The BCS is out and nothing of importance has changed.  With a win over Miss. State, Alabama stays in the number one spot.  In second, with a week off, is still a surprising Texas Tech team waiting for a chance to play in the FedEx championship game.  Still in third place is a Texas team wishing it had been able to finish against that same Texas Tech team comfortably in second.  In fourth place, a fired up Gators team coming off a big win against South Carolina.  Giving the Old Ball Coach the worst loss of his career.  either as a player or a coach.  I was surprised not to see Texas and Florida swap spots in the final rankings, but it makes for good drama these last few weeks.  And before I forget, Oklahoma still has a good shot at screwing everything up for these top four teams.  If they can beat Texas Tech this weekend and Oklahoma State the following week, then they’ll be right there at the end, possibly playing in the title game.

I’m of the opinion that parents should not be allowed at their children’s sporting events.  In fact, I’ve heard of schools closing the games to the public because of unruly parents fighting.  There is nothing worse than sitting at the ballpark, trying to watch a little league game in peace and having to listen to some loud mouth blast the coach and umpires over every call and situation.  It makes it bad for the parents that are just there to support their children and let the coaches do the coaching.  In most places the teams are not even keeping an official score, but you can bet that some of the anal, overbearing parents are keeping track and yelling it out at opportune times.  It’s like they have no notice of the behavior that they exhibit, and what it shows the kids.  I’m all for competition, but it needs to be civil and respectful.  If a player on the opposing team gets a good hit or make a great catch, I’m disappointed for my sons team but you know what, I still clap and show respect for the good play.  On the other hand, when a player makes a bad play on the opposing team, we should still acknowledge the effort and not cheer their mistake.  I have actually heard parents cheering a missed play by an infielder or a missed catch by a first baseman so that their player is safe.  Cheering a mistake.  This is not High School or major competition; this cheering of a mistake was in a six year old coach pitched game.  It’s ridiculous.  Unfortunately it is illegal to punch these people,  and they are so far gone that you can’t explain what they are doing wrong.  It would be nice to be able to ban them from watching, or at least make them watch from their cars.

I thought that it was all hype.  There was no way that HDTV was as good as everybody was saying.  That was my thinking last week.  Before my new best friend, the cable guy, hooked up my new HD receiver.  I didn’t think that it would make such a difference, but I really don’t think that I can ever go back to the way it was.  Sorry regular t.v, no disrespect, but your time is over.  The new king of watching sports is HD.  I say new king, because I didn’t jump on the band wagon sooner.  Oh, all the games I’ve missed being so naive.  I could have watched the Gators trounce the Ohio Buckeyes in the championship two years ago.  I could have watched the miracle Giants beat the Patriots last year in the Super Bowl.  It is 100 percent better in HD.  I can see the sweat and dirt and grime and feel like I’m on the field.  Even NASCAR looks exciting.  It would have even made the Olympics bearable.  It would  have been glorious.  It should have been glorious, but I was stubborn.  After all, why should I get a new fancy television when the one I bought ten years ago was still working?  It didn’t make any sense.  I was wrong.  Big time.  I know that now and I take full responsibility for my actions.  Now, that I’ve forgiven myself and moved on; let the MLB playoffs start, let the NFL continue and hockey season can’t get here soon enough.  All hail HDTV!

I didn’t know that there were so many bizarre, unconventional sports in the Olympics.  I didn’t know that you could be a world class trampoliner or is it trampolinest?  It seems like such a niche sport, worthless in any way that could be perceived as relevant to anything else in the world.  Ping-Pong?  Or as the ping-pong athletes refer to as table tennis.  Just because it has a grown up name doesn’t mean that it’s a real sport.  Sure it’s entertaining, but is it really a sport?  What about badminton?  How about synchronized swimming or synchronized diving.  Just because it is almost interesting on its own, doesn’t mean that adding a partner makes it doubly interesting.  I actually saw an exhibition of synchronized trampolining.  Are  you serious?  What’s next, synchronized javelin or synchronized weight lifting?  All I’m saying is that just because a few people play an obscure sport that hasn’t been relevant in 100 years, doesn’t mean that I have to watch the best athletes in those sports compete for the gold.  How about if the IOC picked some sports that people might enjoy watching or at least have a modern day following.  If they can’t do that, why not just bring back jousting or maybe build a giant gladiator stadium in the middle of London for the 2012 games and let the athletes fight lions and tigers.  I’d love to see the Russian rythmic gymnastic team fight a bear.

The Olympics ended just over a week ago, and it seems like they never even happened.  The Olympic games crash into your life every four years like a drunk cousin at a family reunion, and then disappear just as quickly as they arrived and like your drunk cousin, your hard pressed to even recall a name.  Sure, this year there happened to be a Phelps, but, really how often does that happen?  I think back over all the games that I’ve watched since I was a kid and I can only remember a few names, and I’m sure most people can only remember a few names over the history of the games.  Jesse Owens, Mark Spitz, Greg Louganis and only because he hit his head, and maybe Carl Lewis.  Oh yeah, and don’t forget the little gymnastic girl with the hurt ankle and the creepy images of her being carried off the floor by that creepy old guy.  I think that was in Atlanta.  And that brings up another point, as in what is the point of having the games in your city.  Does it really help the city?  Does anyone even remember what city the 1996 games were held in besides the athletes?  The only thing more forgettable than the summer Olympics are the winter Olympics.  I don’t even want to start on them.

Although the Chicago Cubs defeated the Atlanta Braves tonight 7-2, they lost their lead off hitter, Alfonso Soriano. Soriano could miss around six weeks after being hit by a pitch that broke his hand. This isn’t the first time that Soriano has been injured this season. He was on the disabled list earier with a calf injury. The Cubs during that time were 9-5. Let’s just hope that they can do well with him out this time.

Big Brown failed to win the Belmont Stakes tonight and disappointed a lot of fans. His victory would have meant that he won the Triple Crown, the first time in three decades. However, Big Brown fell too short and the 38-1 long shot Da’ Tara was declared the winner of the Belmont Stakes 140

RawSports.org will primarily be a blog to rant about sports and to post the latest news and information regarding sports (baseball, basketball, football, soccer, etc.). I have always been a fan of sports and have been on sports teams all my life.