Only one night was televised, and a malfunctioning Live Event Center threw a little bit of panic into Saturday night, but the PBR eventually got it locked in and all was well. I have a new-found appreciation for the LEC and its every-ride, every-bull-score. I like watching on television, but sitting in the living room with the LEC, Twitter, and Facebook on the laptop has turned me into some kind of techno-social-networking-multi-tasking junkie.
So here's what I thought about Portland:
- It was another down-to-the-last-ride event. All the better that it was won on Hupp's completely improbable ride. At pretty much every split second during that ride he wasn't going to make it. But he did make it. Big try. Way to go.
- It was an event that had a really big final round. J.B. Mauney picked Asteroid and smiled like a little kid when he got bucked off him in a couple of seconds. Not to mention he picked Train Wreck, in the second round, and rode him without getting fallen on. "It was a little hairy at the beginning, I'll give him that," he said, and won the round on him. Gotta like a guy who admires the bulls that beat him.
- Not sure what Marco Eguche was thinking when he picked Buckey, but I know he wasn't thinking that anything like what happened would happen. Total dust bath, with Buckey a big whirling sumo tornado.
- The other interesting thing about the championship round was that Silvano Alves wasn't in it. He turned down two re-rides and kept scores of 73.75 in the first round and 79 in the second round. Douglas Ferreira followed suit, keeping an 80 in round three and declining the re-ride. I know it worked for Silvano last year, but it's starting to look...bad. I don't care, hate me if you want to, I say it looks bad and if this was baseball he'd be getting booed. Where did that baseball comparison come from? I don't know. But he would be getting booed, I can tell you that.
Last thing #1: Every time I heard "Bad Boy Lead Dog Jordan Hupp"...I kind of thought my brain was going to implode. It was wonderful. Ridiculous. Curiously addictive.
Last thing #2: Follow J.W. Hart on Twitter. It will make you happy.
