Round The ‘Block: 2/27/11

Dear Readers,

Pardon the phrase, but, holy crap. This past week has been a roller coaster of emotions. A lot of good, some bad. All-in-all a ton of fun. Props to Mike Lederer, Jurassic Paque, Terry Horstman, Matthew Harris, Casey Grogan and JP Bertram for their work to make the final week in February to most productive week in the history of The [Five].

The show from Last Wednesday was great. Matthew Harris shared some Special Olympics talk and covered some NBA news as we approached the trade deadline. And Jon Wiener called in to wax intellectual on all things NBA, as well.

In response to an email I received, I produced a short video about what I did to prepare for the show on Wednesday.

But, at that point in the week, we were so busy breaking news (by we, I mean Mike Lederer) that it took until now to get back to a reflection on The NickelBlock.

My Five Cents

I jumped on Facebook this afternoon and a friend of mine, Maliha Aqueel was beaming about an India-England game. He status read: WHATTTAYYY GAMEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!! Hats off to India and England!

At first, I thought she meant soccer.

Then I jumped online to find the final score – 338-338.

What? That is a far cry from the soccer I’m used to seeing. Turns out, it was cricket.

Per the Associated Press:

India and England set alight the World Cup on Sunday after a record-breaking 676 run-feast ended with a dramatic tie off the last ball.

India appeared to have set a daunting 339-run winning target in the Group B match but England kept cool and were coasting towards victory as they eased to 281-2, thanks largely to a classy 158 from skipper Andrew Strauss.

However, when England opted to play their powerplay from the 43rd over, Zaheer Khan produced a superb bowling spell to take three wickets in six balls to revive the home team’s fortunes.

With two wickets in hand and needing 14 to win off pace bowler Munaf Patel’s last over, England were brought right back into contention after Ajmal Shahzad blasted a huge six that had Strauss leaping off his seat in the pavilion.

The nail-biting match went down to the last ball with England two runs short of their victory target.

Graeme Swann nudged the ball to mid-off and scampered across for a single to leave both teams tied on 338 — a result that was loudly cheered by all those lucky enough to witness one of the best ever ODIs.

The match featured a World Cup record 676 runs.

I read that about, I don’t know, a dozen times, and I have no idea what the writer, Savio D’Souza, is talking about. I can’t wait until tomorrow when I can track down Maliha. I need an explanation.

On Sunday Morning… Without a warning

A quick shout out to No Doubt with that headline.

Poor Cincinnati (and poor Mike Atikins, a close friend of the show). Here’s a city that just can’t win. The Bengals are the latest addition to the “Fail Blog” with the debacle they are currently facing.

Jay Gruden told ProFootballWeekly: “We might not take a quarterback in the first five rounds, who knows?”

Meanwhile Head Coach Marvin Lewis is moving ahead as if current QB, Carson Palmer, isn’t going to be there in August.

And then there is Team president Mike Brown, who according to the Associated Press, is sitting on interviews with quarterback prospects.

The two top prospects are Missouri QB Blaine Gabbert and Auburn QB Cam Newton. And lets be honest, neither of those two guys would fit well inside orange-and-black-striped helmets. Both on the field and off.

NickelBlock’d

The NFL Combine is on TV. Really? I mean, I’d probably watch it, but c’mon… I’m crazy. Are there really as many crazy people like me int he world to justify putting that on television?

Probably not.

And if there are, it’s no wonder the Mayans thought the world was going to end in 2012.

Podcasts Below!

Interviews
First Segment: Matthew Harris, lifebeyondthearc.com
Second Segment: Jon Wiener, emaelstromsports.blogspot.com