DaveZdyrko.com

I’m just blocking out last night’s game against GTech out of my mind and will pretend it never happened. It’s my fault for getting too excited for this team and coach. Embarrassing. I had to stop watching and kill some zombies in L4D at halftime because I was just getting so frustrated that I was starting to get physically ill.

Obviously, I owe plenty of thanks to the “Wide Right” Gods in how they’ve helped my ‘Canes beat FSU several times and subsequently won National Championships. Now you can chalk up an apparent fantasy football victory to their credit. I went into the game with all my players done and up by 14 points with Kellen Winslow and Ryan Lindell left to play for my opponent. It was looking really good for me in the first three quarters, but then things started to get frightening.

Winslow got 30+ yards bringing his point total up to 4 and Lindell made a couple of extra points bring him up to 9; this made the score 67-66 in my favor after Dawson made that 56 yard FG to give the Browns the lead with 93 seconds left to play. I was actually hoping that Dawson would’ve missed because then the Bills would’ve just run out the clock but he made it with plenty of time left for Buffalo to get into FG range. Then the idiotic Romeo decided to squib kick it and put give the Bills prime field position near mid-field and the Bills quickly marched into FG range. I was absolutely livid. I was thinking that he would surely make the kick and I would lose to one of our league’s worst teams 69-67.

But then when the Bills were lining up for the field goal I thought to myself “wide right” and then I typed “WIDE RIGHT” in my aim chat window to Dave Toole. Then the announcers started talking about “wide right” in the Bills lore…and then…Lindell missed the kick “wide right” and I squeaked out a 67-65 victory! And unless the official scoring changes between now and this morning, I will be sitting pretty at 8-3 and with a playoff spot potentially locked up!

I haven’t really talked about them that much, but the Miami Hurricanes baseball team has been kicking much ass this year. I try not to get excited about the college baseball season until the College World Series begins, so I’ve been following them with a somewhat cautious excitement. They’re looking really good, though, and we have an excellent chance at winning our 5th National Championship this year — one for the thumb!

The team is also a lot of fun to watch and are loaded with talent — even beyond the three first round draft picks. I haven’t honestly been this excited about watching them since the old school Ron Fraser days when guys like Phil Lane and Greg Ellena were knocking balls out of the park and they were doing things like using the hidden ball trick to help lead them to a title. Win or lose, 2008 is looking like it’ll go down as a great sports year for me. Let’s go Canes!

It’s hard to be disappointed with today’s loss to the Longhorns because I never thought we could even make it this far. For the Miami Hurricanes basketball team to do as well as they did in going 8-8 in ACC play and get at least one win in each the ACC and NCAA tournaments is equally  unexpected and outstanding. I couldn’t be happier for the way they’ve played this year, giving me some enjoyment in an area where it was least expected.

As a lifelong sports fanatic, the first round of the NCAA tourney tends to be two of my favorite days of each and every year. Those days are right up there with the 18th birthday of whomever is the current flavor of the year in the teen slut superstar world. The first seven games this year on day one have proven to be a huge disappointment — kind of like when a cute teen star grows into an ugly adult woman and ends up doing Playboy 15 years too late when she’s no longer relevant.

The majority of the games have been blowouts and boring to watch, there haven’t been any real upsets and I’m already practically eliminated from my money pool even though the first day’s games aren’t even over. I’ve only picked 3 out of the first 7 correctly and the picks that I thought were stupid have proven to be just that.

I guess that makes me a genius in knowing that I was a moron in making my ridiculous picks. Knowing my luck, the first “upset” of the tourney will be Miami losing tomorrow. Although, I would honestly consider it an upset if Miami won. I really wish we weren’t seeded that high, an 11-13 seed would’ve been much more appropriate. A lower seed might have also helped our chances as weird as that may sound.

Anyway, I hope tonight (OJ Mayo vs Beasley!) and tomorrow proves to be much better. Regardless, I just adore that I can watch all this shit online while at work thanks to the NCAA March Madness on Demand on CBS Sports.

A lot of people seem to wonder about why my favorite teams are from all over the place and I’ve explained this many times, with the simple answer being that my dad was in the Air Force and we were stationed in Guam at the time I started following sports religiously. However, I haven’t really expounded too much on where exactly I’ve lived throughout my life. Here’s a basic rundown (I’m sure I’m off a little on some of the year ranges):

(continue reading…)

I’ve been in great spirits today, and, no, an intoxicated Adriana Lima didn’t show up on my doorstep horny and ready to bone. My day’s been even better than that. It’s National Signing Day for college football and my University of Miami Hurricanes finished amazingly well as they landed a top four class whether you’re looking at Rivals.com, Scout.com or ESPN/Scout’s Inc. Here’s a breakdown of our incoming class from each recruiting organization:

(continue reading…)

My plan to jinx the Patriots by predicting a blowout worked!!!! I am so unbelievably happy right now, no words can really describe the emotions I’m feeling. My sports life has been so crap over the past five plus years that I’ve been getting most of my joy out of seeing teams I hate do poorly. The New England Patriots going 19-0 would’ve been extremely hard to stomach. But to see them go 18-0 and then choke in the Super Bowl is without a doubt one of the greatest things I’ve witnessed in my lifetime as a sports fan.

(continue reading…)

I’m starting to think I might be cursed. There’s hope this year with the Flyers and especially the Celtics, but it seems that whatever team I cheer for has no shot at winning. And with the exception of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (haha!), every team that I root against does well. Case in point, take a look at the playoff/post-season droughts I’ve had to deal with.

Miami Dolphins – 6 years (last playoff appearance 2001 season)
Miami Hurricanes – 4 years (last BCS bowl appearance 2003 season)
Baltimore Orioles – 10 years (last playoff appearance 1997 season)
Boston Celtics – 2 years (last playoff appearance ‘04/’05 season)
Philadelphia Flyers – 1 year (last playoff appearance ‘05/’06 season)

(continue reading…)

Since I haven’t updated in a couple of years, you’ll probably see some “dated” updates from me to help everyone catch up with what’s been going on in my life and inside my head. Longtime fans, friends or readers surely know that I’m a diehard fan of the Miami Dolphins and Miami Hurricanes football teams. Let’s just say things haven’t been going all that well with either of my teams since I last updated the website!

The Miami Hurricanes just completed their first losing season in forever, finishing 5-7 and just getting flat out humiliated in about three different games this year. I’d often go to UM forums where people would get in heated arguments over who should start at QB, Kirby Freeman or Kyle Wright, and I’d just laugh thinking that trying to choose between these two would be like trying to answer the question, “who would you rather fuck? Janet Reno or Margarette Thatcher?” Basically, when your options or Kirby or Kyle, there is no right answer.

Now onto the Dolphins… The best thing about them being 0-12 and this embarrassingly dreadful is that by week 3 or 4 I stopped getting angry at the games. Getting mad at the Dolphins for sucking would be like getting pissed off at the retarded kid because you got an F on the test you cheated off him on. It just wouldn’t make any sense.

I still cheer for them whenever they’re on because I always stick by my team. I weathered the 0-21 start of the Baltimore Orioles in 1988, kept loyal to the Celtics during the post-Len Bias’ Death, post-Larry Bird, and post-Reggie Lewis’ death years, the UM probation years, etc. It’s just that when you’re 0-12, I often find myself smiling and laughing when things go wrong because it starts to feel a bit comical.