The View From Wisconsin

A friend of my wife pointed something out to me the other day, and it's been both revealing and bothering me to no end.

In doing some informal research with my wife, she's determined that Sarah may have something called Asperger's Syndrome - essentially, a higher-functioning version of Autism.

For those of you who might not know specifically what Autism is: Autism is defined as a "psychiatric disorder of childhood characterized by marked deficits in communication and social interaction, preoccupation with fantasy, language impairment, and abnormal behavior, such as repetitive acts and excessive attachment to certain objects. It is usually associated with intellectual impairment." (Taken from dictionary.com)

The difference between Asperger's and autism is that someone with AS doesn't have the communication deficits or a full language impairment.

Unfortunately, knowing all this doesn't help me much, as AS is hard to diagnose properly - and is not, at this time, "curable".

I'm looking in to a lot of background books and such about AS; I may be using this blog as a means of sharing what I find as time goes on.

There are times that Stars Behave Badly. Unfortunately, one of them occurred at a recent Predators game (back against the Devils).

A poster named JLSG made the following post about an incident at that game, involving John Rich of the country music group Big and Rich (they of "Save A Horse Ride A Cowboy" fame):

Our seats are in section 105 row G. Great view.

At the Devils game about 5 minutes into period 2, John Rich of Big & Rich fame and his entourage of bimbos and hanger ons come in a couple of rows in front of us.

First it takes a couple of minutes for everyone to decide where they want to sit. Then Mr. Rich stands up with the cell phone in his ear yelling "Here I am with the beer over my head!".

After he makes contact with whoever it was he was talking to he stands there waving and making gestures to this person. This goes on for a minute or so and finally someone yells "Sit down please" and he turns around and says "You're telling ME to site down? I'll just stand as long as I like to."

He stands for the rest of the period 2. The usher comes down a couple of times to ask him to sit.

"I'm a fan" he yells, "Fans are supposed to stand". Apparently the usher can't make him sit, so at the start of period 3 a rep from the Preds comes over and talks to one of his "peeps". Few minutes later the guy comes back and says "Come on John, thy're going to give us a suite." to which he replies "No! I'm standing right here.".

At around the 8 minute mark a couple of Metro Police officers had a short converstion with him (just a few seconds, wish I could have heard what was said) and he promptly sat down. He turned and waioted for the police to leave and then shot evryone behind him (including myself and my 8 year old son) the bird.

The point of this venting is that I want the word sent far and wide to true hockey fans everywhere to boycott Big & Rich. An arrogant punk like that does not deserve the support.

The issue has taken on a life of its own. The incident was mentioned en passant in the Nashville Tennesseean in the "Brad About You" gossip column - twisting the facts just a bit to make it look like Mr. Rich was the one wronged.

Several fellow posters have tried to get the original post out over on the CMT Big & Rich Message Boards, only to have any thread deleted minutes later.

Right now, I'm not sure what's worse: Mr. Rich's behavior, or the reaction to the post.

I wanna go on record right now: there is no truth to the rumor that Vegas is taking bets on which will be greater come Super Sunday - the score of the winning team in the Super Bowl, or the number of wins by the Detroit Red Wings.

I was very surprised that the opening line of the game was set at Pittsburgh by 3 1/2. I'd take that bet in a heartbeat, and even choose the Seahawks to win outright. I saw the NFC championship game Sunday, and swore I was watching clones of the Green Bay Packers from 1996 - except that the running back was 100 times better than Dorsey Levens.

This was a plus/minus weekend for hockey. The minus came Friday when Bryan Berard came forward with his positive USADA drug test, and his ensuing two-year ban from international competition. It gave guys like Dick Pound of WADA ammo to lump the NHL in the same basket as the rest of the sporting world - the professional sporting world, I might add. The plus was the great coverage by NBC on Saturday; the Peacock network is doing a great job in showcasing the game. The guys over at OLN should take note.

By the way: congrats to Luc Robitaille on passing Marcel Dionne for the all-time L.A. Kings lead in scoring. (No, I'm not going to make the obligatory reference to his wife, Stacia.)

As the sport has too many black eyes as it is, I'm glad that the whole situation with the World Baseball Classic and Cuba got sorted out. However, I do hope that the entire team, as soon as they set foot in the U.S., decides to defect. And I do mean the entire team.

