Saints have a new long snapper

In a surprising move, the Saints have parted ways with long-time long snapper Kevin Houser and replaced him with free agent Jason Kyle.

Houser has been with the team since he was drafted in 2000, and was set to become the all time Saints leader in consecutive games played this year. I can't recall him ever making a bad snap. The guy was as automatic as you could be as a snapper. He has even performed well in kick coverage on special teams.

To say the least, this is a surprising move. But there were signs that the end was nearing for Houser. The Saints had brought back former draft pick Rob Ninkovich to be a backup DE, but in minicamps and OTAs, he'd been working out more as a long snapper. So now with Houser gone, the snapper position will come down to Kyle and Ninkovich.

I know that many fans won't see this move as a major one, but Houser was the longest tenured Saint. He's been with the team through tough times and is the only player who can say he was on two playoff winning Saints teams. Kyle and Ninkovich are more versatile and could be better all around special teams players, but the move still makes me wonder: if it ain't broke, why fix it?

Lost Rewatch: Week 5

The Lost Rewatch cuts back a little with only three episodes on the schedule. So if you're behind on the Rewatch, this week might be a good one to do some catching up.

Here's a preview of this week's episodes:

...In Translation (Zap2It Recap)

• Long Live Locke's original recap.
  
• Flashback focuses on Jin. (They are the same time frame as "House of the Rising Sun, but from Jin's point of view.)
  
• Jin tells Sun's dad that his father is dead, but we later see him as an old fisherman, explaining why Jin is so good at catching fish on the island.
• Sayid and Shannon's relationship is growing. It's kind of weird seeing them together. Not only do we now know how it ends for them, but we know so much more about Sayid, both his past and future.
  
• The raft is becoming a major plot element. Sawyer bought a spot on the raft and Jin and Michael get in a fight because Michael thought Jin burned the raft. It's revealed to the group that Sun can speak English when she must defend Jin during the fight with Michael.
• Locke figures out that Walt burned the raft in another great conversation with Walt. Locke touches on his own father not being cool, setting up Locke's backstory.
• Jin's starting to pick up some English word, saying Boat.
  

Numbers (Zap2It Recap)

• Long Live Locke's original recap.
  
• Flashback focuses on Hurley. Hurley wins the lottery and bad stuff starts to happen. He thinks the numbers are cursed.
  
• 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42...the numbers, forever linked in the Lost mystery. This episode sets the audience up for years of questions.
• Hurley is the owner of a box company in Tustin...making him Locke's boss.
• Leonard, Sam Toomey, Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute. Just a few of the major players in the mystery of Lost that were introduced here.
• On their way to Rousseau's camp, the group comes across a rope bridge. Wonder who built that?
• Rousseau mentions the Black Rock again, this time to Hurley. She doesn't know what the numbers mean, but agrees with Hurley that they must be cursed. She gives an overview of her group's time on the island. Something fans will see take place in season 5.
• The episode ends with one of season 1's best shots. The camera pans to the hatch that Boone and Locke are working on to reveal 4 8 15 16 23 42 etched on the side. Chillbumps.
  

Deus Ex Machina (Zap2It Recap)

• Long Live Locke's original recap.
• Flashback focuses on Locke and his not cool dad, who cons Locke into donating a kidney to him and then abandons their relationship again.
• Locke's description of the game Mouse Trap sounds a lot like the season 5 conflict between Jacob and man in black.
  
• Locke's mother had been admitted to the same mental hospital that Hurley was, Santa Rosa.
• Is Locke's strange vision the island speaking to him? He learned of the beach craft's location and saw Boone covered in blood. Foreshadowing Boone's demise perhaps or did the island want him out of the picture?
• Locke losing feeling in his legs? A Nigerian drug plane on the island? Virgin Mary statues filled with heroin? We're the survivors of Flight 815 (shout out to Bernard)? Man, what an episode. Locke-centric ones always deliver.
• Another great ending. With Locke ready to give up on the island, a light shoots out from the hatch renewing Locke's faith and making him more determined than ever to get inside the hatch. We'll see this shot from a different point of view on the island in season 5.
  

Hornets Draft

With the 21st pick, the New Orleans Hornets selected PG Darren Collison out of UCLA to back up point guard Chris Paul. Many fans were hoping for the local player in LSU's Marcus Thornton. They didn't have to wait long, as the team traded two future second round picks to Miami for the rights to Thornton, who was taken with the 43rd pick.

Looking back, the Hornets sured up part of their bench, but they still haven't found the size and toughness that they lacked in the postseason. Pittsburgh forward DeJuan Blair was on the board, but his bad knees may have scared off the team. His knees scared off enough teams for Blair to fall all the way to the second round, where the Spurs selected him.

Now the team will have to look for some rebounding and height in free agency. The team would love to move a few players during the offseason as well, so look for the Hornets to be one of the more active players in trade talks.

Here's a look at the newest Hornets:

• Darren Collison, PG, UCLA

• Marcus Thornton, G, LSU

A few grades for the Hornets picks:

• ESPN: B-
• SI.com: B
• Yahoo: 7/10
• NBADraft.net: C
• Houston Chronicle: D+
• CBSSportsline: A (1st round only)
  

More grades and analysis can be found at Ken Trahan of NewOrleans.com's draft report

We Are the Champions!

CWS Championship

LSU vs. Texas. Best two-out-of-three. National seed #3 vs. #1. The match-up that most analyst predicted is the one that came true. Starting tonight, the best team in college baseball will be crowned in a few short days.

