KFDM COOP

Like GS said he was very impressive last year, look for a bigger year from him this year.

Dunn for Ozen is 6-5 280. They average about 250-270 on the lines. PN-G has their Center Aaron Tomplait 6-2 235. DT Gallet 6-1 260. Most teams will as you see will have bif OL and DL.

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Maybe they can come back again??

MLS All-Stars defeat Chelsea 1-0; historic victory For those of you who didn't see it, the MLS All-Stars defeated two-time defending English Premier League champion Chelsea 1-0 today. Chelsea is the New York Yankees of World Soccer with a $200 million payroll. The victory by the MLS All-Stars signifies that the league has made significant strides since it's inception. It truly was a historic victory for the MLS.

Biggio gets hit # 2900 in 1st inning 100 to go to join the prestigious 3,000 hit club. He should get that mark early next season. Go get 'em Bidge! Trivia---what H O F ended his career with exactly 3,000 hits?

Saturday, August 5th...Cowboys scrimmage and time to do the laundry... 9:05am-We're picking up another Tylerite today, Nic Gregory...who arrives around noon today in Burbank. I really enjoy watching a Cowboy fan get an up-close and personal view of what we do at training camp...I think Nic will have a great time. 11:15am-Who said covering Cowboys camp was fun and glamorous? I'm about to wash a week's worth of clothes between now and their scrimmage at 2:00pm. 11:45am-My buddy Tim Thompson reports "another Eagle (Nic Gregory) has landed at Burbank airport. 11:53am-I enjoy watching the various inductees to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but I think they need to cut back some of the highlights and overviews, and get on with the ceremonies. 12:15pm-Wide receiver Terrell Owens will have an MRI on his sore hamstring, and will not be involved in today's scrimmage. Bill Parcells insists he's not worried about the lost time in practice, not yet. 12:24pm-Bill Parcells discussed his plans for today's scrimmage and what he'd like to see or needs to see. When asked if the coaches also go through the grind of training camp, Parcells responded, "No, not really...this is what we do. I'm a like a trained-pig, I go from the office to the locker room to the practice field to here, to the cafeteria, to my room, and then just keep doing that over-and-over-and-over again." Parcells also thinks "juggling" the final few spots on the 53-man roster will be more difficult this season than the previous three, because he has a little more depth at key positions than before. Interesting stat of the day, Parcells mentioned cornerback Terence Newman didn't allow a single touchdown pass last season. He said Newman was tremendous in man-to-man, but that stat might be a little deceiving considering the Cowboys use a lot of zone defense. Parcells also said he didn't have any specific plan on starting Tony Romo during any pre-season games, but he does plan on playing him "a lot". When asked if the offense making more plays on Friday afternoon would change his mind about giong straight 2-a-days next week, he said "we'll go through today's scrimmage, and we'll see where we are after that." Parcells specifically mentioned strength and conditioning coach Joe Jurazcek today, saying..."he's won my respect, he (Juraczek) doesn't tell the players what they always want to hear, and he takes it personally when a player isn't in good condition". Parcells added, "I probably talk with Joe more than any coach on staff...he knows each player and their behavorial patterns, and has a good sense of who has guts, and who doesn't." Parcells said rookie Skylar Green will have to make the team as a return man, and not as a wide receiver. He also mentioned he probably doesn't have much comfortability with his fourth-receiver, at least not yet. 3:40pm-Cowboys scrimmage has ended, I'll give you some personal insight first, and then more statistic-based information later. Cowboys first-team offense appeared to really struggle...meanwhile Tony Romo and Drew Henson led their offensive units to touchdown drives. Touchdowns were scored by: *Lousaka Polite, short run *Marion Barber, short run *J.R. Tolver short touchdown pass from Tony Romo *Skylar Green short touchdown pass from Drew Henson Other highlights... Rookie wide receiver Sam Hurd had a handful of catches, a couple of them were acrobatic. I'm sure we'll (media) all overreact to his performance since we (media) always do with a young wide receiver. Jamie Lent, Tim Thompson, Nic Gregory, Craig Smoak, and I (along with basically dozens of other media members) sit along the chain-link fence that separates the fans from the field. I'm truly amazed at how vocal and demanding the fans were today, especially in their frustration with Drew Bledsoe. I'm also always impressed with how a great deal of the fan-base in attendance know their football...they made some nice comments throughout the scrimmage, including a couple of points I wasn't thinking about. We sat near FWST's Mac Engel, the husband of "our" very-own Jennifer Floyd-Engel, and we were trying to figure out a nickname for the Cowboys first-team offense. Snap and Pray or Chuck and Duck were one of the favorites after Bledsoe was sacked five times early during the scrimmage. One somewhat interesting stat, there were zero turnovers throughout the 90-play scrimmage...although Drew Henson should've been picked at least once. Also, the hits of the day were Terence Newman blindsiding Terrance Copper, and safety Keith Davis blowing up running back Marion Barber, even though Barber was pulling up and was out of bounds. 4:00pm-Terrell Owens on hamstring, "It's sore, to the point that I feel that if I get on the field right now and I try and open up then it's going to make matters worse, so I think for me I've got to be really cautious, knowing myself I really want to try and push myself when I get back out there, but it's not going to do the team any good, it's not going to do myself any good if I get out there, and I know everybody wants to see me out there and practicing, but it's not going to do me any good to get out there and push it and then really go beyond the limit." 4:11pm-We're awaiting the arrival of pro bowl tight end Jason Witten, who will be joining us inside the Hayes RV Luxury Suite for an interview. Next week on Sports Talk, we already know we'll have Witten, wide receiver Terry Glenn, quarterback Drew Bledsoe, running back Keylon Kincade (Troup), defensive tackle Jason Ferguson, and owner and general manager Jerry Jones. 4:15pm-I just realized, Monday is the start of practice for hundreds of high school football teams throughout Texas...those programs who had spring drills will have to wait another week (August 14th). 4:25pm-Tim Thompson, who hasn't done anything all day, is supposed to be checking on a couple of fine restaurants, although he told me his lone focus of concentration today has been wondering about how his best friend Scott Salvage is doing without his annual trip to training camp. ***Please let me know if you have a question for Cowboys head coach Bill Parcells for Monday's press conference. Sunday is an off-day...talk to you later. We're headed to Malibu and the most beautiful view you can imagine off Highway 1 and the Pacific Coast...beach, big waves, and just an incredible view.

