Mr. Johnson,

When I was growing up, I was told that it's better to have people think you are an idiot than to open your mouth and remove any doubt.  You need to think again about changing your name because OCHO CINCO is not how you say 85 in spanish...and your OCHO CINCO routine is getting TIRED!!!

It's ochenta y cinco you IDIOT!  If you are going to legally change your name, change it to the correct words or just rename yourself Lemonjello or Orangejello.  People are getting tired of your crap, I being one of them (and I was a HUGE fan of yours until you started all this crap)  You are working your way towards renaming yourself OUT OF WORK if you continue to make yourself look like an idiot.

You are a good player... show it on the field and you won't have to run your mouth all the time!  ESPN dropped you like a bad habit as soon as Favre was returning or not and returning again.  Please Mr. Johnson, before you go and do something idiotic like change your name to Ocho Cinco, learn how to speak spanish, or change your name to ochenta y cinco so you don't look like a complete idiot!

You and the Bengals will not make the Super Bowl if you continue to cause problems in the locker room.  All of your team mates are saying "all the right things" when they are on camera but it sure seams like there are still issues with you being on the Bengals roster.  Just SHUT UP and PLAY. You are NOT the best receiver of all time, but if you show everyone how good you are instead of talking about how good you are, maybe you will be a Hall of Famer.

A life long Bengals fan,

Ryan

Bengals Vs. Packers     -w/o Brett Favre-

• The big Bengals season starts out this evening at 8PM, and the party starts at 7pm tonight although my son thought that the party started this morning.  He has his Bengals gear on and he's ready to WHO DEY til he drops.
• I'm excited to see the first quarter… and how the first team defense looks. 
  
  

ESPN's PREVIEW

What am I looking for tonight from the Bengals?

1. Improved Pass Coverage
2. Decent Run Coverage, Linebackers able to come up and make a stop when needed.
3. Hustle- on both sides of the ball but especially defense.  I'd like to see every member of the defense at the ball at the end of every play. 
4. The offense needs to be able to move the ball in the first couple of drives and FINISH!  While field goals generate points, TDs generate more :)
5. Can they convert on 3rd down?  With 3rd and less than 5, they need to be able to move the chains.  On 3rd down The Patriots converted 48% last year 92/191  The Bengals converted 96/208 46% of the time. I wonder how many that the Bengals didn't convert were with 3rd & under 5.  It seemed like a lot during the season.
   
6. FIRST DOWNS, the Pats (who I'm just using because of their solid offense) had 393.  The Bengals only had 320. 
7. TIME OF POSSESION- While the Pre-season is hard to judge an offense… the less time that the defense is on the field, the better!
   
   

TouchedArtist's Studio- a BLOG on thelotd.com 7.30.08

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

11:39 AM

For you Colts fans out there, and I know there are a few of you around these parts… Here are some interesting articles regarding Payton Manning.  Some of which are DATED but others not so much.

INDYSTAR.COM (Last Week) http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080724/SPORTS03/80724049/1100

ESPN.COM (Yesterday) http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/trainingcamp08/columns/story?columnist=kuharsky_paul&id=3506988

TWINCITIES.COM  (Today) http://www.twincities.com/sports/ci_10036479

(Why anyone in Vikings Country cares is a mystery to me)

Now, on to my favorite team other than the Bengals, the hapless OAKLAND RAIDERS www.raiders.com

 

1. RE  Derrick Burgess might be making the move to the left side this season.  The 2 time pro-bowl DE has been working out in training camp on BOTH SIDES. According to the SFGate.com article http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/29/SPO6121G1Q.DTL
2. Lamont Jordan was released by the Raiders and signed by the Patriots--- Seems Al Davis has his panties in a bunch about this one  ;) http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=11&entry_id=28565   (interesting thing here is that the story has some CINCINNATI Ties- JOHN BOWIE played for the Bearcats)
3. JaMarcus Russell was sidelined with a SORE throwing elbow during practices Yesterday.  NOT A GOOD SIGN this early in the year.  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/07/27/sports/s143331D11.DTL

