College World Series Time

It's the most exciting time of the year for college baseball with the College World Series starting tomorrow. Eight teams, double elimination. What an exciting week, if your team made the field.

LSU has to be considered one of the favorites to win the whole thing, but they have a tough first round game with Virginia. Here's a look at the schedule for all the games. And here's a little something to get you pumped as the Tigers look to capture their 6th CWS title:

Zack Morris is back

If you grew up in the early '90s, chances are you saw each episode of Saved by the Bell about 20 times each. If Saved by the Bell was a major part of your Saturday mornings, check this out:

Saints Mini Camp: News and Notes (Update: Dan Moran Re-Retires)

Due to an unexpected hospital visit with our little one this weekend, I haven't gotten to check up on much coverage of the Saints mini camp this past weekend. If you're like me and looking for some news from the weekend, neworleanssaints.com, the Times Picayune and WWL are great places to look. Also don't forget about Saintsreport.com, as this is a site for the fans, by the fans.

From what I hear, Mike Bell looks good and could be a surprise at RB. Marques Colston is back to his old self and the defense is wreaking havoc already by showing different looks from 4-3 to 3-4 to some surprise formations. It didn't seem like there were any major injuries. Guys like Dan Campbell and Dan Morgan suffered injuries, but should be OK for training camp. Pierre Thomas brusied a hand/wrist, but he too should be 100 percent for camp. Rookie Malcolm Jenkins finished his finals early so he could make the mini camp, showing his dedication to being the best he can be.

Anyway, here's a look at what took place this weekend, so we can all catch up. :

Saints Official Site Coverage:

• Sean Payton Q & A: Day 1, , Day 3
• Practice Reports: Day 1(morning), Day 1 (afternoon) Day 2, Day 3
  
• Reggie Bush Q & A

Times Picayune Coverage:

• Day 1 Coverage
• Overview of Day 1 (lots of links)
  
• Day 2 Observations
  
• Saturday Practice Video
• Overview of Day 2
  
• Day 3 Observations
  

WWL Coverage:

• 1st Practice
• 2nd Practice
• Day 2, Practice 1
• Day 2, Practice 2
• Day 3 (what we've seen) and Practice Notes
• Post Mini Camp unofficial Depth Chart
• Mini Camp Review

UPDATE: According to Drew Rosenhaus' Twitter, Dan Morgan has re-retired. Two years in a row, Saints fans have gotten excited about Morgan returning to his old self, and two years in a row, he retires before camp.


*Photo by Michael C. Hebert from NewOrleansSaints.com

Lost Rewatch: Week 2

I love the Lost Rewatch idea, and in the Lost offseason I always like to go back and check out old episodes. But I usually don't get to watch them all, as I intend to. The past couple of years, I seem to make it through season 1 and get stuck in season 2, right around "The Other 48 Days."

So not that I'm bowing out way early in the Lost Rewatch project, but I'm going to change up my format just in case I can't keep up. Last week, I watch all four episodes and pick out tidbits of info that stuck out for me or new/interesting questions I have.

But really, there are so many recaps/analysis of these episodes on the Web already, I was regergitating a lot of info already out there. There were a couple of new questions/analysis based off season 5, but the official Lost Rewatch bloggers are doing a good job of picking those up too. (Check out JOpinionated or DocArzt)

For my aspect of the Rewatch project, I'm going to try to preview the week's episodes and try to pick out cool things to look for or think about. Lostpedia is a great resource, as they have analyzed every aspect of every episode of Lost already. Even the show's producers say they check out Lostpedia. I'm also going to look at Zap2It's "We Have to Go Back" rewatch from last year for things he noticed when he took up the task of rewatching Lost last year.

So here's the episodes on the schedule for Week 2:
(Lostpedia link as episode title, Zap2It link in parenthesis)

White Rabbit (Zap2It recap):

• Flashback focuses on Jack and his daddy issues. This is the first episode to open with a flashback.
• Charlie says, "I don't swim." Do you think he said this because he didn't want to try to rescue the person drowning, was too high to do it or meant that he didn't swim, not couldn't swim? (We know from future espisodes that he indeed could swim).
• Locke says that he looked into the eye of the island and it was beautiful. Is he talking about the smoke monster?
• Jack gives his famous line, "if we can't live together, or we're going to die alone" in this episode and officially becomes the leader of the survivors.
  
