Five Curses You May Or May Not Be Aware Of

Many can choose to believe in luck, curses, hexes and the like. I personally believe more in blessings and punishments than good and bad luck.  However, some curses are worthy of mention and note. Here are five of these such curses. 

1. The Kennedys

The Kennedys may not only be one of America's most prominent families, but also one that has had a run of bad luck, scandal and death.  Most are familiar with President John F. Kennedy being assasinated 50 years ago. Five years later, his younger brother, Robert, suffered the same fate. In the mid 1940s, their brother and sister, Joseph and Katherine, were both killed in separate plane crashes. The list goes on of all the tragedy and heartbreak in this family. The most notable was perhaps in 1999 when John F. Kennedy Jr. and his young girlfriend, were both drowned after their plane crashed. Money can buy a lot of things, but the Kennedys have proven it cannot stop life from occuring.

2. The Bambino

This is a curse that lasted 86 years for the Boston Red Sox. Babe Ruth was traded to the Yankees in 1919. The Red Sox went all those decades without winning a World Series, while the Yankees went on to win a record 26 in that span.  They suffered lots of tragedy as a franchise. Carlton Fisk's blunders, Tony G's early career ending injury and of course Bill Buckner in 1986. However, the Red Sox overcame all of this in 2004 by beating those Yankees, then sweeping the Cardinals to break their World Series streak. They have won two more titles since. It appears there is no more Bambino curse.

3. The Chicken Curse

The University of South Carolina Gamecocks has had several awesome athletes come through their program, but never could win a national title in a team sport.  That is until Ray Tanner lead the baseball team to three consecutive College World Series finals , and winning in 2010 and 2011. The football team has become more prominent, winning huge games, having a school record for wins and bowl game wins, and winning five straight over their state rival Clemson Tigers. This is another curse that appears to be a memory.

4. Heisman Curse

For years, it seemed the winner of the Heisman Memorial Trophy for the most outstanding college football player hasn't had a good career after college. We all know how OJ Simpson turned out.  Earl Campbell can barely walk. Many were NFL busts, such as Andre Ware, Danny Wuerfell and recently Tim Tebow. It appears Cam Newton may be helping end this curse, at least for quarterbacks. He's having a great NFL career thus far with the Carolina Panthers and is improving yearly. Now we're counting on Johnny Manziel to live up to his talk and succeed in the pros.

5. Disney

It seems that for a while, many former Mickey Mouse club members and child Disney stars have had rough adult lives. Among those include Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus, Vanessa Hudgins,  and others. They peaked as teenagers, and have now become dysfunctional at some point.  Fortunately those such as Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera have avoided this fate.

Whether or not you subscribe to the theory of curses and cursed lives, these five definitely give you something to think about.

Hateration defined

Hateration, I'm definitely not a fan of it. It falls right there with jealously, and just being evil. One should not hate when someone is excelling and doing their best. Unfortunately, that's when we usually know when we're doing things right, when we have haters.

Let me describe the difference between hating and just disliking something (or expressing dislike). Hateration is basically when you don't like something or someone for no good reason or when you're simply jealous. Dislike is just what it states, showing your true feelings in a sincere matter and your matter of preference.

This blog comes about from various places, one with the impending start of the NFL season. I cannot, and I mean I CANNOT STAND the frikkin Dallas Cowboys. Half of my family are Cowboys fans, and many of my friends. I HATE them (but I don't hate on what they've accomplished in the professional football realm). I also dislike the Duke Blue Devils in college basketball, the LA Lakers in the NBA, and the NY Yankees in the MLB (please don't win #28).

