Spring Training in Less than a Month!

Posted By Blackfive

It's snowing here today...but there's hope.  Baseball starts soon.
"This is our year!" - Blackfive, Cubs Fan, said every year since 1974

"Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those of heavy hearts. Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his poverty no more." - Proverbs 31:4-7

"See, there must have been Cubs fans back then." - Blackfive, 2006

---

Good going, Texans!

Posted By Blackfive

At the Houston Texans game, a plot was revealed...

Marine Scott Wood died four weeks ago after suffering injuries during combat in Iraq. Before his burial, his wife dressed him in two uniforms. On the outside, Scott wore his military dress blues. Underneath, he wore the blue No. 80 jersey of Houston Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson.

Sara Wood had been married to Scott for eight years. They have a five-year-old son together named Landon. Now he and Sara live in a single room in her parent's house.
<...>
When Sara got an offer to go watch the Houston Texans play the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, she jumped at the opportunity. She knew her husband would have loved to go the Reliant Stadium to watch his beloved team play. Plus, she and Landon had never been to a game before.

As described in a column by Tully Corcoran on FSHouston.com, the team brought Sara to the game under the pretense that she and her son would be part of a halftime ceremony in which Landon would receive a bike and Scott's memory would be celebrated by the 71,500 in attendance. Both those things happened, but a much bigger surprise awaited...

Go check out what awaited Scott Wood's family.  Nice going, Texas!

---

It's Not Just A Game - Army vs. Navy Showtime Special

Posted By Blackfive

Showtime shows us that playing for a military academy (not to mention in a time of war) is not like playing for any other team...The Army-Navy Game is this Saturday...

---

Blackfive Joins the Fight in the Stache Bash! Please Donate!

Posted By Blackfive

From Stachebash.org:

From now until the MMA fight on 10 December 2011, we’re asking every MMA fighter, celebrity, or organization that wants to make a fundamental difference in the lives of our men and women serving abroad to “Mustache Up” and sign up for a team. Your team can be as many or as few people as you want. We’ll post anything you want about yourself and your team. We’ll link your page, your sponsors, anything. What we ask of you is that you get the word out and ask your fans and friends to donate to your team via this website.

Our dream is that on 10 December when Jon Bones Jones faces Lyoto Machida, the cage is full of fantastic facial hair, showcasing amazing support for our men and women in uniform.

All donations are tax deductible and will go through Soldiers’ Angels accounts.

SO WHAT THE HELL IS BLACKFIVE DOING TO SUPPORT THIS GREAT EVENT?

Soooooo, Uncle Jimbo and I asked the team to join in.  Well, I asked.  Jimbo sent this sensitive and altruistic message out...

FFS, how many chicks do we have writing for this rag? I can knock out a creditable Fu Manchu by morning if needed...

I guess that means that we are in! 

Deebow, McQ, Grim, Subsunk, Jimbo, Crush, and more are in it to win it.  Here's just four of us suitably adorned.  Go here to donate on behalf of team Blackfive.

AND HERE'S SOME INCENTIVE:

For the military taking part in this stache-bash (with photo), I will send a pair of Wiley X P-17's (Black Ops Collection) with case - courtesy of the awesome folks at Mastiff Games and Wiley X - to military overseas in Afghanistan and Iraq.

So PLEASE DONATE NOW!

Last, here is what Jungle from Action Figure Therapy has to say about Soldiers' Angels and the Stache Bash!  Thanks, Jungle, for the extra mustache power (NSFW):

---

Ranger Up Launches New American Rugby - American Sin Bin

Posted By Blackfive

The guys at Ranger Up had a team of employees who were rugby players and enthusiasts that wanted one thing more than anything in the world...deliver a World Cup Championship to the United States of America!

So they talked to Nick...

One day, after we finished our updated pitch, a funny thing happened: Nick said YES.

We were thrilled!

“But,” he added. “If we’re going to do this, you need to understand three things:

1) This will be harder than anything you have ever done. It’s going to take more time and effort than you can imagine, and you’re going to have to fight for every inch of success just like you do on the pitch. You have to promise no matter how hard it gets, you will never quit. 2) Ranger Up only engages in businesses that give back. If we go into rugby, we’re not going to be an apparel company. We’re going to be a vehicle to elevate the game of rugby in America. Wrap your heads around that now. It’s not about the shirts. It’s about what we do. 3) We’re going to win the World Cup. And our job is going to be to set the conditions to make that happen.

If you guys agree to those conditions, then we are all in.”

We gave each other the thousand-yard stare of someone standing on the edge of the abyss, contemplating the jump. We had a lot of great ideas, but a World Cup victory seemed like a bridge too far. Nick walked up to the white board and sketched out a plan for the next two years, then the next five, then eight, and all the moving pieces we needed to nail down to make it happen. It all made sense. But there were other things we could do. We chimed in and built on his ideas. We filled another white board, then another. Three hours later we were still going strong.

Nick stood to leave, but stopped at the door. “So, it looks like this is a YES?”

We didn’t even hesitate, bludgeoning him with a hail of yesses..

This was our job now.

We have a World Cup to win.

So, if you're like me and played Rugby or just a fan (All Blacks!) or interested in what those lunatics at RU are up to, go over and check out American Sin Bin. Like them on Facebook. Support their three goals:

1) Elevate American Rugby

2) Bring home an American World Cup Championship

3) Have a hell of a good time doing it

Let's do this, people!

