2011-12 NBA Predictions: Quick—We can still get a season in!

I had been toying with what I would say when jumping straight to "Final Thoughts on" this basketball season, when lo and behold, the NBA lockout finally ended and now the season will tip off on Christmas Day. And a number of people are genuinely excited about it. One friend as well as one radio personality have already said the NBA should start on December 25 every, although considering the money issue we just came out of, it's probably not real wise to ask the players to get paid for 16 less games a year every season.

Still, this little mad rush to the playoffs should be interesting, and judging by preseason television ratings, the numbers should be astounding. And with the Chris Paul-to-the-Lakers deal killed by the commissioner in a somewhat disturbing display of power, it's now the other Los Angeles team that people are talking about.

There were a number of familiar faces being shuffled around just as soon as the moving could begin again, but yet we find ourselves once again asking that same eternal question: Will this be the year for LeBron?

A majority of the early predictions I've seen indicate it will, it's either the Heat or the Thunder. So who do I go with?

The Bears' Third Quarter: You can only be so lucky for so long

I suppose that if you're just looking at the graphic, then the improvement in the standings would lead you to believe that things are trending upward. Of course, I tried to wedge the assumed moments that injured two of the team's most valuable players. The Packers have already clinched the division and, hell, it probably won't be long before many of us start hoping they'll finally be able to send those miserable old '72 Dolphins to their graves having to know that they were not, as it turned out, the only team to have a perfect season.

Still, as unbelievably unfortunate as things have gone for the Bears in this last stretch, there remains a possibility of the playoffs. And maybe with Matt Forte and Jay Cutler back, it would be undeniably joyous if Chicago, lo and behold, were the team to end the Green Bay dreams of a flawless repeat.

How realistic are thoughts about the playoffs now? That's debatable. In all likelihood, it only seems destined to make the season a one-and-done year with an immediate exit. If the team can grab the fifth instead of the sixth spot, maybe they can hold their own against whomever comes out of the East. But the concern seems more about getting into the playoffs. It's hard to imagine much beyond that when lately, it just seems like things are not going to go your way.

The Blackhawks' First Quarter: Second to none (for now)

The Hawks reached the quarter mark in the season while I was in Chicago, actually. Still, much like I've done for the other 20 games this year, I listened on the radio to every awful goal of a 9-2 shellacking from the Oilers. I suppose I was once again in that bed in the basement, just like I was oh so often during that Stanley Cup season. And damned if this team didn't get off to an otherwise pretty damn good start to this year's run.

Whereas your author said something about how he'd "be surprised if they didn't have a little stumbling out of the gate," well ... color me surprised, I guess. I wouldn't rush to say that my pre-season pick of Detroit still taking the division should be dismissed just yet, but the team is still in a better spot than I had originally anticipated. But who really knew the Jackets would be that bad?

The schedule's going to start getting tougher and this is the portion of the year where you wince and hope whomever gets hurt isn't out for too long. I suppose I've had my complaints about some of the defense thus far this year, but overall the feeling is fairly optimistic.

The Bears' Second Quarter: Can you believe we're still talking playoffs?

Just as it seemed we were surely on our way to seeing the team go into the midway point in their season at the .500 mark, like I had predicted in the last quarterly update and every single writer at the Chicago Tribune had them pegged as becoming when they certainly fell to the Philadelphia Eagles, the Bears instead went and did what seemingly every other Philly opponent has done all year and left you wondering how that team was so favored to get to the Super Bowl. Boy, am I glad I picked the Saints.

So instead of being 4-4 after eight games, the Bears have a winning record and have numerous factors going their way now in terms of possible playoff tiebreakers. Consider now some of the names on the list of opponents the Bears have victories over this season: Philadelphia, Atlanta, Tampa Bay. Other than a Dallas or New York team that doesn't win the division, the Bears would have tiebreakers over a number of teams that could finish with an identical record.

Now, as far as what happens if the Bears get into the playoffs ... well, who's to say, really? The victory over Philadelphia seemed to create a little more confidence in believers as well as win over a number of nationwide observers who had been sitting on the fence about the the Bears' chances. Once you get past the wins, you notice that the losses have come to far more capable football teams. And if the Monsters of the Midway can't start giving more of a challenge to the upper-tier teams, there's every reason to be skeptical that they'll be able to get one playoff win, let alone get back to the NFC Championship and go to a Super Bowl.

Final Thoughts on 2011 MLB Season: That One's Gonna Hurt

I debated just putting this image, but felt the need to try and create sort of a collage here of a couple of those unmistakably ugly moments of this year's World Series. When I consider that I was bitching last year about the number of early ends to series in the postseason, I can issue no such complaints this year. Of the 41 possible games in baseball's playoffs, 38 got played. And no, not all of them were pretty. But we still got more than our fair share of genuinely tension-filled moments that are only possible in this game.

Thanks in large part, I assume, to an instant epic Game 6 that sort of embodied everything awesome and awful about the entire postseason, the title to my post for the incorrect pick went from looking like a possibility to being a pretty good-size hit. Good for baseball.

Of course, that sixth game pretty much made an immediate claim to legendary status just for the dramatic moment after moment after moment that unfolded at the end. And the pain that any Rangers fan is feeling today is one that puts the rest of the 29 teams to pretty sever shame. I've harped enough about the Atlanta and Boston failures this season, but right now it's pretty clear that as long as we're talking about who should be hurting the most, I don't know that I've ever seen a team come within one strike twice.

