The Last Shot Podcast update....

This is now the "Classic Blog" of The Last Shot Podcast. We have officially moved to:

http://www.thelastshotpodcast.com

Please join us there and thank you for all your loyal support!

Go Sioux!

Home Run Derby

Well I'm gonna go out on a limb tonight and say Miguel Tejada will win this years home run derby for a second time. David Ortiz is runner up.

UFC 61

What is UFC 61??? Ultimate Fighting Championship not sure what the 61 stands for maybe its big main event. But anyway most people have heard or seen UFC on TV. Its just a rougher tougher WWE, Boxing, or anything else that has to do with boxing. Well anyway the big match of last night was Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock much anticipated since the last time Ortiz whooped Shamrock and in i think it was 2001 and came up with the excuse he was 100% and had torn ACL and was only like 40%. What took them so long to get the second match who knows. So last night was just another butt whooping that Shamrock got and the fight only lasted 1 minute and 8 seconds. Hopefully one thing will come out of this and Shamrock will give the sport up and not get embarrassed anymore. Tim Sylvia also kept his championship belt by defeating Andrei Arlovski. I've started to watch a bit on tv when I come across it.

LeBron to Sign

The biggest signing by far has been Lebron James re-signing with the Cleveland Cavaliers it had been said that he would sign with a big market like the New York Knicks.But now they have one of the best players in the league who was one game away from getting his team past the Detroit Pistons and off to the Eastern Conference Championship. He will sign a 5yr/80 million dollar contract. An ESPN guy said he will bring Cleveland TWO championships in the next 6 years. I don't know about that their are gonna be some good teams the next few year so it will be tough but not impossible. Chris Bosh will also re-sign with the Toronto Raptors and Carmello Anthony with the Nuggets. Dwayne Wade is still in negotiations with the Heat but that should get done soon. So it looks like most of the top picks from that 2003 class will be sticking with their teams that drafted them.

Ben Wallace wearing championship belt with baby Bulls???

Da baby Bulls have signed Ben Wallace to a 4 year 60 million dollar contract. Which is a little more then I think he is worth. The baby Bulls have had a pretty busy off season so far just trading Tyson Chandler to New Orleans for P,J Brown and J.R Smith. They get Tyrus Thomas in the draft who should be able to help the team out right away. With the parts they already have in Hinrich, Gordon, Duhon, and Deng they have a pretty good nucleus with the adds of Wallace, Thomas, and Brown. They gave the WORLD CHAMP a run for their money in the first round going 6 games with the HEAT.

The question is though have they done enough to beat team like the Heat, Pistons, Cavs, and Nets in the playoffs? The Bulls still don't have that all-star like Dwayne Wade, Lebron James, Vince Carter who can take over a game. The Pistons haven't really had one but they were a very very good team defense. Wallace has shown that he can't defend the big man in the East one on one, he is a huge problem when it comes to the offense and free throw line. I really think they are still a few years away from giving a real run to the finals again but the future looks bright for them.

Lariano and Wie...

I'm in complete, 100% and total agreement with Matt about Lariano. A great post on his part!

As for Wie, I think Matt will like this article as much as I do:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=bayless/060703

Mauer and Santana All-Stars but no Lariano????

Congrats to Joe Mauer and Johan Santana on making the all star game. Sorry to Fransisco Lariano for not making the all star game. The kid is 9-1 and a little under 2.00 era tell me how many other guys can say that right now that made it??

Mark Burhele is 9-5 with 51 strike outs 3.86 era
Scott Kazmir 9-5 108 strike outs 3.59 era
Mark Redman 5-4 5.59 era 30 strike outs. ARE YOU SERIOUS??????????
Barry Zito 8-5 88 strike outs 3.28 era

Lariano is 9-1 1.99 era and 94 strike outs

None of those four guys are having better seasons or are more deserving of being a all start then Lariano and it will be a huge snubbing if he isn't the last man voted on. You could debate he is the best pitcher on the Twins staff. So I hope people are smart and get him voted in cause it would be a damn shame.

A better NHL

I've been brainstorming some ways to make the NHL a little more popular. The problem with the NHL is the up and coming young guys you don't know who they are like the Sidney Corsbys and Alexander Ovechkins tell me where they played before NHL??? Cause I don't know. Here are a few things that could help the NHL take notes NHL marketing team.

1. Makes sure Mark Cuban and Dan Marino become owners of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Mark Cuban would be a huge draw look what he did to the Dallas Mavericks he could do it with the Penguins who have Sidney Crosby who they could build around and is suppose to be the next big thing. Get Cuban in and you'll get some people interested.

2. NCAA you need to work with them to get more recognition to the up and coming players. Nobody gets to see the top talent unless they have local or regional coverage. Football and Basketball get nation wide coverage Hockey needs to find a way to get national coverage not just the national championship game. The NHL needs to work with the NCAA to try to get games on NBC, ABC, CBS, OLN. If you get people to follow kids through college they will follow to NHL. So try to get more television time for the game.

3. The DRAFT its something I really think the way it was changed could help the game. I don't like how you draft kids at 18 or 19 years old and they may not go play for 2 or 3 years if ever. I think they need to draft like the NBA and NFL once you get drafted you go and play for the team right away. A guy like Jonathan Towes from UND 18 years old gets drafted 3rd he can either sign or decide to play with UND a few more years. That puts a lot of stress on UND and any NCAA school not knowing wether he will be back or not. Allow him to decide when he wants to go into the draft when he gets drafted he goes plays. Also a guy like TJ Oshie was drafted like 27th by the Blues, but after the kind of year he had with UND this year his stock had to of rose even more and could be making more money. And when they draft kids at 18 or 19 and they don't come out right away fans of NHL teams kinda forget about them and the buzz is kinda lost for the kids who 2 or 3 years down the road might never play a single game. A lot of blabbing their but hopefully I got my point through. Basically the way they draft doesn't help the game.

Well those are just a few Ideas that I thought i'd share maybe me and tony will podcast a little about this the next podcast since its kinda slow sports news.