Credit the Ticket Solutions Intention Foul blog for some really interesting Super Bowl stats. It's absolutely amazing how the price of Super Bowl Tickets has gone up over the years.
Source: The Ultimate Guide To Super Bowl Tickets
Being a sports fan is tough. Being a sports fan of the Kansas City Chiefs, Kansas City Royals, Missouri Tigers Football and Missouri Tigers Basketball has been a tough ride. I thought I'd take a second to dream after this past weekend. I spent my weekend in Columbia, MO and Kansas City, MO watching my two favorite football teams. It all started with an early trip to ESPN College Gameday in Columbia, MO. It was amazing. 18,000 of us cheering and hooting and hollering. I watched a great homecoming parade and celebration. I watched a practice for the basketball team. I then was treated to a fantastic game between the football team and the BCS #1 Oklahoma Sooners. I can't believe we won. Final score was 36-27. It was amazing watching the fans storm the field and walk the goal posts through the town. I then had to drive home in the wee hours of the morning to get back for a tailgate at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday. I was treated to watch pre-game warmups on the field and then watch the Chiefs destroy the Jacksonville Jaguars 42-20. I know I am dreaming but I have started wondering is it too early to start thinking about the BCS National Championship and the Super Bowl? Well, it is late in the evening and maybe I am dreaming already. After all, both Mizzou and KC were a combined 12-17 last year including Mizzou's Texas bowl game loss to Navy. For now, I'll keep dreaming and maybe some BCS and Super Bowl love will come my way. After all, Mizzou with no final fours, and no national titles, and KC with no playoff wins in over 15 years and no championship since before I was born, the last championship I watched for my teams was 1985. Thanks for that one to the boys in blue! I think as a sports fan, I'm about due!
After the Kansas City Chiefs lose yesterday to the Indianapolis Colts 19-9, why does everyone think Matt Cassel was the problem? I am no Cassel apologist and he did not play a good game, but there are many reasons why a team wins and why a team loses. Here are a few points on why KC lost and Indy won:
- Failed on-side kick to start the game. This wasn't the kiss of death, but I like our chances of holding Manning and Co. to 3 or less from 80 yards rather than 37 or 38. We held them to 3, but by the end of the game the D was pretty tired. Maybe one more stop and an ensuing 3 or 7 on the board from us changes things if we start in the lead rather than the hole.
- 4th and 2 from the 8 and we throw a pass into triple coverage (or at least double coverage). I understand the play. Indy ran it to perfection the second half. Me personally, I'd kick the FG, but if not that, then I'd run since we were running it down their throats when JC held onto the ball.
- Speaking of JC (Jamaal Charles), hold onto the ball. One fumble lost and one damn near lost. The one damn near lost set up that 4th and 2 on the previous point.
- Cassel is really accurate when hurrying, but not when trying to set up a play. Get him going in hurry up and faster snap counts.
- Dwayne Bowe's initials are DB, which is the same I would abbreviate Dropped Ball. Get better hands or get out! Dropping a TD pass in the middle of a games with no TD's! You kidding me??? You can't do that. Idiot! I can't be all mean here, DB did block well except for one run that he got our back killed.
- Too many 3 and outs. I put that a bit on coaching but a lot on execution. The 2nd half was a mess on offense until hurry up. We should have been pounding the ball instead of trying to run a sweep with Thomas Jones. Not his forte at all.
That is enough for now. Oh wait, I said I'd say why the Colts won. Simply put, on that day, Indy was better.
Wow.... where to begin? First, I must say that it has been only a couple weeks and here I am blogging again. Whoo hoo! It took me less than a year to write another post. Well, first off, I am very happy with the Kansas City Chiefs win this week over the San Diego Chargers, 21-14. Actually, on my facebook account and maybe even my twitter account, I predicted the score to be 24-17. So I was just a field goal off for both teams. I hope the Chiefs do a good job this week and beat the Cleveland Browns @ Cleveland. If you couldn't tell from as many links as I am embedding, I have been working on the new TicketSolutions.com website for work. I've also been working on acquiring things for a business I am planning on opening after the turn of the year. It's hush hush right now, but more to come on that in the future! I guess last but not least is that in 7 days from right now when I am posting this I will be in Ponta Vedra Beach, FL, playing at TPC Sawgrass in the Golf Channel Amatateur Tour National Championship. Actually, the championship itself is from September 26-29, but I get in town a few days early to get acclamated to the area and practice. It will be a nice 7 days in the Jacksonville area!
