1. My opening thought of the weekend is pretty simple ... if I never have to be in a hospital or emergency room on Easter weekend again, it'll be too soon.
Through a variety of scenarios, four of my last 15 Easter weekends, including this one, featured some sort of unfortunate medical event.
No. 2 - Money in the bank ...
I'll be honest, I don't know that I have a good feeling how all of this year's NFL Draft prospects from Texas will turn out.
Kris Boyd makes me shrug my shoulders. I don't know what in the hell to think about Lil'Jordan Humphrey. Gary Johnson is a guy I'd buy stock in, I think, but that's mostly because I think he has a huge ceiling ... to go along with a huge floor.
The one guy I think you can safely bet a mortgage payment to be a success is Charles Omenihu. While I'm not sure he'll ever be an NFL star, I think we're talking about a guy that starts in the league for half a decade. Barring health issues, he'll be a player that gets a monster second contract.
Any team that selects him this weekend will be better for it.
No. 3 - Just wanted to give this a shout out ...
Chase Moore has an incredible story and it deserves to be heard. Great work by @Anwar Richardson on this one.
No. 4 - Reality bites ...
For a moment, close your eyes and imagine the 2019 Texas Longhorns baseball team without early-season sweep.
Can you see it? That 21-18 team? Can you see it?
There's no questioning what we know is capable of this team, but what this team is capable of is far from its calling card throughout the season. What has mostly been its calling card since the opening series in conference play is that the Longhorns aren't quite good enough. Some days it's the hitting. Some days it's the pitching. This weekend it was both. The rainy clouds created by serious injuries forever linger in a way that might make Charlie Brown blush by comparison.
The season hasn't completely gotten away from this Texas team, not even with a 5-9 record in Big 12 play, but it is getting away from them. I don't have any words of advice, just an understanding of the obvious.
At a school that defines success by the highest possible bar in the entire sport, nothing about this year has been consistently good enough. Natives get restless. The games become less fun.
All they can do is dust themselves off and handle what's in front of them, which is West Virginia at home. We're probably beyond the point of declaring this upcoming weekend as a crossroads game, but this team has two choices ... stop the bleeding or bleed out and die.
That's where we are.
No. 5 - Now Mike White knows...
I'm not suggesting that Texas softball coach Mike White didn't understand the mountain that stands in his way to Big 12 supremacy before this weekend's series against No. 1 Oklahoma.
After all, his teams have seen Oklahoma plenty of times, sometimes while hanging out together at the College World Series in recent seasons.
Yet, if there was any doubt, it was removed over the weekend when the Sooners took a three-game set against White's Longhorns at their own crib. There's a reason why Oklahoma is on its way to its ninth conference title out of the last 10 seasons and it was on full display.
Considering the Longhorns entered the weekend on the cusp of a top 10 ranking, it's clear that White has his program in the beginning of a climb.
There's just a lot of climbing that still needs to be done.
No. 6 – BUY or SELL …
BUY or SELL: The white offense at the spring game is better than the Texas baseball team’s offense?
(Sell) Damn, it was that kind of weekend, huh?
BUY or SELL: Pressure will continue to mount in CS this offseason, similar to their last year in the Big 12, and this season will be marred with blown leads, heartache, and mark the beginning of the end for Jimbo, who will eventually bail on millions just to get out?
(Sell) No matter what happens this season, I think the Aggies are selling a long-term future supported by excellent recruiting, which means I think Fisher is at least a year away from any kind of pressure. His contract is even more of a poison pill than Shaka Smart's and every A&M fans knows it, which means there are extra incentives for wide-spread delusion and denial.
BUY or SELL: The 2019 OL will be an upgrade from 2018 OL?
(Buy) This has more to do with what I think Parker Braun is going to provide this program in 2019 than anything else.
BUY or SELL: The O/U for first OB Meltdown is second quarter of the La Tech game?
(Sell) The official Orangebloods meltdown over/under is the 5 minute mark of the first quarter against LSU. I fully believe Texas is going to destroy La. Tech.
BUY or SELL: The loss (transfer) of Cameron Rising to Utah will turn out to be of little consequence (or of tremendous consequence, whichever way you prefer the question) this coming year, and in the years after this coming year.
(Buy) Full transparency ... I took a moment to think about this one because I do believe the kid has a potential high ceiling as a player. However, I think the math is on my side. He's a completely unproven player and even those covering the Utes are still unsure what to think of him as it relates to his development in the passing game. Perhaps I'll eat these words in 2021, but I think people have completely overhyped his loss to the program.
BUY or SELL: The back-up QB battle becomes one of the most talked about topics by fall?
(Sell) I suppose it comes down to how we define "most talked about," but I don't personally see it. I'm not sure it's much of a battle at the moment.
BUY or SELL: The David Hamilton injury will cost Texas this season and the next?
(Buy) I hate Achilles injuries. Some guys come back like gangbusters in relatively quick time, but it's an injury that takes a lot of guys a long time to recover from and some guys are never quite the same. It's a fair thing to think about.
BUY or SELL: The time from after the spring game to fall camp is the most boring time of year. This is evident by less OB website traffic?
(Buy) By definition, the dead season is more boring (not just on Orangebloods), but I would also say that it has been some of these dead times when some of the most memorable moments in the history of the site have occurred. The beautiful thing about Orangebloods is you just never know when those moments are going to happen, but you can always count on them, kind of like the weather changing in Texas.