AND for any of you that just can't get enough of the BRETT FARVE SAGA-

EA Sports is even getting into the action at this point.  http://www.sportsgamer.com/content/1714/ea-sports-simulates-nfl-seasonwith-brett-favre-on-rival-teams/

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3168620 You can pretty much place him on ANY roster at this point too ;)   It's funny because I don't ever remember this much to do about any player on the cover of Madden or any player that said I retire and then wanted to come back other than Michael Jordan 23/45/23… I just don't know that as good as Favre is that I consider him to be as good as a Quarterback as Michael Jordan was a 'guard'.  And I'm tired of people saying that he was ONLY a PACKER during his Career-  He was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons.  Everyone can have their opinion on this topic- and feel free to disagree with me but I just don't see Favre's return as that big of a deal.  Maybe it's because I don't watch as many NFC games as I do AFC.  (could that be it?)

Mark Curnutte wrote a great piece on T.J. which was on Cincinnati.com this morning.

T.J. just taking things as they come

<http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080730/SPT02/807300356&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL>

In Baseball news the CALIFORNIA ANGELS (yes I still call them that) aquired

Mark Teixeira from the Braves and then their pitcher John Lackey went out and nearly NO HIT the Red Sox @ Fenway going 8 1/3 before giving up a hit.

 

The Reds lost again, falling to 10.5 games back in the wildcard race with their 5th loss in a row.  Anyone care?  50-58 and at this rate, it looks as though the Reds are going to have another loosing season.

 

1. I have some thoughts regarding Ken Griffey Jr. and why people in this town are so hard on him.  As we all know Cincinnati fans are 'fair-weather' which can be said about most fans in most cities but, let's take a look at the Reds since they made the trade for Jr.  February 10, 2000.
    
   • 2000  W-85 L-77   GB 10.0
   • 2001 W -66 L-96   GB 27
   • 2002 W- 78 L- 84  GB 19
   • 2003  W-69 L-93   GB 19
   • 2004  W-76 L-86   GB 29
   • 2005  W-73  L-89  GB 27
   • 2006  W-80 L-82  GB 3.5
   • 2007  W-72 L-90  GB 13
   • 2008 (to date) W-50 L-58  GB 13.5 and in last place

 

Now let me continue to say, I'm a Junior fan but I'm a REDS FAN FIRST.  No player can predict injuries and no team could possibly know in advance that a player is going to have limited playing time due to injury.  He was limited to playing only 70 games in 2002, 53 games in 2003, and 83 games in 2004 due to injury.  He joined the Reds at age 30, no longer a kid by any stretch of the imagination but he still had some natural talent that others just didn't have.  His swing is picture perfect…some say it's natural.

 

Interesting stats on Junior to ponder-  Thanks to Baseball-Reference.com

2. Almost all of Jr's Season Highs came in the earlier part of his career while he was in the AL.
3. 3 of his 8 seasons in Cincinnati, he's been an all-star- prior to that, he was an all-star every season except his rookie season.  Of his 3 all-star selections as a member of the Reds he did not play in two of those games.  His all-star batting avg. - .440
4. He did NOT win the Rookie of the Year award-  he finished 3rd in the AL voting…behind Gregg Olson (Baltimore) , and Tom "Flash" Gordon (Kansas City) *Gordon is still in the league, pitching for the Phillies and is in his 20th season and is 138-125 lifetime.
5. He is 2nd among active players in plate appearances behind Omar Vizquel (because I don't consider Barry Bonds active)
6. 4th among active players in WALKS (because I don't consider Barry Bonds active)


People in Cincinnati expected Jr. to come here and pull this team out of the funk that it had been in prior to his arrival and in 2000, they had a winning record but were still 10 games back in the division.  Since then, they have only had 1 season where they had a chance to win the division and they lost the division by 3.5 games.  I keep hearing, in different interviews,  the players on this team believe they have what it takes to win but I keep seeing them with loosing streak after loosing streak.  If Griffey doesn't come back to the club after this season it will not be a surprise to me but I sure do appreciate the career that he has had, even if it hasn't gotten the Reds over the hump.  He's one man and this is a 'team sport'.

