Harleys, Cars, Girls & Guitars

Obamacare: Prepare to Take Your Medicine!

My health insurance premiums increased 30% on January 1st. Get ready. Despite what you’ve been told, Obamacare means huge increases in your health insurance costs. The full provisions of Obamacare don’t kick in for a couple of years.

I don’t care who’s president. I expect just about the worst, no matter who’s in office. I’m even a little predisposed to root for Obama for a second term. If he wins, maybe liberals will quit with the racism is everything BS. (I’m not counting on it.)

But, if you think that Obamacare is going to deliver free goodies, you’re in a for a shock. Maybe the Democrats are right, and the end result will be a golden age of cheap medical care available to all, with every pre-condition covered. I guarantee you this. You’re going to pay for it, big time.

Somebody always has to pay the bill. I’ve got a few years to go before I qualify for Medicare, which I hope will reduce the cost (although I’m not counting on that, either). Medical care costs are about to go through the roof, courtesy of Obamacare, which is humorously called (in reality) The Affordable Care Act!

Jeremy Lin Takes New York by Storm!

I watched last night’s Knicks game at the gym while I rode the stationary bike. Grabbed one of the gym attendants and made him dial up the game. I had to watch Jeremy Lin. When Lin hit the winning bucket with half a second on the clock, the gym went nuts. Me, too.

My mom’s hometown is Bloomington, Indiana, home of Indiana University, the most basketball crazed town in the country. Watseka, Illinois, where I grew up, is not that far from French Lick, Indiana, Larry Bird’s hometown. So, I grew up with basketball in the blood. Every dad in my hometown erected a basket and a backboard in the backyard.

So, I think I know basketball. Hell, everybody from my hometown thinks he’s an expert on basketball.

Lin reminds me of Phil Smith, who led the Golden State Warriors to an NBA championship in 1975. Like Smith, Lin drives relentlessly to the baseline every time he brings the ball down court. Lin doesn’t showboat much. He makes the simplest pass every time. He’ll take the layup if you don’t stop his dribble, and if you do, he’ll find the shooter on the perimeter.

Smith was very similar, and he had Rick Barry, probably the best jump shooter in the history of the NBA, drifting around on the wing.

How in God’s name did everybody miss out on Lin? Why did every team in the NBA pass on him?

The level of play in the NBA is awful. I heard Charles Barkley talking this several days ago. Barkley said that half the teams in the NBA stink, and that the league needs to contract to improve the quality of play. He also said that players should be staying in college for four years to learn the game, and I agree.

The NBA (and, unfortunately college basketball) have become entranced by the notion of “athletic” versus “non-athletic” players. There is a huge racial element at play in this notion. Blacks are supposed to be “athletic.” Non-blacks aren’t. Anybody who’s watched Jeremy Lin and still thinks that Asians can’t be athletic… well, they’re not watching the same guy I’m watching.

In other words, there are undoubtedly quite a few Jeremy Lin’s out there, Asian and white, who aren’t getting a fair shot in the NBA.

When I was in the Philippines, I was astounded to discover that Filipinos are mad about basketball. You’ll find a dirt court in the middle of every slum. I even found a makeshift court out in the middle of the jungle! And, I met and played against some great young players. When I played corporate league ball, my team routinely got its ass kicked by Asian squads. They didn’t have a player over 6 foot tall, but they ran and passed like maniacs.  Every other team was freelancing, but the Asian teams always had an offensive scheme.

I’m going to have to find some tickets to a Knick’s game so that I can watch Jeremy Lin in person. He’s just what the Knicks were struggling to find. The Knicks were just awful before he came into the picture. I think Lin is the Knick's ticket to the playoffs.

2012 Cubs: Can't ID the Players Without a Program

The Cubs teams that reached the playoffs in 2007 & 2008 have been dismantled, and we’re back to rebuilding.  Of course, those teams were swept both years in the playoffs, and everybody got old.  Last year, the team hit bottom, finishing 5th in the National League Central.   Here’s the projected lineup pre-spring training.

   

Pitchers and catchers report on Saturday!

The Cubs’ strategy of throwing money at free agents didn’t produce a championship, so the new management, led by Theo Epstein, will try player development in the minors and majors.  It worked for the Red Sox, who Epstein built into a World Champion.

The infield is all kids, led by the new star of the Cubs, Starlin Castro, at SS.  Veterans Marlon Byrd and Alfonso Soriano remain in the outfield.  The Cubs would love to trade away Soriano for a handful of prospects but nobody wants to pick up his bloated contract. 

The Cubs want to sell tickets, so they keep saying that this is not a throw away year, but it looks exactly like that’s the strategy.  Develop kids and hope to be competitive in a couple of years.  Hope that a new manager, Dale Sveum, imported from Milwaukee, can change the culture of the clubhouse. 

I’m a Cubs' fan from birth, so I’ll probably watch the team when I can.  I’m a fair weather Yankee fan.  If the Cubs are 25 games out by August, I’ll switch allegiance to the Yankees.

Bruce Weber Death Watch at Illinois

Fighting Illini basketball used to be fun to watch. Not any more. Head Coach Bruce Weber has not only failed at producing winning teams, he's produced horribly boring teams. Weber's philosophy seems to be to aim to win 50 to 49, playing shut down defense. Not surprisingly, this is not exciting top rated recruits to want to play for him.

The Big Ten is known for tough, physical play. Weber has made things even uglier, with his insistence on defense first and offense... well, far down the list. His teams over the past 6 years have been incredibly offensively inept. They seem to always walk the ball upcourt, often deliberately turning down fast break opportunities.

Everybody likes Bruce personally. But, he's just too old school for today's recruits. He is just no fun at all.

His detractors have labeled his offensive style as "three yards and a cloud of dust." And, unfortunately, they're right.

If we're going to keep losing, I'd prefer to lose 80 to 75.

Weber's old school intransigence is about to force him out of his job. He'll most likely be fired at the end of this season. Not to worry. He made over $10 million during his tenure at Illinois.

The next coach at Illinois is going to have to be somebody who can excite young men with a style of play that is fun. The kids just won't play for somebody as grumpy and determined to place the lid on the offense as Weber.

I vote for Shaka Smart, the flashy young coach at VCU.

Honest Abe and Watseka

My little home town of Watseka, Illinois has one very large claim to fame.  Henry Bacon, the architect of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., was born in Watseka in 1866.  Watseka was also right on the edge of the 8th Judicial Circuit.  Lincoln worked, in his early years, as a “circuit rider,” an attorney who rode from town to town to represent clients.

Watseka is about 50 miles directly north of Danville. I marked the spot with that red dot.

Lincoln's birthday was yesterday. He was born 203 years ago in Kentucky, where my family also first settled in America.

Lincoln’s presence is still heavily felt throughout Illinois.  When I was a kid, we visited his childhood home in New Salem, a couple hundred miles southwest of Watseka.  Every boy in Illinois grows up hearing and reading the legends of the Great Emancipator.

And, of course, every father in Illinois tells his son that even a poor man can grow up to be president.

When I was growing up in Watseka, I felt as if I was, literally, “in the middle of nowhere.”

I was blind, but now I see.  Watseka is about halfway between Chicago, the great capital of the blues, and Nashville, the legendary capital of country music. 

Ronnie Milsap played at the Watseka Theatre on February 11!

One day, I’ll return to the Land of Lincoln, perhaps with those Old Dawgz, to play the Watseka Theatre.