Latest on potential Rams sale

As always, Bernie Miklasz is on top of things and keeping everyone informed as best he can. Here is his latest take. A lot of scenarios could play out. Although it is way too early to panic, I am still very concerned about the Rams leaving St. Louis because:

1. No one local has shown even the slightest interest in buying the team
2. The NFL will not allow minority owner Stan Kroenke to buy a majority share because he also owns the NBA's Denver Nuggets and the NHL's Colorado Avalanche. Kroenke is said to be very interested in taking over ownership of the Rams and has supposedly been lobbying the NFL to change it's rule about cross-ownership. The problem is that Kroenke owns 2 professional sports teams in the Denver area and, of course, Denver has the NFL's Broncos. League rules stipulate that an NFL owner cannot own other sports teams in a market that also has an NFL team. Miklasz reports that Kroenke has some owners on his side, but not nearly enough at this time and that it will be extremely difficult to get this rule overturned.
3. The Rams stadium lease deal is a loser. It says that the Rams can break the lease if the Edward Jones Dome does not remain in the top 25% quality-wise of all the stadiums in the league. First of all, that's pretty vague language. Second of all, there have been so many new stadiums built since the EJ Dome that there is no way on earth it qualifies. The language in the lease says the Rams can next break the lease deal in 2014.
4. St. Louis and Missouri as a whole is hugely conservative. The EJ Dome is pretty blah and will need to be replaced in 10-15 years. There is not going to be very much support to use tax payer money for a new stadium. Period. It is going to be an incredibly hard sell whenever the issue arises.

Please read Miklasz's take on the whole thing. It will clear up a lot of confusion and let you know where the chips lay as of now.

UH-OH

Oh. My. Goodness. It seems that the St. Louis Rams will soon be up for sale and that owner Chip Rosenbloom is no longer insisting that the buyer keep the team in St. Louis. According to St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz, Rosenbloom has been discouraged by the lack of interest from St. Louis area business leaders. No one has stepped forward with even tepid interest to see what it would take to purchase the Rams. The stadium lease here is not ideal and is easy to break. If some bigwig from another area comes in and makes a good offer, the Rams will likely be picking up and moving. And if St. Louis loses a second NFL team (after the Cardinals left in the late 80's), then the chances of getting a third shot in the NFL will be next to nothing.

Needless to say, there are many, many people that would like to see the Rams back in L.A. I would bet a rather large sum of money that NFL Comissioner, Roger Goodell is one of them. The league has been out of the nations 2nd bigget market since 1994. You bet your bottom dollar they would like to get back in and a return of the Rams, with a lot of tradition in L.A., would be a perfect fit.

I am from St. Louis and this is scary stuff for a big Rams fan. To read Miklasz's article in full, simply click here.

Sacred 2 impressions

I have spent about 5 hours with Sacred 2 and so far I have been pretty impressed with what I have seen. It is a Diablo-style action/RPG , which basically means it is a dungeon crawler with lots of hacking, slashing and looting. There has been a ton of unique weapons, armor and items that I have come across so far and I have barely made a scratch in the game so far. The game world is absolutely huge; so far I have only explored one small corner. There is a main quest but I have spent all of my playing time doing side quests, helping out the citizens who need an extra hand. It has been a lot of fun.

I have seen some professional reviews complain about frequent frame rate drops and to be honest I have not seen much of that at all yet. Maybe a slight hiccup here or there, but nothing to complain about. There is an occasional screen tear, but again, it does nothing to take away from the game experience at all, IMO.

The only problem I am having so far is that there is a lot in the game I simply don't understand yet. A lot of things are unexplained in the manual, or at least not explained clearly enough for me. There are tutorials in the game, but they have not covered everything I have come across. I have yet to find an FAQ for the game, even though this is a port of an older PC game. No strategy guide is available, either. I probably just need to spend more time playing, but as most of you know my playing time is limited. Still, I look forward to diving back in and exploring what has been, so far, an addictive and compelling world.

Finished The Wire

I have finally wrapped up the entire series of HBO's The Wire, and what a ride it was. Season 5 was once again terrific, with the story going unexpected places and performances that were once again stellar across the board. Some of the drama took place in the newsroom of the Baltimore Sun newspaper, as true journalism was pitted against sensationalism and the almighty dollar. This was compelling stuff, and the character of Gus Haynes, a newsroom editor who takes a stand against fabricated news, joins the pantheon of great characters that this show has brought us.

The police side of things get a little out of hand and teeter on the edge of credibility, but in the end the characters win us over. And as always, the drug/gangster side offers a terrifying but absolutely riveting narrative that drives the entire show. We are also shown how the 4 juvenile characters that were introduced in season 4 turn out. Let's just say that the street is a hard, hard place.

If I had to rank the seasons, It would probably look something like this:
Season 3
Season 1
Season 4
Season 2
Season 5

Now keep in mind that the grade scale here goes from A+ to A-. That's it. And the reason season 5 rates an A- with me is because the season was only 10 episodes long, rather than the usual 12 or 13, so that things seemed to be a bit rushed. Not good for the final season that wraps everything up. Given 2 or 3 more episodes, I think the more stately pace of the other seasons could have been achieved and the feeling of the "filmed novel" would have been retained.