Had an interesting dream the other night, about revisiting my grandma and grandpa's old house in Racine. The place looked like it did when I was growing up, but it was empty - something very much unlike what it was the last time I was there. My grandfather, bless his soul, had collected all sorts of things, and they were strewn around the house - including some snowblowers and rototillers sitting in the dining room. In the dream, I think I was just trying to imagine what it was like now - now that someone else was living there.

Gonna be a roller-coaster ride of emotions the next two nights for me: It's bad enough we have to play the Wings back-to-back, but now because of the Jiri Fischer situation, we're playing both games at the Joe in Detroit. I just hope we get some points out of the two games, because if we don't, we might as well resign ourselves to fourth in the West at best.

MEDICAL BULLETIN

Scientists at Middle Tennessee State University have discovered the fastest way to invoke a severe case of PPDDS (Post Predators Defeat Depression Syndrome):

Lose to the Red Wings.

This has been a special report. We now rejoin the NFL playoffs, already in progress...

Since everyone else does their own polls and lists of rankings, I figured I'd add my own to the cacophony. Mine aren't based on any really elaborate system, just simple wins and losses, points scored and points allowed. The only adjustments are to compare them to Division I as a whole.

Since Blogger isn't letting me do a nice table here, I created a separate webpage with the rankings here.

Ah, what a year it's been. We went from reversing the Curse of the Bambino to reversing the Curse of Shoeless Joe. We saw Tom Brady win, Donovan McNabb disintegrate, and T.O. implode. We witnessed San Antonio ascend to the top of the NBA (again) – and Larry Brown couldn't do anything to stop it. We saw steroids grab the headlines, we saw Barry grab his knee, and we saw Mark Attanasio grab the reins of a team that suddenly remembered how to win. We saw playoff games that looked like they'd never end; we watched and waited as the lockout that we never thought would end finally did, and then watched the improbable happen as a hockey team in Nashville, of all places, jumped off to one of the fastest starts in NHL history. We also watched the end for Barry Alvarez, the "New Orleans" Saints, and (probably) Brett Favre. We also saw the beginning of a new ballclub in Washington – albeit in a dumpy old stadium – and new possibilities as Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin skated out onto the ice.

That doesn't mean we can't hope that some things are different in the new year. Like, for example:

