South Side View

I took these pics from outside of a friend's house somewhere in the south side.

The Spurs-Lakers Dominance

DeLaredo Sports Columnist: Clark Kent

"The Spurs Lakers Dominance"

The Spurs and the Lakers have combined to win 8 of the last 11 NBA championships. Even a casual observer can easily see that these two NBA franchises have dominated the Larry O’Brien Trophy for the past decade; even more impressive is that these two teams do not show any signs of fading. This year the Spurs have their deepest team to date, even more so than in their championship years. With the main additions of Jefferson, McDyess and Blair “The Beast”, the Spurs are sporting their toughest team to date. This is a group of new additions, to go with a healthy and rested big 3 of Duncan, Parker and Ginobli looks to be a team that even the defending Lakers could have difficulty overcoming in a 7 game series.

The Lakers were not dormant in the off season either. As if the “Black Mamba” Kobe Bryant needed anymore help on the court, the Lakers added Ron Artest a player straight out of the mold of the Detroit Pistons “Bad Boys” era. This Bad boy addition along with the further maturation of their big man Andrew Bynum the Lakers look equally as improved as the Spurs and both look primed to dominate this year yet again.

The Lakers have historically had championship teams as the lure of L.A., movie stars cheering in the stands, along with the rest of the glitz of Hollywood has attracted top NBA players for many years. A trend that will likely continue as the legacy of the Lakers continues to grow. The Spurs on the other hand have had recent success under the coaching of Greg Popovich and the Keen eye for talent of R.C. Bufford, which have combined to catapult the Spurs to the Lakers level as one of the upper echelon franchises in the NBA. Their success does not halt in the NBA; ESPN currently rated the San Antonio Spurs as the best Sports Franchise of all the major sports teams, a franchise known for adding not only talented players, but more importantly character players, much like the “character formula” followed by the New England Patriots in the NFL. The Spurs have used this “character formula” successfully to the tune of 4 world championships to date.

Can anybody from the east compete with these two western forces? The Shaq experiment in Cleveland looks like it will fail and the Magic are a very good team, but not quite championship caliber. The Celtics might be the only team capable of keeping these two western forces from continuing their championship dominance. The main question for the Celtics lies around Kevin Garnet’s knee and if it can hold up through 82 regular season games and through the post season. The rest of the Celtics team seems intact, but they cannot win without a healthy Garnett. So will the Celtics roar back into the championship? Will the Lakers win back to back championships like the Magic Johnson team of the late 1980’s and the three-peat of the Shaq-Kobe era or will the Spurs win their 5^th Championship in 10 years? Or will the sports world be completely shocked by this years champ? Tune in……

South Side Traffic

I was driving home yesterday afternoon and I saw this mess. South Side Traffic sucks. It gets backed up pretty bad on the Zapata "Ay Wuey" (Hwy. 83). Everywhere in town now, traffic is growing. I miss the Laredo of 1990. Sigh.

Miles Austin: The Simple Man

DeLaredo Sports Columnist: Eduardo "Sam Adams" Light

Miles Austin: The Simple Man

The savior is here cheered the adoring crowds, the savior is here! Terrell Owens is a Dallas Cowboy! The missing piece of the Super Bowl puzzle is complete cried the crowds! As the press conference unveiled, next to Jerry Jones sat a man that would make Adonis himself envious, a freaky specimen of a man that would surely take the Boys back to the Promised Land. The season came and as Adonis stood on the sidelines, he sure did look good in his uniform and he sounded smooth and debonair when talking to the quote hungry media. A fan pleaser he surely was, well at least off the field that is. Once the games started, the controversy that followed him around the league was not far behind. Just throw me the ball Adonis would whine, but when they threw him the ball, he would drop it! So many times he dropped the ball that he actually led the entire league in dropped passes. Despite paying millions of dollars for his butter fingers Adonis, Jerry Jones stood behind him until he became so much of a big scene annoyance and distraction that it could no longer be ignored. So off Adonis went to put on a good show for his new popcorn eating mind numbed audience.

Enter Miles Austin, the simple man’s man.