To say I am bummed that there is no more of this show for me to watch would be an understatement. This is by far the best TV show I have ever seen, with the most memorable characters. If you haven't seen it, by all means do so.

And remember, Omar's coming!

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel

I picked this game up today. Despite being on vacation all week, I haven't played a single game, besides helping Laurel navigate Little Big Planet once in a while. My wife has been on vacation too and I didn't want to get too caught up in gaming and have it take up all my time. Sacred 2 is a Diablo clone, a hack-n-slash/loot game, and I have been waiting for it for a while. While reviews so far have only been so-so, gamers that are into the genre seem to be enjoying it despite some glitches. It's going to be a while before I can put any serious time into it, so don't look for impressions any time soon.

John's 1st birthday!

It was one year ago today that our beautiful boy John was born. I'll never forget the experience. From the trip to the emergency room, to the very real possibility of losing both John and my wife Barb because of the hemorrhaging that started just past midnight, to the birth of John at 12:52 A.M., to finding out Barb was okay shortly thereafter. I'll always remember my buddy Dave being there for me via phone at the worst hours as things went down.

Then John was here, Barb was okay and both of our parents were arrived and things were better. John was almost 8 weeks early and he was so tiny and fragile. He had to fight just to breathe and I'll never forget how proud Barb and I were of him. Nor will I forget how hard it was to leave him at the hospital.

It has been a miraculous year. John is now big and strong. He crawls and climbs all over the place, eats like a champ and laughs all the time. Just this past Tuesday he made his first trip to the zoo.

Happy birthday John. We love you so, so much!

The Wire - season 4

Wrapped this up a couple of days ago. Seriously, I am running out of superlatives to use for this show. Season 4 was excellent, up to the same incredible standards set in the first 3 seasons. The writers must have known that there would be a season 5 because for the first time a season ended with things literally up in the air. My wife and I have started the 5th and final season and are 2 shows in. I am already saddened because there are only 10 shows in season 5, and once I finish those, there will be no more of The Wire for me to watch. It's gonna be hard leaving those characters and the streets of Baltimore.

Happy Mother's Day!

To all of the wonderful mothers out there, especially my own dear sweet mom who did such a wonderful job raising me the right way and my beautiful wife who does such a good job juggling so many things at once. I hope you all have a truly special day to remember.

The Wire - Season 3

Wow. Just WOW. If you have not seen HBO's The Wire, you are missing out on the single best TV drama I have ever seen. Season 3 was incredible, with a major story coming to a conclusion, several major characters having life-altering events occur and a glorious storyline in place for season 4.

Speaking of season 4, I am already more than halfway through, and it has not disappointed me in the least. The stories remain complex and compelling and I never have any idea which way they will go next. There were 5 seasons in all, and I am getting a bit melancholy that I will soon be finished with the series. It's that good. Definitely check out the DVDs if you want to see something truly special.

A truly gripping read

I have just finished reading Columbine by Dave Cullen. It retells the story of the Columbine shootings 10 years after the fact, when more evidence and research has become available. To say this is a chilling book would be an understatement. Cullen thoroughly researched this book and tells the story of the lead-up to the shootings, the massacre itself, and the aftermath for the victims and their families. You get a vivid picture of what the killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, were like and it ain't pretty.

Klebold was pretty much a depressed, suicidal teen for years. He was shy beyond belief and dreamed of some day finding love and affection. Harris, on the other hand, appears to have been a stone-cold psychopath from the start. Reading his web site logs and his diaries is a chilling experience and a trip into the mind of someone that has no regard for anyone other than himself. He basically dehumanized the rest of the world and came to embrace Hitler's Final Solution.

It is somewhat doubtful that Klebold ever would have acted on his own. In fact, it appears as though he went along with Harris's plot as a fantasy, not thinking it was real until the date grew closer. As it did, he realized this would be another option for ending his own life. This does not excuse his actions; he willingly took part, fired shots and killed people. But Harris was definitely the one behind the plot.

It's a good thing that Harris, for all his base intelligence, was sort of a screw-up, because he and Klebold had much, much larger plans in mind for Columbine. They had multiple bombs strategically placed and planned to set them off inside the school and then shoot students as they fled the building. They even placed bombs in their cars where they figured the police, ambulances and media would set up their perimeter. Luckily, all of the big bombs failed to explode. Harris and Klebold wanted a death toll of 500 plus.

Each and every one of the victims' stories is heartbreaking. The students had their whole lives ahead of them and each was the most important person in somebody's life. Teacher Dave Sanders was shot while trying to save other students and slowly bled to death while the police and SWAT teams waited outside, trying to come up with a plan. The story of his wife and kids, along with those of the parents who lost children, sticks in your heart and makes you truly shudder. Some of the wounded kids were maimed horribly: some paralyzed, some disfigured, all of them shattered on the inside.

In the midst of the tragedy, the police department realized they made multiple mistakes, including a chance to stop Harris long before the attack. They then spent considerable time hiding and destroying damning evidence against them. Both Harris and Klebold managed to slip through the cracks multiple times. Perhaps the single most heartbreaking thing of the whole Columbine incident is that it could have been stopped if not for the negligence of local law enforcement.

That the Columbine community rallied and carried on is a remarkable story. It is not any sort of miracle; it has human greatness and human faults sprinkled in throughout. But it is also a great example of what a community can endure together and a testament of the human spirit.