And I'm wondering when they're going to start getting really bitter.

Final Thoughts on 2011 Atlanta Braves: I'm over it

As I said in my World Series pick this year, the nine lives of this year's St. Louis Cardinals have now helped me get over the fact that a Braves team that had been widely assumed to be the National League Wild Card this year instead came up one game short of getting into the playoffs. A late-surging team didn't just come in and swipe the final playoff spot from the Braves and then fold. No, instead the Cards are actually about six four innings away from possibly winning the World Series.

And their run has been every sort of improbable, capped off, no less, by a Game 6 that some are calling the greatest game they've ever seen. (I'm not going that far.) People will remember that for years. St. Louis accomplished something.

Now what about that other league's wild finish? The Red Sox suddenly appear to be a still-sinking ship with both Theo and Terry fleeing town, and the Rays that took the Wild Card from them quickly fell to Texas. So, years from now, that's still going to be remembered more as a Boston disaster than a Tampa Bay accomplishment.

And this year's Braves? Oh, sure ... they blew a pretty good size lead in the division too. But like I said, St. Louis was red hot when Atlanta could barely manage to win any series. And when you compare not getting into the playoffs to the many, many painful season-ending losses that actually occurred in postseason games not so long ago, this year isn't going to hurt near as much as the 1991 finish. Or 1996. Or 1998.

No, Braves fans should be saying this ranks among those. Yeah, it's a new kind of "suck," but we've been through worse. The way this season ended was irritating, but I don't think it's going to be terribly haunting.

2011 World Series Prediction: Lowest Rated Series Ever?

We knew Fox couldn't have been pleased as soon as the first round concluded, and alas, here we are with a Fall Classic featuring the markets of Dallas and St. Louis.

Hmmm ...

They were pondering this thought on the radio today, and I have a hard time believing this year's World Series will hit a new record low. All it really has to do is go more than five games, and I'm sure it will avoid that dubious honor. It might not miss it by much, but I don't think it will set any new records. Albert Pujols will draw some casual viewers. And what will it be up against, anyhow?

Did basketball start? Do I have another preview to do? No, of course not. Whatever anyone else might say, I think this postseason's been better than usual. I can only hope the last series ends the playoffs with a bang.

2011 League Championship Series Predictions: Off to a good start

The one series I picked last round to go the maximum five games instead ended up being the only one that didn't go five games. Don't get me wrong; so far, the baseball postseason is shaping up to be some pretty gut-wrenching October fare. The good kind of gut-wrenching, of course. Not every game has been of the must-watch variety, but certainly more than usual. Consequentially, I'm fairly optimistic about what's to come.

No matter what I'm about to pick for a World Series, Fox cannot be terribly pleased with any of the remaining markets. Three Central teams and a Dallas market that might as well be the Central, but that would only leave the American League West with three teams. No New York, no Boston, no Philly this year.

Again, considering the nature of what we've seen so far, it's not necessarily a bad thing. At this point with four teams left, I can't entirely dismiss the plausibility of any of the four World Series scenarios.

The Bears' First Quarter: Better than expected ... again (record-wise, at least)

If that title's subhead sounds familiar, it's probably because I was saying the exact same thing at this point last year. Now, whereas a year ago the Bears had already beaten the team that would end up going on to win the Super Bowl, this season the team's current .500 record is still a game better than where I had anticipated their record being at. Perhaps the Falcons are not as good as some of us had thought they would be, but ultimately this still seems like the story Bears fans should be getting used to this season: A fight to get above .500.
 
On Monday night, the Bears will go up to currently undefeated Detroit. Jay Cutler has been sacked the second-most number of times in the league through four weeks and the defense has allowed the second-most number of total yards. Perhaps part of that is attributable to having played the past two Super Bowl Champions and an offense led by a rookie sensation in addition to Atlanta to start of the season, but at the end of the day, this year's Bears squad does not have the feel of a playoff team.
 
As the season progresses, I cannot rule out that Chicago's coaching staff does have a track record for turning around problem areas. But in a division that has the only two undefeated teams remaining in the league, that would mean that the Bears have to finish with a better record than every other second-place club in the NFC. Of course, the Broncos got off to a 6-0 start a few years back before missing the playoffs altogether, so maybe I shouldn't be counting the Lions in just yet. Still, it's hard for me not to count the Bears out. 

2011-12 NHL Predictions: I ♥ WGN

I missed getting this done before what was technically opening night, but forget all that for now. I had been fearing that with the beloved Blackhawks dropping the puck tonight, I might have to deal with no longer having the team's stellar radio broadcasts to listen to. We get WGN's TV station down here in Austin, so that assured me a few mmore televised games in addition to the national broadcasts. And I suppose tonight and tomorrow, with the Stars on the schedule, I can catch some more Chicago hockey on television thanks to the Dallas Fox Sports affiliate.

But I've got the sound off because as it turns out, WGN's Hawks broadcasts are not blacked out. Thankfully. Times a million. Seriously, everything's coming up roses these days. Work's going well. I'm engaged now. And I'll be able to listen to John and Troy this season. What else could I possibly want?

