Elvis Andrus the next Derek Jeter?

Now playing baseball for four years in high school has brought me closer to a game I once played as child. I was a 2nd basemen for my Varsity High School team for a little while. In practice friends would always attempt to redo the classic Derek Jeter jump from deep in the hole and throw to first base.

its harder than it looks trust me.

This play goes to show you how good of a shortstop Derek Jeter was. Now moving on from the Yankees because I hate them passionately.

Elvis Andrus is an Venezuelan born player who plays shortstop for the Texas Rangers. He has slowly became the face of the franchise with the departure of older players like Michael Young. He was acquired by the team from the Atlanta Braves by in 2007 for Mark Texeria and Ron Mahay.

The Shortstop position for people don’t know baseball is a very vital position for your defense. This player arguably has the strongest throwing arm and best glove work on the field so its not an easy position at all.

Elvis I’d say is the next Derek Jeter. Derek Jeter is in his final season with the Yankees after a pretty good career winning a few Gold Gloves and World Series championships.

Elvis has all the attributes to make him the next hall of fame shortstop. He debuted with the Texas Rangers at the ripe age of 20 and has been to the World Series several times. The main question of concern is can he lead the Rangers to the a championship.

Despite all this his the got the makings of a good leader something Derek Jeter was. He is such a character as well with fellow infielder Adrian Beltre. They are always messing with each other off and LITERALLY on the field.

Adrian Beltre doesn’t like when Elvis does this DURING games

Besides all this Elvis is a good character for the team along with a good bat which makes a lot of contact at the plate and great glove work all of these are keys to success. His also very young and very good looking you will definitely see some lady fans of his while at a Texas Rangers game. With this he just has a charisma about him that makes him enjoyable to watch and overall fan of.

I think the true argument of saying that he is the next Derek Jeter is the fact that he does not have a rings, Championship rings that is. Derek Jeter won a championship with the Yankees in just his 5th season. Elvis is also in his 5th season in the majors.

Elvis, in contrast to Derek, was a big part of the Texas Rangers rebuilding projects. For a long time, in the 90s and early 2000s the Rangers were a joke. As mentioned that Elvis was received in a trade, that was a big acquisition for the Texas Rangers as they know have an All-Star shortstop in Elvis Andrus. He has become the face of the new generation of Texas Rangers.

 

In closing, Elvis Andrus is a tremendous athlete and will be a key asset to the Texas Rangers team in the future. I hope to make it to a few games this summer despite living in Austin to see one of my favorite players lead the Texas Rangers to victory!

Do you know Kap G?

So for those that don’t know me I’m a huge fan of music especially hip-hop and rap. My taste in the genre ranges from big names like Kanye West to the up and coming names like Young Thug.

Yeezus himself

Now growing up and still today you do not see many hispanic rappers who are really popular with true rap enthusiast. Some guy known as Pitbull claims to be a rapper but all true hip hop fans know this is not true. Lets just say every time I hear Dale come on the radio or his name I die a little every time.

Go away Pitbull

Today, when you hear someone on the radio and if someone said that person was Mexican or hispanic and rapped people would probably say “Mexicans don’t rap” which is true. I would even be skeptical if the person told me listen to *insert name of rapper or artist* and they were hispanic. Every time I think of rap and Mexicans I associate that with gangster cholo looking dudes like this.

Now I’m not downing any hispanics for attempting to pursue rap. The odds that the guys in the youtube video above make it big is very unlikely. They are just old grown dudes pursuing a fading dream. And that is not me being mean but just stating my opinion.

Recently I got a chance to check out a rapper named Kap G. My roommate mentioned his name to me because he was featured on Complex’s magazine’s list of 25 acts to check out at SXSW.

http://www.complex.com/music/2014/03/25-acts-at-sxsw-2014-you-shouldnt-miss/kap-g

Kap G hails from Atlanta, Georgia. Now this guy right here gives me some hope in hispanic rappers. So after hearing that this guy was Mexican I decided to check out his mixtape called Kap G – Like a Mexican. I was happily and surprisingly very impressed with the mixtape.