• The Packers finally "help" Brett Favre decide to retire by placing him on waivers. And Ted Thompson goes out and hires a coach that can actually help this club win… like Pete Carroll.
• The NHL, finally making its debut on NBC, beats out the twenty-million "Poker Night" reruns on ESPN. (Heck, we'd settle for the games on NBC beating out reruns of I Love Lucy.)
• Peyton Manning and Indianapolis finally gets over the schneid of the New England Patriots and gets to the Super Bowl… just in time to get thwupped by his little brother Eli on a last second field goal.
• At the Daytona 500, Tony Stewart gets into a late-race scuffle with Dale Earnhardt Jr., and the two crash. As an amazed nation watches on Fox, the two get into a fist-fight on the back stretch, with both drivers ending up in the racetrack hospital with bloody noses and bruises. When they go back to green, Michael Waltrip wins "The Great American Race."
• Team Canada gets eliminated in the first round of medal play by the Czech Republic, behind the play of Tomas Vokoun. Team USA is eliminated as well in the first round of medal play by the other half of the former Czecheslovakia, with Peter Budaj and Jan Lasak forming a two-headed monster for the Slovaks. The Czechs beat Russia in the semis, and the Slovaks beat Finland in the shootout, resulting in what most observers call the best gold-medal game in Olympic history, a 2-1 win in overtime by the Czechs. Too bad no one in North America is watching.
• No major incidents happen in the Torino Olympics, unless you count the time when Chris Chelios went into the Olympic Village cafeteria without his teeth in.
• North Carolina fails to make it to the final four a year after winning the Men's Basketball title. Mike Kryzewski, however, does guide Duke to the championship, defeating the Illinois "Illini" (the "Fightin'" part being eliminated due to the NCAA's PC police).
• Johnny Damon goes out to make his first start in CF for Yankees, and breaks his leg diving for a ball in shallow LCF. He ends up spending most of the year on the DL, and the Yankees… still manage to win the division.
• A certain team from Motown and a certain team from Music City meet up in the Western Conference semis… and the latter team beats them in seven.
• The Houston Texans predictably draft Reggie Bush as the #1 overall pick. The (City To Be Named Later) Saints draft Matt Leinart. The Green Bay Packers draft some guy no one's ever heard of, and won't be seen again for three or four more years when he's released for "not living up to expectations."
• Danica Patrick qualifies in the middle of the field for the Indy 500, but does not finish due to engine problems. (No, she doesn't radio in that "the little 'check engine' light just came on on my dash!") She doesn't finish in the top 10 in any IRL race in 2006.
• The Bucks don't make the playoffs, complain some more about the Bradley Center, and nobody does anything about it. Someone wins the NBA championship. No one really cares much, outside that city.
• After finishing dead last in the NHL, Mario Lemieux announces that he has sold the team to the Maloof brothers – owners of the Sacramento Kings and the Palms Resort Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The Maloofs immediately apply to move the Pens to Las Vegas for the 2007-08 season.
• The Pens select Phil Kessel with the first pick in the 2006 draft – and he immediately refuses to sign with the Penguins until after the team moves to Vegas.
• The Milwaukee Brewers find themselves a game behind the Cardinals at the All-Star Break, when Albert Pujols – selected to the NL squad as the starting first baseman – pulls a groin running out a grounder. He is on and off the DL the rest of the year, and the Brewers finally take the lead for good in late August.
• Tiger Woods wins another major. Michelle Wie doesn't win a tournament. Annika Sorenstam does.
• The Badgers start up their first season without Barry Alvarez at the helm in over a decade off to a 6-0 start, and despite dropping two games, end up with another Rose Bowl berth – against a depleted Texas squad.
• Southern Cal drops its first five games, after the team is hit with NCAA sanctions over recruiting violations. Meanwhile, JoPa and Penn State end up going undefeated and are given a berth in the BCS championship game. In the press conference before the game, he refuses to back down on his criticism of the BCS, and states "there should be a sanctioned playoff" in Division I-A football.
• Sunday Night Football on NBC is a hit, as expected, though Bob Costas finds it a bit dizzying trying to keep up with John Madden's "booms!" and "bams!" and ramblings.
• ESPN's Monday Night Football gets about the same ratings on cable as they did on ABC.
• Half of the people in fantasy football leagues take Shaun Alexander #1 in their drafts. All of his owners weep openly in week two when he is taken out with a knee injury.
• When Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.) is defeated soundly by former governor Tommy Thompson in the race for his senate seat, Kohl announces that he is not only retiring from politics, but he is selling the Bucks to an ownership group based in Kansas City, MO. The group immediately announces that the Bucks will be moving to Kansas City's new Sprint Arena in 2007.
• The Champ Car Series finally capitulates to the IRL when its lone engine builder pulls out mid-season, and all of the member teams disband due to financial problems. Meanwhile, someone who no one has ever heard of wins the IRL championship. No one, outside of the person's immediate family and the Hulman family, cares.
• Jimmie Johnson actually manages to finish in the top 10 in each of the newly-renamed "Sprint For The Cup" championship races, and holds off Waltrip and teammate Jeff Gordon for the title.
• After Michael Schumacher clinches the Formula One championship one race before the end of the season, every other racing team on the circuit pulls out of the final Grand Prix of the season – except for Ferrari. Bernie Ecclestone refuses to place sanctions on the teams that pull out, stating, "what good would a three-car racing series be, anyways?" A few members of the racing press in the US claim that's what Ecclestone has already.
• At least three NFL teams that didn't qualify for the playoffs in 2005 will do so in 2006, while three of the teams that were in the playoffs this year will fail miserably in 2006.
• Kansas City voters will approve a new "moveable roof" to be constructed over a renovated Hunt (formerly Chiefs) Stadium – and Kauffman Stadium – so that the former can host a Super Bowl by the end of the decade.
• Nothing new will be in the offing for new stadiums in New York and Oakland (for baseball); Seattle, Sacramento and Portland (for basketball); or New York, Los Angeles and New Orleans (for football). The Saints will be forced into an additional season playing "home" games between Baton Rouge and Tulane Stadium.