Ok, that's it for now! I'm signing off! I'll try and write again soon!
Oh, I almost forgot... when I get back, I'm going to see Alice in Chains in Kansas City! I'm very excited about it!
Hello blogosphere! Hope everyone is doing fine! This has been quite a hectic year. In particular with work. I'll start with golfing. I have played much better this year, and finally won my first event since 2007 last week at Falcon Lakes. This week is the Kansas City Championship at Shoal Creek. I hope to do well. In a couple weeks I'll be off to Ponta Vedra Beach, FL to play TPC Sawgrass in the Golf Channel Amateur Tour National Championship. It is my third year in a row playing. I hope to contend this year.
I had some good luck dieting this year for part of the year, but have slumped of late. Hopefully, I'll get back in gear here soon. I had lost close to 30 lbs, but I've gained about 10 back.
Work has been nuts. We launched the new www.ticketsolutions.com. I have to say it kicks some major butt. I really like it. Take a look around and see for yourself. I hope you agree. We worked very hard on it. We are working on version 1.1 right now. Hopefully, that will be out in November and we'll have a whole bunch of new features. We'll have mini releases along the way to add some of the 1.1 features. Do me a favor and go check out www.ticketsolutions.com for me and let me know what you think!
I'll try not to be a stranger and publish some posts more regularly!
Oh, I forgot... I went to the new Arrowhead last night. It is so cool! I love what they did with Kauffman Stadium and Arrowhead. They totally rock!!!!
I haven't posted since 2008! What a bad blogger I am. It's amazing how busy we get. I recently have got up and running on Twitter. I'm a little behind. I know! I hooked it up with Facebook and then just connected it to here. Then I realized just how long it had been since I posted.
**GWB** if you are reading this, the Twitter widget isn't working correctly. Doesn't repost querstrings in links correctly. It made the link broken :(
Technology is just so amazing right now. I feel like we are really on the verge of some even way greater things. Did you see the iPad that was annouced this week? I was not very impressed. We'll see. It took me several years before I got an iPod, or an iPhone, so I am sure I'll give it a second look someday. I was way more impressed with the MS Courier. We'll see what happens.
That's it for now. I'm going to go try and see Avatar finally!
To quote Cinderella, the 80's hair band, not fairy tale character, "Don't know what you got till it's gone". If you haven't heard, Carl Peterson, after a 20 year tenure at the Chiefs helm, has resigned from his positions with the team. Now after giving myself the evening to reflect, I wonder if we, as Kansas City Chiefs fans, will be singing the Cinderella ballad after we give it time to sink in? I know the popular opinion in this town is that this is long over due and I don't disagree. I think it's good for new blood to cycle through in positions of power. Depending on your viewpoint, you could say that is why we limit the presidency to two terms. Too much of anything ends up being a bad thing at some point. I'm sure a lot of us got reminded of that at Thanksgiving dinner recently. I know I did!
I don't believe the problems with the Chiefs team are Carl Peterson's fault. I might be a minority in that regard. There are things I don't like that have taken place in his tenure. Ticket and parking prices are pretty ridiculous. I have been a season ticket holder since 1996. I have got to see them increase nearly annually over the last 13 years. As much as I love to pay $22 to park on some grass and barbecue with friends, it is a silly price. One day at Arrowhead typically runs me $125 and I am just one person who does not consume any alcohol at all. I used to be a part of that crowd and my bill would be closer to $250 for a fun filled Sunday with a victory and a hangover on Monday morning.