Oh, yeah: Another parade with the Stanley Cup in Chicago.

The Braves' Fourth Quarter: "A tremendous disappointment"

Such were the words of Chipper Jones, and really, how else are you supposed to describe what just happened? Incredibly, just a few months after what I titled one post, I'm actually thinking that right now somebody from Boston can probably relate pretty well. Actually, this Braves fan is particularly grateful that the Red Sox have received far more national attention for their failure. That's a small comfort, though.

In the end, the disbelief is still settling in. I typically do a post I refer to as "My Final Thoughts" when one of the Four B's seasons ends, and ever since I started regularly doing these posts, they always made the playoffs.

But seeing as there won't be any more games played after I post this, what would the Final Thoughts offer any additional dwelling on? Maybe somebody will get fired?

In case you couldn't tell, this particular quarterly update is easily the worst I've ever had to reflect on.

2011 Division Series Predictions: Minus my pick and my fave

I suppose I'll be elaborating more on what transpired last night, an admittedly exciting finish to the regular season, when I write up the sad conclusion to a certain team's certain fourth quarter. Of course, seeing as this is also when I typically reflect on how I did at predicting back before the first pitch was thrown, I suppose the good news would be this: I improved to a dozen teams correctly placed this year. I ended up with only four of the playoff teams correct (it would have been six had two certain teams not, you know ... oh, God), two in each league, and had three of the division winners correct. So once again, nothing terribly admirable.

But now we shift into the baseball playoffs, and I'll obviously be a little less giddy this year, seeing as the Bravos will not be playing. I have no real vested interest in the "toldja' so" sense because the Red Sox collapse also eliminated my supposed World Series winner this year. Nice.

I don't know who I'll be rooting for, in all honesty. Right now, I suppose I'm leaning heavily toward a Milwaukee-anybody but the Yankees Series.

2011 NFL Predictions: This year's going to be different

I knew when I moved that the number of hours I typically dedicated to NFL posts during any given season was probably going to be reduced. And as this year's season get set to kick off on Thursday, I'm even more certain that I won't be bothering with a number of posts I was doing on a regular basis for the past couple years.

While I've already had my two fantasy football teams drafted, I've already made a roster adjustment to both without screencapping either original roster. That should be a sign that this will hopefully be the last you hear about either of those fantasy teams—unless, of course, I end up winning the whole thing this year.

Currently, that's the only football-related matter I'm enlisted to tend to. And while that's a bit concerning to have heard nothing from either of the confidence pools I've participated in the past few years, even if I do suddenly enroll in either one again this year, I'm already determined to axe the usual Power Rankings segment—even if I do end up privately maintaining that information, maybe saving the posting just for the sort of year-end annual report or something.

So like I said, things are going to change here. But, hey ... at least there's going to be a season.

The Braves' Third Quarter: Can't whine too much

The Braves season actually passed this point on August 15, the day after the last time I posted here. I recognized the date then, but knew I'd probably end up running a little late with this post. Seeing as I haven't altogether quit the restaurant gig I was working before starting the new Monday-Friday gig, I still have not had an entire day off work ever since then.

I'm still waiting tables tonight, so tomorrow's going to be a big day when for the first time in ... what, three weeks? I'm going to have a whole day free from having to report somewhere for work.

I won't lie ... The new job more or less involves many hours of blogging every day. Even just now, typing on my own where I'm free to say whatever I want, I still found myself wondering if I was adhering to style requirements. It's somewhat difficult for me to now spend eight hours a day at the computer and then come home and add a couple more hours to write something like this. Don't get me wrong; I really like the new job. It's the restaurant I want to drop, but I'm sure that I'm letting a fear of "leaving money on the table" prevents me from working a few more hours a week.

I'm saying that now to justify that most of the posts I made regularly scheduled things here at BMC are probably bound to change again. Life can sort of get in the way like that, but it's not as though a little lack in the frequency here necessarily equates to a bad thing. When you consider how often I have used this space to bitch and moan about lack of work, any further near-grumbling about working too much risks making me sound ungrateful. And we certainly wouldn't want that.

After all, we've probably got playoffs to look forward to this year.

The Progress: In which persistence finally pays off

Friday began with a bit of bad news when I received an email informing me that the SEO Trainee position I was to be interviewing for on Monday had been filled. Sure, I could still interview on Monday if I wanted because there was the real possibility that another position could open within the next few weeks if the company landed the couple big bids it had going on.

I was reading the email on my cell phone at my current job while preparing for an afternoon function in which overly fussy Austin-area businesswomen were going to be getting a rather cheap lunch and talking about more efficient ways to use their Twitter and Facebook accounts (or something like that ... maybe I just heard both mentioned several times because, well, they were women and that's seemingly all they ever talk about anymore). As soon as I ran into my general manager, he informed me that he had received a complaint about me from one of the guests at one of the previous evening's events. Apparently I acted "rude" when she asked to have something wrapped up. I asked for something more specific since I didn't know what I could've done wrong and was only told "not to let it happen again."

I've been looking high and low for anything other than a restaurant job for years now, and while this new place that represents my first job since arriving in Texas has certainly become more profitable in recent weeks, at that moment it was beginning to feel as though even this job was now on shaky ground.

