I have a dream...

I have a dream. Here it is, a professional indoor men's volleyball league, call it the MPVA (Men's Professional Volleyball Association). Now, when I say professional, don't think NBA, or NFL. Think USBL, CBA, or Arena League football. At best this would be a lower level league, with maybe 8-12 teams, probably all regionally located in either California or the Northeast. Salaries would be limited, no one would be playing volleyball as their full time job. Lots of coaches at colleges and high schools and beach players could supplement their incomes this way, so it would have to be a Winter League, with a short season after the end of football season, say January to April. If you have 12 teams, two divisions of 6 teams each, play same division twice, other division once, that comes to a 16 game season, which could be increased to 22 by playing every team twice. Top 4 teams make the playoffs, maybe top 6 if you give the two division leaders a bye. Another competition option would be to play in for-profit tournaments outside the season. MPVA teams could play exhibition tournaments at major events, like Super Bowl, World Series, Holiday Season, or something of the nature. The tournaments would be sponsored and the top 2-4 teams could take home some extra money in the offseason, while advertising the league. Player salaries could be season or by game, and national team players would command more money than rookies. Some structure would have to be established as far as contracts and salaries, that allowed for flexibility, but also continuity. One major factor would be publicity. It would be essential to have a major sponsor, Sony, Adidas, Nike, Kodak, Mizuno. Anyone that wants to shell out the cash, Major League Soccer has private donors that are personally invested in the success of the league, beyond profit, and that would be helpful with the Men's Volleyball League. Television would be the next key. ESPN, Fox Sports Regional Coverage, or something in the way of regional coverage would be very important. Plus the major market teams would have to be willing to distribute the wealth throughout the league. So for the sake of argument, here we go.

MPVA South Division
1. Los Angeles
2. Malibu
3. San Diego
4. Phoenix
5. Las Vegas
6. El Paso (or Albequerque)
MPVA NorthDivision
1. San Fransisco
2. Oakland
3. Sacramento
4. Salt Lake City
5. Reno
6. Fresno

All these teams are within driving distance, and many could be played during single trips. The North Division would be a little more difficult, but still doable. All the teams would be in large cities, and the Nevada teams could be supported by casinos. Many also have historic links to men's collegiate volleyball, and have venues already established for volleyball. Not to mention they have a fan base of people familiar with men's volleyball, who don't consider it a women's only sport. This could happen, I think its merely a functon of putting the money together with the people. Providing a league of this nature would increase public interest in men's volleyball, it would provide a place for our National Team members to improve their games without having to play in foreign leagues, and it would provide a low cost family entertainment option.

NBA Playoffs

I'm so ready for the NBA Playoffs to start. It's been a long and frustrating season. I'm glad to see that Kobe and LeBron won't be participating, because Kobe is getting what he deserves after running Shaq out of town and LeBron is showing that being the next great thing doesn't equal tangible success. I like LeBron, but I honestly don't beleive he is as mature as he comes across. Even the most mature 20 year old has some severe limits. I look back on his choices during his senior year of high school that got him suspended more than once, and I ask what kind of team mate he really is, regardless of all the ass-kissers out there all over his jock. I do think he'll turn out to be one of the best players ever. I just also think it wouldn't have hurt for him to spend a year or two in college. Getting back to my original subject, I'm hoping the Pacers can pull something off in the playoffs. I want Reggie to go out battling, somewhere past the first round. After Ron Artest screwed his final season, its great to see Reggie step it up and lead the way he has. He's a beast. My predictions are pretty straight forward, I think San Antonio will take it in the West (and even though I'm from SA, I'm not a Spurs fan, so this isn't a homer pick). Duncan is too solid, unless he breaks a hip, Spurs win the West. The East is much less clear, Miami is the favorite, and Detroit is the defending champ, but I think that Philly will make a suprise run. Not too far though, I see Boston getting them in the Conference finals and going to the championship round. From there I see San Antonio taking it in 5 games. Take into consideration that I don't follow the NBA with the zeal that I devote to college basketball, but I think I have some clue. Time will tell.