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Mudbugs announcer leaves for the Islanders Can't say I didn't see this coming. I truely will miss this awesome guy. Hope he does well in New York. Going to be very very different no doubt. [Hidden Content] Mudbugs’ Mears takes NHL job The Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs of the Central Hockey League have announced today that play-by-play broadcaster Steve Mears will be leaving the team after serving as the Director of Media Relations and Broadcasting for the past four seasons. Mears has accepted a position to be the radio play-by-play broadcaster for the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League. "When it comes to hockey play-by-play, Steve is one of the brightest young talents in North America ," said Islanders spokesman Chris Botta. "After an extensive search in which we listened to more than a hundred applicants from every level of hockey, Steve was the definitive choice. Our fans are going to love the passion and energy he puts into his calls." The Pittsburgh, Pa., native joined the Mudbugs in 2002 after spending three seasons as the broadcaster for the Bowling Green State University Falcons in Bowling Green, Ohio. In his four seasons in Bossier-Shreveport, he called nearly 300 games including the 2004 and 2006 President's Cup Finals. In 2005, Mears was selected as the CHL Broadcaster of the Year. "It's been an honor to be a part of the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs organization for four years," said Mears. "This is truly a dream of mine to work in the NHL and it would not be possible without all of the great support from the Mudbugs family. I would like to thank our owners John Madden and Rob Walker, general manager Jason Rent, head coach Scott Muscutt, and the entire staff for treating me so well since I arrived in 2002. Most importantly, the Mudbugs fans have been so supportive of me and this team and I would like to thank all of them." Mears, 26, will make his NHL broadcasting debut Oct. 5 when the Islanders visit the Phoenix Coyotes. He will remain with the Mudbugs for the next three weeks before moving to New York to begin his new position. The search for the Mudbugs' new play-by-play voice will begin immediately. "When your goal in life is to do a job where there are only 30 positions available in the world, it would probably be normal to carry some doubt about whether that goal is attainable," said Mudbugs General Manager Jason Rent. "But the people involved with this franchise never doubted he would be in the NHL one day. Steve will be truly missed by everyone here in Bossier-Shreveport, but I know the New York Islanders definitely gained some fans from the South today."

Comprehensive Plan to bring Hockey to East Texas If this wouldn't work...I don't know what would [Hidden Content]

No Problem. 8)

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Congrats Groves!! 6-2!

