The Tradition Keeps Me Coming Back - New Year's Prediction Post, Part I

Well, hello again.

I won't bother explaining where I was or why I haven't been posting. Let's just do this, people.

Here were the predictions for the 2011 year and the results, with a self-imposed grade:

2011 PREDICTIONS:

1. The Green Bay Packers will prevail in tomorrow's Super Bowl, 34-24, thereby giving yours truly a $2000 win in a SB boxes pool that I am participating in. Aaron Rodgers will be named MVP, going 15-23 with 2TDs passing, 1INT and 1TD rushing. In a rage, Ben Roethlisberger will get black out drunk at a Dallas bar afterwards and will once again force himself on an insecure diva in the bathroom. Unfortunately for him, that someone will be Jerry Jones.

RESULT: The GB Packers DID win, although by a score of 31-25. Aarom Rodgers WAS named the MVP, going 24-39 with 3TDS (no INTs and no TDs rushing :-/). And Ben Roethlisberger did force himself on Jerry Jones!

GRADE: B+

2. The New York Knicks will not get Carmelo by the February 24th deadline. But they will make the playoffs nonetheless as a 6 seed, only to be knocked out by the Magic. Thankfully though, Melo will sign a max deal in the offseason giving the 2011-2012 version a starting line-up of Amar'e, Felton, Melo, Fields and Galo (Chandler will leave).

RESULT: Umm, well, we DID get Carmelo on February 22nd, so the first part is wrong. But, they DID make the playoffs as the 6 seed, but got knocked out by the Celtics and not the Magic. And the 2011-2012 starting lineup was Amar'e, Melo, Chandler (Tyson to Wilson, who did leave), Fields and Douglas. Soo... eh, not THAT bad.

GRADE: B-

3. The NFL will be locked out until late July. The new CBA will NOT include an 18 game schedule, but WILL include at 17 game schedule.

RESULT: The NFL WAS locked out until late July! (July 25 to be precise). Don't know what the fuck I was talking about re: the 17 game schedule. Schedule stayed at 16.

GRADE: B

4. The race for the presidency in 2012 will heat up for the Republicans. The field will include Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and... Sarah Palin!

RESULT: Yes, Yes and.... No!

GRADE: C

5. The 2011 New York Yankees will display a starting rotation of CC, AJ, Phil Hughes, Freddy Garcia and.... Joba Chamberlain! They will finish 1st in the AL and will tare through the playoffs to win their 28th World Championship! Derek Jeter will silence critics as he finishes the year with a .301 BA, 16HRs and another Gold Glove. A-Rod will finish with a .310 BA, 38 HRs and 121 RBIs. CC will win 20 games again, finishing 22-4 with a 3.11 ERA. He will finally win the Cy Young this year. Phil will have an OK year, finishing 15-9 with a 3.50 ERA. AJ will bounce back and finish with a 18-8 record and a 3.89 ERA.

RESULT: Joba definitely did NOT start. They did indeed finish 1st in the AL but got trounced out of the playoffs by the damn Detroit Tigers in the ALDS. Derek Jeter DID silence critics as he finished the year with a .297, 6HR but no GG. A-Rod batted .276 with 16HR and 62RBIs (way off...). CC did NOT win 20 games - he went 19-8 with a 3.00 ERA and finished 4th in CY voting. Phil got injured and went 5-5 with a 5.79ERA. AJ did NOT bounce back and finished 11-11 with a 5.15ERA. So... other than Jeter, a pretty bad Yankee year for me!

GRADE: C-

6. Politics will be interesting. Obama's approval rating will continue to rise as the economic situation improves across the country. The unemployment rate will go down to 8.2% by the end of the year. While expectations will be high for the amount that will be done in Congress, not much substantial legislation will be able to achieve compromise among both parties.

RESULT: Hey, not too bad! -

So the rate was 8.5% by the end of the year, and while Obama's rating hit a peak in March, it dipped but started climbing back up towards the end of the year. And yea, Congress sucked.

GRADE: A-

7. Dr. Dre's Detox will finally come out!

RESULT: No.

GRADE: F

8. The much anticipated Arrested Development movie will finally begin shooting.

RESULT: Well... the movie WAS confirmed in October, but don't think any shooting began in 2011. Half-win.

GRADE: B-

9. The iPhone 5 will be released in June, but with not that many changes. It will be on a 4G network, have extended battery life and a better camera. The iPhone 4 on Verizon will fuck up its network and there will be a lot of complaints.

RESULT: No iPhone 5 - iPhone "4S" was released in October. And it is not on the 4G network and apparently the battery sucks. Verizon does suck though.

GRADE: D

10. A new social networking venture will erupt and challenge Facebook and Twitter.

RESULT: Well, Instagram has kind of been blowing up, but not enough to challenge FB and Twitter.

GRADE: D

11. Osama Bin Laden will finally be caught.

RESULT: See previous post.

GRADE: A

-

Overall, a C/C+ for NostraDATmus in 2011. Not that great, huh... Well, hopefully soon I will unveil my 2012 predictions and they will be more on point. Hopefully.

Happy New Year.