• We still don't have an answer on why/how Christian is seen walking around the island. He could be Jacob's enemy or a manifestation of Smokey. But with Locke, his old body was found on Flight 316, while Christian wasn't in the coffin.
  

House of the Rising Sun (Zap2It recap):

• Flashback focuses on Sun.
• We get introduced to two important skeletons in the caves. Locke dubs them Adam and Eve, the audience is still guess at their identity (Rose/Bernard? Desmond/Penny? Kate/Jack?).
  
• Jack has an interesting line about the skeletons that I didn't remember: "Someone laid them to rest here." Who could that have been?
  
• The skeletons also had a black and a white stone with them. As far as we know, Jack is still in possession of those.
• Locke is on to Charlie and begins to help him overcome his addiction.
• Michael learns that Sun speaks English, a major early Lost revelation.
• Watch for Michael's line about Jin's watch: "Time doesn't matter on a damn island." It may not matter on other islands, but it's pretty huge on this one.
  

The Moth (Zap2It recap):

• Flashback focuses on Charlie and his times in Driveshaft.
• Sayid tells Kate that there's no way they should have survived the crash. Our first signal that these people were brought to the island for a reason?
  
• Locke helps Charlie to realize that he doesn't need the drugs. He gives him three chances to ask for them back.
• Sayid's mission to try to located the French women's signal is thwarted when someone knocks him unconscious. Remember who it was?
  

Confidence Man (Zap2It recap):

• Flashback focuses on Sawyer and a con he was pulling on a couple.
• Sawyer had been reading Watership Down, beginning the Lost theme of planting books as Easter Eggs for the audience.
  
• Sayid returns to a place he didn't want to, back to being a torturer.
  
• Kate figures out the real source of Sawyer's letter. We learn that Sawyer isn't his real name.

Omaha Bound!

Congratulations to LSU for defeating Rice in a two-game sweep and advancing to the College World Series in Omaha.

Saints Hold Mini Camp this Weekend

You smell that? It's the smell of football in the air. Sure teams don't even report for training camp for another about two months, but with Saints mini camp being held this weekend, fans know football season is right around the corner.

I won't be attending the practices that are open to the public, but here are a few things I'm interested in hearing about from them:

1. How's the running back situation? There has been a ton of talk about bringing in another running back, but this weekend will be the first of many evaluations to see if the players on the roster, Pierre Thomas, Reggie Bush, Lynell Hamilton, Mike Bell, P.J. Hill and Herb Donaldson, can provide a solid running game.
2. Is the secondary really improved? This is an area that's been the weakest point on a less than average defensive unit. In the offseason, the Saints have brought in Darren Sharper and Jabari Greer, drafted Michael Jenkins (who won't be at mini camp) and Chip Vaughn, moved Usama Young to safety and get a healthy Tracy Porter back. Will all these moves pay off?
3. Is Sedrick Ellis ready to step up? Ellis had a solid rookie season, but this year he could be the anchor for the entire defense. Just look at what Albert Haynesworth meant to the Titans last year. Ellis is poised to become one of the top DT in the league. Is this the year that he takes the step?
4. How improved is Robert Meachem? After being drafted in the first round, Meachem can be considered nothing but a bust so far with the Saints. There have been a few bright moments for him, but first round picks are looked to contribute more than he has. Finally healthy, reports say he was impressive in the OTAs and has been getting a lot of reps with Marquis Colston and Lance Moore nursing injuries.
   
5. Was it really worth trading two draft picks to select a punter? Thomas Morstead will be one of the most scutinized players on the field in training camp, and he's a punter. The scutiny comes from the Saints trading their 7th rounder this year and a pick next year to take him. Most fans didn't even think punter was a need area, but Coach Payton and Mickey Loomis did. Hopefully, the pressure doesn't affect Morstead, and he can show why the team valued him so highly.
   

There are lots of other storylines to follow this weekend. Jeremy Shockey will certainly get a lot of coverage due to his recent "dehydration" spell in Las Vegas. Reporters will likely have an eye on the defensive end roation to see who could get playing time if/when Will Smith and Charles Grant have to serve their suspensions. And of course, although we take his efforts for granted since he's so good, Drew Brees is always fun to watch since he gives the same effort in mini camp as he does in Week 6 of the regular season.