Fast-forward a couple hours to the middle of the event on Friday afternoon and another email has come in. This one is a reply from somebody I interviewed with almost two weeks ago for a writing job. Since I hadn't heard from her earlier in the week, by about Wednesday I was assuming they went with somebody else. Still, I opened the email and thought it began with the obligatory thank you for coming in the previous week. Familiar with how these rejections typically go, I was sure the next line would be some variation of either "we've decided to go with another candidate," or "we can not extend you an offer at this time."

The Adjustment: Has it been two months already?

There's the part of me that just wants to refer back to what I said a little over a year ago at this time when I recognized that there's typically a lull in posting during the summer. But even looking back on that post, it's hard to believe that I wasn't writing more often when I didn't have a regular job at that point. And perhaps most surprising would be that I still had no idea that what was going on between ™ and I would lead me to being here right now living with her in Austin. It's all still very incredible.

I've wanted to write about a number of things that have happened over the past couple months, like the short visit from my parents or the weekend her siblings spent here, but alas ... this is the first time I've had enough time to really sit with my laptop and pound out a few thoughts. Don't get me wrong; when I last wrote about life down here in Texas, I was stressing about finding a job. Of course, a few weeks later, I got one. And now it eats up a majority of my week. This is how life works, I'm told.

The Braves' Second Quarter: Excuses from the author

While my quarterly thoughts for all Four Bs typically follow the same format, I'm regrettably going to be keeping this update on the Atlanta Braves' past 40 games to much more of a minimum. While I did go and find an image from this gallery to create the annual graphic, I can not in all honesty pretend to have followed this part of the baseball season as closely as I will/have for any of the other three quarters of the season. Part of this can be blamed on the attention I gave priority to the NHL and NBA playoffs, and part can also be blamed on the weeks devoted to the out-of-state move that occurred during that time—not to mention the majority of time spent after completing said move being primarily devoted to looking for a job, securing a job, and then stressing about keeping said job. 

I suppose that from what I've been able to catch of Braves baseball this past quarter, there's still plenty to be optimistic about with the performances the team has gotten from all over the pitching staff. The offense, however, remains underwhelming and inconsistent, so I certainly won't be surprised if come third quarter of the season, I'm busy reacting to a move made at the trading deadline to try and bolster some run production.

I only wish I had been able to better document even the presumably paid online positions that had failed to update Atlanta's record the day after they'd officially arrived at the halfway mark of this 2011 season. While I'd made a mental note of it, when trying to confirm that I had the number of games correct in both our morning newspaper and online at the Sports Illustrated site I use to screencap the standings at that point, both publications had forgotten to do so. As a result, moments after completing a sweep of the Seattle Mariners, I saw the Braves somehow go from 45-35 that morning to 47-35.

Fortunately, the MLB site does allow you to go back to a specific day, and for posterity's sake, here's where the Bravos were situated when they finished playing the first half of this year's regular season schedule:

I'm hoping to be back to regular, die-hard fan form by the next quarter's end in late August.

Final Thoughts on 2010-11 NHL Season: I liked Boston more when its teams sucked

In 1986, the Boston Celtics won their third and final NBA Championship of that decade. It was the same year I was only becoming introduced to professional sports on television, but it would still be a couple more years before I really began following basketball. Instead, the city of Boston, to me, became synonymous with suffering in 1986 for two different sports. After all, maybe you recall what happened to the city's football team earlier on or their beloved Red Sox later on in the same year of that Celtics title I just mentioned. You couldn't help but feel sorry for entire city, and it's little wonder that such embarrassment cemented Beantown's place as a home for sports tragedy in my mind. (If that word choice seems inappropriate to any reader, I might remind you of what else occurred that year. [NOTE: It only dawned on me the day after posting this that the date of this posting was in fact the 25th anniversary])

Fast-forward a decade-and-a-half, and a new century has truly ushered in a remarkably different fortune for Boston. While last year's Stanley Cup for the Blackhawks marked the last championship necessary to allow me to say I've seen all four of my favorite teams reach the tops of their respective mountains, those titles were spread out over the course of a quarter-century. And now in a matter of a decade, "The Cradle of Liberty" has accumulated three Super Bowl victories, two World Series titles, an NBA Championship, and this year, finally, a Stanley Cup. I was fully aware of this entering the final round of this year's NHL postseason, which perhaps factored into me picking against the Bruins each and every single round (you know, in addition to being among the others who were doubting Tim Thomas, and also remembering that picking against Boston has treated me well the past couple years).

But there's little other reason for me to be bitter. After all, every Blackhawks fan can find some satisfaction in knowing that a perennial rival has once again suffered a devastating loss—further worsened by the worldwide embarrassment of that city's hooligans looting and pillaging. To Vancouver's credit, the better residents promptly sought to make things right.

Hockey brings out some passionate and visceral emotions from the fans who hold the sport closest, so it's indeed very possible that this year's victory might be sweeter to many Boston residents than any of those other championships earned thus far in this 21st century. Or it might just be further fuel for Massachusetts' ever-growing number of douchebags. Either way, what's done is done, and in many ways, this is one year I'm going to want to forget.

