Cardinals Baseball

I've spent the past few days watching the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinal's record is 15-7, which is the best record in all of Major League Baseball. Yes, that is very exciting, but what is cool is their bullpen only has 2 or 3 blown saves so far. For example, the Cardinals had a 1-o lead over the Braves, then the Braves scored 2 runs to win the game 2-1.

The Cardinals have been strong in 1 run games; their record is 4 and 3. The Cardinals' Albert Pujols has already blasted 7 homeruns and 26 RBIs so far this season. He's not alone. Ryan Ludwick has 5 homeruns and 19 RBIs so far. These guys have both battled some sicknesses this year, but they've been able to play and give a great performance each night. This inspires me, and is why I'll be a Cardinals fan through thick and thin.

Are you wondering how I'm catching all of these games? Well, my dad found out how to watch games online. It's really fun. I pull up the web site (mlb.tv) and log on using my e-mail address and a password. Not only do you get to see the game in HD, they give you live commentary and team stats. For example, when they have a new pitcher come in, they show you the pitcher's stats. And when a batter comes up to bat, they show the batter's stats. When there's a score change, they put it on the side of the screen to let you know that some team in another game has scored. So, I can keep track of my Cardinals, plus all of the other MLB games going on at that time. It's so cool, and it's been an interesting experience. Do you watch games on mlb.tv, too?

Gooooo Cardinals!

How the Kings Ended the Season

Tonight the Kings played the Minnesota Timberwolves. Even though I did not get to see the whole game (I was at basketball practice), I can say that the Kings stayed with it in the fourth quarter, which is usually when they lose games, and they won 97-90. But tonight they played like they were in an NBA championship game! They played like they cared, which they could have just said, "We're done. This season's a failure. Who cares if we win?" That's what I love about them. They never quit. I like how my team just doesn't give up when times are bad. That inspires me.

The Kings played fantastic at times during the season, but their record did not show it. I can't even count how many times they should have won games this season. Here's a wild guess: 4o. Let's go through some of them. They played Portland and should have won (92-91). They played Golden State and lost 143-141. What about San Antonio on Monday? Terrible call at the end of the game, and they got burned 95-92. (By the way, a rule they need to make in the off-season is they should be able to review plays that could change an entire game.) What about the game v. the Lakers? Or what about the Cavs? The list goes on and on.

I think overall the Kings played great. As I said before, their record didn't show how hard they played. My player of the year is probably JT or 'Cisco. JT because he's played in every single game this season and gave a lot of effort. 'Cisco because -- there's so many things! One is he played even though he was injured. In my mind, he's the heart of the team. His scoring has gotten even better than before, and so has his great defense. Also, 'Cisco was awarded the triple-double award, so whoever decided that is on the same page as me.

Can't wait to see the Kings next season. Most of my blogs now will be about baseball, and I'll also talk about the spring basketball team I'm playing on.

Until October, gooooo Kings!

The Kings Dominated the Suns

I watched the Kings last night v. the Suns, and I saw a different team than what I usually see. The Kings came out with energy and attacked the inside. But best of all, Spencer and Jason did a good job guarding Shaq. They defended really hard and didn't let up at all.

Last night, seven players were in double figures. Jason was the leading scorer, with 21 points. Spencer had a good night too, with 20 points, tying his career high. 'Cisco and Andres Nocioni had 19 points a piece.

The Kings did well on rebounding, which is the key to getting baskets because if you get rebounds you get to set up your offense. JT had eight rebounds, and Spencer had a double double with 10 rebounds. Together that's 18 rebounds, and that's about half of the team rebounds!

The final score was 126 to 118. I knew the Kings would win from the end of the first quarter on because they came out in the first quarter and started scoring well and playing good defense. And they kept doing that throughout the game which led to a win.

My favorite play of the game was when Beno penetrated into the paint, did a behind-the-back pass to Spencer, and Spencer dunked it. This was my favorite play of the game because it looked really cool.

Now that we're done talking about last night's Kings game, I want to talk about Vlade Divac's jersey retirement. I think it will be a really special night, and it will get everybody very excited about Tuesday's game against the Hornets. I wish I could go, but I already got to go one jersey retirement this year, so I doubt another miracle will happen.

I'm also having a lot of fun following Jason Thompson, the Kings and Sac Bee reporter, Sam Amick, on Twitter. It's really cool getting to know what they're doing and getting the inside scoop on what's happening off the court. I would recommend it to all of my readers -- it's really fun to check and see what they're doing. For example, a few days ago JT ate at Subway, which is my favorite lunch place. That's what you do on Twitter -- you "tweet" and tell people about what you're doing.

I'll be watching the game tomorrow night against the Hornets and cheering for the Kings. Until next time, gooooo Kings!

How We Feel about Mikki

Two weeks ago, I went to the Kings game v. the New Orleans Hornets. Before the game, we watched the players warm up. We waited to see if any of the players would sign autographs. What was special about this night was we got an autograph from Mikki Moore, and it was the last chance to get it. He was waived the next day. My little sister is Mikki's biggest fan, and she's sad, so I thought I would interview her.