---

The 2011 Best Ranger Competition Starts Tomorrow!

Posted By Blackfive

First, GEN (ret) Stan McChrystal announces the 2011 Best Ranger Competition will get underway soon.

 

The events are typically:

UNKOWN DISTANCE RUN / PUSH UPS / SIT UPS

MALVESTI CONFIDENCE COURSE

AIRBORNE OPERATION

RIFLE MARKSMANSHIP

PISTOL MARKSMANSHIP

MACHINE GUN MARKSMANSHIP

FOOT MARCH – 20+ MILES (60 POUND RUCK SACK)

AIRBORNE OPERATION

SPOT JUMP

4.7 MILE RUCK RUN

HANDS-ON RANGER SKILLS TESTS (DAY & NIGHT)

DEMOLITIONS

GRENADES

MILITARY KNOTS

WEAPONS ASSEMBLY

ROPE CLIMB AND RAPPELING (PRUSIK)

BAYONET ASSAULT COURSE

NIGHT LAND NAVIGATION (MAP & COMPASS)

OBSTACLE COURSE

WATER CONFIDENCE TEST SLIDE FOR LIFE / ROPE DROP

HELOCAST / SWIM

MILE BUDDY RUN

STATS:

60 CONTINUOUS HOURS

60 MILES COVERED

NO PROGRAMMED SLEEP

29 MILITARY TASKS MOVE, SHOOT, COMMUNICATE

---

EXCLUSIVE - Jorge Rivera Vs. Michael Bisping Interview Leaked

Posted By Blackfive

Updated and Bumped 2-15-11:  Michael "the Count" Bisping appears to train with Jorge Rivera.  See second video below.

Updated and Bumped:  Apparently Mr. Bisping is not amused! Those Rangers were time on target...

Yes, we're fans of Army vet Jorge "El Conquistador" Rivera.  Yes, he's going to crush Michael Bisping who happens to be from some island (full of illiterates) in the Med that you never heard of.  You can read the posts in the Jorge Rivera category here at Blackfive.

Here in an Exclusive leaked video secured by the Ranger Up guys for a huge sum of money and *cough* favors, Jorge Rivera and Michael Bisping talk about their upcoming fight in UFC 127.

[Language Alert for F-Bombs]

  

Update 2-15-11 with the Tale of Count Bisping:

  

---

Aguilera screws it up, royally...

Posted By Mr Wolf

THE BIG GAME.

Number one TV audience of the year.  Epitome of anyone's career- to sing the National Anthem at the Big Game.  Packers and the Steelers.  Epic teams.  And an audience to match watching it all. 

And she totally blows it.

CAN ANYONE in Hollyweird possibly do it right?  Do any of them give two shits about the USA?  And what was with that Michael Douglas opening to the Super Bowl?  Could that have possibly been any more Leftist?  I thought it was going to be a Democrat Party advert at the beginning. 

But anyway, it's a good game, Jimbo will be satiated (if it continues as such) and we'll all have commercials to talk about... and screwy singers.

Sheesh....

Aguilera needs to take a lesson from this little girl-

 

---

Army Vet and MMA Fighter Jorge "El Conquistador" Rivera Croons For You!

Posted By Blackfive

Another excellent edition to the Ranger Up video library.

Who knew that MMA fighter extraordinaire, Jorge "El Conquistador" Rivera, could actually sing?

I thought the guy couldn't hold a tune to save his life, but his rendition of Uncle Jimbo's favorite song from the 80s, Karma Chameleon, is divine:

Make no mistake, we are fans of El Conquistador. The man is without peer.

You can watch this pre-fight interview at UFC to get an idea of his intensity and drive.

Jorge's next fight is November 13th with UFC. Here's the whole card.

Previous Blackfive posts about El Conquistador:

Meet Jorge Rivera - MMA Fighter and Philospher
Support Jorge "El Conquistador" Rivera!

---

Tim Kennedy Wins Every Fight Stat, Loses Decision

Posted By Blackfive

Folks, a few disclosures:  I am not a Mixed Martial Arts expert (I know, you're stunned).  I am not a fight judge, and I do consider Tim Kennedy a friend.

Watching the fight last night with a lot of people in Chicago, you could tell there was a lot of concern for Tim who was cut by Jacare.  The cut was not dangerous to Tim so the fight went on.  With any head wound/cut, there's going to be a lot of blood.  My point in this is that to someone who doesn't know anything about fighting, the blood might indicate that Tim was losing the fight.

But it was quite the opposite.

Jacare Souza is an amazing fighter.  He's relentless and he's got that stupid Cheshire Cat grin that has got to irritate his opponents.  He landed some devastating blows on Tim Kennedy.  One hit, I was pretty sure anyone else would have crumpled to the floor, but Tim stayed up and kept fighting.  I've not seen many fights go all the way and these athletes did five five-minute rounds.  It was a very technical and exhausting fight and both Tim and Jacare should be congratulated for their amazing effort.

The difference here is that, in pure technical terms, Tim won every category in the fight.  But the appearance of a grinning Jacare and a bloody intense Tim showed the judges that Jacare's blows were more focused and effective...and that appeared to carry the judges decision and award the decision to Jacare regardless of Tim's technical domination in every one of the fight metrics.

Strikeforce had better look into what happened with this decision and their judges so that this doesn't happen again; otherwise, they are going to lose a lot of viewers and fans.

We look forward to Tim's next fight!

---