Thank You Baseball! Next Up: NFL, NBA, NHL and College Football

Thank you baseball for a great World Series.  The NL Wild Card San Francisco Giants won another trophy, defeating the other wild card Kansas City Royals, 4 games to 3.  Game 7 wasn't decided until the final out, as the Royals had the tying run on third base.  It was a great ending for an exciting series, even if your team didn't win.
Now, can the second halves of the NFL and college football seasons, and the start of the NBA and NHL, keep up this level of excitement and entertainment?
So far, so good.
Despite the league's off-field issues, the NFL's on the field popularity stays strong and growing, especially internationally.  For the first time, the league plays 3 games in London, with 3 more planned for next season, as the talk of a permanent London franchise grows.
Lot's of great stories in the NFL this season.  Peyton, Brady, Rodgers, Brees are all still at the top of their games.  Do all 4 QB's make it to the HOF?  When was the last time we could see 4 possible HOF'ers play every weekend?  While the team with the best record plays in Arizona, with a 34yr old QB playing for his third team.
College Football...3 SEC teams in the Top-5...but we get the first ever playoff this year...this will be great and huge...nuff said...
NBA...LeBron is back in Cleveland, D-Rose is playing again in Chicago, Coach Pop is still orchestrating in San Antonio, while the Kobe led Lakers and injury riddled OKC Thunder, are off to a combined 1-10 start...
It's early but...the best teams are in Toronto and Oakland.  The Raptors and Warriors are a combined 10-1.
NHL...Sid the Kid leads the league in points from Pittsburgh, while Ryan Miller now plays in Vancouver and leads the league in wins...Kane and Toews still skate in Chicago, where fans want another Stanley Cup parade...
When it comes to excitement and entertainment...we got it.

Need great tickets to see some of the action live?...Just go  Fricket it! http://fricket.com/

It's a Wild Card World Series

For the second time in MLB World Series history, we have two Wild Card teams facing off for the Commissioner's Trophy.  The Kansas City Royals had to defeat the Oakland A's,  LA Angels and the Baltimore Orioles to get here, while the San Francisco Giants had to get through the Pittsburgh Pirates, Washington Nationals, and the St. Louis Cardinals.  Arguably, it was some of the most exciting post-season baseball we've seen in quite a while.
Both teams match-up well, as both squads play good fundamental baseball.  Both have good starting pitching, tough bullpens, and play solid defense.  The key to success in any postseason has always been clutch hitting, shutdown bullpens, and playing error-free defense, by not allowing any extra at-bats.  The team which does these best, will take home the trophy.
This is KC"s first trip to the World Series since they won it all back in 1985. The Giants have been here more recently, having won the title back in 2012 and 2010.  These two teams had to fight just to get here, and I don't anticipate anything else at this point.  Look for a tight series, as this one could go either way.
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September Means It's a Hot Time for Sports and Concerts

It's the middle of September and while parts of the country are starting to get some cooler weather, the sports and indoor concert seasons are just heating-up...
The MLB regular season wraps up in about 10 days,  and only 3 teams have clinched a playoff berth.  There are 9 teams still with a shot at one of the 7 remaining spots. 
The NFL (with all of its off-the-field issues) has completed Week 2 and who would've predicted the Bills, Bengals, Texans, Broncos, Eagles, Panthers, and Cardinals all would start  2-0, and not to mention all the come from behind wins? (Da-Bears come from 17pts down to win on the road in San Francisco, after losing to the Bills at home the week before??)
You also have the college football season, with Florida State, Alabama, Oregon, Oklahoma holding down the top 4 spots, but what about the Big 10?  Michigan State, Penn State, Nebraska or can Ohio State overcome losing their starting QB?
Are you a hockey fan? The NHL regular season gets going October 8.
How about some NBA you say?  They start playing for real October 28.
You want live music?  How does Jason Aldean with Florida Georgia Line, Garth Brooks, One Direction, Cher, The Eagles, Enrique Iglesias with Pitbull, The Zac Brown Band, Maroon 5, Bryan Adams, James Taylor and Bob Dylan (and more) sound?
Don't miss any of the action, just go Fricket it!  http://fricket.com/

Fantasy Football Dollars Are Real

Have you been fantasizing about football recently?  With just 3 weeks to go before the start of the NFL's regular season,  over 23 million players have once again become their own NFL owners and GMs, and have been drafting, or preparing to draft, their own fantasy football teams.  According to Forbes, these fantasy players will spend over $11B on their teams.  Those dollars are no dream; those fantasy football dollars are real, especially in comparison to NFL's revenue of around $10B.  Fantasy is big business.
I've never tried fantasy football.  I like following the statistics, trades, injuries, etc.. of the teams, but really just care how my team does on Sunday (or, nowadays, it might be Thursday, Saturday, or Monday Night.)  I think if I played in a fantasy football league, I would spend well over the 2-3 hours a week, which the average player spends on their teams.
I also don't think I could handle the internal conflict of interest, if a player on my fantasy team, was playing against my favorite team.
For all those who will be playing fantasy football this season, I wish you the best of luck these next few weeks.  May all you're scouting reports be accurate, all your players go injury free,  and all the ball bounces go in your favor....unless you need my favorite team's players to under perform.  In that case, may the better team win!