Final Thoughts on 2010-11 NBA Season: Where the best TEAM won

This past basketball season essentially began nearly one year ago, right around July 8 of last year. Perhaps you recall what happened that evening and presumably helped the NBA garner terrific television ratings throughout the entire season. The Miami Heat became Public Enemy No. 1, which is probably why their loss in this year's NBA Finals has ended up feeling like a victory for every one of us who is no fan of theirs. The celebratory, mocking memes were cranked out in a hurry. An Associated Press headline rubbed it in—although apparently not from this Miami newspaper. I even offered my own dig.

In the end, however, the credit really must be given to the team that ended up hoisting that trophy last night, a Dallas Mavericks team that had been continually underestimated and written off all year long. The boys from South Beach didn't give the series away so much as the veteran Mavs went out and took it.

I suppose once every great while we get this sort of encouraging result in the NBA where the lower-profile, close-knit group of underdogs ends up knocking off the talent-laden predominant favorite. But enough about that Lakers team and the embarrassment they suffered. Like I said, this year deserves to be remembered primarily as Dallas' accomplishment.

The Arrival: In which just getting here was an adventure

After ™ last flew up to Illinois to spend a long weekend with me between her birthday and my own, I reminded her at the airport that the following three weeks until I saw her again would go by pretty fast. I had been saying it primarily to comfort her that unlike, say, the more than two months before that visit when we'd last been able to see one another, this final step was going to arrive much faster. And sure enough, before I knew it—before I'd even remembered to formally change my address, before I'd been able to land a job to start when I arrived, before I'd finished packing ALL of my belongings—I was at O'Hare on May 18 boarding a one-way flight to Texas.

We first moved ™'s stuff from the Houston area to our new apartment in Austin, and then the following day began the roughly 19-hour drive back to St. Charles. While the original plan was to drive as much as we could on the first day and find a hotel when we got tired, we instead ended up stopping for a bite to eat in Memphis that evening and just staying on the road until we arrived at my parents' house early that Saturday morning. After catching some shuteye, we had some rather lackluster Pizza Hut for dinner that evening with my parents and my aunt and uncle. Later that night, we went out with a couple friends of mine in downtown St. Charles.

Over the course of those three weeks between ™'s visits, I kept waiting for the moment that the relocation was really going to hit me. But even as I reminded myself that certain visits I was making could be my last for quite some time, it still didn't seem real.

What stuck with me that last night in St. Charles had to be a moment outside one of the bars just after last call. ™ was hugging me and a girl I'd never met before but was was apparently a friend of one of my friends looked at us and wondered aloud to us why she couldn't have something like ™ and I had. The girl, probably somewhere in her mid-twenties, had just gotten out of a long-distance relationship.

When other friends and co-workers used words like "jealous" or such in response to learning my relocation plans, I had sort of downplayed it as them just being nice. But on that last night, something in that one girl's eyes finally made me feel lucky. After three or so years of convincing myself nobody else in their right mind would ever want to be in my shoes, I finally experienced a real moment of having somebody else saying they wanted what I had.

Ultimately, I was only beginning to realize how lucky I was.

Final Thoughts on 2010-11 Chicago Bulls: One trophy short

As this year's Bulls team accumulated honor after honor—Tom Thibodeau being named Coach of the Year, Derrick Rose awarded Most Valuable Player, and then Gar Forman having to share Executive of the Year honors with Miami's Pat Riley because (just as I had joked in an earlier BMC piece) three other league honchos apparently forgot that John Paxon slipped out of the role two years ago and voted for the team's executive vice president of basketball operations instead (NOTE TO NBA: You might want to fix the way you determine that)—following a regular season in which the team won more games than any other team in the league, I routinely said, "It won't mean a thing without a ring" (and, yes, somebody else came up with that line).

But truth be told, when I think back to what my own expectations were for this team at the beginning of the year, it's hard to be bitter—even if the season did end at the hands of the much-maligned Miami Heat. Oh sure, I had originally predicted Chicago would be ousted by that same South Beach squad in five games a round earlier, but that was back before the Bulls achieved far more than most any fan dared dream this season. And looking back at how the team only seemed to get better and better with each passing quarterly update this season, I myself had indeed sipped so frequently from the Kool-Aid that I was already beginning to apologize to my girlfriend for what I thought would happen to her Dallas Mavericks if they met Chicago in the Finals.

Instead, I find myself rooting alongside her for the one team remaining that stands in between the Heat and a championship. After all, it helps take my mind off the work that will need to be done in order to help these Bulls play into June next year—assuming there's a 2011-12 season, of course.

NHL Stanley Cup Final Predicitions: A drought's about to end

In just a couple weeks, one of those video game depictions is going to come true and a long-suffering franchise will finally be raising Lord Stanley's Cup. This is the first Bruins team to even reach the Finals in more than two decades, and it's been almost 40 years since the team's last championship in 1972. But at least Beantown's tasted victory before, unlike Vancouver, where the team has never been declared champions ever since entering the league in 1970.

So once again, we'll presumably be presented with some rather spirited and raucous crowds in both cities as these two supposedly long-suffering (last year's beloved Blackhawks had a nearly half-century wait between Cups) franchises compete for one last series win.

The big winner in this, of course, would have to be the NHL. Considering that the alternatives last round included the markets of San Jose and Tampa Bay, the ratings could have been a lot scarier. Instead, an appearance from the Canucks is surely the best shot a Canadian team's had at the Cup in quite some time, and most anything involving Boston is almost always good for television.

