Life In The DPC!

Maybe Big Z did the selfish thing in getting suspended last Thursday, after his now famous meltdown against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Wrigley Field, because the Cubs are sailing in a sea of mediocrity at 23-23 and Zambrano  gets a six-game vacation (suspension) from his underachieving mates.

With that said, Zambrano’s meltdown was one for the ages.

Where have I gone? Well, quite frankly my life has been consumed with work, marriage and the pending birth of my son, known as DPC2. Also, and most importantly, I am inherently lazy and I have put off working on DavidPatrickCastro.com way too many times because after work I often plop on the couch and watch Dhani Tackles The Globe instead of thinking of ways to annoy the masses and gripe about irrelevant topics

I’ve missed a lot of news I would normally comment on, like Coach Fox jumping ship to Georgia (congrats to Coach Carter) or the 2009 NFL Draft. Actually, there was no point in commenting on the Draft because, for the first time in my 31-years, the Bears outsmarted and outspent the compettion and landed a dominant, diabetic QB in Jay Cutler.

(On a related note; a part of me was tempted to name my child after Cutler. But Cutler Castro sound likes a Puerto Rican pirate that found himself on the wrong end of Black Beard’s  sword.)

Despite the hiatus and I am gonna do my best to add to the opus. I make no guarantees on the amount of post or even their quality(some of my time will be consumed with the first draft of my new screenplay, “She’s Just A Friend: The Biz Markie Story” that will hopefully land Tracy Morgan as the Biz. But enough of my rambling. So in the immortal words of everyone’s favorite glam rock singer, child molester Gary Glitter, “Hello it’s good to be back.“

Anquan Boldin will come up large in the Super Bowl for a couple of different reasons; the Pittsburgh Steelers will be focused, i.e. double teamed most of the time, on Larry Fitzgerald for most of the game. Also Boldin is looking for a new contract.

The final score will be 31-13 and the Arizona Cardinals will shock world with a win over the Steelers

The odds makers have stayed stayed consistent and maintain that the Pittsburgh Steelers are a touchdown better than the Arizona Cardinals with about four-days left until Super Bowl Sunday. This Arizona resident still maintains that the Cards will shock the world and knock off the heavily favored five-time Super Bowl champs.

I consider myself a Cardinals fan. Mainly because they brought me a lot of joy when I was a season ticket holder back in 2006. Like many Phoenicians I am a transplant and as many of my fellow displaced persons often do I root for my team (Chicago) but the Cardinals play second fiddle if the Bears are involved. This tendency towards duel fandom can be a bit perplexing but I like the Cards and the Valley has finally embraced the local team.

After the Cardinals knocked off the Eagles it seems that the Apocalypse could be upon us because things once thought impossible seemed to be happening with great regularity:  A week ago Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th Preident and two days before that the Cardinals qualified for the Super Bowl.

With all these thoughts of the impossible becoming a reality maybe I can have my ultimate dream and the University of Nevada can win the NCAA Basketball Championship this spring. It sounds far fetched but remember that the Cardinals had 50-1 odds to win Super Bowl XLIII and now they’re 60-minutes away from winning it all.

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T.R.O.Y.the Yugo . A bit late because the Yugo ended production on November 11, 2008 after a production run that included 794,428 econo-boxes. The Yugoslavian import was widely criticized when it reached American shores in 1986 due to the less than stellar reputation of Eastern European and from anecdotes like in 1989, when 31-year-old Leslie Ann Pluhar,^[9] driving a 1987 Yugo over the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan, was literally blown off over the bridge’s 36-inch railing by 50 MPH gales.^[10] This event was widely publicized at the time and is still referred to today in terms of the car. In fact, however, every driver that day had been warned against crossing the bridge. Pluhar had insisted on making the crossing, and officials said later that excess speed was a factor in her death. It should be noted, however, that “excess speed”/speeding is often used as a scapegoat for road accidents.

Oddly enough, the Yugo could be in demand in this time of economic uncertainty and fluctuating gas prices. Unfortunately the stigma of the vehicle outweighed its viability as economic transportation. Under a different brand name and with a bit of retooling the Yugo could rise again. If anything it should be acknowledged for being the predecessor of American econoboxes like the Geo Metro. Either vehicle aren’t necessarily the most stylish cars but for someone like me, that has a 76-mile daily commute, it would be a good option to my roomy Chevy Impala.

There are many advantages to calling a few places home (born in Oak Lawn, Illinois, raised in Santa Rosa, Ca, college in Reno and currently living in Phoenix, Az) such as giving the impression to others that you are well traveled. The disadvantage of being a vagabond is that I don’t have an NBA team to call my own.