Need tickets to all the NFL games this year?  Just Fricket it! http://fricket.com/

Top Artists Hitting the Road Together = Fans Winning!

If you're a fan of live music, and, really, who isn't, you probably noticed the recent trend of top artists hitting the road together and creating concert tours, which appeal to often similar, but different, groups of fans.  I attended a concert a few months ago, featuring Paul Simon and Sting, or was it, Sting and Paul Simon?  It was a fantastic concert.  Definitely an older crowd, the likely average age was 40+, but I would guess the majority of fans didn't know the lyrics to every song played that night.  Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z also had a very popular tour together too, and each complemented the other with their music style, while establishing their own brand.

I would think economics is a big part of this trend.  With revenue from album sales becoming harder to come by, touring can still be a lucrative way for artists to make up the difference.  If top artists can share some of the expenses of touring with other complimentary artists, then this should leave more profit for everyone.  While music fans benefit too, as they can see two great artists for the price of one concert ticket!  Fans get their biggest "bang for the buck" at some of this summer's music festivals, where over a weekend, fans can see dozens of their favorite, and other up-and-coming, artists.

Here are just a few examples of current, or upcoming North American concert tours, featuring at least two artists sharing top-billing, but either could easily have been the headliner at some point:
 
Styx and Foreigner
Lionel Richie and Cee Lo Green
Kiss and Def Leppard
Eminem and Rihanna
Enrique Iglesias and Pitbull
Beyonce and Jay-Z
Cher and Cyndi Lauper
The Steve Miller Band and Journey
Rascal Flatts and Cheryl Crow
Rod Stewart and Santana

Want tickets to GO see all of your favorite artists this summer?  Just Fricket it!  http://fricket.com/
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Still Learning Something New Every Day!

Just a quick break from our usual posting topics....We just moved the Fricket blog to Blogger.  First time for me doing this solo, and it "only" took me most of my free time today to do it.  I'm still a "learning some basic IT- type of guy", so I took this as a challenge. 

Extracting from the old blog host and importing to the new, was a breeze.  Even the converting from Wordpress to Blogger was easy using the free tool.  My biggest hurdle was linking the "Blog" button on http://fricket.com/ to our new blog host at Blogger.  I kept getting sent to Google's home search page.  I spent a good amount of time looking through the support database, and didn't really find a match.  I finally posted the question on the Google Product Forum for Blogger issues, and someone replied with some very helpful information (Thank you Mishka Blogger!)

We now have the blog button correctly linked to our Blogger blog.  In the end, the answer was really a compilation of all the above, and more.  One last Google search for the answer, led me to another posting from a user, this time this user had discovered the answer to a similar question seemingly accidentally - it was working, but not sure why!  I understand how they feel, but I still feel like I
learned something new today!

Need tickets to all the great concerts, games, shows and music fests?  Just Fricket it! http://fricket.com/

Hate Will Never Win - This Is Our Team

Even if you only remotely follow the NBA,  and the current playoff results, you would be hard pressed to have missed the recent news story regarding comments made by Donald Sterling, the owner of the NBA Los Angeles Clippers.  His comments reflect a gone by era, however, his comments also reflect an idea that has been ignored by NBA management, until now.  This left Clippers' fans with a dilemma; do we root for the same team we've supported for all these years, or do we root against the owner with the stupid ideas?  As several Clippers' fans displayed tonight - "Hate Will Never Win" and  "This is Our Team" - and not some dinosaur's.

The Clippers won at home tonight, 113-103, vs, the Golden State Warriors, to take a 3-2 series lead in the 1st Round of the NBA Playoffs.  There were rumors that the Warriors would have forfeited this game, if the NBA didn't take a hard enough stand against Mr. Sterling.  His lifetime ban, announced by new NBA Commissioner Adam Silver earlier in the day, apparently was enough for the game to be played.

Don't miss any of the great NBA Playoff action.  Support your team and their players, because "hate will never win" and " this is our team."  Want tickets to see your favorite team in the NBA Playoffs?  Just Fricket it!.... http://fricket.com/