Now knowing he is Mexican I assumed he would have some sort of hispanic twist to his lyrics. And he does except one song its called Jose got dem tacos. The song entails his visit to a taco bell with a friend while Kap G questions the authenticity of the tacos from a Taco Bell.

I think one of my favorite remixes of a song is done by Kap G. He does a remix to the popular song called OG Bobby Johnson! The chorus to this song literally goes OG Bobby Johnson; Kap G did a remix to this called Julio Cesar Chavez in honor of the legendary hispanic boxer.

His also even done a remix to Stoner by Young Thug which I also recommend a listen to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSy8DHroiZM

But seriously, this guy is making a name for himself over in Atlanta, GA. Atlanta today and in the past has been a big hub for the rap scene. Many up and coming big names come from the ATL. I think this is one difference that separates Kap G from other hispanic rappers. He has that credibility of coming from a rap town.

In the end, I have high hopes for Kap G and hope his popularity travels across the country to more hispanic friendly areas such as Texas, Arizona, and California. I’m really disappointed I didn’t get a chance to see him a SXSW but I hope he makes his way back to Austin in the near future. Until then Que Pasa Homes!

 

Here is my favorite Kap G song for your way out! Enjoy!

 

Anything for Selena always and forever

Selena Quintalla was a popular singer in Tejano music and the Mexican American culture. This week’s blog post will be dedicated to her passing which occurred on March 31, 1995. Now if you don’t know Selena please go to your Facebook and unfriend me or Twitter and unfollow me. But seriously, most hispanics should have seen the Selena movie starring Jennifer Lopez or at least heard someone say ANYTHING FOR SELENNNASSSSSSSS!

The actual Selena Quintanilla yes I know

Anyways, the young and beautiful Selena Quintanillia started singing at a young age. Around the age of 9 or 10 she became the lead singer of her family band Selena y Los Dinos.

Selena y Los Dinos would play anywhere they were accepted; festivals, weddings and quinceaneras across Texas. The band included her brother Abraham on bass and her sister Suzette on drums. Selena’s father Abraham who use to be a former musician was the manager and producer of the group.

Now Selena was a popular singer in Tejano music. Tejano music literally means Tex-Mex and originated in South and Central Texas. Selena grew up speaking English, but her father taught her to sing in Spanish so she could resonate with the Latino community. She learned the lyrics phonetically at first, and eventually learned to speak Spanish fluently.

Just Selena being fine

 

Selena became very popular with Tejano music fans, and at the 1987 Tejano Music Awards, she won both “Best Female Vocalist of the Year” and “Performer of the Year.” Her 1990 album, Ven Conmigo, was the first Tejano record to achieve gold record status, meaning it sold more than 500,000 copies. In 1992, Selena took enough of a break from her hectic schedule to marry Chris Perez, the band’s lead guitarist, that April.

Her recordings continued to have strong sales, and she won the Grammy Award (best Mexican-American album) in 1993 for her album Live. In 1994, she and the band played numerous tour dates in New York, California, Puerto Rico and Argentina. Amor Prohibido was released that same year, and went gold.

After the success of Tejano music Selena was going to tackle the US market with an english album that she would hope would give her some success in this market. Sadly, she wouldn’t live to see the day. Selena was shot by the President of her fan club Yolanda Saldivar. This would be the end of Selena’s short life she was only 23 years old. Her death sent shockwaves through the Latino community and many of her fans across the globe mourned the death of  Selena.

Now if we ever make that technology where we are able to travel back in time. Selena would be one of those people you want to save. Her life was just starting who knows what she could have done by the year 2014. But I guess we’ll just have to live through her music and the film which isn’t bad at all not to mention J-Low plays Selena.

Anyways I will end this blog post by saying Selena was a strong positive figure in the Latino community and its sad to have had her life end so shortly. Here’s to you Selena ❤

Anything for Selenas clip

La Pulga

So I try to follow soccer as much as possible mostly English, Spanish or the Italian leagues because I’m personally not to big a fan of MLS soccer. Plus its hard to find channels that actually show European soccer.

This week’s blog will be dedicated to the one and only Lionel Messi aka the Little Maestro or the little teacher in english.