How Baseball Cards lost their luster Requiem for a Rookie Card (by Dave Jamieson | The Slate) [Hidden Content] Last month, when my parents sold the house I grew up in, my mom forced me to come home and clear out my childhood bedroom. I opened the closet and found a box the size of a Jetta. It was so heavy that at first I thought it held my Weider dumbbells from middle school. Nope, this was my old stash. Thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Baseball Cards from the 1980s. Puckett, Henderson, Sandberg, Gwynn, and McGwire stared back at me with fresh faces. So long, old friends, I thought. It's time for me to cash in on these long-held investments. I started calling the lucky card dealers who would soon be bidding on my trove. First, I got a couple of disconnected numbers for now-defunct card shops. Not a good sign. Then I finally reached a human. "Those cards aren't worth anything," he told me, declining to look at them. "Maybe if you had, like, 20 McGwire rookie cards, that's something we might be interested in," another offered. "Have you tried eBay?" a third asked. If I had to guess, I'd say that I spent a couple thousand bucks and a couple thousand hours compiling my Baseball Card collection. Now, it appears to have a street value of approximately zero dollars. What happened? Baseball Cards peaked in popularity in the early 1990s. They've taken a long slide into irrelevance ever since, last year logging less than a quarter of the sales they did in 1991. Baseball card shops, once roughly 10,000 strong in the United States, have dwindled to about 1,700. A lot of dealers who didn't get out of the game took a beating. "They all put product in their basement and thought it was gonna turn into gold," Alan Rosen, the dealer with the self-bestowed moniker "Mr. Mint," told me. Rosen says one dealer he knows recently struggled to unload a cache of 7,000 Mike Mussina rookie cards. He asked for 25 cents apiece. For someone who grew up in the late 1980s, this is a shocking state of affairs. When I was a kid, you weren't normal if you didn't have at least a passing interest in Baseball Cards. My friends and I spent our summer days drooling over the display cases in local card shops, one of which was run by a guy named Fat Moose. The owners tolerated us until someone inevitably tried to steal a wax pack, which would get us all banished from the store. Then we'd bike over to the Rite Aid and rummage through their stock of Topps and Fleer. Card-trading was our pastime, and our issues of Beckett Baseball Card Monthly were our stock tickers. I considered myself a major player on the neighborhood trading circuit. It was hard work convincing a newbie collector that Steve Balboni would have a stronger career than Roger Clemens. If negotiations stalled, my favorite move was to sweeten the pot by throwing in a Phil Rizzuto card that only I knew had once sat in a pool of orange juice. After the deal went through, my buddy wouldn't know he'd been ripped off until his older brother told him. He always got over it, because he had no choice: Baseball Cards were our common language. In the early 1990s, pricier, more polished-looking cards hit the market. The industry started to cater almost exclusively to what Beckett's associate publisher described to me as "the hard-core collector," an "older male, 25 to 54, with discretionary income." That's marketing speak for the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons. Manufacturers multiplied prices, overwhelmed the market with scores of different sets, and tantalized buyers with rare, autographed, gold-foil-slathered cards. Baseball Cards were no longer mementos of your favorite players—they were elaborate doubloons that happened to have ballplayers on them. I eventually left the hobby because it was getting too complicated and expensive. Plus, I hit puberty. It's easy to blame card companies and "the hard-core collector" for spoiling our fun. But I'll admit that even before the proliferation of pricey insert cards, I was buying plastic, UV-ray-protectant cases for my collection. Our parents, who lost a small fortune when their parents threw out all those Mantles and Koufaxes, made sure we didn't put our Griffeys and Ripkens in our bicycle spokes or try washing them in the bathtub. Not only did that ensure our overproduced cards would never become valuable, it turned us into little investors. It was only rational, then, for the card companies to start treating us like little investors. The next wave of expensive, hologram-studded cards didn't ruin collecting for us—we were already getting too old for the game. It ruined baseball cards for the next generation of kids, who shunned Upper Deck and bought cheap Pokémon and Magic cards instead. This year there are 40 different sets of Baseball Cards on the market, down from about 90 in 2004. That's about 38 too many. When there were just two or three major sets on the market, we all had the same small pool of cards. Their images and stats were imprinted on our brains. The Baseball Card industry lost its way because the manufacturers forgot that the communal aspect of collecting is what made it enjoyable. How can kids talk about Baseball Cards if they don't have any of the same ones? Seeing as the cards I once prized now fetch a pittance on eBay, I decided not to sell my collection. I figure my Boggs rookie is worth more as a keepsake of my card-shop days than as an online auction with a starting bid of 99 cents. The worthlessness of my collection gave me an idea, though. The card manufacturers and the Major League Baseball Players Association have launched a $7 million marketing campaign to remind a generation of children that Baseball Cards exist. Instead of spending all that money to tell kids that cardboard is cool, Topps and MLB should convince everyone that cards are worthless, suitable for tacking to the wall, flicking on the playground, or at least taking out of the package. In that spirit, the other day I opened three Topps packs that I'd stowed away as an investment in the late 1980s. I even tried the gum, which was no staler than I remember it being 20 years ago. And as I flipped through my new cards hoping to score a Mattingly, I felt that particular tinge of excitement that a generation of kids have missed out on.

Everyone begins Monday except for Memorial, Ozen, Central and West Brook.