NBA Finals Predictions: 2006 Revisited

Something's slightly amiss when the NBA Finals are beginning before the Stanley Cup, but alas, here we are with the basketball opener tonight while hockey's final series kicks off tomorrow.

Just as was the case five years ago when the Mavericks and Heat met, I had thought the playoffs would be concluding with another rematch of the previous year's seven-game Finals. instead, the Lakers got swept and the Celtics seemingly never really did get it together after losing Kendrick Perkins—even after sweeping the Knicks in the first round. For Miami, this scenario was something of an expectation. But Dallas has been defying the odds and ignoring the pundits in their own journey this year, having dropped only one game ever since allowing Portland to come back and tie their first-round series before the Mavs wrapped up the opening test in six.

While this time around it will be the Heat enjoying home-court advantage, it can't be ignored that Dallas hasn't lost on the road since that Blazers comeback in the Rose Garden. Miami has certainly played to their potential this postseason than they did in the regular season, but the question now is if the Mavericks can defy expectations one last time. 

NBA Playoff Confrence Finals Predictions: See, I toldja I loved my girlfriend ...

Lakers-Mavericks sounded like a can't miss proposition to some people, I suppose. I hate the Lakers and my girlfriend loves the Mavs. No-brainer, right?

Yeah, well ... of course we know what I ended up going with for last round's picks, but in my defense, nobody had Dallas. I didn't realize how poorly I'd attempted to articulate my logic until ™ posted a screencap of that pick and my drivel to her own blog, a post which she mercifully made "private" (whatever the hell that is), seeing as the Mavericks absolutely kicked the living shit out of the defending champions. In all honesty, I don't think I've ever seen Los Angeles get that embarrassed—and I'm not just talking about that dirty, thuggish thing Andrew Bynum did, although that certainly added to it.

Anyway, just like the second round of the NHL playoffs, the second round of the NBA postseason saw both my Finals teams being eliminated sooner than expected. The usual standings and screencaps of other experts' picks will be added to this post later, but per this blog's policy to attempt to post predictions before events actually occur (novel concept, I know), and seeing as there was this window of a few hours before the official end to the last round and the beginning of the next, I've conveniently already got my mind made up about how this thing's going to turn out.

The Braves' First Quarter: Even better than last year! (Technically.)

Indeed, Braves fans (and any other reader). This year's team is a full game better than the start they got off to last year. So certainly this means they should at least be able to force a deciding fifth game in the Division Series this year—once those Marlins cool off, of course.

While it's hard for me to read too much into how the season has started for some clubs (The Indians are 11 games over .500? Tampa Bay is leading the American League East?), the standings in the National League East look pretty much like what most people expected. There were some who felt the Braves could be surprise contenders for the division this year, and while Atlanta isn't out of the race by any means, the season so far has seen the team hovering around .500 most of the year.

However, the Braves began May by winning the first six games they played to start the month and there's plenty of reason to believe the Fredi Gonzalez era can begin can go into October.

NHL Stanley Cup Playoff Conference Finals Predictions: Obviously not my year

After one round, we were without my hometown defending champs. And now one round later, we're without either of the two clubs I'd had originally picked to be playing for the Cup this year. What we're left with is four teams, not one of which I can find a real rooting interest for. But at least only one can win, so I suppose that whatever silly objections I might have I will still be able to take some comfort in that three will end up being eliminated.

At the rate I'm going, you can probably assume this year's Finals will be the exact opposite of whatever I predict here.

Final Thoughts on 2010-11 Chicago Blackhawks: Rest in peace, Jimmy

Not that it hasn't been pointed out thousands of times or makes the excuse feel as though it would serve any real purpose, but it's hard to repeat after winning the Stanley Cup. Marian Hossa was coming off three straight years in which he played for teams with seasons that lasted all the way into June, so I can forgive him for missing some time during those regular seasons.

But looking back at this year, it was a struggle all season long just to compete. And while the team went out with an unbelievable bang that was oh-so-close to being an an accomplishment of historic proportions, there won't be any Blackhawks hockey this summer.

I suppose that gives me more time to figure out how I'm going to get the team's radio broadcasts when I'm living in Austin and the puck next drops for the team, but this year was a slowly painful realization that his year's squad just quite simply was nowhere near as good as what we had last year.

I knew this year's run wouldn't be the same when the guy I watched most of last year's playoffs with, Jimmy, passed away from lung cancer on April 20.

Round Two NBA Playoffs Predictions: At least there's one must-see series

There were no perfect scores among any of the "experts" I tracked for the first round of predictions in the NBA playoffs—even though one person did, in fact, have Memphis knocking off the top-seeded Spurs. But nobody had Atlanta beating Orlando either, and that's of course because everybody's picks largely look the same in these early rounds of basketball postseason.

Now technically into the conference semifinals of the tournament, consensus once again sort of rules in three of the four series—the only exception being this round's obvious headliner matchup between the Celtics and the Heat. The opinion among my group tilts about 3:2 in favor of Miami, but it's probably by and large the series most every fan most wants to see as much of as they can.

No offense to the six other cities with teams also playing this round (including my hometown's nearby Bulls), but as the story everybody's most interested in typically involves The Nazgûl.