The New Pope

First things first, welcome to Pope Benedict XVI, the newly elected Pope (formerly Cardinal Ratzinger from Germany), I hope your rule in the Church is enlightened and inspired. That being said, this is my first Papal election, being that I'm only 22 and I'm very excited, and a little nervous, about our new Pope and his supposedly "hardline" ideals. John Paul II is going to be a hard act to follow because he was so legendary. Pope Benedict XVI is going to be what they call a "transitional Pope", due to his age, and I'm hoping that he can find a way to lead the Church in a direction that will allow us to continue the re-emergence that was begun under John Paul II. I'm worried about the current state of the Church. It seems that the hierarchy is somewhat out of touch with what the people need, though I'm not sure if thats the only problem and I'm not sure how having a "hardliner" will affect that. There is also the possibility that this Pope will have great foresight and be able to rise above his personal feelings, and only act in the best interest of the Church, which would be great but not some we can predict at this point. I know that the atrocities done by the small amount of Catholic priests in America have to be stopped, and that something needs to be done about the attrition of Catholics to more charismatic faiths. Hopefully our new Pope can lead us to great things, while maintaining the traditional integrity of the faithful.

I love baseball

I really do love baseball. Even more than I hate Scoop Jackson. Not necessarily Major League Baseball, because I honestly prefer the NCAA kind. Whenever baseball season comes around, I get an itch. I want to be somewhere playing baseball right now. Every summer I try to find enough people to put together a decent team to play in an amateur tournament or two, but its tough because of money or time. I still spend at least 10 hours over the course of every spring trying to develop of depth chart, and find a few teams to play us. It hasn't happened yet, but theirs still time. I do love opening day, except for the Boston vs. New York nonsense that is all over TV. I love to see the first day of baseball after months of empty stadiums. Baseball games are the most fun to see in person, I even prefer to keep my own scorebook on most days. Minor League games are great fun, even if you only know who 2 guys on the team are. I recommend that anyone who gets a chance goes to see an NCAA tournament/College World Series game. They are the greatest. The best thing about spring is baseball, so turn on the damn tv, get a glove and go outside, or make it to the nearest ballpark, and be glad you're not a hockey fan.

About me and why I hate Scoop Jackson

First things first, my name is Kenneth. I'm a senior history major at Schreiner University is in Kerrville, TX. I will be graduating very soon, and I'm hoping to attend law school, but I'll keep you posted on that. I'm a huge sports fan. College Basketball is my favorite. I also am a huge fan of Men's Volleyball, and I'll definately try and promote that as much as possible. My favorite basketball teams are Gonzaga, the Utah Jazz, and as of last month, John Beilein's West Virginia team. As far as politics I am generally conservative, I identify myself as a Republican. Spiritually speaking I am a practicing Roman Catholic and I defend my faith with a knife. My blog will probably not have much of a theme once it gets going, but sports get me worked up daily, everything else just fills in the space around it. I hope anyone who comes across this "blog" (I hate that word) finds something interesting. Now on to my initial inspiration....

I really really hate Scoop Jackson. Scoop is a former editor/contributor to SLAM! Magazine. Slam is also known the biggest ass kissing magazine in America and Scoop fit in perfectly there. Now Scoop has himself a job on ESPN.com, my former favorite website/sports news source. My theory is that Scoop has been hired to replace the LEGENDARY Ralph Wiley, a great writer who died this past year. Both are African American, and outspoken, and unfortunately thats where the similarities end. The difference is that Scoop is a brown nosing, pro-player, pro-hip hop joke. I have yet to see him make one legitimately unbiased argument in any piece of his writing. He recently defended Jermaine O'Neal's idiot claims of racism being behind the NBA's possible 20 year old age limit. I won't get into the details at this point, but it was a ridiculous, uneducated argument by O'Neal and the defense of that argument by Scoop was equally ridiculous, blatantly favoritist towards young members of the hip hop community, and a joke in terms of journalistic integrity. FIRE SCOOP!!! He's definately not Ralph Wiley.