diehardGood Morning readers and fans of this fine blog. I am sure by now you have woken up and gotten ready for work, grabbed that first cup of coffee and sat down in front of the computer ready to start your day. You decided to check out Quality Start because you need to know all of the happenings of last night’s sporting events given with some “expert” analysis by a true sports fan like yourself. But alas you found this instead. Normally, I wait up and watch the end of the games and try to get you, the reader, a little taste of the pageantry that is professional and college sports but last night I got derailed. Die Hard was on. Now, I have seen Die Hard 8000 times give or take a 1000 but that never stops me from watching again. Die Hard is not my favorite movie of all time (that would be Goodfellas) but it is one of the more enjoyable ones.

Officer John McClane is a trusted friend. I know his quirks. I know his bad jokes. I know his love/hate relationship with his wife. I know that he will always do what is right, even with a bad hangover. I always root for Officer John McClane of the NYPD (or LAPD in Die Hard 2). When it comes down to my love for the trilogy, John McClane makes it real for me. But I love Die Hard itself, because of Alan Rickman’s portrayal of Hans Gruber. Gruber is one of those complex criminals I never hated. I completely understood why he was robbing the Nakatomi Corporation. He was screwed around by an oppressive government, took the training they gave him and then went out and became a super criminal. I am captivated how he was one step ahead of the cops, FBI and even his own men. But Gruber’s downfall in Die Hard, besides McClain McClane , was his massive Ego. His overconfidence did him in. He always felt that he was going to prevail and let McClain McClane run loose. He even wound up with McClain McClane and never did his best to take him out, until, of course, he got outsmarted by McClain McClane and tried to shoot him with the gun with the empty clip. He never listened to Karl, who wanted to go after McClain McClane but Hans was too worried about making sure the robbery went off smoothly that he preached patience until it was too late.

hans1Gruber’s ego even hurt him in the robbery. He was too quick to kill Takagi when asking for the safe code. I would have shot him in an appendage first with the hopes he would talk. I mean Theo was a competent safe cracker but it was a waste of time and resources. He was even arrogant about his team. He trusted Karl but he should never had Karl’s brother on the team. Once he died, Karl’s mind was off the goal. You can never have nepotism as part of a solid, well run organization. Gruber should know this. He read Forbes. He buys his suits at the same place Arafat did. Overall, I respect Hans Gruber but he was too flawed a criminal for such a smart man. His inability to streamline and manage a smart robbery does not make him go down in history as the “exceptional thief’ he claimed to be. But if he did make off with the loot, Die Hard would have sucked as a movie.

Here are last night’s scores:

Pistons 96 Cavaliers 89 – Clearly AI> LeBron but seriously Rasheed Wallace pwned this fucking game with a 21pt 15 rebound effort. The Great Cavs ain’t winning shit without an inside presence. I read that in TIm Duncan’s Guide to Power Forwarding and Winning Championships.

Raptors 101 Heat 95 – Knicks 2010 Plans B and C met up in this mid level Eastern Conference match up. Plan B (Chris Bosh) only had 15 and 11while Plan C (Dwayne Wade) had 40 pts and 11 assists. I love D Wade but I think you will get more mileage out of Bosh with that 2010 contract. Not that it matters since that money will be spent elsewhere.

Bruins 7 Sabers 4 – Phil Kessel had a goal and an assist in this game for Boston. I just finished reading his profile in last week’s Sports Illustrated. Great story. Another Boston athlete survives cancer. But will he survive cancer the way Jon Lester has? We shall learn.

Canucks 6 Rangers 3 – There was a time in my life where a Ranger loss was truly a great event. Now it just makes me chuckle and move on. Since of course, the Islanders blow and will most likely be moving to Toronto in 3 years.

Ball State 31 Central Michigan 24 - Ball State keeps their miniscule BCS hopes alive by staying undefeated. They still have to contend with Utah and Boise State, both of whom play in better conferences, for what is essentially one spot. Which is sort of lame since who the hell wants to see an 11-2 Ohio State team get blown out by 30 in the Fiesta Bowl? Not me. Maybe a few of the mid-major conferences can show up and do some damage. It has happened before. And I am not refereing to Hawaii’s gayness last year.

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