Round Two NHL Stanley Cup Playoff Predictions: As long as we're talking about jinxes

I knew in the back of my mind while creating my first round NHL playoffs predictions that mentioning my record from the past two seasons would probably come back to haunt me, and sure enough, I tanked on my predictions bad enough to ensure that I even if I get every other remaining series correct I'll still finish at least one game worse than the record in each of the previous two years. Nice.

This second round begins in stark contrast to last year for other reasons, and while I'll get to the end of the beloved Blackhawks' season in a separate post very soon, this year's Washington Capitals team is in a much better place than where they were last year when I was making picks for this round. With both the pesky Canadiens and Penguins eliminated (despite my having picked both to be alive), the Caps indeed seem to me to be flying a little more under the radar in the East after so many pundits declared the Bruins the presumptive favorite to emerge from the conference. So, at this stage in the game, I'm still effectively standing by my pre-season prediction of a Detroit-Washington Stanley Cup Final—although we'll see if both those teams are still alive next round.

As for who I'm rooting for, that's very much up in the air. I'll still be following, for sure, but right now I'm entirely certain that any of the eight teams remaining is going to be able to generate even half the enthusiasm I displayed during Chicago's one series.

Still, the playoffs go on.

Hooray: Another fantasy championship

I'm forgoing the usual "nobody cares" graphic that's typically gone along with these sorts of posts, but I don't plan on requiring a fold for this summary either. If you've actually been following the only fantasy team I've been running ever since football ended, you might recall that I was also responsible for running my girlfriend's basketball team this year too.

I was optimistic about her chances against the top-seeded ex-boyfriend of another friend who, like the four other teams in the league, stopped paying attention shortly after the season began.

Unfortunately, Steve Nash sat out a game and there were a few other unfortunate missed games from some of her players and the lady's team ultimately had to settle for easily taking a third place game.

While I didn't get the championship match with ™'s team that I'd been hoping for, it was pretty satisfying to essentially thump the only other guy who'd been signing in and, during most weeks, dominating the league every week. He resoundingly beat me the first two times we played during the year, although I took the third meeting and we both finished 18-3 on the year. I had far and away the most transactions in the league with 55 moves (my girlfriend's team had 38, and this year's runner-up had 20), with a huge amount coming in the final few days. While I ran out to an early lead in the championship and led by 1000+ points at the end of the week, the numbers kept going until the season ended on Wednesday. With no player on my team scheduled to play that Tuesday and four of his guys (including Kobe Bryant and the same Luol Deng I had dropped so early in an otherwise fabulous year for him), I scooped up seven guys for Tuesday and then replaced most of them for Wednesday.

The result is that I've now won fantasy titles in three of the four major sports, with only football (which admittedly is the only one that would be worth mentioning ever again ... maybe) eluding me.

Despite what I'd say is an otherwise respectable fantasy résumé,  I'd like to point out that my girlfriend is given the higher rating on overall performance:

Whatevs. Maybe they'll correct it when they put my latest trophy in the case.

Round One NBA Playoffs Predictions: A genuine rooting interest

I sort of swore off the idea of using YouTube videos above the fold on posts, but this one's a pretty good at whetting one's playoff appetite. And just as this post's title indicates, this year's particularly special now that the beloved Bulls are among the favorites to end up with the Larry O'Brien trophy.

Before I get to everybody's picks though, let me glance back at what I had back at the beginning of the year and size up how I did: with 17 of the 30 teams in the correct spots, that's better than how I've done at the other three sports in recent attempts; seven of my eight Eastern Conference teams did end up making the playoffs, although I only had five of the Western Conference representatives correct this year; I had only three of the predicted seeds correct and my third straight Lakers-Celtics NBA Finals indeed remains a possibility.

Will I stick to that in the end though? We'll find out later, but for now, here's how it looks like the first round might shake out:

The Bulls' Fourth Quarter: THE BEST RECORD IN THE LEAGUE (!!!)

What more can really be said about how much this team has defied expectations this year? Not only did they win their division and finish atop the Eastern Conference, in the end, this year's Bulls team won more games than any other team in the entire NBA. No matter what round the playoffs might be in, Game One—and a Game Seven, should it be necessary—will be at the United Center for the Bulls.

(Psst: They only lost five times there all year.)

This particular past quarter was an even more unbelievably dominant finish to close out the year. The team quietly went about surpassing the 60-win mark, something that any time the franchise has done in the past (all five times coming in the 1990s), they went on to win the NBA Championship each time.

I don't know how exactly to prepare myself for this playoff run coming, but make no mistake: I fully expect this Bulls campaign to still be going after I move in about a month now. The concern isn't so much about viewing concerns (every game will be nationally televised by that point), but the thought that I wouldn't be able to attend another championship parade.

Round One NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs Predictions: The start of summer, playoff hockey and ice cream

The key to finishing atop the leaderboard at the end of NHL postseason prognosticating can typically rely on sniffing out the inevitable opening round upsets. I've finished a more than respectable 12-3 each of the last two years I've done this—one game worse than the best in 2009 and and one game better than the runner-up last year—often more attributed to going against the majority on one series or another in the first round. This year seems to have more underdog appeal than usual—and not just because the beloved Blackhawks are the absolute lowest seed in the West. (That certainly helps though.)

