Hateful things

There aren't a whole lot of things in life I hate. Liver's right up there. It's all in how you prepare it, some say? Hogwash. I don't care how you cook it -- I hate it. Same with sushi. Keep that nasty raw stuff away from me.

People that barge into conversations get my dander up. Mouthy bartenders, especially the female variety, are notorious for such crude behavior. I've told more than one -- "What make you think whatever it is you have to say is more important than what my friend and I were talking about? It's rude and classless." That usually backs them up a step, at least for a little while.

There are a few others, I suppose. But in the world of sports, I can boil my intense dislike down to three teams.

The Notre Dame ladies basketball program.

This is not so much against the players as the head coach and the school.

To me, Muffet McGraw is like nails scraping a chalkboard. See MM in her perfectly coiffed hairdo. Lots of goop? Are you kidding? A tornado wouldn't mess that up.  See MM in her painted on tight skirt. It's so tight she can only take one inch steps. Throw in the 6-inch hooker heels and it's a wonder she can walk at all.

The difference between McGraw and UConn head coach Geno Auriemma, her long time nemesis? Geno's got class. When his team loses to McGraw, he's gracious and a gentleman. Win or lose, McGraw is catty and pompous.

Throw in those stupid leprechauns that follow Notre Dame around everywhere, and yep, I hate em.

Besides, the real Notre Dame is a cathedral in Paris. Last time I looked that was still in France. So where do they get off calling themselves the Fighting Irish? Can't they even get their countries right?

And now they've made the Finals of the NCAA hoops tournament. Again. I almost threw up when they won last year. So go Baylor. My motto is -- ABND. Anybody But Notre Dame.

The Dallas Cowboys.

Speaking of pompous and arrogant, how did those clowns ever figure themselves to be "America's team"?  Good grief, outside of the Dallas area -- 90% of the rest of the country hates them, just like I do.

Owner Jerry Jones continually comes off as the epitome of a snake oil salesman. Would you trust that guy to handle your finances? Not me. The more they lose, the better I like it.

Michigan State basketball -- particularly Tom Izzo.

The pundits keep telling us what a great basketball coach Tom Izzo is. Look at all the Final Fours he's been to. To which I say -- so what? The only things more over-rated than making the Final Four are political correctness and the Kardashians, both of which I have no use for either. They belong in the same category as the above-mentioned liver and that slimy eely crap.

Only in college hoops (and to a lesser extent, college hockey -- the Frozen Four), is making the semi-finals such a big deal. Thing is, three of them are going to lose, and nobody's going to remember them. It's nothing but a major marketing farce -- quite successful I might add -- that's been foisted on the gullible masses. Name any other sport -- tennis, football, baseball, etc, and they don't sound the trumpets and start throwing the rose petals for just getting to the semi-finals.

Izzo's won a grand total of one championship -- that almost twenty years ago. If coming in second, third, or fourth was such a big deal, consider Jack Nicklaus. He won 18 golf majors. If you throw in how many times he finished in the Top Four, that number probably goes up to fifty. Nobody cares about that, nor should they. So why should Izzo be heralded as such a hoops wizard when he's only cut down the nets once in his entire long coaching career? He's been pretty good, maybe even excellent. But no more than that.

So it gave yours truly great satisfaction to witness Texas Tech knock off his Spartans in this year's semis. Chalk up another Final Four appearance, but also chalk up another close but no cigar. Just another footnote for the stat geeks and Spartan groupies to ramble on about -- that meant nothing in the bigger picture. They got drilled by the Red Raiders. Period. What else matters?

One more thing. I hate liars. So you can imagine how I feel about a certain"chief executive"..........