It's-Finally-August Special

Well gang, it's been quite a while since I last unloaded my mindless dribble on you. I felt you guys were due another round so here.....we.......go. This will be a random, rapid-fire posting today so try and keep up.

• I'll give my usual caveat to any of my MLB takes - I don't really follow baseball all that much, at least not until late August/early September. But, when I heard that the Red Sox actually traded Manny away today I immediately thought "bye bye world series chances". Look, I know this guys has been a headache and usually pulls the same act every year, but last I checked he's also one of the best (if not THE best) hitter in the game today. He's certainly been one of the most consistent over the last 4 or 5 years. He's one of those guys that not only has a big impact with his production, but he makes batters ahead/behind him better to. This may help alleviate some of their headaches now, but it may also erase their playoff chances much less any chance of another world series. I don't think this will end up being a very good thing for Boston.
  
• So I can't believe it's still a story, but the Green Bay Packers have officially lost their minds. There's a couple of ways to look at this. First off, Ted Thompson and McCarthy have done a tremendous job of building up a very good, young team - no denying that. I suspect that they feel the young players had more to do with Favre playing well than Favre affecting the young players and if that's the case - release him and move on. Look, if you feel so confident in Aaron Rogers and this team then there should be no issues with Favre going to any other team...especially if it's just for a year or two (no chance Favre can be that effective for more than that). BUT, if you truly feel Favre can come back and hurt you, especially with a divisional opponent than take his ass back and suit him up. I don't pretend to think that this is an easy predicament for the Packers - they have to think about the long-term interests of the team, but to end up offering him money to stay away (paying him $20 million over 10 years to be exact) is absurd. The Packers have officially panicked when they really held all the leverage/power the whole time. Pity. Could be a very long year for Packer fans.
  
• Ugh - Artest to the Rockets...I was still really hoping to get him in the purple and gold next season, but I guess it was too good to be true. I think this is a really big pickup for the Rockets. As was my hope with the Lakers, Artest brings a tough/physical player into the fold as well as a bit more consistency on the offensive end. They'll have to work out chemistry issues early on, but Adelman has coached Artest and knows how to reach him - this is a good move and yet another big pickup for an improving west team. Just one year...if T-Mac, Yao and now Artest can stay healthy, look out - those Rockets just may get out of the first round of the playoffs.
• I find it utterly ludicrous that Michelle Wie would skip a major tournament to play in a men's tournament. THIS IS INSANE!!! Who in the world is advising this girl? If it's her father (as I suspect it is), can someone please take him out back and beat him with his own shoes? Talk about killing a career. This chick can't even compete with the top women players (not even in the same ballpark) and she continues to try and play with them after embarrassing herself over and over again. It's a damn shame.
  
• I'm getting very anxious and ancy to go check out a Longhorn practice this summer. A few early thoughts about those Horns: A) McCoy has to play better following a semi-sophomore slump, B) Offense really needs an every-down back and NOT a RB by committee approach, C) Stop f'ng around with the "John Chiles is our backup QB mess" and use this kid a la Ramonce Taylor for crying out loud, D) Kirk Bohls wrote about this earlier this week, but the "Mean" Mack Brown must be here to stay or this team will most certainly drop a few games this year. Reminder Horns fans - Texas faces 9 bowl teams from last year and has, what I believe to be, one of the toughest 5 or 6 schedules in the league this year. I've said it once before - don't overlook that 9:15pm kickoff game at UTEP in September. Has one of those eery feels - like that Sunday night game at Rice in the rain about 12 years ago (last time Texas lost to Rice....but those were the Mackovic years).
  
• I'm curious to know how Texas Tech fans will define a good year this year. Hooser?
  
• I don't want to get to ahead of myself here, but I sure have heard a lot of great things about Ricky Williams coming out of Miami. We'll see, but wouldn't that be a great turnaround for that guy? His window is just barely cracked open - he's 31 which is like being 90 for a running back.
  
• We'll see what happens to Jeremy Shockey in New Orleans, but this could be a huge coup for the Saints. Although I think a lot of Shockey's issues are of his own doing, I'm a little surprised that the Giants didn't make more of an effort to make him more part of the team while he was out during end of the year and the playoffs. I say this based on what I read in Peter King's MMQB this week - sounds as if they simply threw in the towel and gave up on him...that's a pretty damn good tight end to just blow off. I gotta think there were tons of unreported incidents that led to it, but he's a really good player so it must have been pretty bad. As a Giants fan, sorry to see him go.
  
• You know things are getting pretty bad in Dolphin land when they're trying out Quincy Carter at QB - yea, that same one Cowboys fans
• I swear to everything Holy that this is how Dems and Republicans sound on any and all news shows, talk shows, etc.: "Nun-uh" -- "Uh-huh" -- "Nun-uh" -- "Uh-huh" - I swear I get dumber when I watch these shows - they're all bad, but Fox News has to be the biggest embarrassment to any network/show that considers itself a worthy news outlet.
  
• Saw Dark Knight and and it was pretty darn good - not quite as good as I was hoping/expecting, but good (Batman Begins, I thought, was better). BUT, all the hype around Heath Ledger is legit - he completely and totally makes the movie. Absolutely superb performance. Movie was about 30 minutes too long though - that's my only real criticism. 

Alright gang - that's what I got for you. I'll be back in a few weeks as we get closer to the start of the season.