Q: How did you feel when they waived Mikki?

A: Sad.

Q: Were you happy that you got to see Mikki play his last game as a King?

A: Yes.

Q: How do you think Mikki was helping the Kings play?

A: I saw him doing great.

Q: What was it about Mikki that you liked so much?

A: He shooted hoops. His long hair. He had snakes. That's all.

Q: What do you think were Mikki's strengths on the court?

A: He had a lot of energy. He had a lot of strength, too.

Q: What did you first think when Mikki picked you up to take a picture?

A: It was fun!

Q: What did you say to Mikki when you first saw him?

A: I said I was his biggest fan! And he said I was his biggest littlest fan.

Q: Do you like being Mikki's biggest littlest fan?

A: Yes.

I feel good for Mikki that he gets to be on a really good team like the Celtics.

Gotta go downstairs and watch my favorite college basketball team Mizzou play Kansas. Until next times, goooooo Kings!

College Basketball

Today I was thinking about what I would blog about, and I thought about something pretty good that I haven't written about EVER. I'm going to write about my favorite college basketball team, the Missouri Tigers aka Mizzou.

They won a game on Saturday against Nebraska. The final score was 70 - 47 with Mizzou on top. I thought Mizzou owned most of the game because they had very consistent shooting, accurate passing, and they valued the ball. The stand-out players were DeMarre Carroll, Leo Lyons, Keith Ramsey and Matt Lawrence. Mizzou's record is now 22-4 and they are ranked #10 out of the 25 best teams in the COUNTRY. When I heard the news about the ranking, I was so shocked that I couldn't even finish my sentence.

Another college team I like is the Duke Blue Devils, who are 20 and 5. Their record is not as good as Mizzou's but I enjoy watching their games. I like Gerald Henderson. I think he's NBA material. Another player I like is Kyle Singler because he hits so many threes.

My mom hooked me up with great seats to watch the Kings take on a former King, Mike Bibby, and the Atlanta Hawks. I'm looking forward to the game on Wednesday!

Gotta go downstairs to watch "24" and Jack Bauer.

Gooooooo Kings!

The Donte and Kenny Show

Last night, I went to a meet and greet event with two Kings players -- Donte Greene and Kenny Thomas. My parents gave me a six-game-pack of Kings tickets for Christmas, and it came with this meet and greet.

It was a cool experience! First, we got to make a tunnel for Donte and Kenny to walk through, and they gave us high-fives as they were coming through. Then we sat back down, and we got to ask them questions for about 30 minutes or so. I asked two questions. One was, "What is it like being on a show like 'The Donte Greene Show'"? I can't remember the second question I asked because I was so nervous!

I also interviewed Donte after the event, and here are his answers to my questions:

Q: What or who inspired you to be an NBA player?

A: My mom and Dominique Wilkins.

Q: What's your pre-game routine?

A: I like to get to the gym three hours early, listen to music and shoot the ball around.

Q: What is the best part of being an NBA player?

A: The traveling. I like seeing different places.

Q: What's on your playlist? (My mom asked this question, but I gave her the idea.)

A: Lil Wayne and Young Jeezy.

I really enjoyed learning more about both of these players. For example, I learned that Donte loves kids and thinks education is really important. In fact, he's still taking some college classes. Some things I learned about Kenny Thomas is that he has a nine-year-old boy just like me, as well as a baby. Kenny's favorite show is "The Unit," just like my mom and dad. He also said how important your education is, and I learned that he is helping kids in New Mexico who are less fortunate.

Those aren't the only great things that happened last night. My mom and dad got tickets to see the Kings game tonight where Chris Webber's jersey will be retired. With these tickets, we get to meet Chris Webber before the game!! I'm so excited that I'm twitching!

I can't wait to post tomorrow about tonight's game -- and it's going to be a win.

Goooooooo KKIINNGGSS!!!!!!!!!!!

Bring it!

I was watching the Kings game tonight, and I was not pleased with what was going on. For example, the Kings were not guarding Eddie House and he hit 8 three's, which was really disappointing. I mean, that's 24 points given away just in three's!

When they were playing the Cavs yesterday, they did a good job of shutting down LeBron James, but Mo Williams was the problem. He had 43 points! On the bright side, Kevin Martin did have 35 points in that game. I'm trying to say that when you're comparing the games, I think the Kings gave more effort against the Cavs than they did with the Celtics. I don't think it had anything to do with the fact that they've played a lot of games in a few nights. I think it was a mismatch with the Celtics.

I'm looking forward to Friday's game against the Bulls. I'll be there cheering on the Kings. It won't be easy with Derek Rose, so the Kings need to bring it!

I'm pretty tired, and I still have to work on my useless book report. It's useless because there is no reason I should be forced to read nonfiction that's not a biography. I had planned to read a biography on Michael Jordan until I heard we couldn't read biographies for this book report. So now I'm stuck reading about ships.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO KINGS!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks, Sam!

