Can I Get an Encore...

Do you want more?

No, because Graduation is on the horizon. And for the next month I will be listening to Kanye West's third album, Graduation and waking up to this every morning.




Its a good song, I must say. But I feel honored to have had BorderBeat as one of my final classes as an undergrad at the University of Arizona. Jay Rochlin was a great teacher and he allowed us to have a lot of freedom while making sure that he guided us in the right direction and I appreciate that.

I don't neccesarily consider BorderBeat a class, but actually a job. We were a real newsroom with editors, reporters, producers, and the whole nine yards. Chris Veck and Lisa Burris did a great job making sure that we were all in order.

Obviously our trip to St. Andrew's was great and a great experience for all of us. I'd also like to thank John DeDios for all his help along with Kevin Scannell whom I did all of my group projects with.

Also thank you to multicultural fraternity Omega Delta Phi for allowing me to be their personal biographer for a couple of days.

All in all, thank you to the University of Arizona for helping to make me the man that I am today. And dear God, please beat ASU!!!

My visit to St. Andrew's

It took me a while to figure out what exactly I wanted to blog about our classes recent trip to St. Andrew's Clinic in Nogales, AZ. I wanted to relate the post directly to sports but I did not get any stories on any of the patients playing a sport that they love.

So this week I was contemplating my actions for this blog and thought about simply, "why not them." A lot of the patients that graced the sanctuary and halls of St. Andrews have disabilities that range from them not being able to walk with ease or even have a decent conversations.

A lot of times, people put others with disabilities off as a lost cause instead of seeing them as an equal. This reminds me of an episode of Family Guy which has its very offensive moments on the show such as this one.



To think that people even think like this should not come as a surprise to anyone, after all Family Guy only says out loud what most people are thinking anyway. But no one should be treated like this.

People who have disabilities in most cases can overcome those odds to do whatever they want to, including sports. I stumbled across this great article that shares some of the best athletes who had to overcome a disability.

The give their list of the top seven athletes with disabilities and it goes to show that anything is possible. I met young..., seven years old, who recently had surgery on his cleft palate and is learning to say words in Spanish that have a "T" sound with it.

He still has the ability to run, catch, throw like the best of them. We'll have to see what happens.

Here's to the future and to not forget to Believe...

America's Sports Step Child

Beyond Football, Basketball, Baseball and Hockey there are other sports that grace America's heartland.

Nascar is big and one of the biggest races of the year happened this past weekend in Phoenix. Golf is only interesting when Tiger Woods is in a Tournament but when he is, all eyes on him.

Other smaller sports like Tennis for instance will be watched by your average sports fan but only at certain times of the year. But perhaps the most interesting thing about American sports is that the most popular sport outside of the U.S., has no reign on American soil.

Futbol, or Soccer as we like to call it here in American plays fifth fiddle to all of the other major sports. The rest of the world adores the sport, treat the players like royalty and if they lose, spite them for ever living in the first place.

But here in America, Soccer has no such place in the hierarchy of athletic excellence. The MLS, or Major League Soccer, has tried it's absolute hardest to bring the culture of futbol to the states and so far has only made a little splash.

I bring this blog up because MLS is currently in the playoffs and its coming down to the wire but still if you ask the avid ESPN watcher, such as myself, who is in the playoffs then you would get the answer of "D.C. United" or "L.A. Galaxy" because those are the only teams that anyone really knows about.

Like Hockey, Soccer is the only sport that can bring people from other countries into the states like clockwork. Perhaps what may get Americans excited about soccer is if some of the big names would come and showcase thier talents. Not going to happen.

David Beckam tried to make some noise but the attention around the situation only lasted about 15 minutes.

Juan Pablo Angel is a great player for the New York Red Bulls and the Columbian born player is one of the many stars of the league. He was also the MVP of the 2007 MLS all star game.

Another player is Jaime Moreno, a Bolivian born player playing for those famous D.C. United. He has scored a total of 112 goals for the United in 10 years of service.

But these names are not enough to take our attention away from the Lebron James of the world, or the Kobe Bryant's. What would you do if you were GM?

An Interesting Fact about Lute Olson's Wildcats...

Ok, so the inevitable has happened in Tucson. The Silver Fox, The God of Tucson, The immovable hair, whatever you want to call him but Lute Olson has retired from coaching the Arizona Wildcats.

The track record is there, he is in fact one of the greatest coaches to ever coach the game of Basketball. He finished with a record of 781-280...19 games short of reaching the pennicle of 800 wins.

One national championship, four NCAA Final Four appearances, 11 Pac-10 Championships, and has had a ton of players play at the next level in the NBA.

Some of the players include...

Mike Bibby
Steve Kerr
Damon Stoudamire
Salim Stoudamire
Gilbert "Agent Zero" Arenas
Jason Terry
Richard Jefferson
Luke Walton
Miles Simon
Jerryd Bayless

Those are indeed some of the great names. But a point of question came to my mind when thinking about all of the great players who have graced the Arizona name on the front of a basketball jersey under Lute Olson.