Many fans thought LSU should have been the #1 seed, but that honor went to Texas, who ended up in a tougher CWS bracket. There will be no more speculation on who the top team is after the three game championship series.

They both got to the championship series in different ways, but when you look at the CWS bracket, both teams made it to the final series the same way: Perfect 3-0 records. LSU returned to its Gorilla Ball days and blasted Virginia 9-5, Arkansas 9-1 and Arkansas again 14-5. Texas, some would say, caught some breaks in defeating Southern Miss 7-6, Arizona State 10-6 and Arizona State again 4-3. But none of that matters now. It's LSU's best against Texas' best for all the marbles.

This is what LSU fans have been waiting years for. Since Skip Bertman retired and Smoke Lavall ran the program into the ground, fans have wondered if LSU would return to the glory days. With more colleges putting an emphasis on college baseball and the new CWS format, LSU fans wondered if five titles in 10 years were what LSU baseball would forever be known for.

But Paul Mainieri has rebuilt the program into a giant and last year the team took its first step to returning LSU to glory. This year the team is looking to cement themselves alongside the 1991, 1993, 1996, 1997 and 2000 teams.

The journey starts tonight and hopefully ends tomorrow night with the Tigers raising the championship trophy. Tiger fans would love nothing more than a perfect world series record, but if it goes to Wednesday and the Tigers win, there will be no complaints. The team just needs to continue what they've done all postseason and focus on the next at-bat or the next pitch and worry about the celebration later.

Lost Rewatch: Week 4

Week 4 of the rewatch continues to lay the groundwork for the mysteries of Lost. Fans will debate Locke's actions, especially in "Hearts and Minds," throughout these early episodes. Character development was key in season 1 and from Boone and Shannon to Walt and Michael to Charlie to Sawyer, these four sure gave fans a lot of backstory to digest. Just when the audience thought they knew where a character was coming from, their backstory threw their theories for a loop.

On a side note, have you ever wondered what Lost would look like as a sitcom? Well, wonder no further. Thanks to Youtube, some fans have edited Lost as some favorite sitcom openings. Check it out for a funner side of Lost.

Here's a preview of this week's Rewatch episodes:

Hearts and Minds (Zap2It Recap)

• Long Live Locke's original recap.
  
• Episode flashback focuses on Boone and Shannon's relationship and their time in Australia. It's revealed that Boone and Shannon aren't blood relatives.
• Don't miss Sawyer in the background while Boone is at the police station in Sydney. One of the many character crossovers in these early flashbacks.
• Kate learns that Sun speaks English, becoming the second Lostie (along with Michael) to learn Sun's secret.
• Jack and Sayid discuss the reasons why their compass isn't working. The first of many things they discover that's different/unique about the island's properties.
• Locke puts forth a test for Boone using a hallucination. This entire exercise is looked at in a different light now that fans have seen season 5. What is Locke's true motivations here? Was his focus really on just getting into the hatch? How does he even know how to mix these hallucinogens and what effects they will have on Boone? This is by far the most intriguing part of this episode for me.
  

Special (Zap2It Recap)

• Long Live Locke's original recap.
  
• Flashback focuses on Michael and Walt off the island and Michael's relationship with Walt's mother.
• In one of the most interesting season 1 scenes, Walt seems to cause a bird to crash against the window and die. Walt's stepdad later tells Michael that Walt is different and things happen when he's around. Fans immediately want to know more about Walt, but five seasons later, we're still wondering why he's so special.
• An interesting note from Lostpedia, Egypt is first referenced on Lost by Walt. Interesting since there's been so many other shout-outs to Egypt in later seasons.
  
• Michael starts to build the raft in this episode.
• Black Rock is mentioned for the second time on the show (the first was in Solitary).
• Claire returns at the end of this episode, setting up Homecoming.
  

Homecoming (Zap2It Recap)

• Long Live Locke's original recap.
  
• Flashback focuses on Charlie dealing with his heroin addiction as a washed-up rocker.
• Lost went to the well with the old amnesia story when Claire returned.
• Charlie kills the first Other, when he shoots Ethan. While the death was deserved, the audience probably sided with Sayid way back in season 1 about catching him alive, since we wanted to learn more about Ethan and his people.
• Ethan is killed on the island, interesting since we now know more about his birth.
  

Outlaws (Zap2It Recap)

• Long Live Locke's original recap.
  
• Flashback focuses on Sawyer and why he was in Australia. Oh yeah, he has a few drinks at a bar with this guy ... Christian Sheppard, ever heard of him?
• "That's why the Red Sox will never win the World Series." What a great conversation between Christian and Sawyer, but how frustrating was it when Sawyer didn't tell Jack about meeting his dad? Just add it to the times that the Losties didn't share info with each other. That payoff conversation would come later.
  
• Sawyer hears the whispers in the jungle, joining Sayid as having heard them.
• What a way to flesh out a bit of backstory, with a game of "I never." Some interesting bits of info revealed, setting up future flashbacks.
• Locke delivers a story about his foster mom thinking that a golden retriever was his recently deceased sister, but Locke tells it way better than that, proving once again how awesome a character Locke is.
  
• Sawyer says, "It's just a boar." But was it? Interesting how Locke shows up shortly after the board ran through Sawyer's stuff a second time. Smokey? Jacob's enemy? Hmm.