NL West standings. Dead last. In a weak NL West. 5 games below .500. Just what the hell is going on? All I know is that when our bats are on, our arms off. Unfortunately for all of us their arms have been off all season and this means our bats have to be on all the time which is asking way too much. The middle of our rotation, a strength last year, has become a glaring weakness as they struggle to hold leads and limit runs. We need them to turn it around QUICK because I can't stand the fact that the Padres are in first right now.

There's no need to explain this. The picture says it all.

Lake Show
So the Lakers waltzed into Oklahoma City tonight and beat the Thunder 95-94. Heck YES. I thought that the Lakers would win, but they did it in dramatic fashion as Pau Gasol had a put-back with .5 seconds left. Awesome. It's about time that the Lakers put two good games together. I know that they have some kind of Jekyll and Hyde persona, but this is the playoffs. It's time to buck up and win. I hope that these type of performances continue on our run towards another title. Even Luke Walton (Luke!) stepped up tonight with good hustle and some clutch shots.

People say Luke is in the NBA because of his dad, but I like to think that NBA execs said "We need more curly haired guys in the league!" A 'super-secret curly hair deal' if you will.

Quick Hits
- The Jazz defeated the Nuggets tonight 112-104. I love it. Two of the Lakers biggest threats in the West (in my humble opinion) have been eliminated from the playoffs on consecutive nights - the Spurs over the Mavericks and now the Jazz over the Nuggets. The stars are aligning for a 3rd consecutive trip to the championship. Of course, the Lakers aren't probably thinking this way as they look towards their next game (Sunday against the Jazz in Round 2). However, I firmly believe it is my job as a fan to look ahead and speculate. Much like a future-seeing wizard person. Like Nostradamus.

Put a Lakers jersey on him and you've got me. Also, shave his beard and paint him about 20 years younger.

- I'm a pretty big fan of bashing Notre Dame whenever I get the chance. Maybe it was the fact that I grew up as a fan of USC or maybe the fact that I could never get over how stupid that Irish mascot looked. However, it has recently come to my attention that Notre Dame has had enough of people making fun of them that they decided to show everyone what true school spirit looked like. In an attempt that would the 80's blush, this is Notre Dame at it's finest (read: worst). I'll let the video do the bashing for me.

They need to fire the guy who came up with this. How embarrassing.

- I can't stand Bono. You know, the lead singer for that overrated band, U2. I try not to listen to him whenever I have the chance, but he's somehow weaseled his way into becoming the spokesperson for the World Cup. UGH. Every World Cup commercial has him doing the narration. Take something you love and combine it with something you hate. Yeah, that's what it's like for me. Hopefully we'll be spared from interviews with Bono by the time that the World Cup starts. Hopefully.

Song
Today's title comes from the song "Everybody Gets the Blues" by the Kenny Wayne Shepard Band.

Better believe it...

The Baylor Athletic department recently came out with a highlight video of the men's basketball season. Man, what a great year. Just a quick recap: We were picked to finish 10th in the league in the preseason but finished 2nd and made a trip to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament. A year that gave us many memories and special moments which mesh beautifully in this video.

I won't lie to you - I shed a tear after watching this.

Quick Hits
- The Lakers destroyed the Thunder tonight 111-87 in Game 5 of the playoffs. So far, home court has been pretty darn important as each team has won their games at home. The Lake show will hope to buck this trend on Friday when they go back to Oklahoma City on Friday for Game 6, but I doubt that the Thunder (especially Kevin Durant) will be so accommodating. Expect a tough one.

- In a dominating and somewhat boring match, Bayern Munich beat Olympique Lyon 3-0 (nil for you non-soccer fans) in the 2nd leg of their semifinal clash in the Champions League. Olic scored the hat trick for Bayern who utterly outclassed Lyon in the latter parts of the first half and for the whole of the second half. Overall, Bayern won 4-0 on aggregate.
For those of you not familiar with how soccer tournaments work, teams usually play two games - the total score is known as the "aggregate". In this case, Bayern won 1-0 in the first game and 3-0 in the second meaning they won 4-0 overall. This is obviously not the system in the World Cup which uses a one game elimination in their playoffs. The Champions League can best be described as the World Cup of European club soccer. Each European country has the opportunity to enter their best club (sometimes 2 or 3 or 4) into the continent-wide tournament. Not only are bragging rights for the country on the line, but also the title for "best club in Europe". Can you imagine being named the best at a sport that a continent is crazy about? Yeah, wrap your head around that for a second.

- In the second semifinal played tomorrow, Barcelona will have to overcome a 3-1 aggregate score over red-hot Inter Milan in order to have a chance to repeat as European champions. I expect a high-flying match where the first 30 minutes will see Inter desperately defending an all-out attack by Barca. Even though 3-1 is a huge lead in soccer, Barca has the players and track record to score quickly and often. Tomorrow's match should be an exciting one.

- In not so surprising news, the Oakland Raiders are reportedly about to release draft bust Jamarcus Russell. A quarterback with a strong arm, big body, and not so great work ethic, Russell will still be paid at least 3 million this year making it a total of 39 million since 2007. I wish I got paid that much to be lousy at my job.

Maybe if he spent as much time on the practice field as he did in the jewelry store he'd actually win some games. Maybe.

The End
Today's title comes from the song of the same name by Lil Boosie. You better believe we had a damn good season in Baylor basketball (oh, the women's team made it to the Final Four also). Expect more of the same next year... I hope.