For fans of any or ALL four teams, here's why I don't like these teams. The Dallas Cowboys are simply annoying, arrogant, and a bunch of troublemakers (historically) with a false sense of entitlement. They believe that since they won 3 Super Bowls in the 90s, 5 in all, and because they were dubbed "America's Team" by a film producer at NFL Films, that everyone should like them too. OK granted I love my Packers for many reasons. I don't feel I'm better or worse than you if you don't like them, it's a matter of preference. I feel similarly about the LA Lakers. They have won 16 NBA championships, have dominated two decades (and our on their way to dominating a 3rd). And arrogance they have in Kobe Bryant. Read my blog about Kobe + Lebron doesn't equal Jordan for more about him. Granted, I did like Magic, Kareem and Worthy (not just because he was a Tarheel). The Lakers style of play just isn't my own, too finesse, and not enough rough and tumble play. Black folk believe just because they're one of the first NBA teams with a predominately black roster to win so many championships that you should automatically be a fan. That burns me right there because I root for who I want to root for, NOT who someone tells me to root for. You have to choose your OWN team, that's what being a fan is about.

Now far as the Duke Blue Devils, the root of my dislike is more natural. Being a UNC Tarheel fan, that is our biggest rivals (and one of the biggest sports rivalries in the country). But beyond that, it's because Duke basketball just can't compare to UNC basketball overall. We've been doing it big for over 60 years, and have 5 national championships, numerous ACC titles, and several big-name NBA players (Jordan and Worthy to name a couple) to boast of. Duke is getting there, but still has a ways to go. They have 4 championships, only about 3 decades worth of consistent, dominating success, and their players are typically perennial busts or journeymen in the NBA. Carlos Boozer, Grant Hill, and a couple of others are relevant, but are NOT in the same company with Jordan and those. Coach K is a great coach also, but he does not employ the system that allows many of his players to excel at the next level. If you're truly a well-rounded college basketball coach, you should be able to do both.

The New York Yankees are a different kind of hate. Teams seem often intimidated by the Yankees for no good reason. They have been dominant, but the whole pinstripe persona and the fact that their players are often clean-shaven prima donnas annoys me. Also, their players are extremely over-paid. The late George Steinbrunner thought he could buy a dynasty. He bought a few championships, but no dynasty yet. His acquistion of A-Rod has only gotten the Yanks one World Series title to date. That's another sign of arrogance, that just because you have money that you can buy anything, including wins and championships. These things must be earned the old-fashioned way. At times many teams, including the Yanks, have forgotten about this.

If you notice, many of this is off of personal preference. If we don't like the same things, that's fine. I don't want to be persecuted for my thoughts and feelings, though. This is America, we have free speech rights, and that's all I'm doing is expressing these rights. This is NOT hateraton. At times I may pick around and say "BOOOOO!!" when folks mentions these teams or things I cannot stand. That is NOT hateration, though so please do not confuse.

With that said, let's get on with the NFL season. Gooo Packers and booo Cowboys!

Baseball: Still American's pasttime

Before I begin this blog (on a rare Saturday night), I have a few things to get off my chest. First, I'm blogging tonight instead of Sunday due to the fact that I'm resting up for the final night of my weekend long birthday celebration. Therefore, I didn't want to be blogging on my birthday night. Second, I appreciate and welcome you guy's feedbacks. Keep it coming as it makes me a better blogger. I welcome the positive as well as the negative comments. I want to continue my overall writing skills and believe it or not, you guys are a major part of that.

With that said, on with the blog, which begins with an age-old song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4-gsdLSSQ0

Remember when this was one of the many anthems of the summer? Going out to the ball park? Enjoying cotton candy, franks, and getting those huge pointy-fingers! Wearing your caps and visors to ward off sunburn? That's all part of the game of baseball, America's past-time.

Lately in the sporting world, baseball has taken a backseat. It has for years in the rural, inner-city, and urban communities, where the focus is football, basketball, and not many other sports. After the NBA Finals and NBA Draft, the dog days of summer are considered just a hiatus until training camp begins for the NFL and college football. Right now in sports, the main storylines have been Lebron James leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers to attempt to win his first championship with the Miami Heat and the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Even with the Homerun Derby and the MLB All-Star Game upcoming this week, the "boys of summer" aren't getting much respect lately.

