Texas High School Mascot Madness!

As just about everyone I have ever met knows, I went to high school in Frost, Texas and proudly played football for the Frost Polar Bears. Just Google "mascots" and the Bears will be in any Top 10 list.

With a 2-0 start for my old team, I began to wonder, "How the Texas City Stingarees did last night?" So at JDaddydu we are going to track our favorite teams from around the state and see if being wacky also means success in 2012.

The JDaddy Conference was 5-5 in week 2.

These are our Top 10, but I am sure many of you have your own favorites. Let us hear how they did.

JDaddys Mascot League



Team                                                    W/L                       Score                                   2012 Record

Frost Polar Bears                                  W                          29-16                                   2-0

Grandview Zebras                                 L                           28-29                                   1-1

Itasca Wampus Cats                              L                            0-20                                   0-2

Hutto Hippos                                          L                            9-35                                   1-1

Brazosport Exporters                            W                          44-20                                   1-1

Texas City Stingarees                             L                           21-34                                  1-1

New Braunfels Unicorns                       W                          41-29                                  1-1

Winters Blizzards                                   L                            7-47                                   0-2

El Campo Ricebirds                               W                          55-20                                  2-0

Springtown Porcupines                         W                          37-30                                  1-1

Experts vs. a 5-Year-Old - Week 1 NFL Picks

The first game of the season is done.  Half of us picked correctly, the other half missed. But just like in football, there is a long way to go in our season selections.  The Cowboys could very well go 1-15 while the Giants could still repeat as champions.  Still, though, I'm going to walk around a little taller today knowing that I have a 1 game lead on the 5-Year-Old (who's still 4 until next week, by the way).  Come Tuesday morning, he'll probably be back in the lead.

If you missed our first post (and if you did, it's here) you will find we have a new challenger this year.  Uncle J joins us from Corpus Christi, TX.  Lets hope he fairs better than JDaddy and I did last season.

On to the picks...

Cowboys at Giants Predictions Against a 5-Year-Old

You've seen our season predictions.  Now it's time to get down to the business of making our weekly picks.  Last year, JDaddy and I went up against a 4-year-old.  It didn't turn out so well.  You'll be happy to know that we're doing it again this year!  Except this year the kid is now 5, so he's practically an expert by now.  No need to make fun of us this year if we lose.

Credit: Cory Dugan

And we have a special guest joining us this year.  Jim Dugan, famous crooner from Corpus Christi, TX asked to take on the kid this year.  Like a replacement official, Uncle J, as we'll call him, has no idea what he's in for.

The way this works is that the experts in the competition pick against the lines.  The kid will just pick winners.  If you want to explain to a 5-year-old about betting lines, be my guest.  But until he learns the intricacies of gambling, he's just going to guess who will win the game.

With today being Opening Night of the NFL season, we'll get started with the Dallas Cowboys against the New York Giants.  We'll release the rest of Week 1 later in the week.

Michael Young and Leadership

In the last couple of years, Rangers fans have had a lot of cool moments.  Alex Rodriguez staring at strike 3 in Game 6 of the 2010 ALCS is at the top for me.  Derek Holland's Game 4 of the 2011 World Series is close behind.  What Michael Young did yesterday may not have been on that level, but it was still perhaps the coolest moment of 2012 so far.

In the 9th inning, after Nelson Cruz was drilled in the back and the benches emptied, Young deposited the very next pitch into the seats in left-center.  He sprinted around the bases, almost took Dave Anderson's hand off at 3rd base, slapped Nellie on the head at homeplate, and muttered some choice words about the Royals' pitcher on the way back to the dugout.  Cool.

Young is having a terrible season at the plate.  He continues to be in the lineup because his manager respects his veteran leadership.  All season I have hated that excuse, because eventually grounding into predictable double plays outweighs all the leadership in the world. 

But as Young reached the dugout, and the entire Rangers bench seemed to be on the top step screaming at the Royals, I realized that Young's leadership really means something.  Leadership didn't hit the homerun.  The homerun came more from the fact that even an aging veteran mired in a bad season can hit fat pitches out of the park.  But what if David Murphy or Mike Napoli had hit the homerun?  It still would have been cool, but not as cool as Michael Young hitting the homerun.  Despite all that has been said about Young this year-and I've said plenty-this is still his team.  He takes care of his boys.

The other day my 4-year-old son acted like a 4-year-old.  The result was me talking to him about why I, a very mild mannered person, get so angry when he disrespects his mom.  I told him that because I love and care so much for her, him, and his sister, that I will go after anyone who hits, yells, or disrespects any of them.  I get the feeling that's what the Rangers see in Michael Young, and especially what they saw yesterday.  The family was disrespected.  It was up to the father of the team to get the revenge.  And that's why he's in the lineup and why Wash doesn't even consider taking him out or dropping him in the order.

If Wash insists on playing him, I certainly think they are a better team with him hitting at the bottom of the lineup.  But after yesterday, I'll stop complaining as much because I saw what leadership can bring.  The Rangers seem to have played the entire season waiting for the playoffs.  Now is the time to begin to peak.  Maybe Michael Young's homerun will get them on their way.

Cheap Seats NFL Predictions 2012

We're back!  After taking a little bit of a break for the past few months, it's time to get this thing up and running again.  JDaddy has been checking in with thoughts on Junior Seau and Josh Hamilton, but I have been a no show.  I'm going to try to break that trend and get back in the Cheap Seats blogging groove.

And what better way to start than presenting our 2012 NFL Predictions.  And you'll be happy to know that this season we will once again be making weekly picks against a kid.  Regular readers know how that ended last year.  This year, there will be no mercy on the now-5-year-old.

The predictions do not include the kid (he's at school and I wanted to get this out), but rest assured he would make better picks than we have here.

Losing Josh Hamilton

"The Rangers have done a lot for me, but I've got a question for y'all: Have I done a lot for the Rangers? I think I've given them everything I've had," Hamilton said. "I don't think anybody can say I haven't. When it comes down to it, people don't understand, fans don't understand, this is a business, this is an entertainment business."........ Josh Hamilton , Feb 24th/2012


"Things will have to play out. I truly think he would like to stay in Arlington, the Metroplex and be a member of the Texas Rangers. I think he's very comfortable and his family is very comfortable. We are certainly in hopes that we'll able to work a deal out with him. But I think [Hamilton and his agent] had the mindset they'll go through the season and see what happens and see what the market is for Josh Hamilton. It's hard to make any kind of prediction where that will go. I think it's probably pretty much where we are."....... Nolan Ryan, May 18th, 2012


"I've got faith in God and I trust God and I want to do his will more than mine. I don't necessarily want to do what's more comfortable for me or my family. If he asks us to leave and go somewhere else, it might not be comfortable. But you know what? That's going to bring me closer to him and make me have a better relationship with him"....... Josh Hamilton, when asked about Ryan's comments.

He may be the best baseball player I have ever seen. Mantle and Mays were on the back side of Hall of Fame careers when I was young. Barry Bonds has previously held that spot of honor in mind, but even pre-steroids, Hamilton has him beat as an all around player. Not since Nolan Ryan have the Rangers had a singular player that fans come specifically to see.