I was reading all of the comments on my last post, and someone sent my mom a link to Sam Amick's blog post and to the Rise Guys show that Sam was on. Sam said he disagreed with what I wrote in my last post, but he really liked my spirit. I think that's really thoughtful and cool of him. I still stick by what I said in my last post, but that doesn't mean I won't read Sam's articles every morning.

So, anyway, I watched today's early game v. the Raptors, and I thought the Kings played really good in the first half. But the problem was the second half because in the third quarter the Kings were outscored 31 to 21. By the end of the quarter, they were down by 14. I still had faith that they could win. But then when the Kings started playing in the 4th, Toronto kept getting on good runs, and we could only score like on every three possessions. I was really happy that even when the game was over with only a minute left, the Kings still played like they had a lot more time. To me, that took real focus and hope. I felt heartbroken when they lost. I felt like they did such a good job in the first two quarters, but down the stretch they lost by sixteen. The highlight of the game for me was Cisco getting a technical. I know that sounds weird, but I really felt like he wanted to scare the Rapters to get something going. And I thought it kind of worked for a little bit, but Chris Bosh gave 31 points, which really hurt us.

In my basketball game yesterday, we won 46-34. I scored a season high of 14 points, and I know it sounds low, but it was really hard to get those points because we were playing a great team. We're now 3-0. And now here are some highlights from the game: (1) At the buzzer of the 3rd quarter, I hit a hook shot, and that got my whole team on their feet. I was taking high fives and celebrating. I was like, "Yeah!" I think I jumped four feet in the air I was so happy. And then I hit another one off the backboard in the last quarter. (2) My friend Troy hit a 3-pointer and swished it. (3) My other friend Chase hit a driving lay-up with two seconds left on the clock in the 2nd quarter. (4) And another one of my friends Logan got a lot of offensive rebounds which led to more points. The whole team had great passing. One of the problems in the first two games was that we didn't pass enough.

Gotta go get my sister in trouble. Until next time, gooooo Kings!

Sac Bee Doesn't Make the Grade

When I woke up this morning, I thought I had my blog all planned out. But when I picked up the Sunday paper, I had different thoughts completely! In today's sports section, Sam Amick graded all of the Kings players. He graded the players' efforts, and his grades are totally bad and unfair.

For example, he gave Kevin Martin a C+, even though he's been averaging over 20 points for the last nine games. Another example, Francisco Garcia's grade was a C-, even though he's been saving us defensively and from my perspective he's the most aggressive player on the team. Plus, his scoring just gets better and better. Personally, I think Sam Amick's writing about the team gets an F because it's the most negative and just plain wrong. His perspective is more than off. His perspective is so bad I can't think of a bad enough word for it.

If I had been graded in the paper like the Kings have, I would feel terrible. If we want to see some more wins, the guys need to see more positive things. When I get off the court and my coach comes over to me, he tells me how I played great and also tells me how I can play better. If he said to me, "You played terrible, I could see better playing from a donkey, your grade is an F," I would want to just quit.

Enough negative stuff. This past week, I saw the Kings that I've dreamed of seeing for the last 41 games. They won two of four this week which is better than they've done in a long time. I was at the Mavs game, and they creamed them. The beat Golden State in triple overtime!!! They almost came back during the Bucks game. What can make a fan happier than that?

I gotta go get ready to watch some NFL football games today, like the Steelers (I got a lot of comments about that in my last post), and then the Eagles v. the Cardinals. I'm rooting for the Steelers and the Eagles.

One last note to my Kings: Don't let this Sac Bee article get you down. He's just one person. Think about all of the fans that love you guys.

Gooooooooo KINGS!!!!!!!

Finally...Third Grade Basketball!

Yesterday was the season opener for my school basketball team, and we won by a lot. The final score was 46 to 16. I started as a point guard, and in the first quarter I managed 4 steals, 3 assists and 2 points. By the end of the game, I had 8 points, 7 steals and 5 assists. It was fun, until I cramped up at the end of the game and couldn't play the last five minutes.

My teammates played fantastic! They hit a lot of outside shots and good lay-ups, and we had at least 30 rebounds. Chase had a lot of fast-break points, a few assists and he did some great passing. Troy played really well, too; he had 5 assists and passed really well. Logan had a great rebounding game, with at least 5 offensive rebounds and probably 10 defensive rebounds. Jack F. did an amazing job with assists, and hit two key shots at both the beginning and end of the game. Lenny hit a lot of far shots and had 3 steals and a pair of assists. We are now 1-0, with another 11 games to go.

Tonight, I can't wait to get to ARCO to see the Kings take on the Dallas Mavs. If you're headed to ARCO, check out my mom's blog (www.sacfoodies.com) for some good eats at Kings games.

Now, I'm headed downstairs to watch what's probably the best football game that TV has to offer today: the New York Giants v. the Philadelphia Eagles. Just in case you're wondering, I'm rooting for the Eagles.

Until next time, goooooo Kings!