A player that went undrafted in the 2006 NFL draft, from a small unknown to the BCS college of Monmouth. A simple man in the shadows of the Adonis show for 3 years, so much in the shadows that even after the exit stage right from Adonis, Austin was still only the #3 wide receiver on the team, in other words he was still riding the bench. It was not until an injury to the supposed Adonis replacement of Roy Williams and the disappointing performance from Crayton that Austin finally got his opportunity to shine and man did he ever shine! In his first opportunity in Kansas City he absolutely torched the KC defense for 250 yards and 2 touchdowns (including the game winning TD). Austin immediately broke the single game Cowboys record for receiving yards. He broke Bob Hayes old record of 246 yards set in 1966 against the Washington Redskins. “One game fluke” people screamed, “One game fluke!” Austin immediately shut up his vicious critics when he annihilated the Falcons defense the very following game for 171 yards and 2 touchdowns. Beyond these crazy stats he is putting up, is the manner in which he is doing it in. He is showing steady hands, playing extremely physical after catching the ball and showing blinding speed. In other words catch him if you can defense and if you happen to be fortunate enough to catch him, good luck tackling the man. Additionally, Austin is a team player; he paid his dues to climb up to the starting position and has a likable personality in a team that has looked harmonious for the first time in many years. The team is looking so in tune that Tony Romo and Miles Austin are clicking on and off the field like Romo and Adonis never did, leading me to say Terrell who?

Laredo Jack-o-lantern

It seems as if Laredo is ready for the Halloween season. This one house that you see above has kept it simple but effective. The pumpkins are out and all sort of delicious treats are being prepared to be served this weekend as one of the best days of the year approaches. No fancy-smanchy ghosts and goblins are necessary to truly have fun this Halloween. Just remember kiddos, to check your candy and don't bite into an apple that has those pesky razors twinkling up your mouth. There will be plenty of trick-or-treating. I especially love the Nvo. Laredo crowd that crosses yearly to ask for candy. Gotta love this town.

The Asylum Haunted House

As most of you have seen, there is a haunted house over at the old Circuit City at Mall del Norte. The place has been getting rave reviews from everyone I've spoken with. I'll be there this weekend for sure. Here is a short video from CineDeLaredo that showcases the place. BTW, no I'm not on CineDeLaredo's payroll (jaja). For some reason, I've just been highlighting a lot of their work.

A-Rod: The Stud and the Dud

DeLaredo is pleased to announce the arrival of our very own sports columnist, Eddie Light. You can look forward to reading his weekly sports columns where he will share his take on the sports world as seen through his espn-ish eyes. His very first entry can be read below.

A-Rod: The Stud and the Dud

It is easy for the casual observer to see what outstanding accomplishments A-Rod has attained on the baseball field. The youngest player in baseball history to reach the 500 homeruns, 12 time All-Star, 3 time MVP, 2 time Gold Glove winner and is widely considered the best all around player in the Majors. Despite all of these accomplishments A Rod has had his struggles. Mainly mental struggles that have caused him to seek professional therapy, added to his marriage problems that ended up causing him to divorce his wife and mother of his 2 children.

Although most notably for the sports fan is his psychological struggles that have been the most prevalent, especially in the MLB post season. A Rod the stud, in years past, would quickly turn into the dud once the playoffs came around, but not this postseason. A Rod has been crushing the ball as well as his critics. In a mere 9 post season games he has 5 home runs, 12 RBI’s, Has scored 10 runs, 2 Doubles and batting for a whopping .438 batting average. It appears that A Rod has finally overcome his postseason demons and appears to be “Jordanesque” at the plate and on the field, in other words the man is unstoppable.

The post season sleeping giant has awoken and found himself in his first World Series of his career. Having conquered his October Blues, nothing seems to be able prevent this once in a generation super star from breaking the all time home run record, being in the MLB hall of fame and winning his elusive World Series championship. History will look back upon this phenomenal athlete as the greatest baseball player to ever play the game and nothing, not even the insignificant steroid scandal, will tarnish his legacy. So tune this World Series, so you can mesmerize your grand children with stories of watching the great Alex Rodriguez play baseball.

By Eduardo Light

(Editor's note: I'm full aware that A-rod is a Yankee now, but there is no way I would ever put up on my blog, anyone wearing a Yankee uniform. Go Rangers!)

Random Laredenses pt. 4

Pretty faces around Laredo. Look at the guy in the background, "Hey, you talking to me?" In any case, looks like everyone in town is having more fun than I am. Nimodo.com

CineDeLaredo.com video shoot

Ok, I am now officially, profesionally jealous. These guys have some neat toys and equipment. I'm still stuck with my polaroid circa 1981. Damn.

Laredo Bridge 1950s

The 1950's, I'm sure, were a simpler time. Laredo was just a cozy city on the Tex-Mex border. People wouldn't lock their doors at night and vehicles wouldn't get stolen from the parking lot at Chilis. The above picture tells me so. No traffic at the bridge. You can come and go with ease. Try doing that today. Two hour bridge-line waits are common. Oh, to be in the 50's.

Feel the Magic

This is the same exact face and feeling my siblings and I would have each time we were dragged to visit our "abuelita". A feeling of absolute dread and boredom would engulf us. Sunday morning and abuelita visits were synonymous with each other. Now that I'm older, I have a different view on life. At least now I don't kick and scream each time I go visit my grandmother. Yeay for me.