What good came from the Carl era? Lot's of sell outs are probably the first thing people will quote off. We've sold out every game since 1991. Even though the NFL's definition of a sell out is kind of stupid. You technically don't have to sell every seat to have a sell out. But since we didn't get credit for over selling out when we had standing room only games, I'll call that one a push. We were one of the winningest franchises in the 90's. That was great! Actually, to be honest, winning is all that really matters in pro football, and we never won the ultimate prize, but it sure was a great time to go to a game and have no doubt you'd win. We won 176 games while Carl was around. We won our division 4 times. There were several occasions that we fielded the best team in football. Obviously, we over achieved with some teams. We had a shot in 1993 to win it all, losing in the AFC Championship against the Bills. In 1995, 1997, and 2003 you could argue any of those teams, if not upset in the Divisional game, would have went on the the Super Bowl. All those teams were 13-3 in the regular season and upset by teams in the playoffs. The Colts beat the Chiefs in 1995, 10-7, and eventually went on to lose to the Steelers. That game the Chiefs, who had been virtually mistake free in the regular season, did themselves in with plenty of silly mistakes, and of course three missed field goals by Lin Elliott. In 1997, the Chiefs were beat by the Denver Broncos, 14-10, who went on to win the Super Bowl. I still say to this day in conversations with friends and family that the Chiefs were robbed that game by the officials. Say what you will about starting Grbac or Gannon, the refs did us in with two costly calls, one no call and wasn't that the game that the Broncos came out with greased up jerseys? The darn cheaters!!!! Finally, in 2003, the Chiefs lost again to the Colts, 38-31. That one stunk because it was the culmination of all the years of Marty saying we needed chunks of yards, then Gunther saying we were going to move the ball up and down the field, and then Dick Vermeil showing up with the "Greatest Show on Turf". We had a heck of a day. Score after score. It was fun except we came up just a tad bit short. I guess we should have addressed the defense when we got destroyed at Denver and Minnesota that year. Oh well. I suppose Carl will be remembered for some key players he acquired, big names such as Joe Montana and Marcus Allen, or small names who turned into big players such as Priest Holmes as a free agent in 2001 or Will Shields from the draft in 1993. He'll always be known as the man who picked Derrick Thomas. #58 was big here, really big.
Did anything else come from the Carl era except for me bitching about prices and a few trips down memory lane? I can't think of anything. Maybe, in a few years, I'll look back to the team I'm watching on the field now and think just like every one else does. I can't help but look out there and see improvement each week and wonder why everyone is so down on the guy. We all asked to blow it up and start over and now that we are everyone hates losing... well duh????
I need to go to bed. Carl, I think you're time in KC will remembered fondly for all the good memories and the last few years will be distant once the team returns to prominence again... after all, it's been since 1993-1994 since we have won a playoff game and 1969-1970 since we have won the Super Bowl. The time is right for you to go, just I'm not so sure the sentiment is warranted.
Carl Peterson
Kansas City Chiefs President/CEO/GM
December 1988 - December 2008
Record: 176-141-1
Head Coaches:
Marty Schottenheimer January 24, 1989 - January 11, 1999
Gunther Cunningham January 22, 1999 - January 5, 2001
Dick Vermeil January 12, 2001 - January 1, 2006
Herman Edwards January 9, 2006 - present
I don't have much time to write, but I wanted to check back in, so I didn't miss out on blogging this weekend. I just got back from the Chiefs game. Same old stuff, different day. I don't know if I mentioned before in my blog that I recently have stopped drinking socially for the most part (again, but this time for good). Alcohol has kind of lost it's flair for me. Anyway, I just got done with a weekend of baby sitting a bunch of drunk friends and I am sure glad it is over. That can be so wearing. I am just exhausted. On a positive note, my guitar playing is rapidly improving. It turns out it must just be like riding a bike, because I am re-learning everything and really enjoying it all over again. I've spent the last 10 years or so kind of away from the instrument. Sure, I'd take it out every now and then and strum a song, but actually trying to play the instrument with any degree of skill I've avoided for a while now. I guess music just tired on me, but I've found it really still is one of my true passions. I don't think I've mentioned that I have a rental property in Lee's Summit. My renters moved out October 31, so I've been working a lot on that house. I may have found a potential renter. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'm going to try and give a technical blog this week. I'll see what my schedule allows. Everyone, have a happy rest of the weekend!