BUY or SELL: Eggs Bennedict is the best way to eat eggs?
(Sell) Scramble those suckers, add cheese, maybe mix in some sausage and add a LOT of pepper.
BUY or SELL: Pedro deserves a comped OB account, should make game predictions and basically serve as a quasi mod?
(Buy) We could record his game predictions and add them to @Suchomel's story.
No. 7 – Eternal Randomness of the Spotty Sports Mind …
... There's a part of me that can't believe Kyler Murray is going to be the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft and there's a part of me that absolutely believes it for a myriad of reasons. He's an absolutely fascinating player/prospect. Considering how little faith I have in Kliff Kingsbury as an NFL head coach, this has possible disaster written all over it.
... If Ed Oliver doesn't go in the top five ... well ... let's just say I think it would be stupid of those teams in those positions.
... I haven't really missed LeBron James so far in the NBA playoffs, even if the first round has been a total dud from an excitement standpoint.
... Round two is where the action is going to be. Buckle the hell up.
... Dame Lillard seems thiiiiiiis close to become an actual superstar in the NBA. That dude needs to break the hell out of Portland.
... Major League Baseball needs Christian Yelich somewhere other than Milwaukee.
... Man City and Liverpool are among the best teams in the history of English soccer. It's incredible that one might finish with 98 points and the other with 97 points. It's like watching Sammy Sosa vs. Mark McGwire in the home run chase, but without the steroids.
No. 8 - Game of Thrones... Season Eight, Episode Two (Four more remain)
You guys know the drill.
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Ok, I'm only going to do five major thoughts from Sunday's episode instead of the randomness.
1. There were no deaths. There were no dragons. There was almost zero dead people. Still, this was one of the most enjoyable episodes for a fan that you'll find in the entire series. It was if you took all of the characters to a barber shop, gave them some drank and turned them loose. Knowing that the death toll is going to be enormous next week and that so many scenes from last night's episode seemed rather ominous inside of that context.
2. MVP moment of the episode: Jamie giving Brienne knighthood was a special, tender moment. We actually saw Brienne with a smile on her face, which means she's definitely going to die next week, probably in an effort to save Jamie's life. She will die in his arms letting him know that he's the love of her life, even more than Renly.
3. My on the record for next week:
Dies: Brienne, Grey Worm, Beric, Jorah, Tormund, Lyanna Mormont, Gendry, Eddison, Davos and the Night King.
Lives: Dany, Jon (Aegon), Sansa, Jamie, Arya, The Hound, Tyrion, Podrick, Sam and Gilly
4. Good for Arya. As uncomfortable as it was for viewers that have watched her grow up, her character deserved a moment of happiness, even if was perfect for meme-creators.
5. I don't know how this season ends, but it won't be with Dany sitting on the Iron Throne. This feels a little too much like Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. Her thirst for the crown will be her undoing.
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No. 9 - The List: Top 10 Favorite Baseball/Football Cards of my Youth ...
One of my favorite things about my childhood was collecting and trading sports cards. Basically, from the time I was five through all of my teenage years, I was obsessed with collecting cards.
After giving it some thought this weekend. Here are the cards that were probably the most important to my childhood.
10. 1980 Topps Ricky Henderson rookie
Every single Ricky Henderson card that I ever owned was cool in my eyes, but having this rookie card was everything when I was 10 years old.
9. 1984 Star Charles Barkley Rookie
This was a hard card to get in my youth because these cards cost hundreds of dollars and I just never had that kind of money available, no matter how badly I wanted it for most of my young teenage years. When I did eventually get my hands on it, it was a marker-moment for me as a collector.
8. 1985 Topps Mark McGwire
When I turned 11 in 1987, my mom purchased the entire 1985 Topps set from Austin Baseball Cards off of Peyton Gin (shout out!) as my big gift. It was all about getting that McGwrire.
7. 1986 Donruss Jose Canseco Rookie
Man, there was a time when he was the coolest dude in sports (so it seemed) and this card was a $125 piece of baseball card holy grail.
6. 1985 Topps USFL Herschel Walker Rookie
The moment he signed with the Cowboys, this became a must-own for my 10-year old self. One of my favorite cards of all-time.
5. 1972 Topps Roger Staubach Rookie card
You weren't a serious card collector of the Cowboys in my mind when I was a kid if you didn't have a seriously good conditioned Staubach rookie card. It's probably the biggest Cowboys card on the planet from 1960-1989. Maybe of all-time.
4. 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr.
Every single kid that owned this card in the 90s believed that it would one day be worth a 1952 Mickey Mantle. We never understood the concept of mass produced cards by the hundreds of thousands.
3. 1990 Score Supplmental Emmitt Smith Rookie
In terms of cards from the Dallas Cowboys dynasty from the 90s, this was my everything. I took it out of the box, put it into a protector and left it alone for 20+ years. I wish I had got it graded because it was perfect.
2. 1980 Topps Larry Bird/Magic Johnson rookie card
As fate would have it, I had access to probably a dozen of these when I was a kid and there was a time when they were fetching hundreds of dollars, which created all kinds of opportunities for me in trades when I was 10.
1973 Topps Mike Schmidt Rookie
Easily the single most important card of my life and it's not even close.
No. 10 – And Finally ...
131 days until the season opener against La. Tech.
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