Draft Drama

Was there something big on TV last night? I heard there was a big wedding. Did I watch? Hell no. I only care about Princes and Princesses if they wield magic swords. I did hear that the Princess had a lot of knuckle fat when the Prince slipped the ring on her finger.

No, I'm not kidding. That's what they said on the radio this morning.

Last night I was busy flipping back and forth between the NFL Draft, and the Atlanta Hawks closing out the Orlando Magic in the NBA playoffs. Both were dramatic scenarios.

Yes. I am a D&D nerd who loves video games, fantasy novels, Star Wars, and all things dorky, but I also love sports and I'm not ashamed of any of it.

There is a great story behind the Hawks. A sports writer for the Orlando Sentinel, Mike Bianchi, lambasted the team for their alleged mental weakness, and basically said they would never be able to stand up to the Magic. The Hawks have traditionally struggled against Orlando in the playoffs in recent years. The story is that this writer, who is apparently about 4'10" was in the locker room last night before the game, and a fight nearly broke out.

I don't really care about that. I'm just glad the Hawks were able to motivate themselves to get past their nemesis. Now they're off to Chicago.

The NFL Draft is also interesting. I know most of my friends and readers are women writers, so I'll try not to bore you with all the details. I do think the draft makes for some great stories though. There are so many disparate characters involved, and so many cogs and wheels spinning, and it can be really interesting to see the last minute deals taking place.

This year was quite different because of the labor situation, but it was lots of fun watching NFL commissioner Roger Goodell get nearly booed off the stage.

Here's what happened with my three teams:

The Atlanta Falcons made an aggressive trade up to get Alabama Wide Receiver Julio Jones. I like Jones and think he will be a great player in the NFL, but my personal opinion is that we gave up too much to get him.

The Minnesota Vikings took Florida State Quarter Back Christian Ponder with the twelfth pick. They did not have to make any trades, as last year's dismal record earned us that pick. I get that we need a QB, but I was really hoping that Jake Locker would be there, and am disappointed we couldn't get a player I already knew and loved. I don't know much about Ponder.

The Seattle Seahawks drafted Alabama Guard James Carpenter with the twenty fifth pick. This one has me stumped. No one drafts guards in the first round.

Anyway, here endeth my sports rant. I've got to get to writing (for real). Please have a wonderful weekend!

Bouquinistes

Francois Guillot/AFP/Getty Images

I heard a really interesting story on NPR this morning about the book sellers who ply their wares on the banks of the Seine in Paris. These people are known as bouquinistes, which I guess means booksellers? I don't really know because I don't speak French. Anyway, rather than steal the story and represent it as my own, I will just point you to the article on the NPR website, here. The audio for the produced for radio version of the story will be available around 9 AM EST.

Anyway, the whole thing also reminded me of an awesome group of bloggers I know. The Bookanistas. Well, I don't actually know all of them, but I do know some of them. Here is a list of links to their blogs in case somehow, for some crazy unknown reason, you haven't heard of them:

Katie and Sarah Frances

Elana Johnson

Christine Fonesca

Shannon Messenger

Shelli Johannes-Wells

Scott Tracey

Kirsten Hubbard

Beth Revis

Carolina Valdez Miller

Jamie Harrington

Bethany Wiggins and Suzette Saxton

Myra McEntire
Michelle Hodkin
Lisa and Laura Roecker

So there you go. Enjoy the article, check out the Bookanistas and have a great day! I'm off to work on something for my crit group.

Sometimes it is a Matter of Life and Death

Today I'm going to talk about soccer, or rather futbol. Most of you have probably never heard of Andres Escobar:

But you might remember Carlos Valderrama, or at least his awesome hair:

Both men were members of the Colombian national soccer team in the early 90's that was favored to win the World Cup in 1994. I figure this is an appropriate topic for the times since we our about to move out of the group stage and into the knockout round of this year's FIFA World Cup.

Andres Escobar was a simple family man. A devout Catholic who excelled on the pitch not only in skill but in his composure he was known as El Caballero del Futbol which means the gentleman of football. He was a kind and respectful person who cared deeply about his country and its people.

He was not related to the Colombian Druglord Pablo Escobar but their paths did cross. In the 80's the rise of the popularity of Cocaine for recreational drug use in the United States was so steep that the Colombian producers and traffickers were getting rich, fast. Any criminal organization with that much money is going to have to find a way to launder it. Club Soccer is big business and matches in places like Colombia at the time could deal with millions of dollars: in cash.

To make a long story short Pablo Escobar eventually bought the club team Atlético Nacional of Medellin that Andres played for. Pablo apparently loved soccer and went around the poor communities building fields for the children to learn the sport on. Pablo Escobar actually did many great things for the poor people of his country with the money he earned from the Cocaine Trade but let us not forget that he was a gangster and a ruthless murderer.

With the money that was coming in Colombian Soccer became suddenly relevant in the late 80's. They had the money to keep their best players and to bring in some others from around the world. Colombian Futbol had never stood up to powerhouses like Brazil and Argentina but now all of a sudden they mattered. With these resources Atlético Nacional won the Copa Libertadores in 1989. The Copa is the most prestigious tournament in South American Football, one of the most widely watched sporting events in the world, and essentially equates to the European Cup.

In 1994 the FIFA World Cup took place in the United States. Colombia entered the tournament ranked fourth in the World, heavily favored to make it deep into the tournament. Life back home in Colombia was going crazy. The whole country was in turmoil. Pablo Escobar and many of his empire's soldiers had been murdered by new, even more ruthless gangsters after he had finally stopped murdering politicians in order to change the constitution and eliminate extradition to the U.S. Violence was rampant and the fervor over the national team's chances in the World Cup was at a fever pitch.

Andres was the Captain of the team and the pillar of its defensive back line. They were an excellent side with stars like Midfielder Carlos Valderrama and Striker Faustino Asprilla, but they had just lost their amazingly athletic keeper René Higuita when he was arrested for visiting Pablo Escobar in prison earlier that year. In fact the entire team had visited Pablo and played soccer with him on the prison's field, but only Higuita was caught by the media.

The loss of the star goalkeeper and the violence in Colombia combined with threats from gangsters and gamblers who wagered astronomical amounts of money on the Colombian side's chances in the cup combined to place an insurmountable pressure on the team, its players and especially its captain, Andres. There were death threats coming in and one player even received news that his brother had been murdered. All of the pressure piled up unfairly on the team and caused them to lose their opening match to Romania.

Things got worse and the violence mounted back home. Children were kidnapped, murders continued and more threats were made. Then the unthinkable (in the eyes of futbol fans) occurred. The Colombians lost to the far inferior and lower ranked United States Team when Andres accidentally scored on his own goal by trying to deflect a shot by U.S. Midfielder John Harkes. The team never made it out of the group stage and returned home in shame and terror.

One night soon after Andres went to a club with some friends trying to show himself to the people and atone for his mistake but he was murdered, shot to death in his car by gangster Cocaine Traffickers who had lost large sums of money gambling on the matches. He was only 27 when he died. He had been engaged to be married and was being considered for transfer to AC Milan in Italy, one of the wealthiest and most prestigious club teams in the entire world. His life was cut tragically short.

So sometimes it really is a matter of life and death. Can you imagine being murdered for a mistake you made in a sporting match?

Here are a couple of links:

Andres Escobar on Wikipedia.

Pablo Escobar on Wikipedia.

The Copa Libertadores on Wikipedia.

If you are curious to know more about this sad tale check your local listings for the ESPN 30 for 30 special documentary: The Two Escobars.