Now Messi has several weird nicknames that you wouldn’t understand at first. He also goes by the flea or La Pulga. Its because his small, he harasses defenders and gets under your skin its perfect!

Anyways Lionel Messi is a name almost every soccer player should know. Lionel Messi is a 5’7 striker for FC Barcelona a spanish league team that usually dominates the league. He is small in size but, his talent is equivalent to a giant.

Let me not forget to mention this tiny athlete can score goals!

the footwork is INSANE

All types of goals….

between the legs…

that curve…upper 90… unstoppable

But seriously Messi just scores goal and some wonder how does this guy do it barely 5’7. His not that much bigger than me you would think their would be some big, meaty defenders that would be able to knock this little dude down. The truth is there are big enough guys to do so but his so small that his center of gravity its harder to knock him down.

I know this because I had the same effect when I played soccer. I was so much shorter than everyone that it was harder for bigger people to knock me down.

Essentially what I’m saying is that I was as good as Messi just I wanted to focus on my education…. lol jk jk.

my glory days in soccer…

Anyways back to Messi. Messi recently became the Barcelona’s league leaders in goals with his hat trick (a hat trick is when a player scores 3 goals in a game). His 3 goals against Osasuna propelled Barcelona to a 7-0 victory. Don’t worry I don’t know any Osasuna fans but I’d be embarrassed to be one of those fans. I think this performance only establishes Lionel as one of the greatest to play the game of futbol.

Messi, who has now scored 371 goals, eclipsed the record set by Paulino Alcantara, who scored 369 goals in 357 appearances between 1912-1927. This is ALOT of goals man. It is also the 6th season in a row where Messi has scored at least 30 goals in a season.

Perhaps the most frightening statistic for teams in La Liga (the spanish league that Barcelona) is in is the fact that Messi is only 26 years old.

This only means Messi has many more years to come. His just unstoppable the only person that comes even close in comparison is Cristiano Ronaldo, who I would argue is his biggest rival. In my opinion Lionel is better in terms of scoring but some would argue that Ronaldo is more well rounded. I think I side with Messi because of the height similarity but, I do think Ronaldo wants to be Messi though because he likes to call him out and blow kisses at him.

Ronaldo seems to mouth “Messi” then blows him a kiss… he wants him so bad.

Here is a link to an interesting article via sportsnation.com with a poll of the United states saying who they think is better.

http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/post/_/id/10384023/messi-ronaldo

The sportsnation link says Ronaldo is better but this link says from bleacherreport.com says Messi is better from the polls.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1823071-who-is-better-cristiano-ronaldo-or-lionel-messi

In the end both players are amazing but this blog is dedicated to Lionel Messi the master, the flea, or the captain whatever you want to call him. His one of the best to ever play and I hope to one day see him play in person. Also be sure to catch him play with the Argentinian soccer team this summer in the World Cup in Brazil. Viva La Pulga!

The Return of George Lopez

Now this blog is called David watches Sports and Entertainment in spanish but, I haven’t done any entertainment news yet. The news sprang on me that George Lopez was returning to TV. So I decided to dedicate this post to Mr. Lopez’s return to television.

To my readers who do not who George Lopez is. George Lopez was for awhile and may be to some, the image of Hispanic/Latino Entertainment.

George Lopez is a multi-talented entertainer whose career encompasses television, film, standup comedy and late-night television. For two seasons, Lopez hosted Lopez Tonight, a late-night television talk show on TBS, which represented Lopez’s return to series television after co-creating, writing, producing and starring in Warner Bros. Television’s groundbreaking hit sitcom George Lopez, which ran for six seasons on ABC. George Lopez remains a hit with viewers in syndication on both broadcast stations and cable’s Nick at Nite, ranking as one of the top-rated shows on the network and among the top five comedies and top 20 weekly programs in syndication. George Lopez is one of only four off-net comedies to post weekly ratings gains among households from the 2007-’08 to 2008-’09 season.

Growing up Mr. Lopez was one of the few hispanics I really remember seeing on TV. I would stay up late for Nick at Nite to watch the George Lopez show.

I absolutely loved this show because George would incorporate bits of his stand up comedy, which I was never old enough to watch because of the language.