1. Just to add a little FUEL to the FIRE-  Does anyone know how many times Jeff Brantley made the all-star team?   1 as a member of the GIANTS in 1990.  Interesting thing is….he had 44 saves as a member of the Reds in 1996 which was the best of his career.

Ichiro got his 3000th hit last night also-  CONGRATS 

http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200807293219762&c_id=sea

High Socks=Base Knocks (Ichiro Video for you guys)

TouchedArtist's Studio- a BLOG on thelotd.com

Monday, July 28, 2008

5:28 PM

Today, I'm going to hit a number of different topics and spread myself pretty thin while putting this together…so it may feel a bit on the random side but as far as I am concerned, I'm okay with that.

This "article" is dated May 31, 2007 but I wonder if the title of the article holds true with you diehard Reds' fans.  Nation to Ken Griffey Jr. 'We Wish It Were You Hitting 756 Home Runs'

The IRAQ Olympic ban is still an interesting thing to read about…

The Iraqi Government seems to be trying to get the ban lifted for the 2008 Olympics in Bejing China.  According to this article, , The Iraqis want to 'uncover the truth' about their involvement in their athletic programs.  ***Maybe it's just me but shouldn't the Iraqi government have much more important things to be worried about?  Maybe like an occupation of their country by OUR ARMY?  Just wondering ?*** PS- THANKS TROOPS for ALL THAT YOU DO!

Another OLYMPIC note- the Canadians are concerned about the pollution in Bejing , … they should be concerned that HOCKEY isn't played in the summer Olympics :) J/K   They may actually have a chance to medal in Softball, and Baseball (Roster)  

And the final Olympics note- HOW UGLY IS THIS STADIUM?!?!?!?

I thought this article was interesting- Philly must be missing T.O. if they have to report on Chad…

What would happen if CUBAN bought the Cubs?  ChicagoBusiness.com has a great article on this possible business venture. 

The FLORENCE FREEDOM  find themselves in the middle of the Playoff chase.  They have been a lot of fun to watch this season…  They just need to get a few more people to head out to he ballpark.  Champion Window Field is a really nice place to watch a ballgame.

In the world of Video Games- IGN released their BEST OF E3 list-

14th annual Electronic Entertainment Expo 

While E3 had it's LOWEST attendance in years, there were still a number of cool items at the conference ESPECIALLY for the XBOX 360 including Street Fighter IV, Soul Caliber IV, Guitar Hero World Tour and ROCKBAND 2.  Just to name a few!   *** NOTE: Soul Caliber comes out on TUESDAY ***

Any PC gamers out there??? You need to check out SPORE CREATURE CREATOR,  - and make yourself a 'creature' for the upcoming game from EA, called SPORE….. It's a blast

Games for Windows Live- IS FREE!!! (which is not good for me because I have XBL anyway J- Speaking of which, my subscription to live is about to cancel out here in a month or so. There are a couple of things that are having me leaning towards not renewing my XBL membership because of having a PS3 now and I’m enjoying gaming on there as much, if not more than on the xbox right now. I only play a few games online anyway at this point (HALO, COD4 and NHL08…I’ve yet to play NCAA09 on there yet) I’m currently playing Metal Gear Solid 4, Civilization Revolution, and HOT SHOTS GOLF out of bounds on the PS3.

I’m also playing a lot of WoW (World of Warcraft)… I’m not very good at it but, I enjoy it.

CINCINNATI BENGALS RELEASE IRONS....

Another WASTED DRAFT PICK.... blah