Baseball is considered by some to be a game with "not enough action" and where there isn't many athletes anymore. Back in yesteryear, many pro baseball players except for some like the famed Babe Ruth were in excellent shape, played pretty much every game in the regular season and playoffs, and could run the bases well. Now you have as many CC Sabbathia's as you do Chone Figgins and Ichiro's. It seems the major headliners in the MLB lately are anybody from the defending champion New York Yankees, their rival Boston Red Sox, and Stephen Strasburg, the newest minor-league pitching sensation (whom my beloved Atlanta Braves took it to on June 29). Beyond that, baseball hasn't received much attention lately, although it is still considered the third-most popular sport in America.

Many Americans no longer play major league baseball anymore also. Many Latinos and East Asian players fill MLB rosters. And very few black athletes (outside of guys like the retired and controversial Barry Bonds and Torri Hunter) play as well. Therefore, you lose a broad fan-base as well. I won't even go into how summer vacation can hurt attendance at ball games.

Another deterrant in the MLB quandry is the LOOONG regular season. Each team plays 169 regular season games between April and September, with the playoffs being in October. If you're a pro baseball player, you basically have a game at least 5 games out of each week during each month. Those can get taxing to even watch, let alone play.

However, here are some of the positives of pro baseball. One is the thrill of seeing a homerun go across the park. Guys such as Barry Bonds (the current record holder) A-Rod, Ryan Howard, and Prince Fielder are extremely exciting because they bang lots of homeruns each season. However, the sport received a black eye when Jose Canseco of the famed "Bash Brothers" of the late 1980s wrote his best-selling book "Juiced". He exposed several baseball players, himself included, for using steroids such as HGH. This eventually led to a widespread investigation and stricter testing of the entire MLB. They have since found steroids of some form in A-Rod and Manny Rodriquez's systems. But none of this cases are more popular than Barry Bonds. Although it has yet to be confirmed whether or not the current leader for most homers in a career was juicing, there is much suspicion. However, until he is proven guilty, he should be left alone, let the record stand, and let the homers continue.

Also, the famed no-hitter gets plenty of attention during a MLB game. It is considered a "jinx" if one talks about the pitcher possibly earning a no-hitter about the 3rd inning. Not many no-hitters occur during a 169-game season, so when one is about to take place, EVERYONE is paying attention. Furthermore, everyone except the opposing team and fans wants to see it occur.

The game of baseball is an extremely stat and record-driven sport. I honestly had stopped watching a lot of baseball, especially since my Braves had started a downward spiral. That is, until I started playing fantasy baseball in 2008. I was then forced to pay attention to every game, statistic, and player, even on the minor leagues. It made the sport more exciting and I was a true fan again (at least of every team but the Yankees, although I've owned at least one Yankee player since I began).

Baseball, like many things in life, is what you make of it. It, also like many sports, is much better in person. I attended the Braves game in June 2001 with two of my friends when Cal Ripken Jr. was making his farewell tour. It was an exciting one, especially when EVERY camera in the stands at Turner Field were flashing whenever Cal got up to bat. I only wish there was an MLB franchise closer than Atlanta. I've been to a Charlotte Knights minor-league game. While it was fun, I would rather see my Braves, or any other MLB team (the Yanks included) play.

So I encourage you to give the sport another look if you're not already doing so. Watch some Baseball Tonight on ESPN. Read the baseball section of the sports page. Tune into the MLB channel if you have DirecTV. And finally, try watching a complete 9-inning game. There can be more than meets the eye!

Now don't get me wrong here, football and basketball are still my favorite sports, and I look forward to watching some action on the gridiron. However, until (and when) football starts, baseball will do, as it is my third-love in the sporting world. After all, it is summertime, and baseball is still American's past-time.

It's now time to go set my lineups for tomorrow in my MLB fantasy leagues. But remember that the MLB players are dubbed "the boys of summer" for a reason. Hard to beat that with a Louisville slugger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqYBGcv41M8