Jake
Last weekend I purchased a new guitar amp for my bedroom. I had certain criteria in mind when heading out for the purchase. First, I wanted something small and portable. I have tons of music equipment, but I needed something that was easy to fit in the bedroom and didn't take up much space, but had a good sound and packed a punch. The second thing I was looking for was hopefully a digital recorder built in. Often, I will be playing my guitar and come up with something cool and rely on my memory to try and piece it all back together later. That worked ok when I was 16, but at 31, not to say my memory is shot, but I think I have a little more running through my mind on an average day. Anyway, it's a lot harder to remember good riffs than it used to be. I went out with a budget of $300, but admittedly when I left the house, I talked myself into spending up to $500. I was introduced to the Line 6 - Spider Jam and fell in love immediately. The amp is so cool. It took me about 5 minutes of playing with it to realize I was buying it. First off, the sound is excellent. It has great control over sound, and also has tons of built in preset sounds, so if I want my guitar to sound like Metallica's Master of Puppets, there is a setting. If I want it to sound like 311's Down, there is a setting as well. It has ton's of band sounds, as well as different sounds for different moods that were put together by their studio musicians. Another cool feature is that it has built in drums and songs that were added by real musicians and not generated through some MIDI device. It records up to 34 minutes (I think) and has effects loops for vocals, accoustic guitar, bass, and drums all through a mic input, which you can record through the digital recorder as well as your guitar. You can layer your recordings, loop, punch in, so if you have a cool riff that you come up with and then want to solo over it, it is very simple to do. It's got outputs to push your recordings out to the computer or to some other recorder. It has an input for a foot pedal as well. I plan on buying that after Christmas. We'll see if I can hold out that long. All in all, I think it has every feature I could want in a small bedroom amp. It cost me $449. I would recommend this amp to any guitar player looking to add to their collection.
Happy strumming!
Jake
Wow! It's been a long time since I last posted. Time sure flies by. Funny enough, even though I haven't posted since March, not a ton of things have changed. Sure, summer came and went and football season has started and now is half over. College basketball is starting up. Me and my dogs still live in the country. I'm still single and looking. I am playing my guitar a lot more often now and still follow sports religiously. I took a trip a couple weeks ago for the second vacation I have really taken in my adult life. This one was about 9 days, so it was sure nice to get away for a while. I went on a trip to Orlando and played in the Golf Channel Amateur Tour Team and National Championships. I didn't do very well at all. In fact, I competed in the Jones flight and finished dead last. I had a blast and look forward to doing it again next year. I think now that it is not brand new to me I'll do better next year. I went down with the mindset if I shot 85 every day I could win it. I turned out shooting 104, 94, 104, 95. So, I think my nerves got to me a bit. Oh well, chalk it up to a learning experience. From a technology perspective, since this is a tech blog, I have been working a lot with .Net 3.5, SQL Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 at work lately. More with the .Net stuff then the other two. Mostly, as a DB I'm still using SQL Server 2005. And yes, I still have systems on 2000. How many of you out there use LINQ? I don't care what flavor of LINQ, but I am curious. I have started with it and I think it's awesome. However, I have noticed that there really isn't a ton of info out on the web about it and it seems like most everyone who posts out there is posting very basic concepts. Does anyone have an opinion on LINQ to SQL and it's future? I have heard rumors that it will become a dead language in .Net 4.0. I sure hope that isn't the case, because I like it and see it has a place. I hear the real push is for the ADO.Net Entity Framework. I've played with both recently and from a development standpoint, at least at the basic concept level, I don't see much of a difference. Sure, you call different methods to insert, update or delete, but that's it. You can still use the LINQ language to interact with the enumerations and objects. Tell me your thoughts! I'm off to work!
Take care!
Jake