Before I get to everybody else's picks as well as my own, it's also somewhat custom to quickly look back at how the actual playoff bracket looks compared to what I had predicted at the beginning of the season. This year, I improved to correctly calling almost half the league's final standings in each division with 14 out of 30 spots nailed. While I only have two of the actual seeds correct, I had once again had seven of the eight Eastern Conference playoff teams right and improved to six out of eight in the West. And technically, both my Conference and Stanley Cup Finals are both still possible—dare I say likely?

Well, let's get to how this first round might go first: 

The Blackhawks' Fourth Quarter: Backing in is better than backing out

It was a rather peculiar finish to the season, what with having been in the middle of an eight-game winning streak during the last update and still having the possibility of postseason life not be determined until the very last game of the year—a couple hours after it, actually. But as crazy as yesterday was for the Blackhawks, the team's going back to the playoffs and they'll have to defend the Cup the hard way: being the eight-seeded team in the Western Conference and conceding home ice advantage in any series they play (unless one of those three teams in the Eastern Conference that didn't earn 100+ points this year somehow makes it to the Finals).

I look back on how yesterday unfolded and see the Vancouver Canucks on the schedule next now, thinking that how else would I really want things to have ended up? Would having moved up to a fifth seed and getting Anaheim in the first round really have been preferable? I realize that just as the many bandwagon evacuees have reminded me, the Blackhawks got rid of many of those lovable role players that played their pivotal roles to perfection last postseason. And without those guys, how in the world are you going to mess with the collective heads of the Canucks again this year?

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. For the moment, let me reflect on the last 20 games and then finally get these fucking taxes filed:

2011 MLB Predictions: Just get to the inevitable already

Opening Day is in March this year, but I was among the many who pretty much came away from this off-season's transactions basically concluding 2011 would be recorded as a Phillies-Red Sox World Series before it had even been played. If Cliff Lee had indeed gone to the Bronx for eleventy billion million dollars like we all assumed he was going to, then maybe we'd be wondering who the Yankees would be beating.

Of course, last year was another fairly pathetic showing for my own predictions—not that many people probably had the Giants beating the Rangers in the World Series. While I had four of the eight playoff teams correct, I only called a single division winner correctly (nailed the whole AL Central, actually) and had 10 of the 30 teams correctly called in their eventual final spots. Anyway, I need to get ready for work soon, so forgive me for rushing through these guesses a bit (I'll fix the layout issues later, I swear). At least we won't have to endure having Fox News on the television screens this afternoon:

Twice as meaningless: Successfully running your girlfriend's fantasy team

Your author is hard-pressed to think of something that can cause an immediate loss of interest quite like hearing about someone's fantasy team. Having friends and co-workers recite their rosters with no real purpose other than to gloat about conquering leagues you're not involved in seems quite banal and pointless, no?

That said, the author knows full well that you the dear reader probably also couldn't give two shits about whatever fantasy team he's gone and created after so many years of taking that road less traveled where non-participation seemed cooler. Now the author has multiple fantasy teams, and while he tries mightily not to bring those into the other posts here on BMC that you might actually read, every once in a while, if for no other purpose than to help him remember who he had on such teams in a given year, he likes to keep a recorded entry of how he's done.

This is one of those times. Your non-interest in the remainder of this post is understood.

The Countdown: Three becomes two

In this area, we've endured what I was told was a record amount of snow last month, but now nearly every last sign of white has all but disappeared and it's getting closer to being so comfortable outside that I can once again sit on the stoop in front of the house, drink coffee, smoke cigarettes and complete a puzzle or two. It's now becoming more frequent for the morning to begin with me actually asking myself, "Do I need a coat for this?"

But the shift feels a little bit more substantial this particular spring at this particular time, and not just because it appears that the shovel's not going to be looked at again until Thanksgiving. I'd be more giddy about the prospect of sitting outside for a couple hours again to start the day if I were even able to stand still right now.

That's largely because more than three years after I was being arrested for another DUI, I had my probation terminated early last Thursday. And now without any more check-ins at the courthouse to essentially document that I've been staying out of trouble, I'm finally free to go do whatever I want.

It's still sinking in as to what that even feels like. After three years of being what I described as a "prisoner of the state," I've now got two months to take advantage of this newfound supposed freedom.

The Bulls' Third Quarter: Raise the roof (on expectations)

Once again, the Bulls have gone through another quarter of their schedule and emerged having only lost five games. But unlike the last time I did one of these, when a majority of the schedule seemed fairly soft, the past 21 games have involved playing against some legitimate contenders. So it's certainly surprising that Chicago came away with not a loss more than the number they recorded over the previous 20 games.

But with the exposure gained following Sunday's victory and season sweep of the season's initially presumed monster, the Miami Heat (and subsequent "Crygate" fallout), basketball is quickly becoming the talk of the town once again. Last night's game against the New Orleans Hornets—minus the team's star, Chris Paul—delivered the highest Bulls game rating in Comcast SportsNet's history.

And you can certainly count me in for joining in the hype. (NOTE: This just arrived as I was typing that. Seriously.) I've got plans on going to the game this Saturday when the team will be honoring the 20th anniversary of the first championship squad. Somewhat ironically, they'll be playing the Utah Jazz, the franchise I compared the Bulls to in my predictions for this season. But now being just a couple games back from possibly going into the playoffs as the top seed in the Eastern Conference, this team's got just good a shot as any other to end up in the Finals this year.