When I was old enough to watch these stand up comedies my favorite of his will always be his stand up called Why you crying? I’ll post the link to the full standup below I definitely recommend it if you got an hour to spare.

Anyways I remember always enjoying George Lopez for one thing. His love for his fans and of course his culture. If you watch the first few minutes of his stand up you see crowds of hispanic people going to watch this man perform where other comedy legends such as Richard Pryor performed. He resinated with hispanics because he grew up in Los Angeles, California.

This is what I loved about him. He will always represent his people and his city. He also introduced the song Low Rider by War to me and it will always remind me of George because of the George Lopez show that aired on ABC.

George Lopez coined this catch phrase with his family sitcom and is still used to this day by many…well me but I hope others use it too still… lol

But, anyway enough of my fangirling of George Lopez. His coming back to cable television. His new show is called Saint George and will be airing on FX March 6, at 9pm EST. This is excited!

The new show will be about a recently divorced, working Mexican-American entrepreneur, George Lopez. Lopez will portray a man who struggles to balance his demanding ex-wife, his 11-year-old son, his overbearing mother who just moved in, and his uncle, as well as his new role as a philanthropist “giving back” by teaching history once a week at a night school.

The show will also feature Danny Trejo most known for the Machete and Spy Kids films who plays George’s free loading uncle; and David Zayas who plays George’s cousin but is known from the popular Showtime series called Dexter.

Danny Trejo

David Zayas

In the end I’m really excited to see George Lopez on cable television once again. He is my comedy idol when I think of the first people to make an impact on me in regards to my hispanic culture. I hope these show is really good because its following the 10/90 model. The first 10 episodes will determine if FX buys another 90 episodes. But I know George Lopez GOT THIS…

Tony Gonzalez and his legacy to the NFL

If you watch football NFL not soccer or futbol…. then you better know the name Tony Gonzalez. This guy is one of the best tight ends to ever play the game. Lets go back to the beginning I’ll give you some background to this legend.

Tony Gonzalez was born in Torrance, California on February 27, 1976 to Judy Gonzalez. Growing up in Los Angeles, California Tony attended the University of California where he played Football and Basketball for the school. He continued to play basketball until his junior year where he decided to forgo his senior year to declare for the NFL draft.

He was ranked one of the top tight ends in the 1997 NFL draft and one of the first 15 selections in the whole draft. The Kansas City Chiefs traded up to get Tony as the 13th overall selection in the draft.

Now the reason I’m supporting and dedicating this post to Tony Gonzalez is because his one several Hispanic NFL football players that is a figure within the league. Some other notables are Victor Cruz a wide receiver for the New York Giants, Tony Romo Quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, and Arian Foster a running back for the Houston Texans. Football is predominately dominated by African Americans and Caucasians. As you can see I have a trend of writing about Hispanics in sports where they aren’t usually dominated. These other guys I mentioned deserve a blog about themselves I may do one about Tony later on but that’s until we (I use we because I’m a Dallas Cowboy fan) get to the playoffs and WIN. But that is enough about this guys I’ll leave this with a Victor Cruz celebration…

Anyways back to Tony Gonzalez.

Tony Gonzalez spent about a very long time with the Kansas City Chiefs. He was there from 1997-2008 roughly 11 years where he improved every year and built a legacy for future tight ends to come. In just his 3rd season in the league he earned his first pro bowl selection; that season he caught a career high 11 touchdown receptions as well as 76 catches for 879 yards. This was just the beginning of Tony’s dominance in the NFL.

Over the next few years Tony steadily improved and became a household name with the Kansas city chiefs. His best season statistically came in 2004, when he caught an NFL record (for a tight end) 102 passes for 1,258 yards and seven touchdowns. Gonzalez’s single-season record of 102 receptions by a tight end stood for 8 years, until it was broken by Jason Witten (Dallas Cowboy shout out) during the 2012 season.

Now this man is a true meaning going all in every aspect of his life. Either it be playing professional football, learning spanish or even becoming a father. This man literally goes all in. I’ll post a link to a pretty cool story about Tony Gonzalez that ESPN did. I’ve always been a fan of this man as long as I can remember but this story made me a bigger fan.

