First blog ever here guys, so listen with caution: Does the world of sports ever feel so "fixed" as it does now? Maybe, just maybe I am currently in a state of perpetual funk for lack of better words. I have turned to sports for many years to help ease the pain of real life. Well, not that it helps, but sometimes for a few fleeting moments, a team, a game, a play can turn your world inside out. You know what I mean. I know I'm not the only one. Yet for all the hope this brings, there is always an equal and opposite force that erases all that is good and replaces with a dark evil... This is evil in its most primitive of forms..... Evil so wretched I dare type about it..... Of course I am referring to the "X" factor in games, the refs, the umps, the officials. Ed Hoculie (sp?) aside, what is up guys? Let's go ALL the way back to the beginning of (dare I even mention their names) the PATRIOTS first AFC title game a few years ago against the Raiders. The tuck rule? No matter who you were for, Brady fumbled. This one just sticks out like a sore thumb, you know. Many more. Many a couple nights ago behind homeplate in the NLCS. All the Card's pitchers had to do was get the ball to the plate for a called strike. Not that I'm a huge Mets fan, but c'mon. It's the umps, the refs, the officials that ultimately decide these crucial games, not the players. Oh yeah, Super Bowl XL.....I was at work...I was running back and forth catching a few minutes at a time. I was disgusted. In fact I watched NO post-game show, no ESPN, no Fox, nothing. I went straight home from work, and as I was crawling into bed my wife asked "who won the game?" Well... As I proceeded to tell her that Pennsylvania team won, my next statement was, " that had to have been the worst officiated game I have ever watched". Anyway, there is this deep impending doom that has grown within me. The World Series should be a good one, I'm sure Fox wants at least 6 games after last years ratings. Money talks. With NASCAR I'm safe. For now. At least I can watch it and know with some assurity that hey Matt Kenseth has a chance. No whistles, no flags based upon opinion, no way to lose it, unless you lose it yourself. Dale Jarrett has lost it himself...and I respect that. And that's the way it should be. Don't you agree? Anyway, I got that off my chest...well part of it.