For football I love the Chicago Bears, I give the Arizona Cardinals and Oakland Raiders love due to proximity and the fact that I was season ticket holders for both teams. The Cubs are my team, despite 100-years of losing it all. The University of Nevada Wolf Pack has my heart after four-years of intermittent studying, one diploma, student loan debt and the wisdom of Mark Fox. Ultimately though, I am an undrafted free agent out of the University of Nevada looking for an NBA team to latch onto.

Logically speaking I should be root for the Chicago Bulls, or the Golden State Warriors or the Phoenix Suns. I have ties to all three areas and yet none of these squads give me the perpetual headache I get from my allegiance to Nevada. My inability to regularly watch the NBA is tied to the simple fact that I have no vested interest into  a franchise. For example, I will root for the Bulls if I catch them on WGN and the opportunity to watch Derrick Rose. But I couldn’t name Chicago’s starting five since the Luc Longley was involved.

The Warriors are interesting because of Nellie Ball. They don’t win very often but at the least they throw down some points and keep you entertained. I keep tabs on Golden State because I listen to KNBR on a regular basis but I have no idea where they are in the standings (Note: 13-29 and in 11th place in the Western Conference)

The Phoenix Suns are the local favorite and yet, despite my best efforts to be a good Phoenician, I find it difficult to root for them on a regular basis. Logically speaking I should throw my allegiance to the Suns because they are a talented team, with interesting players, and they are always on TV but yet, I rarely give them the time of days. One would think that a team that plays 20-minutes away from your home would garner your attention and reap your love but still I find myself refusing their appeal.

It’s always struck me as odd that I live in Phoenix and yet the only team out here I like is the Cardinals. Neither the Diamondback or the aforementioned Suns do a thing for me despite their respective success. Apparently years of rooting for the Cubs has turned me into a martyr and the Cards, until recently, were the team for a guy that is comfortable with torment.

So what is an undrafted free agent to do? A part of me has always had the deranged desire to be a L.A. Clippers fan. I have no idea why I’d root for the worse franchise in pro sports, a title they wrestled away from the Arizona Cardinals. I have no ties to Los Angeles. I have other viable options from teams that have the decency to respect themselves and yet I find myself intrigued by Baron Davis and his motley crew that has to share its home with the Lakers.

The impossible has become a reality; the Arizona Cardinals are headed towards Super Bowl XLIII. A part of me never thought I would be able to write that last sentence but the Cards showed that they are legit after a 7:52 touchdown drive that  culminated in the go ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter.

But do these underdogs from the desert, the feel good story of the 2008 season have a chance aqgainst the Pittsburgh Steelers? The odds maker in Las Vegas seem to say no as they made the Steelers 6.5 to 7 points favorites with approximately two-weeks to go until Super Bowl Sunday.

I haven’t really sided with the odds makers in many of my recent playoff picks and I am staying with the Cards to upset the Steelers in Tampa Bay. In most aspects of the game the Steelers are the clear cut favorite; they have a Super Bowl pedigree, they play great defense and they can run the ball. The Cardinals can’t run and their defense is predicated on generating the big play turnover and yet I feel they can win it all because they are hottest team in the league as I type this on Monday night.

I learned from last season’s that the hottest team will win it all and the Cards are the hottest team going into Super Bowl Sunday.

When I was growing up the L.A. Rams and the St. Louis/Phoenix Cardinals were two of the worse franchises in the NFL. The Rams had a few moments of greatness with Eric Dickerson and Jim Everett but they had the unfortunate pleasure of playing in the same division as the 49ers and rarely made it deep in the playoffs.

My only memories of the Cardinals involve Neil Lomax and his injury plagued career, which in hindsight may have been some deranged allegory about the worse franchise in the history of the NFL.

What do these two random franchises have in common going into this Sunday’s conference championship? Both franchises have been rescued by Kurt Warner and his ability to pick defenses apart while playing indoors. Warner (as ringmaster of the Greatest Show on Turf) turned the Rams from irrelevant into Super Bowl champs and on Sunday he may pull off the impossible and lead the Cardinals into the Super Bowl.If Warner lead the Cardinals to the Super Bow then it is the opinion of scribe that he has played his way into football immortality and into Canton, Oh as a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

On Sunday the Cardinal host the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship game and Warner finds himself at the threshold of the impossible: leading the Cardinals to the Super Bowl and he will do it. Recent playoff history has shown, and the New York Giants are the prime example, that the hottest team in the playoffs will go the farthest.The Cardinals were not the cream of the crop of the NFC, not by any stretch of the imagination, but they are peaking at the right time. Last weeks drubbing of the Panthers showed that the Cards can neutralize a passing attack, holding Pro Bowl wide receiver Steve Smith to an irrelevant TD reception and 43-yards. Warner and the offense will score points but the defense will be the key against the pass happy Eagles.

In the AFC I can’t foresee the Pittsburgh Steelers beating the Baltimore Ravens three-times in one season and pretty soon we’ll be on way towards having a bird themed Super Bowl XLIII.