The only thing I’m disappointed thinking about is the fact that Tony has never gotten is a Super Bowl Championship. While he was with the Chiefs never really had much post season success while he was with them. He was then traded to the Atlanta Falcons in 2009. Where they posted very good regular season numbers but failed to reach the Super Bowl.

Tony celebrates Touchdown catch with dunking the football over the goal post in honor of his basketball days

Anyways Tony is now 37 years old and has contemplated retirement several years already. This year was suppose to be his last year but the Falcons had a horrible season with a miserable 4-12 season; which is not the way Tony wanted go out.

In the end if he retires Tony has promised to becoming a better father which is one of his biggest regrets since he is busy with football constantly. I hope he has one more season left in him so that maybe he could get a Super Bowl Championship. But overall his one of the best tight ends and arguably THE best tight end to have every played the game. Here’s to you Tony!

The last dunk

Hispanic Players in the NBA

Growing up in a hispanic home where most of my friends were african american or also hispanic. I never played basketball a lot besides in the neighborhood with friends. I guess my first real experience with basketball was playing for my middle school Reed Middle School located in Duncanville, Texas. This was a very fun experience for me.

I was of course the only hispanic on the team and judging from the height of my parents and of course most hispanics I never really saw too much of a future in basketball for me.

This got me wondering how many hispanics do we see in the NBA or even NCAA basketball for that matter? Most of the NBA today consist of predominately african americans or european players from across the pond.

That being said there are actually a few hispanics within the NBA that have made a name for themselves while also being contenders.

My favorite hispanic player who is in the NBA would have to be this guy right here. His name is JJ Barea (Jose Juan Barea) his from the small island of Puerto Rico! He is listed as 6’0ft which from some reports that I have read is actually a lie. Most players have been quoted as saying that he is alot shorter than listed.

He will be my favorite hispanic player because he helped the Dallas Mavericks get their very first NBA title back in 2011. He sadly doesn’t play with Dallas anymore but plays in Milwaukee but I will forever root for him and his undersize/underdog playing style. Here is to you JJ!

Some other players I wouldn’t mind talking about are the Lopez brothers.

Yes I know what your thinking these guys look alike and yes you are also right they are twins. Brook Lopez (on the left) and Robin Lopez (on the right) were in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Their father named Heriberto Lopez was a native of Cuba hence Lopez as their last name.

Different from JJ Barea in height obviously, these guys play inside as big man post players where JJ was more of a point guard player which is typical for shorter and smaller NBA players.

Brook Lopez is the better of his brothers and plays with the Brooklyn Nets while Robin plays with the Portland Trailblazers mostly as a come of the bench player just like JJ.

These guys I would definitely call outliers. Most hispanic people I know range from the 5’8 to 6’2 range these guys are both a towering 7 ft even. No wonder they stuck to basketball. I’m sure all the homies back in LA were kicking soccer balls around these big guys growing up.

These guys are just a few hispanic players in the NBA. One other thing I would like to mention is the reception to basketball in hispanic countries or cities.

My main example will be the San Antonio Spurs. Now personally I hate the Spurs because I’m a Mavericks fan. But I do notice that the Spurs have a very large hispanic following here in Texas. One thing I would have to point out is that San Antonio’s demographic of hispanics makes up over half of the population in San Antonio.

I could honestly never see a big following of NBA teams in hispanic counties besides the Spurs one reason I would have to say is they are very close to South Texas or the valley where there are an abundance of Mexicans or hispanic people.

But at least the NBA tried to have a basketball game in Mexico featuring the San Antonio Spurs and the Milwaukee Timberwolves who have JJ Barea. I see what you tried to do there NBA unfortunately smoke broke out in the arena where the guy was to be held and they had to post pone the game.

Overall, I’m happy there are at least some hispanic NBA players in the NBA thriving and playing well besides the ones I mentioned above I would have to throw in Pau Gasol his not twin brother Marc and Jose Calderon. You guys keep the dream alive even though the last 3 guys are Spaniards I’ll still claim yall as hispanic just cause.

Thanks for reading now heres a link to watch JJ Barea literally try to go underneath some defenders legs in a basketball game. Enjoy!