How many players has Olson had of a Latino decent? In doing my background checks and research I only found two, and one of them was a walk-on.

Jesus Verdejo was a freshman playing for Olson in 2004 when he elected to transfer to the University of South Florida to get more playing time. Verdejo was Puerto Rican and even prides himself on being a Gold Gloves winner in his native country.

The other player, walk-on Phil Torres (who I even played Intramural basketball with, the guy can shoot). Phil was a nice guy but rarely saw the floor in his walk on capacity.

Could that really be it? But then again how many Latino players have graced the hardwood in America. Brook and Robin Lopez were standouts with Stanford last year and should see some success in the NBA and I have already talked about players such as Eduardo Najera in one of my blogs.

At the end of the day, did Lute Olson fail to make his team diverse or did he fall into the trap of trying to win no matter what? If he did, it worked. Here's a tribute to Lute Olson's career.

Hall of Fame

It's a good time to be a University of Arizona sports fan right now. The football team that has givin it's fans years of dissappointment and sadness is currently 5-2 and tied for first place in the Pac-10 Conference.

S0me new faces have emerged from the team and the 5-2 record is the best start that Arizona has had since the 2000 season. It all leads up to this week and Arizona's homecoming week.

The Wildcats will take on the No. 5 USC Trojans in a battle for first place in the conference. Arizona has won its last three previous homecoming games, all coming against top 10 nationally ranked teams.

While football continues to make some buzz around Tucson, the start of the pride and joy of Arizona is upon us. Arizona Basketball.

Official practices started this past Friday and the first exhibition game will take place on...

Another important part of Homecoming week is the induction of the latest class into the Arizona Hall of Fame. Great names will be a part of the 2008 class including swimming superstar Amanda Beard and Wildcat basketball great Jason Gardner.

But one thing that Arizona does well is recognize team acheivments. Along with the great names, the 2008 Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving teams will be recognized as well.

Both of the men's and women's teams won the National Championship earlier in 2008 and one thing about many swimming teams in this nation is the diversity that comes along with the make up of the team.

The Men were led by swimmers such as Jean Basson who is from Johannesburg, South Africa and Nicolas Nilo who is from Bello Horizante, Brasil. For the women, swimmer Leone Vorster from Pietersburg, South Africa help made the team a champion.

Record Breaker...

This season when you think Kansas City Chiefs, you probably think "bad football team". Ok, so I'm from Denver and I had to throw that one in there.

But the Chiefs are a dismal 1-4 and on Sunday had one of their worst loses in franchise history, loosing to the Carolina Panthers 34-0. However, not everything was a loss for the Chiefs on Sunday.

Tight End Tony Gonzalez passed another milestone. Gonzalez now has 10,075 career receiving yards which is the most ever by a tight end in the NFL.

The Mexican-American, Huntington Beach, Calif. bread player already owns the record for receptions by a tight end (841) and career touchdowns by a tight end (68). All this and passing the great Denver Bronco, Shannon Sharpe.

Check out this video of him inviting everyone over for Thanksgiving dinner, even my Broncos.



All of this could not have happened to a better person. Gonzalez is considered one of the players with great character in the league and this summer even saved someones life.

In July of this year while eating at a restaurant in his hometown of Huntington Beach a man at the next table began to choke. Gonzalez waisted no time and administered the Heimlich Maneuver and saved the man's life.

Turns out that the man was a San Diego Chargers fan.

Breaking the Nationality Barrier in Sports

It is well documented that Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Baseball as he helped transcend the Brooklyn Dodgers and Major League Baseball as a whole. As a result of his bravery, his number is now retired nation wide for all teams in the majors. 

But not only was Robinson the first, he was also a very good baseball player. It took a bit longer for Latinos to make a major impact in American sports but effect has been felt in many sports. 

Perhaps considered the Jackie Robinson for latinos, Roberto Clemente put latinos on the map in baseball forever. Clemente is Puerto Rican, which is one of the most represented state in the major leagues today. He is also considered one of the greatest baseball players to ever live as he finished with a .317 batting average, is a part of the 3000 hit club and the 1,000 RBI club as well. 

This is a tribute on Clemente below. 

Baseball is the most notable of sports where Latinos have made an impact but not the only. In basketball, it is difficult to find a player from south of the American border who has helped make an impact on the sport. However Eduardo Najera has been a staple in the league for a number of years now. 

The Mexican-American attended the University of Oklahoma for college and then was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks in 2000. Najera is not a superstar, but he is well respected around the league for his hard work and defensive tenacity. 

Najera is only the second Mexican-born player to play in the NBA. 

In an even lesser known about sport, Hockey has only produced one latino player in it's history. Scott Gomez, now of the New York Rangers is the first Latino to ever play the game on ice and was the first to be drafted back in 1998. 

Gomez has already seen success. In 2000, Gomez and the New Jersey Devils won the Stanley Cup in only his rookie year. In the same year, Gomez won the award for Rookie of the Year. 

It is players like these that help those in the future who have a dream of doing anything they want. It always takes one, and then the rest will follow.