Spring is just around the corner...

at least in Houston. Cool mornings to be followed by warm and sunny (for a day or two) days. And after that.. we will start to complain about the heat and the humidity - typical Houston dog days of summer.

Of course, with NO hockey it will be a slow broil until...the 'meat market' in Toronto where the fresh faced hockey crazed youngsters will be put through their paces, scrubbed clean and put on the 'auction' block for the highest bidder which their agents can snag. Some of them will be shipped down to the juniors for seasoning as were Scandella and others the Wild drafted last year.

And speculation will be rife among hockey fans of NHL and affiliate teams. AND that is a good thing...keeps 'em hooked on hockey and the hope for any CUP wins growing again.

And here is soemthing I just stumbled on a few moments ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bua4rNeNL04

Of course, there won't be any contracts such the recent one executed by the Minnesota Twins with their handsome "STAR" player Joe Mauer (8.1 wins), eight years at 184 Million Dollars (in other words...he earns about 2.9 Million per win - LOL), an amount so huge that it could've bought a whole team of 9 top players! And that does not even include any $$$$$ he will rake in with endorsements.

No wonder he is all smiles at the press conference, as will be his agent.

And in the Soccer world, Austrian Energy Drink maker RED BULL invests 220 Million (without taking out any loans!) building the RED BULL ARENA in Harrisburg, NJ, about 10 Miles and short train ride from Manhattan, now the home of the NEW YORK RED BULLS, a struggling team, also bought by the Red Bull Company. Red Bull, since its emergence onto the world market in the late 1980's has become known for its support/and affiliation of and with

extreme (Delicious morsel, that - for alligators ) sports :-D

of daring and speed (i.e. snowboarding, car racing).

NOW wouldn't THAT be a match: HOCKEY and RED BULL?

Hockey is a sport, with speed, with daring do, with wiry athletes, so obsessed by it, they play through pain, concussions, sprained or worse ankles, etc.

SOMEONE ought to talk to the RED BULL people in the USA to get them come out on the side of HOCKEY :-)!!

Before the Houston Dynamo snag any $ going!

Just some hopeful ramblings of a fan ;-)!